Boys Update

visit to the peadiatrician
both boys were diagnosed with asthma a month ago, and they have been on medication for a month. amir's nose is no longer blocked and his flu and cough has gone away. so he can stop the nasal spray and clarityne. but he is wheezing slightly, so the doctor prescribed ventolin syrup for 3 weeks.

asyraf's flu hasnt gone away. his cough hasnt gone away. my poor baby, he's always so sick and his nose is always running. the doctor spent more time asking about him and how his environment is, to understand why the flu hasnt gone away. he asked if we've got carpet in the room (no we dont, except for a small, very thin one), if we've got aromatheraphy candles/oils (no we dont...mana ada masa, nak light-light benda ni semua), if we've got ubat nyamuk (no we dont, we dont have nyamuks), if there's old books in the room (no...its just amir's cars), if he's exposed to direct air-cond (no he's not...he sleeps in his little nook), if the room's dusty (ooppss...guilty as charged!!), if his mattress is new (no, its not, its a hand me down from amir). so he concluded that asyraf's allergic to dust - just like his mummy - and that the mattress may be the biggest culprit. he says that asyraf needs to continue the nasal spray and the clarityne syrup for another month. asyraf also had his triple antigen and pneumococcal jabs.

report card
amir had his first exam from 6 march til 9 march. we didnt know he had exam, so i was very shocked when his teacher passed me his report card and exam papers. i couldnt wait to see how he did, and sat in the car for almost 10 minutes looking at each result. amir was already restless, and just went "hmmm" when i asked him about every single test he did.

he got A for reading, spelling, oral, and recognising words, in english, malay and even jawi (only alif-ba-ta). he got A for understanding instructions, an A for motor skills and A for listening to music (although a D in singing in tune...hahaha). following daddy's and mummy's footsteps, who are so not creative, amir also is not good in arts and crafts. he got a D for colouring, drawing, origami and drawing lines. amir is obviously so very manja in school - he got a C for independence and socialising with classmates, but he got an A for his relationship with his teacher. overall, he got no 4 out of 9 children, and we're just so proud of him.














weaning
asyraf's been drinking milk a lot lately. he drinks up to 4oz every hour. then he throws up even after burping. i desperately wanted to wean him, but waited until we saw his pead, to get his ok. he said to go ahead, and we gave him his first meal today. it was surprisingly every easy. he didnt look shocked when we gave him the first taste and quickly finished half a bottle of sweet potato. i hope he'll drink less milk and throw up less now.















exercise
i let asyraf walk a little this afternoon. he had a big smile on his face (which is so rare) and amir was so excited, screaming "baby walk...baby walk". he was even pulling asyraf's hands, thinking asyraf was actually walking by himself.



















baby week 11
i had my check up today, as well. the baby's put on a lot of weight. last 3 weeks, he was 6 weeks, today he's the size of 11 weeks. the due date is now 13 october. we cant be too sure of his exact age as i dont know when my LMP was. his did a lot of kicking just now, i'm so excited to feel him kicking inside me.

Up High

after working for a year in klcc, i finally got to go to the skybridge. we had a fire and safety briefing at work and they took us to a few places in the building, the skybridge being one of them.

i love the view...things didnt seem so small considering we were up on the 42nd floor. apparently they installed a special glass window that makes things look bigger.

heh...sure trueblue gelak kat my jakun-ness...

Family Retreat

my office organised a Family Retreat over the weekend in awana kijal, trengganu. we practised running with a spoon with amir to prepare him for the telematch. come the day, he chickened out. my spoilt son couldnt step on the beach...dia geliiiii.

it was a nice trip. the place was nice, the rooms were nice, food was great (esp the second night's seafood barbeque). the games were great but amir didnt want to participate. hubby joined in one of the telematches. asyraf was bawling under the hot sun, so we ran back to the room and turned on the air-cond at full blast.

towards the evening, we left asyraf with the hotel's babysitter and took amir to the beach, the pool and the playground. after the initial screams of fear, he was brave enough to run towards the beach.

in the car...

hubby, after the telematch. the boys pengsan from the hot sun...



















amir at the beach and the pool...

