Jalan jalan tengok wayang

Hubby was not in town. Which is not uncommon. But not to have him around on weekend could dampen the mood a little bit. Anyway, we still had fun.



Took the boys to watch Alvin & Chipmunks at Cineleisure Mutiara Damansara. Love the place. They have allocated a few parking space, directly in front of the entrance for single female drivers. Truth was, the first time I read that, I thought the spaces were reserved for unmarried woman. Hehehe... But, what other word could describe it anyway. Unaccompanied?



The downside of not having your other half with you during this kind of outing was, I had to handle all the toilet breaks myself. Of all the 6 hours we were out, the boys had 9 toilet trips. Duh!



Went to Ikano playland afterwards and the boys promptly went after a clown. Amri got a baloon. But I guess Adam was too short that the clown did not notice him. So we had one very distraught boy here. But a baloon and a lunch later, he was back to his normal self.


waiting for balloon


close to tears


forced smile












Went home when Adam could no longer walk and attempted to sleep on the shopfloor.

Sleep over

While we were at Pusat Akuatik yesterday evening, hubby received a call from one of his best mate - Nik Arif (& co). Apparently they were in Shah Alam and planned to drop over for dinner. Cool! Amri was so exited it was a breeze to get him out of the pool.

So we had dinner and catched up on each other while the children ran around wild till almost midnight. Arif, Intan and the girls left for their hotel while Irfan stayed behind for his first sleep over. Amri was super thrilled to have his best friend spent the night over while Adam was simply happy because he has two big brothers to fight with. Needless to say, it was difficult to get them to bed. At the end, I just gave up and let them had pillow fight or jedi fight or whatever until they either felt asleep on their feet or simply too exhausted to play.

Batrishia, Irfan, Adam and Afiqah



























Past 12 midnight but these 3 boys were still busy












Half past 7 saturday morning. Wonder what happened last night sampai bedsheet pun dah halfway gone

Amri is seven years old today!

How weird to turn seven and the first year of school was already over. I meant, you're supposed to be seven on your first year.

Well...bringing up Amri was never easy. He was sickly for the first 3 years (read: high hospitalisation bill) then exceptionally super active for the rest (read : ER) . And now he was diagnosed with dyslexia (read: costly therapy). Which made him quite a high maintenance child. Fortunately, he was blessed with a highly resourceful parents and strong family support from both side of the families. Plus, we did not pass out at the sight of blood.

Amri received his birthday present from us last night, and so was Adam who insisted that his birthday was on the same date, except that, Amri was out of Ibu's tummy first. I wanted to give them skateboards but at hubby's raised eyebrow, quickly changed it to a safer Lego set.

We celebrated his birthday (and our wedding anniversary) at Colonial Times and had a really great time because the place was practically empty. To our surprise, Amri was embarrassed when the waiters sang Happy Birthday song to him and hid behind his father. So much so that he refused to blow the candle. Fortunately, Adam coolly blew the candle on his behalf because, well, as insisted by him, it was his birthday too.


Happy 7th Birthday!













Though we talked, chatted and planned about going out just the two of us to celebrate our anniversary, at the end we decided againts that. Hubby and I always met up for lunch or went out together after work. There'll be plenty of opportunity for us to have a private celebration later on. We'll celebrate this day as Amri's birthday for as long as it takes then perhaps one day he'll prefer to celebrate it alone or just with his other half...then hubby and I could sit down together and reminisce about the good old noisy times

I owed Amri a birthday party. Now, when could I squeeze one?

School holiday program

I finally found a decent school holiday program for the boys at Children's Playhouse, located at Bukit Jelutong. Monday to Friday, 9am to 12. Doing a little bit of everything including art&craft, mengaji, computer, swimming (not a lesson, just splashing in the pool) and a few more things. Cost me RM700+ for one month but the cost was well justified.

These are what happened when both boys were at home at the same time without me, the evil sergeant around:
1. Curtain rod was pulled off from its bracket
2. One mirror in bibik's bathroom was broken followed by another mirror in their own bathroom
3. Adam ended up with a deep cut on his toe because of no.2
4. My room had a drawing of spongebob
5. Most of the foods I bought for them was sold to their friends and neighbours kids. Sales proceed was used to buy ice cream
6. My house perpetually looks like the aftermath of a hurricane attack
7. My usually well dressed bibik looks like someone with a bad case of gila meroyan
8. They took turns to call my mobile phone every few minutes
....and a lot more

*sigh*

A weekend at BBR Batu Feringgi

Actually the main reason for this trip up north was to attend cousin Ira's wedding at Butterworth. But any reason was good enough reason for us to squeeze in a little bit of short vacationing.

The drive took longer than anticipated because some part of PLUS highway (Rawang-Tg Malim-SlimRiver) was undergoing some verrryyyy slooowww major upgrading works. Why now, for god sake. Expected completion date is Dec 2007, duh.















The beautiful beach seen from our balcony

Anyway, we attended Ira's wedding first. Met my parents and most of our relatives there. Seemed like half of Langkawi folks were there, enjoying the event and catching up with each other. Abg Caq was the photographer and Abg Cik the videoman.

Checked in to Bayview, which, after the slow drive, the scorching nothern heat, the superb food which I overate and the constant bickering of the two boys, seemed so heavenly. My first thought was just to crash out till dinner time. But the two boys had other plans. The rate the changed into their swimming gear was amazing :). So this makcik grudgingly hauled her heavier body down to the beach....
















Adam waiting for the wave























So we had two days of sand, sun and sea plus occasional dip into the pool. I even managed to squeeze in a wonderful massage that straightened out the tight knot at my neck and shoulder. Should have done this more often, the relaxing trip that did not involve sightseeing or shopping or rushing everywhere. The two boys were contend to play at the beach and pool. Next time I'll leave them with hotel's babysitter and get hubby to join me for 1/2 day spa :)






















We checked out on Sunday. On the way to Penang bridge, we decided to stop for a bowl of mee udang at Miami beach. The boys asked whether they could check out the beach while we were ordering, to which i said yes.















Adam and Amri checking out the beach

Next thing I knew, Adam was already inside the water while Amri was rolling happily on the sand, both fully clothed. Sigh!







Adam, covered with sand from head to toe plus pockets




















These two rascals were on their last piece of shirts. So after letting them get enough sand on their hair, pockets and underwear, we almost physically dragged them to the nearest public shower that was surprisingly clean. Much to the dissappointment of the two boys and a group of Japanese tourist who found their antics were highly amusing. Luckily hubby found a pair of spare pants each for them so they were bundled up into the car wearing just long pants and promptly felt asleep five minutes afterwards.

I had to make a pit stop at metrojaya penang to buy them shirts. Adehhhh..... where are they roadside-made-in-thailand sellers when you need them...

Selamat Pengantin Baru to Aimi Syahira

This sweet little cousin of mine has suddenly grown up to a beautiful princess and get herself a prince charming to spend the rest of her life with. Wonder when did the growing up took place. I still remember her as a five years old girl singing at the top of her voice while swinging wildly at my parents porch.

Hope you and Waffi will be blessed with all the happiness in years to come.

Eid 2007

Raya was great this year. No one get seriously sick (though Amri had runny nose), weather was perfect, enough food, no baby that needs constant feeding and diapers and nobody is pregnant.

