On My Day Off

i thought i can rest (doctor told me to...) but with this boy around, not much resting can be done. i got a 2-hour nap in the morning, that's because he slept too. we cuddle-cuddle, which was nice since it was raining and the room was cold. and the fact that i havent cuddled him for so long (he hates people holding him when he's sleeping, unless its to rub his back). i actually forgot how its like being a stay-at-home-mum. i forgot when to bathe him, when to give him breakfast, when to give him lunch. it all came back to me, but i was confused for a while.

after nap, we had lunch. gas habis so i had to eat maggi the terdesak way, leave it in hot water. i actually miss the abundance of food in klcc. guess have to wait for hubby to come back before i can eat properly (another 2 hours and counting!!). a peaceful morning...then my little terrorist was at it again.
sleep? what do you mean...sleep??

i want to explore but i want to watch telly too...decisions, decisions...

mummy stop...enough pictures!!

finally...

My Observations

we were having breakfast one day when hubby commented that my eyes never seem to "keep quiet". he said i'm always watching here and there, looking at this and that. its true...i like to learn about things and i learn from observation. my observations may not always be correct and things i observe may not always be as they seem, but i dont go around commenting on them unless i have asked about them. i just observe but i dont offer my observations to other people.

anyway, here are some of the things i "observed" recently...
1. i saw a big billboard of a bank near sg besi toll. it says "bank rakyat - your choice bank". my first thought was...eh, there's something wrong here. macam tak betul je. i had a feeling that this is a direct translation, sure enough on the other side was written "bank rakyat - bank pilihan anda". my english is not great but shouldnt it be "bank rakyat - your bank of choice". its just not right. then i went to bank rakyat's website. yup...its there. which means, its the official tagline for bank rakyat.

2. the people on the LRT are just so kelam. there are those who just cant wait to run to the door before the train reaches the next stop. even before you hear yasmin yusoff's voice saying "stesen berikutnya..." you can already see these people either standing up or start pushing people around them or start shouting "excuse me..." to the people in front of them. alamak...relek lah. the train just pulled out from the last station, its still moving, your stop is miles away. just wait, will ya?? the door will be opened for almost 30 seconds. you have time to get out, dont worry. the worst is when the next stop (the stop these kelams are getting out at) are the famous stops, klcc ke, kelana jaya ke, masjid jamek ke. you can see that 80% of the passangers have already turned towards the door indicating they will get out on the next stop, but still these passangers get so kelam like they wont be able to leave the train, and starts going "excuse me, excuse me..." eh hello...everyone's getting off lah. relekkkkkk!! its different if its abdullah hukum station where hardly anybody gets on or off it.

3. you feel that your child learn so many things when you're not around. when i was at home, everything amir learnt i didnt get too excited about. maybe because i can see it coming. like when he took his first steps, or first responded to certain words. of course i was excited, who wouldnt be, but somehow i felt it coming since i see his progress every minute. but when i'm not at home and he does something new, i sort of get so shocked and surprised and wonder when did he start to learn to do that. yesterday hubby fed amir milk when he grabbed the box from hubby and held it himself while he drank. hubby & i was surprised. eh...since when he can hold himself? usually he refuses to hold and would just lie down when we feed him. he even drank without spilling a single drop. then hubby gave him a new box. lagi terkejut when he took the straw off the box himself and tried to poke it in himself. lah...since when he learnt that? hubby & i stopped eating and just watched him.

4. your head gets really heavy when you have flu. so now i'm going to bed...

Long Weekend Day 3

the buffet spread this morning wasnt as good. a lot of choices but nothing i really fancied. took eggs again, this time with hash browns, sausages & baked beans. no grilled tomatoes...i love those. again i had to eat salad, i donno why. i seem to really like thousand island at the moment. i also tried dimsum. dont really take it usually, not a fan but macam i had to have it today. ate 2...yup, i dont like it. i had a lot of rolls, soft rolls, hard rolls. cant get enough of them. amir ate his koko krunch quietly until he saw some kids jumping into the pool. then he got distracted. we thought of taking him for a swim after breakfast but then we saw a guy (one of the fathers) in the pool with his trackbottoms on. urgghh...i really hate people like that. dont they realise that their clothes are ditry. walking in and out of the pool like that. yuck!!

after breakfast we went back to the room. amir played for a while then he started getting cranky. he wanted to sleep but somehow couldnt. hubby was doing sudoku yet again and i was reading the paper. while watching "football extra" i slept. still have slight trouble breathing, the soft pillow didnt help.

we left around 1pm. got home about an hour after that. stopped by Giant to get amir's pampers and milk and a few bits and bobs. finally got home around 3pm. i did the laundry and unpacked and changed our bedsheets. wanted to sleep but couldnt, it was too hot. hubby and amir slept instead. prepared dinner. i'm making roast chicken, mashed potatoes (i cheated...its the instant one) and salad. dinner was quite nice.














amir fell and his hit chin on the drawer knob while i was praying. our knobs arent very child-safe, its got sharp edges. i had bad feelings about the knob since the guy installed it (i didnt choose it). i had hurt myself a lot of times, scratching my knuckles against it. i knew one day amir's gonna hit some parts of his body against it. i'm contemplating on taking EL tomorrow but i just started work...not a good idea. sigh...how i wish i was still a stay-at-home-mum.

Long Weekend Day 2

i got up before 7am. my stomach's already growling. hubby and amir still sleeping. i picked up the newspaper and read up on the news, the job section and the build up to the fa cup final tonight. on paper, its a liverfool win but i'm hoping west ham would create an upset.

waited for about an hour before hubby finally woke up. maybe he heard the sound of my stomach. then amir woke up. got ready and we went downstairs for breakfast. the buffet was large, a lot of choices. as usual, i headed for the eggs section, asked for a nice omelette. while waiting, i went to get amir's bread and koko krunch. i was also in the mood for salad, so i got myself a big bowl. hubby had porridge and some bacon and onion. he said the salmon was still swimming in his tummy.
assalamualaikum...i'm up!!

cheeky boy on the way to breakfast...







amir having koko krunch...









after breakfast we went up & lepak in the room. it was a cloudy day and we didnt feel like going home. we contemplated on where to go next. i fell asleep while hubby was deciding. ngantuk lah. then it was time for us to leave, the front desk had to call us up. we really didnt want to go. on the way home, hubby called his sister in semenyih to see whether she wanted to have dinner in bagan lalang. she was in PD with her family, a sony family day. so apa lagi. since it was our plan to go to PD yesterday, hubby said...jom. we were 2 minutes from home, so we went back for a while. just enough time for me to pick up yesterday's laundry, put the dirty clothes in the laundry basket and take some new clothes and pampers for amir. hubby watered his 2 plants outside (we havent had time to do up the garden!)

it took us less than an hour to get to PD. we booked a hotel in seremban. we've been there before when hubby had a golf tournament and i really like it, especially the pool. PD wasnt too far away anyway. got kfc for lunch and went to check in. hubby was doing his sudoku puzzle & i played with amir. the boy has a lot of energy. too energetic for poor old mummy. around 5.30pm we went down to the pool. it was darn cold. did somebody forget to switch on the water heater? we sat in the jacuzzi, too cold to step in the pool. amir was having the time of his life.

amir found his "spot" by the window...















after swimming. mata dah merah...










that night we went to look for seafood for dinner. we planned to see hubby's sister in PD anyway. i had craving for ikan bakar and the one we had for dinner was really yummy. on the way out from the place, i saw some prawns...alamak, i want that too!! went to the resort where my SIL was staying. stayed there for about half an hour. their family day dinner was still going on. amir was tired too. he didnt sleep after his hour-long swim.

we took a short walk on the beach. passed by some groups having barbeque. sedapnya bau! then i felt weird. i think i inhaled the smoke and now i cant breathe & was wheezing. i havent had breathing difficulty for over 2 years, and now its back. and i didnt bring my inhaler.

we got back after 11. amir was sound asleep. we switched on the telly. it was 2-2. then the hammers scored their third goal. yeay for west ham. but somehow i had a feeling liverfool will come back, sure enough gerrard scored their third. i fell asleep soon after that. i didnt even hear the final whistle.

