Special Day

There is one special date which occurs every year since 2001 and today is one of them, 111111. I heard many couples plan to tie the knot today and some pregnant ladies have even made appointments to have Caesarian section! What a crazy world we live in. As a practicing Muslim I do not believe in any day or date to be special because each moment is special for as long as God allows me to breathe the air and live a healthy life. This morning was special because we had to get up at 4.30 to send Harris to his school. He needed to be there by 5.00 am in order to join a leadership camp trip to Kelantan. I guess by now he has already arrived at wherever that camp is supposed to be held. The schedule for the camp is quite packed and I really hope that he will learn something that will benefit him for a long time to come.Yesterday was special because I took Najla, Hannah, Yasmin, and Balqis to IIUM swimming pool. Yasmin learned how to swim when she was 4 years old and she could still float and perform some breast strokes. She told me that she has forgotten other styles. Hannah was excited because she managed to float after being taught by a few ladies who were there in the pool. Najla had a hard time learning but if we go often enough she might be able to do it soon. She has been bugging me to send her to a swimming class. I talked to the life guard and was told that her class will only start in March next year. I think Najla swallowed a lot of water from the pool because she had stomach upset at 2am. She woke up crying and said she needed to vomit. After several attempts, nothing happened. Luckily she felt better half an hour later. There are 2 things that she really would like to learn: swimming and riding a bicycle. Well she shouldn't feel so bad because I learned how to ride a bike at the age of 24 and only knew how to swim in my 40s :)

Danial came home for Eid Adha celebration last Friday (Nov. 4) and stayed until Wednesday. As usual we celebrated our Eid in my mom's village. It was a nice family-get-together time. All the other kids were at school on Wednesday and Steve was at work. Since I was on leave, I managed to bake 2 batches of my wonderful chocolate chip cookies. I was so engrossed baking that Danial almost missed his bus! Alhamdulillah we got to the bus station just in time.

Najla's craft

These are the pictures of "ice cream" Najla brought home recently. The ice cream looks so real that sometimes I am tempted to chomp on it!


A few weeks before she took home the "ice cream", she brought a "giraffe". The poor giraffe has no mouth so it can't eat. Najla must have forgotten to draw the mouth for it :)

Conversation with Najla

Yesterday while washing dishes Najla came to me with her new umbrella and the conversation goes like this:

Najla: Mak, look at my new umbrella. It's only 8 Ringgits. Abah bought it at the co-op.
Me: Really? What happens to your red umbrella?
Najla: I don't know. Hannah had it before. Besides it was torn.
Me: What? It's a new umbrella and it's already torn?
Najla: Yeah. I don't know how to take good care of it. I am not like you. You have many children.
Me: What is the relationship between having many children and umbrella?
Najla: Well, you can take good care of your children, and taking care of children is more difficult than taking care of an umbrella.
Me: ??? (Smart kid ;))

Birthday Time

Today is Steve's birthday. As usual we don't celebrate or give each other present anymore because for us everyday is a celebration, hahaha. But it is different with our kids' birthdays, we must celebrate or else... Since yesterday was Najla's birthday, Steve baked our family tradition's moist chocolate cake. At night we went to eat at ECM Pizza Hut. I guess the kids were really starving because they ordered 2 large pepperoni pizzas, 3 orders of bread-sticks, 3 cups of mushroom soup, iced lemon tea, orange juice, and pepsi. I ordered a regular crispy-crust veggie-lover's for me. Before we entered the restaurant, we bumped into parents of one of Steve's students. Just for the sake of conversation, we mentioned that it was a celebration for Najla's birthday. Little that we know, about half an hour later they gave a box of present to Najla. Wow! That's what we call rezki. My mom who is with us for this whole week, also bought a present for Najla. As soon as everyone "inhaled" the food, we left the mall so that we could get our beauty sleep before enjoying another day of life. These are some of the pictures I took yesterday:

School Time

It was that time of the year again. Luckily my class started at 8.30 am so I had ample time to send the kids to school after such a long holidays. This year it's very special because Najla is entering the first year of primary school. She was so excited and her excitement is still shown until this morning. I really hope that it will last until she finishes her PhD. When I sent her to the classroom, there were two girls who were already seated at the cluster of 4 tables that I chose for her. They are Auni and Alia. Soon after another one named Ainun joined in. We had a nice ice-breaking session with the girls. Najla seems to get along with them well.

