The Sound Of The Music...

Gosh, it's been 2 months from the last time I post my blog. Time flies... I never get a chance to update my blog. With 3 little children, it's really eating up my days. But they are growing, just last Monday we were celebrating Jeremy's 6th birthday. I can't believe that my -used to be- baby is 6 now. Nicole will turn 2 next month. Daniella will be 3 months next week. She just born yesterday. Now she is 3 months. Unbelievable.

A lot of things happened in our household since the last time I wrote my blog. I wish I have more time to spend for my blog, I will write tons of the stories about the kids, my struggle with 3 kids, etc. But, one at a time. ;p

Let's start from the kiddos :

Jeremy still love his school, as the matter fact he just got his report card on Tuesday, and all of them were execellent. I was please with all his grades. So I really don't have to worry about school. This coming Wednesday he is going to have a presentation about his research on Dinasour. I will be there and watch him doing his presentation. I can't believe they are doing it in Kindergarten. Good for their lifetime skill. ;p

He just turn 6 couple days ago, he had loooooooong list for his bday present. Until now, he still can't decide what he really want. Since we are not having the party, we let him choose his bday present. Well, there will be a celebration at school on the 3rd week of February, so it will be fun for him to be able to celebrate with his friends.

Right now he is enjoying Daniella,when she is crying he will actually sing for her to calm her down. Sometimes it makes me laugh. I think it is so cute. He said he wanted Daniella stay as a baby. He doesn't want her to grow, he doesn't want more trouble like Nicole does to him. Poor guy !

Nicole still think she is the baby. She likes to steal Daniella's blankie and never want to share one. She has to had her blankie around when she watch her favorite show. She always wants whatever Daniella has....she also not very happy sharing her dad with her little sister. But sometimes she can be nice to her, every morning when we get ready to drop Jeremy to school, when I am trying to get Daniella ready in the car seat, she will hand me her blankie to put on top of her. She knows that. I think it's so cute. She is really has the character being the middle child. It seems like she was born as a middle child. She is developing a lot of words now. She is able to say things in english and indonesia. I love when I ask her to repeat what I said, sometimes she will totally sound it differently. That is the cutest thing. She likes to copy a lot of stuff. So I have to constantly remind Jeremy to do good things so she only follow the good one. Of course her parent too. I am trying to potty train her. She did a great job. She can pup in the toilet now, I hardly have a dirty diaper. Today I am being brave by putting just an underwear and she did great. No wet underwear, she told me when she needs to go. Hopefully by 2, she will be fully train. I'm crossing my finger. ;p

Daniella grow fast for sure. She will be 3 months soon. Where's the time goes? She sleep better now. As the matter fact, she doesn't cry as much as when she was younger when she trying to fall asleep. For one hour cried, now only 5 mins and she will fall asleep. Thank God. I am so used to hear her cry and I think I used to it just like I am listening to the music. Daniella is awake more during the day. I am hoping for a miracle she will sleep through the night soon. She's been doing great for the last couple nights. She slept for 6 hours straight. I really can't complain about it.

He granted my wish !!

Ups, it's been a month I haven't update my blog. Time flies so fast and I didn't realize a lot of things going on within a month. I will try to get back and count backward what is going on in life.

Well, we have a big news to share. After 37 weeks being pregnant, she finally here. Welcome to our family baby Daniella Malia. She was born on November 14th. She weight 6.15lbs and 20,5 inches long. Jeremy and Nicole were so happy to have a new sister. In my surprise, Nicole was so excited. When she saw the baby she pointing at her and said ' baby'. I asked if she wants to hold the baby and she said yes. So we let her to hold the baby. She treat her like a doll. When the baby tried to open her eyes, she laughed so hard. She thought it's hillarious. When we take the baby from her, she cried and still wanted to hold her. When her brother touch the baby, she said it's mine !! She probably think it's a real doll. hahaha...That's so cute.

I am glad that everyone is so love their sister. Seeing them so happy and excited for the new member of the family makes my heart feel gracious and blessed. God has been so good to our family. He gave me really precious family. Though they all different but they love each other as a brother and sister.

I will share about my interesting labor. It was quick and in my surprise. But I thank God that He granted my wishes. Although the pain is unbearable but it is a grace.

