Cool Chinese dude

We were invited to a Chinese New Year open house this afternoon. Oliver dressed in his Chinese outfit - looking cool ha?

Happy New Year - once again

Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone! After numerous loud fireworks, Chinese New Year - the Year of the Rabbit is here!

It rained for a while early this morning and that made the air nice and clean plus there was a nice breeze. I felt like it was a great New Year morning (even though Japanese New Year is on the 1st of January).

I wanted to do something. Such a nice morning cannot be wasted just staying inside the house - so we packed our breakfast coffee, pancakes and snacks and off we went to Muara beach.

When we entered the car park we suddenly remembered it was a public holiday - meaning the place will be packed!! and it was!! Almost all the car parks were taken and so many people were in the picnic area, at the beach and the playground.
It made it kind of nice too, I felt quite festive as lots of people were smiling and saying hi to us, and they all seemed happy.

Our boy was one of the happiest. He got to take his favourite push car and ride on the bike path for a long long time.



He loves his car so much that he rode on it even in the playground, but it didn't take him long before he tried all the different equipments.



He wasn't too sure about the swing...



But loved the slides!!

Then it was time for some breakfast and a snack. Of course he got to eat some mandarins - as thats what you do on Chinese New Year!





We had another great start to the year. In Japan it is said that the Year of the Rabbit brings lots of jumping and hopping. People tend to become optimistic and believe in the economic recovery etc.

I am certainly feeling bouncy and optimistic this year - bring it on!

Red Day

At JIS they had a dress up day called "Red Day" today. Kids in Junior school dressed in Red to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

I like Oliver taking part in school events, so I dressed him in red.

He looks much older don't you think?



And very confident and happy!





Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone!

Tools

It is becoming more and more obvious that Oliver is a boy. Well he has been a boy since he was born but I mean with his play and things he is into.

He has been in love with trains and cars of course, but now he is into tools.
Matthew and Oliver have been having lots of fun putting things together recently. They each have a matching IKEA toolbox  : )





It is so funny to see Matthew put things together then Oliver pull them apart... They are a very good team!

Spitting

Ok, please someone tell us how you teach your child to spit after brushing his teeth, instead of drinking a full cup of water.
We tried to explain to him (of course this didn't work), we tried using Elmo (the soft toy) as a model, Matthew showed him how to do it several times, but... he is just giggling and drinking the cup of water...

CNY celebration @ Geckos

Today we celebrated Chinese New Year with our little ones at Geckos. Of course Oliver was dressed accordingly for the event.
He was in an extra good mood this morning and enjoyed the photo shoot before heading out to Geckos.



I am not sure where he got it from but when I try to take photos, he says "cheese" and puts his index finger up, just like Japanese people do when they take photos (they do a peace sign but I think it is still a little bit advanced for him, maybe when he turns two he can do it?).



Unfortunately we got to Geckos a little bit late but still got to enjoy the festive decorations and some CNY food.





Oliver was just busy paparazzi-ing himself with the camera most of the time.



More CNY celebrations are coming up next week, stay tuned : )

Girls dinner out

Last night Boel, Nicole and I went out for dinner, yes just the three of us. We've heard there is a new teppanyaki room in one of the Japanese restaurants in town so we were very excited to try it out.

The restaurant was fairly quiet and there were only three of us in the teppanyaki room (I guess this is what it is like in Brunei before the pay day!).



We tried some vegetables, white fish and wagyu from the teppanyaki menu. We also had some sashimi, sushi, tempura prawns etc. To my surprise the food came with complementary vege salad, miso soup and fresh fruit.







Often teppanyaki is served by a teppanyaki chef who can do all sorts of tricks, like throwing salt and pepper shakers, cutting the meat in flash ways, making big flames etc etc. Unfortunately we couldn't see any of those actions last night, we weren't sure if it was because there were only three of us eating with full on girls chat or they just don't perform at all.





Anyway the food was hot and freshly cooked in front of us and very tasty! We had lots of laughs and great chats over dinner.
I thoroughly enjoyed it! Thanks girls for such great company : )

In the morning garden

My little Igglepiggle spent the whole morning in the garden today. Of course he picked his current favourite pair of gumboots. They get quite hot in this weather but I don't need to worry about him getting bitten by red ants etc so perfect for his playtime in the garden.

Today's activity was collecting red seeds in the garden and cleaning them with water and putting them into the drain one by one.
Here are the photos.









