bunnies and other such nonsense.

Major religious / cultural holidays take on a different tone when you're living an ocean or two away from home. If you are the type to put a positive spin on things, you might say that living so far away from the Industrial Easter Complex distills the holiday down to it's true essence, without all the consumer trappings that go hand-in-hand with the holiday. Or, if you're a pragmatist, you might just say, meh, Easter.

We set up an Easter egg* hunt for our Bunny.

(*Side note: not too sure if this is a cultural thing, or just a difference in my family, but I'm pretty sure that Canadians do Easter egg hunts differently. We don't have candy-filled plastic eggs on the lawn {possibly because the lawn is covered in snow, gah! Canada, you're such a jerk about winter} but we hunt for foil-wrapped chocolate eggs in the comfort of our living room. So anyway, an outdoor Egg hunt was, like, a total thrill for me. Though I did learn a valuable lessons: chocolate melts in the equatorial sun. Duh.)

I hadn't really primed Stella for the notion of Easter and the Easter bunny. Living, as we do, in a Muslim country, she does not get much exposure to the trappings of cultural Christianity or the major high holy days. You know. She was a bit suspicious about the whole thing. A recent introduction to the concept of rats, which were explained to her as "small bunnies", may or may not have predisposed her to be distrustful of the Easter Bunny. I dunno. 

But with a littler persuasion, and some help from Nanny, she got into the game.

The garden provided all sorts of fun hiding places for our eggs (and lammbies). Balinese Hindu statue, FTW!!!

My attitude of, Meh Easter, left my poor kid without an Easter basket. A yellow bucket lined with Easter napkins and a little scrap of bow totally did the job, though. 

Stella didn't seem to mind her unorthodox basket, but she was soon distracted by a dust pan laying around, and thought that would make a much better Easter vessel. So, um, okay. 

So, we ended the day with half-melted chocolate, a swim, and a traditional Easter lasagna (???) for dinner, and cries of Happy bunny day from the tropics!!! 

Project Life ::: Week Thirteen

This week was a quiet one. Stella was out of school (unbeknownst to me it was spring break, so I showed up at drop-off Tuesday morning wondering why there were no cars lined up or gleeful shrieks filling the air) so, duh. The quiet of this week has allowed me a little space for stillness, which is so badly needed. I'm trying to gather up all my resources, temporal and mental, and make a push for something great.  

//I've banished Facebook and Instagram first thing in the morning, opting instead for tea, planning, and a corner of stillness // a porcelain xiao long bao, a treasure from China // brewing kefier // Stella and I have been having dinner dates, complete with music and "candies" // she wasn't supposed to swim, nor was her best friend, but, well, oops. // lunch in a garden restaurant with her favourite baby // ordering pizza, because, uh, duh? // crepe for mama // playing in the window.//

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If you'd like to offer your support for our blog, I'd love a vote at Top Baby Blogs. Just click the button below!

Oh, and I still have a few spots open for my first EVER blog sponsorship drive. I'd love to have you. Really, I would! 

Linking up for Sunday Stills. 

13 / 52

"a portrait of my child, once a week, every week in 2013."

Stella: decorating for Easter with treasures from brought over the ocean by Nanny. This is about the only sign of the season in our tropical home. 

I missed mentioning my favorites from last week, so here's a double header of great images: a father and son, same same but different; a lovely lamb and her puppy; a sleepy girl, fellow third-culture-kid in her crib for the first time. another sleepy one bright and lovely; newborn legs, are like, the best.

Help Me Save The World, One Smoothie At a Time

When Stella was a little one, I used to make all of her baby food. I lovingly prepared all sorts of gourmet concoctions: cardamom, mango, banana; sweet potato with ras el hanout other equally pretentious combinations. And guess what. She barely ate any of them. I mean, if I could get her to eat a tablespoon of food in a day, I was pretty happy.

And so it was, until we went to North America when S was around eight months old. There we discovered the profound depths of the infant industrial complex, and realised we could not live without these convent pouches of gourmet baby food. 

They were delicious! And healthy! And most amazingly of all, my kid would eat them! And they were perfect for travel! And also, totally not available in Japan. Obviously I cried about this (simply another episode in a long list of Things About Parenting in Japan That Made Me Weep Bitter Tears.) 

So imagine my thrill when I dissevered similarly convenient and healthful (though admittedly way less delicious) baby food packets available in Indonesia. And then consider my bitter disappointment when I discovered that my kid thought they were totally ukkkky. Especially since they cost upwards of 6 USD a pouch. Oy.

Anyway, THEN I dissevered YummiPouches. Reusable, refillable baby food pouch that you can pack with your own delicious baby food. They zip closed tight tight tight. There's even a little field upon which you can mark the contents and production date of your own hippie delicious food. Believe me, this totally appeals to my aspirational type-a personality.

Last week's epic illness gave me the opportunity to try them out on Stella. I passed her one filled up with raspberry smoothie and told her "Look, it's baby food!" (She's going through a major baby stage right now, so I thought I'd go in for the hard sell.)

She took two sips and declared it ukkky.

Hmmm. Must of been the extra spinach, or possibly the molasses. Could be the chia seeds. She used to really love sommthies. What the what, toddler??!!