Long Weekend Day 1

the long-awaited weekend is finally here. hubby & i didnt make any major plans. friday morning, we got up and went for breakfast in taman tun. saw che nah's truck. yesss...i can finally have my nasi dagang. i was a glutton...i bought 2 for me alone!! there wasnt any place to eat so we went to ismail to eat it, hubby wanted roti canai. after breakfast, we went for a drive. amir slept as soon as the car started moving and we didnt want to wake him up. met an ex-colleague at pusat bandar damansara. what else...we talked about football (he's a big united supporter). he told me i missed the sex god's testimonial on telly. alamak...i took wednesday off, i should have watched it. never mind...i'll get the dvd.

then we drove home...it wasnt even 11.30am. we really needed to go somewhere. when we got home, we called the maintenance guy to repair our broken window but he could only come after friday prayers. hubby slept while i played with amir. after prayers the guy came. he left a little after 3. we contemplated on where to go. alaaaa...lets just go to eastin. eastin is one of our favourite hotels. the room & toilet is very clean and comfy, the breakfast buffet is great and the price is reasonable. so off we went...

amir went exploring as soon as we got into the room...









tired but he was on a mission...










sampai dalam toilet nak explore...










it was raining, we swam for only 15 minutes. he was really cold, so i gave him a warm bath as soon as we got up...










he fell asleep before 7pm. ahh...hubby and i can eat in peace.









since we were already there, hubby said 'jom...makan best sikit malam ni...". i ordered the chickend set. ok lah. tasted like chicken chop.


hubby had salmon set. he was a bit cheesed off because it was wayyy smaller than how it was pictured on the menu. it was still filling, but they should have shown the real picture. both sets came with salad or soup. i ordered mushroom soup and hubby ordered onion soup. the mushroom soup was to die for. they also came with a dessert. it was coffee cake of some kind. sedapppp. even hubby like it.

after we had dinner, amir woke up & wouldnt go back to sleep. it was after 11pm. we switched off all the lights, hoping he'd sleep but he wouldnt. i put him on my lap and played with his hair. barulah he started to sleep again.

Day Off

i've not even been working a month and already i have been on medical leave. heh...not that i was lazy or anything (work has been ok the past few days) but i really wasnt feeling well. i didnt suffer from morning sickness during my first pregnancy (only mild nauseasness - didnt even throw up) and was feeling really ok during this pregnancy (except for the tiredness), but since monday i was really feeling eecky. as though i want to throw up but i cant. mostly i feel that way after i've had my meals. i think i can put my finger on the problem - i have not had proper meals in terms of the food and the timing. i eat lunch really late, and breakfast really early, and dinner whenever i've reached kelana jaya / taman tun and in between i dont munch on anything. so its the angin building up in my stomach thats causing me this eecky feeling. from now on i'll munch on things so that i dont get that "want to throw up" feeling.

anyway, i got a medical leave today. the doctor was really nice, he was talking about the morning sickness and craving that people have during pregnancy. then he started asking me what i craved, i joked that i didnt crave anything - my husband did. then he started telling me about how he craved ikan air sungai for 4 months when his wife was pregnant and how he would throw up while his wife was feeling fine. he went on to say that he was on a lot of medical leave, and his wife would be working. then he said that it was all worth it because his son is extremely close to him, and he concluded that maybe the closeness came from the closeness he had with his wife by sharing her "morning sickness". i thought that was really sweet.

hubby was on medical leave too. he had slight food poisoning from eating something at work. amir was also feeling under the weather, he had a temperature. it was nice to be home with the boys. we went to taman tun, as that's the only clinic i know that's under my company's panel clinic list. we finished early so hubby said lets jalan-jalan. we went to 1 utama for a while until amir looked a bit lembik. he slept as we got in the car. when we got home the three of us slept - more like the 2 of us, amir wouldnt sleep (tak sedap badan probably).

the day passed by really slow, we just sat around watching tv, playing computer and went off to mcd for a late lunch (went after 4pm!!). amir finally slept on the way to mcd so we decided to just eat in the car so that he can continue sleeping. by that time his temperature had gone down. we stopped by giant for a while, just enough time for me to grab minced meat and cheese. i made baked pasta for dinner (alamak...didnt take a picture pulak). i had a plate for dinner, hubby tak makan since he's still full, and the rest i packed in tupperwares to bring to work tomorrow.

my dear hubby, all of the sudden, from out of nowhere, is hooked on mind games. not the sir alex's "mind games" but computer games. for the past 4-5 days, he's been playing minesweeper non-stop (and hogging the computer at home!). then today he started playing sudoku. donno what came over him. he usually doesnt like these kinds of games because he wont be able to concentrate and finish them (ada je benda distract him). but today, since 7.30pm, he was playing with the sudoku puzzle from the star. at 10.30pm, this was what the puzzle looked like...













i'm really proud of him. its nice to see him finish what he started, especially games like this (which, like i said, he's not really into). this is more of my kind of game, that's why i'm so proud of him. even i am too scared to do the puzzle (remember mock??)

Third Entry For the Day

...and mock wonders where i get my inspiration to write. amir was extra active today. i donno what he ate. maybe its the packets of gardenia cream rolls that he's addicted to. he would not stop walking. even i had to take time out for 30 minutes (i wanted a longer nap but anaconda was screaming in his cot).

hubby put him on the chair to stop him from walking around. he got a bit scared since the chair is pretty high for him. i get tired just looking at him toddling about, i wonder how its going to be once he starts running.

My Sunday Dinner

i donno why mat sallehs term the lunch they have on sundays as "sunday dinner". i was rummaging through the freezer yesterday, checking the stocks and reminding myself that i have this and that. i have not cooked during the weekdays since i started working, we get home quite late most days and hubby doesnt want me to spend time in the kitchen more than necessary (ie just enough time to prepare amir's night feeding). found minced beef that i bought to make shephard's pie (tapi still tak buat).

i finally made it today. boiling the potatoes took a long time. the beef and the actual baking took less than an hour. hubby wasnt too keen on it at first because he generally doesnt like pies. i also made mushroom gravy so that its not so dry.

hubby's reaction after he had it was..."sedappppp". he took extra gravy, even after he finished the pie, he still took the gravy. he said he'd put the gravy in a cup and drink them all. hmmm...the gravy took less than 2 minutes tapi itu yang dia puji lebih-lebih pulak.

kept some for afterwards. i'm sure i'll be hungry again around 6-7pm. more than half gone, even though only the 2 of us ate...

