Shopping Combi

Welcome to Combi's world.
Combi is a well known Japanese brand that specialize in light weight, easy to fold strollers in sleek designs, as well as car seats and modern toys.
Their website is pretty ugly, but I had fun checking out the virtual demo, in which you can drag and turn the stroller 360 degree to see from side to side.
The Japanese website is better, beautifully modern, but of course you would not understand a thing :)
You can now get your cool combi's stroller at the Children's store, a heavenly store full of cool strollers and imported toys. They are located at Senayan City level 4 #95-97, ph: 72781292.

Cordlife Indonesia

This is a new trend.
A few friends that I know has taken the trouble of storing their baby's cord blood stem cell in Cordlife Singapore, as a future health insurance. And now the 'leading cord blood bank in the region' together with Indonesia's Pt Kalbe Farma has set up Pt Cordlife Indonesia, as announced last Saturday (14/10). The cord bank is expected to be fully operated by January 2007.
Call 021-5208122 or check out www.cordlife.com
Quoted from Kompas (16/10), the cost for the initial collection of the cell is about SGD$ 1.400, and the yearly storage fee is about SGD$ 250.

Use Bob for TV and Media Control

This is cool stuff! My son is not even two but he loves to watch TV extensively, and I dare not wonder how he would react to video games when he grow up. Here is a gadget that let you control the amount of time that your children spend in front of TV and computer. Simply hook it up, lock it (yes, your kids cannot simply remove it. haha) and give each of your kids their password. The screen will automatically turned off when the time is up.
Check out http://www.usebob.com/

Junior in Aksara

Finally, after a tip from our reader, I found that Junior magazine, as well as Junior pregnancy and baby, are available in Aksara bookstore (Kemang, Cilandak Town Square and Plaza Indonesia).
I bought my copy for Rp 93.000

In Search Of Mary Poppin

This is a book that contains essays from mothers that highlights the love-hate-relationship with their nannies. Sound like an every day theme in our home isn't it? Especially here in Jakarta where the population of nannies nearly outnumbering the babies (I've heard of mommies who assigned two nannies for each of her two children). And anyone knows that a good nannies will be kept like a guarded secret to prevent nanny-highjacking. I guess this is a book that gain an insight of the real feelings and attachment formed between nannies and mothers, a very complicated affair. I'm looking forward to read it.
Priced at $16 in Amazon.com

Car seat entertainment

Getting your kids to stay in their car seat is almost an impossible task. I stumbled upon this toys that will give the impression that the kids are riding on a horse back, or in a merry go round. Looks cute, but I wasn't sure it will be much of an entertainment when you are stuck in a nasty traffic in the toll road for hours.
It is priced at $35 at Casey and friends

Zap and football

A reader send us this picture of an English footballer, Frank Lampard, strolling gorgeously with his child using Quinny Zap. Hmmm, wonder which one caught the most of my attention, the hot guy or the hot stroller.

Tefal baby

There is a new product at Debenhams kids in Plaza Indonesia, Tefal Baby.
For years now, I thought that Tefal is only a household brand for kitchen stuff, apparently they had expanded their product lines to baby care products. The product range include sterilizers, bottle warmers, and blenders, but there are a few other interesting products.
I like this humidifier as it doesnt look too bulky and they claim that it operates silently so that it doesnt interfere with baby's sleep.
Well, with air conditioner in the room almost around the clock, I figure it will make my kids breathing a lot easier, without all the dryness-in-the-throat in the morning. The price is around Rp 1.200.000,-
Check out their site Tefal
There's another product that caught my attention at their website, A Baby Dryer that dry Baby in complete safety immediately on getting out of the bath. HUH? haven't they heard of cotton towels?

Sex Education

This is a weird german book published in 1973 by Per Holm Knudsen, it's called "The true story of how babies are made". Hmmmm.... wonder if my kids are ready to see the "truth" from this book.
Link from the book

Suri Cruise Pictures

After months hiding in her nest (creating high-profiled gossip speculations all around the world), we can finally see her beautiful pictures on Vanity Fair October edition (it will hit the stands around mid Sept). The pictures were taken by high-fashion photographer, Annie Leibovits.

Disneyland Hongkong

I was just back from a trip to Disneyland Hongkong with my 3 years old daughter, and here are some honest facts about the fun park.

