This is what 11 months looks like

You know how annoying it is when you type something on your computer and then you go back to check on it and your computer has turned on you, decides what you've written is garbage and now it's gone?  That happened to me last night.  I hate that.  So, round two.

11 months! What are your thoughts about how to refer to a baby's age after it turns one. I think I can still get on board with the month by month, like, "she's 16 months." But I think I draw the line after 19 months.  20 months?  What, you gonna card her next month? I digress.  Back to 11 months.

I thought she could say "Mama" before...she can really say it now, in all its beautiful (and sometimes trying) derivatives.  Mamamama, Mama, MAAM.  Dadadadada is coming along nicely, and it's usually delivered in a much softer, sweeter cadence.  Funny, that.  She tries to mimic every sound we make...."Pppp" for pumpkin (which she is obsessed with) and earlier she pointed to a banana and I said, "banana?" and she replied, "nanya."  I squealed and gave me a big toothy smile, like,  "I talk now!"  She loves to sing and if she taps her two hands on her chest in a steady beat that means, "SING ME A SONG," (twinkle twinkle, please) compared to tapping her chest quickly and randomly which means, "I want that."  And then she points and we go get it. She babbles in a way that is so conversational it makes me almost burst with curiosity.

She loves to sit in the corner of a couch or a big chair and flop around, feeling her body supported by pillows and cushions.  She likes to lay her head waaaay back and look at things upside down. She is so flexible and loves to sit in the splits and grab her toes...I've been doing yoga for over 10 and I don't have anything close to that kind of flexibility. She loves to give hugs and kisses, blow kisses, give high fives...the other day Eric and I were sitting together on the floor and Grace was playing by herself (a rare occurance.  She likes a playmate.  All the time.) when she crawled over to Eric and gave him a kiss on the cheek, and then grabbed my face and kissed me too. Out of the blue.  I cried. She loves us!  All this stuff we've done for the past 11 months, it's actually meant something to her--  enough to actually show us, for no particular reason, that she loves us.  Amazing.

Almost walking.

I am constantly aware of how far we have come this past year.  The first year of life is a huge, huge transformation.  A friend of mine had a beautiful little boy earlier this month, and when I went to visit her in the hospital I was instantly taken back 11 months, back to the hospital bed, the annoying IV line, the pleasant and oh so helpful nurses, and I realized how much everyone changes in a baby's first year.  The first days and weeks are a constant state of feeding, changing, sleeping (IS SHE STILL BREATHING?!) and then gradually you morph into practicing sitting, practicing reaching, practicing rolling, and then they actually are sitting, reaching, rolling, crawling, standing, talking!  All in less than 365 days.

I left the hospital more than a little happy to return to my big baby and to not have to live life in two hour increments, and I felt like I took the first true deep breath that I've taken in almost a year.  We made it. What we started in a cozy little hospital room on a cold November day 11 months ago has transcended my wildest expectations and thoughts on what "would be," and now we have settled into what it actually is. You see, I went into parenthood approaching it like another skill I could master with some careful planning and preparation. I read ALL the books on infant development, sleep cycles, diapering ideas... I was going to be prepared for this baby and I was going to DO IT RIGHT BECAUSE I AM AN ACHIEVER! You know what? I sold those dumb books at my garage sale last week.  They were stupid and they pissed me off.  Grace didn't care what the well-intentioned but idiotic "Baby Whisperer" says about what kind of schedule she should have been on at 4 weeks old. She will develop at her own pace, she will eat when she's hungry, and she will sleep when she's tired.  It's really that simple.  But for this type-A-over-achiever-must-do-this-well-because-I-like-to-do-everything-well gal it was a big, hard, trying lesson to learn.  Where's my gold star? Where's my progress report?  Did you know babies don't give gold stars?

They just are the gold star.

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KOREA INDONESIA FILM FESTIVAL

Hi! 
Apa yang kamu lakukan akhir pekan ini? 
Apakah kalian have fun? 
aku harap kalian have fun, 
karena aku sendiri baru selesai belajar untuk ujian besok� 
Doakan aku bisa mengerjakan ujian Teknik Pembuatan Akta-ku dengan baik ya.. 
dan begitu juga dengan tanganku setelahnya� 

Ini bukan nulis draft novel lho! 

tapi lagi latihan buat akta untuk ujian besok.  

wish me luck ya! 

Back to main topic!

