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.