Hari Raya - Day 2

This morning we were invited to our friend's Keiko & Hals open house. Here are the Roses dressed up and ready to go (Thanks Boel for taking the photos!)

Our gorgeous boy!! I found the baju almost small enough for him and Merryn kindly altered it for him. Does't he look smart!?



Just three of us;



And Five of us;



I haven't seen Keiko since the beginning of the summer holiday, it was great to catch up with her. She doesn't look she had a baby a few months ago. She is just stunning.



Keiko and Ukail (3 months old)





Natasha Tomoko posing in the Japanese way for me : )

We were served beautiful Malay food and fancy snacks. These are my favourite - I cannot recall what they are called, they taste like a very soft version of shortbread covered with icing sugar.





On the way out Oliver got special envelopes from the family. He got some duit raya - Hari Raya money. I am glad we could take Merryn and Dennis to something different while they are here as we haven't done any sightseeing this time.

Hari Raya - Day 1

This is how we spent the 1st day of Hari Raya.

Matthew - Very busy day at work, 4 sectors. Due to heavy rain the last flight got delayed and delayed...

Merryn - Altered both Misuzu and Oliver's Baju. Helped me with my sewing project - the birthday crowns for Geckos children. We are almost there. Hope we can finish them before Merryn leaves on Sunday, otherwise I will have a very hard time completing...





Misuzu - Had a great day spending time with her lovely family : ) Loving sewing with Merryn - she is the BEST!!

Dennis - Worked hard on his computer all day, lots of cuddles with Oliver. Fed Oliver lunch and dinner - how wonderful!



Oliver - had a ball with his little friend Lucas at Jungle Gym (indoor playground). Hardly anyone was there!!

Selamat Hari Raya!!

Today is the day. Ramadan is over and everyone in Brunei is celebrating "Hari Raya". People host open house for friends and families. We are lucky to be invited to go to some open house! Unfortunately Matthew is flying all day today so we will be going tomorrow. I am glad M&D get to come with us to experience something very cultural.

I made Baju Kurung - the traditional Malay dress for women a while ago but I haven't had an opportunity to wear it. So tomorrow will be the first time I will be in my baju! Merryn is very kind and altering my dress right now. I will post some photos tomorrow : )

Selamat Hari Raya everyone!!

Showing off

M&D came along to Oliver's swimming lesson. He was very confident as usual in the water and happy to show off what he does in the class to his grandparents.



Here is Oliver going under the water and up!





He totally got the hang of floating with the tube. Isn't he clever!?



There will be a two week break until the next swimming term starts. He will miss his lessons but here in Brunei we are so lucky, we can take him to the yacht club or RBRC for more swimming.

Lovely start to the week

Since Oliver started going to Geckos, Monday feels like the start of the week, which is kind of a good feeling - normal life feeling.
It was an extra special Monday as we have the visitors staying with us! We had a lovely breakfast sitting outside;





My orchids were blooming just in time for the visitors : )

Unfortunately we couldn't sit around and chat because we had to leave to go to Geckos! Oliver had a great time with Merryn and Dennis, sort of showing off his school to them. He was dressed as an explorer today, check it out!





Oliver was very happy walking with Matthew and Dennis

By the time we left Geckos, it was almost lunch time. We took M&D to I Lotus which is one of our favourite restaurants (Chinese/Thai food). We haven't been there for a long time as just going there the two of us, we cannot order many different dishes. It was great to have a few different dishes. And as usual they were divine!!



Especially the Tom Yum soup was sooooooo good!



We are so thrilled to spend the rest of the week with them.

Visitors are here!!

On Sunday evening we collected these guests from the airport!
Oliver was extra smily : ) : ) : )

Addicted to...

Fresh orange juice!!

Fresh fruit Friday

This morning all the children at Geckos enjoyed "fresh fruit" for a snack. We had delicious tropical fruits - bananas dressed in fresh passion fruit, papaya, pineapple and watermelon. It was organised in a way the children can serve themselves to make their own bowl of fruit salad. Oliver was very excited as he LOVES fruit.





We had great feedback from the parents. We will continue promoting healthy eating at Geckos!

Suddenly plus three!

No no no, we are not having triplets, I am too small for that.
I am talking about Oliver's little white teeth : )
This afternoon while Matthew and Oliver were having a great time giggling together, Matthew discovered Oliver's 4th front teeth has finally come through. He had only 3 at the bottom (which is a bit weird as they normally come through as a set of 2?).

He has been screaming while he was asleep for the last week or so. Now I know why! But wait there was more! Matthew found another one - a big one at the back. This one seems to have been there for a while. I don't know how we missed it all this time. Now I think about it Oliver had a very high fever when we left London and it must have been from teething. .

So before going to bed, I was brushing Oliver's teeth extra carefully. And guess what? He had another one already coming through! Suddenly I am penciling three more teeth in his book.

I wondered why he has been eating faster and more efficiently recently...

First day back at Geckos

Geckos had the same length summer break as JIS - 7 weeks... a long time for some of the parents. We were very lucky to travel around the world and this 7 weeks went very fast. Well today was the day - the first day back at Geckos.

Here is someone who was very excited walking into school.





Oliver missed his roller coaster - he had a ball



He tried some of the new toys







Some of us have worked very hard to renovate the premises over the holiday - The place is looking fantastic!
Even though it was the first day we had a great turn out - A few new faces.

We are excited to meet more toddlers and parents this term : )

Let's dance!

Our boy has got the moves! Don't miss his fancy walk (he learned from his daddy)!

Skills

Oliver enjoys playing with blocks. He is quite good actually!

Oliver's first words

Oliver has been making "ma ma ma ma ma" sounds, I didn't think they were words. But since last week he really means Mama as in Mother! He walks towards me saying "mama, mama" just gorgeous.

And he has more words! "this" and "kore (means this in Japanese)" what a clever boy. Already bilingual : ) We went down to the airport and all I could hear from the back seat was "this" and "kore" repeated endlessly.

He will be saying dada in no time!

Pancake picnic

We got up nice & early and drove to Pantai Muara again on Saturday morning. We took a pancake picnic with us. We had two different sorts, banana and pumpkin. Oliver loved both. He must be on a growth spurt again, just eats and eats and eats!







Even though the sun was up and shining, thanks to the tall trees our walk was nice and shady. You can see somebody was in an extra good mood : )

Pantai Muara

We often forget we have this wonderful facility 15min drive away from our house. We wanted to get some fresh air the other day so off we went. It was such a pleasant evening. Oliver had a ball running around in the playground - he had this whole playground all to himself! (During ramadan people are busy preparing/waiting for dinner before the sunset)



He is quite adventurous. He wanted to try pretty much everything he saw.



Through a tunnel



Down the slide



Hummmm maybe a challenge...



Wish I was a little bit taller...

It was great to get out and feel cool and refreshed. We will be back soon for sure.