Amira's Second Month

it seems hitting the two month mark changed little miss pacak dramatically. the first is she's no longer little miss pacak but is now little miss botak. i wanted to shave off amira's hair for the longest time. her hair absolutely smells. i have no idea from where, from what, how and of what. but it just smells. we wash her hair every time we bathe her. she has no cradle cap, unlike her brothers, and her scalp has harden but it just smells. soon as we shaved off her hair and wash her head, the smell immediately became less. i stilll don't know from what, she doesn't perspire so what is the source. totally baffles me…

apart from the obvious change (a little too obvious since her rambut pacak is the first thing people notice about her), amira's also tone down her fussiness. she's still fussy and still screams the house down, but its tone down a wee bit now. she sleeps through the night, that little angel. syukur, yes i am. the scariest bit of being a parent of a little baby is that night feeding and lack of sleep. but after two months of being a zombie, amira put me out of my misery and all of the sudden chose to sleep through the night. she does get up for feeding still but she can sleep for 6-7 hours, which is good enough for me. her last feed would be around 10-10.30pm and she would get up around 5-530am. makes me never miss fajar prayers, alhamdulillah.

she's also putting on the pounds. at her last check up she's close to 5kg. amira's been getting her immunization at two places now - our regular pediatrician and at the government clinic as there's shortages of the triple antigen jabs. she's plump around her thighs and plump around her cheeks. akmal says she's carrying water in her cheeks and he'd like to poke her so that the water comes splashing out. ah abangbee…

amira's responding a lot now. she gurgles a lot at her brothers, laughs at the cot mobile and the pictures on her cot bumpers. she giggles at the telly and if someone startles her. she loves to play after her bath time and after her feed but she would only give you five minutes of her precious time. more than that, you're stepping over your boundaries and she'll let you know - loudly - how much she does not appreciate your presence.

car rides are a joy for amira, when the car is moving, at least. she's ok with her car seat - since she spends way too much time in it but she hates it when the car stops moving. she's ok with family outings too. she's familiarize herself with her stroller but prefers to be carried instead *reminder for me to buy a baby wrap soon* she's followed us to watch movies - 4 movies in fact. not bad for a two-month old.

amira's gets way too fussy when she hits her growth spurt. it has happened twice so far - once when she was learning to lift her head, the second when she was about to sleep through the night. but her fussiness lasts a day, two days then she would sleep to get over the lack of sleep she experienced during her growth spurt.

Year-End School Holidays 2015

this year's year-end school holidays feels somewhat fast yet slow. initially, with me still in confinement, able to do some things, unable to do others, it was not so easy. i needed some time to myself and amira as she was still clingy and fussy and drinks every 2-3 hours. the only was to get that was to find activities for the boys.

i enrolled asyraf and ariff into a school holiday programme at the nearby mosque. hubby sends them every morning, i would pick them up every evening. by that time, i could drive, limited to nearby places but still…could drive. amir goes for tuition 3 times a week. so i'm at home with akmal and amira. akmal's very independent. give akmal thomas and his friends and he's occupied the whole day. he's easy to handle. amir for half a day, is so so. he still disturbs akmal when he's bored but with no other brothers to back him up, akmal has to be his ally, so the disturbing is toned down by a lot.

this went on for the first three weeks of the school holidays. once the programme at the mosque concludes, i find myself concluding my confinement as well. so i'm more active and able to run around with the boys. i spent most of the time, post-confinement, preparing for the upcoming school year. there's books to be wrapped, bags to be bought, uniforms to be ironed, name tags to be sewn, shoes to be washed, stationeries to sorted. i felt like this year, the list became longer and time became shorter. its almost the end of the december and there's still so many things pending.

mental note to get everything done way ahead of time next year. by the first week of december, everything has to be all in order so that i can enjoy the school holidays too!