Amira Turns Three Months

amira turned three months in a blink of an eye. maybe because the first half of the month was devoted to akmal's primary school journey. by the time his orientation ended (complete with changing classes, getting text books, activity books, settling documentation and other admin matters) it was already the third week of the month and amir's getting close to passing her 100 days mark.

amira continues to be easy at night. her sleeping pattern remains constant - last feed at 10pm, first feed at 5am, 6am, 7am. she continues to sleep while i slave in the kitchen preparing the boys' lunch boxes and wakes up when i'm about to send the boys to school. once the first school round is done, she comes home and sleep while i have a quiet but quick breakfast. then its her bath time and a bit of morning activity before she takes her first nap (cut short for the second school round).

amira continues her nap at home until its time for the third school round, waking for a feed before we leave for school. afternoon is reserved for her longest nap and she's woken up before the last school round for the day. then she alternate between feeding, crying, screaming, fussing, shouting, kicking and napping.

night time is quiet for amira. she's rocked in her rocker while we have our dinner and clean the kitchen. then she's given her night bath (sometimes before our dinner, sometimes after). and she plays with her brothers before she starts kicking and screaming indicating she's had enough and wants to be left alone. sometimes she takes a quiet time in her rocker for about 10-20 minutes, sometimes she stays awake until her last feed.

amira's had her initial rotavirus, pneumococcal and triple antigen shots. a bit tiresome and troublesome to have to visit two different places for those but its for her own good. its easy enough to bring her out. we prepare a couple of diapers, a pack of baby wipes and an empty bottle. we rarely go out longer than 3 hours and she needs only one feed in that time frame.

amira's passing a lot of milestones recently. she's holding her head up high now. she's more comfortable on her stomach during the day but sleeps on her back at night. she doesn't want to lie down, which is why she prefers the baby wrap than the stroller. she wants to see the world, this girl.

amira caught her first flu bug recently. the whole house was down with cough and flu and it was a matter of time before she caught it. alhamdulillah, it was a short spell. she was a bit moody the first couple of days. once she was prescribed the flu meds and the nasal spray she was better except for the runny nose.

she's a bit irritating with her screams and shouts and forced anger but hey, if that balances the sleeping through the night, i'd gladly take the screams.

Amir Is Eleven

raising a tween (dictionary.com - a youngster between 10 and 12 years of age, considered too old to be a child and too young to be a teenager) is not easy. raising a tween eldest child is even more difficult.

amir's been topsy turvy to handle. he was easy and helpful one time. then he became difficult. then he turned helpful and easy again. now he's gone back to being difficult. currently, amir's difficult to handle. that's the word i keep going back to. at times extremely difficult, other times just difficult.

we let amir choose his birthday dinner spot. he chose japanese. the whole family loves japanese. we've been cutting down as a japanese meals can get super expensive. but its a birthday dinner, and its chosen by the birthday boy, so we make an exception.

during dinner, amir started asking for his present. two months ago, when asyraf got a pair of football boots as his birthday present, amir asked for a pair as well. that was to be his birthday present. for him to ask for another gift on his birthday, conveniently forgetting he received a present two months ago, was disappointing.

however, after dinner, as we sat down to have an ice cream dessert, i went into a shop, to get clothes for me. i saw a watch on sale, it was a bargain actually. amir begged and begged for it. we decided to get it for him. he was over the moon, profusely thanking us non-stop. we hope he would remember not to ask for early presents as he'd miss out on getting presents on the actual day.

amir is a test for hubby and me. the first son and therefore, the eye-opener. the first and therefore, the lesson and the teacher. we have a lot to learn and he teaches us a lot. we are still learning and he is still teaching us. one major thing he is teaching us, at the moment, is how bumpy the road as parents can be.

New School Year 2016

a new phase for the family this year. we'll have four in primary school. means four times the books to be wrapped, four times the stressful white uniforms to be ironed and watched as they become non-white, four times the exams, four times the heavy books, four times the torturous schedules, four times the derma for classes.

i registered akmal for his year one class in september, he was the first in the list and first in class 1. yeah kiasu me. well, not really, there was just no queue. ever since then it was me trying to get him motivated to enter primary school and leave the protected kindy life.

akmal had his orientation the week before school officially began. hubby took him to school, all decked in his pristine white uniform (which lasted until 11am when hubby bought him a glass of milo). then they went to agama school to pay the registration fees and pick-up text books.

he was pretty happy with his new journey. still anxious and scared, i know, but he saw a number of his friends and was comforted by that, at least. he's trying to psych himself up, saying the school looks nice, the school looks big, the teachers look friendly. ok, we know differently based on past experiences.

the first day of school is expected to be hectic. with my little baby in school, i planned to be spending more time than i have spent previously - and even that's a lot. yes i predict it would be hectic.

and hectic it was. we sent the boys to two schools. we queued to pay fees. we went home. we picked up from agama school. we sent to primary school. we picked up form primary school. we queued tpay fees again. we ran back to primary school for akmal's recess. we went home. we went back to pick up from primary school. and all the time carrying amira. for a total of 12 hours.

by the time the day came to a close everyone was knackered. amira had her bottle half asleep that night. but we're ever so grateful that she made it through the day with minimum fuss, alhamdulillah.

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.