...and so much more

Amir's 6th and Asyraf's 5th Birthday Party

2011-11-21T10:39:00.015+08:00

this party is a combination of amir's 6th and asyraf's 5th. i have always wanted to do a party when the boys turn 6. sort of a celebration with their kindy friends before they part ways to go to primary school.

amir's birthday was during the first week of school, not so nice to have a party at the beginning of a school year when you hardly know anyone. while asyraf's birthday this year falls on the first weekend of school holidays, even though his would be great to celebrate in school, being so late in the year. so i decided to combine theirs and have one at home with their friends. after a year in school, they would have made many close friends and it would be great to celebrate with them.

so i started planning, asking the boys what they wanted as their theme, looking for food for children, looking for entertainment (i didnt want clowns) and of course, my favourite, party favours. i'm very particular about favours, i'm not one who buys a party bag or party container and just shove chocolates and sweets and lollies. i know kids love something to munch so i usually choose wafers or, for this party, chocolate chip cookies.

for the container itself, i was torn between small backpack and pencil case and finally decided on cups like we gave out during akmal's birthday. would be a good gift for children and adult. for food, i wanted simple fast food like kfc or mcd. kfc doesnt do small events unless you purchase buckets and barrels, ala carte, and i saw that mcd had a party to go set, where not only food and drinks were included, they also had entertainers at a very reasonable cost. we added pizza for the adults. cake of course, was from helly. she outdone herself yet again. lovely cars cake with the number 5 & 6 as tracks.

and theme, the most important choice to make, was decided by the birthday boys. it was between toy story and cars and their individual favourites - spiderman by asyraf, harry potter by amir. we went through what available online and finally decided on cars. it was a good choice too, vibrant colours, many choices of things online and, coincidently, matches the happy meal boxes of mcd. mcd gave out party packs too, so with my favours, the mcd party packs and the toy in the mcd happy meals, the children went home with 3 things.

the boys were excited to invite their friends - for their first birthday, it was more of daddy & mummy's friends. they brought the invitation cards everywhere, reminding their friends to get 'mak awak telefon mak saya'. deco were simple; just balloons, banners and table cloth to colour up the place. we didnt do anything for the insides.

all in all, on the day, everything went well. food were just nice, not to many leftovers. cake was great. deco was lovely. party favours too, was just the right amount. the guests and their parents were sporting. and to top it of, the weather was lovely, alhamdulillah.

the boys had a wonderful time, the planning put in was well worth it. cant wait for the next party, in, maybe, 2 years time. this time for ariff & akmal.

the invite, the deco and the favour...

cake cutting...

food galore...feels like kindy...

the guests...

Never Leave Home Without It...

2011-11-18T14:29:00.023+08:00

...amir's comb

...asyraf's games

...akmal's blue towel

...cant put ariff's stuff in here. there's simply no place for his mops, brooms, vacuum cleaners, bowls and bowls of bananas

Amir's Graduation 2011

2011-10-23T10:44:00.006+08:00

a major milestone for us indeed. the end of pre-school and soon, the beginning of primary school for our eldest. we made the right choice of transfering amir and asyraf to a kindy near their primary school. amir's made friends with many who will be in the same primary school with him, which is comforting as moving to primary school is not a small matter to them. now he (and the mummy) is less worried about starting primary school. he says most of his friends would be in the same school with him.

i like the fact that the school dedicated a day for the graduation and dont combine it with the year-end concert. at least the audience would be parents of children in pre-3 classes. or so that was the plan. who actually came was a different matter (still so angry at some people's stubborness and refusal to respect the school's request).

the ceremony was short and sweet. started with a speech for en badri, followed by the conferring of certificates to 5 pre-3 classes. amir's class queen elizabeth was the third to go on stage, by that time most parents of the first 2 classes have left the hall so we were able to move closer to the stage.

congratulations to abang long, engku amir iskandar. you have done us proud and hope you will always strive to do the best that you can, in any field that you choose, amin.

My 36th Birthday

2011-10-15T11:37:00.005+08:00

Birthdays are God’s way of telling us to eat more cake.

and eat a lot of cakes, i did! this year i was blessed with 5 cakes! five! cinco! never before i had that many in a year. i was surprised throughout the day by colleagues, by friends, by families, by the boys who kept singing and kissing me.

we dont go out for dinner or anything like that. hubby's, amir's and my birthday are within the space of 11 days. usually we celebrate together by having dinner just the 6 of us. this year, hubby tried to surprise me. he's done better than he had during my previous birthdays so i'm pretty sure he would succeed sometime soon.

(hint to hubby - i would love a cath kidston theme birthday)

some pictures taken when i got home from work.

Amir's Notes

2011-10-14T10:58:00.004+08:00

* something's wrong with the alignment of blogspot. thought i always edit so that the alignment is ok before i post. so i'm risking this entry *

amir always brings home notes from school. ever since he can write and since we complimented him on his handwriting.

i kind of like this one. amir would write like he speaks, which is a lot (ie he talks a lot). if there's no space he'd write sesuka hati where there's empty space.

"nah kita bagi mummy dengan daddy dengan tisu dan tiza"

"ni kita bagi dekat mummy daddy" complete with an angry bird picture

"ni kita bagi tiza dan tisu"

"ni amir buat" & "dia nak pukul daddy tenatedeng ni lah ialah amir saya ada won (ie wand - harry potter's wand)"

Year-End Exam

2011-10-13T08:43:00.012+08:00

i get very excited when the boys get their report card & exam papers back. more often than not, its because i dont know beforehand that they had sat for their exam. sometimes i do know and wish them all the best. sometimes, it escapes my attention and i only know when its over and results are out.

i know some people go, dont put too much pressure on them, they are only kids, when they see i update my status about their exams. what pressure?? its just a good luck wish. its not as though i sit with them throughout the night burning the midnight oil. there's not a thing to do to prepare them. their exams arent mind-boggling or exhausting, its just a part of the curriculum. a simple 5 questions for those in akmal's school (get it...5 questions!) and a 2-3 pager for those in ariff's school. they probably sit through it a mere 2 miuntes a paper.

yes i get excited about it. why not? its something that i can measure how much the boys have developed. i wouldnt put too much emphasis on it and carve out their future based on their results, but yeah, its something i do look forward to. not only me, the boys like it as well. they come home with pride showing off their results and their report card. and, again, why not? i really think some people are too narrow minded. the word 'exam' and 'kindy' get their panties in a knot when what they should have done is ask (because they clearly do not know) what actually do they do during an exam.

anywho...the final exam for the year was good. really good in fact for akmal. a bit of a so-so for ariff but its ok. i must remember not to compare him with amir and asyraf but he's getting there.

akmal's exam papers...

and his report card. congrats adik baby akmal izzat...

ariff's papers (some bad but some really good)

and his report card ('banyak bermain...' no surprise there!)

Ariff is Four

2011-10-11T13:48:00.007+08:00

lets not start on a negative point. at four, ariff is showing interest in baking, he loves to clean, he likes colour coding, he slowly starting to get used to handheld games (its a plus point when your elder brothers are into them, so that you're not left out), he's very tidy, he likes things well-kept.

he's been tough to handle this year. from my observation, its because he's separated from amir & asyraf. the three of them have always been very close. they are a year apart (from now until end of november, ariff & asyraf are the same age!), their developments almost mirror each other and when ariff's all excited to be in the same school as his brothers, they are all of the sudden taken away and sent to another school. they have their own friends, their own teachers, their own schedule. ariff feels a bit out of place, i think, which leads to his difficult stage.

but he's been slightly better the past month or so. we've mentioned many, many times that he'll be in bahtera ilmu next year and he needs to buck up. he's showing a bit of interest in books and reading. hopefully he'll continue progressing and be less of a whining & stubborn boy, amin.

for ariff's birthday, we took the boys out to sunway lagoon. it cost a bomb, especially since we didnt plan on staying very long. we thought at most we'd stay til lunchtime. the weather was good too. after raining for days on end, it was sunny saturday morning, cloud coming in steadily towards lunchtime. it rained just as we were changing and leaving.

we had a quick lunch at carl's jr before the boys hinting that 'when we get home, we need to sleep, kan mummy'. in other words, mummy, we're sleepy. dropped by helly's house to get ariff's cake. helly is such a blessing. took up my very last minute order. i've ordered with her, what 5 times now?

pappy invited himself for dinner that night. we were actually supposed to go for dinner but tok & nenny had a wedding so we had to cancel. pappy said since dinner was off, he'd come over with presents. then he ordered tacos so i had to make tacos. tiza & tisu came as well. ariff was happy, excitedly showing off his cake. glad he had a great time because next month it would be a double celebration for amir and asyraf and i dont want him to feel left out.

on that note, happy birthday ariff iqhwan @ abang adik...

Mongolian Spots

2011-10-07T13:53:00.008+08:00

previously it was neonatal teeth, now its mongolian spots. the only difference is with mongolian spots, all my boys have them. from amir right down to akmal. apparently i have them too but well, thats another story altogether.

"the Mongolian spot is a congenital developmental condition exclusively involving the skin. The blue colour is caused by melanocytes, melanin-containing cells, that are deep under the skin. Usually, as multiple spots or one large patch, it covers one or more of the lumbosacral area (lower back), the buttocks, flanks, and shoulders. It results from the entrapment of melanocytes in the lower half to two-thirds of the dermis during their migration from the neural crest to the epidermis during embryonic development" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_spot

amir

asyraf

ariff

akmal

Neonatal Teeth

2011-10-07T13:24:00.016+08:00

amir is one of the lucky few babies who had teeth while he was very young. it was not obvious and not so 'in your face' the moment he was delivered. we found out about his tooth when he was about a week old. it was actually still in his gums but the whiteness of the tooth can already seen. we thought it was milk, at first and were busy scrubbing the spot. a couple of day after that, the tooth made its appearance.

we left it, the tooth that is, aside and didnt bother much with it. the teeth around it started sprouting. when we brought amir to see our dentist for the first time when he turned three, we asked about it. the doctor said its not common and usually its extracted as its not 'real' tooth & is often shaky. but she left amir's alone as its still standing strong after 3 years.

amir at 5 months old, already with 2 teeth. i couldnt find an earlier picture of him.

when amir turned 6, i was already anticipating his milk teeth would start dropping. he finally announced one tooth was shaky and surprise, surprise, its the tooth he was born with. he showed me before going off to sleep and when i had a closer look the next day, i could see that the permanent tooth was already there, behind the milk teeth. i told amir and amir, being the kecoh boy he is, immediately wanted to go see the dentist to extract his milk teeth. 'mummy, amir tak suka gigi macam ni', he told me. unfortunately the dentist was closed.

when he finally went to the dentist, the tooth was extracted and he came home feeling like a big boy. it doesnt look like he had a tooth extracted as the empty spot was filled with the parmenant tooth, which has grown halfway.

after the extraction.

before and after...

it was kinda sad to say good bye to the tooth which was with amir for almost 6 years and 9 months. the tooth that made many think we were joking but there you go, guess we're one of the lucky parents of babies with neonatal, apparently 1 in 700 babies.

He Writes

2011-08-23T09:41:00.011+08:00

i am particular about writing. i hate messy writing. ok, fine, my writing may not always be the best but i blame it on the pen. when i use the right pen, my handwriting is pretty ok. having all boys scares me a bit in that region - handwriting. i'm a bit sceptical about boys' handwriting. in school its always the girls that write better. of course this would change as they grow older - i do know of guys with really nice writing.

amir, especially, stresses me out with his writing. i used to go insane helping him with his homework. the tails of his g, j and y would be above the line, he would change between capital and small letters in one word, his a and c and m are huge and hanging in mid-air. oh stress!

amir's teacher, mrs. jey, is particular about writing. she told hubby and me during one of the meetings with teachers that she would throw back a book to the student if their writing is messy. and now, because of her, i love amir's writing. its beautiful and so-not-boyish. i hope he maintains it when he enters primary school.

back in january...

as the months go by...

amir's writing now...

Late Mid Year Report

2011-08-11T14:53:00.006+08:00

this is so overdue. i wanted to update about the boys, about their school, about their developments, in like forever, but i never seem to have the time. kinda sad when you let work take over your life.

anyway, back to my favourite topic - my eais. how they've grown. i was just thinking this morning (and a few times when i see hypermarket ads) that, wow...they dont drink formula anymore. akmal's not even 2 & a half (he'll be that next month) and we're not making formulas anymore! ahhh happy, happy, joy, joy. kinda nice when people talk about how they have to get up for feeding or stop when they're out and about for feeding, that i can go...eh, what ever for? soon we'll be chucking out the diapers but the effect wont be as great as toilet breaks need to be increased but still...no formula, no diapers, wonderful.

amir & asyraf are thriving at their new school. kinda makes me say, penat-penat je worry about them but who wouldnt worry. after 4 years at TIS, to uproot 2 and put in a new school, was a worrying time for me. they were worried too, i know. their faces on the first day of school showed it but they made friends, they got close to their teachers, they improved their english, they adjusted their timetable (ie cut down daytime naps) and now they absolutely love school.

another plus side is that amir is mentally preparing himself for primary school. he's been talking to his friends about their school next year. both amir & asyraf has shown so much improvement - amir's writing is absolutely wonderful, their spelling, the words they use, their reading are all excellent. they are both reading the old-school 'peter & jane' series - currently amir is reading 11a and asyraf is reading 7a. they take part in sports day, story telling competitions, science projects, spelling bees and soon it will their year-end concert.

the downside to this is the jealousy of ariff. he's been with his abangs for so long, previously in the taska while the abangs are in tadika. separate but together. they start the school together, end the school together, they go and come back together. now they are totally seprated - they wake up separately, they go to school separately, they have new friends that ariff dont know. this causes ariff to be moody and rough and downright irritating. he refuses to listen, he cries for no reason, he throws things, he deliberately go against everyone. i hope that he will change for the better once we enrol him in BiCDC next year. if not, then there's another underlying problem in him.

akmal too is getting rougher. he would say things like 'ni bukan awak punya', 'awak main sana lah' 'ini izzat punya lah'. his brothers entertain him. even though he has this tendency to be a bit rough, i'm not too worried as he tends to follow his brothers. and if amir & asyraf are ok (hopefully ariff will be better soon too), insyaallah akmal will be ok too. for now my hope is with the elder two to straighten out the younger two. but akmal, he's still the baby, still the manja one, still the one giving away hugs and kisses freely, still the one who wants to sleep in his mummy's arms. now that, i can wait to outgrow...unlike to formula and the diapers.

some current photos of them...

Night Ritual

2011-08-10T09:05:00.006+08:00

now that the boys are older, they have new rituals that they practise (enforced by us) every night as they're about to sleep. previously, hubby & i would recite al-fatihah & ayat kursi to each of them before giving them a kiss goodnight. now they do it on their own.

first, they recite al-fatihah...

1:1 In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
1:2 Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds;
1:3 Most Gracious, Most Merciful;
1:4 Master of the Day of Judgment.
1:5 Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek.
1:6 Show us the straight way;
1:7 The way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace, those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray.

then, al-ikhlas, 3 times...

112:1 Say: He is Allah, the One and Only;
112:2 Allah, the Eternal, Absolute;
112:3 He begetteth not, nor is He begotten;
112:4 And there is none like unto Him.

finally, with our help (as they have not mastered it yet) the boys recite ayat kursi...

2:255 Allah! There is no god but He,-the Living, the Self-subsisting, Eternal. No slumber can seize Him nor sleep. His are all things in the heavens and on earth. Who is there can intercede in His presence except as He permitteth? He knoweth what (appeareth to His creatures as) before or after or behind them. Nor shall they compass aught of His knowledge except as He willeth. His Throne doth extend over the heavens and the earth, and He feeleth no fatigue in guarding and preserving them for He is the Most High, the Supreme (in glory).

one of the advantages of reading the 3 ayat above is to protect oneself during his/her slumber, insyaalllah.