A Much Slower Weekend

as it wasnt a 3-day weekend, hubby and i decided to take things easy. we actually have made some plans (seafood in bagan lalang, visit hubby's brother in cheras) but when the weekend finally arrived, we scrapped all plans and just lepak-ed.

saturday started really late, by our normal standard. we woke up past 8am (missed subuh, unfortunately). our little alarm clock was sleeping soundly between us, he missed his save ums. i suggested to hubby to try out a place in kota damansara. after her endless plugging, i thought we'd give hot mama's brother's place a try. i was craving for nasi dagang. unfortunately, they didnt have nasi dagang so i had to settle for nasi lemak. i was salivating at the lauk pauk (daging goreng, ayam goreng, sambal tumis udang) but since they didnt go with nasi lemak, i had to give them a miss (the udang did but i saw it after they put chicken on my nasi lemak). we took our time with breakfast as the place a very quiet. amir was happily chasing the cat and once he got bored, was busy playing with the menu (hot mama, if you see a menu kena gigit, amir punya kerja lah tu). then my aunt from taman tun sent me an sms asking us over for lunch. we were nearby so, ok lah...free food :-)

she made my favourite, sup tulang. after lunch i lepaked on the bed with amir and my 7-year old cousin, watching barney, emperor's new groove and the alphabet cd. hubby went off to play snooker nearby. lepak punya lepak, we didnt realise it was almost maghrib. stayed there for dinner and finally made our way home around 9pm. the day passed by just like that.

today's weather is great. sejuk and windy and cloudy. hubby fought his nasi berlauk calling and we had roti telur at the nearby mamak. then we went off to giant to get some groceries. i wanted to get some stuff for my shephard's pie. we were in and out from there very quickly. as we were parking we saw a lady with some of the giant security officers, i think she lost her car, so we did not shop in comfort. sorry nae...i really didnt see you!!

got home and reminded hubby that he needed to mend his pants. i do not and will never sew, so all mending is done by my ever-reliable hubby. he doesnt mind, so yeay...












p/s mock...is that mushy blog up yet??

Its Late...

and i'm still at work!! today's been an ok day compared to the previous two. i had to man the office as the other admin was on leave. i was running around like a headless chicken. it was bad enough i didnt know the people and the procedures around here. to add to it, i had to book rooms and get signatures and send folders and despatch items to people and places i have never heard of before. but after all the stress, it was a good learning experience. at least within the space of 2 days i was able to familiarise myself with the place.

i'm alright with this place. i just wish it was closer to home so that i dont have to endure the 35-45 mins lrt ride with strangers blowing their cigaratte-laced breath in my face. i also miss amir like mad. he's adjusted himself well at my aunt's place. he loves it there because my 7 year old cousin loves playing with him. my aunt and bibik carries him around, so he's a bit 'manja'ed there. at home he'll be forced to walk.

its past 6pm now...the lrt should be less packed (still packed but less) so i better make my way back. plus my baby's waiting for me...

How I Love Thee...

...long weekends!! i've forgotten how much 3-day weekends mean to people who work. it was a blissful weekend. hubby & i rested to the max on saturday. no, we didnt sleep the morning away. ever since amir was born, we've never woken up past 7.30am. amir is our alarm clock, he'd wake me up for subuh. unfortunately, i'm not one of those who can take a nap during the day, so getting up early isnt all that great (while naughty little amir would be napping for 2-3 hours come mid morning). anyway, hubby & i are early risers, by 9am we'd be in the mamak, having out roti telur & bawang and teh tarik. on saturday, we took amir to the babysitter's house, saja nak nyakat him. hubby told me to look out for his reaction once we reach the 1utama junction and particularly when we got to the honda showroom. sure enough, when we got to those places, amir was already fidgeting in his seat and whimpering.

we lepak-ed for a bit at my cousin's (cum amir's babysitter's) house. told my youngest cousin we were going to 1utama. he had that puppy dog eyes look...and we caved in. "dboy want to follow amir or go to kuantan?" (he goes to kuantan every weekend.) sure enough, he said..."i want to go to utama" (he refuses to speak malay for some reason). so we took him, promising his father we'd have him back by 2.30pm. we went to friday's, had cravings for buffalo wings. the roti telur & bawang hasnt been fully digested, so hubby & i just shared starters. as promised we sent dboy home and then went back. hubby & amir slept once we got home. it was too hot for me, so i read the papers instead. i made roast chicken and salad for dinner as hubby & i didnt feel like rice. in fact we havent had rice for a week now. habislah, anak aku keluar kang jadi mat salleh. we had early dinner, then stayed in bed, watching all the premiership games on espn.

sunday started with a crash, literally!! one of our bedroom windows was faulty. the window's "i-donno-whats-it-called" was not screwed in properly, that thing that connects the window to the window sill. told hubby about it and he said...ok lah, i buat nanti. nanti of course never came. when i opened the window to let the morning breeze in, it fell off its hinges and broke the window below it. thank god i was not standing right in front of it. the window was hanging by only 2 screws. it didnt break, surprisingly, but the frame below it was shattered. hubby gave me that "omigod...what did you do" look. cepat-cepat i went to take my shower. when i came out of the bathroom, he had already taken the window, put it on the balcony and taken away all the shattered glasses.

we went for breakfast and came back thinking what should we do with the glass-less windows. the maintenance people wont be back for 2 days. hubby decided to buy some plywood. i told him to use cardbox box, easier. we thought it over, and went to get some boxes at the nearby shop (the kedai selling plywood was closed anyway). hubby decided to cover the bottom window frame and try to install back the window. wow...he really did manage to do it!! my very own tim the toolman taylor, though he looks more like bob the builder (hehehehe...jgn marah). so that problem was solved. but the weekend hasnt ended, obviously the problems too havent ended. that night, the air-cond just stopped working. it stopped just like that. we were perspiring the whole night. amir couldnt sleep, hubby couldnt sleep and i couldnt sleep.

its not a surprise that this morning we woke up past 8.30am. ter-miss subuh. we went to do our groceries early. afraid that it'll get packed if we got there late. went in and got out within an hour. we saved a lot too. since i've been working, i havent cooked at home, so we didnt buy a lot of fresh products. bought a couple of trays of chicken and some veggies, more for my sandwiches. came back home, hubby & i felt extra energetic. we cleaned the whole of the upstairs. hubby cleaned the air-cond (about time too!!) no wonder it stopped working last night. the filter was so dusty, it didnt look like a filter anymore. i vacuumed amir's room & our room, after hubby finished cleaning the poor excuse of an air-cond. then we went downstairs. i prepared the food to cook for dinner, while hubby vacuumed the floor. amir was happily eating his potato bread (the boy has put on some serious weight, alhamdulillah).

then we went back up. i went to clean our bathroom while hubby took the car to the car wash. amir was still eating. i was shivering while waiting for hubby to come back. we didnt have lunch and we did so many things. once he got back, he accompanied me in the kitchen while i cooked a simple meal for dinner. white rice, ayam goreng kunyit (which is the best type of ayam goreng), sambal telur & kailan ikan masin (i'm more of a kangkung belacan fan, kailan ikan masin is hubby's favourite). we ate dinner early since i was darn hungry, not only that i also wanted an early night. i managed to slip in a round of laundry while hubby bathed amir.

so there...i think my 3-day weekend was used positively. how come my previous weekends were not this eventful? anyway, cant wait for the next 3-day weekend. we may be going off for a couple of nights. its been a long time since we had gone off, just the 3 of us. it'll be either cameron or kuantan. cameron would have strawberries while kuantan would have juicy prawns. decision...decisions...

