It’s 11.25pm now and Nina is still very active.She asked for a banana just now. She was probably hungry. So, her mommy gave her one. 15 minutes later, she came to me and asked me to finish her banana. Half left.

“Daddy … finish my banana!”

And then when I finished it, she took the skin to her mommy who was in the bedroom already and told her:

“Mommy … Daddy abisin. Liat … liat”

Nina tends to speak English to me and Indonesian to her mommy. She is able to switch between the two languages depending on who she is talking to. Not always that way, but most of the time.

Her Mamu (grandma) just left Manila for Jakarta tonight. Nina seems to be missing her.

Yesterday, she said to her Mamu in Indonesian,

“Besok Nina bangun, Mamu udah di Surabaya yah?”

She was referring to the fact that in the past couple of times, her Mamu always left Manila early morning to catch the first flight of Philippines Airlines back to Jakarta. So, when she woke up, she found that her Mamu was no longer in Manila.

Her Mamu left in the evening this time, taking Cebu Pacific Air. When she left earlier today, Nina happened to be sleeping. That was 5pm. So, she missed seeing her Mamu off. When she woke up and found out that her Mamu has left, she told her mommy in Indonesian,

“Nina mau bobo lagi. Nanti kalo Nina bangun, Mamu udah dateng”.

She was referring to another fact that in the past couple of times, her Mamu arrived in Manila early morning when she was still sleeping. So, when Nina woke up, she suddenly saw her Mamu in the apartment. So, she thought it’s a magic kind of thing that if she goes to sleep again now and wakes up later, she would see her Mamu back in the apartment.

Nina suddenly woke up and called her mommy and said, “mommy, garuk garuk Nina”, asking her mom to scratch her back gently so she could go back to sleep.

Nina was sleepy and wanted to sleep. She said “Nina mau bobo”.

Nina saw the magazine cover of HWM (Hardware Magazine) and saw a picture of handphone on it and she said “like it”.Nina can say “Nina Nangis” while she is crying.

Nina looked at the picture of turtle which was printed upside down on her mommy’s t-shirt and she said, “turtle terbalik” and then went on to say “turtle upside down“

Nina can now say “wait” when she wants us to wait for her while she is doing something.

Nina can say “papaya” and “lolypop” and also knows what they are.

Nina knows the following words and understand that they have similar meaning:- abis ( an Indonesian word )
- finished
- gone ( a bit off, but she got the idea I believe)
- no more