Time flies...

Time has really flown. I just realized that my last post was April 2010! That's an INSANE amount of time ago... A lot has also happened.

Let's see... I went on an aid trip to bring supplies to victims of the Mount Merapi Volcano eruption, we went skiing in Zermatt, Switzerland, we went to China twice(!!) and the UK... Oh, and let's not forget the most ground shaking event of all, we moved back to KL! Yes! After 4 years (4.5 for The Man), we finally moved home. There have been days when I wish we didn't, and days I'm glad we did. I think we're dealing with it in a positive manner though, focus on the good here and remember the good there. Nothing beats having my folks around though :)

Since this is pretty much a directionless post, I thought I'd just share my relocation process. This is in no way me taking pot shots at The Man, it just totally illustrates the whole 'Man are from Mars and Women are from Venus' theory.

It all began in early November 2011...

My dear maker of pronouncements told me that we would be moving back to KL sometime in 2012. No biggie. Question was did the kid finish out the school year or not. The next day, he decided that we should pop over to KL the week after that in order to look at schools. 'Why the rush?' you may ask (and indeed I DID ask that)... Reply, 'No big reason, just better to be informed now than be surprised next year.' Hmmm, totally reasonable at this point. Indeed, the education was a large factor of my wanting to stay put in Jakarta. Kiddo was getting such a good education at ACS that I really didn't want to rock the boat... At that stage, that is.

In any case, we came home and went to see The Australian International school and Alice Smith. More about that later... AISM was the better fit we thought. However their school year started end of January and kiddo would face either repeating half of grade 2 or skipping half of grade 2. Neither of which I was entirely in favour of. Still, AISM was head and shoulders above any other option that we looked at based on how we envisaged the kid's education progressing. So off we went to mull things over.

That very evening, The Man suddenly announced that he had terminated our Jakarta lease for the next year (after negotiating for 6 months) and would try and get the owner to rent it for 1 more month so that kiddo could finish the term. Hello!! Talk about unilateral decisions!! Next thing you know, owner says no deal, and we have to be out in 2 weeks and apend the remainder 2 weeks of term in a service apartment!! Following that was a harrowing week of begging our previous movers (I *heart* Ima of IMS movers) to come in and assess the stuff that we had accumulated over the last 4 years. Of course, The Man then also decrees that we are not moving furniture.. ie Get rid of it somehow, I don't care how...

At this point I was beyond panic. More along the lines of catatonia. All my school and church commitments... I couldn't see how to sort everything out in the few weeks left. When I told him it was kinda unreasonable to expect me to sort all this out in such a short time, his reply was, 'I planned it all in my head. Just didn't tell you so you wouldn't be stressed...' D'oh!!!

To this day, he denies that he said it exactly that way. But that's what I heard and I'm standing by it!! Anyway, I look back now and think that it makes a great anecdote and example of the differences between the sexes, or at the least, the difference between us two strange, completely different individuals, who despite all these differences (and believe me, there are A LOT!!) have managed to stay together for almost 19years (married for only 11.5 though, we couldn't make up our minds on when was a good time) and mostly importantly, are almost in perfect accord when it comes to bringing up our kid...

Life is weird, God is laughing...

5.5 going on 15

Disclaimer : If you don't want to hear totally nonobjective ramblings of a proud Mummy. Don't read any further...

A couple of things happened with the kid this week that I just have to record for posterity. Am still trying to work out how I should react to them, but have decided that for the time being, I'll just channel Yoda (small and silent unless he has something profound to say)...

1) Kiddo has 2 favourite dresses and a shirt/shorts combo that she will wear in preference to absolutely anything else. I'm not kidding. We've tried hiding them, delaying the washing... Nothing works. She will very calmly ask the maid to please wash it today so she can wear it tomorrow. Anyway, I was gazing upon her stuffed wardrobe, eyeing the lovely (expensive) clothes she has and decided that it was time for a little chat about this clothes issue. We went through colours ('it's not about the colour, mom'), flowers ('I just like the flowers on these, mom'), beads ('this one has pretty beads')... Finally, she just looked at me and said, 'Mom, you just can't POSSIBLY persuade me to change my mind...' Accompanied by an exasperated eye roll!! Uh. Dumbstruck mummy. Do I laugh at the statement, or yell about the eye rolling? That night The Man and I had a little discussion on how we would have worded this differently... 'Oi! I'm not changing my mind-lah!' was the general consensus on how we would have responded. Proud mummy was on one hand thinking what a grammatically elegant statement that was, on the other thinking 'Oh no, my kid can out-talk me at 5 and a half!! And what's with the whole eye rolling thing?! '

2) I've always known that kiddo is an advanced reader. After all, she read our Bill Bryson Aussie commentary when she ran out of books on holiday. So I decided to test her using the Sonlight homeschool reading assessment. My biggest worry is always selecting books with the appropriate content for a 5-6 year old. And Sonlight does provide some guidelines on book selection based on age/level. So there we were, reading through lists of words that are supposed to gauge reading readiness. 5 minutes later, kiddo had read all the words including those for level 7 (roughly age 13). The test stops there as beyond that, ability is no longer the limiting factor. Again, befuddled mummy. Then she turned to me and said, 'Mom, what's dominion, and sundry, and capillary and condescend...' Out of the 10 words, she understood none of them!! Ok, ok, some of them even I would have trouble explaining, but my most immediate thought was, 'Crap, what happens if she hasn't understood ANY of the gajillion books we've spent so much money on??' Response to my suddenly rabid insistence that she ask my about ANY word she doesn't understand from now on, 'But I haven't come across a word I don't know in a really long time mom.' So, I've decided that I shall be guided by the Sonlight curriculum and we shall have 'together' reading time so I can make sure she understands at least some of what she reads.

After all this,I feel like a totally inadequate mother. Either I'm complaining she's too mature and out talking me, or that she behaving like a toddler and whining. Poor kid...

I can picture Yoda in my head, perching upon a rock, swivelly ears, walking stick, googly eyes... 'Calm, you must be... For, though smart, child, she be...'

Randon Musings....

Why is it if I give my life for my family I'm a martyr?
Why do I get called overprotective if I'm concerned for my child?

Why is being godly the same as being holier than thou?
And why am I fussy if I choose to be particular?

Being aware of my health REALLY doesn't make my a hypochondriac,
And how does being cautious of strangers mean I'm paranoid?

Does wanting the best for myself mean that I'm selfish?
Does wanting the best for my child mean that I'm demanding?

If my methods of organization differ from yours, why am I the messy one?
If I enjoy certain things done a certain way, how does that make me obsessive-compulsive?

If you speak your mind, you're direct;
If I speak my mind, I'm rude.

How come when you refuse to be budged you're persistent,
but when I refuse I'm obstinate?

When you think, you're a philosopher;
When I think, I'm neurotic.

So if I'm a thinking, concerned, cautious, stay-at-home-mom;
Does that then mean I'm a neurotic, overprotective, paranoid martyr...?