Dear Kukka: Happy 12 & Welcome To SMP Pembangunan Jaya!

Well... I don't care how old you get. You will always be our SiBaiyi. 

Whose cheeks I kiss, sniff and bite every second every day. 

I will always hug you as tight as I can, 

and shower you with kisses no matter how annoyed or angry you get. 

You are a gift from above. Our precious godsend, forever and always. 

HAPPY 12th BIRTHDAY! :*

Extra special things happened on this year's birthday. You received so many presents! SiBapa gave you that Nintendo thing including the game Animal Crossing which you've always wanted. By the way your reaction was priceless when we gave you the present. It turned out it's because you didn't expect it but you did know what it was. I guess the shape of the box gave it away huh?! :)) 

And then like it couldn't get any better, your uncles joined in and spoiled you to the max by sending you more presents! Uncle Ferry and Uncle Harry gave you Yooka-Laylee and Pokemon Shield to play with your new toy. Like I said "Dimanjaaaaa!" :p 

Anyways SiBapa and SiBubu also want to congratulate you for officially being a junior high student :) Congratulations! I bet it is going to be another adventurous year. Not only for you but also for SiBapa and SiBubu. Considering that you have to do practically everything from home because of this vicious virus... To tell you the truth I'm actually quite sad that you have to start your new phase of life this way. The "New Normal" way they say. Well I don't like it!! :( I like the NOT normal way. Wait. Or is it the old normal way? :)) Why? Well I would love for you to meet your new teachers in person and make new friends face to face. I would love to see you run around and explore your new school with those curious eyes of yours. I would love to hear your stories when you come home from school. Or even kissing the sweaty-smelly Kukka! Unfortunately everything has to be done via screen nowadays. Internet, cellphones, apps and computers etc. But if that's the best way to do than so be it. Better safe than sorry, right?

You being a 7th grader is a very big challenge for me too. SiBapa keeps reminding me for the gazzilionth times to leave you alone. To let you do your things on your own. To give you some space. To give you bigger responsibilities. He told me to stop nagging you to do your homeworks. SiBapa said I should not interfere with your daily school things. If you forget something, if you miss your assignments, if you get bad grades, if you get left behind, it will be on your hands. Not mine or Bapa's. And if that's what you deserve, than so be it. Tough? Yes. Mean? Well... Not really :)) It might feel and looks like it sometimes but... To put things short and simple just remember this: you reap what you sow. That "future consequences are inevitably shaped by present actions" - dictionary.com.

Life is an adventure and that is best lived boldy. 

So go have fun with your new teachers and friends, be grateful and polite, stay healthy and always be happy! 

I love you :*

100 Hari

Seratus hari telah berlalu. 

Namun rasa sedih itu masih saja ada. 

Di kala sendiri atau dalam kebersamaan, 

kehadiranmu, Opa, masih saja selalu terasa.

Kisah tentang kehebatanmu di masa muda, 

dan kearifanmu sampai di ujung usia, 

tetap menjadi bagian di saat kami bertukar cerita.

Kenapa, mungkin Opa bertanya di sudut alam sana. 

Karena kami sangat kehilanganmu, merindukanmu, sangat menyayangimu,

Selalu.

Selamanya.

Amin.

Dear Kukka: Congratulations!

YOU ARE NOW OFFICIALLY AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL GRADUATE!!!! WOOOHOOO!!!

After all those ups and downs, dramas, tears, laughters, frustrations, celebrations, tensions, surprises, adventures and everything in between in Sekolah Cikal Cilandak and Sekolah Alam Tangerang, you, my forever-baby-girl, are now off to the next level of your life: JUNIOR HIGH. 

Good God!!! 😅 I'm still having a tough time to believe it. No. To PRONOUNCE it even!!! To say it outloud whenever later on people ask me what grade you are in now. And I would answer "Oh my daughter in first grade...junior high!" 