Dah Sihat

after the virus attacked me, hubby, amir and asyraf (was the worst hit - his temp went up to 41c for 2 days) and also my sister, it finally went away. not a moment too soon, as well, as we're about to leave on my company's family retreat trip.

i'm just so happy i finally get to see asyraf's one sided-smile after so long...

Rumah Sakit

tiza dubbed my house "rumah sakit".

as i was recuperating on friday afternoon, no more fever, no more flu, just some irritating dry cough left, hubby came back, saying he was feeling feverish. oh no...i'm not ready to take care of 2 boys by myself. he came back for a nap and went back to work. when he came back from work later that evening, he said he wanted to take an hour's nap and wanted to go to the hospital immediately after.

so there i was, still weak, having to bathe 2 boys. we left after maghrib, luckily there wasnt many people at the a&e. hubby came out of the doctor's clinic with a bagful of medicine. i've passed my baton to him. that night, asyraf's temperature started to rise. before it hit 39c, i sponged him down and gave him paracetamol. amir so far, was the only one still active.

i had to call in for support. i couldnt monitor asyraf and handle amir at the same time. my sisters came before dinner on saturday. immediately i felt relieved. hubby had slept the whole day, and it looked like he was going to sleep through the night as well. i could concentrate on making asyraf feel better, while my sisters looked after amir. it looked like everything was under control, until 2am sunday morning when amir woke up and started throwing up. oh great...it finally got to him too!! a change of clothes, a volteron up him bum and 45 minutes of finding nemo later, he finally went back to sleep.

this morning, my sister pulak was hit with gastric. something wrong with my house or what?! now, i'm feeling better, hubby's getting better and amir's back to his hyper self after another volteron earlier this morning. asyraf's the only one left. my poor baby's nose is blocked yet again. that and he's caught my dry cough. i hope he feels better soon. kesian dia...

Whole Week Off

nope...not due to the bleeding. the bleeding (wasnt even bleeding in the first place, it was more brown spotting) happened only once on wee monday morning. but yesterday i felt feverish and was coughing so much. i hate coughing so bad, i prefer to have the flu than the cough.

we went to the nearby clinic. when the doctor finally saw me (afer waiting an hour, rasa nak pitam pun ada), she said i was burning up. my temp was 39.3c. she gave me panadol and antibiotics to take there and then. i did...and quickly vomited them out once i got home. during the night, my temperature went higher and higher - from 39.3c to 39.6c to 39.8c to 40c.

i've never had high fever like that before, even hubby was worried. this morning i had no appetite to eat, but forced myself so that i can eat the medication. i know now how my dad feels, eating so many pills. i had more than 5 to take at one go, plus the hormone pills and the folic acid.

this morning i was totally knocked out. my temp wouldnt budge at 39.6c. after sponging myself down for hours, it finally went down. now i've got a massive headache, a sensitive throat, a blocked nose and all my muscle ache.

i've been given another 2 days off from work. i've never had so many days off before, and i've actually lost track of the day of the week.

to all mummies who chided me for washing my bathroom, dont worry...i stopped there. thanks for being concerned, i'm no longer bleeding...but i hate being sick!!

Toys Galore

we're lucky, we've never had to buy a lot of toys for amir. the key is to have a big birthday party and the toys will come rolling in. there's a few things we have bought for amir, usually its what i've always wanted to buy (the power of advertising). other toys we buy for him are $10 or less...or free with mcd happy meal.

this is what i've always, always wanted to buy for amir. i saw this in one of the christmas adverts, and thought...i want that, or rather...i want that for amir.

other toys amir loves to play with. also given during his first and second birthday.

mostly, amir would be happy playing with simple toys like these (thank god)

No List??

