Graduation Day

Masa Mama kecik-kecik dulu mana ada graduation ke konvo ke...in fact mana pernah pi sekolah tadika! Mama sekolah tumpang, ikut Atuk masuk kelas yang dia ajar. Kalau Atuk ajar Matematik darjah 4, Mama jadi le budak darjah 4. Kalau ajar Bahasa Melayu darjah 3, Mama jadi budak darjah 3...dan begitulah seadanya.

Sebab tu agaknya Mama dapat sekolah lompat, tapi last-last kena ambil penilaian darjah 5 dua kali jugak sebab Gurubesar masa tu tak bagi Mama lompat masuk sekolah menengah... (walaupun 2 kali result 5A... ish ish..)

Sebenarnya Mama nak cerita kisah Aina punya graduation day, tapi ter-alpa pulak. Tahun ni buat kat dewan tempat Mama & Papa kahwin dulu (nostalgia pulak), sebab tahun ni sekolah dia buat sukan sekali.

Aina pelajar senior, tahun depan tahun 1, sebab tu ada graduation. Ini le gambar halus Aina, Mama tak larat nak angkat bontot pergi ke depan, perut dah besar. Biar Papa ajelah ambil gambar yang comel dan clear.

Untuk konsert senior, Aina buat choral speaking, tapi muka tak senyum langsung. Puas Mama dok signal dari tempat duduk suruh dia senyum, tak moh pun senyum. Nasib la anak dara sorang ni. Lepas choral speaking, depa nyanyi lagu "You are my sunshine". Aina main tamborine...

Budak-budak lain menari "stick dance" dengan "Islamic Zapin". Sakan la chekgoo-chekgoo mengajar depa ni, mesti penuh kesabaran dan ketata-susilaan.

Abang entah pi ke mana-mana dalam dewan tu, dah terjumpa geng dia, tak ingat Mama & Papa dah. Papa pun buka booth bank dia, sempat le mem-promote bank dia disamping menaja lucky draw yang ada 15 hadiah tu..hadiah besar sekali ialah sebijik basikal.

Amir punya la upset sebab tak dapat basikal, dan Papa bagi basikal kat orang lain.

Lepas tu baru la bersukan, more like tele-match la untuk bebudak ni. Papa masuk acara tarik tali, tapi kalah. Apa taknye, team lagi satu tu badan 2 kali ganda team Papa.

Last-last acara habis pukul 1:30 petang. Kita orang dah kelaparan dah... Apa taknya, depa serve bihun goreng aje masa break...kalau tau dah lama suggest buat pot luck. Aina masa tu dah lembik..dah tak de mood nak pose any more gambar, nasib baik depa dah ambik gambar graduation siap-siap 2 months ago.

Tahun depan anak Mama 2 orang sekolah rendah...cepatnya masa berlalu!

Boys will be boys

I came home about 8pm yesterday, greeted by a little miss reporter, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Abaaaang! Ammmmirrr! Mama dah balik!!!"

"Mama tau tak, tadikan, masa Aina ngaji, Abang ngan Amirkan put songkok and put fish dalam songkok, bawak keluar atas carpet sampai basah-basah carpet and then put back again dalam aquarium Papa!"

Me, "Abaaaaaang! Ammmmiirrr! Come here!!!!"

No wonder when I was outside just now I saw the carpet on the bench. I thought Amir must have spilled something.



"Mama upset ni!" and I pinched both of them.

"I don't know...when Papa come home nanti, u all kena..."

And I went upstairs and took my shower before both of them got more scolding from me. Let the father handle it lah, it's his aquarium by the way. But I'm so upset they spoiled their songkoks.

At 11pm, both of them were nervous already. "Amir takut la Mama!"

"Tu lah, sapa suruh naughty-naughty...I don't know..."

Lucky for them, Papa came back at 12:15am, all of them were already asleep. And Papa found this report card in his closet.

Tooth Away!

My princess is going through that phase - her baby teeth are starting to loosen, time for permanent ones to take over. Looks like this hari raya, her potrait will be different, she'll be one tooth less. But her molars are already out.