KOREA INDONESIA FILM FESTIVAL� 

acara ini adalah salah satu alasan kenapa aku rela untuk les korea di Korea Culture Center yang berada di Equity tower, di Sudirman. 

Selain dapat tiket acara for free *Yang akan aku post kapan-kapan dan aku yakin kalian aku iri banget~*, aku juga pengen dapet informasi tentang film festival ini. 

KOREA INDONESIA FILM FESTIVAL ini akan di adakan pada tanggal 23 sampai 28 Oktober di Blitzmegaplex. 

Jadi antara-antara tanggal tersebut, kita bisa untuk menonton beberapa film korea dan indonesia for free�. asik banget kan! 

Dulu untuk mendapatkan tiketnya harus pergi dan daftar di KCC Indonesia di Equity Tower, 

tapi sekarang jadi berubah dan jadi sistematis karena sekarang kita bisa dapetin tiket dengan cara langsung datang ke Blitzmegaplex yang bekerjasama dengan acara ini. 

Dari pengalaman aku pesan tiket di Blitzmegaplex-nya sendiri, 

satu orang bisa untuk mendapatkan 4 (empat) tiket secara gratis dan hanya perlu untuk memberitahukan petugas blitzmegaplexnya nomor handphone kita. 

waktu aku ke Blitz, aku mengajak kakak ku dan alhasilnya kita dapet 8 tiket for free.. 

enak banget kan.. 

ayo buruan� 

film Indonesia yang bisa kamu tonton secara gratis adalah: 

1. 5cm;

2. 9 Summers 10 Autumn;

3. Habibie Ainun;

4. Sang Penari. 

Sedangkan film Korea yang bisa kamu tonton secara gratis adalah : 

1. Confession; 

2. Miss Granny; 

3. Mr. GO; 

4. No Tears for The Dead; 

5. Pororo : The Racing Adventure; 

6. Roaring Current; 

7. Secretly Greatly; 

8. Snow Piecer;

9. The Spy; 

10. The Target; 

11. A werewolf boy.

Dari beberapa film Korea itu, 

aku dapat tiket gratis untuk Mr Go, Miss Granny, 

dan Secretly Greatly 

Dari pilihan11  film korea yang ditayangkan untuk Film Festival ini, yang pernah aku tonton adalah Roaring Current dan a Were Wolf boy.  Kedua film itu sangat aku rekomendasikan. 

Buat teman-teman yang tertarik untuk berpatisipasi di acara ini a.k.a nonton gratis, 

infonya bisa kamu cari tahu lebih lanjut di link bawah ini : 

https://www.blitzmegaplex.com/koreanfilmfestival/

Ah! Buat yang mau lihat lee kwang soo 

kamu bisa main ke Grand Indonesia Mall 

tanggal 23 Oktober 2014 

di acara opening Korea Indonesia film festival ini. 

19 . Oktober .2014 

@ Rumah Wortel III. 

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YANG AKU DAPAT DARI MAGANG

Fuuh�
Fuuh�.  
Aku niupin debu dari blog ini, 
maaf ya teman-teman kalau sudah lama sekali aku enggak menulis di blog ini. 

Alasannya enggak berubah, yaitu sibuk kuliah dan menulis�.  
tapi alasan menulis ini benar lho! 
sudah ada novel yang aku kirimkan ke Gagas Media dan penerbit lainnya. 
Doakan diterima ya jadinya teman-teman bisa membaca tulisanku selain Secret Admirer. 
Rencananya kalau tulisan aku yang ini berhasil di terbitkan, aku mau mengikuti saran-saran dari penulis senior lainnya, yaitu membuat Fanpage di Face Book. 
Semoga Jadi kenyataan!  
*Amin*

Balik ke judul post-an ini! 
yaitu tentang Yang aku dapat dari magang,  tentunya selain ilmu praktek kerja Notaris PPAT dan uang jajan tambahan ya�
Ehehe�. 

Bagian lain yang aku suka dari Kantor Notaris 

setiap beberapa hari sekali, bunganya di ganti� 

wangi sekali�

1. BERSYUKUR AKAN KEADAAN AKU SEKARANG. 

Jujur waktu aku memulai magang, ada sedikit masalah yang menimpah diriku. 

Aku jadi sering menangis dan berpikir kenapa jadi begini sih? Kenapa datang sekarang? Kenapa aku harus lanjut kuliah dan enggak bekerja saja? Pokoknya�, aku terus menyesali kehidupan yang sudah aku jalankan.  Lalu akhirnya aku masuk magang dan bertemu dengan banyak orang di tempat kerjaku. 

