trip to taman safari

Last Sunday, we went to Taman Safari. It has been our dream to bring Jove to see the animals and we were so excited when it finally came true with a blast! :)


Jove seemed to enjoy looking at all the animals and feeding them carrots from the car window. We were quite surprised that this little guy had the courage to feed small skinny carrots to those smelly big mouths! He surprised us more when he was willing to pose with a naughty little baby orangutan called Aming and touched the two-month old baby tiger.

Our trip was disturbed by a heavy downpour. We had to take turn walking from shelter to shelter with one umbrella that we brought. Grandpa, grandma, and Jove managed to have a fun ride in the cable car when the rain turned to drizzle. Then we went to feed the leftover carrots to the hungry elephants (they ate 200kg of grass per day, said the trainer). Jove, with his little hand was brave enough to put the carrots on the trunk.

Jove also managed to ride elephant and camel with his aunts, and a pony by himself, after the rain stopped. We went home tired, but happy and satisfied. Jove slept soundly on our way home.

coloring competition

Our cluster in Alam Sutera, Kirana, always have a bazaar in August to celebrate Indonesia's independence day. This year, they had a coloring and drawing competitions for kids. We did not register Jovan to join because he was way too small for the competition. The youngest age range is 4-5 years old for coloring. But when we saw Jovan looked interested, we asked him whether he wanted to join. He said he wanted to! So we paid Rp. 15,000.- and Jovan took part in his first competition.

He did his piece seriously. At first, I thought he would draw a car or something on that page because he never colored any picture before. He usually just drew and colored his own drawing. But apparently, he understood that he only had to color the picture.

He sat there for, well, maybe 10 or 15 minutes, until he was satisfied with his work.

Then he just got up when he considered his artwork done.

I think the dad, the uncle, the grandpa, or the aunts who came by once in a while took part in telling him to color the cloud blue or to use red for the flag. But, at least everything was done by him. Nobody expected him to win but we did enjoy one of the best moments. :)

another trip to semarang

We had another trip to Semarang and Salatiga by bus. Jove was pretty cranky on the bus this time because he had a mild cold. In fact, the whole family except dad (two grandparents, three aunts, Jove, and me) caught the bug a few days before the trip. After the trip, everybody's health got worse, except Jovan (thankfully).

We departed on Thursday night, shortly after ten. I spent the whole night trying to sleep while cradling Jovan to sleep. He woke up several times and night and continuously asked for breastmilk. Both of my milk-tanks went dry by the time we reached Semarang at about one on Friday afternoon.

Jove was excited looking at his great-grandfather on the bus ride to Salatiga from Semarang and he got busy playing with great-grandpa's cane. Grandma was sleeping when we arrived, and when she woke up a few hours later, Jovan was sleeping. It happened the two times we went there, so Jovan didn't get to meet his great-grandma properly.

Saturday evening, hubby, Jovan, and I accompanied my grandpa back to Semarang in his car (with a driver). On the way, I thought a lot about my dear cousin, Rika, and whole day we've spent together in May. Miss you a lot, cousin dear! This trip will be more fun with you around. :)

Sunday morning, we headed back to Jakarta. Grandpa did not allow us to go back and made us stay for another two hours. We stopped to have lunch at a restaurant near the sea in Indramayu and look at how happy Jovan was! He was fascinated with the strong sea breeze and the waves. He kept on laughing while holding his hands up, trying to catch the wind. The water was brown and muddy and the scenery was not beautiful at all, but all he saw was the blue blue sky, the fresh breeze, and the sunny Saturday afternoon.


Grandpa introduced Jovan to the wet sand. It was not white nor clean, but Jovan and grandpa ignored those facts. He enjoyed the new texture of the wet sand and he was quite amazed when the waves licked his toes.


Children. Let them remind us of the simple beauty of this earth.