One snag though. Amri had been asking for duit raya from people. Which to us, was extremely embarrassing. He was still okay last year so I was quite unprepared for it. It took the whole day of reminding him sternly for the message to sink in. Made more difficult by constant flow of guest with their little ones blatantly asking for duit raya without anyone reprimanding. Must have seemed unfair to him.

We went visiting relatives in the afternoon, knowing that tomorrow the traffic would be terrible so we'd better do our jalan jalan today. True enough, traffic was clear all the way

This year menu:
Pulut kuning with rendang daging (chicken was sold out...isk)
Ketupat palas with serunding
Nasi impit + kuah kacang
Sate
Nasi minyak given by Che Non
Lontong given by Mak Su

Sedih pulak tak dapat my favourite rendang ayam. Maybe I should rear a couple of chickens there then by raya next year, they will be ready to be turned into rendang.

Eve of Eid

Nothing much for me to do, everything was already prepared by Ummi. So I just crashed out till late afternoon when I suddenly remembered that I still did not have any tudung to wear tomorrow. Nagged hubbby to drive me to town who in turns nagged Cu Nan to drive us to town instead. Great. Then Amri nagged us to tag along but ended up sleeping inside the car.

Managed to get the tudung (and cheap too). Traffic was not as hellish as I expected, probably because everybody were busy doing Eid preparation at home

Saw this when Cu Nan stopped to buy ice cubes. In fact, Ummi wanted us to buy these lot too but I put my foot down (hard) on that. And asked Cu Nan to buy regular sunquick orange juice instead. Apparently, these are official drinks at most of Terengganu homes during Eid.

Change of plan

About all those travelling plans we discussed/argued? We aborted all of them and chose to drive at the stroke of midnight instead. Or more specifically, 11.46pm Thursday night. Reason being, our stuffs were miraculously packed the day before so there was no more packing to be done. Unless I wanted to pack house furnitures as well. Another reason was, after sending bibik off to her brother's house, we did not dare to turn the two boys loose on the house that was already painstakingly tidied up by bibik.

We reached Kula Terengganu about 9.30am Friday morning. 9+ hours of driving. Which was 4 hours earlier than expected.

KT was swelteringly hot. Kesian tengok Amri puasa here. Especially with cousins yang mostly tak puasa.

It is a sunny day...

With lots of drizzle..heh

Thank God the PMS yesterday only lasted a day. Used to be many days a few years back. And, no physical discomfort either. So I considered myself lucky. Just one wretched day per month when I feel the whole universe is out to bring me down is quite allright. Even that one day was usually taken care of during normal months due to my regular exercise. But this is fasting month now, and I've been busy checking out every stall at bazar ramadhan than exercising. In fact, jostling through bazar ranadhan and shopping complex are my only pathetic exercise for the last 29 days. How wonderful!

Well...enough of that. Lets concentrate on current task at hand. The topmost is, I need to get a tudung. Followed by everything else. 'Everything else' could easily filled two pages of A4 paper if I were to write them down. But being me, making mental notes and forgetting half of them then finally remember at the very last minute is more appealing. Plus, I tend to misplace list and notes. Or put in one bag/car and go out with another bag/car. Maybe I should get a PDA.

On the other note, I'm still amazed at how easy it is for Amri to fast. Frankly, I thought he would only lasted 3 days. Or perhaps half day fasting everyday. Surely there was a temptation to buy food at his school canteen. But his teacher said he was either at surau or running around with his friends. Sahur was easy as well. Some days, he'd even woke up on his own but just lie down on his bed waiting for me, face already washed and hair combed. He ate well, menu ranging from fried rice/meehoon/egg to snickers, mcdonald burger and honey star. Drinks was either 100plus or orange juice. How much easier could it get.
The truth is, I do not expect anything as easy as this. Everything about bringing up Amri were anything but easy, right from his overdued birth. Strangely though, I honestly did not mind the trouble. I had blessed with more than enough resources to see these two troublemakers through the next couple of decade, God willing.

Trivia

Am having a bad day....

No car

No iftar at colonial

Lost my mac lipstick

Company secretary lost the resolution so I cant sign cheque. No money then

Haven't talk since the past 4 hours

No trip to buy bagus cake mix

Not enough sleep

No coffee

No tudung to match my baju raya

....am getting very cranky now

This coming Friday

My plan : To wake up and have long shower and change tudung 10 times then drive off to KT about 8am something and hope to God that we could make it there before iftar.
The risk : We may end up driving for 14 hours with no place to eat

Hubby's plan: Toss the boys into the car at 3am and drive off to KT
The risk : He may have to carry and toss me in as well

Plan B : To drive away merrily after Thursday iftar
The risk : Half of Klang valley may be doing the same thing.

There is no decision yet. But thank God my boys are easy when it comes to travelling. Even more easier now since Adam is 100% diapers free and eats/drinks anything that Amri eats/drinks.

New kid on the block

Congratulation eiseai on the arrival of 3rd EAI. Hope to see you two soon

Shopping Raya

Had a busy day. I worked at superspeed from 9am to 1pm then off to 1U with hubby for our annual raya shopping. And to Ikano afterwards. Though I've completed my shopping (and exceeded budget as well) at 1U, I still could not resist buying the boys a cheap power ranger tshirt each I found at brand outlet. They could wear it immediately if they want to. Hubby made a reservation for his office staffs iftar at one of the eateries then off we went to MPH at the curve. I slumped off here until it was time for my own office iftar do. Weird eh? Initially we planned to have these two office iftar on seperate day so we could join both but unfortunately hubby's car was at workshop and sharing one car for these two persons who used to go seperate ways was so very inconvenient, thus, we did it on the same day but different place. So hubby was off to Ikano and I met my colleagues at Colonial Times.

Good food there. Their naan bread was divine. I could even eat it on its own (eh...cam bunyi iklan roti je..) But honestly, I wouldn't want that ttdi jaya bai punya naan bread after this. There was also another bread that was paper thin and simply melt in my mouth but cant remember the name. I wish I did not order the briyani so that i could feast on all kind of bread alone. (I am so into bread this year)

I want to go there again.....

Met a weird guard on the second floor of the curve on that day. The curve was so near my office that I had never need to use their surau. So, I have no idea where the prayer room is. But since this was iftar do, I decided to do my Maghrib first while waiting for the foods. So I asked the first guard I spotted, where is the prayer room. He pointed at a signboard on top of our head and said " Signboad tu kata pergi straight ke depan tapi kalau kamu jalan straight ikut signboard tu, nanti kamu tak jumpa suraunya. Jalan la sampai hujung pun, tak akan ada suraunya. Memang tak de surau kalau ikut signboard tu. Tak payah la susah susah cari surau. Balik sembahyang kat rumah"

I gaped.

One passerby noticed how lost I looked so he kindly pointed out where the surau was. Just up the escelator and turned right.

p/s Yati, if you read this, Happy Birthday!

Innalillah...

I wept when I read about the death of Nurin. I'm sure thousands, if not millions across the country felt the same way. Such an innocent life, taken brutally for reason known only to the murderer. We failed to save Nurin. Police did not seemed to have any clue about the murderer. However, that was not a good enough reason to start accusing the parents of neglect. Just try harder and save the blaming mentality for another day.

