Jeremy in October

Its been a while since I have written about my son so here is an update. Jeremy is two and a half next month and his recent language acquisition has been staggering as are his motor skills.
We have been teaching him words and sentences and he is able to repeat and use quite successfully what he hears and sees to great almost too good effect.

Reasons to be cheerful

He can give direction (come, sit, go, up, down) and describe things around him using colours (the car is black or the wheels dirty) for example.
He seems to be obsessed with Monster Trucks and to 'crash' the car, subsequently everything that touches is 'crashed' then 'oh no its broken' to 'oh its fixed' in a matter of seconds. He is obsessed with cleaning things and will clean his toys 'toys are dirty' and my bike, the window, me anything he deems not clean. I told him the other day that a taxi we were in was dirty and for the next 35 minutes that all he said 'taxi is dirty' so that was good.

Crane Dada crane!

He likes tower cranes, can't say why but there is one we can see from our house and is gets higher he can watch it grow. He will spend a lot of time pointing at it saying 'crane is moving/broken/fix' to help describe it and if he can go upstairs he will run to the balcony and point at any thing and call it a crane, unless however it is a radio mast and then he thinks it is a mast. We are working on trying to convince him otherwise.

Jeremy enjoys the bus and will sit quite still and quiet until he sees another bus/taxi/truck/tower crane or if he is with Yovita and if I am away from her (Yovita is given a seat in the female only part of the bus because of Jeremy) he will call for me until he sees me.

Through my tab he watches a considerable amount of You tube in the morning before work and then on the weekend. I am careful as to what and he mainly watches Donald Duck, Thomas and Friends, Wheels on the Bus videos and lots and lots of vocabulary videos where he will sit and watch and repeat the words said to him as they are spoken. He will sing Incy Wincy spider and Twinkle Twinkle little star, and whilst its not good. He is 2. So what to expect. Last night he repeated the alphabet until P then he was confused for the right reasons.  I am banning Monster Truck videos now!

You tube with me, not that I can see

He can also switch on my Tab, find You Tube, turn the volume and brightness us, as well as turn on the WiFi and has learnt to scroll and press the button to skip ads.

Some of the recent history from my You Tube account

With Jeremy being Indonesian, he also uses the language and it is mixed with English. 'Duduk' means to sit and so he will tell me that when he needs me to sit. 'Tolong bikin susu' tells me he wants me to make milk and 'mimi' is short for drink or water. He understands Indonesian language and how to use it. There might be however, a gap in his knowledge as he is currently being exposed to far more English than Indonesian which could slow him down a little later. I will need to research more materials for him to see and listen which are in Indonesian to help balance his language because he will need, probably, to speak more Indonesian than English as soon as he starts school.

He is very very active and will run about all day and if we let him run about in a mall then he will just run everywhere. It is hard to find him a safe place to run and play everyday as there really are not any areas for a child to play near us and its also too hot to be out running about for too long. There is a local children play area but its not really very child friendly. Happily we have a car port he can run around in and he does and also the balcony upstairs has enough space for this as well. Jeremy is watched like a hawk so he is safe and he will run and run and jump as much as we let him.

Jeremy is also getting bigger and heavier. We are already on XXL nappy pants with the intention he will be toilet trained before he is 3 and we are putting him in clothing for 3 or 4 year old. He must get the size from me as well as eating like a horse when he can. All of which is good. There are plenty of choices for clothing so that helps him here at the moment.

He also likes to have his teeth cleaned and this is helping him grow and learn routines. We need to be more routine with this but he happily sits while we brush and he knows or is beginning to know why and when we do this. He knows when bed time is now and will almost willingly go bed and lie down and eventually sleep. He still sleeps for around 9 hours a night, dropping off before 9 and awaking before 6 and waking everyone with him.

He will eat anything we give him and drink more or less the same. He does not eat too much sweet stuff as he is full of energy already but he does eat ice cream with his dad now and then and is partial to a milk chocolate digestive! If we are out and about he will eat what we eat and can drink most types of milk and does not refuse now, plain white milk instead of his vanilla flabvoured baby milk. i make him drink fresh cows milk through the week and UHT milk as well but its all white, no chocolate or added sweetener. Yovita makes him drink water and juice and his gran here, feeds him all sorts of Javanese food and stuff. Our housekeeper cooks up soups and food for him, all of which probably explains why he is so bloody heavy!!! But when he is sick he does seem to drop weight quickly and from a recent bout of diarrhoea  he became dehydrated quickly and that was a concern. He was fixed 2 days later but only after a course of anti-biotics.

Pretty good Milk

Vanilla is better than the Honey one

With his language and motorskills developing, we are now encouraging numbers and the alphabet as well as more Indonesian language and we are doing this through play and constant talking. He favourite toys are die cast cars so for some reason he now has over 50 of them (most of which are Matchbox because I like Matchbox) and this number is growning. Thomas is fun for him as any bus but he likes to choose his toy and most of them are trucks or vans. The reason I choose Matchbox over hotwheels is to help him identify quicker with the vehicles around him as they are more realistic. He also likes trains and planes and in time he will be given Duplo lego or Playmobile (do you know how much this stuff costs??) to help grow and develop further but that can wait until he is 3.

