Haircut, anyone?

Six drafts! I wrote six postings and left them unfinished and unpublished. So many things happened and so many things to write about.. but when I sat down and began to write, some things would get in the way. So terbengkalai lah posting2 itu :P I’ll try to finish them up and post them with the dates I started writing. Let’s see whether I’ll be able to do that (hahaha...I don't think so!)

Well, now that Syawal is over, we’ve no more open houses to attend to. Last Sunday my Haifa mengongot, “Ibu dah lama tak buat Fettuchine Carbonara” and since I had no plan other than to check my plants in the garden, cooking seemed to be a good excuse to be in the kitchen and get my face greasy from the stove. Too lazy to debone the chicken, I drove to Ayamas with my Hasya to buy a few trays of raw chicken fillets. Came back and saw my Hanis’s room locked. Saw this on the door,

so I put some coins in, and knocked. Haifa opened the door and when I stepped inside.... I saw rambut blonde merata-rata!!! Aiyooo!!! What happened???

Rupanya my Haifa (and Hanis - her partner in crime) decided to play salon!

Just look at the cutting 'style'! I doubt they'll be getting any customers...hahahaha....

Alahaaai..kesian the Barbie dolls tu. All short-haired now.
And don't forget, kesian to Haifa's Ibu too. If one Barbie is priced at RM89, how much have I spent on them all! Nasib baik I came in early, or some more Barbies will be Kents!

When asked why she cut Barbies’ hair,
“Nak bagi cantik” came the answer.

Hmmhhh... Haifa, Haifa :)

Raya oh Raya.....

I hope it’s still not too late to wish everybody - SELAMAT HARI RAYA and MAAF ZAHIR BATIN! I hope everyone had a wonderful week of Raya with family, relatives and friends.

This year is Kluang’s turn for us. Since there’s no airport there in Kluang, we couldn’t ‘post’ the kids home via air thus we had to travel in two cars. My first time driving this far tau! I was lucky that the traffic was good to and fro. Alhamdulillah.

The Projek Bunga Api on that malam Raya was great. The nephews, nieces and my kids were the project members.. and don’t forget the project manager and directors too ok.... Tua-tua pun main Thunder Clap and Thunder King..hahahaha! Meriah betul main bunga api kat kampung! You could see and hear mercun everywhere! It took us around 3-4 hours to finish everything off. It was fun. My Haziq especially, had so much fun.

Haifa watching the bunga api

Haziq, Hasya, Hanna, Hanis, Haifa and the maids sempat posing sambil main bunga api at their nenek's house di malam raya

My Hanis celebrated her 4th birthday on the Raya day itself. “Hari Raya Happy Birthday Hanis” was her mantra a few days prior to the 20th. Brought her to Secret Recipe that morning and asked her to choose the cake herself, and she chose the one with cherries on top... what else, the Black Forestlah. That 'lil girl blushed when all her siblings, aunties, uncles and cousins sang her the birthday song. She was happy to add more Barbies into her collection. And this time Miss Barbie comes with Master Ken ;)
Nampak sangat muka nervous. Segan sebab ramai orang kot....

My five girls - Haifa, Husna, Hanna, Hasya and Hanis in their Baju Boria di pagi raya di rumah Nenek

We went to Pontian on the 2nd day of raya to visit my Pak Chaq, who is my mother’s eldest sibling. What was supposed to be a less-than-two-hour trip became more-than-three-hour trip. Traffic punyalah teruk near Ayer Hitam and Benut! But it was all worth it. The hospitality and company was great, and the food was A+++ I tell you! My Mak Chaq’s really a great cook. I’m sure if she were to open a restaurant, mesti tak menang tangan punya! I wonder why my cuz Che Uda doesn’t gain weightlah...hmmhh... Kena mintak petua nih!

My 86yo Pak Chaq. My Mak - his youngest sibling- would surely want to see this pic

This is my Mak Chaq yang terror masak!

Hanis with her Kak Asma'

Came back to home sweet home on Wednesday the 23rd. Oh.. doing the laundry took us two days to finally wash and dry everything, from the baju rayas to comforters. Lucky that those two days saw the sun in its fiercely hot state.

That's why I'm currently all tanned-up. No, not because of doing the laundry, it was due to the hours spent outside the house on the weekend. Hah, buat lagi gardening tengah panas!

School Holidays with.... Coxsackie

(Updated : pictures of spots on hands and feet as I've been asked to show how HFM disease looks like...)

Last week on Monday, my Hasya came to me and showed a blister on her tongue.
“Sakitlah Ibu”, she complained.

“Maybe Hasya tergigit kot. It’s ok, it will go away in 2-3 days”, I said. So Oral Aid came to the rescue that night.

Then my Haifa showed me some red dots on the soles of her feet.
“Ibu, sakit sangatlah. Haifa tak boleh pijak. Haifa rasa Haifa pijak batu masa swimming semalam. Boleh tak Haifa pakai sandal pergi sekolah esok?”

