Entin, our maid/helper left to be with her family after working for us for two whole years. As a mother, i understand the need to be with her family and to get to know her new grand-daughter who is a few months younger than Arif. Her niece, Lia was supposed to come and replace her but due to miscommunication between the agent and her, Lia has started work with a factory and her contract will only end in August. I blame the agent for now doing his job well. Now we are waiting for a new Jane Doe from the agent who was supposed to arrive at our door step yesterday but surprise... surprise, tak sampai lagi. I told hubby to tell the agent to hold onto the maid until we come back from our holiday. I do not want us running around like a headless chicken with 2 kids in tow trying to figure out how, when and where to collect the new maid where we have not finished packing our bags yet and the latest fiasco is Aydin just developed a fever... again!
Yes, you heard me right. Aydin just got a slight temperature earlier this morning. Is it because of the hot and humid weather over the weekend or he got it from mum who is recovering from flu? Sigh.. with all this H1N1 thing going around and authorities keeping their eyes open for tourist who is not feeling well and all :( I hope Aydin will get well soon or we might have to defer our travel plans. I am not sure if we are allowed to change our itineraries as all has been paid for in advance. Maybe it is just not our rezeki for now. So we'll have to wait and see what the doctor says and how aydin is feeling later: either Hello Mickey Mouse or See you soon Mickey Mouse.
Let's pray that hubby and i will swim this chaotic river with ease and survive at the other side of it. We are doing fine for Maid-less Day-2. Both kids was fed and cleaned well :) No major short circuit from any of the parents YET and i cooked dinner and prepared the children's meal as well. Ask me again in 2 weeks time if the situation is still the same i.e: If the agent screwed us up again. Tee-ta!
Weeeeee.... i will be leaving on a jet plane tomorrow for a shopping spree with Ellisa. We will shop til we drop for 3 days 2 nights in Jakarta. i am so looking forward to this trip but i really do not know how Arif will handle my absence (or is it the other way round). I hope to bring back alot of goodies for Mum's and Such and for my lil family.
Aydin is at home as i am typing this entry (at work mind me *wink*). He's having fever and hub told me that his temperature reached 39 degree celcius earlier this morning. I am quite worried though but i heard his appetite is ok so hopefully he will no be dehydrated. It has been a while since he last had high fever and Aydin is Aydin. He is one active and mischievious boy so the thought of him lying down and sleeping is very worrying. I hope he will get well soon before mummy leaves on a jet plane.
Swine flu is the "in" thing now. I am just afraid that it will prevent us from going to Hong Kong end of this month for our Family vacation to the Disneyland. They have reported 1 case but i am sure it is under controlled. We had a few SARS cases here in Malaysia once upon a time but the pandemic was contained within that area. I am praying so hard that i get to bring the kids to meet Mickey and Minnie mouse, yeay! We'll be staying 2 nights in Disneyland hotel... double yeay! Does this sound like the mum will have more fun than the kids? LoL you betcha (Mickey Mouse style).
aaa... i have misled the topic to an irrelevant topic BEFORE i actually begin hu hu hu. Yes, another reason why i have not been active blogging here and Mum's & Such and also seldom on Facebook is because... MY PERSONAL LAPTOP is reaching its end of life. I am lucky i have backed up 80% of the pictures but i still have the 20% on my hard disk. I am not sure if the datas could be saved but i pray hard that my IT guy can helped me and do miracle!
This is also another reason why i bought a new gadget Nokia 5800 kui kui kui. I had some extra cash and it has been a while since i last change my mobile phone. This is so not me because i never keep a mobile phone more than a year but then again i have changed (i think so). I have kept my current job more than 2 years and i hope to keep my Mazda 3 more than 2 years too. Wow, i didn't know my "attention" span is no more than 2 years LoL This is a touch screen phone we are talking about. The "in" thing for now and everyone's hype on iPhone. After getting my 5800 then i realize why everyone thinks iPhone is so cool. It is more on the application like you can do almost everything but with Nokia, it is a bit limited. However, Nokia beats iPhone on certain functions i.e: video conference feature, camera, price. In other words i have to be content on what i have now because i couldn't afford to spend RM3k for a gadget, well not now. I have 1001 things to do on my list and to buy ;)
So there goes my stories before i leave for Jakarta tomorrow. tee-ta!
Aydin was supposed to search for candies and put it into his basket but instead he had the basket filled with flour!
Aydin receiving his first trophyI have been pretty occupied with alot of things lately especially with my online blogstore. I am trying to promote the natural soaps so that everyone will indirectly help to save our planet AND their skin from all these harsh chemicals. Yes, the soap is priced higher than our normal soap but no one realised what they are foaming themselves with everyday. Another reason why the natural soaps are more expensive than our normal soaps is because it takes atleast 2 months for the soap to cure and become... SOAP. The natural ingredients also contribute to the price as they are not genetically modified ingredients.