Anyway, the pouches are great. Super easy to use. The clean up easily, even for the dishwasher deprived amongst us, and the closing mechanism is freakishly strong. They can go in the freezer, which would be perfect. I also totally dig that they are reusable. Because I am a hippie. Obvs.

So, all that stands in the way of me saving the universe one reusable pouch of baby food at a time is a good smoothie recipe. 

Anyone have any good ones to share? 

Oh, and hey, YummiPouches is offering a 20 percent off when you purchase two or more packs of pouches. Just go here, and use the promo code 20OFFTWO.

Disclosure: YummiPouches sent me a set of six pouches free of charge, but did not compensate me in any other way. The recommendations and opinions contained herein are mine alone.

I lost my good heart and found it again at the park.

It's far too easy to let the frustrations of living here run away with your good heart. The languid chaos of daily life, the injustice and inconvenience make it easy to neglect the truth. Traffic snarls at two PM on a Saturday, a  house with three Roles Rocyces in the garage, or that abiding sense that you've been taken advantage of are enough to stir up disheartenment.

It's easy to let your good heart be gone.

 

But all you need, really, is a trip to the park where a group of seven year-olds befriend your toddler, and despite  a language barrier they learn each other's names and ages, and then small arms reach behind your girl's waist and hoist her up onto the swings, and when they see she's had enough, they help her down, and guide her up the play structure, shouting, watch out! The baby wants to pass! and lead her over the bridge, and help her down the slide. And when she falls, a girl bends over and brushes off her legs, and a boy crouches down, looks into her eyes, and pats her tenderly on the cheek.

That's all you need, really, to realign your good heart and be reminded that this is a good place where the people are kind, and notwithstanding the traffic and wealth and poverty, people will always show tenderness to a child. 

 

April, you're gonna be great, right?

So, I'm kind of excited {slash} terrified about this, but I'm doin' it anyway.

I'm putting out a call for blog sponsors for April.

Yup.

I've been doing a few sponsored posts, here and there, and now I'm ready to take this blog up a notch. I've got a few really exciting projects in the works (which are super top secret right now, but stick around. In three to six months you may see a little taste of what's going on), and part of my game plan involves supporting my internet home.

Any revenue that comes in from sponsorship will be re-invested in this blog to help it grow, which in turn, will send more traffic to your blog / website / business.

Sponsorship will get you a nice little spot in my sidebar, plus two organic links per month. 

And as an inaugural deal, I'll offer a buy-one-get-one situation. Buy a spot for a month, get two. Yes?

April is going to be rad. New adventures to places that until about a month ago, I'd never heard of. This may or may not involve monkeys. But certainly there will be some jungle. Some blogger meet-ups coming. A few articles coming, and a new guest post project. 

Who wants in on this ride? 

Email me at erica {at} expatriababy {dot} com.

Horary! (also, eep!)

An Incomplete List of The Ways In Which I'm an Unfit Parent in Indonesia:

Well, we've finally clawed our way out of that great cave of suffering otherwise known as the Epic Nine Day Fever And Resultant Absence From School and OMG YOU'RE DRIVING ME BONKERS PLEASE STOP WHINING AND TOUCHING ALL THE THINGS. Hooray! Stella's well again! And can go to school! (Just in time for me to get sick, and then discover, at a suspiciously empty looking school-drop off point that, in fact, it's Easter Break. Ummm, duh.)

I play fairly fast and easy with The Gods of Childhood Illness, laughing in the face of germs, dropped toys, and shared drink. You know, it's prison rules in here. I've watched as my blatant disregard for trifectic dangers of cold, wind, and wet hair have been the cause of much anxiety amongst  Indonesian friends and childcare professionals; they side-eye my insouciance and declare it cause of my child's illness. 

And because I'm the ornery type, and can not abide by rules which do not correspond with my world view, I kind of take pleasure in snubbing conventional wisdom.

And so, without further ado, I'd like to present an Incomplete List of The Ways In Which I'm an Unfit Parent in Indonesia:

Upon waking up, I remove my daughter's diaper and wipe her down with a baby wipe. Two if I'm feeling particularly fastidious. Which is ridiculous because everyone knows that she actually requires at least a bum bath, and better yet a proper morning shower with a good thick lather of soap bubbles. 

I do not insist on multiple hand washings during the day, and am lucky if my kid wipes her hands prior to consuming a meal.

• I did not bathe my child before bed. 
• I did bathe my child before bed, but did not allow her hair to dry completely. 
• I allowed my child outside without a sweater, at complete mercy of the equatorial breezes and warm summer temperatures. Neglectfulness, thy name is ME!
• I let my daughter get rained on. The next day she got a fever. Causality therefore established, and parenting accreditation revoked. 
• In order to soothe a sore throat and encourage consumption of calories, I allowed my sick girl to eat ice cream and drink cold milk. Both of which are known evils and cause untold episodes of childhood morbidity. 
• Despite a slight fever, I let my kid splash in a pool. In 32 / 90 degree heat, thereby tempting both fate and further compilations of the illness already brought about by poor parenting choices and exposure to cold / wind / rain.

I dunno. I'm not inclined to buy into the notion that cold / wetness / wind causes illness, the fact that on two sererate occasions my kid got rained on and then got sick (fever, and then higher fever + ear infection) might have me re-evaluating my position on the matter. And so might this, the face of a sick and totaly pissed two-year-old.

My fault. Sorry kid.