The Good Part:
1. The journey from Hongkong city to the park was easy and organized. My daughter was ecstatic when she rides the Mickey-Mouse-hole-in-the-window train from Sunny bay station to Disneyland station.
2. Children under three comes in for Freee!!
3. Shopping is heavenly, be prepared to get tempted with various cutie stuff
4. You can rent Quinny-like stroller for your kids to get around the park without sore feet.
5. Snacking around the park is great, try my favourite corns-in-the-cob.
6. The firework finale, Disney on Stars, was the best! I almost cried with awe when the musical chorus sync so harmoniously with the fireworks. And the look from my daughter face when she saw the stars exploded, was priceless!

The Bad Part:
1. It was Hot Hot Hot! Even on 5pm in the afternoon. I recommend you to go there during early winter time.
2. It was small, yes as small as Dunia Fantasi.
3. It was soooo crowded. Full of tourist from mainland China who speaks loudly and cutting queue like nobody cares.
4. The queue was long and tiring. With small children, I don't think you have a chance of trying much ride in the park. Just enjoy the view.

Bottomline:
Despite all the bad parts, it was still a magical trip (esp for my daughter). We might come back again but this time I want to be more prepared and choose the right period of time (cooler temps and less crowded month)

Celebrity and children day out

Other than earning gazillion of dollars from producing block buster movies or records, Hollywood's celebrities seem to have much time to spend with their children.
Seen here on the first pic is Brooke Shields with her daughter Rowan, 3, playing with barbie dolls in LA during Barbie Live! in Fairytopia. Next is a sweet picture of Chris Martin with his daughter Apple, 2, walking hand in hand around London Zoo.

Baby shopping at ITC Mangga Dua

ITC Mangga Dua has been a baby shopping haven for the past decade. Mommies from all corners of Jakarta would come there at least one time during their pregnancy or during early motherhood days. Despite all the nasty traffic outside and even nastier crowds inside, ITC Mangga Dua definitely still have that tempting shopping appeal.
Here are some of my favorite highlights:

1. Go there early before 10am, the later you arrive the more crowded it become. Make time to taste the famous Soto Mie at the fourth floor boutique corner (ask someone for direction, everybody should know where it is). And be amazed at the crowd that line up there for a bowl of hot Soto Mie.

2. Kasih Ibu, lt 2 blok A no.92-96. Ph: 6015342-43
This is my favourite shop, they have piles of all the baby necessities local and imported, be prepared to spend on trivial stuffs. If you are pregnant, you will be given a sheet of paper that list over a hundred items that they think you ought to have, from bottle sterilizer to nanny's uniform. All the famous brand are there, you name it, Avent, Mothercare, Pigeon, Aprica, Medela, Mustela, and the list goes on.
Kasih Ibu also have a shop branch at Darmawangsa Square 1st floor, no.36-37. Ph:72801816

3. Baby Mart Toys Mart, lt 1 Blok D no.8, or lt2 blok A. no 73. Ph: 6018016, 6015317
This shop really looks like a warehouse of toys. Boxes are piled up high to the ceilings and you have to squeeze between them to be able to see all the suff. They have complete stock of Little Tikes toys, from baby gym to little kitchen, various stuff from Tomy a japanese toy maker, and lots of made-in-china toys. Their best selling is battery operated mini cars, (from Rp850.000 to Rp 3.850.000) you literally see them flying off the rack everytime you are in that store.
But the lady who owns it is quite vicious, don't even think of bargaining here, she will pretend that she doesn't hear you.

Lets Draw!

Drawing is a great activity for kids to entertain themselves (and let their mummies enjoy a brief moment of personal time). Since, I am also a drawing enthusiast, I had been observing all kind of drawing equipments available for children and these are a few of my favourite:
1. Faber Castell,
The most common brand for color pencils and crayons, available in Gramedia and most of the bookstores. It’s relatively cheap, it wont hurt if your child loses a few colors, and also it’s toxic free.
2. Alex,
Moms and I is the official distributor for this brand , they have lots of art and craft stuff like poster paints and unique-shaped sponges for hand painting (a messy affair). I recently bought a set of big bright colored chalks for some side-street fun.
3. Crayola,
They claim that their crayon is washable and erasable, I haven't tried them out yet, but definitely they are on my next shopping list. Their website is fun, with coloring activities and art and craft project for your kids. I saw some crayola products at Office 2000 in Plaza Ind but I have no idea where else I can get them.
4. Derwent
This is my personal favorite (for me not for my kids), they are expensive as they are made for fine art artists. But apparently they have some products for children, it looks pretty impressive on their website, might be perfect for your great little artist-to-be.