Hello Again

Hi everyone, I am back! There is so much to share but so difficult to compose. All of a sudden my passion for writing disappeared. In fact I lost interest in keeping up with the Facebook also. But for the past 2 or 3 days I have been checking my emails and messages from friends. I guess my mind is totally preoccupied with monitoring the development of our new home.

Let me see, I guess I will start with my eldest son came home for the school term holiday. So far we just sent him to Johor once, when he first registered there. From then on he came home on his own by the express bus. So far he's doing quite well in his school, keeping busy with many activities. Right now he is at his friend's house having a mini-reunion with his former classmates. It's hard to believe how tall he is now. By the end of the year, I think he'll be just as tall or taller than his father.

I have to admit that today is the first time I opened this blog after I wrote the last entry. As soon as I opened it, I realized that Yasmin's blog is not accessible anymore. I have to ask her later what she did to it. I know she likes to write but I guess she just doesn't want to share with others. Her trip to Pulau Redang today has been canceled because all her friends who are supposed to go have other commitments to fulfill.

Harris is going to take his UPSR exam this year. I just found out that he's the type who likes to study in a group, kind of like his mother :) He's doing ok with most of the subjects except for the Malay language (the writing part). I do not really believe in sending my children to tuition classes but when he asked to go for Malay subject Steve and I had to agree. So we enrolled him in the tuition center beginning the first week of May. Unfortunately he only managed to attend once due to his involvement in many other school related activities. Last weekend he missed it too because he attended a holiday camp at his school which he really enjoyed.

I do not expect all children to be the same but Hannah is quite different from the others. She seems to be so scared and sad majority of the time. I wonder if I was like that at some point in my life. It has been so long ago that I was at that age, I obviously forgot how I was like then. One thing for sure, she loves to draw pictures. Sometimes I gave her a hard time for "wasting" too much paper but then again she might be the next Monet or Van Gogh. She always remember to give me cards which she drew on her own for my birthdays and mothers' day.

Najla insisted on following me to work and I guess she must be bored because she's asleep near my table. She was bugging me to go to the cafe but I refused. We both ate rice before we left the house this morning. So what's the problem Najla? She has been complaining to me that one of her friends had given her a hard time at the kinder garden. She said the girl told the others not to play with her. That's mean! I am not sure how much is the truth but for a kid that age, that sort of incident means a whole lot. If it happens to me, I just slap the woman's head! Just kidding ;)

Brave

Najla is definitely the bravest of all my kids when it comes to seeing dentists. End of last month, when Steve was attending a conference in Manila, I took Najla to Dr Nazri's clinic. She had been complaining that her bottom front tooth was aching. It was close to Maghrib but the doctor who was supposed to replace Dr Nazri was nowhere to be seen. I asked Najla to go home and come back on a later date. She refused so we waited for another 20 minutes when the doctor finally showed up. As soon as her name was called, she walked into the room and sat on the chair calmly. She didn't make any fuss at all when the doctor injected her gum and then pulled her tooth! Later the doctor suggested that she pull the one next to it also because it was beginning to loosen and Najla said ok. Wow! What a brave girl! I still remember when Danial was about that age, he screamed, wiggled, kicked, and made all kind of other fuss that taking him out of the doctor's office was the best option. Maybe Najla would like to be a dentist someday...

Morning Joke

It was 6:07 am. I was still in bed and I overheard a conversation between Najla and her Abah (Father). It goes something like this:

Abah: Najla... It's time to get up. Wake up Najla.
Najla: Grrrr
Abah: Najla wake up.
Najla: I don't want to go to school today.
Abah: Wake up. You have art class in the afternoon.
Najla: Get me at 1.00 o'clock (from her kinder garden)
Abah: Oooo, I'll get you at 3:00.
(Najla got up, being carried by Abah and stood at the door of the toilet and she said:)
Najla: You mean go to fart class? hehehe

Then they both laughed. And guess what? Najla really farted after that! Hahaha, what a conversation to be held in early morning. I smiled and decided it was a good time for me to get up as well.

Najla's Craft

All of my children except Danial have created their goody box with a pyramid-shaped cover like the ones pictured above. This latest addition belongs to Najla. She made it at her art class sometime in early September. The day she brought it home, she asked me to take a picture of it so “you can put it in your blog” she said. I kept postponing it thinking that I would remember the exact date she made it. Unfortunately, my aging mind does not allow me to retain information more than a few days only. Finally on 13 September I took my camera and snapped a few shots of the box. All of them (Yasmin, Hannah, and Najla) seem to like their art class very much. Only Danial never got a chance to enroll because he was more than 12 years old when we first discovered the class. Harris was enrolled for a few months and decided to quit because “ I don’t like to draw based on a specific theme” he said. In my opinion, what he was trying to say was that “I am bored with it and I hate to follow instructions!”. That’s so like Harris.