Much need to be done in order to make the world a better place, especially for our children. But lets just start with a simple one, i.e to care. And of course, to trust your instinct. Lots of things happened everyday at a crowded place but how many (if any) of us did actually care. A child was left alone inside a car while the father was busy buying kuihs from bazar ramadhan and all the people that bypass the car ever did was gave a two seconds glance and kept on walking. What if somebody just get inside the car and drove off? Or the child decided to venture off somewhere? Would the publics who walked past the car still remember it and cared enough to try to help by providing information? Or would the memory of it been wiped clean once in the vicinity of mega food feast that is bazar ramadhan.

I am pretty sure that in the case of Nurin, many people would have seen a girl walking alone to the pasar malam. And surely after the abduction, many more would have seen her somewhere. But nobody cared enough to actually took notice that; a girl was unaccompanied, somebody had grabbed her, she might have screamed and struggle and a lot more that would have looked suspicious. Out of the many people there, some would have the instinct that something has gone the worng way but did not feel like following through the intuition. We had become a self absorbed community (that only become busybody if there was a road accident). I wonder what the powers that be could do to change that bit of mentality. But I think they would suggest to put our poor kids under lock and key at all time.

I hope each and everyone of us had learnt something from Nurin's case. I hope she did not died in vain. That other children would have a better world to live in because of her.

Al Fatihah. This was a very sad time.

I hate the way media published Nurin's dead body on the front page and in the news. Did they asked her parents for permission?

Ramadhan Day 5

Amri is still fasting, which has began to amaze me. Sure, there were some accidents. On Friday morning, he woke up and went straight to fridge to drink his soya bean, which was his usual routine. Yesterday he was helping me with lychee pudding and inadvartently (I'm assuming) put the lychee in his mouth. Again, this was his die hard habit. Other than that, he took it quite well. With the exception of Sunday afternoon when I went on cooking binge. The whole house smelt of nasi tomato and of course, the lychee pudding cooling on the kitchen table plus some murtabaks brought by Cu Nan. Amri understandably, whined. Especially when he caught Adam eating nasi tomato, curry and watermelon in the kitchen.

I had removed all kind of tempting food from fridge and cabinets. And I've decided to leave the cooking to bibik and spend the time entertaining Amri instead.

Other than that, I think it was not as difficult as I imagined it would be. Amri did not complained of tiredness, hunger or thirst. He was his usual playful self, bickering with Adam non stop and made me wonder whether he secretly managed to eat a few square meals even under four pairs of watchful eyes. It was also surprisingly easy to wake him up for sahur and he ate well enough that I do not have to be worried about nutrition. He did not gulped down gallons of drinks during breaking fast either, which was a lot better that myself (and hubby too). He went to solat terawih as and when he felt like it and it was pretty much okay with us. Having said all that, I think I had underestimated Amri.

Ramadhan 1248H

Amri was born on 1st Ramadhan 7 years ago so we could say that yesterday was his 7th birthday! I still found it hard to believe that he has been around for seven years.

Anyway. Amri managed to complete full day of fasting yesterday. Well, I was overly proud! I knew other parents only had to inform their children that tomorrow is Ramadhan so please wake up earlier for sahur and no eating/drinking till Maghrib. Not so easy for me. I had to explain the concept of fasting for about a million times while stating firmly that it has nothing to do with power rangers and its equivalent. I had bibik cooked his favourite nasi lemak but he only ate one spoonful but ate chocolates instead. With tea. Whatever. He went back to sleep after subuh prayer and we let him sleep as long as he wanted to. His ustazah was not coming during fasting month anyway. He looked pretty tired after school so to keep his mind and hand from food, especially that bibik was cooking up a storm at the moment, we took him and Adam to pasar Ramadhan. Which was a bit of a mistake. Amri immediately asked to buy a drink. Okeh....we bought everything he wanted but only to be eaten during buka puasa. Adam on the other hand, was listless. He looked like he was the one whom is fasting. We cut it short and walked home. Since bibik was setting up the table, we put both boys in our room, switch on the aircond and watched tv together. Hadn't done this for the longest time. The boys were always out somewhere playing with their friends. I was always at seribadan. Hubby....ermmm...everywhere I guess :) Alhamdulillah.....Amri lasted until breaking fast time. With a lot of extra attention, pujuk pujuk, RM5 reward (positive reinforcement), some flattery and big boy ego booster. Hopefully I can do this for the next 29 days.

Something wrong with Adam though. He kept on vomiting and at times had a little bit of high temperature. What's up?

Congrats to Cu Nan

Congratulation to my youngest brother in law, Hasnan on his graduation day at UM. Another accountant in the family. We certainly are very proud of you. Seen here with his future partner-for-life, God willing :) whom is also a distant cousin and his kindy sweetheart.

A dip in the forest

Nowhere to go so we decided to go trekking at nearby bukit cerakah. We've been here many times but the boys still insisted on riding the park bus. I guess when you were chauffered around everywhere by car, riding a bus is a novelty. Even though it was not a proper bus you see on the road. Did the our usual routine - feeding the deer, climbing the lookout tower and when we arrived at the pool, it was starting to rain. We had the pool to ourselves for hours. It was cloudy so nobody get sunburnt this time.

My not so little chatterbox

Adam called me on my mobile while I was at work. This was what the chatterbox talked about:

Adam : Ibu, I have two balloons. One big and one small. The big one is the elder brother, named strawberry. The small one is the younger brother, named blueberry.

Ibu : Wow....you are so clever. Did you blow the balloons yourself? You must show them to me once i get home.

Adam : Erm...but bibik kept them away. So, will you buy me blueberry chewing gum?

Ibu : Chewing gum? What for?

Adam : Like the one inside your handbag.

Ibu : *sudah blur*

Told hubby about the conversation, just in case he knew anything that I did not. He laughed out loud and said " Didn't you get it? That was pantun empat kerat from Adam, requesting for a chewing gum actually".

Really? Why can't he just tell me that he wants the same chewing gum that was inside my bag? Why the baloons?

How does this adorable shy little boy become such a chatterbox.....he speaks more that the rest of us combined.

Safety first

I was exiting NKVE towards Kota Damansara when I noticed this blue car in front of me, both back windows fully opened and two small heads poking out on each side. OMG! This is one daring parent I guess. While i was considering a possibility that the driver was too engrossed in driving that he did not noticed his two kids halfway out of the car window, they did an even more amazing stunt. It was nearing the touchngo toll booth and the daughter let herself out from the window a little bit more until I could even read the full name of her kindergarten emblazoned on the back of her t-shirt and to my surprise, touched the TnG card to the reader. And while the sister was doing that, her brother, also wearing the same t-shirt from kindergarten, was lolling his head outside the window and at times, touched his forehead to the exterior part of the car door. Amazing eh? Training the children to perform at circus maybe, just in case twenty years from now, regular jobs are too hard to come by.

I'm probably the least qualified person to write about safety, particularly child safety, seeing that at least one of my boys will come home everyday with at the very least, scrapped knee. Of course, lets not forget the OT drama which I can't guarantee will not be repeated. I let my children jump, play, cycle, run, climb, roll around, dance in the rain or whatever they feel like doing. However, I draw the line, a very firm line at road/car safety. No compromise. Well...I may open the sunroof and let the boys poked out their head once in a while but only when I felt safe enough. Like when I drove from my house to Azida's house, which was two streets away. But never ever on the main road, let alone a highway during morning peak hours.

