Makan-Makan

hubby's been asking me to make stew for weeks, so i decided to make it last night. told my sis about it. then tiba meniba, she decided to come over and make honey bbq chicken. then i added "mexican baked eggs" to the menu...teringin. we havent had that for ages.

i made the stew around 5:30pm. my sisters came just before buka, one of them puasa 6. i made the baked eggs, and they made the bbq chicken. within an hour, all food were ready to be served.
my stew...eat with toasted bread, but my sis wanted buns









the honey bbq chicken. hubby loved it...and he doesnt really like chicken

my mexican baked eggs. served it to many of my friends. most of them were sceptical when they first saw it (remember mock?!) tapi its seriously sedapppp...

the half-eaten food...











my sister's friends came over to main mercun. but the guest of honour came down with fever (kena hujan maybe...) so the main mercun event was cancelled. they just pasang-ed pelita around the house instead...

kesian baby mummy...

My Plans

i'm almost done with my 'to-do' list that i prepared before the week-long break. of course, nos 1-12 in my list was laundry and laundry and laundry and more laundry...

as at today, i've done almost all. thanks to my mom's maid who came in on monday to sweep, vacuum, mop and dust the living and dining room plus the kitchen. she didnt do a thorough job though, hubby had to do another round of vacuuming and wiping when she left. poor hubby, on his last day of fasting, at that. but at least now my house looks like a house.

i've just got 2 more loads of laundry to do, tomorrow (baby's mittens & booties) and sunday (casual clothes). with the current weather - rain & cloudy - each load took a longer time to dry. next weekend, i'll get hubby to air the baby mattress and put the bedsheet and cot bumper. oh ya, we also need to get a chest of drawer for amir. his clothes are temporarily left on his bed, at the moment.

Hari Raya Aidilfitri

the month of Ramadhan flew by quite fast this year. before you know it, it was already Syawal. as i was very heavy this year, i told hubby i wanted to raya here. well, it wasnt just because i was big and heavy, but i've always felt it was nicer to beraya in your own house with just your family around. after getting ready, after going for prayers together, after eating breakfast together as a family, after asking forgiveness and bersalam-salaman, then only its nice to go out visiting.

we almost achieved that this year, but i was not allowed to over do it so i didnt cook (hence no breakfast as a family), hubby didnt want to pray at the surau in our area & i cant perform the solat with this stomach (hence no sembahyang together), he also wanted to keep his wudhu until he got to the mosque near my parents' house (so no bersalam-salaman before leaving the house), he wanted to rush so that he doesnt miss breakfast and the prayers, so i couldnt mandi at home (so no getting ready together).


my mat hisap jari was the first to get ready at home...















we got to my parents' house around 7.45am. my dad was having breakfast. hubby joined him while i fed amir (in between him chasing all 5 cats). hubby, my dad and sister went for prayers. i went off to shower while amir disturbed my sister who was still sleeping. when hubby & the rest got home, we had our 'proper' hari raya breakfast as everyone was finally up and ready.

we had plans to visit a few people yesterday, but we only managed to visit my aunt at kota damansara.





















when we came back, there was a lot of people in my dad's house. amir slept as he tired himself out at my aunt's place. plus he was up very late the night before (we went to masjid india as my sis wanted to buy new tudung).

amir & hubby penat...















while he slept, we entertained the guests. by the time they left it was already after lunch and my mom made soto (oh yummmmsssss...). around 3pm we went home. wanted to drop by a friend's house in kelana jaya but hubby planned to drive back to his kampung and wanted to arrive before maghrib.

our raya family photo. wasnt too happy with this one but amir wasnt in the mood to take pictures




amir and his uncle payii...


















sibuk with daddy's songkok...

Caught In The Act

hubby took out the baby car seat to be washed, and left it near our door. as i was folding the clothes yesterday, i saw the cheeky boy pushing the car seat into our room. he fiddled with it, rocked it, wiped it, put his cars on it...















then finally, he did this...



















watching tv...

Final Preparation

since we havent bought anything for the baby, hubby said we should really get out and get whatever necessities that we need to welcome the baby. for things like this, i like to shop at jaya jusco. a lot of choices, a wide range or brands, things are not that expensive and if we're lucky, they have sales and discounts.

so i made a list of all the basic stuff we need for the baby, so that we can get everything at 1 go. no more clothes as we bought quite a bit for amir, which the baby can use.

after 2 hours of battling through the crowd, of queueing up for what seemed like ages, with a screaming toddler who didnt get enough rest before we left the house and kept going "nak walk...nak walk...", and carrying a heavy tummy which gets hard every now and then, we came home with these...

















his cot bumper...nicer than amir's















got this, so i can start washing amir's old clothes...



















did i say, no clothes on the list? well, 1 more doesnt hurt. tak tahan lah...got pictures of football, so cute...

Happy Birthday Hubby

alamak...i forgot to write an entry on this. guess it was the excitement, nervousness and anxiousness that surrounded the check up yesterday.

dear hubby celebrated his 32nd birthday on thursday. our birthdays are only 8 days apart so we usually exchange presents midway, around the 15th. this year, i was right on time but hubby still owes me a present. i donno if he liked what i bought for him, i think he's ok with 1 but didnt really like the other (he liked the idea of it but i think he wished it was a different style).

on the way to work i asked my sis to get a cake if she had time. she forgot all about it and said she'd get it on the way home. it was raining and she left her shop late, so i said, skip it lah. the presents have been exchanged anyway. but she was stubborn and wanted to surprise hubby. so she went to giant on the way back from work and was late for buka.

hubby was shocked to see the small cake we bought. it was just the 3 of us anyway, plus my sis, its 4, so no need get a big one.

babe, happy birthday. here's to more birthdays for us to share...

