Dili Bub Club 26 February 2012

In case you haven't noticed, there was a slight 'baby explosion' in Dili.  Yes, yes, we realize many of you think this is a 'post-conflict' country - just keep thinking that, so we can keep it all to ourselves.  In actual fact, it is a thriving community of young families all battling the unknowns of parenthood together, which from time-to-time does feel like post-conflict!

Here is a group shot of some of the regulars, and newer members of the Dili Bub Club!

Members of the Dili Bub Club hanging out
at the Irish Embassy

Luka in his man-jamas (aka Afghan Shalwar Kameez)

Our young man donning his Afghan
garb

Luka would like to thank his auntie Vic who sent him an authentic shalwar kameez all the way from Afghanistan to Cape Town.  Of course when we received the package in the mail, young master Luka was but barely 3kg and we were convinced he would never EVER fit into the outfit.  Low and behold... he was able to don the man-jamas to Bub Club on Sunday.  Of course, as with all of these pants, it does not come with a drawstring, but mommy quickly improvised by borrowing the handy draw-string with tie thingy from our TRX training system.

And Luka being very haraam trying to grab daddy's beer! 

Bub Club #2: Introducing 'arts & crafts'

The calm before the storm....

Dili Bub Club #2 was hosted by the awesome hosts - Nicole, Fiona, Amelia, Angelica and Luca.  We gathered at their gorgeous home in Dili to, well...how to say this lightly - completely wreck it!  Afterall, what do you get when you take 10 babies stripped down to nothing but their nappies, large swaths of construction paper, a bucket of jello, plenty of bubble wrap, four different color paints (non-toxic of course), and cherry red play dough - that's right - most people's worst nightmare.  But not if you are Nicole and Fiona.  With three little ones under the age of two (that would be the lovely Miss Amelia, and her twin siblings, cool as a cucumber Luca, and feisty Miss Angelica), they make it all look so much easier than I often feel with only one!

The storm... Picasso, make way for Lukasso!

The idea was to introduce the babies to the concept of 'texture' - and boy did they get a big kick out of that.  Everyone stripped down to their nappies, and were set free on the floor filled with cleverly positioned construction paper, paint, bubble wrap, and other textures taped to the floor. The Bubs crawled and clamored over each other to get to stick their hands in the bucket of jello, play with (okay, and taste) the play dough, and smear paint on the back of huge topo-maps taped to the shiny tile floor.

It was absolutely fascinating to watch the babies explore the various textures, tastes and sensations.  And explore they did - between enjoying his first 'jello shots' and me scraping the play dough off the roof of his mouth after spying a suspicious red coating lining the top of his mouth when he leaned back during a belly laugh, there was plenty of 'exploring' and 'experiencing' going on.  Watching their little brains firing and just taking it all in reminded me of the wonder and honor of watching the process of a little person growing into a big person.

For little ones, they did quite well with the whole 'big kid activities', considering all but two are still under one year of age, so the notion of 'arts and crafts's' and heck, even fine motor skills, remain somewhat of a mystery - yet, they each enjoyed the experience in their own special way.  For Luka, this meant immediately diving into the paints, then trying to throw the entire bucket of jello out of the floor, then exploring his talents as a make-up artist by diligently painting Miss Maya's face both with the paint brush, and his paw print (Video Here), and finally ripping the topo maps on the floor to shreds at the end of the day (mommy, just helping to clean up!)