Di tempat aku bekerja, banyak anak-anak yang berusia di bawah aku sudah bekerja sebagai tukang bersih-bersih kantor. Melihat keadaan mereka aku jadi lebih bersyukur dengan keadaanku sekarang waktu itu, bahkan sampai sekarang. 

Sebenarnya selama ini aku sudah tahu kalau diriku sangat beruntung. Aku lahir pada keluarga yang rukun dan berkecukupan. Lalu akupun bisa mendapatkan pendidikan dari salah satu tempat yang baik di Indonesia. Aku selalu tahu betapa beruntungnya aku. 

Tapi selama ini hanya tahu tapi tidak benar-benar merasakan dan mengucap syukur kepada Tuhan. 

Jadi saat magang itu, mata hatiku terbuka. 

Aku jadi sadar betapa beruntungnya aku, bahkan walaupun masalah itu masih tersisa tapi aku merasa aku bernasib baik. Bahkan sampai sekarang aku berpikir seperti itu. 

Terima kasih Banyak Tuhan! 

Hadiah perpisahan yang aku berikan 

kepada orang-orang yang bekerja di Kantor Notaris itu. 

Buat kenang-kenangan. 

2. SETIAP ORANG MEMILIKI MIMPI YANG BERBEDA. 

Ada lagi pencerahan unik yang aku dapatkan saat aku magang adalah Setiap orang memiliki mimpi yang berbeda. 

Selama ini aku pikir kalau setiap orang harus dan pastinya memiliki mimpi yang setinggi lagi bahkan tembus dari langit kalau bisa  *saking tingginya.* Namun saat magang ini aku jadi sadar kalau orang boleh kok punya mimpi yang sederhana dan ternyata kebahagiaan saat mencapai mimpi sederhananya itu juga membuat dirinya bahagia. 

Jadi ceritanya saat aku magang, ada satu cewek yang sudah menikah dan lagi hamil. Umurnya sama dengan aku dan pendidikannya SMA. Sebut saja namanya 'Melati' *ihihi* 

Si Melati ini, kalau menurut aku, pekerjannya rapi dan smart, sifatnya tegas dan kerjanya sangat efisien dan cepat. Dimata aku dia tipikal orang-orang yang akan berhasil suatu hari nanti. 

Dan tidak bisa membohongi kenyataan, saat ini anak yang hanya lulus SMA akan sulit untuk kerja di kantoran, padahal dia cocok untuk pekerjaan itu. Jadi aku tanya ke si Melati, kenapa dirinya enggak lanjut ke pendidikan S1? 

Lalu dia jawab, iya sih banyak yang suruh aku begitu. Belajar lagi dan kerja di kantor, tapi gimana ya? sekarang ini aku udah bahagia. Aku udah jalanin hidup yang aku ingini, aku lulus SMA, kerja di tempat yang layak, nikah, dan jadi istri juga ibu yang baik. Aku udah puas kok. Jawab dia. 

Lalu aku terdiam. 

Aku jadi tahu, ternyata mimpi orang itu beragam. 

Ada yang mau bermimpi tinggi dan berusaha keras mencapai mimpi dia itu. 

namun juga ada orang yang bermimpi sederhana dan damai dalam mimpi sederhananya itu. Menurut aku pribadi enggak ada yang salah dan semuanya benar, yang penting orang itu bahagia.  

Jadinya aku enggak lagi memotivasi dia untuk lanjutkan pendidikan.

karena toh dia sudah hidup di mimpinya dan bahagia. 

3. NANTI AKU AKAN MENJADI NOTARIS SEPERTI APA. 

Dalam keluargaku tidak ada yang pernah bergerak di bidang hukum. Tidak ada satupun dalam silsilah keluargaku yang bekerja sebagai lawyer, pengacara, ataupun Notaris. 