Before extraction

Princess Rongak

With he new look, she looks cheekier and mischievous. The visit to the dentist was short and sweet, and cost me RM25 just to pull that one out. Next time should do it myself, or just like Abang, he'll just surprise me by presenting the pulled tooth.

It's Batman!

What else could make a little boy happier than having one of his favorite characters on his birthday cake, and a day earlier.

Amir is four today, but we had an earlier celebration yesterday, mainly because it's Ramadhan, and it was Sunday. When we were picking the cake up, we we told him that the cake was for Papa's friend, and of course the little boy went beserk. We explained to him that his birthday is tomorrow, and we would get another cake for him.

So imagine the look on his face when we brought the cake out later after berbuka. It was full of happiness. Too bad Papa didn't manage to capture that priceless moment.

After the singing and blowing and finger licking good, Amir came to Papa & me, and said,

"Amir best la Mama, dapat Batman cake! Amir happy sangat!"

"Say that to Papa, Papa yang belanja" I told him.

The he went and kissed Papa and said,

"Thank you Papa sebab beli Amir cake Batman!!"

and an hour later he did that again, and that was the best part of the day....

Salam Ramadhan

Ramadhan Mubarak datang lagi!

Mama kena bayar fidyah this year sebab tak habis ganti puasa 7 hari due to the all time morning sicknesses. But today Mama is trying very hard to complete my puasa. Tadi dah sahur nasi and ayam goreng, then had 1 piece of toast with scrambled eggs. Actually Adam mintak scrambled egg tapi Mama pulak yang makan coz he ended up eating rice. Aina only had rice & ayam goreng. So we'll see who shall finish the puasa for the day.

Papa has an event in Park Royal, so tak sure if he'll buka puasa with us. Kalau tak, then malas nak masak banyak, Adam is already asking nak pergi Pasar Ramadhan cari otak-otak & laksa. Adoi! Kalau Mama balik lambat, kesian dia, unless Achik is around la to take them. But then kalau beli kueh mueh sure tak termakan one.. nanti membazir.

Speaking of membazir, teringat masa merdeka weekend Mama & kids pi makan kat Nando's. Since it was just the four of us, Mama decided to order only 3 dishes. Then Abang monyok coz dia tak ada pinggan kat depan dia. So Mama pun bukak la story Mama masa kecik. About how Atuk's salary was small to support the 7 siblings, and there was no such things as McDonald's, Nando's or KFC. And if there were any treats from Atuk, it would be eating at that Restoran Samsudin in Jerantut...I still remember the gulai ikan tenggiri yang tak macam gulai, it's in between masak asam pedas & gulai santan...but the taste is excellent! Sampai hari ni teringat-ingat lagi kat gulai tu.

So I digressed a bit. The point I was trying to relate to Abang was that we had to share everything because we didn't have the luxury of having outside food. Even if we had, kena share 7 beradik. Kalau Atuk nak bawak makan everybody, kata la one person dish is RM10, then kena time nine, habis RM90...chian Atuk. So sebab tu la Mama adik beradik kena share sokmo.

With that cerita, Abang ada mood nak makan semula. In the end semua orang share their dish and habis licin pinggan everybody, and Mama gave everybody thumbs up!

Merdeka Blues

We spent half of the Merdeka Day in bed, watching the parade on tv. That was because Papa came back late the night before, when we already told him that we want to watch the fireworks at Dataran Shah Alam. By 11:45pm, Aina got tired waiting, and went to sleep. Mama was already not in the mood for anyting, but the two boys were still eager to wait till the countdown, hoping that they could witness the fireworks display at the golf club via our windows.

The countdown on tv was hopeless, because there were too many speeches, and I guess the crowd also went to sleep if not for the Merdeka shouts that punctuated the speeches.

Lucky for the boys, the fireworks did come, but because the trees were too tall, they could only see partially. By then Papa was back already, and quickly they jumped into the car and drove to the golf course. By then the fireworks has already subsided, and I guess the boys didn’t really enjoy the whole show.

Nevertheless I brought them to SACC the next day to look at the Merdeka exhibition. Abang & Aina got to count and memorize the names of the Prime Ministers. There goes our Merdeka weekend..