i've been ordered to rest by my gynae. it seems the fetus isnt strong yet and i have to take it easy. was bleeding early monday morning. wasnt so much as fresh blood as it was brownish stains. was told by my gynae that i need to relax and she gave me 2 days off from work.

so here i am at home...with no list in front of me. i dont know what to put if i had a list, anyway. i cant do anything heavy, and there's nothing light to be done around the house.

maybe i'll do a bit of ironing...which i detest, but hubby left out a couple of shirts when we sorted the shirts to be ironed. that would take around 5 minutes. then i also need to wash our bathroom. another 10 minutes sorted. what else...maybe i'll hoover amir's room.

hmmm...i'll probably do something i havent done in ages. i think i'll cook dinner and surprise hubby tonight.

My Brother

i've never written about him, have i? well...what's there to write about anyway...he's never around! believe it or not, i'm younger than him. cant tell with his hairstyle, lifestyle and bajustyle though.

we went for a dinner last night to celebrate his 33rd birthday (gawd...he is OLD!!). had buffet at shangri-la. food was great, but the people were not so. looking at the amount of food they lump onto their plates, you'd think it was their last meal.

asyraf slept the whole time. amir as usual, was his getik self with all the attention. he practised singing "happy birthday pappy" the whole day, but wasnt allowed to sing by my brother.

some pix i (or rather tiza) took last night...














my father took strawberries after seeing a lady taking 12 sticks for herself...he nak lepas tension lah tu...














and making his debut appearence on my blog...pappy...

Whats In A Name...

i never did like my name. it was just ... a name. and as a name, it wasnt very nice. plus, it didnt have any meaning, not that i know of. none, apart from, my geography teacher would love telling me, it meant "tasik garam". oh bestnya...

bearing a name with no meaning, made me determined to give good, solid, meaningful names to my children. looking at baby name books is a must whenever i step into a bookstore. i used to tell tiza what i wanted to name my children - i cant remember any of them now, but i still remember she wants to name one of the boys, razaleigh (after a certain mr. rashleigh knight).

when i got married, and pregnant, i told hubby, i want a name which means leader. someone strong and dependable as our first son (well, it just had to be a boy, hadnt it?!). we came up with "amir iskandar" which means leader and a defender of humankind. iskandar just seem so heroic, it brought up and gave strength to amir's plain name. i love the combination of his names.

that done, with our second child, i wanted to concentrate more on him as a good person. i didnt want our second child to be drowned from all the attention given to his brother (middle-child syndrome, i was told), so his name had to be equally powerful. i also wanted a name with a strong religious meaning, hoping he'll be the harun din of our family. and to me, that would mean having a name that ends with "din". from that, came "asyraf izzuddin". translated it means, roughly, the most honourable might of religion. so there...my second baby will never be drowned by his brother with a name like that. brings tears of pride everytime i remember the meaning.

even though its early still, we can see the effects the names have on the boys. amir for one, well...we cant see him as a leader yet, but we can tell from the way he is with people and how friendly he is, that he has the qualities that would make him a leader and a people person. asyraf on the other hand, is quiet and sombre, that it makes people take him seriously and would make people listen to him and seek his knowledge. that's what we see in the both of them - they're so different but they're both strong in their own way.

for our third (it soooo has to be a boy), we want a name that would mould him to be a person who can adapt to the differences of his brothers. we want someone who can go well with amir's hyper personality and asyraf's quiet and serious self. we want someone who can bring these two together. so we have chosen a name which means family - that would be his second name. we are trying to find a name that means "one who bring together" so that it would mean "one who brings together a family". we cant find names that would mean exactly that, though, so we're deciding between 3 names. we really love the combination of 2 names which means "the most honourable family", unfortunately both names have the letter K. add that to the name engku, he'd have an overdose of KKKKK. so now, we're left with 2. we've got 34 weeks to think and choose.

now we have to think what would be good for our forth child. what now...leader, tick, religion, tick, family, tick...apa lagi?

p/s i heard once that my dad named me after a book that he liked. so my name's not that bad lah kan?