Akmal Turns Four

erk...how could i have missed this entry. my fourth baby turned four. well...he's now four years and eleven days old. his birthday fell on a weekend of a wedding, so it went by a wee bit unnoticed. plus the boys usually have their celebration in school, since it was only us at home there were no cakes to celebrate.

my brother's birthday is a few days before akmal's. usually we would go for dinner to celebrate his (my brother's) birthday and akmal would tumpang sekaki and blow out the candles, that would keep the limelight away from my brother. this year we celebrated at publika. akmal got his turn to blow the candles which made him very happy.

on his birthday, hubby and i thought about getting him a small cake. we were dead tired after the wedding and got home on sunday at about 3pm. the boys missed their nap time and we wanted them to be in bed early that night. but hubby said, lets get a small brownie for him. so we did and akmal got his song from his brothers and brownies from his parents. yeay!

akmal's growing up pretty good. i wish he would eat more, i know he's underweight. he used to eat anything we put in front of him but now he's getting to be choosy and picky about food, just like amir. its my aim to put some meat on him this year.

he loves school. he's getting to be so good at reading, drawing, colouring and even iqra', which we only planned to start him on next year. he can play by himself, have role plays with his toys, go straight to reading when he's done with his playing, move on to colouring, then when he's tired, he would crawl up on to the bed and nap. he is totally asyraf's brother.

akmal is such a happy boy. he would sing in the car and laugh while watching telly. he would be in his imaginary world and find small things to amuse himself. he doesnt disturb anyone and would be happy playing by himself, much like ariff.

he picks up different traits of his brothers and combine them to become...akmal izzat.

What's For Lunch?

one significant change to my staying at home is food, ie more home cooked food. there's good and bad side to this, actually. good is, obviously, everything is prepared and cooked by me at home. bad is, again, everything is prepared and cooked by me at home.

i am not a good cook. ok lah, i can cook but i'm not a good cook. there's so much i need to learn. i keep making the same thing again and again. i can do adult-ish food but its difficult for me to do kids food. taste wise, i can manage since i never eat hot food and my food are always 'safe' but i am not creative. with kids, you need to be. you don't want them to get bored, you want them to try new things, you dont want them to be dependent on certain food and not used to seeing different kinds. for me its always that rice and 2-3 dishes, pasta, sandwiches...that's pretty much it! and to prepare that twice a day, everyday is a torture!

i salute those who can cook different types of meal for lunch and for dinner. i opt the easy way out. something simple for lunch, something even more simple for the boys to bring to school and something bought for dinner. i'll take it one step at a time (most probably the whole year!).

after over a month of trying to get the boys (asyraf more than amir) to bring lunch boxes to school, they are finally starting to get used to the idea. amir was easier to persuade as he spent the whole of last year buying canteen food but asyraf was just warming up to the idea of bringing money and buying food in school. he wasnt going to let it go as easy. kinda weird actually because amir's the one who is choosy about food while asyraf loves almost anything i serve him.

so for about 2-3 weeks now i have been preparing simple food for them to bring to school. nothing spectacular, more to encourage them to not buy canteen food, to save money and to consume home-cooked food. so far, we've given them fried rice (hubby cooked, i cant for the life of me make fried rice), maggi goreng, hot dogs, burgers, sandwiches. very boring, i know but we're getting there. i'm getting there, slowly getting the hang of it. amir have been asking 'hari ni takde bekal ke?' when i dont prepare their lunch box, which is a good start.

i dont prepare food every day. mondays & tuesdays are a must, wednesdays & thursdays something simpler (since we dont have much time between their morning & afternoon school) and hardly ever on fridays, since they have a big lunch at home.

i would love to be able to prepare this but it takes both parties to agree. i can try to prepare but are they willing to consume this. for now, they are not. maybe as they grow older and are less picky about food.

these, though, i think i can do and they may like. soon, Insyaallah.