“You might as well wear your Nike, it will hurt less I think”, that was my reply. And I put some ointment on her feet before she went to sleep that night.

When I came home the next day, Haifa showed me the palms of her hands. There were around ten red dots on her palms. Right there and then I knew that this was something serious.

Dear Hubby brought them to their pediatrician and after paying RM250, it was confirmed that they were infected with a mild Coxsackie disease. And they were to be house-quarantined until the rashes disappear.

I wasn’t completely satisfied with that, so I called Sime Darby Medical Center (f.k.a SJMC) and told the doctor of my worries. She confirmed with the first pediatrician’s advice. “Only come to the ER if they didn’t eat or drink, since it will be soreness in the throat or mouth.”

Thursday came, and my Hanis got it too. Her rashes were more - on her hands, legs and in the mouth. Went to the pediatrician again. And Hanis was to be house-quarantined like her two sisters.

So there goes our plan of watching Night at the Museum 2. (Lucky I’d watched Angels and Demons on the weekend when it was first shown).

I tried to find the source of the disease, like who and where actually it all started. Later I found out that :
1) Hasya’s tuition-mate just came back from 2-week absence due to Coxsackie
2) Haifa’s Sekolah Agama classmate had it last two weeks
3) Hanis’s kindy has reported a few cases prior to this
So, it’s actually everywhere. It’s easily spread especially to children below ten. The younger the child is, the worse it will become.

We brought Hanis and Haifa to the ER when they started having high fever and Hanis refusing to drink. And they were admitted to the wards.

So here I am, typing away in a double-bedded room in SDMC where my two girls are sleeping soundly at the moment. The girls are getting better, Alhamdulillah. The fever’s gone, and Hanis’s beginning to eat and drink. She lost a few pounds, I can see by the look of it. And my Haifa? She doesn’t look like she’s ill. Hah, that chubby girl, all excited with the hospital gadgets!

Pity them, school holidays and they gotta spend it in a hospital!

Kids After the Hols

Now that the holiday’s over, things got back to routine. Back to school for my older children and back to kindy for my Hanis. Well, last week was a difficult week for me - having to listen to Hanis’s crying “Nak Ibu, Nak Ibu” everytime I dropped her off at the kindergarten. And it broke my heart to pieces everytime she did that.

But today in the car she smiled and sang to the tune of her favorite song - Sunday-Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday (that’s actually the complete lyrics of the whole song!) Can you imagine me listening to this song over-and-over again for like 10 times before reaching her kindy! Every single day. She refused to listen to anything else. Tak jemu pulak tu.

My Haifa got her first shot at school last week. That was an immunization injection given to Standard One students at school. She came running to me with tears in her eyes when I reached home that day and told me her sob story...
"Sakitlah Ibu tangan Haifa dua-dua ni..."
"Macamana Haifa nak buat punch untuk exam taekwondo nanti? Tak boleh lah Ibu..."
"Ibu, macamana Haifa nak buat backstroke swimming nanti.. tangan Haifa sakit ni"
"Ibu, Haifa rasa Haifa tak boleh pegang racquet squash lah Ibu, tangan Haifa sakit sangat ni. Tengok ni"
I said to her that the pain would go off in a few days.
She said, "I don’t think so lah Ibu, tengok ni, tangan Haifa tak boleh angkat ni.. sakit" And she showed me her muka sedih.
I said "Nanti Ibu sapu minyak Mustajab, nanti baik"
Two days later she was up and running, as if nothing ever bothered her at all. Haifa...Haifa...

Today my Hanna got her shot – given to the Standard Six pupils at school. She called me up just now telling me that she cried after getting the jab. So painful she said. I think that was the Rubella injection. I remember getting this shot when I first arrived in the States in 1986. It was painful... and many of the International Students there with me fainted, I mean they fainted before getting those injections!!

My Hasya has been asking me for another cupcake making and deco session. I know that I've promised the girls. Been dillydallying it for months already. And now they've been 'harassing' me. I think I better give in. At least I can bring those cupcakes during my Haziq and Husna's school party this weekend.

In the meantime, I'm trying hard to finish reading Sophie Kinsella's two books before I got to watch the Confessions of a Shopaholic movie. I hope I will finish them in time.

A marathon reading for me!

Weaning Hanis

I’d say that nursing your child is one of the best moments for a mother to experience. I breastfed all my six children and they were only being weaned due to reasons like another pregnancy (Haziq, Hasya & Haifa), performing Haji (Hanna) and weight problem (Husna).

But not my Hanis, who’s now a kindergartner at 3y 4mo. I have no reasons whatsoever to wean her off. Since she’s my youngest, I tried to delay the weaning process. But like all the good things in life, it has to come to an end. I started giving her the talk since December last year. She refused to acknowledge me whenever I started telling her that she was already a big girl and had to say goodbye to breast milk. Sometimes she’d sing out loud every time I began to open my mouth. That girl!