Diantara khasiat Fatihah ialah siapa yang membaca 'Al-Fatihah' diwaktu hendak tidur, Surah 'Al-Ikhlas' sebanyak 3 kali dan Mu'awwidzatain maka ia akan aman dari segala hal selain ajal. Barang siapa membaca ayat Kursi ketika hendak tidur, maka Tuhan mewakilkan dua malaikat yang menjaga selama tidurnya sampai pagi.

Another Trip

2011-08-07T13:20:00.005+08:00

we're back here. this time its for hubby. he's due for his knee 'reconstruction' since, well...since 2003! its high time he decides to undergo his third and hopefully final operation. after 8 years and many, many swollen knee incidents due to slips, knocks, falls, he finally decides to go under the knife yet again.

this time, the decision to admit needed planning, talking through and more planning. unlike the normal 'so...you nak admit ke?' and spur of the moment decisions when it comes to the boys. for once, the one half of the team will be down, leaving the 4 terrorists against 1. secondly it will be over the fasting month and the food buyer will not be able to perform his duties. thirdly, amir and asyraf will be without their normal transport to and from school. we had to settle 3 main items - food during the fasting month, transport for the boys and transport for hubby for his physio sessions.

a week prior to the surgery, 2 out of the 3 were settled. we still had a problem with hubby's transport. we decided on a cab and maybe arranging for the same cab to ferry him back and forth. unfortunately, the cab did not even show up on the first day of physiotherapy so hubby took a chance and drove himself. so that's the method of transport ever since - he drove. doesnt go down well with me but we lack choices currently.

its almost 2 weeks since his operation. its been going ok so far, alhamdullilah. the first week of the fasting month was quite stressful with hubby falling ill after each physio session, the painkiller only last for 12 hours so he's in excruciating pain 5pm onwards. not to mention me having to run around to look for food for iftar from the measly pasar Ramadhan in front of mydin. hopefully the second week of fasting onwards will be better, insyaallah.

what was he in for, by the way. acl revision / reconstruction - "ACL reconstruction is surgery to replace the ligament in the center of your knee with a new ligament. The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) keeps your shin bone (tibia) in place. A tear of this ligament can cause your knee to give way during physical activity.

You will probably receive general anesthesia right before surgery. This means you will be unconscious and unable to feel pain. Sometimes, other kinds of anesthesia are used for this surgery.

The tissue that will replace your damaged ACL will come from your own body or from a donor. A donor is a person who has died and, before death, chose to give all or part of their body to help others.

•Tissue taken from your own body is called an autograft. The two most common places to take tissue from are a tendon in your knee or your hamstring. Your hamstring is a tendon behind your knee.
•Tissue taken from a donor is called an allograft.

The procedure is usually done by knee arthroscopy. With arthroscopy, a tiny camera is inserted into the knee through a small incision. The camera is connected to a video monitor in the operating room. Your surgeon will use the camera to check the ligaments and other tissues of your knee.

Your surgeon will make other small cuts around your knee and insert other medical. Your surgeon will repair any other damage found. Your surgeon then will replace your ACL by following these steps:
•The old ligament will be removed with a shaver or other instruments.
•If your own tissue is being used to make your new ACL, your surgeon will make a larger cut. Then, your surgeon will remove this tissue through the larger cut.
•Your surgeon will make tunnels in your bone to bring the new tissue through. This new tissue will be in the same place as your old ACL.
•Your surgeon will attach the new ligament to the bone with screws or other devices to hold it in place. As it heals, the bone tunnels fill in. This secures the new ligament more.

At the end of the surgery, your surgeon will close your incisions with stitches and put a dressing on them. Most surgeons take pictures during the procedure from the video monitor so that afterward you can see what was found and what was done."

Back Here

2011-07-08T09:48:00.007+08:00

its been a while since we’ve used our DSH hotel voucher. DSH is our second home with the number of time the boys been admitted. sounds weird to some, i know – apa best sangat kena admit, tak kesian anak ke – but to us, its sometimes better to be admitted as we get twice a day consultation from the pead. there were times when we pack our bags before seeing the doctor and would ask to be admitted.

the last time, if i remember correctly, was 11 months ago, a couple of days before Ramadhan going into a couple of days of Ramadham, forcing me to sahur and break fast alone with cold food hubby drop off. but its ok, its for the boys.

nowadays, news of the boys being admitted is not such good news anymore. i know office work would be distrupted and that’s the main reason i try not to be too excited to admit the boys (especially akmal) when they fall ill. but last month have been pretty trying. akmal’s been wheezing on and off, sporting high fever on and off. first was due to tiza’s cat who came by uninvited. his temperature shot up the day after, then came the wheezing. his fever and wheezing lasted 9 days.

then it came again after a day at tssc’s house. akmal was 39c on sunday night, started wheezing badly monday morning, vomiting monday night, needed another 2 voltaren later the same night, coughing badly til he was almost blue on tuesday night and was finally admitted on wednesday. his doctor said he was weak and not showing improvement after the first ventolin+pulmicort. his fever was 39 during lunchtime and he was immediately admitted.

upon admission, akmal was given ventolin four-hourly, pulmicort six-hourly, flixonase, prednisolone, piriton, clarityne, paracetamol and antibiotics (i don’t think its augmentin as it smells and looks different).

note – i cant stress enough for parents to use the proper name of each medicine instead of the general “cough syrup”, “ubat selsema yang kaler kuning”, “ubat cucuk bontot”, seriously, its not difficult and its for your own good to learn about medication.

after a day his fever went down but his wheezing has not left. lets see how long this holiday lasts…

Time Flies

2011-07-04T12:38:00.004+08:00

it happened a year ago but it feels like yesterday...

http://eiseai.blogspot.com/2010/07/remembering.html

i am forever grateful that, despite it being a terrible memory, i can always turn around and smile because of these boys...

Teddy Bear Picnic

2011-06-22T08:27:00.004+08:00

one fine day, all of the sudden, i felt like taking the boys for a picnic. i have friends left right and centre taking their children for picnics all the time but we have not reached that level. with 4 boys in tow, all so young and needs constant monitoring, going for a picnic isnt the best idea. going to the beach, per se, is not bad. we can look out for them. but with other activities, many many things to look after, well…just not yet.

then when our dentist called to postpone the boys’ check up, i got the idea of going for a picnic. i surfed for a good place to go, a park, lake, waterfall, beach and finally decided on bagan lalang. not too far, reviews about the beach not too bad. i informed hubby of my idea and he loved it. then we roped in tiza and tisu.

tiza and i planned the menu. i prepared sandwiches – sardine and cheese, bought cakes, drinks while tiza got the silvers poons chef to make nasi goreng daging cincang for us. we also decided on nuggets, which i prepared the morning itself.

we decided to start the day early, leave after subuh, get there early and leave by lunchtime before it gets too hot. we were a bit behind schedule, we left around 745am. there was the boys to take care off, tiza and tisu to get ready, the nuggets to fry, the nasi goreng to warm up. so our 7am became 745am. but traffic was on our side all the way and we got to the beach before 9am. wonderful!

the day was great - not too sunny, right amount of clouds, nice wind. we followed the sign and it took us to the camping site. everyone’s tummy wanted to stop there but we weren’t too happy. there was just bricks everywhere. not really beach-y. but we stopped and had breakfast anyway. i thought there must be another place, this cant be the beach people were talking about. we sat and had breakfast on a bench and table for crying out loud. so much for picnic by the beach.

after the tummies were fed, we decided to drive around to look for the actual beach. didn’t take long, a 2 minutes drive took us to the other side of the sepang gold coast resort to a proper beach. it was still quiet at 930am. we parked and took out the foodstuff yet again, this time with the mat and the boys clothes. aahhh…now that’s better. we sat for a bit, arranging ourselves on the small mat, before the boys started to get antsy. so we took them for a stroll, which later became a full blown swimming, by the beach.

an hour of frolicking topped off with an ice cream session, then a quick shower and a warning by asyraf ‘mummy…lepas ni kita nak balik, main puzzle lepas tu kita nak tido’ spells the end of our morning by the beach. all in all it was great. we drove out to a beach, had a lovely time, ate quite a bit, tire the boys out and were home before zohor.

nice start to the weekend. should do this again, maybe this time slightly further away.

He's Unwell..Again...

2011-06-13T21:10:00.004+08:00

usually i dont make a fuss when the boys fall ill. to me, its part and parcel of growing up. a fever and flu and cough here and there, i dont think is a big deal. falling ill once in a couple of months is seriously nothing to shout about. i dont go 'oh they are always sick' (like some people do, as though they are with my boys more often than me) or blame the school, the babysitter, the maids etc for their condition. forever finger pointing, pathetic betul. furthermore, oi...demam je kot, relek lah.

so anyway, a normal thing to me, this fever and flu. but when it comes to akmal, i'm a bit concerned. him being unhealthy generally is already a big thing, with his small nasal airway and bird's chest. admitted into NICU before he turned one month old, while staying with his mum at home (therefore not the nursery ye for those so against us sending the boys to nurseries) and subsequently, falling sick once a month. we've been warned by his pead to expect a gloomy first few years, eventually he'll grow stronger and out of it, insyaallah.

true to that, akmal was admitted no less than 5 times before he turned a year old. i went into 2010 with a negative leave balance due to that. then although the frequency decreased, he was constantly on the nebuliser, had to take ventolin up to 4times a day and was prescribed seretide daily unless given the a-okay.

even then i was, ok lah...not that worried. still can survive. until recently. he's been wheezing extra strongly. he stops when he's laughing to grasp for breath. he pulls in a strong breath in between sentences. his nose is running till he has blisters. he coughs so bad its like an old man's cough. his temperature goes up and down. its been that way for more than a week, 9 days to be exact. althought i usually dont worry, now i'm starting to worry. nothing his pead cant fix, i'm sure, but first i gotta find time to see him before i can quit worrying...

A Day for Ariff

2011-05-30T17:41:00.007+08:00

amir & asyraf go out for movie dates with tiza & tisu quite often. there was a period of time when they went out almost every weekend. akmal stays home because...well, because his mummy say so. ariff doesnt follow because he is un-handle-able. he runs here and there, disregarding what everyone says.

hubby & i have taken ariff alone out a couple of times just so he has a little bit of time out and not cooped indoors all the time. but taking him out on our own is terrible. he doesnt listen and we would need to run after him. usually a couple of hours is more than enough. so this time hubby & i decided to take him out together. it was better, 2 adults grasping his hand stops him from running all around.

we managed to do a bit of shopping - mothercare & FOS were having sale. hubby and ariff had their hair cut - i dont care what people say, i like my boys hairless. then we watched kung fu panda 2, which surprisingly i actually liked - i didnt like the first movie. then we had a nice quiet lunch at chili's - both of us were craving for beef!

the funny thing about ariff, though, is he kept asking when we were going home. when asked what he wanted to do, the stage was all his, all he said was 'ariff nak balik'. the only thing he was actually asking for was, grocery shopping because he said he wanted to bake a cake. aisehhh...

maybe we can do this again, eh ariff. but only if you remember to what?? ariff: :"jangan degil!"

the guest of honour...

A Hot Morning

2011-05-29T16:02:00.011+08:00

we took the boys to the BJ carnival on saturday. BJ carnival is an annual event, we've been to a couple but have never spent hours there like we did yesterday. this year, the stalls didnt seem as appealing as back in 2009. i remember they had stalls selling ready-made baju kurung and stalls of the shops around dpangkin, especially the wellness centres. this year i couldnt find much that interest me. even the food stalls weren't that interesting.

the boys had a great time though. we arrived just as the guest of honour officiated the event. amir and asyraf stayed on in front of the main stage to see their friends perform while hubby went off to the tm booth (he signed up for unifi, which was not at all planned). we walked around the area, i stopped by the prudential booth while the boys entertained themselves doing sand art with their teachers.

i've not blogged about amir & asyraf's in their new school (because i dont have pictures to compliment the entry argh!) but hubby & i are pretty happy with their developments the past 5 months. the school and their teachers and their friends have had a positive impact on the boys and we're proud of how amir and asyraf have handled themselves in school, in making friends, learning, being part of the crowd.

we got to know more about the teachers and the boys at the carnival. asyraf's teacher zaza (in red top) is very loving and soft hearted, amir's teacher jey (wearing yellow t-shirt) is hard but kind. their headmistress & her husband are hands on, their ustazah is strict and attentive. cant wait to bring the other two over to bahtera ilmu. soon, insyaallah.

back to the carnival, the boys had a great time with their sand art project. i guess being around their teachers made them more into the project than without.

before we left, we dropped by the 'mylife' stall. i wanted to get the basketball hoop stand. the boys entertained themselves with the cars and bikes around the stall. feel like getting them too but there's just no space around the house for them. sorry, boys!

The (Almost) Twins

2011-05-21T22:14:00.008+08:00

they're 10 months apart. they can be the worst of enemies. they fight and punch and pinch and scratch and slap each other. they are always trying to outdo each other. they cant stand to sit next to each other, at the dining table or in the car. they sleep next to each other though, but that's only because amir wants to sleep nearest to the door. but in spite of all that, they can be friends (i wouldnt go as far as using the words 'good friends' though).

once in a while, this happens...

* note: amir is not in these pictures as he's off to the side sulking because he didnt have any blue pajamas...

Alone Time

2011-05-17T16:14:00.009+08:00

hubby and i took the monday before wesak day off. that gave us a 4-day weekend. the saturday & sunday are for the boys, as usual. on wesak day it would be a repeat of that. so we took the monday off to run some errands and rest.

i initially wanted to take ariff and akmal with us but the boys had teachers' day celebration in both schools. amir and asyraf were asked to wear superheroes or myth outfit and we opted for batman and spiderman for them. ariff wanted to join the crowd so he wore his superman tshirt, while akmal, as he had no superhero outfit, became the "timmy time" man.

the running errands werent really a major task. we had some grocery shopping to do, some small shopping to settle and to wash the car (that was the only errand actually). so we went off to 1 utama. i love the car wash there. 3 weeks ago we took the 5 there to be washed and yesterday we took the CCP there. the guy at the car wash said it'd take about 1 & half to 2 hours so walked around for a bit looking for the things on my list, before doing something unplanned - thai foot massage!

we managed to slot in a good lunch at paddington house of pancakes. as we're so used to running in and out with the boys around, even when they are not with us, we managed to order, eat and pay in less than half an hour!

after 3 hours, we left 1utama with jammies for the boys, books for the boys and for us, purse and wallet for me, a half-full cold storage trolley, sore feet and back (from the massage) and a full stomach.

