Rites of Passage

Jun 11, 2009 - Amir had his rites of passage. He has been asking for it coz he's uncomfortable with his "u-know-what" being "hard" from time to time. Besides that, all his cousins had it done, and he's the only big one left. So there's a need to belong.



Papa & Mama decided to take up the "laser" procedure as it's already the 2nd week of school holidays. He needed to heal fast. So we went to Adam's previous surgeon who did the operation and the same rites. Look how happy Amir was.



I guess he didn't feel a thing, except for the big ouch when he got jabbed prior to the procedure.



The only thing we had to put up with was his nagging and boredom. Of course little baby sister Aisha tried to keep Abang Amir occupied playing games together. Macamla Aisha pandai main.



Of course our big boy needed a lot of rest, but a bit bored because Kakak & Abang went balik kampong.



And Aisha felt what Abang Amir felt...

Identity Crisis

For the past few months, I noticed Amir asking for his name to be changed, be it after coming back from school, or merely watching his favorite episodes of Ben 10 or Star Wars. Or simply out of the blue, he'll just asked for me to call him as somebody else, like Muhamad Amir (macamla ada mid-life crisis kunun..)


Sometimes, when he met his cousin he wants to be Amir Irfan.

Or I am Alienforce!

Or when he watches too many Ben 10s, he wants to be Stingfly

But I know at the end of the day, he still wants to be Amir Diduan..

Cherita Bergambar

Al-kisah tika purnama mengambang akhir minggu lepas, anakanda putri kami, Aina, telah dianugerahkan pingat ASHR dari tempat menuntut ilmu chara bangsa Nippon yang digelar Kumon. Pingat ASHR itu dalam bahasa Inggerisnya digelar "Advance Student Honour Roll" yang jika diterjemahkan sechara terus maknanya mungkin bermaksud "Daftar Nama Anugerah Penuntut Maju".

Majlisnya dibuat sechara sederhana sahaja, di tempat makanan ayam goreng segera dari Amerika yang kalau boleh ingin kami boikot tetapi pabila memikirkan anakanda kami nampak sungguh gumbira medapat jemputan anugerah tersebut, maka kami niatkan sahaja untuk hadhir memberi sokongan kepada anakanda Aina.


Kedua-dua puteri sungguh gumbira ketika bersiap sedia untuk pergi ke majlis.


Kekanda Adam yang sedikit berduka chita kerna tidak berjaya mendapat anugerah.


Anakanda Amir dan Aina yang seronok mendapat bingkisan parti.


Menikmati juadah yang tidak seberapa.




Aisha yang tidak menghiraukan riuh rendah majlis bermain sendirian.


Berdebar-debar hati menunggu namanya disebut untuk tampil mengambil pingat.


Saat manis dan membanggakan.


Bersama teman-teman seperjuangan.

Days of our lives

Actually I was really stressed out that I don’t feel like documenting what happened in the past three weeks. But somehow, I just want to note down the facts so that in my later life of which I may not be able to remember precisely the things that happened now, I could reflect back on the things and the blessings that Allah gave me.

Anyway, it was really a soap-opera life. Papa initially was admitted to hospital due to dengue, ended up spending 5 days in ICU because of pneumonia due to infections via his IV drip. He was in the hospital from March 17 until April 3, 2009. That was 17 days at the hospital. He went into ICU from Mar 25-29, when his blood platelet is already on the uptrend.

See, when dengue attacks, your immune system becomes very vulnerable, and when infections seeped in, it better be controlled properly as all the nasty bacteria can become fatal when you have low antibodies. Papa had 3 types of nasty bacteria in his system, Enterobacter and Klebsiella in his abscess and Staphylococcus aureus in the blood stream. His hand was so swollen that the surgeon had to do a minor surgery in ICU. The effect of the infections was bronco-pneumonia. Both of his lungs were watery and he had trouble breathing. It broke my heart to see him lying, out-of-breath in ICU, so weak and vulnerable. Thank God the water in the lungs was not as much; otherwise they had to perform another procedure to poke his back with needles to let the water out. So much of poking him here and there I guess by now he’s allergic to needles.



I am thankful to Allah for giving Papa and me the strength to face this challenge, and thankful also that Papa is a fighter. Also thank you so much to my family for the emotional support during that trying time. Now Papa is in recovery mode, carrying a lot of prescriptions in a little bag all the time possibly until the end of the month.

On the lighter side of things, my kids are enjoying all the fruit and flower bouquets that Papa’s colleagues and friends brought along. Our house became like a mini florist during that time. At the same time also, Adam had his first braces installed, and I also discovered that Aisha could possibly be allergic to seafood as she’s getting measles-like rashes after eating some savory crab cookies. Anyway, life goes on…

Test of patience

Abu Sa’id & Abu Hurairah reported that Rasullullah s.a.w said: “If any Muslim is stricken with hardship, discomfort, grief, worry, pain or illness, even a thorn which hurts him, Allah will wash away his sins because of it.”




