Nadia and Her First Halloween Party

Click here for the photos.

A bit earlier than the tradition, but still everyone had a great time last Friday at the Halloween's Sweets Hunting. Strolling the streets of Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris, kids were wearing different themes of customs. Mostly students of St Mary Mount school, where Lana (first daughter of Ronny and Hana Hendrawan) is enrolled.

Nadia and Naia (Lana's sister) were also enrolled, not to the school itself, but to the Halloween party. Along with the other kids and the parents, we all knocked on the doors of the 13 participating houses for a 'trick or treat' in a cool fall evening.

Nadia as a little orange pumpkin, Naia as a little red devil, Cici Lana as a little princess... they were all so cute in the customs. And of course, the parents participated too. Mama Dita as a 'spider' sorcerer, Mommy Hana as a Zorro Woman ("Rozzo"... called Lana) and Papa Novel as an old witch, equiped with long grey hair and a broom. Papi Ronny came late from Rotterdam. Tante Dewi, as one of the host, joined us for a dinner after with illuminating skulls on her head.

Everyone had a really good time!

Nadia et Le Bebe Nageur

It has been a few weeks since Nadia restarted her swimming class. Restarted... because she had taken baby swimming lessons in Oz before when she was still 6-month-old.

Now, we have a new routine every Sunday morning. We intentionally chose Sunday class, so we can go to the pool together. Also, Dita and I can take turn swimming with Nadia. The pool is in Porte d'Orleans area, not very far from my office. It is a small pool, special for baby swimming classes and not open for public. There are about 10 toddlers in our class. Mostly French.

Taking Nadia for a swim is always a fun experience. She is always excited and not afraid of waters. She was so used to waters back when we were still in Oz. Then there was a period when we hardly took her to the swimming pool because of the move, etc. Before we began with this Sunday swimming class, we had taken her again to a public pool once in a while. It took her a little while before she got familiar again with the waters and the old Aussie techniques.

I am personally a little disappointed with this Sunday class. Perhaps I put my expectation a little too high. Dita and I had set our standards based on our experience in Oz. Over there, swimming lessons for babies were so much fun and well structured. Babies and parents (mostly mommies) were encouraged and praised a lot. Swimming always come along with popular kid tunes, like Humpty Dumpty, which Dita is still using it with Nadia until today. She is still using the techniques she learned from Oz.

After 4 classes, I have not yet seen any progress on the way the instructor teaches the class. All she and her assistant have done is just let the parents do whatever they want with their toddlers. The only good thing is that they provide some toys and floaters (at least they are quite well equipped). And I had asked the instructor in the beginning of her teaching plans. She said for the first few weeks she would let the kids get accustomed to the waters, before starting to teach them some techniques. Some of them kids are a little younger than Nadia and never took a lesson before. Makes sense.

But for how long? I don't have the answer yet. But last week, my doubt about their teaching ability was growing even more, after seeing her assistant teach the parents how to hold the toddlers in the waters. The technique was okay. It is just the method. This shy assistant was trying to lead the class, whilst the old teacher was trying to encourage people to sing a French song whilst swinging our babies gently! Yet, she could not pick a single song or perhaps she did not know much of the French kid songs. Until... suddenly Dita started with Fais Do-do.... and the other parents (and they are French!) follow!

Another funnny thing. Two weeks ago, the teacher asked the parents to encourage their toddlers to jump to the waters from a slider. She gathered everyone around and explained the tricks. Of course, she would start with an example. She picked a boy called Matthieu, about the same age as Nadia, who always comes only with his daddy. The teacher said, "Let's start with Matthieu. He will show you how to do it. If he can do it, there is no reason why your toddlers cannot do it." The teacher seemed to know Matthieu and his daddy pretty well. I was thinking,"Perhaps he has taken the lessons for a while." Voila, everyone was eagerly watching Matthieu in action. One second, two seconds, five seconds... he did not move from the slider despite of her daddy's encouraging words. Instead, he reached out to him, did not dare to jump off. It wasn't a proud moment for the teacher, let alone the daddy. Poor Matthieu. The role model failed. Then came Nadia. She crawled up the slider and... wooossshh!!! She jumped to the waters in no time! Everyone clapped. Ever since, the teacher has picked Nadia to lead the way and Dita and I are being the proud parents. Ahahaha....