Kitchen Duties

2011-05-03T13:17:00.012+08:00

i've been uploading quite a bit of food pix on fb lately. because i've been cooking quite a bit lately. its not easy working right smack in the city centre to come home and cook for the family. i usually reach home around 8pm and with the laundry, the bathing, the preparing of lunch boxes for the next day, homework and getting the boys to bed by 930pm, there's just not enough time to cook.

because i hardly cook on weekdays, the feeling of 'not in the mood to cook' sometimes spill over to the weekends - usually due to the empty fridge and kitchen cabinet. so for the past 4-5 years, its always been outside food for us or dinner for the boys at the daycare while hubby and i quickly down roti canai at a mamak nearby. that's always been our daily life.

but as the boys grow older and are interested to put everything they see in the kitchen into their bellies, i've started going into the kitchen more often. what hubby and i usually do is stock up on saturdays and cook the rest of the weekend. fresh food would last the 2 days while packed food need to last longer, they usually become the boys' dinner on weekdays - sandwiches, cereal, those kind of stuff.

long weekends are the best (aside from the fact that you get more than 2 days away from work) but also because i get to experiment more. the last weekend was especially great. i made something i usually make, i made something new, i made something out of the box, i made something fresh.

on the table on saturday was the very simple mexican baked eggs for breakfast & mihun soup for dinner.

sunday's menu was specially thought of - asyraf's pulut kuning for breakfast, ariff's butter cake for brunch, amir's fish cakes for lunch, akmal's rice for dinner and hubby's food at all 4 meal times.

on monday, i only planned up to lunch as i hate cleaning up the night before a working day (because i'd rather concentrate on the laundry). so i made pancakes for breakfast - 24 pieces of them! - and soup tulang for lunch which lasted til dinnertime and longan jelly in between.

what is great is that most of the food i cook dont require much preparation and are not too difficult. i've not gone through the stage where i want to spend hours in the kitchen or entertain tens of people yet. just something simple for the boys, who had bowls-ful and plates-ful. hubby and i were just amazed at how much they can eat.

the best reward i got, apart from the boys' very rounded bellies, was a statement from asyraf 'mummy buat nasi ke jelly ke cake ke, semua semua semua sedap sangat sangat' which amir and ariff supported. ahh bless them little monsters.

Sports Day 2011 - TIS

2011-04-25T10:18:00.015+08:00

ariff & akmal had their sports day last saturday. they've been practising for the past 2 weeks - akmal more excited, this being his first involvement in a sports event, than ariff. akmal runs around the house, going 'cepat cepat, kutip kutip, rariiii' while ariff just goes 'ariff takmo tiup balloon'. amir was also excited because he wanted to meet haziq, even though in the end they couldnt meet as haziq was confined to the participants' tent while amir was at the spectators' tent the whole time.

the day started well enough, weather was good, not too sunny, not too hot, windy enough. the grass was eecky though, from the heavy rain the night before. i left ariff and akmal with their teachers; ariff without a care in the world, akmal bawling as usual. then i grabbed a seat with amir & asyraf.

we waited for a bit before the teacher started off the event with the march. it was a nicely organised march in the beginning (because it started with the kafa students) and ended up all over the place (because the last in the line are the toddlers). after speeches from the headmistress and the guest of honour, the sports day started.

akmal was up first, he had 2 events - kutip sumi and a race. his teachers have been saying he does pretty well during the practise session but during the real event he was more concentration on trying to eat the jellies and was too busy looking out to abang & abang long.

after the toddler & playgroup's events, it was the tadika & pra-tadika's turns. ariff represented the pra-tadika in the beanie race & balloon race. with his selamba attitude, ariff wasnt in the top three in both his races. which is good, since both him and akmal received the same prize hence no fighting once we return home.

after ariff's event, i decided to call it a day as it was extremely challenging looking after 4 boys who were running in very different directions. we went off to see cikgu ummi to say thank you. that was when we realised asyraf was missing and had an 'event' of his own, which i will not elaborate further. suffice to say, he was crying his eyes out, hiccupping and almost throwing up, all the way home. i hope asyraf learned his lesson on saturday.

apart from that incident, it was a pretty ok moring and the boys were not much of a handful the whole weekend.

Dear Bottles...

2011-04-18T13:20:00.009+08:00

"Life wouldn’t be the same without you and all the memories you have given me".

you've been a part of our lives the past 6 years and we're oh-so-grateful. but its time to move forward and say goodbye, and "Sometimes you have to let go of someone to see if theres anything there to hold on to."

Growing up is never easy. You hold on to things that were. You wonder what's to come. - The Wonder Years television show

The Good Cancels The Bad

2011-04-15T08:46:00.006+08:00

the year didn't start out in a positive way. coming down from a high, after a terrific, terrific holiday (did i mention it was oh-so-terrific??), we were faced with amir's hernia surgery. then it was work & work all the way, non-stop until end march. everything about this 'work' was, errr i reserve my comments but those who know would know.

another major negative bit that happened early this year, was an eye-opener. one of my very best friends, whom i considered my closest friend ever, turned out to be a great disappointment. the hurt is beyond words, i still can't get over it and don't think i ever will. i've always heard people say, don't give your trust 100% but what would a friendship be if there's no full trust. but alas, when you give your all, this is an example of what can happen and 100% can turn into a 0%, and maybe that's worst than a 90% becoming say 50%. ok so now the mathematics side of me is talking. whatever number i assign to it, the trust built over the past years have deteriorated and it would take a lot of work to grow it back. unfortunately i don't feel up to sowing back the seeds. ok, so that's my emo bit for the year. tis so embarassing to emo-nise my blog/facebook...oppsss itu bukan saya, saya tak pathetic macam itu hahaha.

so off to the sunshine in my life - my little EAIs. not so little anymore, they have been growing right in front of my nose! one important growing up factor - all of them are circumcised!! yeay to the mummy who stayed the course and prayed every night and day for this day to come. i still blame you-know-who for going back on the circumcision decision (they rhyme!) way back when. so now that they're all cut-ted and cleaned, one major phase is out of the way. another one is of bottles and formulas. shoo away! akmal have been formula-less and bottle-less for exactly one month now. okay, so there have been instances when he cried so much in school seeing his friends with bottles that his teachers give up and give in to him but i'm not counting them because they were beyond my control and out of my jurisdiction. just in time with my aim to stop bottle-feeding at 2 years old. again, yeay! so now there's no more bottles and formulas and milk time in our schedule.

individually, i've seen many, many developments with the boys. amir & asyraf have somewhat grown together. both of them, at the new school, have started reading. they have taken up the skills at a faster rate then i expected. earlier on it was difficult because i was too excited and they were not at the same pace as me. there were a lot of screaming and sighing and frustration but they've proved they can do it. so well, in fact, that 4 months on, amir has been selected to represent his class in a spelling bee and asyraf is one of the 3 black pearl-ians up on stage in a story telling competition. i can't ask for more than that and i'm such a proud mummy.

another good thing i like is the discipline both boys have. not in every aspect of their lives (tho i'm praying endlessly for that) but more of what to do before going to school & what to do after coming back from school. in the morning they bathe and brush their teeth and dress themselves. then its picking up their bags, making sure their tumblers and lunch boxes are packed (i usually just leave them on the dining table) then putting on their shoes and once in school, walking to their classes. every evening, they would put their shoes next to the door, the dirty clothes in the basket and the tumblers and lunch boxes back on the dining table then off upstairs for their bath and they dress in their jammies waiting for bedtime. on schedule, every day. wonderful!

amir's slowly coming out of his no-eating phase. he's still skinny and scrawny and all skin and bones but he's been showing some inclination to actually eating recently. he's still somewhat choosy about what he eats - cereals, bread, some types of rice instead of just lauk, pizza, burgers, eggs & beans, grapes but he's still not a pasta fan and he just stay away from white rice and some lauk. i hope he picks up better eating habits as he'll be off to primary school next year where teachers pay less attention. plus he needs the energy to stay in a class for 6 or more hours.

asyraf is like a balloon. sometimes he looks small and lite, sometimes he sports a round tummy as thought he's been eating for 5. he is forever asking for nasi lemak and can take 2-3 bowls of pasta. not a big fan of non-white rice except nasi goreng. he eats a lot and drinks a lot. asyraf is quite easy when it comes to drinks - he's a fan of plain water and milk. that's it. he doesn't drink much of something else, maybe the occasional milo kurang ais. asyraf memorises a lot of things. we thought amir had excellent memory but asyraf surpasses him. he remembers 'the gingerbread man' and 'the 3 billy goat gruff' and his many, many peter & jane books from cover to cover. but he can't remember to bring home his tumblers and lunch boxes and communication book, argghh!

ariff and akmal are my next set. they are close. akmal calls ariff 'dikkkkk', which is short for abang adik that sometimes he acts like he's the elder one. they are forever laughing in the car which is beautiful to hear after a long day in klcc plus the journey back and forth. akmal holds the record for crying whenever he's left in school - he's been doing it for 2 years - but he can remain calm if ariff is dropped off in his school with him. ariff comes home with 'mummy, tadi kita main lari-lari dengan akmal dekat taman'. i think they seek each other out during their evening plays and its wonderful to hold that thought in my head.

foodwise, they are identical. both of them love food and are forver eating & munching. rice, pasta, soup, cookies, cereal, cheese, anything. at the dining table, they would be the last 2 leaving their chairs. after leaving their tables, they would continue eating on the stairs, in front of the tv and even in the bathroom before screams can be heard for them to put their food outside. they drink loads too. they have their own tumblers in their rooms. akmal would drink until he's gasping because he loves water. he's only on plain water and fresh milk. he hates any other drinks, not vitagen, not cordial, definately not any flavoured drinks.

school wise, they are miles apart. ariff is now in tadika while akmal has finally accepted the fact that he needs to be part of the 2-3 playgroup class. he's been hiding in the 2 year old room since the beginning of the year, refusing to go down with those in his age group. ariff is a lazy boy in school, he refuses to write, colour, do maths, everything. he can't even write simple 1-10 or A-Z. he gets scolding in school and at home. he takes his time and refuses to listen. very frustrating and is even worse than asyraf was at the same age.

akmal on the other hand, is a surprise. after the 3-months drama of refusal to go down, he was forced down when he turned 2 years old, right smack when the playgroup class had their exams. his teachers were not sure if they wanted to let him sit for his exams but he showed interest and he sat for them and he got no 2. he's also excited to participate in his first sports day and have been performing pretty well during the daily practise sessions. let's see how he performs on the actual day next week.

amir acts like the typical big brother. he's always showing off he knows more than his adiks. he's always correcting them when they're singing or writing or dancing or reciting a movie script. but at the same time, he's very brotherly and protective. he knows what asyraf is up to in school and hugs akmal everyday when we come home. he assigns everyone a character or a colour and ensures everyone keeps to them. one thing about the boys, when they are assigned a characters or a colour, they really stick to them. if they are given the wrong colour of cup or bowl they would nag til the cows come home. once i wrongly put amir's tumbler into asyraf's bag. when they came home they greeted me with a - mummy, salah botol lah nanti kita kena jadik buzz lightyear pulak, mana boleh, kita woody - from asyraf.

asyraf and ariff are almost similar. being the middle boys, they can be the abang or the adik depending on the situation. akmal is, of course, the baby. he's extra manja and soft at heart, at home and in school. when he cries everybody run to him, when he's laughing everyone laughs with him. he's given the last bite or the leftover since he's the baby. akmal, in some way, is similar to amir as they're both very emotional and feels attached to everyone. he's easy to talk to like amir. i think out of the 4 amir and akmal would become my friends when they grow up. asyraf & ariff are a bit too in their own world to pay attention to mummy's problems and woes. but similar or different, they are excellent, they are stressful, they are funny, they are devious, they are loved, they take my bad phase away.

Dreams = Obsession

2011-04-06T09:10:00.007+08:00

i've got a few things i'm obsessed with - the boys (obviously), the eagle and the horse (tho slowly decreasing, that one), fan fiction (oh how i love thee). now i've got a new one. a bit late in my opinion. if i was inclined towards it back when it started, i would have a full range by now. but i wasnt and i think i'm a slow starter.

i love, love, love cath kidston. i love her bags, i love her accessories, i love her kitchenware but i'm not a big fan of her clothes. bit too flowery for my liking. bag takpe, baju not so much.

i've heard about her items but was never too in it. then walking towards the boarding gate at terminal 4 heathrow, i just detoured and went into her outlet and got myself a new day bag within 5 minutes. her shop was just so inviting among the plain black and white shops. i went in with ariff, showed him 2 bags, he chose one and we walked out. when i got home, i bought another 4 items onlines - a mini tote, another day bag, a carry all bag & a holiday bag. then 2 more items - blackberry covers. 1 is never enough. i would love to get her purses / wallets but they dont have enough picture slots.

now i'm dreaming of a cath kidston kitchen. white cabinets and bright, sunny kitchenware.

i especially want her mini dot collections - the handbags and the dinner wares.

A Day Out With Ariff

2011-03-31T21:11:00.008+08:00

i try to set aside a day a month for an outing with one of the eais. i started the tradition back in 2009, usually with hubby. we'd take one of the eais to a movie, lunch and, if we're in a giving mood, shopping for new toys.

we usually either take amir or asyraf as they enjoy going out and its great taking them away from their daily kindy schedule. we sometimes take akmal but not as often as the elder two as we'd have to be making formula, or taking him for diaper changes. that kinda takes the fun out of an outing. we'd never had the chance to take ariff out, for some reason or another. towards the second half of 2010 we had less opportunities to take the boys out for their outing. mainly because we were saving our leave for the year-end holiday.

as the hectic start of the year started to dwindle down, i decided to take a day off and bring ariff out. its about time he gets his special treatment. its as though he knew he was about to skip school, he started vomitting and having diarrheoa. he vomitted all over his bedsheet, pillowcase and duvet. all over his pajamas that it had to be changed 3 times. and as though he knew his mummy had planned to take the day off, he gave her an extra load of laundry to do.

we started the day late because i had a terrible headache from lack of sleep. i settled the laundry first, bathed ariff and akmal and gave them simple breakfast. we left home around 10am, stopped by kelana idaman leaving akmal screaming at the door of his daycare.

then we went off to 1utama. first on my list was to give the car a good washdown and polish - its way overdue, just like ariff's day off. i asked ariff what he would like to do, the movies, art work, eat. but he was happy just sitting from one car ride to another. then we walked over to parkson and looked at the toys on display (mainly because its on the way to the stationary section). ariff decided on some matchbox cars to bring home.

then we walked for a bit and stopped by newyork deli for an early lunch. ariff didnt want to eat and decided on just pancake and plain water. he was more interested in playing with his new toys and scribbling on the note book he just bought. finally we went to cold storage to get some groceries for the weekend cooking session - this was what ariff loved the most. he was asking about everything on the shelves and everything i put in the trolley. he loved it.

by 1pm, we started out journey home. ariff looked tired and my headache was terrible, both of us wanted to just go home and sleep.

i do know why we seldom take ariff out. he's terrible and refuse to listen. he wants to wander around by himself. but a couple of hours out is not too bad. ariff loved the attention he got, when his abangs returned home from school he was proudly showing off his new toys and telling them that he went to 1utama with mummy all by himself. maybe asyraf next month?