My “Jewels”

Danial:

My eldest just finished his trial PMR. I hardly saw him studying or reviewing his studies at home. Every time I asked him whether he was ready, his reply was “Insya Allah”, We’ll see when the results are out… I just bought him 3 or 4 novels recently and he finished reading them in a flash. Right now I think he’s rereading the newly acquired novels or sometimes he reread his old (or very old) ones. I don’t know what to do. I wish there are people who live around here with tons of novels which he likes so we can swap books. At the rate we are buying, we will have trouble storing them soon. Selling them as used books? Out of the question because he wants to keep them all! He still goes to a guitar lesson every Friday afternoon but I have never heard him play guitar at home. He keeps playing piano whenever his mood strikes. He goes to the “surau” most of the time when his father goes there for Magrib or Isyak prayers. He does his chores without grumbling (turning dry laundry right-side-out, washing dishes, and sometimes throwing trash out). He had attended a 2-day camp (Saturday-Sunday: 12 & 13 Sept 09) near Pantai Sepat. It was for form three students who will be sitting for their PMR in October

Yasmin's Certificate

Yasmin:

I just convinced her to open her own blog (http://yasmin128.blogspot.com) last week because she loves to scribble. She picked up reading much later than Danial, I think when she was in standard 4. She used to just sit in front of the TV every time she got a chance. I used to get upset with her about her TV habit. She loves to draw and we enrolled her in the art class at Da Vinci. She’s very good at drawing Japanese cartoon characters. It must be from watching those shows on TV! We sent her to piano lessons for 2 years but I never heard her playing after she stopped attending the classes. She wants to learn how to play a violin but I am skeptical to send her. Besides I don’t know where to send her for that around here. She loves to eat cereal and milk that’s why she has strong and beautiful teeth. I used to “fight” with her a lot. Almost everyday I had something to complain about her. I think because our characters are so much alike that we repel each other. Recently we have become better friends. She does her chores too (turning dry laundry right-side-out and washing dishes) but sometimes with grumbles. Last Thursday we had “iftar” at her school. Before the breaking of fast we attended a simple ceremony in which the school gave certificates to students who performed well in their UPSR last year. Yasmin was one of the recipients. Actually the gifts were from Yayasan Pahang but delivered to students by the school. Each of them received a certificate and RM100, so Yasmin can buy her own “baju raya” :)

Harris at the dentist

Harris:

Last Wednesday was a very memorable day because the date was 09-09-09 (9 Sept. 2009) and at 09 am Harris had an appointment to see a dentist at HTAA. We arrived 15 minutes late because I had trouble finding a parking space. We ended up parking at the housing area behind the hospital. It was quite far so we had to walk really fast. Poor Harris, he was fasting too. Finally at 9.40am the process began. Harris’ pain threshold is very low so he was groaning and screaming most of the time. It was hard for me to watch him in pain and not being able to do anything. It was over at 11.30am. I am very pleased with Harris’ changed in attitude towards reading. He used not to like it as much as Danial and Yasmin because he was always playing the computer games or watching cartoons. He did read bionicles books but not other novels. Since we bought Alex Rider series, he really sits down and read! I never thought the time would come so soon, but I am happy. His temper has improved some too. He used to be upset a lot more and screamed at us all the time. Now he is more “patient”. He’s doing better in school too. Wow, Harris is growing up! He lost a tooth on Tuesday night. On Saturday (12 Sept. 09) Harris performed in a sketch at his school during the “musabaqah” competition. He played as Abu Lahab or Abu Jahal. He likes performing arts.

Hannah:

She lost 2 teeth- 1 Wednesday (9 Sept.09) and 1 the day before at about the same time Harris lost his. Of all the kids, she’s the most sensitive, cries a lot and sulks so easily. Sometimes she drives all of us nuts. She can really stay up late but she can’t get up in the morning. We have to drag her out of bed or sprinkle water on her face. She loves to draw so much and she’s also enrolled at Da Vinci art class. She’s taking a piano lesson with me but she hardly practices her piano at home. She would rather draw greeting cards for us. She likes to read also but not at the same level as Danial or Yasmin yet. She’s so afraid of any creepy crawlies, and she definitely got that from me! She would really love to learn how to swim but we have to wait until MPK pool is fully renovated. So far she hasn’t broken any of her fasts yet. She is so flexible that she can lie on her tummy, arch her back, and touch her chin with her toes! She should enroll in a ballet or gymnastic class. But nay… they wear skimpy clothes. Best of all, Hannah is a very loving daughter.