Fire Truck and its great

He has just found out about the shopping cars in Carrefour, The little tikes car with a shopping trolley bolted to it so next week will be far more fun for us shopping what with 'car is dirty, beep beep, oh no car has crashed / fixed' or 'the wheel is broken' the shopping time won't increase in time at all.

Getting him out of this will be a challenge

So thats Jeremy today. A handful. He seems to be far more active than a lot of children I see but I dont really know. I know that its fun and everyday I am kept on my toes and thats great.

Jeremy

Things that are happening in Jakarta

Here is a short list of things that are happening in the city which are good bad indifferent all at the same time and some nationwide ones. Its been a while since I have compiled a list of stuff.

• There is a new Terminal being built at at the airport Terminal 4) which is all modern and things
• If you are flying international with Lion Air, you still need to check in at T2 and then they bus you half way around the airport to get on a plane outside T3
• The rail link proposed has been shelved for now or if it is still going to be built is being delayed.
• The rail network is expanding throughout the country and Jakarta with new stations and longer platforms in the city and and railways being built across the country
• There will be a higher speed rail link between Jakarta and Bandung to be built
• Uber Taxis are not really welcome here
• GoJek, Grab Bike and Blu Jek are the latest mobile app for ordering motorbike taxis, good for short distances, expensive for long. But its not rained yet so lets see what happens
• The police are concerned about these groups delivering drugs unawares as its seems to have started
• Bajais (blue ones) with have their own app soon.
• There are new Scania buses on the busway now but not all over the busway
• The police have commented that there are 420 traffic blackspots through the city and it will get worse
• There are currently many major infrastructure developments across the city including the MRT (overground and underground) elevated Bus lanes, Flyovers which are on most of the major routes through the city which are causing huge issues.
• The extra lane on the toll from Tangerang into Grogol has been closed making morning trips into the city from work so much longer.
• The Rupiah is currently struggling against the dollar and once it reaches 15,000 then it will make it even harder for everyone as things are becoming expensive. 
• If you are English, then fly to Indonesia as the rate is a fantastic 1gbp = 22,000 rupiah (at this moment in time) which means I cant afford to fly home for a holiday as I am paid in Rupiah
• The Dollar is currently $1 = 14475
• There will a shift in fuel price downward at some point this week
• Hero Supermarkets are closing stores both Hero and Giant brands
• The Giant at Semanggi has closed for good
• Alcohol sales are being reviewed in the city with the hope that Beer can be sold again in mini markets and stores
• The price of beer has not really moved since it has been banned in nearly all stores
• There was a 150% increase in tax on imported clothing and goods which was helpful
• There is a desire to close clubs and bars here at midnight instead of 2am to help reduce drug useage
• There will be an increase in taxation of cigarettes but its still OK to sell them to anyone who wants them
• Nappies have become more expensive now Jeremy is XXL but milk gets cheaper
• The small shopping plaza thing called Tebet Green closed down as there was an issue with the tax payments
• It has not rained for 3 months now and its just dry and dusty with more of this to come
• The fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan are made worse because of the dry season, El Nino is to blame
• There was no blood moon as the optical effect does not happen here
• Mobile phone manufactures have to make products here. The Galaxy note 5 is made here
• Samsung is not the most popular make of phone here any more due to local or region made phones being more affordable and offer the same Android stuff
• The phone networks are planning 4G through Jakarta. I am waiting for 3G still for my area
• I still cant get Internet cable to my house
• The internet at work is transmitted over the air rather than through cables
• There are now 3 fully functional huge shopping malls 5 minutes from work that I still don't need to visit
• US size 13 trainers here are impossible to find unless they are bright red or something equally abhorrent
• After surveying many students, nearly all said that they would never date in a Cemetery and this was their top or second from top answer, fast food outlets were also a no no
• Car Free Sundays are now almost impossible to walk or enjoy due to the amount of push bikes and sponsored runs along the route so I have to stay in bed now
• If I take Jeremy on the bus I am given a seat by the conductor whether I want one or not (transjakarta)
• Visas to other countries become easier to obtain once an initial visa to somewhere has been approved (not including ASEAN countries)
• There is a big Samsung repair centre at ITC Ambasador with the one at Pacific place being closed
• With all the issues and publicity concerning air pollution there is no actual measurements of the air quality in Jakarta that I am aware of
• Riding your bike on a scalped tarmac road is no fun and you really shouldn't go above 35kph 
• Dog is a popular food in Jakarta but it is unregulated but the rest is too unsettling
• 70% of all public spaces do not follow the no smoking bans in place mainly through fear of telling someone not to smoke because that person is probably a moron who cant read the no smoking signs

All information is from news sources such as the Jakarta Post, Jakarta Globe, Jakarta Coconuts and from my own experience. 

If this stuff is not quite right, well its what I know at the moment.