Akmal & the iPhone

2011-03-28T11:15:00.000+08:00

Formula-Less

2011-03-27T12:52:00.004+08:00

after exactly 6 years of living with formula milk and many, many avent, i am so relieved to finally put an end to the bottle phase. our journey with formula milk was full of ups and downs - some easy, some difficult, some frustrating, some full of sigh moments.

when i was pregnant with amir, i read up on breastfeeding. i think majority of mothers strive to breastfeed their children, whether they succeed or fail is another matter altogether. i tried with amir but, unfortunately, i couldnt. amir was born with a tooth - it was painful. he could latch properly making it double painful. i remember i was down with a terrible fever due to engorgement because i couldnt feed and couldnt express. after 2 weeks i gave up.

choosing a formula for amir wasnt an easy process either. because i was determined to breastfeed, i didnt even research on formula. during the first week, hubby and i were like madmen looking for formula for amir. we bought a few and it gave amir rashes, diarrhoea and he threw up a lot. we went to see his peadiatrician who found out amir regurgitates and recommended enfalac AR. good news as amir took on to the formula with absolutely no problem. not only we found a formula that's ok for amir, we were also introduced to the enfa range that stayed with us throughout.

when asyraf came, it was breastfeeding 101 all over again. this time it was easier. asyraf was easy to feed but he was not an easy baby. i had a terrible time, mentally and physically, during my confinement and after a month, i just could not continue breast feeding. asyraf was needy and clingy and moody and colic and cries a lot. i could not go through sleepless nights and the constant cuddle. i apologised to him and started him on formula. we gave him the same formula as amir, enfalac AR. but this time enfalac's cost doubled. they had started a new range of this ++ business.

i was cheesed off, i mean fine if you want to have a new range, i'm all for research and development but there was no reason to stop the 'normal' range. we had no problem with it. i stayed with enfa during asyraf's first year because asyraf was sensitive but once he turned a year old (and when ariff was born) i threw out everything with the name enfa and settled for dugro instead - cheaper and no problem for the boys.

for ariff, i just gave up on breastfeeding totally. the same goes for akmal. i just couldnt go through it anymore. while ariff was 'easy' and would go along with anything, akmal spits his milk. so no dugro for him and back to enfalac AR. luckily it only lasted only 6 months then it was dugro for him as well.

stopping formula was another matter. for amir, it was an overnight success. i remember bringing bottles and cans to gold coast when amir was around 19-20 months and he absolutely refused to drink. that was the beginning of the end of formula for amir. for asyraf, he was attached. extremely attached and loved his bottles. he could drink 2-3 times a night and 4-5 times a day. he was still on formula when akmal was born, at that time asyraf was 28 months. i remember he stopped a bit after akmal was born, before he turned 2 & half years old. ariff's goodbye to formula was like amir's, it wasnt a big deal and it was like he just stopped one fine day and didnt look back.

now its akmal. other than his spitting phase, akmal's feeding wasnt difficult. he was always on the clock - once every 4 hours. then he started drinking less and and maintained 3-4 feed a day with no night feed once he was a year old. a few months after that he was on 2 bottles a day and can do without a bottle before going to sleep. travelling is much easier and we only need to bring the milk container and 1 bottle. not only he drinks only 2 bottles a day, each feed only contains 2 scoops of formula.

when we were in langkawi, i brought akmal's bottle & formula, but he didnt once drink. it was a concious decision to stop and we would distract him everytime he looked like he wanted a bottle. once he went back to school, i stopped putting his bottles in his bag and that was it, no more formula for him.

i know a lot of people keep going 'kesian...kesian' but its ok. akmal eats a lot, he can finish a whole plate of an adult's portion of nasi goreng, he munches on biscuits and eats a gardenia bun every morning before breakfast and another in the evening. to me, formula is a supplement. if akmal is well-fed, why would be need formula to supplement his food intake. he also drinks a lot of fresh milk, so he's got his daily calcium. now instead of avent in his school bag, akmal's got a box of dutch lady fresh milk.

for those worriwarts, calm down - my boys are growing healthily without formula. they still have their daily milk intake. i think its better giving fresh milk and plain water on a daily basis, than giving formula and cordial and fizzy drinks and vitagen and tea. i think those kids should be 'kesian'ed more than my boys. funny - asal no formula je kesian but giving formula to cover the fact that the child is given every other drinks in the world, ok pulak.

so...goodbye formula and bottles...hello fresh milk boxes...

He Turns Two Today

2011-03-03T12:52:00.004+08:00

adik baby is 2 today. the adik baby who is manja-ed by not only his mummy but his daddy and his abangs. he's the protected, the baby of the house. from the day he came home when he was 3 days old to the morning he turned 2 years old, he's everyone's little mamal jijat...

Who Dat

2011-03-02T08:51:00.002+08:00

and who dis...

Baby Stuff

2011-02-27T21:12:00.013+08:00

i have a lot of help around the house. not a helper aka maid aka bibik. but help in terms of baby stuff. i love looking out for things that would be of a help with the boys, i know i buy more than normal malaysian parents would.

a large number of malaysian parents still use the 'my mother didnt have this when she raised me' phrase and shy away from a lot of things in the market. well, if these things were available when your mother was raising you, she'd prolly buy them too. plus most of us use things our parents didnt, lets see if one could survive without the handphones, laptops, ipods and ipads. so dont compare - live in the now.

back to the matter at hand, i depend on quite a number of these things heavily. because of some of them, my children are kept occupied and i can run the house without assistance of a maid and i'm proud to say that my house is more well-kept than some houses with 2 maids or than some houses with 1 or 2 kids - all because my children have their 'space'.

but now the boys have all grown, more specifically, outgrown the baby things i bought. i have started letting go most of the things that i used when the boys were younger. out of the lot, only 2 are still in use far beyond their "useable" years - the cot and the changing table. i initially thought they'll be in use until akmal reaches 2 years old but it looks like he (and his parents) are still attached to them.

we've said goodbye to the rest - the baby carrier, exersaucer, kicker, harness, playpen, bumbo, aquarium, sling, bathtub, cot mobile, bouncers, the flat baby pillow, the baby comforter set, high chair, twin stollers, the blue buggy, the orange stoller, the blue car seat and orange car seat (the last 2 items could still be in use if not for asyraf). thank you for being part of our family. your help will always be remembered and treasured.

the current buggies (with buggy boards) & car seats are also still around. i dont know when we'll let go of them. as long as they still play a role in our daily life, they'll still be around.

Double Whammy

2011-02-25T15:46:00.003+08:00

i saw this note on a facebook page:

"Permohonan Pendaftaran Kemasukan Ke Tahun Satu Sesi Persekolahan 2012 dan 2013

Adalah dimaklumkan bahawa mulai 1 Mac 2011 sehingga 30 April 2011, permohonan pendaftaran kemasukan ke Tahun 1 sesi 2012 dan 2013 hendaklan dibuat melalui aplikasi dalam talian (online) dengan melayari laman sesawang (web) Jabatan Pelajaran Selangor.

Permohonan ini adalah pada kanak-kanak yang lahir pada:

02.01.2005 - 01.01.2006 (Sesi Persekolahan 2012)
02.01.2006 - 01.01.2007 (Sesi Persekolahan 2013)"

to register both amir and asyraf at one go...already?!?!

*gasp*

p/s is it just me or is the note above reeked with grammatical errors? maybe me since my written malay is kinda crap...

Should We...

2011-02-25T10:18:00.005+08:00

i come from a family of cat-lovers. we have loads and loads of felines in the house. tssc used to say there's more cats than people in the house. despite the fact that most of us are actually allergic to cats - i remember covering the bump that appeared when i did the allergy test - and the fact that my sisters and i are on inhalers, we still bring more and more cats home by the day.

now, i fear going back to damansara. once i enter the front door my eyes would buldge and itch and tear up. then i start sneezing and coughing and would start wishing i was at home. before i moved out, i would sleep with the late hoggiey on my chest, now i cant even have a stray fur 20 metres from me.

the boys, too, love cats. amir loves stroking a cat, asyraf loves chasing a cat, ariff loves the wiggling of a cat's tail, akmal loves screaming 'ma-uuuuuu' everytime he sees a cat. amir has been bugging us to get one, to keep one at home. with akmal and his 'condition', i'm not at all for that idea. even without a cat, he's already on ceretide daily. when i took tiza's car after last year's accident, akmal would have trouble breathing because there were cat fur on the floor carpets.

now that akmal's bigger and is less 'sensitive', its got me thinking...should we??

My Little Chef

2011-02-20T21:23:00.007+08:00

who says with 4 boys there wont be anyone helping the mummy in the kitchen? well...quite a number of people but what do they know eh?

ariff's shown that he has interest in cooking since a young age. when he was young, about 4-5 months old, if he was in a foul mood, he would immediately feel better if he was brought into the kitchen. he would also accompany me in the kitchen, sitting quietly in his high chair till he falls asleep, while i cook.

while his abangs showed interest in handheld games and puzzles, ariff would be in the kitchen, helping me clean up, or more often, stuffing his face with food. ariff loves eating. he is always at his best behaviour when there's food in front of him. he would be quiet, not caring what goes on around him, very much into his food from the first to the last bite. that's ariff.

because of that, hubby and i would dub him, the little chef. for the longest time i've been wanting to take ariff into the kitchen with me. but to do what...to cook what. i dont spend much time in the kitchen. i go in, cut this cut that, mix this mix that, cook this cook that, and that's all. simple and enough for a one meal. i usually do rice with accompanying dishes or pasta, that's it basically. nothing that would require a 3 year old's help.

then one day i thought, ok...let's do something simple and 'safe' that ariff can help me with. i didnt need to think much...chocolate chip cookies was my first thought and i just went with it. i asked ariff if he wanted to help bake cookies with me. i really didnt have to ask. he said yes and went down the stairs straight away. well, that was a week ago, before i even bought the ingredients. and he's been asking every day since then.

come saturday, when akmal was asleep and amir & asyraf in their game-mode with hubby, ariff and i went into the kitchen to start our project. ariff was mega excited. he dragged the chair to the mixer, he held on to the mixer - as though he's actually doing the mixing. he helped me drop in the sugar, the butter and his favourite ingredient, the chocolate chips. he helped mix the flour while i measured. he helped put the dough on the pan, while i rolled the dough into ball-shapes. he helped open and close the oven door, he helped look to see if the cookies are ready, and of course, once it was done, he helped eat half of the first batch.

he asked a lot of questions - what happened to the sugar, why did the butter become soft, why was the egg yellow, where did the flour disappear to, why do we have to put the chocolate chips in there, why couldnt he eat the cookie dough. a lot of questions but at least it shows he's interested.

his cookies turned out lovely - a bit hard...the butter wasnt enough, and the first batch was a bit burnt...ariff's mummy spent a little too long picking up the clothes. but its great. not bad for his first try. we're already making a list of what we want to bake after this - cornflake cookies, muffin, cupcakes, brownies. at least now he's showing where his interest is and i'm so happy for him.

after that he went back to what he loves best...

Same Ole, Same Ole

2011-02-15T12:30:00.007+08:00

one of the things i detest about facebook (yes, there are quite a number, actually) is the fact that people tend to think they know a lot about you and those close to you. all from mere pictures and statements and tags and comments.

a comment is merely that, a comment. it doesnt potray one as a whole. it doesnt show what one is like. its just a reaction to something posted on facebook, at that particular time, at one particular moment. yet with that particular comment, some people have the power to create a picture of you, usually a creation made up of assumptions - oh she said this, she must be like this. when its directed to me, i usually ignore it. when its on my page, i usually delete it. seriously, you dont have to create a mini me in your mind, save that small space in your mind for something else.

what irks me till kingdom come is when they start to shift that assumption to my children. oh that touches many, many nerves. puh-lease do not go there. one simple picture posted attacts comments like - ehhhh, he must be like this, oh i know he's like that. from a picture? and why exactly arent you a nobel prize winner again?

another still picture posted gets replies like - eh, he's so cool like so and so. errr hello brainiac, its a STILL picture. which particular pixel oozes coolness, tell me? i mean, for crying out loud, some of those that comment dont even know how my boys look outside the virtual world, let alone know their names, but oh the assumptions and the comments.

another is, oooohhh just like my son, when a picture of one of the boys playing with a toy car is posted. righhht...and your son is like the one and only child in the whole wide world that plays with a toy car? i mean, its a picture with no accompanying statement, with no explanation of what the boy is doing, comes a comment like 'oh my son does that too'...does what? he's just sitting there playing with a toy car. and majority of boys do what then, if not play with a toy car?

can pictures like these say anything about the boys?

or these?

or these even?

seriously, get over it. you dont know them, they can walk right up to your bloody noses and you still wouldnt know them. so quit with the cheap comments like you've got a window into our lives.

Better Good

2011-02-09T21:06:00.002+08:00

its good...when you get to the car and still need to wear the sunglasses
its better...when you get to the car and your sunglasses is steaming hot

its good...when ariff makes conversation in the car after a long day at work
its better...when ariff and akmal converse and laugh with each other after a long day at work

its good...when you're picking up the boys and you hear the call for maghrib
its better...when you're open the car doors to let the boys out and you hear the call for maghrib

its good...when the boys have eaten and bathe and you have time to perform maghrib prayers
its better...when the boys have eaten and bathe and you can sit down and rest before performing maghrib prayers

its good...when you are able to spend an hour with the boys before its their bedtime
its better...when you get to eat and bathe without rushing and help the boys with their homework and still able to spend an hour with the boys before its their bedtime

its good...when you can do a load of laundry, dry the clothes and fold a load while the boys eat their dinner and go up together
its better...ok, so there's nothing better than that

i've been going home late the past few weeks, reaching home even later. its been terrible, i hate the working hours i have and the fact that i need to work late. i've been very unhappy lately, even feeling terribly depressed. i really pray this will phase will pass and pass quickly. i dont know how long i can handle these feelings.

Rare

2011-02-09T13:17:00.002+08:00

got this today. hubby's friend snapped this when we were at the park 2 saturdays ago.

it pays to plan ahead

2011-02-05T22:18:00.005+08:00

i love planning. sometimes when i'm doing nothing, i just jot down my 'to do' plans. i dont just do a 'to do' list. that's just too easy. mine comes with detailed descriptions, notes to refer to and a rough budget (followed by a detailed one once i get an access to an excel sheet).

early in the year, i usually have plans of what i want to happen throughout the year. my plans usually come true because before i pen down the plans i must make sure they are achieveable. none of those overly dramatic plans just to spice up the list without actually achieving anything - that's just a waste of paper and precious planning time. they must also be realistic in terms of budget. once i made plans to renovate my whole entire house. that was a bit too ambitious, and come mid-year i restructured my plan to fit my budget and other things on the list.

last year, almost all of what i had planned was i-ed off. the big trip, minor house reno, clearing debts (i dont have major debts as i dont hold credit cards to my name anymore and i've settled my housing loan but i managed to pay off certain small owings here and there), akmal's birthday. alhamdulillah, it was a good year. made even better since i wasnt superly going overboard.

i've listed down my plans for the year early last month. but i didnt have time to properly analyse them and assign some budget codes to them so once i had time, i managed to look into detail and come up with the following '2011 plans' (oh so wonderfully original...)

plan 1: september
this plan will happen in september, insyaallah.

plan 2: project airway
this is one of the house renovation plans that was shelved due to 'tidak berapa penting pada ketika ini' reason. last year i madeover the bedrooms because we were reorganising the top floor. this year, i aim to look at our living room and adjust where i can. i have a couple more things i want to do, especially to the upstairs hall and the dining+kitchen, but that requires major hacking and banging and i think we shouldnt be around when that happens so detailed and thorough thoughts need to be put before that were to happen. for now i'm just looking at closing the airway, decking the floors, closing the windows near the stairs, repainting some of the exterior and some of the walls inside. i plan to settle this by may, when we're not too busy at work in case i need to take a few days off.

plan 3: baby photos
i feel very bad that i stopped printing baby photos after asyraf. for asyraf and amir i printed almost all of the photos we took of them before they turned 1. they are all kepts nicely in 7-8 albums each and the rest are saved in cds. i also printed and framed various pictures in 4R and 8R sizes and hang them up around the house. i dont have any of ariff and akmal. due to serious lack of time and energy. i think i need to start the baby photo project once again. dont think it would be a huge task - its not that difficult, i reckong, putting in some 3,000 photos in 15 albums. the framing up of pictures isnt difficult. i think per frame would only take about 5 minutes, so to do 8-10 frames would be less than an hour. the target for this plan is mid year, june, july around that time.

plan 4: family wall
i have a wall where i hang framed family photos. not the frame one can get in ikea but the frame that designated frame shops would do. i have several of amir and hubby and i and now i need to do some of asyraf, ariff and akmal. selecting the photos would take time so i'm giving myself til maybe october-november of the year.

plan 5: short breaks
i hope to tick off some short breaks during the year. i got the cny break done. since this year there's quite a few 3-day weekends, maybe we can shoot off for a getaway nearby. hubby's eyeing redang or perhentian. maybe tioman too where we can just hop on berjaya air at nearby subang airport. we're also looking at sentosa island for the boys but maybe that can wait til next year. i'd like to do cameron highlands but not with the car in its current condition.

plan 6: project pay-off
there's this one item that's really bugging me and i need to clear it off. hopefully by july i can settle it.

plan 7: the getting-akmal-off-susu-and-diapers plan
that's so a plan, isnt it? things are looking good for this. akmal's been taking less formula for a long time. he's drinking 3 bottles (of only 2-3 scoops), his first bottle is at 10am and his last bottle is around 7pm - all in school. he doesnt drink at home during the weekdays since he hasnt asked for susu before he goes off to bed anymore. on saturdays and sundays, he would drink once, sometimes in the late morning, sometimes before he takes his afternoon nap, sometimes in the evening before dinner. it varies. sometimes, like today, he doesnt drink at all. and sometimes, he's given a bottle if i foresee dinner would be late, like last thursday, even though he didnt ask for a bottle. all depends but what is certain is that the amount he drinks is decreasing. akmal eats a whole lot, he can finish an adult portion of rice so i'm not forcing formula on him if he doesnt ask for a bottle. i hope i can throw away the avent bottles by june this year.

the off-diapers plan may not happen anytime soon. akmal's older brothers were toilet trained when they turned 3, some picked up faster than others - asyraf fully toilet trained at 3 years old, amir at 3 year and 2 months, ariff at 3 years and 3 months. so if akmal can be off diapers by mid next year it would be wonderful. its in this year's plans because his teachers may staff training him during the year-end school holidays even though the final outcome will only be seen next year.

so that's it. not many plans for the year. but not having many may result in all being achieved and that's of course better than having a whole bunch of items carried forward.

