Once Upon A Time...

on a lazy, quiet saturday morning, 4 small boys attacked the taman tun park after having breakfast at mcdonalds in centerpoint...



















after almost 2 hours at the park, they went home, 'main air'ed in the bathroom downstairs and had lunch (cooked by the senior masterchef) in their baju tiak before falling asleep in front of the telly while watching ironman. wonderful day, cooled by the rain outside.




















the end.

Amir's 6th Year

so this entry is way, wayyyy overdue. i've never been late on birthday entries because i believe that is one of a child's special days but with work, and full weekends, and no mood (which is why i need to stop working badly - ok, so i sidetrack a bit).

we celebrated amir's 6th birthday 20 days ago. he has been doing his own personal countdown to him turning 6 for the longest time. mainly because we always said we'll be in london when he turns 6 so he became excited to reach both milestone, being in london and turning 6. so when the day finally came, a week after we came home, he was mightily relieved.

we bought a simple cake for amir. we drove around KD area and drove past a bakery. good thing they had a boy-themed cake at 11am and the size was just nice. amir thought i ordered it beforehand so yeay for the bakery. we took the cake to silverspoons and had a small-singing, cake-cutting and mask-wearing time. amir went back happy, knowing he finally turned 6 (because u never grow until you actually have a candle-blowing session) and at the end of the day, that's all that matters.



















































that night amir had a surprise visit from tizu, auntie jee, uncle andy and azrul who came to see him after his operation and to celebrate his birthday with him. amir was shocked and couldn't contain his embarassment, initially but was tremendously happy with the attention he got on his birthday.

Career Progression

i want to be a housewife. that's not a state secret. i've always said that and i'm still saying that, i've never changed my mind. when the time is right, i will gladly leave the golden triangle, leave the 830-530 (yeah right!) life with a big smile on my face screaming 'so long, farewell' to the corporate slaves.

there are people who think i dont mean it, there are people who think i would think differently, there are people who think i've lost my marbles. but eh...its ok. at least i'll be at home, surfing the channels, making good home-cooked food for my boys, and i'll do it with a no one breathing down my neck!

i get comments like, you'll never have time to yourself. ok, first thing's first. when i stop working to be a housewife, i'll be the only one who stops going to work. the boys wont. amir & asyraf will still be in school until after their agama class ends and ariff & akmal will still be in daycare until evening. no change in that, thank you very much. so who is going to occupy my time until all the boys are picked up...no one! so that comment certainly does not apply to me.

i also wont be indulging in a lot of cleaning. general simple cleaning, yes, like the normal sweeping, normal washing the loo, normal cleaning the kitchen. normal stuff like that. not difficult and not time consuming and not heavy at all.

what i would be doing as a housewife is simple. i will keep my house in order and still hang on to my belief of having no maid in the house. i will encourage my boys to go to school and daycare and hang on to my belief that they are better off in daycare (i am pro-daycare all the way!). i will ensure i have good home-cooked meals when my boys come home from school everyday - and cooking is not a big hassle to me, takat masak sekali sehari, what is that! and then, of course, with school-going age children, one thing that will be in my job description would be chaffeur. that, to me, is not a big deal, especially if the classes and our home is not far apart.

like i said, i plan. i plan for (almost) every single thing that i do so its really not difficult to comprehend that i would plan for something as big as leaving a career and being unemployed and staying at home full time. insyaallah, when the time comes it wont be something i regret or something i dont enjoy doing or a decision i would like to turn around.

so who has dreams of being a housewife, lets jom!

Work At Home

still praying the real dream will materialise in the very near future (no pressure to anyone) but for now, this is the closest i can get to it.




















its wonderful being the only non-male in the house.

Bring In The New

ah...15 days of 2011 has passed. i didnt have time to usher in the new year what with the new school year, amir & asyraf's being admitted, returning back to work (and diving into the march project straight away). finally i have breather to reflect and plan...

i know 2011 would be a year filled with so many new things. the main thing is the change in our daily schedules. hubby and i now go to work separately. hubby sends and picks up amir and asyraf, while i do the same for ariff and akmal. we leave at different time & return at different time. we dont eat dinner together anymore and the car is now very quiet. this change is the biggest change for us and would take a lot of getting used to.