Tastelessness

So my little gardening plan didn't work out as planned. I succumbed to the ever passionate call of my bed...what with the rumbling tummy and a seriously lack of appetite for anything.

Ah yes...my terrible first trimester. I hope it'll last soon. I can't be missing dinner all the time. Truth is, I don't think I can ever put anything in my mouth after maghrib. It'll just feel like a terrible boat ride in a stormy sea and thundering monsoon typhoon. Any unnatural smell will invoke the wildest uproar in the tummy, and yes, lunch and everything else will come out as those disgusting fragments you see on CSI.

This just doesn't happen now. It happened throughout my other three pregnancies. Some people claim that each pregancy is different. Hey! Not with me. It's almost the same throughout.

I'm into the second trimester soon...I just wish all the pungent taste in my mouth will go away soon. I want to be eating properly. I want to enjoy this pregnancy. I want to be having the drive and energy again as I have got a lot of grand and small plans in my mind. I wish...I wish...I wish..

Going Green

My little s0-called "garden" in front of the house seriously needs a revamp. In fact I think my whole house needs a revamp. With all the Monet & Van-Gogh wanna-bes around, I am seriously thinking of renovating. The key word here is thinking...without the dough, there won't be any doing.

So I guess the best that I could do is to start with the little garden. I have not tend to it for almost a year now, or more come to think of it. What happens every Friday at 5pm is that I'll plan for the weekend activities... in between my late meetings and traffic jams. So this weekend, the grand plan is to re-arrange the garden, perhaps go to Sg Buloh nurseries and buy a few bags of soil, instant plants and I'll have the kids and the maid help me re-design the new garden.

Actually, my wish is to have a "make-over" by Eric of Casa Impian... but of course this is just a wish. Come to think of it, my plants are all big and green, it's just that they need a little more touch-up - swap some pots, swap the positions etc. Just take a look at these fat "pegaga".



So, I hope this grand plan of mine will materialize. I've been sleeping over the past three weekends because I was just plain tired of work. So did Papa. This weekend I'm determined not to have his sleep-bugs affect me.

Happy Gardening to me!

What Happened to July?

My oh my...

July just passed like a breeze.

It's the second day of August already - which means I'm turning a new leaf.

That means numberwise, my age gets bigger.

But deep in my heart, I still feel the same youthful me just coming out of college, eager to start a new life.

Except this round I got a man to take care of, and be taken care by, and 3 kids to feed and hug.

Did I tell you that one more is in the oven?

Bad Parenting

Lately, Adam is being difficult with his homework that I'm forced to threat him rather than encourage. I have ran out of positive enforcement ideas to stimulate this little guy and beginning to think that some teachings by some motivational personality are only idealistic, and not practical enough to be applied to kids like mine.

May be I'm not trying hard enough, may be I'm just an impatient mom whose had enough at work and merely dumping the pressure on the boy. On Tuesday, I have come to the point of forcing him to finish his homework through his own tears. The punishment for not finishing is that I would be ignoring him for the rest of his life, that I would never talk to him again ever. He was weeping all along while finishing the assignment. He had to make sure that Mama will still care for him, and frantically rushed through his work, with tears flowing down his chubby little cheeks.

Deep inside I regretted for bruising his ego and reaping off his sense of belonging. Now this damage is bad, really bad. I shared my worry with Papa, but he said I'm merely trying to meet deadlines. Papa doesn't seem to be worried at all.

I wonder if this would really scar his love for me? I'm trying to show that family love is unconditional, yet by doing this, I am actually going against my own principle, wrecking the entire foundation of love and trust in my own flesh and blood. Gosh, parenting is really a difficult responsibility!

Six-Year-Old Girl

For her sixth birthday, Aina wanted to share it with her friends in kindy. She asked me to prepare party-packs and a cake to bring to class. I'm already dried for ideas as all the other mommies have already used up my ideas like giving out accessories like hair pins, pencil boxes and what nots.

