Little Miss Moi

Life in Timor-Leste

Category Archives: Kids


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Nineteen days away

On Thursday we arrived back in Dili after nineteen days away. That is almost three weeks. The last time we took a break that long (other than visiting family) was in 2010 when we took the Sprog to Japan. That was a nineteen day trip too.

(Let’s just take a little side route here. I don’t know what it is with the nineteen day trips. It’s like I can’t commit to three weeks away with kids because that’s just WAY too long… but nineteen days? That’s just two weeks and a bit and totally manageable. In theory.)

All in all we had a good break. One thing we’re learning as the Sprog gets older is how much she loves her home. I have a theory about this – she’s quite the bossy boots, you see, and I think she loves her familiar environments because it helps her feel in control. After the first three days away, she started every day with the question, “Are we going back to Dili today?” Needless to say she was very happy the day we answered yes to that question.

This trip entailed five days in Singapore, one day in Kuala Lumpur (travelling into town), ten days in Hoi An in Vietnam, one night in Kuala Lumpur (at the airport), two more days in Singapore, and then home. Christmas in Singapore with me old mate Mind the Gap and her outlaws (and I mean the ENTIRE outlaw family – brave brave girl!), new year’s in Vietnam with me tenderly embracing a pillow in the throes of slumber.

There were definitely some highlights – the cool weather in Vietnam, visiting the Singapore Zoo and Universal Studios, and checking out the shops (as Timor is devoid of serious shopping. Even more so than Darwin). The real highlight though was Christmas night when the Mr gave me the best present ever – he took the kids back to the hotel and let me get sloshed and talk at me old mate Mind the Gap until almost midnight, totally unhindered by children. (I will point out that I earned the right to do so after I helped her with the washing up. That’s what I tell myself anyway!)

The lowlights were the kid’s tantrums (especially the Sprog – aforementioned devotion to Dili and desire to return stat being the core underlying reason for the tanties, methinks), both children being sick, and sharing rooms with children who are in bed by 7.30pm, which certainly curtailed any noisy or light filled activities such as watching TV or going to and flushing the toilet. The Kindle and booklight came in very handy in these situations.

So that’s the first decant on the recent trip. The next few days will determine whether I have anything else to add on the subject.


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Language as food and other miscellaneous things

The Sprog is coming across a lot of Tetun speakers in her life.

What is Tetun? It’s the language of Timor-Leste. It’s one of the official languages (the other being Portuguese, though people say that most of the population can’t speak it fluently).

Our nanny speaks Tetun. Our cleaner speaks Tetun. Our driver speaks Tetun. The staff on our estate speak Tetun. People in shops speak Tetun.

So we have been trying to reinforce to the Sprog the bare minimum of words in order to show her respect to the people who help her out in everyday life (i.e. the people she annoys the crap out of, day in, day out!)

The problem is that the Sprog doesn’t quite get her pronunciation right at times.

The word for thank you is ‘Obrigada’ (for women). The Sprog, however, says, ‘Avocados’.

The word for goodbye is ‘Adeus’. The Sprog, however, says, ‘Have a juice’.

I was despairing to a mum from the school about the Sprog’s inability to hear me distinguish between ‘Obrigada’ and ‘Avocado’.

The mum said, ‘At least it’s not as bad as my kids. Instead of Obrigada, they used to say “Bicardi”. No reflection on my drinking habits, of course.’

Ah kids.


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Harrie’s eye colour…

More or less since the newborn sheen wore off, there has been no mistaking what colour the Sprog’s eyes are.
No filters on this people. They are BLUE. Very BLUE. We were VERY surprised by this – perhaps we shouldn’t have been. I come from blue/green eyes, but the Mr comes from brown eyes – in fact, his dad is Chinese. And his mum has brown eyes.

So BLUE eyes and light brown/blondey hair on our first born was a surprise. Then along came Harrie, who (naively says the second time mum) surprised us with her differences to the Sprog. Her skin tone, her face shape, her hair colour. Everything. But for a while, we did think her eyes were going to be blue too. Just more of a grey blue, like mine. But in recent times, we have not been so sure. I mean, is it possible to have GREY eyes? Because that’s what Harrie’s eyes look like sometimes. Just steely grey.

Other times a little bit of green. (There’s no denying a green background helps in this instance).

I feel like I NEED to figure out what colour they are. Some people say “Labels aren’t important”. Bugger that. Labels all the way for me, peeps! “Very cute” is one label I will give Harrie. But I also want to be able to slap a definitive eye colour on her. What do you think? Blue? Grey? BlueGrey? Green? GreenGrey? On their way to brown?

I have no idea.

 

 

*The only edits these pics received were crops. 


