Sunday, October 11, 2009

It was really nice to sleep in a real bed last night. D was up first [and often] and finally crawled out of bed around 8:30; he had been up at 6:30 and found Carter playing in the living room. When Carter said he was fine playing by himself, D went back to sleep. MA joined us around 9.

The adults finessed breakfast because we were going out for brunch, a Sunday tradition in this household. It’s both a special family time and an acknowledgement that Mariati doesn’t work on Sunday. Briton drove us to lunch [Kusnadi doesn’t work on Sunday, either] and somehow got us there safely. The streets of Jakarta, and most Asian cities, are crammed with motorcycles sometimes carrying entire families. Several we saw today had drivers and passengers toting building supplies. The motorcycles are like gnats darting and weaving through traffic with little regard for cars,buses

Brunch was at Koi Galeri and Restaurant, a combination art gallery, furniture store and restaurant. We were here for brunch two years ago and remembered it fondly. Food note – the boys split French toast with caramelized banana; Briton had scrambled eggs, lox and dill on an English muffin [?]; MA had fresh fruit and corn cakes; and D had a “stack” with a waffle topped with béchamel, thin-sliced beef and fried egg. The corn cakes were like corn fritters but shaped like stick doughnuts. Drinks included a fesh berry smoothis for the boys and fresh strawberry juice for D. Yum!

When we got back to the house, the boys played until nap time. Caiden, Briton and D took naps while Carter and MA played. The nappers got up around 4 to rescue MA, and the boys played in the backyard for a long time. Briton got out the inflatable plastic pool and they caroused in and near in for a long time. A school friend of Carter’s just appeared while they were playing and joined them. Carter and his friend went to the other boy’s house for a while and later returned. Eventually the other mother came to claim her son.

Dinner was pizza from Pizza Hut – plain for the boys, pepperoni/tomato/onion for the adults; the pepperoni is made with beef since the Muslims won’t eat pork, but the pizza was delicious anyway. A little before 7, the boys went upstairs to prepare for bed and MA tool a short snooze on the couch waiting for a “good night” from them. By 7:45, MA could wait no longer and went to bed.

Today’s highlights were Carter’s spending most of the day dressed in his new Darth Vader costume and Caiden eating the pizza which was delivered with a packet of “spicy ketchup” attached to the box. Caiden insisted on trying it despite being warned that he would not like it. But he was insistent and Briton put a small pool of it on Caiden’s plate. He dipped a piece of pizza in the sauce, made a face and said it was hot and that he needed water. And then he ate some more!

Carter has school tomorrow and must catch the bus at 6:45 a.m. [You read that correctly]. The adults may go to the spa for massages and/or facials. We'll see how that develops.