I finally decided that books make better party-packs for the children, though boring but they will be useful. So I got them prophet-themed workbooks - they're like story books with activities like coloring, find hidden items etc. Just not to make them boring packs, Aina asked me to put color pencils, raisins and jellies - of course, my girl cannot be rated boring!

By the way, if you are looking for children books with Islam oriented contents, do drop by my friend's shop Mindaku Bookstore in Seksyen 13 Shah Alam, opposite the primary school.

Then comes the cake part. It's a challenge trying to bring a big cake and split them to 22 kids in 15 minutes break-time. What better solution than having cup-cakes, and they were pretty too. And these are fresh from the oven, from a college-friend Saf who decided to quit her job and concentrate on baking.


After the little party in school, I was already feeling exhausted from the previous week's hectic schedule. In fact, I was feeling under the weather already, and decided to sleep the whole afternoon.

Of course, Aina's birthday won't be complete without the family dinner. This time, we decided to have an Italian dinner at the Little Italian Kitchen in Shah Alam Mall. And courtesy of the owner who recognized us as regular patrons, Aina got this little soufle with ice-cream. So we saved on buying a while cake.

But then later that night, what was consumed during the dinner was thrown out when my tummy just couldn't stand the big ball of gas that's been in there since noon, afterwhich, I slept through the night like eternity.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AINA!

Another year gone in a breeze. I just hope I wouldn't miss my kids growing up because life is like a dash..

Hectic School Holidays

What happened for the past 3 weeks?

Mak came back from Peru just for Atam's wedding. Too bad she came back alone, leaving Uncle Jack behind, missing all the bustling fun preparing the wedding.

Atam got married on May 28-27, we felt a bit short-handed though, that we didn't even have the opportunity to pose with the pengantins. I had to cancel my long leave because work is unbelievably demanding.

Aina caught sore-eyes, thanks to Ariff. She was also down with fever that we were not sure if we coud make it for the Perlis reception on June 1. Adam left early with Achoo & Acik just in case Mama & Papa decided not to go. Well, we made it though despite the jam and sleepiness driving up north on Friday night.

June 1- thanks to the nice food Pak Tam's family prepared, we had a good time though. By this time, Adam also caught sore-eyes. After the reception, we went up to Padang Besar, and we just didn't know what to get there. I finally decided to buy a small wok. Other than that, a few kaftans for me & maid. On Sunday, we held lunch for the family at Opah's house.

Coming back from Alor Setar was another frenzy - the traffic was very slow all the way from Taiping right to Rawang. What used to be a five hour journey became a 9 hour slow moving ride. I was worried all the way because I have a negotiation session at 9am in the morning, and I wasn't prepared for it at all. After everybody had settled down at home, I worked from 2:30-4:30am.

Sigh!

Selamat Pengantin Baru Mak Tam & Pak Tam

Wishing Mak Tam and Pak Tam all the best for their new life together

May you live happily ever after

Hope Mak Tam will miss us ever

At that new place you endeavour

Is unlike Shah Alam we favour

You will miss all the laughter

When the brood are all together

But then we hope our new "brother"

Will take care of you forever...

Life has been very hectic for the past three weeks that I haven't had time to update this blog. All my planned leave are canceled until I submit a major proposal on June 19th. Until then, my blogging time will be limited.

Exhilarating Genting

The bunch had a great time last weekend. Even though I was working on my proposal on Saturday, the three of them managed to entertain themselves by dipping in the instant-pool at the back of the house. Saturday was tremendously hot, so being in the pool was a splendid endeavor. Plus, with Papa being away in Melaka, the pool was a great distraction as they don’t even have to bug me at my notebook.

Having them spent the entire afternoon soaking in the pool, it was easy to let them retire early that night. With that, we have more reasons to plan taking them to the much awaited Genting trip, plus if the weather condition permits.

Despite me sleeping at 2:30 am in the morning finishing my work, I managed to wake up early to find that it was raining quite heavily. When Aina woke up, she was a little but frustrated because I already told the kids that the trip would be cancelled if it rained. So, when the three of them were all awake, they didn’t make much noise as they already knew my pre-requisite for the trip.