Mini Project 1

2011-02-01T15:39:00.011+08:00

"project!" - cher horowitz

i have a few projects on my list for the year, which i would blog about in a few days.

being away from the office is great, 1 day is definately not enough. i had a little bit of time to myself in between sending amir & asyraf to and picking them up from school, so i visited ikea and popular at ikano to get the bits and bobs for one of my mini projects.

i get easily distracted by mess. i hate things being all over the place and untidy and not in order. the boys' rooms get me in a state everytime i spend more than 2 minutes in them. so the long-awaited day off, i quickly drove myself to ikea, grabbed a few things (literally grabbed because in total i spent less than 25minutes and got so many things!).

my 1st mini project was to clear the mess in the boys' room. coming back from london, we added to the boys' toys & dvd collection. i'm not a toy collector, i do spring cleaning on the boys' toys almost on a monthly basis. we only have 4 boxes of toys but after the london trip, the 4 boxes were becoming too full and i desperately wanted to get more. their dvds were also in a messy pile on their chest of drawers. majorly irritating everytime i pass by the boys' drawers.

after an hour to myself, the room look much, much better. the massive pile of toys...

all cleared and boxed up and labeled.

the messy pile of dvds...

all cleared.

i bought duvets for the boys who are now into toy story.

i also got a couple of things not on the list - tupperwares for me and new curtains for the tv room downstairs.

i started another project, which is to frame up pictures of the boys. i have lots of pictures of amir and asyraf but almost zilch of ariff and akmal, so its my mummy mission to put up more baby pictures around the house. i started with amir's frame and got tired so i shifted my energy to another project, ie famous amos cookies. ok, so the frame project is to be continued on another day.

Once Upon A Time...

2011-01-29T14:55:00.007+08:00

on a lazy, quiet saturday morning, 4 small boys attacked the taman tun park after having breakfast at mcdonalds in centerpoint...

after almost 2 hours at the park, they went home, 'main air'ed in the bathroom downstairs and had lunch (cooked by the senior masterchef) in their baju tiak before falling asleep in front of the telly while watching ironman. wonderful day, cooled by the rain outside.

the end.

Amir's 6th Year

2011-01-28T13:33:00.013+08:00

so this entry is way, wayyyy overdue. i've never been late on birthday entries because i believe that is one of a child's special days but with work, and full weekends, and no mood (which is why i need to stop working badly - ok, so i sidetrack a bit).

we celebrated amir's 6th birthday 20 days ago. he has been doing his own personal countdown to him turning 6 for the longest time. mainly because we always said we'll be in london when he turns 6 so he became excited to reach both milestone, being in london and turning 6. so when the day finally came, a week after we came home, he was mightily relieved.

we bought a simple cake for amir. we drove around KD area and drove past a bakery. good thing they had a boy-themed cake at 11am and the size was just nice. amir thought i ordered it beforehand so yeay for the bakery. we took the cake to silverspoons and had a small-singing, cake-cutting and mask-wearing time. amir went back happy, knowing he finally turned 6 (because u never grow until you actually have a candle-blowing session) and at the end of the day, that's all that matters.

that night amir had a surprise visit from tizu, auntie jee, uncle andy and azrul who came to see him after his operation and to celebrate his birthday with him. amir was shocked and couldn't contain his embarassment, initially but was tremendously happy with the attention he got on his birthday.

Career Progression

2011-01-27T08:20:00.002+08:00

i want to be a housewife. that's not a state secret. i've always said that and i'm still saying that, i've never changed my mind. when the time is right, i will gladly leave the golden triangle, leave the 830-530 (yeah right!) life with a big smile on my face screaming 'so long, farewell' to the corporate slaves.

there are people who think i dont mean it, there are people who think i would think differently, there are people who think i've lost my marbles. but eh...its ok. at least i'll be at home, surfing the channels, making good home-cooked food for my boys, and i'll do it with a no one breathing down my neck!

i get comments like, you'll never have time to yourself. ok, first thing's first. when i stop working to be a housewife, i'll be the only one who stops going to work. the boys wont. amir & asyraf will still be in school until after their agama class ends and ariff & akmal will still be in daycare until evening. no change in that, thank you very much. so who is going to occupy my time until all the boys are picked up...no one! so that comment certainly does not apply to me.

i also wont be indulging in a lot of cleaning. general simple cleaning, yes, like the normal sweeping, normal washing the loo, normal cleaning the kitchen. normal stuff like that. not difficult and not time consuming and not heavy at all.

what i would be doing as a housewife is simple. i will keep my house in order and still hang on to my belief of having no maid in the house. i will encourage my boys to go to school and daycare and hang on to my belief that they are better off in daycare (i am pro-daycare all the way!). i will ensure i have good home-cooked meals when my boys come home from school everyday - and cooking is not a big hassle to me, takat masak sekali sehari, what is that! and then, of course, with school-going age children, one thing that will be in my job description would be chaffeur. that, to me, is not a big deal, especially if the classes and our home is not far apart.

like i said, i plan. i plan for (almost) every single thing that i do so its really not difficult to comprehend that i would plan for something as big as leaving a career and being unemployed and staying at home full time. insyaallah, when the time comes it wont be something i regret or something i dont enjoy doing or a decision i would like to turn around.

so who has dreams of being a housewife, lets jom!

Work At Home

2011-01-24T13:54:00.007+08:00

still praying the real dream will materialise in the very near future (no pressure to anyone) but for now, this is the closest i can get to it.

its wonderful being the only non-male in the house.

Bring In The New

2011-01-15T13:20:00.005+08:00

ah...15 days of 2011 has passed. i didnt have time to usher in the new year what with the new school year, amir & asyraf's being admitted, returning back to work (and diving into the march project straight away). finally i have breather to reflect and plan...

i know 2011 would be a year filled with so many new things. the main thing is the change in our daily schedules. hubby and i now go to work separately. hubby sends and picks up amir and asyraf, while i do the same for ariff and akmal. we leave at different time & return at different time. we dont eat dinner together anymore and the car is now very quiet. this change is the biggest change for us and would take a lot of getting used to.

the new school also requires a lot of adjustment. the morning kindy is the same as the kindy the boys went to previously, as in what they learn and what they are put through. the afternoon agama class is different. in TIS, i was more confident of their schedule. the boys eat then take a nap and then their kafa begins. they perform their prayers and play with the transit kids til around 7pm when the teachers call them in.

in this new school, the agama class is scheduled from 230-430 and we're not sure what they do before and after that. amir & asyraf have said they dont take naps. they have also said that they play all the time and are extremely tired when they come home. asyraf once fell asleep the minute he returned home and every night they both would sleep by 9pm. not that we're unhappy with the school. we're very encouraged by amir's progress in reading and english, so far. but there's just something not right...

another new change for us is akmal's behaviour in school. akmal's very manja and very close to his brothers. beginning this year, with amir and asyraf moving to a new school and ariff moving across the road to the tadika, akmal's been left alone in the daycare. he would cry every morning and every afternoon until he's reunited with ariff. his teachers have been complaining that he's difficult to take care off because he's crying non-stop. its a terrible feeling when you're being told that, sigh...

ariff's been off the diapers for a week now, both during the day and at night. alhamdulillah, no accidents so far. he started being diaper-less during the school holidays in the daycare but we still put him on diapers at night. he wasnt to happy about it. we bought him quite a number of underwears from mothercare and marks & spencer and thomas land so that he would feel ready to be diaperless 24/7. once he started kindy, he's been more confident without the diapers and we just took them off him one fine night last week and he's been ok without them so far.

on the work front, nothing much is new. i'm still learning, its coming up to a year since i've been in the department. there's still so much to learn and absorb. but the traveling is terrible and the fact that i cant see off amir and asyraf when they go to school is heartbreaking. i do hope there will be changes this year, if not by next year. its just very difficult and taken a lot of energy that i dont have.

hubby's now in the mood to continue his studies. he's looking into various things - a short-term diploma, do another degree, get a masters degree but has not decided on what he wants as it involves detailed exploreation since it would take up his weekends and time with the family. its great that he's taken this route as education is extremely important and it would be wonderful that he strong papers to support his work experience.

so that's the updates on the family. for this year, there are some things we are looking forward to.

one would be to see the the progress of amir and asyraf. amir needs to learn to read before he moves on to standard one and within a week he's been able to read a bit. he doesnt understand what he reads but we're explaining as he goes along. asyraf takes in things much faster than amir, maybe because he's always next to amir when he's doing his homework.

we're also excited to see ariff learning more in school, writing alphabets, numbers and drawing. ariff's very lazy and his teacher complains that he cant even write an A after one hour of holding the pencil. hopefully before the year ends, he would change and be more hardworking. for now we have confirmed that we have 2 lefties in the family. we thought that ariff was right handed but now he looks more comfortable with the left hand.

akmal will be turning two soon. he's been showing signs that he's ready to leave some of his baby stuff. he's taken to taking showers instead of baths and he's shown that he's ready to leave his baby cot. he wont be moving in with his abangs in their room yet (he would scream and cry if he's left there at night) but he may like sleeping on a mattress on the floor in our room. we've done away with the baby tub and would be letting go of the cot soon. his changing table stays as i still prefer to change him there. until he's able to wear his clothes standing up like his brothers, i'd be using that to dress him still.

we're looking forward to this year is seeing the boys move away from baby & toddler to school-going-age boys. for now we're are blessed to have 4 circumcised boys (alhamdulillah), 3 kindy-going boys, 3 diaper-less and formula-less boys and we're just waiting for akmal to drop his formula by middle of this year and start training to be diaperless by end of the year. hopefully by this time next year he is able to join his elder brothers in wearing underwears. we still have to wait another 2 years before akmal enters kindy, however, but that's alright. as long as the diapers and formula goes, i'd be happy.

after the success of our year-end holiday last year, i'm excited to plan another holiday this year. we basically have a destination in mind but its not confirmed as its too early. even though its not confirmed, the rough itinerary has been put on paper! tiza and tisu may be joining us. for now, we're discussing on dates, venue & things to do. insyaallah if all goes well, the 8 of us will be away for 3 weeks in september.

not much plans this year and its a year of adapting and decision-making. we have a lot of discussions, planning, budgeting to do as a family. we hope what we plan will materialise but it would take a lot of hard work and dedication and a whole lot of praying.

Sundays

2011-01-09T21:45:00.010+08:00

are for staying at home. we hardly go out on sundays. they are for the weekly cleaners' visit, for clearing the laundry baskets, for settling the school bags for the week. and most importantly, they are for the boys.

ah...its also for cooking...

Time Out

2011-01-06T21:41:00.006+08:00

wednesday morning, we set out early. i packed a hospital bag for an overnight stay amir, asyraf, hubby and me. ariff & akmal's bags were packed for 2 days in school. we sent the boys to school and made our way to dsh. traffic was so-so and we arrive at the a&e at 7:40am. the GLs and admission forms were all prepared but the staff need to look for a room for the boys (we requested for a two-bedded).

we waited for about half an hour at the a&e, where hubby and i took turns to have breakfast. the boys werent allowed to eat so we had to keep them occupied with other things - playing games on hubby's phone. they knew what they were in for. amir kept asking why dr razak had to press on his stomach. asyraf said he was in for a circumcision but i doubt he knew what that actually entails.

after we went to the room, the boys were given a minimal check up, asked a few questions, given their hospital tags and were asked to change into the hospital gown. they were laughing at how each other looked in the gown, at least that took their minds of their empty stomach and the trip to the operation theatre.

at 9:20am, a nurse came in with a wheechair for asyraf. i went up with him. i chose to go with asyraf as his was the easier procedure of the two. if i went with amir, knowing what he had to go through, i would surely cry when they gave him his mask. asyraf was fine, laughing and joking. smiling at the nurses, asking to be carried inside. once he was laid down on the operating table, i think he felt a nervous. he was lying down and there were 3-4 nurses walking around the OT, the anesthetist was sitting next to him and another 2 nurses were sitting on both sides of the table.

before the anesthetist put the mask on him, we asked him to recite the doa tidur. he just smiled, as he would do when he was embarassed. then the anesthetist slowly increased the dose and his eyes were slowly closing. then all of the sudden, he started moaning and shouting, he kicked and punched, he threw his body off the table. there nurses who were sitting by his sides were holding him down. i got shocked but the anesthetist said that it was a normal reaction. i had to hold in my tears. once he calmed down and fell asleep, the anesthetist said i could wait at the day ward. that's when my tears finally came. it was a scary moment seeing asyraf like that.

i went out to see amir on the wheelchair with hubby, waiting for his turn. we sat for about 10 minutes when the anesthetist came out, saying asyraf's out of the OT and asked if we'd like to see him. i went in while hubby prepared to accompany amir inside. asyraf looked fine, sleeping soundly. i sat next to him and saw amir walking in with hubby to the OT.

asyraf was given the all-clear to go back to his room. he was groggy still, asking where amir was. asyraf asked for water and drank quite a bit. we waited for almost an hour before hubby came down, followed by amir who was in a deep sleep on a strecher. he was transferred to his bed and we drew the curtains so that he could sleep. asyraf asked for food and as we pulled him to a sitting position, he threw up. the nurse said he's not ready to eat and helped him change to a new hospital gown. he then fell asleep and both slept until 4pm.

amir complained that his stomach hurts, we pulled up his hospital gown and saw that the procedure was on this stomach - i thought that it would be down around the groin area. asyraf on the other hand was hissing and gasping in pain everytime his gown touched his private parts. they both ate and watched the telly for a couple of hours. when they were feeling a bit better, amir changed into his pajamas, asyraf wore only his pajama top but refused the pants.

after dinner, amir was already up and about. he could climb up and down the bed and wanted to sleep with asyraf - which meant i got a bed all to myself (yeay!). it took asyraf a lot of persuasion and tears to finally pull up his pajama pants. when he did, he was smiling proudly for 3 minutes, before cying again. he cried and whined until he slept, giving me a massive headache! amir slept early and woke up because of asyraf's cries and could not go back to sleep. i think he finally slept at 2am.

the next morning all of us woke up late. the boys woke up after 9am. amir was feeling much better, he even asked for a shower. asyraf refused a shower and still mumbled and whined about how much it hurts. i tricked him to a shower when he asked to go to the loo. he showered while crying haha! he still asked for his pajama pants and did not want to wear anything tighter. he did forget about how much it hurts whenever he was playing with the computer or his handheld game or with hubby's phone. as soon as they were taken away from his, he would whine again.

that went on the whole day until he took his shower after dinner. hubby got him to, finally, wear his underwear. so hopefully that's the end of the whining. today, asyraf's finally up and about, able to walk properly and has stopped complaining of pain except early in the morning. amir, on the other hand, developed high fever because he was too active yesterday. hopefully it wont last long, insyaallah.