Jadi aku sangat buta dengan pekerjaan-pekerjaan di bidang hukum ini dan karena itulah aku magang, untuk tahu bagaimana kerja notaris. 

berdasarkan pengalamanku bekerja di kantor Notaris ini, aku ingin menjadi Notaris yang disegani bukan ditakuti oleh para karyawanku.

walaupun karyawanku sudah banyak, aku ingin aku tetap berada di Kantor dan mengetahui semua akta yang keluar dari kantorku. 

semoga aku bisa jadi sosok yang aku idam-idamkan ya� 

*sekalilagi AMIN!* 

17 Oktober 2014 

@ Rumah Wortel III 

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Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead

About a month ago, Eric, Grace and I took a trip to Detroit for business. My business. Eric was responsible for Grace during the day while I went to work.  A complete role reversal.  They had a great time together while doing lots of sightseeing and field trips. When we would meet up at the end of the day, Eric was quick to praise the job I've done with Grace and quick to pour himself a glass something strong. I get it. I reaaaallly get it. Babies will take everything you got, and still want more.  He also remarked, almost everyday, how much attention he got for being a dad.


I'm literally asking him to describe what it was like right now: people came running to meet his needs. They didn't just look at him, they smiled at him, like they could tell he is a super guy. A real catch. "I'm not imagining this.  When I was in Guess, I had four girls helping me.  And everyone else in the store was ignored."

My husband is an attractive, charismatic dude, and my baby is adorable. I'm not surprised that people give them a little extra attention.  Grace gets a lot of attention when I bring her places. What's different about our experiences, I think, is that people treat Eric plus Grace as a novelty instead of a norm. Oh he's being a dad! How cute!  

About a week ago, we were out with friends for dinner, and one of our friends asked Eric if he's going to be playing basketball this season. ("season." It's legit.  I'm basically a baller wife.)  Another one of our friends, a bit under his breath, said, "I don't think he has permission..." in kind of a, don't bring it up tone.  I don't think anything personal was meant by this comment, but it stung a little.  Like, I am The Mom and I don't give little Eric permission to go out and play basketball with his little buddies.
Now, the reason the aforementioned friend doesn't think Eric has permission to play basketball is because when Eric was initially asked to play and started to agree, I had to interrupt because of a schedule conflict. Eric has guys' night on Wednesdays, and I get to embrace my inner show choir geek all by myself on Thursday nights. It's my one thing a week that is built into my schedule, and as Eric was almost agreeing to play basketball on my night, I felt I had better remind him -- "I have choir on Thursdays!"

I know about a million of you reading this are saying, "I'll help! I'll watch Grace on Thursdays!" Awesome!  Maybe Eric will take you up on that offer.  But starting at 5:30 on Thursdays, I get a few hours to myself, and I don't have to think about finding a babysitter, or waking the baby if she takes a late nap to get out of the house on time, etc etc etc.  I like knowing that at 5:30, I can just go and trust my partner, my baby's dad, to take care of things.  Whether that's going for a walk and watching football together, eating dinner and watching football together, or taking her to her grandparents so he can play basketball and then watch football together (with the boys) -- any and all of these options are fully supported by this mom -- Dad's in charge, and I don't even have to think about it.

And then, two days later, the Packers killed the Vikings on Thursday night football. While the announcers filled airspace, they discussed Christian Ponder's new baby and how Ponder will be "babysitting" this weekend because his wife works as a reporter for ESPN.

Hold up. Can we please consult our old friends Miriam and Webster to find the definition of the word babysit?

"To care for children usually during a short absence of the parents."  

Wikipedia, what say you on the topic of babysitting?

"Babysitting is temporarily caring for a child...The majority of time, babysitting workers tend to be in middle school, high school or college." 

Do you see where I'm going with this, folks? Christian Ponder is a dad. A parent. NOT THE BABYSITTER. This is 2014. As much as I love Joan Holloway, I didn't know I was living on the set of Mad Men. People have asked me, especially in the early months when I was out in public away from Grace, "is Eric babysitting?"  It takes everything in my power not to FREAK OUT and throw a dictionary, but I usually just remark that yes, he is caring for his daughter and yes it is nice to be out and about.  Is babysitting a misunderstood term?  Maybe.  But no one has ever asked Eric if I was home "babysitting" our baby.

I felt bad for Mr. Ponder, not only because he's Christian Ponder, but also because the announcers didn't give him credit as a new parent, and reduced him to a babysitter. His football skills might be comparable to someone in "middle school, high school, or college" but as a Dad, I bet he's great.