Nevertheless, the sun starts to appear slowly in the morning drizzle after 9am. So we quickly decided to make the trip instead. By 11am, we were on the road already. True enough, by the time we got to the cable car station in Gohtong Jaya just about noon, the weather was excellent!

Boy oh boy, the cable car ride up to the peak was an awesome 3.4km ride, with deep jungle beneath us. Both Papa and Aina are already pale. I didn’t know my girl is just like his dad. But the boys were behaving themselves too; I guess the unfathomable green abyss beneath us somehow made them nervous.

Cable car ride

Nevertheless, when we got to the peak, the kids were kids again, especially when they saw all the indoor games. When we were out at the outdoor theme park, they became even more excited. However, when we counted the number of rides they could get on to against the entrance fee, we decided to opt for the indoor park instead.

Amir steadily riding the carousel horse

Aina's tired looking smile

Big boy on the ride

So off we went to the indoor park and rode all the family rides. By 6pm, they were all tired, and we decide to call the day off. Both Papa & I agreed that we have to wait till they are teenagers if we were to go to Disneyland or the Australian Gold Coast. :-)

Sunday Stowy

Hawi tu Amir ikut Mama & Papa pegi Tesco. Pagi-pagi Amir bangun ikut Mama pegi Tesco beli fish, dengan sayur, dengan buah, dengan roti….dengan apa lagi ek?

Masa naik kete Papa kan, kan, Amir nampak buwung 2 ekor terbang kawer mewah. Pastu ada aewoplane kat sky Amir bai bai.

Kat Tesco tak ramai owang sebab Amir bangun pagi-pagi. Mama kata kalau bangun pagi fish ada banyak sangat. Mama beli bawang banyak sangat tapi Papa bayar. Abang ngan Kakak pun ikut juga, tapi Abang mewajuk sebab Mama mawah Abang sebab Abang suka lambat-lambat masa nak pegi Tesco.

Lepas tu kan Mama kata siap cepat-cepat sebab nak pi makan kat otel sebab befday Abang. Mama ajak Acik jugak tapi Acik tak moh. Mama ajak Kakak Leha juga, kakak Leha siap cepat-cepat pakai baju mewah. Pastu Kak leha pakai kefium waaangi sangat sampai Mama tutup idung dalam car Papa.

Otel tu jauh sangat kat KLCC dengan KL Tower Amir nampak! Owh...itu otel dulu befday Amir ngan Kakak jugak. Papa suka datang otel tu, otel Shalala. Amir makan udang besar banyak-banyak lepas tu Amir makan ice-cream. Abang makan nooodle 3 sampai perut Abang besar. Kakak Aina suka makan pasta aje, dengan udang aje. Pas tu ada clown datang bagi balloon.

Kakak Leha makan sikit aje, sebab dia shedih. Mama dia meninggal hari Sabtu. Kakak Leha nangis lama-lama kat bilik dia. Mama kata jangan kacau Kak Leha sebab dia shedih sangat, tak dapat jumpa mama dia masuk dalam kubur.

Lepas makan tu Papa ajak balik, Abang tak nak balik nak jalan jugak. Kita naik car Papa pegi tempat lain. Mama kata kita pi Chewas, tengok Opah Ngah baru keluar ospital.

Dah sampai tu Amir tengok kata chest Opah Ngah ada tempat doctor cut, kaler yellow! Ada benang macam mama jahit baju. Lepas tu Wan Chor ajak makan pisang goweng dengan kawipap, Amir makan kawipap aje kat tepi dengan cwunchy-cwunchy pisang tuh. Pas tu bagi kat Mama bagi abis. Kat rumah tu Amir minum air suam banyak sebab boleh ambik sendiwi kat paip tu. Kakak Aina pun nak ambik sendiwi.

Lepas tu hari nak hujan macam thunder. Papa ajak balik cepat-cepat. Pas tu Papa stop kat Giant sebab Mama kata nak beli bawang. Mama kata Mama nak pegi cepat-cepat, tapi Amir nak ikut jugak. Amir kejar Mama masuk Giant dekat kedai Saykepi.