Taking care of a sick grown-up is actually tougher than taking care of the young ones, emotionally that is. You really have to be patient, be careful with what you’re saying and also be ready for any sarcasm coming your way.

My husband hardly falls sick, but when he does, he’ll be really sick, and what’s worse is he’s also becoming quick tempered. But then, all sick people is easily tempered kan? With all the aching body and high fever, all the nerve system becomes haywire.

Now he’s hospitalized, already spent 3 nights as the hospital and could be longer now that the doctor is suspecting it a dengue case as his blood platelet count is on the downtrend. Today’s test will determine if it’s really dengue or not.

I’m praying very hard that he’ll recover very soon.

I know Allah is testing him with the illness, and me too, to see if I can weather the downside of my other half. So far,I'm just brushing off all the torments and troubles in my heart with lots of doa's and quiet cry at night before I go to sleep.

25 random things about me

1. I’m generally a happy person and I always think people have good intentions all the time.

2. Not good at making small talk to new-found acquaintance. I don’t know how I ended up in sales.

3. Every year after leaving school, without fail, I have nightmares of sitting for my SPM exams, and that IS REALLY a nightmare I tell you!

4. Which reminds me of my other nightmare when I was small I was lost on an island and found myself a sacrifice to talking head statue – the same statue I found at “The Aloha” pub & restaurant on Jalan P.Ramlee. Weird, too much Hawaii Five-O perhaps?

5. I’m forever banned from anything shellfish like prawns and crabs. My body just can’t take it (just like Auntida). I’ve tried out-growing this intolerance since I was small, and have managed to overcome intolerance to chicken, mussels, squids, ikan tenggiri, ikan kembong and the likes. But I still can’t fight prawns and crabs, they are the most lethal. I can’t even hold them at all coz a drop of their fluid will make my hands itch. That bad…

6. I ‘m a fan of the late Sudirman Hj Arshad, and was in constant communication with him until I left for the States. My letters to him were not so much a fan-mail, but more to a friend’s letter, which explained why I received his replies faster than a usual fan-mail. I regretted for not continuing the relationship…now must dig all those letters.

7. According to my husband, the reason why he noticed me in a wedding crowd is because I have a big head. Duh! I thought it was my sweet sexy lips.

8. I love theater – during our courting days, our usual date would be going out to the theater. I found out 5 years later that he hates it! Just doing it for the sake of going out with me.

9. I once was hit by the yellow fever – when I was 16 I liked everything yellow, from my toothbrush, to my shoes, my shirts, everything small, etc…

10. Now I prefer more earth-toned colors.

11. I have an addiction to cod-liver oil capsules; I love to chew them and purposely overdosing it.

12. Whenever I drive home from a late night at work especially around midnight, I avoid looking at the rear mirror. I use the side mirrors instead for fear of having the close encounter of the next dimension.

13. I have yet to fulfill one of my husband’s many desires (do not question what it is…)

14. Slow drivers on the fast lane really irritate me. If I’m late for something, I would tail closely behind them and force them out of the lane. Cruel and dangerous, yeah, I know.

15. Until now I still have problems stepping on the grass, attribute it to fear of paying fines back in high-school because I had limited funds with my allowance back then.

16. I don’t know why I was elected President of the Drama Club when I was in pre-uni days, I couldn’t even act or sing for that matter. Come to think of it, maybe THAT was the reason I got elected – everyone else was acting, no one to do the paperwork. But then, why did I join the club in the first place?

17. At work, I perform better under pressure. Translation – procrastinator.

18. Cooking is my other passion, but lack the time and energy doing it, mostly the preparing & cleaning bit.

19. I hardly travel because I don’t have the heart leaving my young ones behind, but taking them along also requires a lot of energy.

20. I multitask most of my time; attend meeting while face-booking and doing proposals at the same time, driving while teaching my kids reading and a whole lot other things.

21. There are still 3 un-finished books of various genres that I bought 6 months back – which explains my lack of free time.

22. Not a sport person either – the only game I think I’m good is ping-pong, and ironically my street name is also named after it.

23. My whole body is aching due to a mere lack of exercise – been telling myself to do this time and time again. Must catch up with hubby who’s already starting to do this and watch his diet.

24. I have always been an independent person/mother that sometimes I think my hubby is taking advantage of this, betul ke Yang?

25. Wonder who really came up with this “tagging” thingy – it took me almost a month to do this – 1 item per day, and mostly procrastination, thank you very much.

And now, the honors go to Acik, Mummy Ranger and Dilla, with perhaps some other people in FB.