I may have been too quick at judging the driver, but honestly, there are a lot more safer ways to entertain a couple of kindy going children.

Transformer

Finally managed to get tickets for the boys to watch transformer. Instead of our regular place of gsc, we went to Cineleisure nearby the curve. I like the place and hubby like it too, I guess. Mainly because there was no way Amri & Adam could get lost there. Not much crowd, even though it was Saturday. Not too many shops that would catch the boys eyes (or my eyes for that matter). It was so stress free. There was no need to grip the boys hand to prevent them from running around. They could run wild as much as they want to and I could still see them. Nice eh? I wanted to eat somewhere inside the curve but Amri spotted a cafe with menu so big he could read from afar and it has nasi lemak ayam goreng on the menu. Naturally, Amri refused to go anywhere else. Nasi lemak ayam goreng seemed to be Amri's staple of the month and he needed to have it everyday, period. Alahai...that's what happened when your baby grown up and learnt to read.

Transformer was terrific but the cinema was so so. Seats were pushed into rows with no isle in between. The tickets were bought by my pretty office secretary so she assumed we'd love to be in the middle. Unfortunately, with two young boys it was quite a chaos. One needed to go to the toilet. The other wanted drinks and popcorn. Aiyooooh....it was not easy to squeeze by dunno how many hundreds of seats to get into the aisle. And get back inside after our toilet visit. Fortunately, transformer was so good that the boys almost didn't make a big fuss.

And honestly, transformer was really good I felt I wanted to watch it again (minus the two boys).

Amri - Post Surgery

Frankly speaking, I did not think Amri learnt his safety lesson at all, despite the bloody wide gaping hole he had on his forehead. On Saturday, I dropped by at his school for gotong royong perdana and had a quick chat with his class teacher. In the three minutes I spent talking to the teacher, Amri had gone off to practise long jump over school drain, albeit a much smaller one. *sigh* Maybe I should talk to his PJK teacher and see whether he could train Amri for long jump or something similar.

We went to see his doctor afterwards and he said though the stitches were looking fine but, in under no condition it should be exposed to water. Else, they would dissolved. Amri ended up with one week MC. In case of vomiting, fainting or nose bleeding, we were to rush Amri to ER immediately. Okay. No problem there. What seemed to be our problem was to make sure Amri would not dive headfirst into any body of water or peeled out the bandage himself. Also, how would he smell after one week not washing his hair? Ewwww..... Especially that, part of the hair was soaked in blood on the fateful day. I did my best though to wipe his thick hair using wet towel but still....just hold your breath around him.

On Monday, in an attempt to keep him away from any potential danger to the stitches, I brought him along to Seribadan. While I was enjoying step aerobics, Amri managed to get himself stumbled, fell and thrown off treadmill. Result....bloody upper lips and chin. *sigh* I ought to look into increasing his medical insurance to highest possible amount.

Today, I hired an ustazah to teach him Fardu Ain and mengaji at home. So far so good. Perhaps I should hire a private tutor to teach him school syllabus as well. And grounded him for the next 10 years at home. Heh...how's that?

Erm...maybe not. I like it the way it is now and though I whine a lot about the boys, I actually enjoyed the rough sport they play. Suited me just fine.

Thank you for all the well wishes we received before and after surgery. I ten years time, I will ask Amri to go around thanking all of you personally for being there for him mom.

Amri @ OT

It has gone pretty well. We checked in around 2pm, met the surgeon, signed consent letter and was taken to our room. A nurse showed up with a hospital gown for Amri which took us quite some time to coax him into it. Reason was, the gown was pink with flower motif :) The nurse did bring a blue gown but it was too big for Amri. He finally relented when I said I needed to take his photo with the hospital gown soon before my camera battery went flat. That was the easiest part.

Next came a nurse with a wheelchair. Amri totally refused to sit on that. He insisted to walk to Operation Theatre. The nurse was scared by now because she'll get into trouble if her boss see a patient walking himself to OT. At the end we compromised by me sitting on the wheelchair and Amri sat on my lap. And the nurse wheeled us both.

Amri was totaly unnerved by the time we reached OT. He attempted to escape a few times and threw a big tantrum at the entrance. He kicked, screamed and struggled and boy, was he strong. By then, hubby and I was running out of things to bribe and promises to make. Luckily, the kindly anesthetist, Dr Zul showed up and managed to persuade Amri to follow him to 'blow a baloon'. He showed Amri the different baloons used for general anaesthetic, some other stuffs and let him choose one. But still Amri refused to lie down. So the very nice doctor administer the GA with Amri standing up while a nurse and I stood by his side, ready to catch him when he passed out. He did, a few seconds afterward but when we lifted him onto the bed, he woke up and struggled again until the doctor managed to put back the GA mask. Amri was in deep slumber afterwards and I kissed him goodbye before retreating back to our room. The surgeon, Dr Shah would take over fr that point on. I never felt even more worried in my life. Honestly, it was only a cut on the forehead. How come we ended up with full blown surgery and a GA.

But I was famished as I was staying off food for the whole day for Amri's benefit. So we just grabbed coffee and sandwich from the cafe and tried to swallow. Fourty minutes later, the surgery was done and we were summoned to the OT again. When we reached there, Amri was already awake and crying for his ayah. So soon? I thought it would take some time for him to be fully awake, by which time we would be comfortably settled in our room with the tv tuned in to cartoon network. But there he was, refusing to lie down again and crying his heart out. Took more than 15 minutes to calm him down then we were sent back to our room. Since he refused to lie down on the stretcher, the nurse had to use wheelchair. Again with Amri sitting on my lap.

Amri was okay once we were back in our room. He rejected hospital food brought by the nurse and asked for nasi lemak with fried chicken instead. Finished one full serving of it with no sign of vomiting etc.


Amri with his pink hospital gown, waiting to be taken to OT


















Amri post surgery. He was drowsy but for some reason, did not sleep. He spent his time watching all kind of cartoon while waiting the GA effect to wear off.










Amri back on his feet and restless. A few trips to the shop downstairs and all around hospital lobby was not sufficient. Cartoon on TV was no longer entertaining. After waiting out the critical 6 hours post GA, hubby managed to get us discharged some time after 10pm, but with an order for a check up the next morning.

Amri Jatuh Longkang

Amri decided to play spiderman by jumping over and into a big nasty monsoon drain. Ended up with a deep big nasty cut on his forehead. We could even see the bones. So, he is scheduled for surgery at 2pm today. And I'm supposed to keep him off food for 6 hours. Wish me luck

Mum on mumps

I've started working again. Heheh! Offer too good to say no to.

Only thing was, I started my first day by taking MC. Lotsa MC because I somehow I ended up with mumps. Ceh! Very unprofessional.

Anyway, the boss was okay with it. It was not like recruiting a new employee anyway. I was around there for quite sometime before, fiddling with their ERP and making things worse by the minute. So rather than paid a hefty sum to moi to fix it all back again, why not gave moi salary and get moi to do a million other clever stuffs that accountants supposed to know how to do. Only that this accountant was a bit off the regular clever track but they welcomed that. And called me FC. Ahaks!