Owh...Mama nak beli cake. Amir nak cake black aje. Tu cake Amir. Mama kata tu cake Abang. Nak jugak cake Amir jugak, Amir nak jewit kat mama dah. Mama kata cake Amir nanti fiderman...ok lah Amir nak cake fiderman, tapi September nanti. Cake black bagi Abang.

Lepas tu balik rumah pasang candle, ada nine. Abang tepuk tangan, Papa take picture Abang smile kat cake black dia. Mama put fire kat candle, lepas tu Amir cepat-cepat tiup lepas Mama & Atam & Kakak nyanyi kat Abang…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABANG!

Tergolekdoq

Hari Rabu baru ni Mama tergolekdoq.

Hari Selasa kan dah rasa macam seram-seram sejuk. Malam tu memang rasa demam, telan le 2 biji panadol. Lepas tu pukul 4 pagi dah tak leh tido, pinggang sakit, berpusing-pusing seram sejuk tergigil-gigil. Last-last turun bawah, buat milo campur oat satu mug, minum habis dengan 2 biji panadol lagi. Pukul 6.30 pagi dah berpeluh-peluh, so kejut abang pi school, siapkan dia, then mintak Papa hantarkan.

Pukul 8 pagi Rabu contemplate nak pi kerja ke tidak. Sms boss kata tak larat, dan tak kan join dia meeting dengan client kat Jalan Duta. Dia kata take care ..he he. Sat lagi pukul 9 pagi Amir datang, "Mama, bangun, dah siang la Mama, Amir nak susu".

"Amir pi cakap kat kakak Leha la, Mama tak larat"

Lepas tu dengar dia jerit kuat-kuat tepi tangga "Kakaaaaaaak Leeehhaaaaaaaaaaa! Amir nak susu botol besaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!"

Tak lama lepas tu dengar sok-sek sok-sek, Amir panjat katil masuk selimut Mama dengan botol susu besar dia. Last-last kita berdua pun out sampai pukul 11:30 pagi. Perut Mama dah berkeroncong, nasib baik Leha sudah masak nasi. Tibai aje nasi tu sebab dah tak larat nak tahan ketar badan, nak makan ubat.

Call Papa, dia kata dia ada lunch appointment. Kalau nak pi hospital, kena tunggu petang. Berguling-guling le Mama kat atas katil menahan sakit belakang. Malam tadi sakit belah kiri, masa tu sakit pindah belah kanan pulak. Lagi sakit la dari nak beranak. Pinggang pun rasa macam nak tercabut aje. Masa tu Mama rasa dah 100 kali keluar masuk toilet shi-shi sikit-sikit. Abang & Aina pun dah balik sekolah, masing-masing tolong gosok belakang Mama tengok keadaan Mama macam tu.

Then Papa sms kata dia nak ambil Mama pukul 2:25 petang. Bila Papa kata dia nak mai sat lagi, ingat nak mandi la. So pi la toilet kunun nak mandi. Tapi of course kena shi-shi dulu. Bila shi-shi tu tiba-tiba rasa lain macam je...dengar "ting" macam ada mende jatuh kat dalam bowl. Lepas basuh tu, perhatile betul-betul dalam bowl tu..macam ada biji lada hitam. Nak ambik ke tak? Aahh, bukan tak leh sterelize tangan tu kang..so ambik le biji tu. Cepat-cepat cuci tangan ngan dettol. Macam batu-karang aje...warna brown, ada shiny-shiny spike sikit-sikit.

Dan-dan tu sakit belakang hilang. Batu karang dah keluar le rupanya. Terus call Papa kata tak yah hantar hospital la. Nanti petang pi jumpa doktor dekat rumah ambil MC aje.

So petang tu pi jumpa Dr Ikhwan tu, dia kata nasib baik batu dah keluar. Dia bagi antibiotic and pain-killer la, sebab bladder mesti infected punya. Dapat MC dua hari, tapi Khamis dah belambak meeting lined up. Nak buat camne?

Lepas pi jumpa doktor, kita pi makan kek Secret Recipe (Saykepi kata Amir)...tapi malam tu start demam balik....sampai la ni masih demam on off.