Hernia In Children

2011-01-04T22:18:00.003+08:00

as we were on leave and the boys were still in their orientation week, we thought we'd take them to the hospital to see dr razak as we plan to circumcise asyraf end of the month and see dr azizi as hubby noticed that amir's scrotum was a bit swollen. we took the boys on monday, after school.

we saw dr razak first as dr azizi's clinic was still closed for lunch. the doctor checked asyraf's private parts and we discussed the date to admit him. while amir was next to him, the doctor said 'well, lets check yours as well.' hubby informed him that we've actually made an appointment to see dr azizi because we noticed the swell. the doctor had a worried expression on his face then pressed the side of amir's groin and said 'its hernia'.

we were surprised, to say the least. for me, this is boy-man territory. i dont get involved. i didnt even notice anything swollen, i just took hubby's word for it. so to have the doctor diagnose that on amir was a bit of a shock. the doctor wanted him to be admitted within the week, he suggested friday. i said, since i'm already on leave, why dont we do it on wednesday. at least i have a few days to monitor amir after he's been discharged, if we do it on a friday i only have the weekend.

dr razak called the ot and booked a room for wednesday morning. while he was on the phone, i said...errr can we do a minor circumcision as well? so there...2 boys admitted, both with boy-man problem. oh God give me strength and wisdom to get through this.

we went home and i did a bit of a research on hernia in children. i know most think it only happens to adults and, usually, to sportsmen. i read that hernia in children is indeed quite common. while 90% of the cases are for boys, girls do develop hernia.

hernia is a protrusion of body tissues throught a hole in other tissues. it happens when the inguinal tube, that the testes descends through from the abdomen to the groin, doesnt close properly after the testes descends. when the child cries or coughs or has wheezing, it puts a strain on the abdomen and makes the hernia obvious as it pushes the tissues out. a hernia can be seen as a bulge or swelling in the groin, for boys the swelling would be at the scrotum (exactly like amir).

a surgery is required to close the inguinal tube so that the tissues stay in place. incarceration, where the lump doesnt go away when a child relaxes and releases pressure on the abdomen, can happen which is why the tube has to be repaired once diagnosed. while hernia doesnt necessarily cause pain to the child, the doctor said its more of a feeling of 'senak' than pain which goes away, if incarceration happens it must be looked at on an urgent basis.

hernia on the right side of the groin is more common at 60% then the left side (at 25%). only 15% of the cases has hernia on both sides. amir's hernia is on the right side but dr razak will also 'go' into his left side in case the tube is also open. the doctor said its a simple procedure which will take about an hour. some patients do go home on the day of the procedure, at most it only requires an overnight observation, so i hope by thursday amir will be discharged, insyaallah.

for more reads on hernia, do refer the the following articles:
www.bbc.co.uk/health/physical_health/conditions/hernia2.shtml
www.hernia.org/paeds.html
www.privatehealth.co.uk/news/august-2010/childrens-hernias-portland-hospital-3285

First Day of School 2011

2011-01-03T22:35:00.010+08:00

after many, many months of telling the boys about them going to a new school, the time has finally arrived. i'm an anxious mummy, to say the least. not about not wanting to let go. but more of how will they be in school, how will they eat, drink, go to the loo, make friends, talk to the teacher, how will the teachers talk to them, are they friendly, are they strict, how's the homework like, classes like. so many things go through my mind. its like us on our first day of work but at least we get the answers there and then. in this case, we wonder until we see them and even then, we dont get the full lay-down.

this will be the first time, after so many years together, the boys will be going to separate schools. since the days of rapid daycare, the boys have never been away from each other. amir was always with asyraf. then when ariff came along, asyraf and ariff would even be in the same class. when akmal made it 4eais, they've always been in 2 sets - amir with asyraf, ariff with akmal. now the same sets remain but in dffierent areas not just in different schools across the street.

since ariff and akmal will remain at their current school, i was not worried at all about them. the only problem we may face is that they could refuse to go to school after 3 weeks away. and surprisingly out of the lot, these 2 were the only ones who were difficult. at the entrance of tadika ibnu soleh, ariff, as usual, keraskan his body and refused to move. of course the teachers know him so well, they didnt respond to that and just pulled him in.

akmal, upon being handed over to kak yus, started crying out loud. he's very choosy with his teachers. he only wants cikgu fakin, who has left, or cikgu fatim, who teaches ariff's class. akmal's class teacher is cikgu along who thankfully he is comfortable with. only when lessons end and daycare starts he would start whimpering because cikgu along would leave for kafa across the street. so he would hold on to the window sills and look towards the tadika & kafa and cry. aisehhhh budak manja ni.

after sending ariff & akmal, we drove back home to amir & asyraf's new kindy. as expected on the first school day of the year, it was packed with parents, with teachers who were helping and giving directions, with children running, talking crying, throwing tanturms. all sorts. we walked into the huge school compound, went up tot he notice board to look for the boys' names and classes. a teacher came over to help us, holdings the hands of both boys, steering them towards asyraf's class.

asyraf is in black pearl. we met his teacher, a lovely lady called teacher zaza. asyraf was fine, he took off his shoes and sat at a table in the middle of the class. there were only a coupld of students in there. he waved goodbye to us and we followed the teacher to amir's class.

amir is in queen elizabeth. his teacher is mrs jey. she looks strict and immediately informed us of how the orientation week would be like, of the documentation she will put in amir's bag at the end of the day (rules book, timetable, those kind of stuff), of how it be be for the rest of the year - homework on a daily basis. we said bye to amir, who had already chosen a seat and left the classroom area.

we walked around the school compound, looked at the boys through the glass doors, occasionally going back to the classroom to see what they were up to. amir was just sitting at his place, standing up a couple of times, then sitting back down again. asyraf was colouring - a picture of a spider he told us later and not too happy about it as he coloured outside the lines!

we left for breakfast and came back in time to see asyraf and his classmates playing at the playground after their snack time. they had a bit of kuih and milo. in tis, they would be served nasi or mee goreng so mental note to self to prepare packed food for the boys. asyraf played mostly on his own, not knowing any of his classmates yet. every so often he would run to us and run back to the slides. teacher zaza informed us that asyraf shed a few tears when he realised daddy, mummy & abang long had left him but he quickly calmed down.

after taking his water and washing his hands, asyraf followed his friends led by his teacher back to class. he passed his brother, who was making his way to the canteen with his classmates and quickly (and loudly) called our amir's name.

amir's class went into the canteen, had the same food and sat there for a while. then his teacher led them back to class. they didnt play at the playground like the 5 year olds. we pulled amir aside and told him we'd be leaving but will come back soon to pick him and asyraf up.

all in all, it was a good first day in school. amir sang a few songs, made some arts & crafts
and made a couple of new friends. asyraf did some colouring, sang as well and said he didnt sleep. ariff is diaper-less in school, proudly wearing his new underwear, is able to inform fatim is he needs to pee and cikgu ummi if he needs to do a number 2. akmal cried until he was red in the face and his whole body shook as he only wanted cikgu fatim.

so on to day no 2...

The Boys in London

2010-12-23T22:00:00.007+08:00

one of the main reasons why we're excited about the trip is to see from the boys' point of view. of course the reminiscing at kent is wonderful, visiting the stadiums are great, the shopping...jangan cakap lah kan. but to see their reaction and to learn what they absorb is priceless.

we've been telling the boys about the trip since we decided to go back in january. as we plan, they learn. as we discussed, they listen. we were very scared, to say the least. scared of the crankiness, scared of the cry outs, scared of itchiness and rashes, scared of the fever, scared of flu. but alhamdulillah, as we reach the halfway mark of the trip, they have been great (of course with doses of cries and cubits and pukuls here and there).

amir is the best out of the lot. of course being the eldest, he gets to share more with his parents. he's also more adaptable and knows more and absorbs more than his brothers. he's not scared of the weather and sometimes, is so arrogant and would prefer not wearing his winter jacket and gloves - then he shivers and asks to be carried. he understands the places we visit, remembers almost all he saw and relates back to us what he feels.

amir fell ill the first day we were here. a bit of a shock because of all the boys, we didnt expect him to be unwell. we finished off 4 voltaren suppository on him and almost half bottle of piriton. it was the same in langkawi and we have a feeling its because he doesnt eat during traveling and when we arrive he's hit with angin and is lethargic. alhamdulillah amir is not one to be so sickly and recovers quite well whenever he's under the weather. by the 3rd day, he's already up and about and showed no signs of being ill.

asyraf, like amir, understands quite a bit too. going to school early helps him a lot. he's opened his eyes and learn along with amir. he looks up to amir and absorbs a lot when they talk. usually what amir knows, he would speak out loud and asyraf grabs quite a lot from that. he usually parrots amir and if amir is on the right track, more of than not, asyraf follows suit. he doesnt take in as much as amir, understandably, but its good that we dont need to explain in great detail to him as that's done by amir.

asyraf, not surprising, is the first boy to be hit by rashes. his body is full of small rough dotts caused by the dry weather. we've packed a couple of tubes of qv cream and they helped a lot as its not as bad as the one he suffered in perth. but out of the four, asyraf's the only one with dry nose. he doesnt have flu, which is wonderful.

asyraf however is very moody and cranky. if he doesnt get his way he would hit and scream and shout. he was terrible when we couldnt go up the roller coaster in Thomas Land, he was not a happy camper when we didnt get him the toys he wanted in Hamley's, he would cry out bloody murder when we wants to get out of the car after being in it for hours. unlike amir, asyraf doesnt listen to reason and would just scream and shout.

ariff...oh, where do i start with this boy!!!! i dont understand why so many people refuse to accept his true nature and still thinks he's the quiet baby he used to be. that's 3 years ago...he's grown and aged and developed a terrible personality. trust his parents who have seen the change in him. ariff is one hard-headed boy. he would just attack his target without care in the world. if he wants to go somewhere, he would just march to his destination, regardless the danger, the shouts for stop. if he wants something, he would just grab, regardless who owns what he wants, whether its safe or otherwise. that explains why he went missing in doha airport. 1 minute he was seating at the table with us eating chips, the next he was gone. we were right in front of him, at the same table in fact.

when ariff doesnt want to sit in his stroller he would scream and shout. he wants to stand on the buggy board like his abang long and abang but doesnt understand that we cant let him as he is a wanderer. he also refused to sit on the booster seat and was screaming and shouting to be let out. when looked back at him after 5 minutes, he legs were on the windows and his head was on the car floor. just because abang and abang long were not using boosters.

the worst part of ariff is his cries. he has such an irritating cry, complete with a 3-4 fingers in his mouth. terribly irrating...

akmal...oh how beautiful he is. we were scared for him the most. from flu to fever to stomach bug and dirrhoea. and that leads to crankiness and mood swings and tiredness. we had bad signs on the plane coming over as akmal couldnt sleep not being the bassinet and cried out so much. once he got a place to sleep on the second leg of the journey, he was better. when we arrived, he adapted to the cold weather and the layers of clothing so well, it was wonderful. he doesnt bother about the cold, doesnt cry, doesnt get fussy, no problem whatsoever!

he was alright sleeping in the cot the landlord gave, he was ok falling asleep on the strollers while being pushed around the whole day, he's great when he was put into the car seat and would sleep throught the journey. he's ok being smothered with qv cream every time after bath, being slapped on with lip balm every so often, he doesnt mind wearing gloves and snow caps and mufflers. we didnt bring much of his formula, just enough for the flight and first day here. we bought formula here and face the risk he may not like it. but he just frowned and then drank the whole bottle the first time trying 'cow & gate'. he's really so very easy. maybe that's why he's everyone favourite adik baby.

he did get the flu though and had nose bleed but that was about it. the piriton and ibuprofen helped quite a lot. he also hated to bathe in the cold weather. everytime he sees the tub he would scream 'nanakkkkk...' and when asked 'tak nak kenapa?' he would shout 'jukkkkkkkkk...' but once in the tub, he refused to come out.

Break

2010-12-17T06:42:00.002+08:00

we are on a break and have moved (temporarily) into a new house...

...and so (much more)

2010-12-14T23:05:00.003+08:00

we're off. will try to blog as regular as possible via our travelog. i would like to thank those who wished us well on our trip and those who are looking forward to hearing about our trip. i cant believe some actually follow from the beginning. thank you so much.

for now...here's us ready to go. clothes, suitcases, shoes...

Reality Check

2010-12-06T06:57:00.000+08:00

off the topic of the trip for a weekend. this weekend is dedicated to finalise the boys' school items.

i've bought amir & asyraf's school bags a couple of weeks ago. used up the isetan vouchers i got during the k amazing race. the boys both wanted toy story bags. unfortunately there was only 1 design, so i bought the same for both of them. i wanted a slightly smaller bag for asyraf, him being smaller than amir but had to settle for the only 1 sold. also bought their water tumblers for school. ariff also got a new school bag. he wanted a bullseye bag but i could not find any (maybe because bullseye is only a supporting character...sorry ariff!) but we managed to pujuk him with a nice mickey mouse bag & water tumbler. akmal has a thomas bag that we used for weekend jalan-jalan and since its off a good size, he'll use it for school next year.

hubby and i went over to 1utama to get a few things, amir & asyraf's school shoes and socks, among them. went to bata but could not find any in their size...weird. i wanted to get a bubble gummers pair in beige but hubby said to be safe and get a white pair. so we walked some more and i stopped just outside parkson where they were selling bags, uniforms, shoes and other school-stuff. we decided on a nice ben10 pair in white for both of them, amir in size 11, asyraf size 10. we also grabbed a few pairs of socks on the way to the cashier. the boys dont need to get books and stationeries just set, so school stuff is done.

in a few weeks time, both will be starting the new year in their new school. i'm a bit anxious, sometimes i feel like its my first day of school. the registration's been paid, documents & pictures been sent. we're waiting for the timetable so that we know what they'll be learning in school as well as what to wear on which day.

amir's pretty excited about the new school. he's a bit upset about leaving haziq, his best friend though. everytime he talks about his new school, he would ask 'haziq sedih kan mummy?' i'm sure he is, amir. he's also been asking haziq to come over to the house on weekends. its even sad for hubby and i to see the 2 part, haziq's been amir's best friend since they were 2 years old. apart from haziq, he's quite looking forward to the new school. he's very excited about learning english more intensively. he's been trying to use english at home but its a bit difficult when he doesnt know many words and when his brothers dont converse in english. i guess it turns him off sometimes.

asyraf, on the other hand, is kind of so-so. he's pretty ok with the thought of going to a new school, he calls it 'mat reader' for smart reader. he doesnt have a close friend that we know of, he's leaving behind. more of a favourite teacher, than a close friend. but at the same time, he doesnt understand english as much as amir, so its quite worrying sending him to school which uses english as the main medium. i do hope asyraf can adapt quickly with the change. he's been doing so well in school, it would be terrible if the change brings him down.

