Weekends Away

we've been spending 2 consecutive weekends away, due to hubby's commitments. on the first week of june. we went to hubby's friend's wedding...all the way in kuala terengganu. we thought about different alternatives, whether hubby should go alone on a daytrip, whether he should take amir only. we thought and thought, then heck it lah, we all went, we went overnight, we went late on saturday, hubby to attend the wedding, then we went home. quite a short trip but it was unplanned and hubby really wanted to see his friend get married.

we took firefly. going all the way to klia seemed like a torture. subagn airport is much better. it was out first time on firefly. it was pretty good. only ariff was a bit scared, especially during take off. kuala terengganu had not many hotels. when we went 2 years ago, we stayed in grand continental. not good. so this time we opted for primula beach resort. nothing much there, still not good.

we didnt go many places. we took the 8pm flight, got to the hotel at 9:30pm and slept straight away. the next day we went for a drive after breakfast, had lunch and hubby sent ariff, akmal and me back to the hotel while he took amir and ariff to his friend's wedding. after he came back, we went for a drive to pantai batu burok until about 6pm. then we went back to the hotel, quickly refreshed and went to the airport. our flight back was at 9pm.

at subang airport and in the plane...

















going home after only 24 hours in KT...













the second weekend of june was the start of sukma. hubby had to go for the opening ceremony so he took all of us down to melaka. the agreement was for us to stay in the room while hubby went around for work. we drove down late friday morning and checked in at bayview hotel after a quick lunch at mahkota parade. not a good hotel (yet again). hubby left us to meet some people, send some things, take some things. that night, we went in search of ikan bakar. found a yummilicious place at crystal bay.













on the way back we saw a small ferris wheel. asyraf wanted a ride, so we stopped and took the boys up. a quick drive around town before we went back, bathed the boys, got them to sleep and hubby went out again.

the next day, hubby left quite early, so i was on my own with the boys until after lunch. breakfast was room service. then it was a colouring session and a couple of movies before the boys started to get on my nerves, so i got them to take a very early nap - at 11:30am! they slept til 1:30pm and hubby got back about half an hour after that. we went out in search of a late lunch. then hubby sent us home and he left for sukma opening. the boys were a bit tired after the walk.

on sunday we had breakfast at dataran pahlawan before driving back to kl. melaka is a pretty nice town. we wanted to do quite a few things - visit a'famosa, see hang tuah's historic sites, take the river cruise, see the big ship, go up menara taming sari and maybe up the eye of malaysia. maybe another trip for that, and especially another hotel for that (toss between equatorial and holiday inn).

on the way down south...the boys slept almost all the way.














they boys wanted to go up the ferris wheel. ariff was scared at first, then he loved it.













with 4 boys in a small room, lots of activities are required - colouring, toys, cds. on the 2nd day i was stretched so i made them take an ealy nap.

The Walker

he can stand but he refuses to walk. walk with him and he'll cry. encourage him and he'll cry. force and he'll cry. bottom line, he'll cry whenever he'll be asked to take a step. akmal izzat...grr!!

thanks cikgu sally for the pictures...

The Home That Is Not A House

without a doubt, the second home for for eiseai (ie all 6 of us) is dsh. we're there so often, they should have a wing for us. we're there for check-ups, we're there for immunisation, we're there for fever, food poisioning, cough, flu, wheezing, we're there for almost everything. me alone, i've had over 70 visits over the past 5 years (they note the number of visits on the prescibred medicine - mrn number + no of visits). that's roughly 15 check ups for each pregnancy, 4 admissions for delivery, that unforgettable migraine and various minor incidents that took us to the a&e. hubby too had his fair share, especially those related to his epilepsy episodes. let's not get started on the boys. i think each of them need a separate entry of their love affair with dsh.

sometimes its funny how when i talk about the boys being admitted (usually via facebook) people gasp with horror and think 'oh no kesiannnn'. for us, its...yeay tido hospital. some people say, better get a second opinion, doctors usually admit even though its not necessary. while we go, doc...admit ni kan, baju dah siap dah.

its also funny when people ask, why was he admitted last month? and here i am thinking, which 'he' because, apart from ariff, all my boys have been admitted. which day of the month exactly, because in 1 month maybe more than 1 have been admitted, and 1 could be admitted more than once for different reasons. they make it sound like being admitted is a once off thing while we have stayed in practically all types of room in all floors in dsh.