Anyway, on personal side... Aydin had his first Sport's Day last weekend. I was one proud mummy! The unfortunate thing was, we had to go all the way to IIUM Gombak and it took us almost an hour to get there. I just do not get the concept on why they had to gather all the schools in one place. These are pre-school children we are talking about and Aydin had to wake up real early on a Saturday because we had to leave the house by 7 a.m and reach IIUM Gombak by 8 a.m! It was one of the hottest day in the year and all of us were in an enlosed Badminton Hall with NO fans let alone air-conditioner. Poor kids especially the younger siblings of the pre-schoolers i.e: Arif. Most of them were restless and drenched with sweat.
They gave out goodie bags to every pre-schooler and guess what was inside? Junk food!! All the Apollo or whatever cheap brand chocolates were found in the goodie bags believe it or not. It was a real dissapointment because this is IIUM Montessori we are talking about not Tadika ABC with no branches or whatever. I had to hide all the junks from Aydin because it was not good and definitely not healthy food. Sigh... i really do not know how much and how far i can tolerate with all this. I have been giving Aydin the best food nature can give and trying to limit his sugar food and now i am sending him off to a place where to "shower" kids with nutritionless food. I am already thinking of changing Aydin's school for next year.
Aydin is proud of his first trophy
Aydin and his proud mummy ;)Next on my list to share with everyone: we are going on a holiday! I am leaving for my Jaarta trip with a girlfriend in the first week of May. Would that be considered as holiday? More of a shopping spree *evil grin* It will be my first time being away from Arif. I hope he will get along well with his Ayah because Arif is very attached to me and still feeding from me in the evenings. This is also a good opportunity for me to wean him off breastmilk and for me to have some Me time. Then the next on the agenda on the SAME month would be Disneyland, here we come!! Yes, we are finaly going to Disneyland. It is like a dream come true for me NOT that i have not visited any Disneylands before in fact i have been to Disneyland in California when i was a kid and Disneyworld, Florida when i was studying in US. This time it is special and different because i will be taking the kids, the whole little family to be exact. I had some extra money more like a rezeki that came unexpectedly and i rather spend it on a holiday with the family. It is not easy for me to convince hub to go on overseas holiday because of... ALOT of reasons. So this time he has got no choice but to agree :) I really can't wait. I am all geard up for my Jakarta shopping trip and Disneyland holiday till i lost focus on my work, oops! I have been planning the trips especially Disneyland to make sure it is a memorable one. I hope Aydin tak takut the characters like i did when i was younger. If you meet my parents and talk about Disneyland, i can bet you they will tell the whole "episode" of me hiding behind a pillar in Disneyland because i was afraid of Goofy :p
I promise pictures if not the whole story on our trip to Disneyland LoL As you know, i have not been a good blogger lately so no high expectation please.... Till then, tee-ta!
The long awaited steps by Arif has finally arrived... woot-woot! It has already been 3 weeks since he celebrated his 1st Birthday and he surprised us by taking his "more-than-independent-2 steps" about 3-feet distance: from the sofa to the main door. He has been taking his first few 2-3 steps unconciously for a couple of weeks now but i guess his confidence level is slowly building up. We cheered and clapped excitedly and made him wonder what was the whole fuss LoL
I wish i could capture these moments on either my monile phone or the hardly-used video camera. It'd be great to show the kids in 20 years down the road. I am so proud of Arif!
Believe it or not Aydin loves Chillies and i really mean red hot chillies! Last night, he purposely dipped his finger into my sambal sotong just to taste the sambal. No kidding! Everytime he sees anything red on the plate, he will try to have a go at it. So imagine nasi lemak...
I do not know what turns him on when he sees chillies. I thing he is just the typical anak orang nogori (shh! don't tell hubby this). Over the weekend, he was enjoying the kerepek ubi pedas. I told him it was hot and i couldn't really eat it myself. It gives you the after taste yang... pedas! But Aydin insisted and he finished the whole small packet. We got the kerepek from the wedding we attended in JB. He had 2 choices: rempeyek kacang and the kerepek ubi pedas and he opted for the kerepek. I was worried if he will get stomach upset later and to think that we were in a long journey from JB to KL. Alhamdulillah, he was fine and dandy and survived the Kerepek Pedas without even crying for water.
I thought i was raising a kiddo with a taste for western food since he grew up eating pasta and food from Annabel Karmel's recipe. Little that i know, he also loves Roti Canai cicah kuah kari. Yes, everyone would thought he would prefer kuah Dhal but Dhal is not adventurous enough. He surprised his tok wan by asking to cicah kuah kari everytime tok wan took him to kedai mamak to eat roti canai. Being the over-protective grandparents, my in-laws were afraid that he will fall sick but i told them it is ok. He is used to it and i taught him how to cicah LoL I really don't know what my in-laws were thinking about me; teaching my kid to eat hot and spicy food. A macho little man i can say...
Yes, we are talking about my 3-year old son who loves hot and spicy food :) i wonder, how's Arif going to be?