Week 34

went for the 34th week check up today. usually we would do the check up on saturday but the doctor's clinic will be closed tomorrow for raya. the first thing i told her was that my stomach gets very hard every now and then. it began on wednesday night and carried on until after buka last night. i didnt keep time because i cant feel it soften, i can only notice when it gets hard.

my gynae said it may be contraction and she was a bit worried as i'm not due for another 6 weeks. she did a quick run through check up - blood pressure (normal), baby's position (head down), weight (2.2kg - still), age - (34w 4d), edd (27/11/06), head circumference (ummm...ok i guess, she didnt look alarmed), tummy (didnt know what she looked for...). then told me to do a ctg scan to monitor the contraction.

we went to the special diagnostic room and the nurse laid me down and strapped me to the monitoring machine (all of the sudden, i remembered what it was like in the labour room, giving birth to amir). she asked me to press a button every time i felt a movement. i saw the needle going up and down. after 20-30 minutes, she sent me back to my gynae's clinic with the graph.

the doctor explained it was mild contraction. no specific pattern so its not the actual contraction. it comes every now and then. then she gave me the day off, asked me to monitor and gave me something to help calm it down. but she said, the baby's heartbeat is good and his movement is a lot, so that's a good sign. alhamdulillah...

met hubby's client while waiting for the doctor, he gave us a gift that is extremely useful at this moment. just when i was scared that we're not prepared, at all, for birth - we havent bought a single thing for the baby except clothes - its such a welcome to be given this gift. again...alhamdulillah.

the doctor told me, no travelling, no cooking, no cleaning...just rest for the whole of next week. so i'll be spending the week washing the baby's clothes and transferring abang long's clothes to his own chest of drawers. wow...that got me a bit emotional. my little baby's all grown up :(

My "Box of Chocs"

met mock at the MPO yesterday. she's so thin...and i'm so jealous!!

she gave me the much-awaited "box of chocs". it was supposed to be one of my confinement plans but since i'm taking the whole week off next week, i dont mind gettting it now. at least i can finally be as cool as mock and saigon cat. now just waiting for season 3 then i'm all set!

so here's my plan for raya...




















and this...















and of course, this...

Raya Shopping

my second attempt at writing this entry. wrote on friday but internet hang after i wrote it

i'm not much of a 'raya-shopping' person. when i was younger we prepared our bajus way, way before raya. we sent them to be made, so its not really 'shopping'. the cloth pun usually my mom would choose, and she'd buy them whenever she went back to kota bharu so we would have the kain for the whole of 6 months or so before we had them made.

as i grew older, i would do the same thing. get nice kain, not necessarily towards raya period but whenever i see nice kain. and get them made before the crowd sent theirs to the tailor. if i dont send in time, i would just buy off the rack 1 or 2 days before raya.

this year was different because i wanted to get amir really nice clothes for raya. not baju melayu as we've made ours before fasting month began (theme colour for this year is white as hubby wanted his purple samping to stand out). i wanted to get amir nice shirts and pants as i know he wont be able to stay in his baju melayu throughout the day - either he'll be hot and sweaty or he'll dirty his white baju or both.

i went down to isetan last week. coincidentally they were having a sale so i got a bit carried away. not much choice though, but i think they have a new range of "sesame beginnings". got some really nice pants for amir, and then got really cute checked shirts from "baby poney". i'm still on a mission to find him a white shirt to match our baju melayu & baju kebaya for the first day. that and a pair of shoes...he's outgrown his nice shoes.

maybe next weekend...

Not Well

the haze has been pretty bad on the family's health. amir's been having fever and cough and flu off and on for 3 weeks now. i was having very bad cough too last 2 weeks. my gynae asked me to go use the nebuliser after my check up last weekend. when she heard my cough, she immediately asked me to go. even the check up wasnt as thorough as before. i've been off work quite a few times, and its not good. i feel guilty but what can i do?
amir's fever was very high this morning. put in volteron and it went down a bit. we're taking him to see his doctor if its still bad later. got a picture of him and hubby sleeping. one with no top and one with no bottom...





some pix my sis sent. taken of amir at her workshop...

Week 32

32 down...8 to go. the more often i go for my check up, the more i cant wait to see the baby.

my last check up was on saturday. went well, not that many people. we only had to wait 1 and a half hours. not long considering we came at 9:30am. we were sort of in a rush as amir had his first dentist appointment at 12pm. my gynae suggested i use the nebuliser when she heard me coughing. i thought i'd have to break my fast because it makes you thirsty and weak, but alhamdulillah, i was not feeling so bad after that. i was shivering a lot but it was still under control.

results of my check up...
weight - 2.2kg (aaaa...so big!?!?!)
ga- 33 weeks, 3 days (according to size)
position - head down but not engaged
edd - 18 november 2006
blood pressure - normal
next appointment - 20 oct

got a simple scan this time around. i think baby's too big to take 3D, although it was so clear that i would love to see his face again.