we're thinking of circumcising asyraf when the school term begins. yes, a bit weird when others do it during school holiday but we're a bit busy now and we'll be away very soon. maybe we'll do it nearer the chinese new year break at least we'll be home to keep an eye on asyraf. once that is done, we'll be happy parents of 4 circumcised boys...finally (rolling eyes towards a certain EI). on a similar note, all boys are up to date with their immunisation. they're pretty much have settled their primary jabs, amir and asyraf only has the 6-year-old jab while ariff and akmal has the 4 & 6-year-old jabs pending. once those are done, we're sorted.

ariff now is in his toilet-training phase. we're been over-using the 'let daddy & mummy know if you need to doodoo and pee' sentence for a couple of weeks now. we've tried on and off but always met with accidents. this week ariff's been diaperless in school. i think he's had 3 accidents in school and 2 when he's at home but the past 2 days have been better. the problem about ariff is he would not open his mouth when it comes to things like that. he would not let anyone know he needs to go to the toilet and that's where toilet-training becomes a hassle.

what is even more irritating is ariff would cry easily and cry non-stop when the slightest thing doesnt go his away but to open his mouth to let us know he needs to go to the loo is such a burden for him. our patience is sorely tested with this boy at the moment.

akmal, alhamdulillah, has been fever-free for 2 months. i was a nervous wreck when it was almost a month to the time he last had his fever but, alhamdulillah, the high temperature didnt come. he did have other stuff - slight flu, stomach bug, diarrheoa but that was it. nothing major that had him sporting a high temperature. he was well enough to get his final primary jabs about 2 weeks ago. hopefully the monthly fever phase has passed.

akmal's changed a bit in school. his favourite teacher aka cikgu fakin aka mama left early last month. akmal's been on his own since then. he has another teacher to berkepit but its not the same. akmal last saw his teacher when the boys had their convocation, fakin requested akmal be sent over after the convo ended and he stayed with her until he slept that night. now he calls her quite often. smiling and laughing when he hears her voice over the phone.

akmal's grown up a lot over the past month, he's picked up a few things. he absolutely love to sing and dance to the '1-1, saya sayang ibu...' song. he loves pointing to his nose, head, ears and eyes, he loves to eat - he can finish 3/4 of an adult portion of fried rice, he can say a few words here and there 'susu', 'seluar', 'tak nak', 'nak', 'daddy', 'meow' are the main words. his favourite question is 'ne??' as in mana/where. its the same question for everything said to him - akmal, ambik towel tu...akmal, jom ikut mummy...akmal, sapa letak bottle sini. his reply would be...'ne??'

while he's grown a bit, he's pretty much the same - still falls asleep easily, and still sleeping in his cot, still easy when he's out with us, stays put in his stroller, car seat or the high chair, plays comfortably on his own, still using his changing table after his bath time.

ahh my boys. they grow up so fast *sigh*

Errrr...

2010-12-01T12:48:00.006+08:00

...is how i'm feeling at the moment. i've finally completed the traveling booklet. happy is what i'm feeling, well yeah, but at the same time, i'm anxious, i'm scared. this would be the first time hubby and i would be taking the 4 boys so far on our own. the last holiday we went to was a local holiday. perth and gold coast dont count as we had only amir & asyraf then. plus my sisters went with us.

so with 4 boys in tow, hubby and i need to be prepared. we cant have the 'so where to now...' conversation or the 'what to have for lunch...' question. with the weather being so cold and us being out for hours each day, we'd have to make things as smooth as possible. if not there would be tears and screams and majorly annoyed parents.

so this is where my booklet comes in. my blood, sweat and tears for one year. and frankly, i'm pretty darn happy with my work. i just hope we stick to what has been planned...

siap divider lagi haha...

Update

2010-11-26T12:55:00.003+08:00

i dont really like updating the look of my blog. i do like the new look every now and then. but being my usual neurotic self, i feel like editing all my previous entries since all the text and pictures are jumbled up. argh...stressness to the max!

on a brighter note, we've booked everything we can for this trip - the stadium tours, the hotels, the trains, buses, entry tickets. the only pending item is the airport transfer from heathrow to the city centre. other than that, its just tearing out the daily calendar.

this weekend will be a weekend of storing old clothes and preparation for the boys' new school year. ah...and maybe i'll edit the jumbled entries then too.

First Books

2010-11-21T15:43:00.005+08:00

the first books given to the boys were their immunisation cards. i love looking at them. more to look at the immunisation schedule and to plan when - when to take leave, when to take them to the hospital - and of course, who - who to take. because the boys are so close in age, their jab schedules sometimes coincide. i try not to take more than 2 at the same time but i think i have done that.

seeing the cards bring back a lot of memories - how each react when they get their jabs, how they react a couple of days after that, how the parents react at their reaction, how they behave at the clinic, how they behave with their pead. there's a lot a parent learn at immunisation sessions, other than of the immunisation itself.

its been a while since we've taken the boys for their immunisation. we're always at the paed's clinic but usually for something that akmal has. the next appointment would be for asyraf's MMR and akmal's two jabs of double antigen & hep A.

while preparing the 2 cards (of asyraf and akmal) i start comparing how each was at birth. time wise, 3 of them were born at almost the same time. almost similar delivery from the time i came into the hospital (8:00am) to the time i was brought into the labour room (8:30am) to the time my gynae came and broke the water bag (yes...she broke all 4 at 9am, i never experienced a water bag breaking before) to the time they were delivered - amir at 2:55pm, asyraf at 2:05pm and akmal at 2:31pm. ariff, the easiest delivery was born at 11:27am. ariff was the only 1 who came out without assistance while the other 3 had to be vacuumed out.

weight too, were similar. amir at 3.08kg, asyraf at 3.07kg and ariff at 3.05kg. akmal came out earlier than his brothers at 36 weeks was slightly lighter at 2.8kg. if he had lasted another week or 2, he may be the same weight as his abangs. their length was also close. asyraf slightly tall at 49cm, amir and akmal both at 48cm and ariff at 46.5cm. head circumference was also within the same range, amir at 35cm, asyraf and akmal at 34cm and ariff at 33cm. semua lebih kurang lah tu.

looking inside the card, all their primary jabs been taken. all except akmal's last 2 jabs. kinda bittersweet. sweet that we dont have to take off work on a monthly basis for jabs anymore but sad, at the same time, that they are all grown. in a couple of months, amir will turn 6 and in a few months, akmal will turn 2. next year, we'll be preparing for amir's entry to standard 1 while akmal will be starting his lessons under cikgu sally. sigh...dah besar dah our eais...

The Itinerary

2010-11-15T02:57:00.012+08:00

i know some may be wondering how our balik kampung itinerary would look like. i dont really want to share this. not because of kedekut ilmu or anything but its kinda heavy for me to share something i've spent a year doing, something i spent hundreds of hours compiling and most of all because its for the 6 of us, list of things that we like doing, that we look forward to. hence i feel its a bit funny when people ask to see since what you want to do wont be what we want to do, would it? plus they are all easily available on the body of mr google anyway...

but since people have been asking, here's a glimpse of what we'll be up to. the booklet (all 65 pages of it) will only be shared with certain 'chosen' people (you know who you are) but, as i said i'm not kedekut ilmu, so i'll share our itinerary.

we're flying out on wednesday, in the wee hours of the morning, at 3:45am to be exact. the boys would be fast asleep then, so to ensure they sleep for the 7 hours of the journey we rely on dr piriton (with the blessings of the boys' pediatrician). the piriton will also be taken by the parents as we too need our sleep. we are to transit in doha and loved that the travel agency was very attentive and booked us on a connecting flight 2 hours after landing. not too short, not too long. i'm a bit nervous about the 2nd half of the journey as the boys would be up and awake.

our arrival time is quite good, 1:30pm local time. enough time for us to go through immigration and take the airport transfer to town and meet the apartment owner before it gets dark. then it would be unpacking and refreshing time before we step out to get our groceries. we were lucky to get a good apartment, a one-bedded which can sleep up to 6 people, right smack in town. its just off marylebone road and a stone's throw from oxford street and edgware road. kinda like the apartment we used to stay in at stourcliffe close. close to the amenities unlike the hyde park gate apartment - but of course the hyde park gate apartments were of a higher class being right in front of kensington palace (i saw the late lady di in her car once).

anyway, to keep the boys awake to follow the local time, we plan to bring them out - just to the nearby sainsbury's - and get them to fight the jet lag. hopefully we can get them to stay awake until 8pm, at least. then they'll be up at a good time the next day.

day 2 (thursday) - on our first proper day, we plan to take the hop-on-hop-off bus to get ourselves familiar with the area, what's new, what's attractive, what's changed. then we'll take the river cruise and hop back on the bus to get to rainforest cafe at trafalgar square for lunch. after that we'll go around leicester square, picadilly circus before taking a walk towards regent street (or hamleys to be exact). as we'll be indoors early every night (isyak is at 5pm) and on both weekends, we need to keep the boys occupied.

day 3 (friday) - this plan was a bit last minute, it was only finalised in october. i wasnt too keen on outdoor touristy stuff as it would be too cold. i was afraid hubby and the boys wouldnt enjoy being in that weather for too long. but after a lot of thoughts and discussions, we felt that a trip to england would not be complete if we did not visit a 'proper' castle. granted there's buckingham palace and kensington palace in london town itself but it would be nice to see a castle with nice greenery background. so we decided on a coach trip to windsor (being the closest external castle). while googling we found some tours which include one or two other destinations and decided to do a windsor plus oxford tour. the whole trip would be roughly 10 hours with traveling time and we wouldnt get to spend much time in each town (probably about 3 hours max each) but at least we get to cover 2 places in a day.

day 4 (saturday) - this would be hubby's footie day. he's gotten himself tickets for the arsenal-chelsea game. if we have time, we'd take a walk on oxford street in the morning before going our separate ways - hubby and amir to emirates, me and the other 3 back to marylebone.

day 5 (sunday) - we'll probably go down to spitalfields market. one of the apartments that we were looking at was in that area and i have slotted down one weekend to see the market. now that we've booked an apartment in marylebone, i still would like to drop by the market, but only if we're up to it.

day 6 (monday) - we plan to drive down to canterbury. there's a budget car rental very near the apartment, on marylebone road. they've got a good deal for vw sharan (which is even bigger than our 5) and its automatic. most car rental outlets offer a manual vauxhall zafira for the same price. the drive down wont be too long, about 1 and a half hours if i remember correctly. we'll be visiting my old uni (university of kent at canterbury), my lovely eliot college, the beloved parkwood, the high street and maybe the rupert bear museum. when i was there 15 years ago, there was no halal food at all. we bought our meat from 1 guy and it was difficult to get him. now i hear there's a couple of halal outlets in town, alhamdulillah for that. after lunch, we'll drive to ashford (about 25km away) for our pre-christmas shopping at the mcarthur glenn outlet.

day 7 (tuesday) - i found out that the place we'll be heading to will only be open at 12pm. i initially planned to leave the house by 8am to be first in line at the entrance at 10am but now we can leave around 9am and take a slow journey north to staffordshire. i think the boys will scream their lungs out when we arrive at 'thomas land'. right now hubby and i would use codes when discussing some of our plans, thomas land is 'tempat keretapi'. if they boys knew we're planning a trip to their heaven on earth, they would bug us everyday since january. we plan to stay until around 4-430pm before the park closes and before the evening rush hour starts. the we'll be taking the m6 to manchester and spending the night there.

day 8 (wednesday) - i've booked 2 rooms at premier inn without breakfast (i still cant believe a family room costs only £29) so we'll be having our own simple cereal breakfast in the room. at 10am, we would have to be in old trafford for a stadium tour. then we'll drive back to the inn, solat, freshen up and check-out. just a short overnight trip up north. on the way back we plan to stop by bicester village. we're not big shoppers so maybe 3-4 hours would be enough. after dinner at either harry ramsden or pret a manger, we'll start our journey down south.

day 9 (thursday) - early in the morning hubby would be returning the rented sharan. then we'll make our way via the victoria line to emirates stadium. hubby's looking at the legend's tour so we'd prolly be there til around lunchtime. after the tour, we'll take the victoria line to oxford circus and do a bit of shopping. we're trying not to overdo our plans for this day as we had 3 days on the road.

day 10 (friday) - the morning will be spent at madame tussauds. its near the apartment so that we can go back easily when hubby goes off for his friday prayers. after lunch we have no specific plans laid out as its christmas eve. dont think there'll be many places opened and the transport services wont be at its full capacity. so this will be the start of our 3 days at home.

day 11 (saturday) - its prolly good that christmas falls on the weekend at least we wont lose any weekdays. i'd love to go around to look at christmas lights but then again, the transport services may not be encouraging.

day 12 (sunday) - boxing day. another day of footie for hubby. this time its arsenal v stoke. so another day at home for me plus three.

day 13 (monday) - this is another trip where hubby and i use codes. for this its 'tempat tikus'. i cant even spell as the boys know how mickey mouse is spelt. we'll be taking the early morning eurostar down to paris. i wanted to get a train+hotel+park tickets package but they only offer certain train schedule and i'm not keen on leaving the park at 7pm and arriving at st pancras after 9pm. so a better option would be to take the eurostar to paris then take the local train to marne-la-vallee. that would also give us the opportunity to walk around paris. hubby wants to see the eiffel tower and the arch de triomph. i googled a bit and managed to prepare a sub-itinerary for paris, which includes where to leave our luggage, what time is the local train, etc. as we'll be arriving in paris quite early, we'll be able to walk, see the sights, have lunch, take the train and arrive in disneyland around 4pm. i booked us at sequoia lodge. it was a toss between that and the newport bay hotel - both same star, nearby, similar amenities. i stayed at the newport bay with tisu and nenny in 1997 and really liked it. but i have a feeling hubby would like the outdoor-ish environment that sequoia lodge offers. i was lucky to come across a website that lists down the menu of all restaurants in disneyland, so i could browse and decide which would suit us beforehand. we'll be dining at annette's diner on our first night in disneyland. i was attracted by the waitress in rollerskates concept. i'm also thinking whether we want to take the boys to see the wild wild west show but i'm afraid they'd be too tired from the journey.

day 14 (tuesday) - whole day in disneyland. i hope the boys love it. lunch would be at buzz lightyear pizza planet - more for the decor than the food (as the review says) and dinner would be simple mcdonalds at disney village.

day 15 (wednesday) - we'll be checking out and taking the eurostar from paris at 1:04pm. i do think to cover all parks we need more than 2 days but not this time. not to mention, the outlet shopping. an excuse for us to go back??

day 16 (thursday) - final shopping day to buy anything we left out and to take advantage of the boxing day sale. one item which is a must is luggage...i have a feeling we'll be going back with double the amount we came with. packing day for me.

day 17 (friday) - our last day in my kampung. even as i write this i'm getting chills. 17 days, pass by just like that.

so there...our itinerary for the trip. our booklet is more detailed with solat times, info of places, pre-travel, post-travel, timing, maps, booking info. i hope it satisfies those who asked to see the list. if it doesnt, then do look for everybody's best friend - mr google

The Unwell

2010-11-11T13:10:00.000+08:00

every few weeks my facebook status would highlight akmal's condition. its a monthly cycle, quite predictive. akmal is very sensitive, he gets flu easily, quite like me. when he has his flu, because of his small nasal airway and small chest, it would lead to blockage faster and the blockage contributes to the high temperature.

sometimes, i regret updating my status about akmal because it would draw un-favourable comments. i do get uncomfortable when people say things like...
'he's always sick' - yes, he falls sick on a monthly basis but he's not 'sick', its normal flu like every other children have but because of his small nasal airway and chest, the effect on him is significantly major compared to other children;

'your children is always unwell' - no, its just akmal, asyraf hardly gets sick (alhamdulillah), amir & ariff gets the occasional flu and fever but that's about it;

'you should look into alternative medication' - well, thank you but we're quite happy with akmal's peadiatrician at the moment. akmal gets special request to see him once a month - regardless he is under the weather or otherwise. his doctor is a peadiatric chest specialist - cant ask for a better doctor than that.

yes, akmal does get sick often but we're not worried. help is there, his medication is there, hubby and i are pretty confident in handling him, his teachers are ok in taking care of him. there have been instances when we dont feel too good. like last month when akmal had his bout of flu. something normal for him but it just wouldnt go away even after taking antamins and claritynes for almost 2 weeks that i just prayed and prayed every night that he would just get over that period. it was too taxing.

there's also times when without warning, his temperature would shoot up above 40c. this usually happens at night. then its voltaren and hours of sponging. those instances are tiring and takes a toll on us.

akmal has many, many medication. from the basic paracetamol, phenergen, voltaren and clarityne to antamin, alvesco, piriton, iliadin, ventolin, prednisolone, seratide, flixonase and of course, his usual augmentin. akmal alone needs over 10 medication when we're traveling.

worried? honestly, no i'm not. i consider taking care of akmal as a lesson. i dont want to be one of those parents who learn with just their first child or first and second children and feel the rest are 'same old, same old'. one would think at no 4, what is there to learn anymore - but with akmal, every month is a learning experience. alhamdulillah, we manage to get through each experience. nothing gives me greater pleasure then waking up, after 3-4 days of night nursing, seeing akmal with a big smile on his face, asking him 'adik baby sihat dah ke?' and having to do that every month, is really wonderful - come on, you have to find something positive out of all this.

everything about the whole situation - the small nasal airway (i remember the first time the peadiatrician told me about it when akmal was just 1 month old, being wheeled into the neonatal ICU), the small chest, the bird's chest that scares quite a number of people, the countless admissions to DSH, the monthly check up (macam pre-natal check up lah pulak), the twice-a-day ventolin and seratide puffs for almost 3 months now - everything about it spells akmal. the peadiatrician is confident he would grow out of it. i pray it will be soon, insyaallah.

akmal's latest hospital visit photos and his everyday medication (the everyday ones, not monthly ones).