Don't get me wrong. I'm obviously very happy and excited about it. But to tell you the truth, I'm also kinda nervous. I mean... Come on... You? In junior high? Considering what an adventurous and headstrong girl you are, I bet junior high will be...a blast? 😬 And as I wrote before on the previous post, your teacher, Bunda Rurie said: "Kukka memiliki keyakinan diri yang kuat dan tidak mudah diatur." 😂 Okay, okay, I'm such a drama queen but so what?!?!?! I AM YOUR MOTHER! It's God-given nature to feel and act this way toward your child. And it's totally normal for you to be annoyed and think "Argh! Okay! So what?!?" 😆 BUT!!! Like I've always said to you... 

One day, when you do have a child on your own, you will finally understand why I can't stop hugging and kissing you, why I get angry whenever you do things just for the sake of doing it when I know that you actually can do so much more, why I can't stop biting those smooth, beautiful yet thankfully still chunky long legs, and most of all why I'm having these mixed feelings about you going to the next level of your life. But for sure, babycakes, wherever you are, I'm very proud of and I'm with you all the way.

Ich liebe dich, Mein Ein und Alles. 😘

Thank You Sekolah Alam Tangerang

It's official. Our baby girl is an ELEMENTARY SCHOOL GRADUATE. YEAY! :))

Kukka already received her certificate days ago. But this morning the kids, parents and teachers got together via Zoom and had a Lepas Kenang moment. It took quite an effort to get all families together on screen. When the families were ready every student had to say a few words about the time in Sekolah Alam Tangerang. Kukka prepared her speech just the night before. It was 16 sentences long and I must say I'm very proud of her :)

You can tell that Kukka was very serious when she wrote it. The speech was about her feelings as a new student in Sekolah Alam Tangerang, about her struggle, her likes and dislikes, even about the dramas when she had fights and said bad words at school :)) And yes, it was in Bahasa Indonesia and Kukka did it all by herself. Woohoo! That's another part which makes me, and very possibly also her teachers all proud and full of tears of...joy? :) Afterall they were the ones who patiently taught Kukka from Monday to Friday for 2 years. Bunda Rurie, Kukka's teacher also wrote a description of Kukka which I think is totally spot on :))

"Kukka anak yang suka menggambar. Kukka juga suka designing, animating dan drafting karena Kukka memiliki ide-ide imajinasi yang tinggi. Kukka memiliki keyakinan diri yang kuat dan tidak mudah diatur." -Bunda Rurie-

Well yeah... That's SiBapa's girl alright :)) Especially the "tidak mudah diatur" part. I wonder where she got it from :p Anyways personally it was also a very emotional moment for me. Not only because now I have to accept the fact that my kid is an elementary graduate. Practically a teenager. But also because I have to say goodbye to the mothers who have been so nice to me these past couple of years. The moms who have been very patient, very helpful, always reply my questions day and night, and obviously they are fun to be with. I can't even imagine how to get through Kelas 5 dan Kelas 6 without them. I really hope our friendship will last long :)

Finally I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the teachers in Sekolah Alam Tangerang. Because of you, Kukka has become a better person and hopefully everything she has learned in Sekolah Alam Tangerang will be a valuable asset for her future. Oh! And also thank you to Pak Amsari the school security man, who always greets me with a friendly hello and a wide smile :) 

And this is a video beautifully done by Bunda Audrey, Elang's mom. Text and narration by me (which SiBapa & Kukka don't believe at all that the voice-over is MY VOICE -_- )

"Gimana, 'Ka?"

I can still hear your gentle voice...

I don't want to say or ask why. 

Because it's not my right and place to say.

I have no doubt that ALLAH SWT, 

already has prepared a better place for you up there. 

All I can do now for you is pray and wish. 

That you are now in a better place. 

The place where you certainly deserve to be. 

As a kind and understanding person.

Who had so much love to give and lots of fun to share.

Thank you ALLAH, for the time you gave me to be with Bapa.

Just the two of us.

For giving me the chance to pour my heart out to him. 

And for giving us the priceless time to listen and to comfort each other.