A week before, I went in to the hospital because of constant contraction. It was every 5 mins. But back then I only 36 weeks. So they didn't want me to have the baby, because it was too early. They told me to bed rest and wait for another week. By then I already 2 cm dialated. So I went home and take some rest for couple days. Try to make the contraction slow down.

And it worked.

The night before on Thursday, I felt that my back is killing me, and the contraction keep coming back and forth all day. But I thought, well, it's probably still another week to go. I even make plan for the next week to do some stuff, thinking may be the baby will born next week.

That night on Thursday night, after watching CSI I went to bed right away. So it was around 10pm I went to bed, because I am so tired. At 1.30am, I woke up because the contraction was so painful. I can't even flip to the other side. I tried to ignore it and go back to sleep, but I couldn't. The contraction is getting stronger and unbearable. So I finally sat on my bed and count my contraction. After constant 5 mins, and unbearable pain, I decided to take a shower. hahaha.....In the middle of the pain I still urged myself to get a shower. I woke my husband up and tell him we need to get ready to the hospital. He's like....ARE YOU SURE? I'm like....just get up and go. Not until an hour later we finally ready and go. We got in to the hospital at 3.10am. I barely even get out from the elevator, the pain was so strong. They took me right away to the labor room. They checked me right away and it was 5 cm. So they prepare everything, get things ready, which is take forever, .... they tried really hard to get the IV on, but it was too late. The contraction getting stronger and stronger. 35 mins later from 5 cm went to 9 cm. I didn't get a chance to get epidural. I cried and scream and I think I am loosing it. I was so tired and think I will not going to make it. But the nurse really help me to go through that moment, ... put me on oxygen, calm me down, help me with the breathing, and wait until the doctor come. In a minutes from 9cm went to 10cm and I am so ready to have the baby. I am so ready to push, but the doctor still not here yet. I scream and said, get the doctor here now, I can't wait anymore, the baby is about to come out. As soon as I saw the doctor in front of the door I just push without thinking anymore, I thought well, the doctor is here, he will have time to catch her. So I did push, when the doctor came back to the room after changing his clothes, he pull the baby's head right away. In 5 mins, 2 pushes she is out. O my goodness....it was a wild experience. Within 50 mins, we had the baby. We came in at 3.10 and the baby is out at 4.05am.

Remember I ever debating on whether I should use epidural or not, well, God answer my prayer. He let me went without epidural, yet He made things goes so fast. Not letting me suffered. In His time He knows what is best for me, yet the pain is....unbearable. But after seeing the baby it's all worth it. Praise the Lord.

Ice Cream Time

Usually I always let myself get busy after picking up Jeremy. You know...it's time for them to have snack, preparing dinner, etc. I feel like between 4-6pm is a critical hours. Specially when you have other activity that evening. It's crazy.

So today I let myself enjoying the them and relax. I let both of them having an ice cream , just because mommy is craving for ice cream. hehehe.... We had a great time. We ate ice cream together in the kitchen, the kids starting to act silly. Specially my little girl, she has ice cream all over her mouth, it's so cute. Then we starting to sing, play the music and they all dancing like crazy. I sat there enjoying them and laugh with them. It was a fun evening. I thought to myself, I should to this more, enjoying them while I can. My chores can wait, but the moment that I have with them is different.

Here's some picture that I took, while they become silly.

It ends with helping mommy unload the dishwasher....!! Yey...!!!

Quiet Morning

Today is Saturday, It's only 7.30am. Everyone still sleeping, which is great. Do not expect that in the weekdays. The chaos start at 7am. I got up early today because last night I went to bed at 8pm. hahaha......that is never happened before, but yesterday I had a loooong day and sooo tired. I just can't do anything anymore. So I decided to sleep early and I did it!