the new school also requires a lot of adjustment. the morning kindy is the same as the kindy the boys went to previously, as in what they learn and what they are put through. the afternoon agama class is different. in TIS, i was more confident of their schedule. the boys eat then take a nap and then their kafa begins. they perform their prayers and play with the transit kids til around 7pm when the teachers call them in.

in this new school, the agama class is scheduled from 230-430 and we're not sure what they do before and after that. amir & asyraf have said they dont take naps. they have also said that they play all the time and are extremely tired when they come home. asyraf once fell asleep the minute he returned home and every night they both would sleep by 9pm. not that we're unhappy with the school. we're very encouraged by amir's progress in reading and english, so far. but there's just something not right...

another new change for us is akmal's behaviour in school. akmal's very manja and very close to his brothers. beginning this year, with amir and asyraf moving to a new school and ariff moving across the road to the tadika, akmal's been left alone in the daycare. he would cry every morning and every afternoon until he's reunited with ariff. his teachers have been complaining that he's difficult to take care off because he's crying non-stop. its a terrible feeling when you're being told that, sigh...

ariff's been off the diapers for a week now, both during the day and at night. alhamdulillah, no accidents so far. he started being diaper-less during the school holidays in the daycare but we still put him on diapers at night. he wasnt to happy about it. we bought him quite a number of underwears from mothercare and marks & spencer and thomas land so that he would feel ready to be diaperless 24/7. once he started kindy, he's been more confident without the diapers and we just took them off him one fine night last week and he's been ok without them so far.

on the work front, nothing much is new. i'm still learning, its coming up to a year since i've been in the department. there's still so much to learn and absorb. but the traveling is terrible and the fact that i cant see off amir and asyraf when they go to school is heartbreaking. i do hope there will be changes this year, if not by next year. its just very difficult and taken a lot of energy that i dont have.

hubby's now in the mood to continue his studies. he's looking into various things - a short-term diploma, do another degree, get a masters degree but has not decided on what he wants as it involves detailed exploreation since it would take up his weekends and time with the family. its great that he's taken this route as education is extremely important and it would be wonderful that he strong papers to support his work experience.

so that's the updates on the family. for this year, there are some things we are looking forward to.

one would be to see the the progress of amir and asyraf. amir needs to learn to read before he moves on to standard one and within a week he's been able to read a bit. he doesnt understand what he reads but we're explaining as he goes along. asyraf takes in things much faster than amir, maybe because he's always next to amir when he's doing his homework.

we're also excited to see ariff learning more in school, writing alphabets, numbers and drawing. ariff's very lazy and his teacher complains that he cant even write an A after one hour of holding the pencil. hopefully before the year ends, he would change and be more hardworking. for now we have confirmed that we have 2 lefties in the family. we thought that ariff was right handed but now he looks more comfortable with the left hand.

akmal will be turning two soon. he's been showing signs that he's ready to leave some of his baby stuff. he's taken to taking showers instead of baths and he's shown that he's ready to leave his baby cot. he wont be moving in with his abangs in their room yet (he would scream and cry if he's left there at night) but he may like sleeping on a mattress on the floor in our room. we've done away with the baby tub and would be letting go of the cot soon. his changing table stays as i still prefer to change him there. until he's able to wear his clothes standing up like his brothers, i'd be using that to dress him still.

we're looking forward to this year is seeing the boys move away from baby & toddler to school-going-age boys. for now we're are blessed to have 4 circumcised boys (alhamdulillah), 3 kindy-going boys, 3 diaper-less and formula-less boys and we're just waiting for akmal to drop his formula by middle of this year and start training to be diaperless by end of the year. hopefully by this time next year he is able to join his elder brothers in wearing underwears. we still have to wait another 2 years before akmal enters kindy, however, but that's alright. as long as the diapers and formula goes, i'd be happy.

after the success of our year-end holiday last year, i'm excited to plan another holiday this year. we basically have a destination in mind but its not confirmed as its too early. even though its not confirmed, the rough itinerary has been put on paper! tiza and tisu may be joining us. for now, we're discussing on dates, venue & things to do. insyaallah if all goes well, the 8 of us will be away for 3 weeks in september.

not much plans this year and its a year of adapting and decision-making. we have a lot of discussions, planning, budgeting to do as a family. we hope what we plan will materialise but it would take a lot of hard work and dedication and a whole lot of praying.

Sundays

are for staying at home. we hardly go out on sundays. they are for the weekly cleaners' visit, for clearing the laundry baskets, for settling the school bags for the week. and most importantly, they are for the boys.



















ah...its also for cooking...