Not A Surprise...

before the game started i told hubby that chelsea would win, by a small margin, with the score of 2-1. i wasnt totally wrong. chelsea did win, tho by a bigger margin. united lost 0-3. i knew chelsea would win because they had more going for them - last game at stamford bridge, playing against united, losing to liverfool recently. while united, even if they won, would not get anything except for the prestigious 2nd place - which is now not even a certainty.

the first half was alright. trailing by only 1 goal, possession was 50-50. no hard tackles (with terry, lampard, rooney & ronaldo around, you cant expect a clean game.) unfortunately the second half was not as great. tackles started flying in, cards being shown, 2 goals for chelsea. i thought united played ok, a 3-0 scoreline didnt really reflect the match. rooney got injured, darn it. there goes england's chance in the world cup. they were counting on rooney. like the last euro, once rooney got injured, england went downhill. terry (who i hope would succeed bex as captain) is also injured, although his didnt look as bad as rooney's seeing he played for more than 60 minutes.

i dont mind chelsea winning, i have no problem (yet) with them. i think they've got really good players in terry, lampard, cech, makalele (yees...yees...yees...), robben (certain parts of him) but i didnt like the way drogba was celebrating outside the pitch when the final whistle hasnt even been blown. i thought that was very disrespectful of him...there was still 2 minutes on the clock and he was jumping up and down at the bench with the supporters. come on...your teammates are still on the pitch, show some respect man.

i also dont get this yellow cards for lifting/taking off shirt rule. what happened to it? i thought players were not allowed to celebrate goals by lifting or taking off their shirts but lately i saw 2 players who were not cautioned for doing exactly that. what happened to the rule...was it taken away? who cares if players want to take off their shirts...its part of a goal celebration. let them be...unless of course its ryan giggs. sorry giggsy, as much as that goal against arsenal (fa cup semi final replay 1999) was spectacular (eat your heart out, veira)...we dont need to see so much hair on the telly. thanks but no thanks.

anyway...its all for the 2nd spot now. next match is against boro, united's bogey team. if they lose that game, there goes the 2nd place.

New Job

started my job on monday. so far things are going ok. the office looks cool, except for the fact that its sooo far away and i have to spend an hour on the road. but what to do, they offered the best at the moment.

amir's doing ok so far. left him with my aunt's bibik. he cried his eyes out the first day, but he seems to be doing well yesterday and today. apart from the time i step into my aunt's house, he doesnt really cry that much. been eating better too...if you call eating cookies & french fries eating better.

Stressful End to the Week

ever since he was down with food poisoning and diarrhoea, amir's been lying down and whining. its natural, of course, since he's weak from lack of food and has been throwing up everything that we put in his mouth. it was a difficult 3 days. i had to do the laundry 7 times in 3 days. our bedsheet, his bedsheet, the cloth we used to cover the bedsheet, our blanket, his blanket, towels and clothes...so many clothes. his clothes and our clothes. i was up for 4 nights, making sure he did not throw up when he slept or if he did, he was picked up straight away. i had to monitor his water intake because he was almost completely dehydrated and his fontanelles was sunken.

we took him to the doctor after 1 day. we thought he was feeling better because he had been up and about. but the scariest thing happened when we were waiting for our roti canai at the nearby mamak place. amir was sitting on the high chair, hubby had his foot under the chair. all of the sudden hubby felt water dripping onto his foot. it was amir, his stools were so watery, it was dripping down. there was a lot too!! we asked the mamak to tapau our roti and took him to the clinic immediately. the doctor gave us packets of hydration salt, which amir wasnt too keen on taking. we had to put into his milk. he was so weak after that, he just lied down in his cot and blinked at us, without saying anything.

alhamdulillah, the worst was over after 3 days. he stopped throwing up & stopped having watery stool. unfortunately, he was still dehydrated and was not urinating at all, especially at night. thank god that only happened 1 night, the next day we was almost back to normal. yeah, almost.

after his bout of diarrhoea, amir became very clingy. i was confused the first day. he wouldnt let me out of his sight. he wouldnt go to sleep during the day as he was afraid i would leave him. he refused to be picked up by anyone other than me and his daddy. even my cousin who he has seen thousands of times, could not get close to him. the moment she stepped in the room, he would start screaming and kicking his legs. for the first time, since he turned 3 months old, he wanted to be 'dodoi'ed to sleep. amir's not the type to cuddle, he likes to sleep by himself in his cot, while watching 'bear in the big blue house' or 'pb and j otter'. he doesnt like it when people disturb his last moments before going to sleep, not even me or hubby. and now he wants a cuddle in the middle of the day. its not like him at all.

i went to my cousin's house yesterday. i wanted him to get used to the house, as i'll be leaving him there when i go to work. he would not let go of my shirt! he would not sit on the floor or the chair by himself, he wanted to sit on my lap all the time, even when i was eating. when i was praying he started screaming and pulling my telekung. he screamed for 30 minutes yesterday. it was soooo stressful. i called hubby, crying, telling him i cannot handle this. i'm tired with the pregnancy and lack of appetitte and he's shouting the place down. seeing that i was at my wits end, my cousin toook him kicking & screaming to the park nearby. finally he calmed down, although he was still sobbing every now and then.

everyone kept telling me its because of the pregnancy. the babies and toddlers can tell that their mother is pregnant and find it difficult to accept the changes. i dont know how long this is going to last. its not easy, its really tiring me out. good thing i have 4 days before i have to report to work, i'll use the 4 days to get my energy back. hopefully amir's more calm the next time we tryout his babysitter.

On Call...

called up my potential employer just now. i was supposed to start on monday, as requested by the head of department. i spoke to the hr department about it, as i have not heard a peep from their side after i informed them of my availability. should i report to work on monday, or shouldnt i?

so, this is what they told me. wait until i get the letter of offer. dont come in until we call you. ok...so i guess i'm "on call" now. from the way she said it, it sounded like they are in the midst of preparing the letter of offer and i should get it in the near future, as with the phone call to come in. but then, i also have this feeling (the pessimist side of me talking) that i may not get a letter of offer after all. i guess this is where it gets a little confusing, where the department has agreed to take someone on, but the hr department have not agreed to the final terms and conditions.

i'm a bit confused now. on one hand, i'm grateful for the extra days that i get to spend with amir, yet i'm also worried that i may not be needed after all. guess this is "the week before taking the UPT" all over again. i'll just pray for a good news. in the meantime, spend as much time as amir as i can.

That's Me On TV

i got the latest issue of nona magazine last night. not that i'm a reader of the mag but more for a particular article (on pg 121, for anyone who's interested).

Delicious

did i say i had no craving when i'm pregnant? well...i lied. i do have cravings. and i crave (so badly) for pasta!! i could eat dozens of bowls of pasta. its so yummylicious. the sour-er it is, the better. i don really crave for the creamy-based (i love it...but not so often & cant eat so much, muak lah). but the tomato-based...omigod...yummsss!!

so this is my lunch for today. bought the pasta sauce in the bottle & just heat it up with some spaghetti. added some florets of brocolli. i do so love brocollis and its good for the baby.

on another delicious note...my little teddy bear, who has been out with food poisoning & diarrhoea is finally up and about today. we were ready to admit him to the hospital cos he has been losing a lot of water. but alhamdulillahh he's fine now.




















my third delicious news - tonight is grey's anatomy night. i love this show...so cool!

Unexpected Turn of Events

i got a great big shocking news yesterday. a friend of mine offered me a job after a simple interview. it wasnt an interview to begin with. it was just a sitting down session, with her asking me 'i have this position - do you want to fill it?' 'how much are you willing to accept?' and 'when can you start?'. that's it. she didnt ask me much, she didnt even look at my transcripts. she just had my simple CV and said...can you start this week?

i am still confused. yeah, i would love to work at her place (the office is wayyy beyond cool), i would love to have a secure monthly income, i would love to do what they want me to do (its just so cool - cool for me, at least). but i have only 4 days...4 days to spend with my baby, my little terror, and then that's it...i have to hand him over to someone else. that's the only thing that's bringing me down. i spent a whole year just being with him, watching him grow, watching him cut his first tooth, watching him take his first solid, watching him hold his cup for the first time, watching him roll over, take him first step, crawl. i saw all that, and there's so much more i want to see.

but at the same time, working would benefit him too. he would be more independent compared to if i were to be with him all the time. he would know more people, rather than just daddy & mummy (who turn down invitations because they cant bear to let people babysit him). working would benefit me too, other than the money bit. i can get more time to myself, which is important now that i'm pregnant. i need space to relax, calm down and be at one with the baby i'm carrying. i can get more exercise too...not just exercise as in yoga or pilates or step reebok, but more of exercising my mind, my soul, my thoughts. i was a very active person when i was pregnant with amir, and alhamdulillah, that helped a lot during labour and during my confinement.

the pros seem to overweigh the cons, in this case. but i cant bear to leave amir. he's been my best friend & my source of laughter. he's been with me 24/7 since the day he was born and now to not being able to see him when i turn around is going to be so painful. how i wish i can turn back time and relive the year i had with him. but we have to move on. its still my dream to be a full time, stay at home mum but that dream will have to be put on hold. for now, at least. in the meantime, i can only pray that he will be in safe hands and he is fine and happy.

