Ariff Turns Nine

the first of four birthdays in october started with ariff's early in the month. unfortunately, october is also peppered with exams so celebrating birthdays need to squeezed between the many, many days of exams.

ariff's birthday, thankfully was on a saturday, before the hectic period commenced, so we were able to step out for a late lunch. it was to be a 2-in-1 lunch for me and ariff but he decided the food and the venue and i just followed suit. i would have preferred to have something other than japanese as we had japanese for amir's birthday but ariff really wanted and it was his birthday, so he got the final say.

lunch was a quick one, for japanese food standard, as the boys had football that afternoon. amira's easy to bring along for meals, she's just wait for someone to feed her and she's happy enough playing with packets of wet tissues.

ariff's satisfied with a family lunch but i grabbed a cheesecake on the way back from the restaurant, just for a small cake-cutting for us. he waited patiently while his brothers were at football and then for them to shower and then for us to gobble down our simple egg sub & fries dinner.

ariff's happy with the small cake but he's hinting, ok no, he's screaming out loud a smiggle watch which we told him would come sometimes next week, hopefully. he's pretty easy with gifts, just see what his current obsession is, last year it was hot wheel, this year its smiggle.

ariff's still not at the top of his class. he never liked classroom learning. that one-way, teacher-teach-children-listen type of learning. he's more hands on, he learns as he moves and he sees, as he listens, as he follows. its not easy for ariff as the school system doesnt support this. just as he's gotten good at one aspect of the syllabus, more is introduced and he's buried under and pulled down. i hope i am able to take him out of the horrible, painful school system soon but in the meantime he'll suffer, we'll suffer until we are able to get out of the system and give ariff the type of education that he'll thrive in.

aside from school which brings him down quite a bit, ariff's doing great. he learns a lot from watching the world go by. he learns a lot form watching me cook. he learns a lot from listening to things on the radio and on the tv and the books he reads. he learns a lot form watching the cats and the neighours, his mind is constantly moving and absorbing, he just doesnt get all that from the school system.

ariff's very helpful around the house. no one knows where everything is except for ariff. just ask him for something and he's able to get it for you. if he doesnt know where it is, just describe the item and then guide him to the place and he'll come back to your with the item you're looking for. there's no 'huh?' and 'where?' and 'what?' from him.

he's really good and emphatic and sympathetic, talking to ariff is a stress reliever because he knows how to respond. which is why akmal loved telling him stuff and why asyraf hates telling him stuff because asyraf hates emotions other than his!

thanks abangdik. you've been a great help. sometimes i lose my patience with you because i'm so impatient and you're so relaxed and easy going. but that makes you, you and we all appreciate you for who you are.