Hubby carted the boys and I off to Kedah for a short break, to celebrate the mumps.

Seribadan is okay, running by itself. It is time to spread my wing again and try something new and dangerous. Wooooohoooo...

Hubby and The King

Congratulation! You've made it after years of hard work. And to receive the scroll from The King himself....it was an honour. Especially that when The King is young and goodlooking. We are so proud of you. Btw, what's next after MBA?

Thanks a lot but no, thanks

Well, I'd never have thought so but it seemed there were many people out there who get really concerned when I was down with migrain. Honestly people, it was not that bad. Except for the second day (and night). Even the doctor said I had misdiagnosed myself (i'm very clever, remember?) and had firmly told me that all I was having that time was severe headache. She further said that I did not have the usual symptoms of migrain (of which I had totally forgotten, except for nausea) and proceeded to lecture me of the evils and dangers of self diagnose. So there goes my clever self.

Since the doctor said so, I guess I do not need all the health supplements offered to me. But thanks soooo much. I never knew that there are more than 8 person on this earth that read this blog. In fact, I doubted that even my husband read this :). And to actually read and acknowledged that i was not well and offered help.....it was so sweet of you guys. Please do not hate me but I really was indicipline when it comes to supplement taking. I did not even take my pregnancy supplements let alone now. My kitchen cupboards could testify to that...I bought all kind of supplements sold by friends in various MLM but hardly ever take more than a couple of time, no matter what good that the products promised

Anyway, the pretty doctor told me to cut down on coffee (oh no!), get enough sleep and exercise more (are u mad, doc?). That's all. Well, I did not check the doctor's credential but hey, the painkiller she prescribed worked. And fast. I was back on my feet the following day. By that time, I found out my brand new maid had already made herself at home. She figured out herself how to use washing machine, rice cooker, microwave, tv, vcd player and the boys' name. Once I was out and about, she gave me a long list of the missing groceries i needed to buy. Gosh! Not bad for someone who did not go to school at all. I must thank her previous employer then, for training her well. But first and foremost, thank God i now finally had a decent, if not competent, maid.

*gasp*

Ouch!

I'm thirty three today.

note to hubby:
no need for pressy, just preorder HP7 for me :)
there...u got off very easily

Nescafe Kickstart

Somehow I missed out the final. I did not really followed the series from the beginning but became intrigued later when among the chosen were two girls from fitness industry (if you do not mind me generalising 'dancing' as one of fitness categories).

I was rooting for Ninie. Nope, not because she is a Malay. I am no racist okay. But because publishing takes a lot of gut to do. What more publishing a yoga magazine plus a vcd. Not only you have to worry about magazine contents but you need to shoot a movie as well and looks pretty in it. Hell, that was one amazing feat. Granted, she has some celebrity friends to pose for her but, only to that extend. I doubted any of them is able to help much or see Ninie through for the next few issues. Now, contents and shooting aside, Ninie would have to deal with prejudice from public, specifically from the less informed muslim. It was all well in Klang Valley and some other cities, people have been exposed to yoga as another form of exercise for quite some time . Yoga is a very in thing now and almost everybody was into it or at least, plan to. Sadly, the craze and the information that come with it did not really reached every part of malaysia. So, I could almost see the tought bubble that formed : What???? A Malay/Muslim girl doing the sun salutation??? Isn't that ........... you fill in the blank yourself.

Somehow, I feel for her. So I felt it was pretty unfair that the other girl won. For God sake, she was only opening a dance studio. What so hard about it? If a boring accountant with two left feet like me could run a studio, so did everyone else. Anyway, since the winner was partially chosen by SMS vote, it was not really a surprise right? Joo Nee is pretty and oh..how she could sway her hip:)

But still, Ninie should have been the winner. She has great ideas, she works hard and she still has a long rough road to travel. The cash prize will definitely help a lot but I guess, it was not meant for her. Bravo, Ninie!

A muddy kind of day

For all I’ve been writing about aerobics, people must have thought that I have seen and done it all. No! I’ve never been to outdoor mass aerobics. It is where the many participants would be dancing in the open air (like padang bola or community hall) and the instructors (usually more than one) would stand in front stage, facing you.

TTDI Jaya residents had one yesterday morning in conjunction with Syabas launching their new water metre. No offense to those who enjoyed outdoor aerobics but I found it terribly uncomfortable. First, being in public place meant that you would have to dress decently. In my case, complete with tudung and long sleeve t-shirt. After five minutes, I was soaking wet with sweat. Secondly, being resident in now famous TTDI Jaya could only meant that the ground was forever wet with rain. It rained heavily the night before so instead of nice grassy football field, we had a wet mushy muddy ground that not only soaked through my dainty cross trainer but splattered me with mud from head to toe. (After a round of aerobics, netball game and searching for Amri at drawing contest) And I decided to wear white top, shoes and tudung for the occasion…ceh!

Also the presence of men in the group did make me a bit worried, because you know, as what the politicians often preached about, we women should never entice the opposite sex (duh) with any sexy move. And aerobics dance had evolved to be very sexy indeed. We do not want woman exercises to be banned from this country, no?

Well, I should have stayed with studio aerobics. I did not really enjoy being mud splattered from head to toe and sweating like a pig. And I hate not having firm traction on my feet because being a big momma I was, I had a fear of slipping and toppling over the cameraman who for reasons known only to him, kept his videocamera zoomed to me and not even bothering to be subtle about it. Did we know each other?

And this morning when I reached Seribadan, I felt so lucky. I’ve taken this place for granted because I owned it. I actually loved its wood flooring, mirrors, airconditioners, stacks of clean towel, drums of cold water and most of all, the privacy it offered which enable me to dress up in almost anything. It was tiny studio but sufficient.

Anyway, I’ll give it another try sometimes but I’ll check the ground first. Plus, I’ll wear everything black. It should be fun if the ground was not mushy and I didn’t get confused without mirrors.

Lost and found

I am so glad that little Yin was found and returned safely to his parents. It must be a huge torture, knowing your child is somewhere out there but unable to reach to him, hug him close and keep the child safe. And those people who unashamedly said things like the parents were too busy shopping to look after the kids, well....lets just hope the same things will not happened to you when you become a parents. All kids are different. Some are more adventerous than others. Some will stay meekly beside mommy and trail obediently once the mommy moves. But most are not. My boys are not and so are the majority of 5 years olds I know. I am constantly vigilant and I take precautions. Like putting my namecards in the boys pocket. Drilling the boys on what to do if they are lost. Teaching Amri to memorise my handphone number (he asks for a handphone instead). Despite all that, Amri still managed to get lost but fortunately at a familiar ground. He knows enough to get help from the staffs at information counter. I refused to brand myself a bad mommy because of that. But I'll definitely kick myself if it happens again. Or repeated by Adam. Thing happened so that we could learn, right?

I hope Yin's parents will face the future bravely. You know, things like when you want to visit a shopping mall again, well meaning friends and relatives will surely advise againts it. Or you develop a phobia for it. But you can't hide away forever. Lets face it anyway and learn from the past. Like cuffing your kids to the trolley (i'm kidding!) or look for a more child friendly mall. When there is a will, there is a way. Surely when a woman need to shop, she'll be triple creative?