Food Craving

before i did my UPT to see whether i was pregnant, hubby had strange cravings to eat mee kari. he didnt let me know about it because his friends had been teasing him that he must be expecting a baby with that kind of craving. that week we were waiting for the news, so hubby did not want to get me all excited with the story of his cravings and his friends' teasings, just in case we were not expecting after all. to make a long story short, he did get his mee kari (at the expense of not eating lunch with his friends - the mee kari place is a bit further from his office and he went alone) and we are expecting.

when we went to do our weekly grocery shopping last tuesday, i asked hubby if he felt like eating anything special, like chicken rice (my chicken rice is quite yummy), or nasi minyak (also surprisingly yummy), or soto ayam, or sirloin steak. he chose mee kari. so we bought the neccessary ingredients (mee, tauhu, etc). hubby wanted to use chicken bones instead of little drummets or chicken meat. i would have prefered to use meat instead of just bones because to me, the chicken meat is important. if tak ada meat, it may not be so nice. but he chose the dish, so i went along with him. i promised to make it on saturday as we can make it for lunch and keep it till dinner.

so, yesterday was mee kari day. it didnt take me too long to prepare it. slightly over an hour. hubby wanted the bones to be really soft, so i let the curry cook longer than i would normally do. hubby helped out. i realise that he's the only person i can cook with. i'm not good at helping people in the kitchen, neither am i good at having helpers. i dont like to sit and go 'ok, what's next?' and i dont like people posing that question to me. i prefer to be on my own so that no one gets in my way and i can cook at my own pace. hubby, the assistant chef, cut the bones into small pieces, sliced the onions (i cant slice them like he can), opened the boiled eggs, cut the tauhu and most importantly put salt in the curry (he's the fussy one when it comes to the saltiness of food - it has to be just right, while i dont really mind if the food is not salty enough).

after zohor prayers, the food was ready. we sat down in peace (the little terror was having his afternoon nap) and we enjoyed our food. it was really good, i was surprised myself. this is only my second time making mee kari, and i must say, i'm pretty proud of the product. i want to try mee bandung next. found some recipies but i'm not sure which i should try.


my final product...












as for hubby's cravings, my gynea said that the reason he was having cravings is because we are "emotionally attached". i like the way she put it rather than some people's take on why husbands get cravings when their wives are pregnant - some say its because the husband love the wife; which would mean that if your husband doesnt get cravings he doesnt love you (??)ridiculous!!

I'm A Softie...

yup...i'm the winner of the "softie of the year" award. hubby went to fill up the car petrol tank. he took amir with him. i watch them drive off from the balcony. amir saw me & started waving. they've been gone exactly 1 minute & 42 seconds. i miss them (i actually called up hubby and cried). am i a softie or am i a softie...

amir watching tv this morning. he's such a couch potato...











watching 'higglytown heroes'...













then mula buat hal, when he's supposed to mandi. playing with mummy's inhaler...













hubby read my entries and comments today (public holiday kan - got a lot of free time). he wasnt too happy with some of my comments and demanded that i ammend some of them. so here goes...
1. hubby is not messy - he just likes to take wudhu at the sink, while i take mine at the shower. so the sink tabletop is always so wet after he takes his wudhu, not messy. so i dont really need a 'his and hers' sink.
2. no, he doesnt talk in the car until he doesnt realise that the car's not moving - it was an exxageration on my part.

so to my beloved hubby, sorry for meng-over-kan my comments (you know i'm a drama queen). love ya babe...

Wardrobe Re-Organising

i'm not even in my 7th week, and i cant fit my pants. oh no, oh no...bad news!! its early days yet, cant imagine how it would be when i hit my 17th week, or 27th week or (gasp!!) 37th week. i've always been one who would balloon waist-below. now, being pregnant, its even worse.

i didnt lose all the pregnancy weight i gained while carrying amir, so most of my pants are in a 'no-touch' zone. now i have to upgrade them to a 'dont-even-bother' zone. i started to reorganise my wardrobe. i have to rearrange and bring out all my pregnancy outfit. its too early for this but i need to eat in peace. i want to enjoy my food, not stop halfway because i can feel the zipper slowly sliding down. how embarassing it that?! so zipper pants are potential embarassment while pull-up pants would make my fetus suffer (not to mention his mummy's tummy). if i were to bring out the maternity pants now, hubby would have a fit. he's already warning me to control my weight. oh man...cant i be pregnant in peace?

on a brighter note - mothercare, here i come :)

New Addition

its confirmed by the doctor today. its there & its fine...

we've been trying for the past year...trying really hard!! i was surprised at getting pregnant so fast the first time around. we were just coming into our 2nd month of marriage when i got pregnant with amir. the pregnancy was easy, beautiful, fulfilling, exciting. i felt energetic all the time. the labour too, alhamdulillah, was bearable (hubby hates it when i said it was easy). i loved being pregnant, i love being in labour (i actually do!) and i love being a mummy. nothing fulfills me more than being a mother to amir (except being a wife, that's my first & foremost obligation).

because the 9 months was so wonderful, i couldnt wait to be a mummy for the 2nd time around. we thought it would be as easy as the first one. we were even confident that we'd get another before the year was over, thus having 2 babies in one year - amir was born early january. but i guess we can only dream and plan. it is not up to us...Allah has his own plans for us. it was difficult, a very stressful year. but we persevered, we prayed, and finally, our wishes came true. we went to the nearby clinic to check. the doctor said it was positive. i asked for a large supply of folic acid. we thought we could postpone our monthly visit to the doctor's clinic until i was in my 2nd or 3rd month. but then, i didnt feel comfortable. what if something's not right? so i mulled it over, spoke to hubby about it and we decided to see the doctor as soon as we can. the moment i stepped into her office, the doctor laughed. (note - i was just in her office 2 months ago, to ask if there was anything wrong with me as we've been trying for a year.) she said..."i guess you followed my advice."

after a bit of info digging - last LMP, current weight, how i'm feeling at the moment etc, she asked me to lie down on the bed. ok...scary moment...which ultrasound is she going to use?? ahhh...thank god...she's using the 'normal' one, not the 'painful' one. as soon as she put the ultrasound on my tummy, she cried..."ah, there is it!! there's the uterus & there's your little one." i looked at hubby (who was smiling) then looked at amir (who was struggling to get down).

i've been doing some thinking after i found out the big news. i now know why it happen, when it happened. i know...and i accept it. Allah knows more, Allah knows what is good for me, what is good for my family. i accept and i thank Him for all that he's given me, for giving me strength when i thought i couldnt go through another dissapointment, for giving me the courage to try again.

hubby wont be happy that i entered this into my blog. we planned to keep it under wraps for a while, but i guess good news are meant to be shared. if something happens along the way, nauzubillah, i will accept it just as i have accepted the long and stressful journey that ended in this beautiful miracle. insyaallah, with prayers, everything will be fine.

p/s my friend with the six sense...you were right after all!! now tell me if its a boy or a girl!