Cooking at Pizza Marzano

I tried to dine at this uber cool restaurant with my kids last week at Senayan City. Pizza Marzano is one of the phenomenal success story that started in London, and trust me it's really good. For those who are familiar with Izzi pizzas, Marzano's pizza are a bit like that, except better. Price wise, not that much difference with Izzi. And if you order a kids' meal pizza, they even allow your kids to put on a chef's paper hat and make the pizza themselves at their kitchen, a sure excitement for them. The only things that bothers me is that there are too many fine things around, like wine glass and stuff, imagine dining with two kids under four with that kind of surrounding.
www.pizzamarzano.com

Vintage blanket

This will make a great gift. It's a vintage-inspired receiving blanket that you can personalize with your child's name. Available at Cotonnier, a great store for nursery and kids' room, at Plaza Indonesia 3rd floor. Rp 495.000 - Rp 725.000

Yoga for kids

Join the latest craze in the health conscious society. Yoga is believed to benefit children the same way it does with adults. I was lucky enough to have a sister in law who teaches yoga, and my kids somehow has taken a liking in imitating us during our work out. Apparently there are not many yoga houses in Jakarta that has classes for kids, but after a long search I found this two yoga house that offer Kids yoga class and also Prenatal yoga class.

Rumah Yoga
ph: 7393267
www.rumahyoga.com

Yoga @ 42 degree
ph: 7197379
www.bikramyogajakarta.com

Out of the world Stokke

Actress Rachel Weisz is seen pushing this ultra cool stroller Stokke Xplory in Soho with her son.
'Higher is better' is the campaign slogan for this stroller. Stokke created a concept that you should let your child sit higher in his stroller to enjoy better view and to interact better with you.
Available here at The Children's Store (Senayan City 4th fl) Rp. 11.599.000

Indonesian parenting magazine

I've been writing too much about imported products. Here are two links to two local edition of parenting magz.
www.ayahbunda-online.com
www.parentsguide.co.id
I realize that more and more child related magazine are coming up on the stand, but most of them are featuring the same thing one after another. I just wish there are more baby lifestyle magazine available. Hmmm...or perhaps I should start one?

Junior Magazine

This is by far is the best lifestyle children magazine i've ever seen. Junior magazine is from UK and they have the coolest lay out pages, fab fashion spread and informative articles. It's so different from other American baby and children magazine which cramps so many pictures and articles on one page. While Junior is targeted for mothers with toddlers, Junior pregnancy and baby is targeted for expecting mothers.
I bought my copies from Newstands, a used-magazine bookstores. They have branches at Pasar Festival kuningan, Galeri Matahari Taman Anggrek and Carrefour Puri Indah.
I really don't understand why I couldn't get it at most of the bookstores in the malls.
Check out their site at www.juniormagazine.co.uk

Radio Flyer classic

This is my son's dream toy. Available at Mom's and I (They are the official distributor but please check their availability) and Ace Hardware (Puri Indah, for other Ace please call them up).
Rp 1.149.000,-
For more info about this classic toy maker check out their site www.radioflyer.com

Maclaren stroller for Liv Tyler's baby

Seen on july 19th, Liv Tyler and husband, Royston Langdon are enjoying the evening walk at the west village with baby Milo on a Maclaren stroller (stop picking on your nose boy!). The star stroller are also available here in Jakarta throughout many specialty children stores. Try The Children Store (senayan city 4th floor), Mothercare (various malls), and Mom's and I (Kemang Raya 18C). I promise I'll try to make a directory of all the cool children stores in Jakarta soon.

Pediatric Opthalmologist

In plain english, it says Eye Doctor for Kids.
A few weeks ago I spent one whole saturday afternoon in line for my daughter's appointment with Dr Rini Mahendrastari Singgih.DSM.
Supposedly she is one of the best eye doctor for children in town.
She got a nice little clinic in Bintaro, and if you want to make an appointment with her, you can only call the clinic on Thursday, and be prepared to wait for over a month!
But after the long wait, once you met her you'll know why parents flocked to her clinic.
She called herself 'Oma' and was so kind to us that she spent almost half an hour explaining the importance of early check up for babies and good habits for healthy eyes.
She got modern eye checking tools and stuffs and will check your child thoroughly. She said that once she diagnosed a four month baby who got a minus 14 for her eyes!
check out her site www.mahendraindonesia.com

Shiloh Jolie in Madame Tussaud

More celebrity baby to spice up this blog.
At just 8 weeks old, Shiloh will be the first baby that inspire the Madame Tussaud Museum in New York city to make their first infant replica. The figure will be displayed soundly asleep below the gaze of Brad's and Angelina's wax figure. And to honor Shiloh's parents' commitment to charity, the museum will donate $1 for each picture of the family that visitor buy.
Source: People

Gwen Stefani in Gucci baby carrier

I called Gucci store in Plaza Ind, and they said that the baby carrier is available here in Jakarta. Cool! The price is even more cooler. Rp 7.250.000,- anyone?