I've never had migrain in my life. So when I had a bad headache on Saturday, I just brushed it off as lack of sleep. Which was true enough. But I didn't expect it to last for more than a couple of hours, let alone days. Usually a nice short nap will take care of it.

But not this time. Nap did not cure it. Neither did Panadol. A good long sleep at night did not even reduce the pain. Anyway, Amri had telematch at his school on Sunday morning. So I dragged myself out of bed, asked Adam to shower himself and drove to school. Luckily the school provided tents and chairs. Adam however, did not appreciated being out of bed so early and in one of his black mood. He refused to walk and demanded to be carried, giving reason that the ground was wet and slippery and he did not want his shoes to be dirty. Oh well...luckily hubby was there to lug his son around.

I survived the telematch and a breakfast afterwards then hit the sofa as soon as I reached home, leaving hubby to manage the boys and the house for another day.

Or so I thought.

By Sunday evening, hubby had his friend sent over a maid. Gosh! I was unprepared for a maid. Maybe I bullied hubby with too much housework that he thought he'd better get a maid:) The maid's room was being used as a laundry room and looked more like rubbish dumping ground. I tried in vain to clear up the mess within an hour that hubby's friend said the time he needed to reach our house. While a maid is a maid, I did not believe in giving a rubbish dump as her room, never mind where she came from, be it a hut without floor or whatever. And also, I wouldn't feel happy unless I feed my guest but I really did not feel like cooking. So I sent Amri to buy goreng pisang...heh!

Well...I now had a new unordered maid. She was someone else maid since January so all I had to do is pay levi and change employer name. Thank God she was not too unfamiliar with housework because I really did not feel like training anyone at the moment. The rest I would dealt with later

Doctor prescribed me with a stronger painkiller that actually worked. Finally, I could move a bit faster without seeing stars. And I could drive to Seribadan, which really cheered me up.

Ooops.....

It rained heavily around 4pm and by 5pm my front neighbour took her car to somewhere higher. I on the other hand, had other problems. First, I had to drive through the rising water to Bukit Jelutong and opened Seribadan for evening session. I also had to fetch Amri and Adam since hubby was going to be extra late.

So by 5.30pm I drove through the water in front of ttdi secondary school (thank God for a 4WD) and reached Seribadan just fine. Although there was some funny sound coming from CRV's engine afterwards. Or was it just my imagination? Got everything nice and ready for weekly hatha yoga class then off to Amri's school. I drove straight to the front gate only to see a closed one. Then vaguely remembered husband telling me something about closed gate and no parents allowed to drive into school compound during his PTA meeting (but why though). I was contemplating the safest way to reverse the car without causing a massive jam or pile up when suddenly the guard opened the gate for me. Cool! Thank you very much. I drove in quickly before he could change his mind.

Azida called me while I was walking towards Amri's classroom. The bell rang. Yakety yak...chat, chat..joke somemore, saw Amri sitting nicely in his classroom waiting for me then walked back to the car with Amri in tow. Gebang gebang with Azida some more. Offered to fetch her daughter as well but she declined, said bye bye then shoved Amri into the car before he could jump into any pool of water.

Made my exit without a hassle. For once, the traffic was orderly. Reached the traffic light at the junction and while waiting for green light, I contemplated the nice and orderly school traffic today. No parents making funny turn or blocking any exit point. No children running around wild. And...Amri and his classmate seemed to be sitting nicely even without a teacher around. They can't be that good, can they?

Then it hit me.

Oh my God......

The school was not over yet. Today is Tuesday. According to new timetable, school finished at 6.40pm on Monday and Tuesday. I fetched Amri during second last period bell, I guess. Alamak!!!

Hehehehe

Hantam sajalah labu.... Will apologize to the teacher tomorrow. Hope the last period teacher didn't think that someone kidnapped Amri and went to make a police report.

Parenting 101 - Variance Analysis

Three months into primary school (Amri, not me) and guess what.... I saved loads of $$$! There was only one off minimal fee in the beginning of the year and that shopping spree with his school stuffs that cost quite a lot because Amri and I got a bit carried away. Plus I didn't really know which one is really needed so I bought them all. And those funky stationaries were kinda cute.

He no longer had high monthly fees as were his kindy years. Amri's pocket money only cost me about RM50 per month. His Qiraati class cost only RM40 per month. Weekly Tae Kwon Do class is RM18 per month. School itself has no monthly fee. No school bus expenses because I ferried him to school, hubby fetched him and he cycles to Qiraati class. No tuition class whatsoever. I doubted there'll be any tuition teacher on earth that could knock some sense into his head. Plus I already figured out how to tutor him. Pretty easy actually. Just turned everything into monetary term. If he couldn't figure out what is 6 + 6, just asked him what is RM6 + RM6. Trust me, he only took a few seconds to answer.

Sometimes I wonder how his brain works.

Well, the findings of the analysis is, primary school is good on the wallet. But not too good on other matters. Junk foods, foul languages, heavy bags and who's idea was it that school uniform needs to be WHITE shirt and WHITE shoes?

Adam the photographer

Found a lot of pictures taken by Adam, either using digital camera or my previous handphone. Some are pretty good, like this one here. Not bad for a three years old. Of course, there were also millions of junk photos

Amri at the backseat of my car. Just fetched him from tae kwon do class. He is the ever willing model for Adam :)

This is me, driving. Adam took this one using my old handphone. He kept asking me to smile, which I found very difficult to do while navigating Malaysian traffic. The best I could do is grimace.

Again....

Sigh

Banjir lagi....

Though not as bad as last year's flood. It only reached our car porch. But still, if the rain went on for a few more hours, I am pretty sure the flood would have reached our living room, if not the whole ground floor. Amri and his friends have a field day though. They were having loads of fun cycling through the flood water and getting drenched from head to toe :)
Adam however, is still at bed, thank goodness. Otherwise he'll be out there with Amri as well and I could just imagine another round of coughing-vomiting-med-doctors bill.

I am stranded at home in the meantime

Rain rain go away...

...and come again a little bit at a time.

So much so for a draughty season forecasted.

11.oopm : front neighbours started removing their cars to a higher ground.
11.20pm : next door neighbour removed their cars
11.23pm : i smsed amy and milly who lived at mayang sutera, asking about water level there
11.29pm : amy replied "alih your car cepattt"
11.43pm : kak azie called to check on me
11.45pm : smsed hubby to come home by boat
11.47pm : a neighbour rang the door to remind me that the water is rising
12 ++ : dozed off then awaken by warning siren, car horn and somebody using a heller to inform people that, really, the river was overflowing again
12.21am : martin rang the bell and checking whether i was aware of the situation.
12.30++ : hubby was home and set to removing our cars to mayang sari
12.47 : azida called to make sure we were okay
1.00am : went back to sleep
2.am++ : rain get heavier and water reached our porch....alamak! started to move a few stuffs upstairs then tried to go back to sleep
3am++ : cheryl called

I was not sure what time the rain stopped but the water stayed there.

Off duty...

I was feeling rather disoriented. First, it was school holiday so Amri was home and did not require my chauffeur service. I was also relieved from my duty as his alarm clock. Second, Adam was home as well, with a bit of temperature but still in his usual sunny self. I took two days off from work which at first, with the plan to tag along to Lumut with hubby and let the boys run wild at his national service camp. But the plan changed when hubby had other things to attend to, Tok Kie was here visiting and Adam was a bit off colour, all in one go.