It was quite overcast this morning with some breeze. I had a can of cold drink under the fan and enjoyed watching my boy play so happily.

What a lovely morning!

Nice...

Found this gorgeous hibiscus blooming in the garden today. I love the vivid pink, makes me feel very tropical.

Test drive

Matthew and I have been looking to buy a new car (as we have only one car right now). We test drove one car today and it was pretty good.

We thought Oliver should have a go as well and he test drove a Mini.





The toy car was at the Hua Ho department store and it is very impressive. You can drive the car yourself or it can be controlled by a remote control. Oliver just loved it! but we ended up not getting it (my concern was that he would get very obsessed with it and not play with any of his other toys).

We might just have to visit Hua Ho every now and then to have more test drives!

Water boy

Oliver loves spending his playtime outside. He found this new game of watering everything with his watering can.
In these photos he is watering the plants but sometimes he waters my shoes, his push bike, and even our cat!
He must love keeping things clean and moist!

Neighbourhood brother

Now that Oliver is a bit older he can play with the neighbour's kids. He often plays with Lucas (7) and Linnea (5) from next door.

This evening Oliver heard them having fun on the trampoline and off he went and got his gumboots on - ready to join them.

They had lots of fun and giggles together as usual (not many tears today).

When it was time for everyone to go back in the house, Lucas said "Oliver can be my little brother!"
I said "that would be great but you know being a big brother, you have to look after him and even change his nappies"
He thought about it for a while and said "Ok if you do it half the time, I will do the other half!"
Bless him!

Oliver is very lucky to have such a great neighbourhood brother.

Choo-choo

Ever since we visited Japan Oliver's obsession with trains has been getting serious. Half of the day he is saying "densha!, densha!"

He also developed this funny densha dance- he points his index fingers up in air and keeps walking around shouting densha! densha! densha! Matthew and I are laughing so much.

It is taking over his sleeping time too - the other day he was asleep but talking in his sleep "choo! choo!".

Very cute but a bit concerned with his obsession...

Star Wars Birthday Party

Oliver was invited to a very special Star Wars birthday party on Saturday. It was to celebrate our neighbour Lucas's 7th birthday. I knew how much effort Boel and the family had put in to prepare the party so we were very excited to be there!

Do you remember I was making Oliver's outfit? I managed to get it done 15min before the party started! But guess what?

He fell asleep while I was getting ready! Bless him! Can you tell what he is dressed as?



Oliver slept for almost an hour in his buggy but woke up very cheerful and couldn't stop eating corn chips. What do you think of our little Yoda!?



The party house was well decorated, and we were greeted by dressed up birthday boy and parents, Star Wars snack and drink table and more!



The birthday boy Jedi Lucas.



Proud parents; Boel (Princess Leia) and Nathan (Jedi).



I think this was a hit! I heard lots of kids saying "Oh I need another Yoda Soda!"



The bigger kids played 3 different types of Star Wars games and each time they completed they got a star sticker on their badge, how cool is that? Linnea kindly gave Oliver three stars even though he didn't participate.

Boel has been raving about this surprise she prepared for the kids. And it was a great surprise even for us adults. I didn't even know the 501st Legion who are aparently the biggest Star Wars costume group in the world existed (you can read more about them on Boel's blog)

The kids eyes almost fell off when they walked in! Oliver was very scared and held onto Matthew like a koala bear - but he didn't cry, maybe because he was a little Yoda!







The group photo.

And it was time for a very cool birthday cake : )



Oliver left the party with a Star Wars goody bag and inside there was a very special gift. The group photo they took an hour before - nicely framed! He was very impressed and talked to the photo for quite a while...



I love that parents put so much effort into their children's birthday here. Things we can get here are limited so you need to plan very well and in advance to make the party special but it is certainly great fun!

Oliver's birthday is not till late May but we need to start thinking about what we can do to make it extra special!

Toddler gymnasts

Every Friday we have sandpit time during the Geckos session. This week one of the mums approached us and offered to run a toddler gym.

Silke used to run these classes back in Germany so she knew exactly what she was doing and gave us some great tips.

We started the session by singing a song with some body motions so that the children know its time for exercise. And then, time for a full on obstacle course. Oliver couldn't stop smiling, he enjoyed it so much!











To finish the session off we played some games (rabbit and fox & fire, water and storm) Oliver was giggling so much!
It was great to have a little bit of structure in the kids play time. Oliver is surely looking forward to the next session.