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The birthday whirlwind

Starting with the rising of Virgo in the Zodiac (is that how it’s said? I wouldn’t have a clue because I’m a newspaper Zodiac-er and that’s about it) we have what I shall henceforth refer to as the birthday bash whirlwind.

Within the space of three weeks we have:

  • The Mr’s birthday
  • My Mum’s birthday
  • The Sprog’s birthday
  • Father’s Day (technically not a birthday but a gift giving obligation)
  • Harrie’s birthday.

 

And then six months later in March, we have my birthday. I’m way out there on my own in terms of my little family, BUT I do have company in terms of my family – my big sister’s birthday is a week before me, and my parent’s wedding anniversary is in between.

However, in my day-to-day life, I am an island of Aries-cusp-Pisces in a sea of Virgos. (I don’t know much about Zodiac, but according to everything I’ve read, Aries are incompatible with Virgos. Uh oh!)

So, here’s a little recap of the celebrations of the birthday whirlwind. And poor Harrie, by the time I got to her birthday yesterday, I really was thinking “Oh f**k, another cake”…

First we have the Mr’s birthday. I remember when he turned 30, it was the day after he arrived in Oz from a 36 hour travel period from Kiev, Ukraine. And I dragged him to antenatal classes. The Sprog was born a week and a half later.

Then we have the Sprog’s birthday. I believe in practical gifts for kids. The Sprog got some trainers that she needed for school, as they have PE class and her faux-Crocs (Faucs?) are not allowed.

She loves opening gifts. She was particularly taken with the dodgy Chinese bag that her gift came in.

Here she is in her 4-year-old glory, looking massive and grown up. The change between three years and four is incredible. She’s now definitely a girl, not a toddler!

Enjoying her cake (which I bought – as I’d made her muffins to take to school and I couldn’t be bothered to make another cake!)

What I failed to document in pictures was the Sprog’s first real birthday party. Last year, she crashed her best friend’s birthday party (the mum was happy for us to do this) but only one other kid showed up. This year we invited all the kids in her class (there are only seven of them) and they all came, and they all had fun. And I didn’t take one photo. But the Women’s Weekly cupcakes were a hit!

And here we are on Harrie’s birthday on Sunday. For Harrie’s birthday, we went to the beach where two other little babies were celebrating their first birthdays.

In case you haven’t realised, Dili is like Darwin – lots of babies around. I guess there’s not much else to do ;)

These days I’ve given up bringing the Sprog’s togs to the beach as she HATES the water. That was, until Sunday. When I didn’t have togs. So she spent the morning swimming in her clothes. And she LOVED it.

Oh this is just the view from the beach. Nothing spesh.

Harrie really loved the water too but I’m a paranoid mum and this little one has had two ear infections already in her short life, so I am not taking risks. I am keeping her out of the water for as long as possible… Yes, call me cruel.

Here’s a horrible selfie. I was actually trying to caputre Harrie’s eye colour, which is still quite undefinable – grey/blue/green. Hard to tell. This photo did not confirm anything except that she’s cute.

The Mr did his fatherly duties by repeatedly dunking the baby’s feet in the water as the tide came in.

I really love that this beach has so much shade. There are trees all along the shore line, which is rare in Australia. I am so sun adverse, which is why in general I am not a beach person. The shade also makes the beach a very pleasant place to hang out, not hot and impossible like the Queensland beaches in summer.

To sum up, I think the three of them have all enjoyed their birthdays this year.

Stay tuned for photos of Harrie’s cake, because we haven’t managed to keep her up long enough at night to actually cut it yet.


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And just like that, the nanny quit…

Remember how I said it was nice to have a nanny on board?

Well, things were getting a bit stressful. The Mr had warned me that it might take a while to find a nanny that I really like, and I understand this now.

The Sprog HATED the nanny. I mean, would scream if the nanny tried to help her (e.g. go to the loo, get dressed, bath etc). SCREAM. She also took to saying “I don’t like you” directly to the nanny, so there was no mistaking that the nanny was not the Sprog’s favourite person. So I had no relief on the looking after the Sprog front – she still came with me everywhere.

Harrie didn’t seem to mind the nanny, but she certainly never giggled or seemed truly happy in her presence. The nanny wasn’t too big on play, preferring to sit with the Sprog on her lap while watching telly. Poor Harrie loves getting around so I would tell her to plonk her on the floor, to no avail.

So this all made me a bit stressed out, especially to have it happening under my roof.

I had promised to give her a one month trial, and today the month was up. She got a mutual acquaintance – who speaks English – to call me this morning to say that today one month was up, she wanted her pay and then she would leave immediately.

And so that was it. I paid her, and she left. Goodbye nanny.

I don’t really NEED a nanny – but today I spent three hours traipsing the stores looking for groceries with poor Harrie in tow. She would have been far happier at home, I know. That’s probably reason enough for me to start the search again.

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