Najla:

How could I be upset when I found out that I was pregnant with her? Since Najla is the youngest, she’s the most adorable and very smart. There were so many instances that she would say something that would catch me by surprise. She is a very confident person probably because she gets hug a lot. So she feels very secure about herself. She’s adorable when in good mood but terrible when she throws one of her stunts. On Saturday she was really mad because I didn’t take her to the store to buy her “baju raya”. Just like any kids, we can’t afford to make any promises unless we are so sure that we can fulfill them. She loves to draw pictures and she folds the papers, and gives them to us as greeting cards. She just enrolled in Da Vinci class last month (or was it in July, I don’t remember). She loves to read as well. She has been nagging me to register her at her brothers' and sisters' school. Last week I went to the school to get the registration form. I was told that the school’s priority is to accept 7 year-olds. Since Najla will only be 6 years old next year, she will be on a waiting list. I hope Najla won’t be so upset.

Raya Card

This morning I received a wonderful handmade Raya Card from Najla. She showed it to me in the car yesterday when we were on the way back from my mom’s kampong. But at that time it was not colored yet so I asked her to color it first. I think this will be the first and the last conventional card I will receive for this year because my friends prefer to send electronic cards. I realize that my daughters are better at giving gifts and cards to Steve and I compared to our two boys. I wonder if that is common to other people’s children too. Maybe, a research needs to be done and the topic would be “Gifts giving: Is it more common among girls or boys?”

Raya card for me

Raya card for Steve

Rat Attack!

On Saturday before we went back to my mom’s kampong, Najla showed me her watermelon bag (a hand-me-down from Yasmin) which had some rat bites! Darn! The stinking rat has done it again. Last week the sucker punctured Najla’s kindergarten’s bag. I believe there is only one of them terrorizing our house. Interestingly, I realized that this thing started to happen during fasting month. Before this we didn’t have the problem. My theory is that, during fasting month we don’t eat as much therefore I don’t throw lots of left-over food to the area where we plant some veggies at our back-yard (as a cheap form of organic fertilizer). I guess the rat is hungry and started to enter the house. Steve set up a trap in the kitchen but the sucker is so smart, it took the bait and never got caught! Well, not yet anyway. Last night when we came back from the kampong, I found that my “muruku” package was punctured and so was my self-rising flour package. This little thing is really getting on my nerves! We haven’t used any rat poison because we have small children and poison is not good for environment. Since our patience is running low, we might use it soon.

Najla's watermelon bag

Tough to Spell in English

Najla can read Malay pretty well because Malay words are easy to spell. Unfortunately she still has trouble with the English spelling. Two or three mornings before, she looked at our fan (National brand) and innocently asked me “what does NA TI ON AL mean?” I thought it was really cute because she is so used to phonetically spelling Malay words.

Every now and then she would remind me to talk to teachers at Al Irsyad school about enrolling her there next year (She’ll be 6 years next year). I guess she can’t wait to be in the same school with her brothers and sisters.

Fever Season

I think some kind of virus is in the air now. I know a few of my friends’ kids who are having fever. In fact Najla was not feeling too well on Monday. Yasmin also complained of having runny nose and itchy throat yesterday. I told her it must be a fever season. Today, after she came back from her extra class, she had a high temperature. Since I have made an appointment with the hair salon, I didn’t take her to the clinic right away. But as soon as we came back from the salon, I stopped by the clinic near Taman Guru and had her checked. The doctor told me that her temperature was 40 degrees Celsius. Wow, I am glad I stopped by. The doctor gave her 4 or 5 different types of medicines, for cough, headache, runny nose, fever, and of course antibiotic. The doctor also gave her an MC slip in case if she needs it on Monday. She seems so weak and she’s sleeping at the moment. I hope she gets well soon.

Najla

Last night Najla sang a wonderful song while taking a shower. I managed to record part of it secretly. When she came out from the bathroom, I played it back to her and she laughed so hard. Then she asked for rice and chicken soup. I dished some in a bowl and asked if she wanted to use the small spoon (teaspoon) instead of the regular-sized one. She replied “ of course the small one so that it will fit my small mouth. Otherwise I have to open my mouth so wide like a dinosaur or snake”. Gee, why didn’t I think of that!