Ariff's Graduation 2013

there he is…my little graduate. the little one who stresses me out the most, in terms of studies. ariff oh ariff. i'm not going to go in details about ariff and his 'love' of reading and writing, he has improved and i hope he will continue to do so, but this entry is dedicated to him finishing his pre-schooling.

no, i am not comparing but yes, i set a slightly lower benchmark for ariff compared to his brothers (elder and younger). ariff doesn't gel with the conventional syllabus. he doesn't take to reading and writing, especially. he shows more interest in arithmetic and probably does better in that field. but he likes best, non-conventional subjects, like arts and crafts, cooking, dancing, acting, making friends, public speaking, performing. he excels in those and because of that, he's different from his brothers.

despite all that, or maybe because of all that, i got terribly choked up at his graduation recently. there he is, the different one but the determined and 'i already know what i want to be when i grow up' one, is moving away from his (and my!) comfort zone. and i don't know who is more nervous - him or me.

ariff was an excited boy throughout the month - he had his birthday, his concert, his football practice and his graduation. he was practicing his graduation song everyday in october - westlife's you raise me up. come the day, he was all prepared and rearing to go. he wanted to change into his uniform at 11am when we were only supposed to be at the venue at 1pm. he was so happy that we were so happy for him.

and when he stepped into the hall with his his bounty classmates, i wanted to run over and give him a big fat hug. i was tearing up so bad, it was so embarrassing!

congratulations to abangdik, engku ariff iqhwan, who have been in the shadows of his brothers but shines with his determination and his knowledge, who teaches us about his interests. we will always encourage you to reach for your stars and hope you will always bring us back down to earth with your diversity.

entertainment pre-graduation ceremony

hms bounty graduates on stage

ariff receiving his scroll

with teachers and friends

ariff iqhwan on his big day

Generation of Gadgets

we gave it a long, hard (many, many long, hard plural of) thought. should we or shouldn't we. yes, we know...first thought would be a no. then we thought some more. and finally, we bought them an iPod each.

the ipods came with a lot of rules - to be kept during exam week, only to be taken after they've put on their uniforms and made their beds in the morning, not to be taken to their rooms at night, not to be used when they are walking (because amir once fell over across some chairs and cut himself pretty bad), not to be used when we're eating - while waiting for food is ok (which is why we decided on getting them in the first place). that's only some of them. we do make up more rules as we go along.

yes, there are many drawbacks to gadgets. but there are also positive outcome. one of the main outcome is their spelling. ariff's especially have improved a lot. he loves messaging and the iPod helped a lot with his reading and writing skills. they have also, in a way, grown closer. they have learned to create a group message and have their own group, the four of them. of course only three participate and the fourth keep asking, why you sending me message?

i do monitor what they write. every night when they've turned in their iPods, i will go through each one, look at their messages, delete pictures we don't think is share-able, stuff like that. if we do come across things we don't like, they get a good long lecture the day after.


another bit i love about their iPods is the selfies they take. it never fail to make me laugh.

oh my boys...

Smaller Birthdays In October

yes...the parents do have birthdays. just not 'gempak'-ly celebrated like the boys'. plus as both parents' birthdays fall in the same month as ariff's, they are celebrated low-key-ly. mine is 3 days after ariff's while hubby's comes 8 days after mine. we usually have a combined dinner and gifts are seldom given as they would cancel out each other.

this year, we went out for dinner on my birthday, as hubby's would be celebrated in the hospital. though i think the boys forgot the dinner was for my birthday, they were more interested in the halloween deco at the table. for the first time in 12 years that i've known hubby, i actually asked for a gift - a bracelet no less! i've never done this and it feels weird but i really wanted a pandora bracelet so yeah!

*the football charm is for asyraf, the london taxi is for ariff & the heart is for hubby. i owe myself two more charms for amir & akmal.

errr...i havent actually bought hubby anything tho, i just realised that. nanti-nanti lah ye. the boys happily made cards for him the night before, excited to surprise him at the hospital.

a birthday song for hubby from asyraf, ariff & akmal...