Mummy...I'm Fine!

after a week of not eating, lying down, watching the tv with a swollen eye...amir's finally up and about. first thing hubby and i did was take him to the park. get him to exercise his legs. when he was under the weather, he didnt walk much - no energy, obviously. so his walking went back to stage 1, where he'd wobble about and fall down after 1 or 2 steps.

on sunday we took him to the football field. hubby wanted to see the game (while reminiscing his 'glory days'). at the same time, we let amir step on the grass. its softer so it'll give him the confidence to walk again. ever since then, he's been walking non-stop. he reminds us of 'kevin davies' since he walk like the 'mendada' idiot (we dont like him!). he's also a bit like mr bean, how he'd walk with his back straight, trying to control his balance.

got this in the mail today. i love getting development updates from babycentre & pampers as i can compare to amir's development and see if he's on track. of course, i know that i cant push him to be on par with the updates that i receive as each baby develop in their own special way. but sometimes, its nice to go...omigod, so THAT's why he does that. anyway, today's email goes like this..."Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, your toddler is always keen to go and explore his surroundings. Like a little wind-up toy, as soon as his feet touch the ground, he's off! At this age, children are constantly testing their abilities, climbing onto furniture, opening doors and cupboards, squeezing themselves into corners and getting stuck. At home, keep a regular check on your little one's whereabouts, especially when all goes suspiciously quiet! This usually indicates that baby's found something new and fascinating to do, and it could lead to trouble, or in the very least result in a big mess!" And this is what amir does when he's gone all quiet in the room. he'd push the laundry basket upright & would sit there with his keekae, watching elmo's world.

A New Neighbour

hubby and i (with amir in tow) went to a kenduri doa selamat last thursday night (malam jumaat lah). a good friend of mine was moving into her new house. its funny that she's moving in so close to my house. we kept getting the "dont you people ever live apart?" and "cant you two separate?" comments throughout the night.

N was my very, very good (if not one of my best) friends since Uni. i donno how we clicked. we lived away from the rest of the Malaysian community in UKC. while other m'sians prefer to stay in the self-cooking homes, we stayed in the dorms. i didnt know how to cook, so why bother staying outside the dorm. furthermore, from the way they planned the map, it looked like it was quite a distance between the homes and the classes - i'm a late riser so didnt want to risk not being able to make it to my classes (turns out that didnt make such a big difference cos even though my class was just 2 storeys below my room, i'd still miss them).

coming back from UKC, N worked in an accounting firm, i worked in a bank. our offices were close by, so we'd meet up for lunch. not only that, our houses were not far away either. she stayed about 2 minutes away from my cousin's house - which i consider my second home. her youngest brother & my cousin were in the same class. the boys used to sleep over each other's house and then sleep over mine with N. after i came back from sheffield, after getting my masters degree, N put in my resume at the place she was working in. so we were now colleagues, albeit in different departments. we'd go for lunch together & meet up in the surau for asar. when N got married in 2001, i was given the honour of being her pengapit. i cried so much the day of her akad nikah that her mother had to pull me aside and calm me down (ahhh...malu when i think back). N was one of the first people i told when i got pregnant with amir. N was also one of my driving forces during the black days of 2002, and she had her first baby to handle at that time too. i must have stressed her out!














and now...she's also my neighbour. N's house is amazing. i absolutely love it. its a couple of phases after mine, and its just so beautiful. her house is similar to mine...well, it is in one housing area, so it cant vary so much. but her bathroom is just so wow - the his and hers sinks (omigawd!!). i'm especially glad for her two boys. they've been living in the apartment since they were born and as 3 & 4 year olds they need the space to run around and release their pent-up energy. the few times i've been to her house, the boys never stopped running. they love being in the spacious house and being in the playground nearby.

i'm really grateful that i'll have someone close by in case of an emergency. i know that i can count on N should i ever need her help and i know that she's one of the people i can rely upon to oversee amir as she adores him.

to N, welcome to the neighbourhood. i hope you and the boys will build a wonderful life here.

You're It!!

thanks to nadia. i wouldnt have seen it too if i hadnt had so much time on my hands & strolled down till the blog entry (hubby & amir are asleep - both with infected tonsil)

Four jobs I have in my life:
1. receptionist at Tourism Malaysia, London (i loved this job!!)
2. accounts officer at a bank in KL (hate it!!)
3. waitress at Kendels, Manchester (saw some really famous footballers :) )
4. TAS associate (it had its moments)

Four Movies I can watch over and over:
1. beyond the promise land (is that a movie - hehehe...living in past glory)
2. the saint
3. bugsy
4. clueless (still have that 'as if' in me...)

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. CSI las vegas
2. football focus
3. friends
4. pocoyo (amir's favourite at the moment)

Four places I've lived in:
1. Damansara (have lived in many parts of KL but i can only remember damansara)
2. Canterbury, Kent (absolutely loved it there...would love to live there permanently)
3. Sheffield (didnt really like it there...very industrialised)
4. Bukit Jelutong (my home sweet home)

Four places I've been on vacation to:
1. London, England (was my weekend home for 2 years but is still a wonderful place. uncle zuhuri's house was just fantastic)
2. Gold Coast, Australia - honeymoon. first place hubby didnt break a sweat at all ;)
3. Los Angeles part 2- i loved this holiday cos it was just me and my dad (and his entourage, but eh who cares)
4. LA part 1 - first disneyland visit
















Four Places I'd rather Be in:
1. my bed but right now hubby taking half & amir taking the other half
2. Mothercare in The Curve
3. the labour room
4. in the pool, with my water baby

Four of my Favorite food: (this is my favourite subject ever!! they should have a subject on this for SPM, i'd ace it for sure...)
1. salmon sashimi - at Keyaki in Pan Pac on sunday mornings (great brunch)
2. nasi dagang - but the kelantan version
3. roast beef with mustard sandwich from Subway - my labour food
4. thin crust pizza with pepperoni & onion from Domino's

Four Websites I visit daily:
1. yahoogroup & yahoo mail
2. The Sun
3. The Star
4. Man United

Four Victims to Do this tag:
1. nae
2. rina
3. ninuk (tho i think she'd be too busy)
4. first time ever i cant think of a fourth answer....

it was nice to reminisce.

A Change Will Do You Good

i cant seem to be able to do any work over the last couple of months. it used to be really easy for me to do household chores - vacuuming, mopping, wiping, dusting, cooking, laundry-ing. now all i can do is laundry (and that's only 3 times a week) and cooking (never on weekends though). i've been getting really lazy. i was actually wondering how this happened? my conclusion (ie shifting the blame off me) is that amir is just too hyper for me to handle all on my own.

its true though. his naptime had decreased from twice to only once a day. and it has gone shorter too!! i'm lucky if i get an hour to myself in the morning. he refuses to sleep in the afternoon so i have to put aside my work to entertain him. my cooking also has taken a back seat. who would look after him when i cook? i've tried bringing him down to the kitchen with me, but he can only stay put in his high chair for a short while. plus, its boiling hot in the kitchen! so what to do...what to do...

i came up with a brilliant plan today. put him in his playpen and put the playpen behind me while i do my work. now why didnt i think of that before?? the playpen have been sitting quietly in his room for 4 months now. ever since he mastered shuffling, he refused to be kept in the playpen. ok, maybe its because i'm not there, so if i'm around maybe he'll play nicely in there. ok...so here i go. not adviseable to manouvre the darn thing in my condition (a blog about that will be written soon) but hey...i need to get some work done here. so there i was...pushing and pulling with all my might. it moved...halfway through the doorway...three quarters out...a little bit more...and then...thud, thud. uh oh...what's that?? ahhhh great...the wheels cant go through. dognabbit!! so there it is...the hardly-used playpen, stuck in the doorway, with my son it it. hmmm...at least he can see me. lets see how long this can last before he starts screaming (not too long - only managed 2 minutes).


so...brilliant plan #2...i gotta get myself a maid!