Shiloh Nouvel Jolie Pitt

Can't resist putting up this picture, after all they are probably the most famous family on earth right now (and certainly one of the most beautiful). I just hope that Kinokuniya on Sogo doesn't run out of this edition of People magazine. I heard that they paid millions for these photos and the Pitt family is planning to donate the cash to a charity which has not been named yet.

Weekend Escape

Weekend destination is definitely one of the toughest decision to make, especially if it involves tiny people who need humongous space to run around and enjoy themselves. I have discovered these amazing places to escape from the lure of the glittering malls and restaurants in Jakarta.

1. Novotel Coralia Bogor. (pictured here)
About one hour drive from Jakarta (weekend time). Go there early to catch the breakfast buffet while the kids can run around on the beautiful landscape with cold and precious fresh air. I found out that sometimes you can even let your kids swim there even without staying for a night (unnoticed by the attendant of course.)

2. Taman Sari Lippo Karawaci
This is an open space amphitheatre with restaurants and foodcourts surrounding it. The food is good with lots of choices, especially traditional snacks. My son especially enjoys running, chasing the pigeons that flew around there. And the best part is the bill, it is so unreasonably reasonable.

At dawn, you can also check out the nearby Benton Junction, it is a beautifully lit, long row of restaurant with tables outside on the street side, almost Paris like :)

3. For a late afternoon walk, try Pantai Mutiara, an ultra exclusive real estate complex at the west of Jakarta (huge houses!). They have a long sidewalk by the sea, where families are seen walking their dogs and enjoy an afternoon jog. Afterwards, the seafood restaurants and small cafes nearby are not a bad choice to spend dinner together with the juniors.

I welcome any comments to add on these lists.

The Safe Nursery

Caution! for all the new moms. Please read these booklet and know them by heart. This is really the safety handbook that every mom should read, it includes some situation that we don't even think it could happen, to any kids.
Go to http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PUBS/202.pdf , download it and print it.
And if you'd like some more info regardig safety issues in consumer products check out their main website at www.cpsc.gov . Its the American Consumer Products Safety Commission.
Too bad we don't have any of that here.

Stroller Parade

The current trend for strollers in Jakarta is simple. It just has to be cool enough to make other moms look twice in their direction..with a look of envy. And as Jakarta is currently enjoying the effect of globalization, the choices for such strollers are plenty.
You can see the futuristic Quinny stroller, the modern Maclaren, even Stokke (*gasp!) zigzagging across the malls. Oh yes, malls. Of course, the only terrain that those strollers have to endure is simply marbles, carpets and wooden floors, that is why sometimes it feels ridiculous to see petite moms with perfect hair trying to lift up their bulky strollers up the escalators.
The latest edition of the strollers parade is by Aprica (pictured above), a cool Japanese brand that recently just opened their flagship store in Plaza Indonesia 3rd floor. They have lightweight strollers that can be fully reclined (thank god!) and you can even change the direction to which the stroller is facing (backwards for infants and forward for toddlers).

Million Dollar School

One of the easiest topic to start a conversation with another Mommy is about school in Jakarta. As we all know, new schools are popping out like wild mushrooms in every corner of this crowded city, and most of them are ..expensive. Lately I felt that I have been brainwashed by the media marketing of this new schools, that laid out new perspectives on how a good school should be. It should be national-plus, affiliated with some overseas school, it should have new buildings and astounding facilities, English language as the first language, expats teachers and so on and so on. And it just grew confusing for me. I mean, after all these are all new schools with no experience in producing say, champions of the World's Physics Olympics (not that I have that kind of ambition for my kids).

Anyway, I have to admit that my daughther is registered in one of these new school, and yesterday a friend of mine gave me some points to ponder. "it's definitely like gambling" she says "And the bad news is we would not know whether we make the right decision until about 20 years of time." Well, that is one scary thought.

Check out some of their website (I discovered that some of the new school does not even have a website)
www.globalnusantara.org
www.globaljaya.com
www.binabangsaschool.com
www.highscope.or.id
www.lenterakasih.com