So here I was, with practically nothing to do and feeling very weird. I used to rush between Seribadan, home, school, factory, daycare then seribadan again and now I had nowhere to go. The boys, as usual whenever grandparents were around, left me totally alone. I cooked, took a nap, surf internet, read one of my new books and it was not even lunch time yet.

I might as well enjoy this :)

Where's everyone?

Pretty quiet around here today. Peaceful. It is SCHOOL HOLIDAY!!

Both Amri and Adam are at daycare. Even next door kids were gone, probably balik kampung.

I feel like celebrating! But I'll start by taking a short nap first.

Books Galore

Other ladies received jewelry from their husband. Not me. I got a fully sponsored and chauffered trip to MPH distributor sale. And what do you expect when this makcik was let loose on a book sale? Hehehehe. Enough to say that I was so relieved when hubby carried my purchases for me. It was a rather heavy bag and quite a long walk!

Somehow, Amri was into books as well. Now and then he'd refused to trail obediently behind me and plopped himself beside a boxful of books. I was worried sick to leave him by himself but thankfully he did not budge at all. Not even one inch. However, he turned up his nose at whatever I picked out for him to read, preferring those Spiderman, Batman whateverman books. He even picked out a couple of Barney books for Adam, whom was contend to wait outside and eat icecream with his ayah.

I got the latest Kinsella's shopaholic series as well - Shophaholic and Baby! I read one of her book a couple of years ago and love it so much that I bought the whole shopaholic series plus her two other books. They were entertaining. Just the right stuff to read after a hard day at work.

I wind down by reading, okay. Preferably with my feet up. But actually, anywhere is fine for me

p/s: I finished the yummy Shopaholic and Baby on the next day, 2am. 10 hours after purchase time. But there were a trip to Kelana Jaya office and burger king Sg Buloh in between

note to hubby: Thank you very, very much. Also the reason I prefer a nearly 3000sqf built up house rather than one with large compound is that, erm.. I need a whole room to store my books (and your books too)

TGIF.... now breath!

Thank God it is Friday. Thank God it will be four days break. I was so exhausted. Adding Amri’s schedule to my already chaotic one was no joke! I think I need a maid, a driver and a personal assistant. We will be out of town from tomorrow to Tuesday. And it would be a nice break from school, seribadan and everything else in between.

Adam however, decided to give me a break after the hiding in bathroom incident. He even packed his own daycare bag, which I had to do spot checks just in case it includes smuggled items (VCD power rangers, my lipstick, icecream). And to answer eiseai question, I didn’t know what actually happened to Adam’s cheek. He came back from his evening ventures with bruised cheek and said his friend bite him. He seemed unconcerned so we just let it be. If it bothers him, we’ll have to hear about it for weeks so if he decided not to kick somebody ass about it, that was fine with us. It was just a tiny bruise, nothing like Amir though.

Amri had one of his tooth extracted a few days ago. It was loose for quite some time but Amri refused to let it go because it will make him look ugly. Well….he does looks ugly now, without one front teeth but fortunately took it pretty well. Most probably because it made brushing teeth and biting easier. He did not ask for handphone anymore as at today but decided to resume his pleading to let him cycle to school. He had been doing that since his second day at school.

The thing was, we made a mistake of saying that (then) he was not that skillful with bicycle. So, he decided to work on it. He practiced everyday, before and after school and all weekends. He was so into it that soon, the neighbours kids followed suit. Even our front neighbour, whom a bit overprotective with his 8 & 9 years old boys, let his boys cycle around with Amri. One week later, both boys chucked out their training wheel. So people, please avoid my street after 5.30pm because it seemed like all TTDI kids with bicycles, big and small, were all there. One good thing was that Amri get so good. I will just shut my eyes whenever he decided to show off his stunts. Duh! That was not the way it supposed to be. Anyway. We still did not allow him to cycle to school. For two reason actually. First, Amri now had pocket money so having a bicycle will enable him cycle to nearby grocery shop after school. I do not want that. Second, he’ll have to pass in front of secondary school. The traffic was terrible. Parents were parking their cars on the pavements meant for the pedestrian and bicycles. And parents who stop the car in the middle of the road once they spot their kids, never mind if there were other cars trailing behind. Also parents who made u-turn as and when needed. Plus those who reversed their car while chatting on mobile phone. So these primary school kids will have to zig zag in between the cars while keeping their eyes open for other possible errant drivers. Talk about teaching road manners to children. Yesterday, I saw a cute silver Swift backing into a girl. The girl fell from her bicycle but not injured. The Swift driver just drove off, uncaring. Didn’t even poke her head out of the window to check. No, I don’t think Amri is that street savvy.

So, sorry Amri. I know you are good but still, you are just 6. We’ll talk about this when you turn 8, okay. In the meantime, just bear with me as your driver.

Parenting 101 - Purchase Requisition

I was kind of expecting this request though. I knew it was coming, sooner or later. But Amri did take his time. About two months. So this afternoon, on the way to his school, Amri asked me whether he could have a mobile phone.

Whatever for, I asked.
Amri : So that Ibu wouldn’t be so mad at me for ‘borrowing’ your handphone.

Mind you, when he said ‘borrow’ it meant running away with my mobile phone. Twice. First time, he quietly slip my handphone into his Qiraati bag during our mad scramble for breakfast (read: ibu was running late for everything). Coincidently, on the very same morning, one of my instructors called in sick. Since no one pick up the call (Amri and handphone were already at Qiraati class), she sent me an SMS. Somehow, Amri deleted the SMS. Needless to say, I was fuming mad. Not only I turned the house upside down looking for my mobile phone, I also didn’t have a clue that my instructor wouldn’t be turning up that evening. Of course, Amri was grounded for that week. No bicycling for the week and no cartoon.

I thought it would put a stop to it. But it happened again. One sunny afternoon a few days ago, I noticed my handphone was again missing. Spent a few minutes checking inside my car and bag then decided to call my own mobile number. Unsurprisingly, the call was answered by Amri, with teacher’s calm voice and kids screaming at the background. Went to his school, straight to his class and demanded my handphone back. Asked the kindly English teacher if she could give a few stern words to Amri on my behalf (I doubted it, she doesn’t look stern enough), shot I-am-going-to-murder-you look to Amri and left, temper flared. Wouldn’t surprise if fire and smoke came out from my nostrils. I spent the rest of the day devising many ways of diciplining Amri. However, one hour of good workout at Seribadan later douched the fire. Plus looking at Amri’s sad face after being grounded again by his father. I decided just to have a good talk with Amri.
So help me God, I am a softie.

I am still wondering whether Amri should get his own handphone or not. Frankly, I think he is too young for it. He may be in Year 1 but he is, afterall, still a six year old boy. And acts/thinks like one. Plus, didn’t handphone a banned item at school? Though more than half of his classmates bring one. But they may need it for valid reasons, like missing their transport or the parents needs to let them know that they will be a bit late. Or the car was parked properly a few kilometres away (as if). I don’t really see a reason why Amri needs one either. He lives three minutes away from school, being sent and fetched by parents and has a mom who could reach his classroom in two minutes if she wants to. There was one day when hubby was waiting patiently for Amri at the back gate while Amri was waiting at the front gate and it was already 20 minutes after the bell rang. And his class teacher called me asking why Amri was still at school compound. Meaning that, there really was no reason to worry. Teachers were always there. And they had parents contact numbers listed somewhere.