My Aim

2010-11-07T14:26:00.017+08:00

...is to always have home-cooked food on the table for the boys. i'm very envious of those (moms or dads) who can whip up dishes for their children in a jiffy. i do like cooking, i especially love seeing the pictures from recipe books come to life on in my kitchen. but i'm not there yet. i dont cook on a daily basis, i dont even cook on a weekly basis. i would love to, but its not viable yet for us.

that's why i take great pleasure in planning a weekend of cooking. i know some would say 'itu pun kena plan ke' but for us, yes. we plan the grocery list as we need to be quick about it with 4 terrorists in tow, we also need to buy only necessary ingredients as the next time we cook may be weeks after that. we plan the menu so that we have a bit of everything over the couple of days. we plan so that we dont waste something that is rare for us.

over the past couple of months, hubby and i have been getting an itch to cook. getting the groceries itself is already exciting. the cooking is another thing altogether. seeing the boys enjoy their food is the icing on the cake. giant is great when you leave by 10am while cold storage is great all-around.

the dishes we manage to serve for the boys. lauks like chili crabs, ayam & ikan percik (gasp! they're easy to make), sayur with udang & sayur with sotong (the boys call them octopus).

mexican baked eggs - so easy!

brown minced meat (the recipe calls for refriend beans in the recipe but i altered. put the meat in a square baking pan. top with sour cream and cheese. make 4 indents. break 4 eggs in each quarter. add salsa around it. bake for 15/20 minutes. serve with leftover salsa and sour cream

macaroni soup - a break-away from the normal baked pasta menu

sautee minced onion and crushed garlic. add diced potato and arrots, beef and mushroom. leave til soft. add water. add pasta (boil pasta separately). add herbs (oregano, mixed herbs, rosemary) and season

simple steak

marinade steak with black pepper sauce, mixed herbs, oregano, rosemary, salt, pepper & olive oil. grill for 10 minutes each side. serve with cherry tomato, boiled eggs, romaine lettuce & cheese salad

Makeover - Master bedroom & Living Room

2010-11-01T06:37:00.006+08:00

bit by bit, we're getting the project done. months after the boys' rooms are done, its daddy and mummy's turn to get a room with a new-look. firstly, the high ceilings need to go. for years we've beared the heat and sweat that comes with being in a room with high ceilings. both the master bedroom and living room had a ceiling with over 15 feet in height. our room also had 4 windows way at the top corner. its like direct entry for morning sunlight hence why we wake up at 650am every weekend and on holidays. looks nice, feels not so nice.

so plaster ceiling heads the list. with that, of course, comes painting. for our room, the main colour should be blue - hubby's and my favourite colour. i needed to find a blue that would go well with white which is the primary colour of our furnishing and finishing. then its the living room. since the sofa set is blueish grey, the feature wall should be of similar colour. i only wanted to paint 1 wall as the living room had sliding doors everywhere. painting the whole living room would be a waste.

so hubby and i planned to start the work on a friday, he was to take leave so that he can monitor the renovation work. the contractor promised that the plaster ceiling work can be done within a day. he was not kidding! but the electrical and paint work needed another day. on saturday we sent 2 boys to school and 2 boys to damansara. all in all, total work took only 12 hours (6 hours for plaster ceiling on friday and 6 hours for painting & electrical work on saturday).

the house was still full of dirt, dust and renovation leftovers. after the cleaners came by on sunday, we finally can enjoy the new rooms.

work being done on friday. thank god i wasnt around, i think i would have fainted from the sight of everything being thrown around.

our room. love the lowered ceiling...goodbye irritating small windows. even akmal gasped in delight when he saw this room. we need a new wing chair, bookshelf and a chest of drawer - all in white. waiting for macy sale. of course, we need new curtains and borders around the room. i'm thinking of pastel or light green as a contrast to the blue.

the living room. love the blue grey feature wall. i seriously want to close off the airwell, its taking up so much space and is a waste. the room needs a new carpet and new curtain. and yes...an air-cond.

our family tv area. this room needs a major makeover - the balcony needs to be closed off, plaster ceiling needs to be done and we need to have a linen closet at one unused corner. that will be next year's plan. for now, we bought new curtains to replace the thin, torn ones. that's what happens when you move into a new house when you dont have money, everything bought was of low quality and low cost.

Conversation Post-Obsession

2010-10-26T21:16:00.002+08:00

on ariff's bed, me (watching thomas with akmal on my lap) & amir (holding his new leapster 2)...

me: amir, tengok ni, mummy ada baby comel
amir: tu baby amir lah
me: ni baby mummy
amir: baby amir jugak
me: amir, mummy sayang lah baby mummy
amir: amir pun sayang jugak baby amir
me: mummy sayang amir tak?
amir: sayanggggg
me: mummy sayang asyraf tak?
amir: sayanggggg
me: mummy sayang ariff tak?
amir: sayangggg
me: amir, mummy sayang amir ke sayang akmal
amir: sayang dua-dua lah, amir pun sayang, akmal pun sayang
me: banyak-banyak ke sikit-sikit?
amir: mestilah banyak-banyak
me: kenapa orang semua cakap mummy sayang akmal je saja?
amir: ish orang semua niiiiii...

*sigh* amir's grown up and so abang long...

Obsession

2010-10-24T22:05:00.000+08:00

there are a few things i'm obsessed about - lists, laundry, and that one boy - engku akmal izzat. i am tremendously, whole-heartedly obsessed with him. anything and everything he does bring tears to my eyes, swells my heart with pride and makes me smile like a goofball.

i am obsessed with him, to a point where it irritates hubby who would rolls his eyes, to a point where i would just look at him sleeping in his cot, to a point where i would hold his hand while we're both sleeping.

it doesnt mean i have a favourite out of the four. they are all different yet the same. ariff's the learner (at the moment), asyraf's the brilliant one, amir's the big one who's slowly understands and taking on the abang long responsibilities. akmal's just the baby, the one who follows everyone around, the one everyone adore and would just stop to hug and kiss, the one everyone would fight over.

one reason why i'm so into akmal now is because i was not into the pregnancy when i was carrying him. dont get me wrong, it wasnt going to lead to hating the baby or hurting the baby even, but i was just not into the pregnancy. i was not prepared to be pregnant, i was not prepared to welcome a fourth baby when my eldest was just 3 years old. my heart and my mind wasnt keeping up with my body and i was feeling down quite often. it got so bad at times that i willed the baby to just come out and started getting contractions as early as my 24th week. i even willed myself to deliver at the 36th week as i just could not carry on being pregnant.

delivering akmal was also very emotional. i was faced with the possibility of another 'dongak' baby like asyraf, i bled a lot, i had effects from the epidural, akmal's umblilical cord was wrapped around him. it wasnt a difficult delivery but i was too overwhelmed by the whole 9 months and the delivery and the thought of another baby to look after that i felt that it was all so difficult.

then when i was at home during confinement, i realised what an angel i had. akmal was so small and so easy (apart from the dribbling problem he had) and was so on schedule and just so 'a baby'. akmal was and still is a sensitive baby. he would get the sniffles and cough and flu and the ultimate fever (he can shoot up to 40c in a heartbeat) but he was never difficult. he can get diaper rash and bumps and reddish spots but he was never difficult. he would be in and out of the hospital (he has been admitted 9 times (or was it 10) so far) but he was never difficult. taking care of him is easy. he would drink and sleep, sleep and drink.

its such a turnaround, the difficult pregnancy to this easy baby and that makes me feel attached to him. he doesnt need cuddling, but i would cuddle him. he doesnt need to be rocked to sleep, but i would rock him to sleep. he's very independent and i guess i cant let go. akmal's able to nap on his own, just put him in his cot, give him a towel, switch on a thomas dvd and close the door. a peep into the room after 10 minutes will see him fast asleep. he doesnt even need a bottle before dozing off. if he wakes up and i desperately need to rest, he can continue sitting in his cot watching thomas for another hour. akmal can sleep on his own, play on his own, he's just so easy and i'm just so proud of him.

sometimes i miss him so much even though he's right next to me, sometimes i wake him up from his sleep just to see him smile. i've given him many, many names - amal, imal, malmal, mamal, mimal, maljat, ajat, ijat, jatjat, jijat, jajat and the infamous, adik baby.

i know, i am a mummy and four and i love, love, absolutely bloody love all my four boys (none more than the other). but this akmal izzat...there's just something about him...

Pre-Balik Kampung

2010-10-20T20:31:00.000+08:00

i've been talking about this for-like-ever! my balik kampung trip. since 2000, when i returned to malaysia after 5 years in sunny ol' england, i've been putting this on my no-dateline-to-do-list. i must go back but when, i really dont know. then of course one thing and another cropped up - jobless hence no money, new job hence no time, boyfriend hence berkepit (kah kah kah), engagement, marriage, new house, sabbatical, new job, baby-baby-baby-baby hence combination of no money, no time and no energy.

once the baby(ies) era are over and done with (ok...there's so gonna be a post on WE ARE STOPPING AT FOUR soon), hubby and i sat down and said 'its gonna be this year'. this will finally be the year when i get to pack up my bags (change to "we" and "our") and start the journey balik kampung. and its really been a good decision, alhamdulillah, as everything seemed to fall into place once we decided.

primarily, this would be the last year where we can take it easy when it comes to school - at the end of next year we'll be preparing for amir's standard 1 so a year-end trip would not be a good idea. the boys are also big enough to enjoy a long holiday, with 2 being diaper-less (1 in the process of being toilet trained) and 3 are now formula-less (1 taking only 2 bottles a day). some would wonder why would that be a factor, believe me, stopping every now and then to prepare a bottle of milk is not a laughing matter with 4 boys in tow. the fact that we no longer need to do it more than once when we're out and about is blissful! plus we no longer need to heret a thermos and formula here and there. finally (and honestly the most important) the financial aspect. alhamdulillah, its been a good year, that's all i'm going to say.

so there...everything seemed to be going our way. earlier in the year, we planned, we googled, we surfed. as the months passed by, it became more and more intense. planning started to get more detailed and my list kept getting longer. now as we're about to enter november, i've finalised 93% of the preparation, booked almost everything on the list - except tickets to 5 tourist spots, bought almost all the pre-travel items and prepared a booklet (i have gone beyond just a simple itinerary) of 65 pages (yes, you read it right...65 freaking pages, people!)

its been a wonderful phase, this planning. its very therapeutic. its very calming. its very educational. and its excellent to have a partner who shares my enthusiasm (although sometimes he gets shocked at the amount to be spent and start screaming) and even more fantastic to have 3 boys (akmal not included) who are as excited about the trip and the weather and the journey as the parents.

we still have a bit more to do, still a few things left to purchase, to book, to finalise and to research. but insyaallah, we'll be able to settle everything before the end of november. the first couple of weeks of december will be spent clearing off our work, ensuring things for the new school year are settled and tieing up some loose ends.

for now, its these items that keep us going...
part of my travel booklet...

the four we're doing this for...

Kindergarten

2010-10-18T20:54:00.004+08:00

the time has come for us to find a new kindy for the boys, mainly for amir & asyraf. we're happy with their current daycare / kindy. they have learned so many things, become independent and more confident being at taska tadika ibnu soleh. we absolutely love the teachers, love the activities and love the fact that the boys are well taken care of (from our point of view, at least).

but with amir about to enter standard 1 at the primary school nearby, we thought it would be better if we took him out of his current kindy and send to another nearer the house, nearer the primary school so that he would know and make friends with his future standard 1 classmates. we never want to send only 1 so wherever and whenever amir moves, asyraf follows.

so first part was done...to send amir and asyraf to a new school. the second part was not as easy...which school? we had 2 choices before us, 3 actually but i was not so keen on one of the kindies in our area. so it was down to 2 - ad-daris or bahtera ilmu. we compared both from the perspective of monthly fees, registration, medium used, school hours, teachers, area and decided on bahtera ilmu.

price-wise, either one we chose, we had to prepare to tighten our budget in the upcoming years as both schools were far more expensive than the boys' current kindy. school hours were roughly the same, both schools used english and both school had islamic studies (of course nowhere near the level of tadika ibnu soleh, which is excellent when it comes to basic islamic curriculum). after discussing and deliberating, hubby and i opted for bahtera ilmu. we took the boys to see their new school when we settled the registration and they seemed to like it.

during the next few years, we'll be joining the crowd of parents queueing up at schools the first week of january; starting with new kindy for amir and asyraf next year, then its standard 1 for amir in the following year, then standard 1 for asyraf and new school for ariff and akmal (all in one year *gasp*), followed by standard 1 for ariff then finally, standard 1 for akmal. non-stop!

for now, we're just looking forward to a new phase in the boys' life and a change to ours. hopefully, everything will go smoothly and we'll be able to manage all bumps and dips, insyaallah.

the boys new uniform, the little sailors, and their outdoor outfit, complete with little hats. too cute! only pending items on the new-school-list are shoes, socks, school bags & stationeries, which i will start buying next month.

Silly Billy

2010-09-01T21:18:00.016+08:00

the boys are into (and i mean very into) silly faces when the camera is pointed at them. they'd make silly faces then quickly run over to see how they look like and run back in front of the camera to pose. embarassing, really *sigh*

yes, they love to pose and yes, they look, what's the word people would use, 'baik'. but that's when the camera's pointed at them and when they are in a good mood.

other times...amir would be the elder brother who would scream at and shout at and laugh at and disturb his younger siblings. asyraf would be the crybaby who, well, cries. ariff would then come running towards asyraf and start making fun of asyraf who cries till he turns blue. being enemies, asyraf would then bring up his arm and scratch ariff away, who then cries as well. akmal would be in the middle of it all, walking from one person to another. ah yes...that's how they are. screaming, shouting, crying, scratching.