Yesterday was a crazy day. Whatever happened yesterday made me realize that I am in another stage on parenting with my 18 mos old little monster. When I said kids are different, THEY ARE different. I can see it clearly now. That little girl is just something. I have to start preparing myself to be in that parenting mode again. I think that's happened with Jeremy when he was about 24 months. But not this early. With this one...no matter punishement I give it to her, she just doesn't care, she just make fun of me. Yesterday, she starting to throw her tantrum when I said no. She will either cry as loud as she can or she will throw herself on the floor. When you let her outside, --- I am 7 months pregnant, --- have to run and chase her, because she doesn't understand S-T-O-P !! I grab her and put her on the floor, and tell her to look at me, and I said... when mommy said STOP it means STOP, do not run anymore and you have to listen mommy. She will nodd her head and when I asked her do you understand she will give her sign language YES !! But when I said it one more time that she need to listen mommy, she will give me a big smile and said Mommy and laugh. Gosh....!!

Another disaster last night,... she put the Wii remote control in the toilet. It drives my husband crazy. Seriously crazy. With all that chaos, we finally put her in the crib earlier just to calm her down. After we caught her playing in the other toilet. She is just too busy. I have enough chasing her around.

It's been a long time since I am trying to discipline 18 mos. I need to refresh my mind to think what should I do. It's easier to discipline Jeremy, since he is old enough to know what is he doing. I need a wisdom to really organize my life right now. With terrible two's and up coming baby, I don't know how it will play out. Sometimes I think I'm in denial and do not want to think about it, but then I realize I can't just let it go. At some point I have to work that out. What a life. ;p

Anyway, I just prayed that God give me a wisdom as a mom. Yesterday, when we have our women's bible study, one of the woman share, how she feels that everyday, she did nothing. I feel the same way too sometimes. My husband go to work everyday, doing something, he has check list of what to be done. But here I am, running here and there and yet the house is still a mess, the kids just keep asking for help, the dinner is hardly finished on time. I feel like I did nothing all day. Yet, the older woman, they encourage us by saying, you did something. You taking care of your kids. They are still young. That is your ministry to them. That is what God is calling you to do. So... I did feel better now. As a mom, I have to do tons of things. Cooking, Laundry, calming the fuzzy child, changing diapers, taking and picking up them to school, cleaning, doing dishes, groceries shopping, etc.... Gosh, I wish there are more than 24 hours a day. That will be great. ;p

Well, enough complaining!! I just have to cheer for myself today. ;p Thanking God for the things that He had given me, a wonderful family, great kids, and His trust for me to be a mommy!

Have a nice weekend !

Mommy ... I am ready!!

There are a lot of things that I wanted to share, but I think this is the precious moment to share to everyone. So I wrote this first....another story will come later. ;p

After 2 weeks Jeremy been asking me about God, heaven and hell. He constantly asking me, no matter where we are, even in the morning, on the way to school with the traffic and my heavy eyes, when my mind didn't work at all, when I feel that I wanted to shout his mouth, he just keep asking and asking tons of questions. I also keep telling him, whenever you are ready to accept Jesus, tell mommy and daddy to pray for you.

Tonight on the way back from DC, after meeting with a friend, he suddenly asked us again about why people could die and leading to the heaven's conversation again, until he said, mommy I am ready to accept Jesus. I think I am almost cry. That is a very special moment for us as a parents to hear him to said that. This is a previlage for us as a parents that actually leading him to Jesus. It's been my prayer for a long time...... I always pray that God will allow me to lead my own child to Him. I don't want him to do it with anyone else except his parents.

That night although it's kinda late, but we took sometime to talk to him, explaining to him one more time about why he needs to accept Jesus. He seems to understand. Both of us pray for him and he repeat the prayer after my husband. Thank you God for the opportunity to be able to lead our child to you. It is such a precious gift for us. To be able to know God and believe in Him in his young age, I just feel honor for being his parent.

17 Mos Nicole

Time flies, I can't believe that my baby girl will be 18 mos this month. She is a toddler now. Not a baby anymore. She also changed a lot. She understand things more than she does before.

There are couple things that she learn lately. First, she recognized the difference between trash in the kitchen and her diaper pail. Before she will throw all the trash in her diaper pail, but now she knows that only diaper goes to diaper pail, and regular trash goes to trash in the kitchen. For example, when she finished her snack she knows where to put the plastic's cracker. O she also know the difference between the hamper and diaper pail. Usually when I ask her to put her dirty clothes, she will put in her diaper pail, but now she knows where her dirty clothes goes. That is very exciting.

