Selamat Hari Raya!!

Dry!

We tried to toilet train Oliver seriously a month ago, but we had visitors and so many playdates, we decided to put it off until now. We started to put him in his underwear again. He has been doing so well! I am very impressed - I guess the suggestions from other mums "when the time comes, he will do it without too much effort" was true!

He had one accident today (when he was playing with Linnea and Lucas and got too excited) but other than that he kept his underwear very "DRY!" Even after I put him in his nappy before bed time he still came to me and said "toilet toilet" and NO accidents!

I am very proud of you Oliver, but I feel a bit sad that our boy is growing so fast...

Sticker for you...

Oliver gave Luca a sticker, Luca wasn't sure what this thing on his nose was.



Hmmmm... I cannot quite see what it is...



Aha! Sticker I like it!

Baby in a bucket

We found a new way to calm Luca down - it really worked!

Lovely morning

As the school is off for another week, our simpang kids are available for Oliver and Luca to play with. They spend the morning with Lucas and Linnea.





Linnea is very gentle with Luca : )



Luca loves chatting - especially to girls!



Oliver showed Linnea how you should pose when your photo is taken...

Kids playing nicely mean I get a very quiet morning, I love it!

One day...

Oliver will be big enough to ride on the real bikes.



Oliver, Lucas and Linnea's rides.

Baking playdate

As we are still on the school break (no Geckos and no nursery classes started yet) we are having lots of playdates with Oliver's little friends.

We are very lucky to have mothers who are interested in lots of different activities for the little ones. Sometimes they play outside jumping on the trampolines, splashing each other in the paddle pool or they do some arty crafty activities such as sticking paper, painting, playdough, and Oliver's favourite activity - cooking!

He really loves making pizzas but this afternoon I decided to do something different - gingerbread biscuit baking. Well... basically I prepared the dough in advance and the kids rolled it using a rolling pin and used the cookie cutters to make all sorts of different biscuits.

It was fun trying to figure out what animals and shapes they are:
Can you see which cutter Oliver picked?



Emma



Hannah



They all had a fun time - and the mummies enjoyed it too!



Taddaaaa nicely baked gingerbread biscuits - Kiwi, NZ map, giraffe, fish, duck and more!



And they tasted very good : ) We had such a lovely afternoon.

Bubble fun

We are having lovely breezes throughout the day the last few days, which means Oliver can get out and play outside more (usually he plays early in the morning and later in the afternoon as it gets quite quite hot!) and I enjoy my coffee outside.

Oliver and I had great time blowing bubbles today.
Concentrating very hard...



Pheuuuuuu----



So much fun!



Where is Luca?



He just chills out and enjoys his sleep in the fresh air - such a relaxed boy : )

Trampoline

Won't be long until I can get up there... (Luca / 2months+)

Simple fun

Oliver has way too many toys to play with. Some of them keep him busy for a long long time and others only last for 10 minutes. Today he only needed a hose & water and that entertained him soooooo much!

Started off with some togs and running under the water.



Tried his bike too : )



Had so much fun spraying himself with the hose.



And of course drank so much water, as they do!



And...ended up in naked and a boy being a boy...



We must do this more often. The water is so cheap here in Brunei and we have so many lovely hot days : )

Apple generation

Hmmmm maybe starting a bit too early...

It's open!!

As they promised it opened rather SOON! Very impressed with the size and the range of things they have.

We weren't sure about taking Oliver there today but he was very good. He didn't touch anything until we got to the lego section and he grabbed a box of Cars toys, but when we had to go he put it back and waved bye to the toy - no drama!

Bandar

Bandar (the city center) is a place we don't spend much of our time. But since this Japanese restaurant - Kaizen Restaurant opened at the waterfront I have been there almost every week.

They have done a great job making the waterfront area nice and clean. It is way too hot to walk along here during the day but I am sure it is quite nice in the evenings.



Oliver loves looking at the boats coming and going.



They really try to get you on the boat!



On a nice fine day you can see the Istana (the palace) from here.