Nadia and Potty Training

It's about time for a potty training. Dita had uncontinuously tried it on Nadia several time before, without any satisfying results. This time, she is more determined than ever to give Nadia a toilet training.

The result of the first day today was pretty good. Dita uses a very encouraging method by giving one sticker to Nadia for every successful pee or poop. Today's result: 3 stickers! Two for pees and one for kaka (poop). What an achievement to start with! More importantly, we feel Nadia is big enough to digest the process and to say it when she feels like doing it, of course, before it really comes out.

The only disappointment of the day was when she was peeing on the couch. Ahh! We think she was just being lazy to move, whilst her favorite Les Petits Einsteins was on the tv. Never mind. Slowly but sure, we are getting there! Bravo, ma petite! Bravo, ma femme!

La Petite Chanteuse

Today, finally, we managed to capture Nadia singing some of her favorite songs. Hair covered and half naked, as she was about to take her regular evening bath. You may also notice her taking a bow at the end of some songs. Sorry for the bad quality as I took them using our compact camera. Hope these five videos will make your day. Enjoy!

Video 1: Nadia sings "Rocket Needs a Home" (from Les Petits Einsteins).


Video 2: Nadia sings "Ode to Joy".


Video 3: Nadia sings "Fais Do-do" (a French lullaby for the kids) with a mad singer and a little dance.


Video 4: Nadia sings "Fais Do-do" medley with another song which she learned from her Halte Garderie.


Video 5: Nadia sings "Fais Do-do" whilst playing a 'drum'.

The Joy of Being a Father

There is a lot which I want to share with you on my fatherhood experience, but there is limited space or time to write them all in my blog. To put it bluntly in a simple phrase: I enjoy the fatherhood! I enjoy every second I spend with my daughter. Nadia is getting bigger now. She is simply adorable and in my opinion fairly easy to manage.

For the latter, the credit goes to Dita. If she had not imposed Nadia's daily routines from her early age, it would not have been this easy. It seems that having a routine for an infant is the key. It also helps them to recognize what to expect on a daily basis. Dita works really hard to keep the same routine for Nadia starting from the wake-up time in the morning, meals, naps, snacks, playing and tv times. It proves to be working incredibly fine. Furthermore, it helps me to understand my tasks as a father and a husband too. Dita and I both also like to learn from the tv program, Supernanny. Their main concept of children management starts from having a routine and a stern discipline to follow it.

A lot of parents were complaining of sleepless nights. Frankly, I have never had such an experience. At 7ish pm, she will walk herself towards her bedroom (Nadia has started sleeping in her room since she was 3 months-old) looking for her dou-dou (dou-dou is a French slang, a nickname for the baby's beloved item, e.g. doll, pillow, etc). For Nadia, her dou-dou is her soft pinky blanket she once received it as her birth gift from The Faisals in Dubai. She just loves it so much, as if her dou-dou was her boyfriend. Without her dou-dou, it will be a struggle to put her to bed. But with her dou-dou around, she goes to sleep in no time and quietly.

She rarely wakes up at night (unless she feels pain, say, for teething or fever). She sleeps all the way through until 6ish am. Needless to say, I have retired my clock alarm since we have Nadia. When she wakes up, she quietly calling "Mamaaaa... mamaaa...." No crying whatsoever (are we not lucky?). Of course, her Mama would not wake up at this point, because in the morning, it's her Papa's duty to take her out of bed and change her nappy, which a task I always look forward to. Why? Because seeing her in the morning in such a cheerful smile gives me some energy to start the day with, even when I am lack of sleep sometimes. It puts a smile on my face whilst kissing her bonjour.

Morning is always the best chance for me to see her, because on the weekdays most of the time I reach home when she is already in bed. My objective is to come home before 7pm once or twice a week, so I can still catch up with her. The funny thing is if I am planning to go home early, I always call home first and ask her to wait and not to go to bed yet. According to Dita, at times, Nadia has already had sleepy eyes whilst waiting for me in the couch. But when I reach home and when I open the door, she gets up from the couch and quickly runs towards the front door to greet me! As if she regained her energy. Of course, her cheerful greeting electrifies me. Instantly, all the tiredness is gone! All the office problems seem to be temporarily erased from my mind. She simply makes my day! When this happens, Dita can only stare in disbelief, because a second ago Nadia was like a kid draining the energy and ready to sleep soon. Now, we find her fully recharged! So, I play with her for a little while or read her bedtime stories until she points to her bedroom for her dou-dou.