She also learn not to throw her plate, sippy cup,spoon and fork on the floor while eating. She used to do it and drives me crazy. Now, when her plate is empty she will hand it in to me. What a release for me not to clean all the mess anymore. She starting good at using spoon and fork too. Another cute thing is, whenever she is waiting for me to give her snack, she will find a corner in the kitchen and sit on the floor waiting for her bowl of snack. I think that is so cute. Well, sometimes she doesn't wait patiently.
She is a good eater. She will eat anything. If my pantry is open, my goodness, she will help herself with all the snacks. She will come to me and hand me a cereal bar and asked me to open it for her. Any kind of snack that she can get, she will ask me to open it for her. She is also a stealer. She will steal food from anybody. Specially unattended food on the table. She can just grab it. What a girl...!!

Potty train goes well so far, it's been couple weeks I almost never have pup in diaper. Yey...save the planet by saving diaper. Well, actually saving money from diapers. She loves sitting in the toilet now, cause we always play or read in the toilet. I show her flash card, toys and some books. So she is really enjoy it.

Another progress.... I've been teaching her sign language since she is 6 months. She finally now to do it properly now. At least now I understand when she start to communicate. Specially PLEASE and ALL DONE. Now I make her to give me sign PLEASE when she want something, although sometimes she can be really stubborn and do not want to do it, but I made her do it.

This is been going on a while, in her crib she has this musical kinda thing. When you pushed the blue shell the music will on. She loved it so much. She use it as a clue for me that she already up. If I hear the music from the door, I know she is awake already. When I pick her up from the crib, she will turn it off. That is kinda cute.

This is her favorite sandals. It's disney princess sandals. Almost everyday when we are at home, she will ask me to put it on for her, she will walk around with those sandals, although it's hard to walk, but she just go for it.

My baby is growing now...huhuhu....But I'm going to have another baby. So another baby to play with, meaning another baby to train again. ;p

She is not a big fan of TV, she can not stay in front of the TV for 2 seconds. But she does has her favourite TV Show, it's called Ni Hao Kai-Lan, it's for kids that wanted to learn chinesse. You can find them on Nick Jr. I made both of my kids watch them so they learn chinesse. She also likes Curious George.

Well, there are still a lot of things that needs to be done, one day at a time. I tried to switch her bottle to sippy cup. For a while it works, but then suddenly she wanted the bottle again. Last week I tried to take away all her bottle, but she refused to drink the milk in the morning and before bed. After couple day fasting from the milk, I finally gave up and give her the bottle again. She actually can do it without the bottle, after nap I usually give her sippy cup and she finish it. She just wanted the comfort laying down with bottle. We are going to try again next week.

Enjoy all her picture.

Fairground

We finally made it this year to the county fairground. Jeremy was looking forward for weeks now, until we decided to go at the last day. I know he will be dissapointed if we didn't go. He has this in his mind..... In fairground we could play some games, eating cotton candy and popcorn, also riding some cool rides like roller coster, etc. He wanted so badly to have cotton candy. Believe it or not...he never has one before. ( I know....I'm a very louzy mom, but that's ok! It's good for him).

We got there and had to walk. Not very thrilled about long walk, but I was really excited about it. I told my husband that we might be able to stay the whole day until it's close. My husband and Jeremy got the unlimited ride wristband. Nicole and I just watch them play. It was a very beautiful day. Jeremy play a basket ball game and he won a prize. If you can see his face, my goodness, he was so proud of himself throwing the balls in the hoops 3 times in the row and they all got in. When the person offer him the prize, he choose a blue dolphin doll, and he loved it. He add it in to his animal's family. He named it Dolfy. Isn't it cute? ;p His face was glowing when he got that prize. It was one of his finest day.

Nicole got to enjoy walking around and got in some rides. She loves the caraousel, it was her first time, but she seems like know what to do with that. She was holding the pole really hard, she is afraid that she would fall down. I am so glad that they are having fun. Mommy is so tired. After 5 hours in the fairground, we finally gave up and wanted to go home. I can't handle the walk any longer. Well, I am carrying extra pounds in my tummy. One mistake that mommy made, I forgot to charge the battery for the camera, so some of the fun just passed like that without being documented. It was so dissapointed.



















It was a blast day for our family.