Nice to find a new place to go : )

New hobby

Matthew might have found a new hobby - sailing! His friend and him went out on this yacht last week and they really enjoyed it. Finally visiting the Yacht Club for the correct purpose!

Fresh veges

We do our grocery shopping at Supasave where we can get fresh milk, and most veges we buy from our local vege market. We sometimes go to another supermarket in Hua Ho department store to pick up odd bits and pieces. I like their eggs more than Supasave ones (funny obsession I know) and fresh passionfruit when they have them in stock.

Today we were surprised to see this new hydroponic lettuces in their vege section. The ones we normally get from supasave are air flown from Australia - they taste ok but they are quite expensive. The ones we bought today are locally grown and they had several kinds to choose from too! And best of all they were very cheap : ) We had them for dinner tonight and they were very very good.



It is a hassle to visit a few locations to get what you want but I think it's worth it!

Big little brother

Luca had a delayed two months check up this morning at JPMC (it was due last week but I had to get my eye checked instead).

When he was born he weighed 3250g and was 51cm tall. Today after 2 months of intensive breast feeding he weighs 5545g and is 56cm tall!! Amazing ha!?

I am so glad our boy is doing so well : ) All the sleepless nights for the last two months meant something!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

It was Matthew's birthday today. Oliver, Luca and I prepared a special day for him. While Matthew was away working, Oliver worked very hard to make a birthday card for his daddy.

I cut out some letters and parts to make a birthday cake for him to stick onto a card, Oliver loves using glue so this activity was a hit!

Can you see the concentration in his eyes?





We practiced blowing out the candles for daddy : )



Taddaaaaa very well done Oliver! (No, Oliver cannot write yet but he wanted me to hold his hand and write all of our names).



Luca gave daddy a special note this morning when we went to wake daddy up. The note said - "Happy birthday daddy, birthday treat! Special family breakfast at Radisson Hotel from 8:30 AM!" Well... It was actually a surprise birthday breakfast with some of our friends! Matthew really thought it was just a family outing. He he he!

Our friends were waiting in the hotel lobby to surprise Matthew. Yes he was very surprised : ) We had a long relaxing yummy breakfast while the kids played nicely together. We were lucky as it is Ramadan and the restaurant wasn't as busy as usual.

They were busy drawing and colouring in while parents ate:



Oliver was very happy:



Helen and Emma - so much fun!



Time for the birthday cake!



Of course Oliver helped daddy blow out the candles.



Daddies:



And some of the mummies and daughters:



A birthday family shot!



It was such a pleasant morning and we enjoyed it so much! Happy Birthday honey : )

Pajama party

Oliver had his very first pajama party last night. I bravely offered to look after my friend's three kids. It turned out to be very doable as they were all ready to go to bed in their pajamas (Luca and Miho were already asleep).

They enjoyed watching a movie together. It wasn't a scary movie but they liked holding hands - how cute!



Aisa is very good with Oliver:



At the end of the night it was Oliver who stayed awake the longest - he was too excited (and very tired...) but he really enjoyed his pajama party : )

Green, Yellow and Pink

Today we went to Kitaro restaurant in Gadong for lunch. I am really enjoying quiet restaurants during Ramadan. We have been eating out a lot and I am very happy getting to eat lots of Japanese food, and so is Oliver.

This is how Oliver order's his sushi. Green - avocado maki, Yellow - egg maki and Pink - salmon maki (like traffic lights!)

We have noticed that Oliver sometimes chokes on the nori (seaweed) as each piece of sushi is slightly too big for the little man. So today we asked to cut them into thinner pieces - look how many he got!



We have been working so hard getting Oliver to eat himself (somehow he is not interested in eating, he can eat a lot if someone feeds him but we want him to feed himself!!!) but sushi is working soooo well!

Yummy yummy sushi! so excited (I have to put up this photo up for my sister-in-law Kylie, don't you think he looks like Devon??)



Dipping in the soy sauce:



And into his mouth!



We already have some more Japanese lunches planned for next week. Yuuuuummmmyyyy! Happy eating!