Little Angel

how angelic does he look when he sleeps? omigod...so unlike the screamer who was screaming his head off until he threw up last night. so unlike the kickboxer who kicked hubby awake last night. so unlike the little terror who rummages through hubby's drawer and throws all the remote control behind the bedside table and under the bed.

Under the Weather

i noticed amir's left eye was swollen on friday. took a picture of him and emailed to hubby to see his reaction. hubby said it doesnt look too bad but maybe we should go see the doctor later that night. we went to hubby's brother's house last weekend and 2 of his children had sore eyes. our first thought was amir got it from them. after dinner that night, hubby said the swelling's gone down. if it gets bad again, we'll go tomorrow (hubby puts the 'pro' in procrastinating...)

the next day, he went back to his mum's house and i was left alone with amir. seeing my little terror wasnt terrorising anything that day, i thought i'd go with my gut instinct and see the nearby doctor. so off we went. there was a lot of people at the clinic that day, so after giving amir's name, i went to the nearby mamak to get some roti canai.

seeing the doctor brought me good news (it wasnt sore eyes) and bad news (it was infected tonsils instead). apparently if the tonsil is infected, the water from the eyes cannot go down well & they'll pool behind the eyes - hence the swollen eyes. she gave amir paracetamol for his fever and antibiotics for the tonsil. i think he felt fine after taking the medicine and a long nap. he was happily playing in his room. later that night, it got really, really bad. he was screaming the place down and crying non-stop. he would kick and punch when i put some ice pack on his back and forehead. after a bottle full of milk he finally calmed down and only whimpered when felt the ice pack on his skin. the same scenario went on for 3 days. he would be fine during the daytime, yet really, really hot at night. i've been up between 2am till 4am every night since saturday. we brought him to his normal pediatrician to ask why hasnt the fever gone down. dr azizi prescribed a stronger antibiotics, cough syrup and volteron as he was really burning up.



















i dont really like seeing amir this way (what mother would...) but amir hasnt been sick many times. the only other instance was when he had roseola when he was about 11 months old. that was really scary. he would just lie down on his front on the bed and watched the telly. blinking his eyes every now and then, with his 2 fingers in his mouth. he wouldnt acknowledge me or hubby or the ice pack on his back. he would be motionless for hours, crying only when he wants milk. its a torture seeing him like that as he's always been so hyper and so noisy. now my little fussy eater's totally gone off food. he's getting skinnier and skinnier...

i pray to God he would quickly return to his normal self and hope this doesnt occur too many times.

Couch Potato

i grew up with the tv as a friend. i didnt really like playing outdoors. i did play quite a lot when i was younger but once we moved to 'the jungle', i hardly ever left the house. tv kept me company throughout the day. i watched tv when doing work, i watched tv when studying (guess that explains my results), i watched tv when i ate, i watched tv all the time. when i went overseas, i used to buy the weekend tv schedule and circled all the shows i wanted to see during the week. i'd run back from class just to catch the afternoon edition of 'neighbours'. i remember telling the time according to what's on the telly. like if i was watching 'ready, steady cook', then it must be 4.30pm, watching 'match of the day' means it 10pm on a saturday. everyone i know complains about the boring shows on the english tv, but i can sit for hours, watching god-knows-what show after god-knows-what show.

now it seems that i have a 'couch potato jr' on my hands. amir loves the tv. he would push us out of the way if we're standing between him and the telly. he would strain his neck to see the tv if there's something blocking his view. he even know which is the remote control for the tv and which is the control for astro. not only that, he knows exactly where to point the control.

children's tv nowadays is really educational. i've seen the credits for some shows and they really do a lot of research before producing those shows. the messages are very deep too, for a pre-schooler, that is. it teaches them to say thank you, say please, to make friends, to work together, to respect other people, to appreciate everyone in the communicty, to think, to move. there's so many things to learn. sometimes, hubby and i would sit quietly and watch the shows, long after amir has gone to sleep. there are some shows that i really, really like. 'save 'ums' is one of them. amir has been following this show since he was about 3-4 months. he knows the theme song way before he can lift his head. if i were to start singing 'on the land, in the air, under the sea...', he'd give me a big grin. another one that he likes is 'elmo's world'. i think everybody loves this show and as much as you hate to admit it, you too love mr noodle.

however, there are some shows that is really disturbing. last time they had a show called 'house things'...that was really scary. i didnt like it at all. it was so dark and gloomy and the message was quite evil. even the song was scary! another show that i dont really like is 'clifford, the big red dog'. not so much of clifford and how scary it would be if there really was a big red dog, but more of the human characters. there's one girl called jedda, sorta the main rival for clifford's owner. jedda is forever in hot water and forever making up stories and lies and is the wet blanket of the group. she always end up saying sorry in the end, but she'd be back at getting other people in trouble in the next episode. and i hate the way she is always potrayed as the bad girl (at the smallest thing) and the way other people trust her wholeheartedly and take in her word so easily. to me its not jedda that's irritating, its her so-called friends for being so soft and believeable and having no backbone. everytime jedda say something bad about clifford, his owner would go 'no, jedda...clifford's not like that' in her soft, whiny voice. i mean, for god's sake girl...slap her girl up her head for once. why take it lying down?!! i mean, seriously...what kind of message are they trying to send to the children? that we should be soft and whiny and let other people walk all over us? or that we should be bad and evil and if we say sorry, people will forgive us, but we can be bad again the next time. sorry is the no 1 word to get you out of trouble, it doesnt matter if you dont mean it and dont learn from your mistake. if you say sorry, you're safe. i think its ridculous. i'm sure there are more ways to show children good attitude vs bad attitude.

having said that, there's always this argument about babies and toddlers watching too much telly is more likely to have ADD or other behavioural problems. i'm sure the people who write the papers have done thorough research, but i cant help but be thankful for the idiot box. i get to do housework because of it, amir understand songs because of it, he gets a good laugh out of it, he follows football because of it, i have a cousin who learned english just from the telly. too much a good thing, isnt always a good thing i know, but for the moment...thank god for the television.