Ingat nak balik awal petang ni, tapi my colleague baru call minta tolong buat proposal, esok due!

Ada ke suka buat last minute! Arrrggggghh!!!

Wayward Weather

May I say that the weather is a little bit on the naughty side? Playing tricks everyday, unbearably hot during the day, and thunderstorms late in the evening?

The tricky weather makes our body systems go haywire, and children are the most affected, especially my kids.

To top it all, masing-masing degil!

They want "air sejuk" all the time, especially Amir. Some smart alec like Abang will also climb and open the freezer door of the refrigerator and ransack all the fish containers with the hope that there would be a lucky container full of ice-cream. That's because Acik & Atam would always hide their precious Italian or Neopolitan icecream in between the fish containers.

So there goes the "pantang" for the asthmatic kids.

What happens next? They would end up like this:

I'm starting to feel the chill too! I need a loooooooong break!

New Trail & Outpost

The hamsters pair, Racer & Teecoos had their offsprings last month - all four of them. After a few days, only one managed to survive. Amir named him Wobot. This means they need bigger space to play, and Papa (who took a day-off from work last Monday, without telling me, and went to the Curve, Ikea and all) managed to buy the extension of the Habitrail.

Additional trail tube (in yellow) for more meaningful playtime.

Wobot enjoying his (or her?) new outpost. He became this big after 3 weeks! He was just the size of a peanut when he was born.

Now, Adam is telling me that Teecoos looks like she's pregnant again. He's excited about it because his friend just bragged to him that he got 7 hamsters. Oh my! At the rate they are breeding, the habitrail soon will look like train coaches!

My Naughty Bunch

Remember Adam has to regularly use the inhaler?

Now the cannister is nowhere to be found.

I just found out that the three of them had played "doctor-nurse", and have used the nebulizer on to the "bearly patients". Now we are out of stock. That thing was supposed to last 3 months!

And now I gotta call my paeditrician friend Noni and asked what was the name of the inhaler. I think it's "Inflamide".



And this is what happened if you have a kid who just couldn't stand still to have his picture taken with his favorite movie character.

Nak Durian!

This is a tree planted by my next door neighbour outside the house. I always park my car underneath this tree.

A few days back, coming back from the market with Amir, he pointed his fingers to the hanging fruits.

"Mama, Amir nak durian!"

I never realized that the tree is bearing fruit already.

"Bukan durian la Amir, it's nangka!"

"Owh!"

Asthmatic Adam

The flu & cough virus are on the loose lately. My kids got them one at a time, taking turns one after another. Adam got it last, which eventually landed him in room 312 in DEMC last week.

Adam got the coughing bug the previous Sunday, afterwhich we had to bring him for many rounds of nebulizer. Normally, he'd recover after two days, but on Thursday his condition remained that the GP requested for a chest x-ray. True enough, his chest was filled with phlegm, and infected with bacteria. Eventually, he was diagnosed to have pneumonia, and needed to be admitted for the intraveneous antibiotic.

It was the day of my big presentation with a client, and in the middle of it, Papa smsed that he needed the insurance number and stuff like that. I had to call him during break time, and frantically sorted out the details. After that, my mind was not at the presentation at all, and had to get myself excused at 3:30pm.

First day at the hospital. Not a happy lad at all, especially when Mama is not around. Generally, he's ok, it's just that he needed to be on the nebulizer every 3 hours, and antibiotic 3 times a day.

Cheerful a bit, when Mama popped in at 4pm on the first day. Every half an hour, he'll go round the paediatric ward, talked to the nurses, go down the lobby and made himself at home.

Resah, gelisah, bila lah Abang boleh balik nih... 4 days at the hospital is agony.

Waiting for the discharge papers...

So it was a three-night-four-day stay for Adam in the hospital. We took turn to accompany him, Mama, Aina & Amir in the day, Atam & Acik popped by in the afternoons, and Papa stayed the nights. Of course he's upset because Mama couldn't sleep over, but since Amir is also showing some signs of flu & cough, Mama had to sleep at home.