while i'm not saying having a child admitted in a hospital is a small matter, especially if they're so young and sensitive to all kinds of diseases, but its not a big deal either. we've got nurses who checks up on the boys every 4 hours and we've got a wonderful pediatrician who layan our queries and sms-es and visits twice a day. we're calm and relaxed when the boys need to be admitted, we're ready, we're mentally prepared, we even have our hospital bags and hospital clothes.

all-in-all, the 3 boys have been admitted 15 times:
amir:

• jaundice (practically every baby is admitted for this nowadays)
• AGE together with asyraf in sept 2007
• AGE in march 2008
• treadmill incident in 2009 - this was scary because it involves the OT (unlike the other incidents) which then we used to our advantage and got the surgeon to circumcise amir
• AGE in may 2009

asyraf:

• jaundice
• ARI at 2 months old
• AGE with amir in sept 2007
• ARI in nov 2009 - i actually was scared when asyraf was admitted this time as his fever shot up to 40c and wouldnt go down. asyraf used to get sick a lot before he turned one, when he reached a year old its as if he became a new person and had a shield whenever his brothers fell sick. but if a bug hits him, it hits him hard.

akmal - another one who saw the pediatrics ward often before he turned one:

• jaundice
• ARI at 1 & half (even had to stay in the NICU overnight)
• AGE in july 2009
• AGE in oct 2009
• AGE in nov 2009
• ARI in may 2010

even though ariff's never been admitted (not even for jaundice *gasp*) he's not spared from these...

Spring Cleaning

its that time of the year. spring is in the air and cleaning's on the 'to do' list. of course my cleaning does not have to be done during spring. summer, autumn, winter, monsoon, day, night, subuh, lepas isyak...when my need to clean comes, it comes. this time around my cleaning mood came in buckets. i wanted to do some major work - cleaning, organising, rearranging, throwing (and with that comes buying), painting, renovating. you name it, its on my list. my start year review contained home renovation but that has not materialised so i'll amend it to room renovation.

the boys are at an age where they need space. the parents also need space after 5 years of sharing a room with them. amir and asyraf have been bugging us for a proper room for them. their room is ok, live-able but somehow not that nice to look at. i told myself, i'd do up their room once the B came in so the weekend after B, i started reorganising here and there. the first to go was the bed. we bought a double bed for the boys' room when we moved in. single beds didnt seem appropriate if people came and stayed over. now as we're handing over the room to amir and asyraf, double bed doesnt look nice. at least with single beds, they would have their own space and, hopefully, be repsonsible to look after their own bed.

well, once i put a large furniture on the list, and got tiza to bring a lorry to clear it, more large furnitures were added. the double bed in ariff's room needed to go to. alang-alang, as they say. then the single bed in the unused room downstairs. then unused study tables and unused drawers and a fridge and pillows and bolsters and curtains and stollers and car seats and this huge exercise machine. all in all, we managed to clear almost all the furniture in 3 bedrooms plus 4 boxes of old clothes & a box of toys (that tiza will donate to the red crescent society and to orphanages). hubby and i also threw out 1 garbage bag full of shoes and 2 boxes of i-dont-know-why-i-kept-this junk.

after all the throwing out, we invested in some buying. we bought 2 new television sets and booked 2 single beds. then we took time to see how to reorganise the boys' room. maybe for now, it would be amir, asyraf and ariff in one room. later on, ariff would move with akmal to the other room. since the boys bathe in the bathroom connected to their bedroom, we moved akmal's changing table there too since it contained his clothes. that room looks like a dorm room with 4 chest of drawers.

ariff and akmal's room for now stays empty. we'll move the large mattress that the boys use now to that room and maybe use it for akmal's afternoon nap room (we used to let amir sleep there during the day). before the room becomes useable we need to repair the bathroom first. then of course comes some paint work and some wallpapering and bordering. hopefully that small bit of work can have a big impact on those two bedrooms.

amir and asyraf's room before...3 chest of drawers (separated) and a double bed.













amir and asyraf's room after...the chest of drawers are put together (making it look like a dorm room) and no more double bed.














ariff and akmal's room had a double bed and a table (no clearer picture). both taken out and now looks very bare.















his and his...

the fridge from the tv area upstairs have been given to tiza. the tv brought into our room, replaced by a new tv.














spring cleaning the outside. no more yucky exercise machine...