So what's the take away here? Stop undermining the dads. Dads are vital to the parenting equation.  I know the first few months it's mostly all about the mom and baby bond.  I get that. I also get that it's really intimidating to care for a tiny person!  I understand that many times, the mom takes to it in a way that seems natural (even though it's hard!), while the dad struggles to keep up, and occasionally, gives up. And can you blame the guy? Not if he's being reduced to a babysitter. Not when ladies at malls and zoos and parks fawn over dads with babies like they are exceptional. Not when guys just "talk like guys" and set up moms to feel like a wet blanket.  And definitely not when 30 million people hear that a dad is simply babysitting, when, really, he's going to work his ass off as a single parent for the weekend.  As a society, I think we need to change the language we use when we talk about dads and babies.  Dads aren't babysitters.  They are dads.  They are protectors, providers, snugglers, diaper changers, squash-feeders, toe-ticklers, and itsybitsy spider players.  Dads do all of these things well, and they do them differently from moms. They are not part-time care givers.  They are DADS.

"Now this is role reversal." - Grace

 I am fortunate my husband tunes out what society says and regularly shows up as a dad.  We made the decision to have a baby together, and we share the responsibility of raising Grace together.  Just like the house we bought together, the cars we bought together, and the purses we bought together. Now...is it Thursday yet?

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This is what 10 months looks like

At the end of this week, I will have an 11 month old baby, which means I'm going to blink, and we will be celebrating her first birthday.  What strikes me about this is that everyone who meets Grace now, for the first time, will only know her as a big baby, a mini person who can actually do stuff.  Sometimes I want to say to these new people, hang on a sec, let me bring you up to speed.  You see, just mere days ago she was really small and I had to carry her everywhere and she didn't ever sleep and I went a little nutty and then she rolled over for the first time when she was three months old! And she sat up so early, and she could wave bye-bye when she was four months old! Then she started pulling herself up on all fours, and then, it took awhile...but she crawled! Look at her now, she's almost ready to walk!  

But that's the sort of rant that gets you labeled as the "crazy mom." I know you get it, though, fellow parents, or really anyone who is invested in the life of a baby. They change SO FAST, that just when you get one stage under some semblance of control, they change the game on ya, yet again. And I feel that warrants an explanation, somehow. Like, my baby has been so many different babies this year, you really are just meeting the most recent version of her. There is a lot more than meets the eye with this one!

Ok crazy.

But I know you get it.

What happened in month 10-11? A LOT. She can communicate with us in ways that are so much easier to understand, and she definitely knows what she wants. And usually what she wants is a ball.  I was reading a really dumb book to her earlier this month, and on one of the pages a bunch of purple dragons are playing soccer.  She pointed to the soccer ball and said, "Bah!" And I was like OMG BABY GENIUS!  And she has never done it since. But then the other day, Eric was bringing in a gigantic tomato from our garden and Grace pointed to it and said, "Bah!" Pretty good! She smacks her lips together when she's hungry or thirsty, and she can sign "more" when she wants something else. She's an adventurous eater, and since we've had so much garden produce she's had a lot of tomato sauces, sauteed veggies, and even tried her first squash soup.  She loved 'em all! She points and points and points and we go wherever she points. Needless to say not much gets "done" around my house. (Although, a baby is growing into a person, all day everyday, on my watch.  So maybe "everything" is getting "done" around my house?) She can climb stairs (scary fast!), she loves to sit on little kid sized chairs and tap her feet, and the most novel thing in the world is to take toys, food, or clothing and chuck them as far as she can while seated in her high chair or especially on her changing table. I've made the mistake of saying "Oh no, you threw it down! Down to Chinatown!" while I retrieve whatever she threw, which she finds to be hilarious (I do too) and so I've basically been a major enabler to the most annoying game in the world. She loves Elmo. And kittens. And to look at photographs.  And she still loves FaceTime. And books.

"And then I said, 'Jay, say hi to your mother for me.'"

This month Grace got to spend lots of time traveling -- We went to visit her grandpa, spent a night with family near Chicago, spent a week in the Detroit area, and enjoyed a long weekend in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, where she met some very dear new friends. Now that we're back home, she's even started to take naps! Real naps, not just 40 minute cat naps. And her night sleeping is pretty great too. This is so exciting! I'm starting to understand the allure of having only one child.

We also started music classes this month, and it's been so interesting to watch her socialize with other young children.  She's an observer, my Gracie, and with each passing week she gets a little braver and more outgoing.  I know it will be years from now, but I can already tell how hard it's going to be to really let her go and explore the world on her own. And this is the part where I need to remember that her life is hers, and I am the lucky shepherd and guardian who helps guide and protect her while she explores all the wondrous things the world offers --and I'm going to soak up every ounce of joy she radiates as she goes.

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