Picky Eater

taking my cue from ninuk's latest entry... http://ninuknoviati.blogspot.com/

my son is really very easy to take care of. he loves water, so bathing him is not problem. he loves lying down on his changing table, so changhing & dressing him is easy(but i have to put in an extra minute of massaging). he loves his car seat, so taking 3 hour journeys are not a problem. he loves his stroller, so i can bring him out all by my loneself. he sleeps at 9 everynight...and wont wake for anything, so we can easily slip into a late night show with him in tow (he 'watched' his first movie at 9 months). he loves the tv, so i can get some me-time either sleeping or surfing the net. he loves the vacuum cleaner, so i dont need to clean in a hurry. he can fall asleep easily on my lap, so i can hang out with friends and not leave him at home (my friends are amazed at this!!).

but of course, no baby is 'easy'and in amir's case, he is the worst eater ever!! he will not eat or try anything other than his nestum. i first started feeding him a week after he turned 4 months. he was drinking bottles and bottles of milk. he could down 10oz in an hour. he'd wake up 3-4 times a night for feeding. hubby and i decided to give him food, to fill up his tummy since he's never seem to be full with just milk. so we gave him rusk with milk, so that he's familiar with the taste and wont reject the food. it went ok...we managed to get in a few spoonfuls and he actually found our 'omigod, omigod' to be very funny. over time, we moved from rusk to gerber 1st to heinz baby cereal, to gerber 2nd to heinz breakfast muesli, to gerber 3rd and to the much-loved nestum. now his choice of meal is limited to nestum 'wheat and honey' and biskut tiger. occasionally he would be given french fries, much to his pleasure (and against dr azizi's advise).




















its very frustrating. i have tried again and again to feed him home-cooked meal, be it porridge, potato chicken, pasta, pies, cakes, our dinner lauk with rice. u name it, i've tried it. but he just wont eat. his rule to eat any home-made food is "i will eat when you eat". that means he will only eat at dinner time. i seldom take lunch, even if i do its usually a sandwich that i eat in front of the computer.

his weight has moved steadily...unfortunately its moving downwards instead of upwards. when i carry him, i can feel his bones sticking out from his shoulders and his ribs. its not how a baby is supposed to feel. a baby's supposed to be soft and cuddly and huggable, not poky and hard and boney. that's exactly how amir looks. oh man, i cant count the number of 'amir...dont your parents feed you??' statements i've gotten over the last few months. what kind of statement is that anyway? what mother wont feed their children. but i guess, its easy for people to say bad things before they say good things. of course when we try to explain, "nooo...he's very hyper. he eats a lot but he uses all his energy playing." what do we get from that...nothing!! usually we wont even get to finish the "n..."

ah well, they've made up their minds, who cares. no matter what people say about amir's lack of appetite at least he makes it up by being able to sleep in his cot without the f-ing buais, and he doesnt go around with a silly pacifier in his mouth. and he does not make a fuss when put into his car seat and when mummy is in her 'retail theraphy' session.

Not So Good News

wanted to write about our recent holiday but wasnt in the mood. it rained heavily on sunday morning. the lighting was so bright that it woke hubby and i up at 3am. we checked on amir, felt really uncomfortable. early yesterday morning, we went out for breakfast as we usually do. wanted to look for food in the nearby housing area. when we got to the main road leading to the area, the oncoming drivers told us to turn back. hubby (being the kepoh person he is) drove on wanting to see what the commotion was about. as we turned the corner, we saw loads and loads of cars parked by the roadside near the school. we also saw water on the road. we didnt want to get stuck so we turned back and decided to enter through another way (didnt realise it was bad). i sms-ed a friend living in the area asking her what has happened. when we turned off the road, leading to the highway, we saw more water. and a car in the water. now we realised that it was bad. we had to turn back into the road and go against the traffic. luckily there were a number of us and we switched on our hazard light and drove slowly, fearing the incoming traffic was fast (highly doubt it...think everyone was in the state of confusion).

we decided to just eat at a nearby mamak. got an sms from the friend, water was up to her waist, her cars were both under water. poor dear...hope her family is ok. i was just at her house 2 weeks ago. amir played with her boys' toys.

we went back to see the area around 5pm. the road was dirty, the shops were dirty and muddy. furniture was put outside on the streets, trees fallen, the water level was still quite high. and it all happened just 5kms away from my house. that's a scary thought. our thoughts and prayers go out to all staying in the area and all who suffered from the flood. be strong and may Allah bless and look after every single one of you. amin.

Anniversary

its our 2nd anniversary today (yeah...can hear some people thinking "what a rookie"). we've been through a lot this past 2 years...getting pregnant, having a baby, moving to a new house, changing jobs (twice...), quitting work, becoming temporary parents. its been challenging, yet its been great.

here's to more challenges and more great outcomes! happy anniversary babe!!

End of the Road

...the road to wembley, that is. will the new wembley stadium be ready by then? ah well, it was expected. after all, liverfools were up for a revenge since they lost to united earlier. and with the gary neville incident. yehaaa...great captain, isnt he. not roy keane material but still up there. great passion. hoping he'll be england captain - pushing that useless git out of the way!!premiership is already chelsea's...no doubt about that. guess gotta settle for carling cup next week.

amir fell just now. heard a loud thud...thought it was one of his normal 'falls'. yeah...he falls quite a bit. its the age of exploration...bound to fall every now and then. took him in my arms to calm him down. cried louder than usual. then i saw blood trickling down his chin. washed his face and mouth. i couldnt find the source of the blood. his teeth and gums look okay. maybe he bit his tongue...poor baby. didnt want susu after that, just wanted mummy. until daddy came back from teh tarik, that is.

cant wait for a great week, next week. and a not-as-great-but-still-great weekend after.

A Day Out

i went to a Playdate today. a Playdate organised for stay-at-home-mums who wanted to get out of the house for a while and enjoy some 'adult' company. brought amir along to play with other children - poor baby, he doesnt have a lot of opportunity to play with babies his age. it was a good outing. amir had so much fun and tired himself out that he slept for 2 hours. didnt even blink when i took him out of his carseat, took him upstairs and placed him in his cot.

for me, it was great meeting the mums. we shared our experience about eating healthy and then moved on to home business, getting a maid, how to market our products, and even circumcision (was thinking of circumcising amir). got good tips on how to make food for toddlers and how to get them to eat good, healthy food. also got contacts should i ever want to start a business or buy a cake (have to try her chocolate moist - sounds delicious). there wasnt many of us, mums with small children tend to cancel at the last minute - not to mention a dear friend who waited outside my house, thinking the Playdate was held there (sorry!!).

cant wait for the next Playdate, hope the turn out is more so that we can share more tips and experience.

New Hair

after weeks of complaining that amir's hair is too long, hubby finally cut it yesterday. now he doesnt look like my handsome baby anymore, he's more like the naughty little toddler i've been chasing after :)

Winning Ways

united won last nite. 2 goals from ronaldo. good to see them back on track again. chelsea lost (to our bogey team...thank you so much!) so the gap's slowly getting smaller. doubt we'd win the title this year...chelsea's still way, way ahead but fingers crossed for 2nd place (hah...wouldnt have said that 10 years ago!!) where has the united of cantona (king!!), bruce, schmeichel, giggsy (the old giggsy), keane (arrghhhh...noooooo) gone??

now have to settle for the fa cup, which is not an easy task (got liverfool in the next round).

finally watched 'brokeback mountain'. omigawd...what a sweet love story. damn that ennis!!!

next week...'walk the line'. have to finish watching the nominated movies before oscar day.

What Will Happen

spoke to hubby a couple of nights ago...i dont know why suddenly the thought entered my mind. when i brought up the subject, hubby said he too was thinking about it when he had his shower (his 'major' thoughts always seem to creep up when he's in the shower, for some reason). amir was asleep...we looked at him in his cot, one hand over his face, one hand above his head, one leg dangling through the cot rails, half of his body on his keekae.

we wondered what will happen to him if we're not around. who will take care of him, who will feed him, who will sing 'itsee bitsee spider' and 'three little kittens' to him, who will scold him when he starts throwing his toys down the stairs, who will play football with him, who will take him to school...it was a scary thought. i remembered the story about that man in plaza damas, who was pinned under the concrete, and then the picture of his 2 girls the next day. what happened to them. i'm sure there's a lot of relatives willing and able to take them in, but its not the same as having a daddy and a mummy, making sure everything's in order...making sure you dont stray...making sure you have everything you need.

we got a bit choked up when we discussed this issue. we sort of know what steps we need to take if something were to happen to us (nauzubillah), we kind of decided where amir should go, but still...i wish i could take him with me but i cant. so the only way is to make sure he is well taken care of and pray that the person taking care of him, will bring him up the way we want to.