In the end, Adam now is equipped with an inhaler, which he needs to use three times a day, for 3 months. He was pronounced as asthmatic, but not the frequent type. The inhaler is supposed to help strengthen the lungs and treat the asthma. Hopefully this illness is not for long.

Now we are monitoring Amir.

Mesmerizing Malaysia

I'm beginning to sound like a tourism ad.
It's just that sometimes it's the day-to-day thingy that sometimes I fail to appreciate.

The rocky beach behind Marriot Miri. The actual panorama is more breathtaking. I'm marking this place as future vacation spot with kids.

I pass by this bridge everytime I go to Putrajaya. Execellent view huh? Even better that Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Rain is always welcomed during the hot spell. This one taken during our trip to the Butterfly Park.

My long unattended lilies in my garden - despite the insects attack and lack of fertilizer, they still manage to bloom, large and pure.

Hills being cut for the marbles along the Ipoh Highway. One day all these beautiful hills will be a flat, barren land.

p/s: And all the shots were taken using my Sony Ericsson K510i. Please refer to this blog if you wish to republish the shots.

Tourism or Independence?

It's Visit Malaysia Year 2007 (VMY07) , but it's also the 50th year of Independence. We hear more of VMY07 all over the radio stations, but less of the nation's birthday. I guess whichever generates more money will make the headlines. A lot of influential people will also make money out of new tourism related projects, anything goes, as long as you can convince the public that the projects would directly or indirectly affect them beneficially.

So then how would my kids understand the meaning of Independence? And it's the 50th celebration. Do I need to show them the lovely places in Putrajaya, or the big posh bungalows along Section 9 and 7 in Shah Alam? Or merely repeating the movie Embun? Or try explaing to to them why Mama & Papa had to work late nights to fork out lotsa money so that they could have better education and compete in the outcome of the national post-independence curriculum.

I have not heard of any big plans for a big celebration yet. Maybe I'm too busy to read the papers and catch up with the latest fling. But I still managed to get some abuzz on Eye of Malaysia... so is it me or is it the news? Somebody please update?

Baby for Sale Anyone?

Over the past few weeks, my kids had a lot of baby-encounter, from people visiting our home with babies, to meeting friends with babies.

This, of course triggers a lot of baby requests, and play time is now baby-themed.

"Mama, jom pegi Tesco beli baby" nags Amir all the time.

"Do you have money to buy the baby?" I asked him back.

"Ada, dalam poket Mama!"

"Baby tu berapa ringgit Amir nak beli?" asked Papa this time.

"Dua ringgit!" and he smiled endlessly, thinking that we both are willing to entertain his wish.

However, when we are at Tesco, babies are no longer on his mind, thanks to the many aisles of toys, cookies etc.

After work last week, I found these in Adam's room.

Welcoming 2007

Goodbye 2006, Hello 2007!

That means goodbye my savings for the year, hello new school uniforms, fees, new tyres, insurance and road tax.

That also means we have to forget about having another baby sister, because that will cost us another big dent in our twiggy-bank. The kids have been watching waaaay too much of baby movies over the holidays, and have been begging for a little baby, especially Amir & Aina.

Well...I too long for soft little teeny weeny body to cuddle, but the thought of going through a torturing 9-month pregancy just gave me the jitters.

Papa, being the conservative banker he is, well... being calculative as well, are pretty much contented with the bunch. Hey, it's not cheap to raise children these days.

Let's just be calculative for a moment now, let's check our monthly list of spending just for the kids:

• Groceries
• Diapers
• Powdered milk x 2 tins for 2 kids
• Kumon x 4 subjects for 3 kids
• Aina's pre-school fees
• Adam's BM & Math tuition
• Taekwondo
• Iqra' home classes

Well, these are the basics, no frills yet. Frills include entertainment, toys, clothes and eating out.

Perhaps we need to look at those not as lucky as we are? Perhaps we need to be more sensitive to others needs? Like the flood-stricken victims? Like the land-slide survivors? Like the less fortunate ones?

Perhaps with the new year, we should be more prudent? And with prudence comes more blessings and increase in iman? Let's just ride the course of 2007 with more conscience of the poor and more quality time with our offsprings. I wish my kids will fly this year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!