Amir's Graduation 2011

a major milestone for us indeed. the end of pre-school and soon, the beginning of primary school for our eldest. we made the right choice of transfering amir and asyraf to a kindy near their primary school. amir's made friends with many who will be in the same primary school with him, which is comforting as moving to primary school is not a small matter to them. now he (and the mummy) is less worried about starting primary school. he says most of his friends would be in the same school with him.

i like the fact that the school dedicated a day for the graduation and dont combine it with the year-end concert. at least the audience would be parents of children in pre-3 classes. or so that was the plan. who actually came was a different matter (still so angry at some people's stubborness and refusal to respect the school's request).

the ceremony was short and sweet. started with a speech from en badri, followed by the conferring of certificates to 5 pre-3 classes. amir's class queen elizabeth was the third to go on stage, by that time most parents of the first 2 classes have left the hall so we were able to move closer to the stage.

congratulations to abang long, engku amir iskandar. you have done us proud and hope you will always strive to do the best that you can, in any field that you choose, amin.

My 36th Birthday

Birthdays are God’s way of telling us to eat more cake.

and eat a lot of cakes, i did! this year i was blessed with 5 cakes! five! cinco! never before i had that many in a year. i was surprised throughout the day by colleagues, by friends, by families, by the boys who kept singing and kissing me.

we dont go out for dinner or anything like that. hubby's, amir's and my birthday are within the space of 11 days. usually we celebrate together by having dinner just the 6 of us. this year, hubby tried to surprise me. he's done better than he had during my previous birthdays so i'm pretty sure he would succeed sometime soon.

(hint to hubby - i would love a cath kidston theme birthday)

some pictures taken when i got home from work.

Amir's Notes

* something's wrong with the alignment of blogspot. thought i always edit so that the alignment is ok before i post. so i'm risking this entry *

amir always brings home notes from school. ever since he can write and since we complimented him on his handwriting.

i kind of like this one. amir would write like he speaks, which is a lot (ie he talks a lot). if there's no space he'd write sesuka hati where there's empty space.

"nah kita bagi mummy dengan daddy dengan tisu dan tiza"















"ni kita bagi dekat mummy daddy" complete with an angry bird picture















"ni kita bagi tiza dan tisu"















"ni amir buat" & "dia nak pukul daddy tenatedeng ni lah ialah amir saya ada won (ie wand - harry potter's wand)"

Year-End Exam

i get very excited when the boys get their report card & exam papers back. more often than not, its because i dont know beforehand that they had sat for their exam. sometimes i do know and wish them all the best. sometimes, it escapes my attention and i only know when its over and results are out.

i know some people go, dont put too much pressure on them, they are only kids, when they see i update my status about their exams. what pressure?? its just a good luck wish. its not as though i sit with them throughout the night burning the midnight oil. there's not a thing to do to prepare them. their exams arent mind-boggling or exhausting, its just a part of the curriculum. a simple 5 questions for those in akmal's school (get it...5 questions!) and a 2-3 pager for those in ariff's school. they probably sit through it a mere 2 miuntes a paper.

yes i get excited about it. why not? its something that i can measure how much the boys have developed. i wouldnt put too much emphasis on it and carve out their future based on their results, but yeah, its something i do look forward to. not only me, the boys like it as well. they come home with pride showing off their results and their report card. and, again, why not? i really think some people are too narrow minded. the word 'exam' and 'kindy' get their panties in a knot when what they should have done is ask (because they clearly do not know) what actually do they do during an exam.

anywho...the final exam for the year was good. really good in fact for akmal. a bit of a so-so for ariff but its ok. i must remember not to compare him with amir and asyraf but he's getting there.

akmal's exam papers...


























and his report card. congrats adik baby akmal izzat...


ariff's papers (some bad but some really good)
















and his report card ('banyak bermain...' no surprise there!)

Ariff is Four

lets not start on a negative point. at four, ariff is showing interest in baking, he loves to clean, he likes colour coding, he slowly starting to get used to handheld games (its a plus point when your elder brothers are into them, so that you're not left out), he's very tidy, he likes things well-kept.

he's been tough to handle this year. from my observation, its because he's separated from amir & asyraf. the three of them have always been very close. they are a year apart (from now until end of november, ariff & asyraf are the same age!), their developments almost mirror each other and when ariff's all excited to be in the same school as his brothers, they are all of the sudden taken away and sent to another school. they have their own friends, their own teachers, their own schedule. ariff feels a bit out of place, i think, which leads to his difficult stage.

but he's been slightly better the past month or so. we've mentioned many, many times that he'll be in bahtera ilmu next year and he needs to buck up. he's showing a bit of interest in books and reading. hopefully he'll continue progressing and be less of a whining & stubborn boy, amin.

for ariff's birthday, we took the boys out to sunway lagoon. it cost a bomb, especially since we didnt plan on staying very long. we thought at most we'd stay til lunchtime. the weather was good too. after raining for days on end, it was sunny saturday morning, cloud coming in steadily towards lunchtime. it rained just as we were changing and leaving.

















we had a quick lunch at carl's jr before the boys hinting that 'when we get home, we need to sleep, kan mummy'. in other words, mummy, we're sleepy. dropped by helly's house to get ariff's cake. helly is such a blessing. took up my very last minute order. i've ordered with her, what 5 times now?

pappy invited himself for dinner that night. we were actually supposed to go for dinner but tok & nenny had a wedding so we had to cancel. pappy said since dinner was off, he'd come over with presents. then he ordered tacos so i had to make tacos. tiza & tisu came as well. ariff was happy, excitedly showing off his cake. glad he had a great time because next month it would be a double celebration for amir and asyraf and i dont want him to feel left out.

on that note, happy birthday ariff iqhwan @ abang adik...