I will cherish that precious moment for the rest of my life.

Dearest Bapa,

May you now rest in peace that you've longed for and deserved.

And I will surely miss our funny, sweet yet serious deeptalks.

I love you. 

SiMoochi The Hero

It was Thursday evening around 8pm. I just got home after picking up Kukka from her 4D3N holiday at her beloved Uncle Ferry's house. The driver already left. It was the 3 of us again at home: Kukka, SiMoochi and me. I kept telling Kukka to take a shower which she of course totally ignored. SiMoochi was running around the house, begging for my attention. I was so ready to catch and squeeze my furry baby until suddenly... He stopped. SiMoochi suddenly "froze" right in front of the bathroom stairs. He looked at the door intensely. His ears were all "spikey", his eyes were very wide and on full alert. You could totally see that there was something wrong. At first I didn't really care about it since SiMoochi does that a lot. But usually he does it in front of the stairs. Usually SiMoochi looks up to the middle of the stairs to the second floor and he just...stares at...something. Spooky. Yes. But I must admit this time it was totally different. 

Still... I tried to carry and hug SiMoochi like I always do. The second I touched him SiMoochi jumped high and curled his body like something was gonna hurt him. I told my furry boy that everything was okay. I managed to catch him and carried him around the house. I asked "What's going on Moochi? Let me hug you! I miss you!" But then SiMoochi jumped and ran away, right to Kukka's bathroom. I tried to hug him again yet one more time, SiMoochi jumped high, on full alert. I said okay, this is getting annoying. I'll leave you alone, I said to SiMoochi. 

I can't remember how many minutes later when I came back looking for SiMoochi. I think it was also at the same time when I told Kukka to finally wash up since it was getting late. I turned on Kukka's bathroom and there he was... SiMoochi. Sitting on the bathroom floor, right in front of the trash bin. His whole expression was on full alert. SiMoochi looked at me and looked right back at the trash bin. And then it finally hit me. There must be something wrong. Something must be around that trash bin and SiMoochi knew it. Of course it didn't take long until I put one and one together: SiMoochi - suspicious look - bathroom - trash bin - cobra "fever". 

Yes. Lately lots of black cobra, big ones and babies, have been found around the cluster. There's even a notification letter and training how to deal with snakes from the cluster management about this. A couple of days before I found a baby cobra slithering away on the grass. I yelled and called my driver who was totally useless. He screamed and practically ran back into the house. I was like -_- Then I called Dewi dan Yuli, the maids. Dewi tried to catch the snake, Yuli picked up the security guys. The guys couldn't find it. They lost the snake in the middle of the bushes near Kukka's bathroom wall. The guys also found which appeared to be a snake hole. So yeah... I thought that must be the same one.

So anyways what I did seconds later was carefully carried SiMoochi away from the trash bin, immediately closed the bathroom door, put Kukka and SiMoochi in the bedroom and called the security guys. I was very impressed because the guys came minutes after I called. Complete with a snake stick. I told them that I didn't know for sure that there was a snake but it could be considering of the cobra which we lost a couple days ago and of course, SiMoochi's weird behaviour. The security guys said no worries and it was very good that I called them right away. Because apparently they already caught about... 10 (?) snakes around the cluster. Same ones. Black cobras. Mostly in Blok H if I'm not mistaken. I was like WTF????????? 

So yeah... One of the guys lifted the trash bin and said "Iya ada nih..." (Yup! There's one.) in a very calm manner. Again I was like WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!??! THERE'S A SNAKE INSIDE MY HOUSE!!!! In my baby's bathroom too!!! And she was just gonna wash up!!! It didn't take long for the security guys to get the snake with the stick. I recorded the whole thing and I realized that this one was actually bigger than the one we lost in the garden. I didn't have an Aqua bottle which they usually use to put the snakes in and throw them away back to the river. Long story short at the end, the security guys had to kill it. I thanked the guys for coming and they gave me some tips and told me to call them anytime. Some of the tips were putting fiber mats in front of the doors and mothballs near every drainage around the house. Apparently snakes don't like the smells of mothballs. Go figure.