It is another sleepness night for mummy. I have been trying to train Arif to sleep through the night but at the rate we are going, i see another 6 months of zombie-ness until Arif is fully trained. It was not very difficult to train Aydin the last time probably because Aydin was introduced to formula earlier hence he was quite full prior to bedtime. It is known that breastmilk dissolves faster thus making the baby crave for more feeding compared to formula-fed babies. We have introduced formula to Arif but he feeds directly from me whenever i am around (which is quite often lately). I still have plenty of BM to supply and it hurts when i try to skip the usual pumping session at work/feeding session at home. i get all engorged and cautious because i am afraid it will leak again when i am not noticing.
I think i am going to opt for CIO (Crying it out) as plan B. The soothing method is definitely not working when you are all by yourself. It could work for some if you have someone else to take the baby away from you whenever they cry. It is difficult when the nursing mother is trying to soothe the baby herself because bub knows you are refusing his/her feeding. The problem with Arif is he will throw his body backwards to show tantrum. If i am not careful on his 'position', he will knock his head hard on the headboard (which happened several times). There are also possibilities of him falling of the bed because he will keep on throwing himself until he gets what he wants. i am getting tired of trying to soothe him by patting him butt or jumping off the bed hoping to "catch" him whenever he throws himself. This usually lasts for atleast 30mins per session. And we are talking about SESSIONS so go figure how much of sleep i have been getting for the past 1 year. I have never slept more than 2 hours straight without any interruption. How i wish i can get away from all this and do what i used to do best, SLEEP!
Anyone has any plans to go abroad for shopping spree? Please count me in :)
Aaa... finally i manage to tear myself away from my new hobby which is Handbags "Window Shopping" specifically Coach. Don't ask me why and how come, i am just back into this old fetish but upgraded to Coach in particular :) This new fetish is driving me crazy and away from my online store and blogging. Another reason for going slow on my online store is because i am still waiting for stocks to come in namely Baby Gaps, Cloth Diapers, Sling and Natural Soaps.
Anyway... update on my kids. Arif has turned 1 last week and he has cut his first tooth few days prior to his 1st birthday. Now he has his 2nd tooth which is also the upper one next to the 1st gigi kapak. Do not ask me why the lower ones are taking their own sweet time. He has also managed to utter few words or should i just call it word: Car and make his vroom-vroom sound while pushing the car. Besides that he has taken his first 1-2 steps walking unconsciously because he was busy playing with a leaflet while standing without realizing he was actually walking! It was so funny because the moment he realized he was walking, he dropped down on his four and crawled. I think he is not ready to walk yet and has less confidence in standing on his own for more than 5 seconds. I guess we need to give him more encouragement and make sure the maid does not spoil him by always carrying him.
To date, i am still trying to train him to sleep through the night though i have to endure sleepless and screaming nights. I have also introduced Arif to formula which was a very emotional process for me. I still have plenty of BF to supply but i think it is about time Arif becomes independent and i get more Me time without having to worry if he has enough milk. I even leaked today at lunch while i was shopping for Arif's sippy cup at Mothercare...eek! Luckily the salesperson saw and told me at the cashier. She asked, "you breastfeed ke?" Sageetha and i had the same thought, "wow! how can she tell? from the sippy cup i am paying?" LoL Bimbo!
Aydin is getting on fine with his school though i have been wondering if i have sent him to the right school everyday. The reason is because his vocab in BM is increasing tremendously where according to the timetable i have posted in my workstation (Yes, i keep track on his daily school timetable as if it was mine), he only has one 30-min Bahasa Malaysia class every week. This school is supposed to be an English medium school. I am assuming he picked it up from his peers. So much protection from home i.e: no Astro Ceria, Cartoon Network for the past 3 years and less than 3 months he has learnt about Ben-10 and i dare not think what else.
One fine day (according to the maid), he came home from school as usual feeling hungry. So the maid offered him bread and guess what he said, "Tak nak roti. Saya nak biskut". The maid was surprised, mak dia lagi la terkejut badak when the maid told me. So the maid asked again in front of me, "siapa nak susu?" and Aydin replied, "saya!" sambil angkat tangan. Hahaha... tak payah penat2 mak bapak dia ajar BM. Luckily i had taught him English prior going to pre-school because as expected he will pick up BM easily from there. Now, no more Milk but it became Susu. There was more Ben-10, Spiderman and Puperman (as in Superman). And check this out: Aydin has learnt a few names from school, Aydin is known for making up his own words as and when he wished i.e: Tok Wan was Mei-mei, Playground was Eyom Aeroplane was Aki. And now he has modified his friends name: Danish is Finish, Mohamad is Omat and the rest i can't still figure out ;)
Kids and their antiques. I hope i will be able to look back and read this blog in 20 years time. I will definitely laugh and make them read this entry. Time flies and i am already missing my babies though they are still young... i am probably in a melancholy mood today. Time to go to bed and wake up early for the Regional Sports Meet tomorrow. Wish us luck :)