My Late Bloomer

If I calculate the number of waking hours in a working day, it’d be only about 4-5 hours that I get to spend with my little pumpkin Aisha. So, imagine the reluctance of me waking up in the morning just to go to work. Once I’m all cuddled up with her under the bed covers, it’s all warm and fuzzy. The smell of her slightly sweaty hair plus the remains of the already dried up baby formula around her lips, though some kind of sour, it’s enough to leave my nostrils stuck on her forehead forever. It’s difficult to let go. Baby smell is the most wonderful smell, and I’m enjoying it most with her because I will not get to enjoy another of my own baby after this.

Now Aisha is already 1 year old, and yet she’s taking her own sweet time to grow up. She hasn’t got any tooth yet, compared to her brothers and sister, who got their first when they were about 6 or 7 months old. And she only started crawling only about two weeks ago though she’s already making her baby steps way before she crawled by hanging on to the sofas and table.

Perhaps another reason for being late is purely for me to take pleasure of her infancy. It’s such a great feeling being around her after a long day at work. She’s getting cheekier by the day, especially after her birthday, giggling her heart out when Papa tickles her tummy and demanding to be tossed in the air often times. A great stress reliever.

She’s learning fast too, picking up a trick or two in a day from her siblings. Before I knew it, she’d be another Amir…gosh I hope not. I hope she turns out more like Aina, sweet and polite, but she needs to be a little chirpy which I think there’s no problem of doing that . Anyway, just want to wish my little baby girl a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

My wish for you pumpkin is that life will be kind to you,
yet you will go through hardship, but you’ll learn from it as life is never fair.
I wish that you don’t have to face all the cruelties in the world,
but you’ll be aware of them and learn to give, forgive and forget.
I wish that you will achieve your dreams,
but you’ll climb the mountains to reach it with all your might.
Most of all my darling, I wish that you will never forget your mighty creator in all your endeavors.

We all love you very much!

My Little Perfectionist

Doing homework with Amir is not easy I tell you. Like always, the teacher's message commands more respect that the mom's teachings.

This time Amir was doing his Bahasa Melayu homework and some writing. So his work was to write the sentence that the teacher wrote on top of the page and to practice his physical writing skills, he needed to copy the sentences on top over and over again. And guess how long it took to write 6 sentences like "Datuk duduk di dapur"? It was 1 1/2 hour!!

Why?

He insisted that all the alphabets must be parallel to the top (his teacher's sample). As his writing was so big, of course everything went out of proportion. And he would nag and nag that his teacher will make him stand on the chair for not doing it correctly and nicely. Then he would erase the entire sentence and wrote it all over again. Then he would get confused once the alphabets went out of range... trying to look for the 'D' of "duduk" when it has gone under "dapur" of the previous line due to his big writing. I tried to convince him that as long as the writing is readable and straight, he shouldn't be worried. But then, who was I to say that?

"Mama ni..teacher cakap betul la..., Mama mana tau Mama bukan teacher!"

Adoi!


Because of that, Mama had to have some retail therapy.

So Mama went out and buy some stuff for my last weekend project, which I spent the entire Saturday afternoon cucuk mencucuk..

And hasilnya...






















At least my living hall corner got a new look :-)

New Year at the Bird Park

The Bird Park is near Tasik Titiwangsa. We have been wanting to go there for some time since the last trip to Butterfly Park. KL Bird Park is well known worldwide as "The World's Largest Covered Bird Park" or "The World's Largest Free Flight Aviary", home to more than 3,000 birds from approximately 200 species of local and worldwide birds.






Since Papa was busy beraya Gong-Xi, I took everyone including the maid (4 is too many to handle alone especially in a public attraction place). Aisha was one happy baby when we first got to the park, so did my maid who screamed "Ibuuuk.... banyaknya burung! Ibuuukkk..besar ya cenderawasih...! yadaa yadaaa yadaaa". Felt like I want to hide away under all those shady trees.





Since my camera always kena pau, had to rely on my phone camera.. This place would be wonderful for all DSLR enthusiasts. The birds were so colorful and poised!




My boys just love to feed to Kois...all fat and chubby.






Beautiful peacocks. We waited for them to flash the colorful tail, but I suppose they only do that during mating time. So they boys decided to feed them fish food, and they came out from behind the fence and jumped over. Bertempiaran lah the boys lari!



Of course the girls je yang tak takut. Aina happily posing with a peacock. By this time Aisha already felt asleep in her buggy.







At the Ostrich & Emu section after we saw part of the Bird Show.



At the nursery with baby chicks and ducklings. Of course Abang paling penakut to grab the one chick.










Lovely. I had this flower at home before, but of course Gary (siput babi as my kids call it - based on too much Spongebob exposure) ate them all up. By this time, the kids were all hungry and we had our early dinner at the Hornbill Restaurant just outside the park. You could actually dine with the birds picking on your food.

By 6:30pm, we were on our way home, with smooth traffic condition as almost everyone is out of town for the CNY. Wish it was like that for all the days that I go to work...