Zumba

Since I had Luca I have done only very small amounts of exercise. But today I went to a new exercise class - Zumba! It is a very popular exercise all over the world. It is a Latin-inspired dance (mixture of hip-hop, samba, salsa, merengue etc) fitness program. Even here in Brunei it is taking off!!

Guess who the instructor was?



Tadddaaa it's my neighbour Boel!
(She did her instructing license training in Sweden during the summer break)

It was very hard work but I really really enjoyed it. I've already bought a ticket for the Zumba Master Class (full on zumba for 90min!) which will be held in a weeks time. I hope I can take as many classes as possible and master more moves and steps before then - wish me luck!

Monkey supermarket

I went to Monkey Supasave this afternoon while the boys were having a nap.

The carpark was quite full today so I had to park my car in the one close to the jungle. When I came out of the supermarket full of goodies I saw this car with monkeys (before I got my iphone out there were 4 of them!) jumping up and down on top of it. Well this is why the supermarket is called monkey supasave!



Can you see a monkey on top of the car?

Lucky it wasn't my car, I would have had trouble loading my stuff (I had lots of fruits and veges incuding bananas!).

Peace Day

Last week at school the students celebrated International Day of Peace. On this day the students were allowed to wear casual clothes to school. The older kids had more events at school but for the little ones not much was happening (I thought).

But this morning I saw this displayed in front of Oliver's classroom.



Wonderful work from the Unicorn teachers and students.



Here is Oliver's piece - nice and neat (he still puts things in lines...)

And very artistically painted dove:



Well done Oliver!

Look at me!

It is just amazing how much Oliver is absorbing from his nursery class. His language is improving day by day and he is enjoying all the classroom activities.

A few weeks ago if I gave him a piece of paper and crayons he would have just drawn lines and odd circles but now with loud voice, he says "Look at me! Look at me mummy!" and draws lots of nice circles. And tells me "circles!"





I know it is just a little thing, but I am very emotional every time he does something new with his big smiles : )

First day at ASA

The school offers a great variety of ASA (after school activities). You name it, they have it! Hip hop dancing, scrapbooking, lego, photography, animation, football, just endless activities are offered.

There is one activity available to the very little ones - swimming. I enrolled Oliver in this as we no longer go to the swimming lessons in the morning.

Yesterday was his first lesson. It is a very small class so far (the teacher told us there might be more coming later in the term) - only two of them and a teacher! Great ratio ha!?



It was the first time Oliver went to a lesson without me or Matthew, so a little bit hesitant but in the end he had a good time (I think). The class is only 30min so by the time he got used to the water and the teacher a bit it was time to get out - and of course he wanted to play more! There will be another class tomorrow I hope we can see more smiles from him : )

Story time with daddy

Oliver loves reading with Matthew. When Oliver picks a book, sometimes it turns out to be a mission for Matthew!





Matthew sometimes changes a story though, "A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood..." but Oliver straight away knew it wasn't The Gruffalo book they were reading. "Funny" he says with a big smile.

A whole new world

Luca can now not only roll over, he can push himself up! No longer staring at the ceiling - A whole new world around him.



(yes, his hair keeps growing - might need a hair cut soon?)

Passing down

It is great to have the same sex children. I hardly need to buy anything new for Luca (poor baby...), he can wear everything Oliver has grown out of!

These tiki socks were one of my favourites but when I bought them for Oliver, he was already in his growth spurt and only wore them twice or so.

But Luca can wear them now!



Can you see Luca's lovely fat rolls on his leg? It won't be long before he'll grow out of these socks.

Which team to support?

Tonight we were in a unique situation watching the RWC - both of our teams were playing! It was NZ vs Japan. Last time they played in the 1995 RWC the result was Japan 17- NZ 145 (yeah, Japan lost quite badly...) We were sure of who was going to win tonight but hoped the score gap wasn't as bad as in 1995.

We only have All Black tops for the boys so I had to do a little bit of decoration on them:



Oliver got chips in a Japan coloured bowl and a little face paint on his cheek.



Luca with a Japan flag.

We are so impressed how much Oliver is engaged in watching the game. He can hear the commentators (tackle! try!). And his ball control is getting much better too!



Oliver has a little obsession now, when he is in his All Black jersey he has to have his rugby ball. Today he was very proud to show his little brother how to handle the ball and watch the game.





The result? Japan 1 try and NZ lots and lots of tries...

Ukulele

Exhausted

I dropped Oliver at school at 7:40 and picked him up at 11:30 today - First full day for him. Result? A very tired boy in the car...

3 months and 1 week

Luca can roll over! Only took him 3 months and 1 week. Wonder how soon he will start crawling...

Who is your friend?

Matthew talked to Oliver when he was getting ready for school this morning. Three questions:
Are you going to school? - YES!
Are you going to play with your friends? - YES!
Who is your friend? - ME!

Bless him... so cute

Mini me!

We missed the Watson's kids yesterday morning before heading out to school - Oliver was so disappointed... So this morning I made sure he got to see them before getting in the car.



Oliver was so impressed he and Lucas were dressed exactly the same way. Lucas screamed "Oliver is mini me!!"

Stopover visitors

This morning while I was dropping Oliver at school Matthew went to the airport to collect some visitors from New Zealand. Aunty Brenda, Uncle Ted and Ted's sister Elaine are on their way to England. They are just here for the day but it is always nice to have visitors : )



Luca welcomed Aunty Brenda with his big smile.



Luca with his golly (that was made by Aunty Brenda) - they have same amount of hair!!



During this short stay they managed to fit in a lot - a visit to the Empire Hotel, picking up Oliver from school, lunch at the yacht club and a wee snooze to get ready for tonight's flight.