After many attempts to steer her away at night, she finally gave in. She’s been weaned off breastfeeding for six weeks now. Goal achieved, but how I missed the nursing relationship I had with her. The cuddling, the caressing and the warmth of her body against mine. Sigh.

Now she has acquired a new habit at night when I tuck her to sleep. I’ll have to lie down beside her. She‘ll take my hand and put it under her chin. Then she’ll start kissing the back of my hand, make some small bites and pinches. This will go on for a good 10 to 15 minutes before she enters a dreamless slumber. I guess she missed them...

But whatever it is, I’m glad that we’ve had that bonding for more than three years. The special feeling of closeness and coziness that only breastfeeding can offer.

And guess what - I got myself a new bestfriend... the ever so helpful - the Bust Firming cream! LOL!

Phew.... What a week!

I missed writing here. So many things I wanted to write but didn’t manage to get hold of my laptop for the last 9 days!

Although we were not First Timers in the kids-1st-day-at-school business, this time around with Haifa (Std 1) and Hanis (kindy)... wooo... it was very-very ‘mencabar’ indeed! As expected, they both cried lah...

The first day of school, Hanis refused to go into the classroom and cried incessantly. Look at Hanis - the mata bengkak & hidung merah... ciaaann...

The kindy was the same one that Hanna, Hasya and Haifa went when they were 4, 5 & 6yos but Hanis... she totally refused to join in her classmates. We thought that .. alaa... she’d adapt later, but then when it was Ayah’s turn to watch over her at the kindy (and I at Haifa’s Sekolah Kebangsaan), Ayah didn’t like what he saw.

He saw the 4yos were made to line up to go to the loo. In that one small loo, there were 1 sink, and 2 toilet bowls – one for girls and one for boys. They go in and pee (girl and boy next to each other), pull up their undies and walk off. When it came to the end of the line, then they’ll only flush. Can you imagine 25 kids doing that? Aiyooo... Why didn’t I see this when Hanna, Hasya and Haifa were the students there? Maybe I took things for granted?

So that was it. We scouted for another loo, oops.... another Kindergarten... and tried Hanis there. She cried, again as expected. But we were confident that she’d be ok.

And today’s the 1st time she didn’t cry! My Hanis didn’t cry! In fact she looked forward to go to school today. It’s just that she refused to wear the uniform since she wanted her teacher to do that for her.

I hope she’ll be ok in this new kindy. Although the RM1,3XX we paid for the first kindy will not be refundable, I’m pretty sure we made the right choice with this one.

My Hanis.... a ‘big’ girl now! Alhamdulillah!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

To all my Christian friends out there – Merry Christmas! Have a wonderful time with your loved ones :) Enjoy the egg nogs and the good food, ok?

To the rest – have a great time doing whatever you love doing! Nak rest ke, shopping ke, jalan-jalan ke...

I for one, is one happy mommy...yay..yay! I’ll be on leave until the 30th, and will work only for one day on the 31st. Then I’ll be on leave again from the 1st of January until the 11th. In other words, from today until the 11th of January, I'd only be working for one day. A long break, huh?

No, I’m not going anywhere la.. (though Switzerland and NZ are still on top of my wish-list!) Ayah and I are actually going to make ourselves permanent fixtures at our Hanis’s Tadika and our Haifa’s Sekolah Kebangsaan and Sekolah Agama when the schools reopen. Yes, in 2009, Hanis is going to the Kindergarten and Haifa in Standard One. Frankly, I still can’t figure out how we’re going to do the running, since both of them will be in the morning session in two different places.

I know for sure that my Hanis will cry on her 1st day, 2nd day, 3rd day... ooohh... maybe for the rest of the week... hmmmhhh... macamana ni...?

I just hope that my Haifa will be ok, since she’s been to school (kindergarten) since she was 4. Let’s hope that she’ll be ok in the Sekolah Kebangsaan and Sekolah Agama, especially when my Hanna and my Hasya will be in the same schools with her.

Oh, let’s worry about that later. Right now, I just wanna enjoy my ‘vacation’ at home :)

Happy 3rd Birthday Hanis!

This is the last birthday cake we'll be having for the month of September. It's my youngest birthday today. Since I was out the whole morning till 5pm with Ayah, I just managed to get her pix after coming home just now.

So my dear princess Hanis - HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY!


You're such a petite 'lil girl that I didn't realized that you're such a 'big' girl now..hehehe....

Hanis, Ibu and Ayah hope that you'll be an anak solehah, a bright and caring girl and a tough cookie! Life is a long journey which is full of roses and thorns - so Ibu and Ayah pray that you'll be successful through out the journey no matter what happens. Remember that our do'a will always be with you Hanis.

Have fun with the clown and the Barbie doll(s) :) We'll cut the cake tonite after iftar ok?