Time Out

wednesday morning, we set out early. i packed a hospital bag for an overnight stay amir, asyraf, hubby and me. ariff & akmal's bags were packed for 2 days in school. we sent the boys to school and made our way to dsh. traffic was so-so and we arrive at the a&e at 7:40am. the GLs and admission forms were all prepared but the staff need to look for a room for the boys (we requested for a two-bedded).

we waited for about half an hour at the a&e, where hubby and i took turns to have breakfast. the boys werent allowed to eat so we had to keep them occupied with other things - playing games on hubby's phone. they knew what they were in for. amir kept asking why dr razak had to press on his stomach. asyraf said he was in for a circumcision but i doubt he knew what that actually entails.

after we went to the room, the boys were given a minimal check up, asked a few questions, given their hospital tags and were asked to change into the hospital gown. they were laughing at how each other looked in the gown, at least that took their minds of their empty stomach and the trip to the operation theatre.

at 9:20am, a nurse came in with a wheechair for asyraf. i went up with him. i chose to go with asyraf as his was the easier procedure of the two. if i went with amir, knowing what he had to go through, i would surely cry when they gave him his mask. asyraf was fine, laughing and joking. smiling at the nurses, asking to be carried inside. once he was laid down on the operating table, i think he felt a nervous. he was lying down and there were 3-4 nurses walking around the OT, the anesthetist was sitting next to him and another 2 nurses were sitting on both sides of the table.

before the anesthetist put the mask on him, we asked him to recite the doa tidur. he just smiled, as he would do when he was embarassed. then the anesthetist slowly increased the dose and his eyes were slowly closing. then all of the sudden, he started moaning and shouting, he kicked and punched, he threw his body off the table. there nurses who were sitting by his sides were holding him down. i got shocked but the anesthetist said that it was a normal reaction. i had to hold in my tears. once he calmed down and fell asleep, the anesthetist said i could wait at the day ward. that's when my tears finally came. it was a scary moment seeing asyraf like that.

i went out to see amir on the wheelchair with hubby, waiting for his turn. we sat for about 10 minutes when the anesthetist came out, saying asyraf's out of the OT and asked if we'd like to see him. i went in while hubby prepared to accompany amir inside. asyraf looked fine, sleeping soundly. i sat next to him and saw amir walking in with hubby to the OT.

asyraf was given the all-clear to go back to his room. he was groggy still, asking where amir was. asyraf asked for water and drank quite a bit. we waited for almost an hour before hubby came down, followed by amir who was in a deep sleep on a strecher. he was transferred to his bed and we drew the curtains so that he could sleep. asyraf asked for food and as we pulled him to a sitting position, he threw up. the nurse said he's not ready to eat and helped him change to a new hospital gown. he then fell asleep and both slept until 4pm.

amir complained that his stomach hurts, we pulled up his hospital gown and saw that the procedure was on this stomach - i thought that it would be down around the groin area. asyraf on the other hand was hissing and gasping in pain everytime his gown touched his private parts. they both ate and watched the telly for a couple of hours. when they were feeling a bit better, amir changed into his pajamas, asyraf wore only his pajama top but refused the pants.

after dinner, amir was already up and about. he could climb up and down the bed and wanted to sleep with asyraf - which meant i got a bed all to myself (yeay!). it took asyraf a lot of persuasion and tears to finally pull up his pajama pants. when he did, he was smiling proudly for 3 minutes, before cying again. he cried and whined until he slept, giving me a massive headache! amir slept early and woke up because of asyraf's cries and could not go back to sleep. i think he finally slept at 2am.

the next morning all of us woke up late. the boys woke up after 9am. amir was feeling much better, he even asked for a shower. asyraf refused a shower and still mumbled and whined about how much it hurts. i tricked him to a shower when he asked to go to the loo. he showered while crying haha! he still asked for his pajama pants and did not want to wear anything tighter. he did forget about how much it hurts whenever he was playing with the computer or his handheld game or with hubby's phone. as soon as they were taken away from his, he would whine again.

that went on the whole day until he took his shower after dinner. hubby got him to, finally, wear his underwear. so hopefully that's the end of the whining. today, asyraf's finally up and about, able to walk properly and has stopped complaining of pain except early in the morning. amir, on the other hand, developed high fever because he was too active yesterday. hopefully it wont last long, insyaallah.