After that what I did was giving SiMoochi a big hug and lots of thanks and praises. And of course a very delicious treat, his favourite: Me-O Creamy Treats: Chicken & Liver :) To think that I almost couldn't sleep because I was sooo worried SiMoochi would encounter another snake and get hurt... It turned out cats are quite good in catching snakes. Even house cats! One of them is Scribble: Can A House Cat Kill Snakes?

So yes! Thanks to SiMoochi Kukka and I were safe that night. If only SiMoochi wasn't that jumpy... If only SiMoochi didn't sit on full alert mode in the bathroom that whole time... If only SiMoochi didn't look the way he did in front of the trash bin... If only SiMoochi didn't return at the same time we arrived at home...

Thank you CiMoochMooch, our handsome furry hero :*

Kukka Merantau II: To Desa Hanjeli

December 9 - 13th was quite an adventure for my beloved Godsend. And for me actually! It was Kukka's second outing and it was my first time ever being without her and not having any communication whatsoever for so long. This time the outing was called "Merantau II: The Harmonizer - Menjadi Generasi Yang Berani, Peduli dan Bermanfaat" The destination was to Desa Wisata Hanjeli 

Kukka's adventure started right after I dropped her off at school. As you may know by now, things in Sekolah Alam Tangerang is not easy. Travelling included. There was no fancy Full-AC busses or such. The kids and their mentors had to take trains, walked on their own carrying big and heavy backpacks, on-off angkots etc. It really was a tiring adventure. The actvities started very early in the mornings, doing fajr prayers and dzikir in the mosque. They even spent the first night in the mosque if I'm not mistaken. In Desa Hanjeli the kids did lots of activities which they couldn't do in the city. It was quite impressing and I was actually happy when I saw the pictures. I mean... In this adventure Kukka did things that she probably could never do if she's travelling with her parents. She actually stayed in the local villager's house. She learned how to play wayang golek. She went to turtles conservation. She had to use squating toilettes which she doesn't like :)) She planted Job's Tears or Biji Hanjeli. She made this snack which she called "rice crispies" but I think what she meant is rengginang :p Kukka also mentioned that in the village there were lots of chickens and dogs and that the dogs like to eat tempe :)) The most memorable moment for Kukka was when she visited the waterfall in Curug Sodong. She said it was very beautiful. Oh! And Kukka also made this beautiful necklace for me from scratch!

 

There are also lots of stories, funny ones, that are too secretive to share. It involved embarrassing moments that happened to some of her friends hence the secretive. "Don't write the name on your blog!" she said. :)) I asked Kukka how much she missed me. Very much and I cried, she said. Oh baby... I did too... I cried because I missed you so much and I didn't know for sure how you were. And I didn't hear your voice for THAT long!!! It was almost impossible. The maids, Dewi and Yuli always checked up on me. Especially in the evenings. They were really worried I would get seizures and such and because it did happened once or twice. I'm very thankful for having them around :) I did use the time when Kukka was away for my regular check up with dr. Rocksy, having lunch with friends and spent some me-times.

On the day the kids were coming, the moms were very busy preparing surprises. When we picked up the kids from school we made sure that there were no cars on the school parking lots. So the kids wouldn't know that their parents were actually there. Waiting to hug and kiss them like crazy. We decorated the hall, prepared lots of food for the kids etc. 

                                                                    

And when the kids showed up... Oh my... I couldn't hold my tears. I screamed my baby's name, hugged her soooo tight and cried. I was so happy that my baby was back in my arms healthy and happy. My baby looked fresh and healthy alhamdulillah. The only thing that was different was her skin which looked a bit darker. After lots of hugs and kisses I gave her a welcome home gift from SiBapa: 1,700 ROBUX! There's nothing else she would appreciate more. In fact Kukka was probably happier receiving those Robux than being squeezed by her SiBubu :))