So, this mom tells his son again to give her another good reason why he needs a mobile phone (in a no-nonsense accountant tone).
He said “ Untuk call ibu lah …. nanti Amri risau kalau tak cakap dengan ibu. Kalau ayah balik lambat, nanti ibu tak happy sebab ibu takde kawan nak sembang sembang. Kalau ada handphone, bolehlah ibu sembang dengan Amri”

Good enough reason?

I’ll leave it to hubby lah.

p/s: I was pleasantly surprised to see Amri’s classroom to have only about 30 something kids (or less). On registration day, it was 42 kids.

Parenting 101 gone awry

It was 10 minutes to 1pm and I was nagging Amri and Adam to hurry up and get inside the car. Amri to school and Adam to daycare. School started at 1.05pm and Amri had the tendency to wander off all over school before he actually arrived at his classroom. So needed to go earlier to satisfy that wanderlust. However, Adam was nowhere to be seen. I yelled for him but no one turned up. Checked his room and bathroom, he wasn't there. Not in guest room either. Checked my room and heard him singing from my bathroom. The door was locked. Asked him to come out because I needed to send Amri right now. He refused. I asked why. Because he didn't want to go to daycare. Promised him an ice cream if he come out now. He said no, thank you. Threaten to leave him home alone. He said, okay....bye! It was 1.02pm and I had no choice. Locked the door and leave a word with next door maid to keep an ear out for Adam. Sent Amri to school.

I was back 5 minutes later and found a dining chair near front door and Adam inside downstairs bathroom doing his big business. Asked Adam what the chair was doing there. He said, he wanted to take the keys to open the front door (plus grill) and go cycling but he needed to take care of his big business first. And could ibu please come in and wash his bottom because he was done now. I was speechless.

After putting his short pant on, Adam continued his interrupted activity. I simply watched because I needed to know how far could he go with the complicated lock and key. Amri was 5 when he figured out how to unlock that padlock. Adam was a bit advance I guess. He managed to unlock after a few minutes while singing Alif, Ba, Ta.... Somehow I got a feeling that this was not his first time.

Having succeeded the front door, he then proceeded for the gate. Which was easy peasy. It was auto gate and the switch was right beside the door. Since he was already standing on a chair, opening the gate was never a problem. Having passed his hurdles, he put the padlock and key properly on nearby coffee table and drag the dining chair back to its place. Grab his bicycle and went off. I allowed him a few minutes before putting my foot down and told him to get back inside the house. Lucky for me, it started to drizzle and Adam hurried back inside.

I was having pretty mixed feeling. First, proud that Adam was so brave staying alone, independant with his toilet business and clever with the locks. Second, scared of what would happened if I were to take longer than 5 minutes. What if Amri's school was 15 minutes away? what if Adam didn't need to answer nature's call? What if there was a fire? Or he slipped in the bathroom, or he could fell from the chair (well..that one happened everyday).

But still, a little bit of revamping is needed here. Say...a more complicated door access system? A combination of pin number and retina scanning maybe. A guard outside the gate? A key to all bathroom perhaps. Or just locked the keys in a safebox. Orang lain simpan jewelry, kita simpan keys :)

I couldn't help but felt a bit amazed at how Adam did his strategic planning. Of all the place in the house, he hide in my bathroom. The only place without key. Once locked from inside, there was no way I could enter, unless I wanted to try the old U days trick...use a card. But that was time consuming and I was not about to sacrifice my credit card.

While I am typing this entry, Adam was playing alone happily in his room. Singing, no less. And sticking Amri's dragonball stickers on his bedroom door. I bet Amri would be fuming mad when he get back from school this evening :)

Al Fatihah to adik Anis

Click here to read the news

It happened at Amri's school. I just couldn't imagine how terribly sad the mom after the phone call from school. It was of course, Qada & Qadar but still, I couldn't help but wish that teachers are equipped with first aid training. Not just teachers, all parents should know about it.

I didn't know Anis's parents personally but I hope they are okay. Al fatihah to her.

I did occasionally get phone calls from Amri's teacher but they were mostly to complain that Amri was missing from his class. Now I think, any phone calls from school sure to make my heart miss a beat.

The myth about sweat

I wanted to post this in Seribadan but nothing happened after I clicked the 'publish' button. So I publish it here in the meantime....

What’s the Sweat?
MYTH ONE : If you’re not sweating, you’re not working out.

There are a lot of misconceptions about sweat. Hear this fact: Sweat has only one purpose — to cool the body. When your body temperature rises as a result of the energy production required by exercise (or the heat of the day), a couple of responses are triggered. First, the heart beats faster to move blood around the organs more quickly to absorb heat. At the same time, capillaries just under the skin dilate so blood can be closer to the skin surface, which is usually cooler than body temperature. If these cooling mechanisms aren’t enough, your sweating reflex kicks in — something like a built-in shower. Water from the blood moves to the skin surface through a network of more than 2.5 million ducts, or sweat glands, in the skin. When this “sweat” — which is composed of 99% water and 1% salt and other protein and fat-based metabolites — evaporates, it cools the body and leaves a salty-tasting residue on your skin.
You’ll notice the sweat if you live in a humid climate that deters evaporation. You may never think you sweat in a dry climate, where the same workout, at the same temperature, produces the same amount of sweat, but is not noticed because it evaporates so quickly.
Although sweat has no odor itself, when it is combined with bacteria on the body, it’s time to roll out the deodorant to combat the unpleasant odor associated with sweat.

MYTH TWO : Sweating helps you lose fat.
Some people still come to the gym wearing sweater suits designed to make them sweat profusely. If asked why they are using this gear, they often respond, “To sweat off fat.” Had they said, “To lose weight,” they would be accurate but misguided. Any post-workout decrease in weight is water-based sweat, not fat. Fluid replacement returns the scale to a pre-workout reading. The danger in this thermal approach to weight management is that any sweat produced cannot evaporate and cool the body.

MYTH THREE : Sweating rids the body of toxins.
There are no toxins in sweat. Toxins are removed by a healthy kidney and liver working full time to counter all we do to abuse our bodies with poor exercise, eating, and lifestyle habits. The body isn’t detoxified when it sweats. It’s overheated.
Sweating dehydrates the body. A dehydrated body is prone to heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Lost fluid must be replaced. Drinking water is a good place to start. A cup of water before and after your workout and sipping your water during exercise will suffice..

Source : www.walkabout.com

Adam is 3!

Just three? Judging by his size and manner, five is more like it. But three it is. Three years ago, I felt some mild contraction and took my time eating breakfast and all...thinking that Adam would take his own sweet time to come out. I was wrong. 45 minutes after epidural, Adam popped out. Everybody said the epidural was just a waste afterall, I did not really need it. However, i am a big time coward when it comes to pain so even if the labour pain took only 15 minutes, I would still insisted on epidural. Hehe. No offence to supermoms out there, ok.

Adam @ 3 months old

Adam @ 5 months old

Adam @ first birthday

Adam @ 2 yrs 11 months

Well, no party yet today since hubby is still at Lumut. Maybe Sunday, Insyaallah.

Happy Birthday Adam!