Books are her favorite thing! Nadia simply loves them. Now that she starts talking. She picks up words pretty quickly and tries really hard to follow me or Dita when we say a word in English, French or Bahasa. I think she has built her vocabularies significantly for the last couple of months. It's no longer Ma-ma, Pa-pa or dou-dou only. She can correctly indicate the right subject on her book, even when it's a little tiny thing. Last time when we were doing a groccery shopping at a supermarket, she quickly grabbed three colored books in her tiny hands. Of course, we do not always agree to buy all that she wants. So, we paid only for one of them. It turned out that her choice was a very good book for her age. Last month, we bought her her first bible and her first prayer book with a lot of pictures, of course. At least now she recognizes Jesus on those books. The rest will follow. Still, I was wondering from whom she inherits this book habit... maybe from me, but obviously from her Opa Klaas.

During the day, I usually call home from the office to see how things are going. Dita usually gives the phone to Nadia, so she can talk to me first. Hearing her voice simply makes my day, no matter how rough my day seems. She does not talk a sentence, but she has her own language, as if she understood me. However, it's good to hear her say "Hallo... Pa-pa... Bye". She has been able to wave her hands whilst saying "bye" for quite some time. She does it to anyone... in the bus, metro, streets, etc. Sometimes she becomes popular in a public space because of this. Last weekend, we were driving with Nadia sitting in her back seat. Suddenly, there was a group of granny waving towards our car. At first, I thought they were waving to someone in the streets. But then I realized Nadia was waving to them. So cute....

Nadia likes to sing. It's amazing how she hums different children songs in their correct notes. To name the few: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Can You Do A Kangaroo, Je Fais Pipi, Cicak Cicak di Dinding, Kuu-kuu (refrain from Burung Hantu).... Although she hardly sounds the words, she picks up the melody pretty quickly and repeats it herself. Last month Dita bought her a CD & a DVD of the French children songs. A good collection of tunes. Catchy melodies to follow. A lot new French words to learn. Although, sometimes, the story of the song does not make any sense. One of them goes like this":"Un petit cochon, pendu au plafond, tirez lui le nez, il donnerait du lait, tirez lui la queue, il ponderait des oeufs..." (A little pig, hung on the ceiling, if you pull his nose, he will give you some milk, if you pull his tail, he will give you some eggs). Isn't it a bit sadistic? Hanging a pig on the ceiling? A pig yields the milk and some eggs? No, no, no.... After all, it's only a song. But that makes me think a little. I was trying hard to find an Indonesian children song that makes no sense like that French pig song. I can't find one, so far. Bintang Kecil, Kapal Laut, Kapiten... hhmmm... all seems makes sense.

Dancing is her another favorite thing. You may have seen her dance on youtube in my previous post. Still until now, whenever she hears dance music, her body moves easily, be it at home, in a supermarket, in a shop.... Her favorite dance songs start from Le Titou, Ray of Light (Madonna), Terre Bin (Rabbi) to Horizon Has Been Defeated (Jack Johnson). I mean... any dance tunes will do.

Lastly, you have to see this for yourself.... Since the first time Nadia was introduced to a pencil, she has grabbed it the way the adults do (you know what I mean) and no one taught her how to do it! Some kids grab a pencil from the other tip with all their fingers. Some grab it with their four fingers. But from the beginning Nadia has grabbed it correctly between her thumb and index finger. Amazing! It is also amazing how she loves to draw. For this, without doubt, she inherits it from her Mama. At home, she has her own little IKEA desk. Apart from becoming one of her activities during the day, this drawing thing in most cases also helps to distract her attention, particularly during some inconvenient times, e.g. flight take-off, waiting for the meals at the restaurant, etc.

Do not get wrong, I did not intend to tell you all this to show my daughter off. I do not think Nadia is special, nor is she different from any other kids. She is a kid like the others. But I simply want to share my experience with you on how wonderful it is to be a father and how amazing the God's creatures called children are! If only we, adults, were always that innocent....

Obviously, the past 20 months have been an incredible learning experience for me and, I am sure, for Dita too. Kids like Nadia can teach us a lot in our lives. Nadia has definitely taught different aspects of life for which most people take them for granted. Everyday she teaches me how to love and to be loved.