Holiday Nearby

we took the boys away from home last weekend. wanted to go for a holiday but we were afraid we'd be too tired from the journey so we just took them to our nearby (and favourite) hotel. we were upgraded to a junior suite as the front desk officer said we had a big family, maybe there's not many people there.

first thing we did was take them to the pool. amir of course wanted to jump in right away, and screamed bloody murder when we said its time. asyraf as usual, maintained his cool. he loved the water and was splashing away, but was ok when we took him up.













that night he set a record of sleeping for 12 hours (from 7pm to 7am) without getting up once!














took the boys for breakfast the next morning, bright and early. i wanted to bring them to the pool again, but after the huge breakfast, i just wanted to sleep. so i let them take a long bath in the room.














asyraf napped a couple of times, but amir was getting jittery and restless. he played by himself around the hotel room, we were just too tired to entertain him.




























we came home around 2pm. amir was still full of energy. maybe we should have taken them to the padang, poor amir...

Little Orchestra

that's what the peadiatrician called asyraf. she said he has so many sounds coming out from him when he breathes.

we took the day off yesterday. called his usual pead before getting the news that the pead was on leave, so we had to settle for the on-call pead. she wasnt too bad, very relaxed and very informative but the queue at her clinic was major long. we were there at 10am and finally saw her after 12pm.

the moment i sat down next to her with asyraf, she quickly commented on his breathing. she said he has bronchiolitis. we had to take him to the a&e to use the nebuliser and then back to her clinic. his breathing was better but still very noisy, so she gave him ventolin syrup and cough syrup.

surprisingly asyraf didnt cry when using the nebuliser. for the first 10 minutes, at least.

The "eai"s of "eiseai"

eai # 1
subsequent to getting Cs and Ds in his arts and crafts, amir has been throwing himself into colouring, drawing and singing. almost every night, he would ask for his "bob the builder" and "mickey mouse" colouring books. we usually switch off the main bedroom lights by 9pm, in order to wind the boys down. so amir would colour in the dark, with the tv providing the only lights in the room. he's been singing new songs now too. he loves "twinkle twinkle little stars" (or his version of tikle tikle tikle star) and one of his favourite songs is "springtime" from one of the mickey mouse club house episodes. he also loves singing "happy birthday" but his version is "happy birthday to you amir...happy birthday to you amir...happy birthday to you amir...happy birthday to you amir...yeayyyyyyyyyy..."

amir's a big time tattle tale. he would tell us everything his teachers and friends did at school, like teacher said sit down and teacher babab angah, or hakim babab azib, or fara jumped. during the last school holidays, he didnt have classes and the teacher got them to watch the telly. he came home talking about "ultraman" and how ultraman flies and kicks. hubby and i would say, "amir...ultraman notty, no ultraman. mickey mouse nice...elmo nice". i wrote a note to the teacher, asking her to stop showing ultraman in school. i mentioned once that amir loves going to people after he gets scolding and go "daddy buat" or "mummy buat". last night both hubby and i scolded him. what did he do? go up to asyraf and said "baby...daddy mummy buat"

i really cant wait to do up our yard. amir had a great time following hubby around when he was trimming the grass. he would be picking up all the toys he threw previously into the grass. i would love to see him kicking the football and swimming and up on the swing in the yard.

he surprised me the other day when he picked up one of the yassin that i leave under my pillow. he opened it and went "bismillahirrahmanirrahim" and proceeded to recite the doa makan. its surprising at his age, he's able to differentiate the roman ABC with the arabic alif ba ta. he also loves reading. coming out of the bathroom, he would usually run to his bookshelf, totally naked, and asks for "spot" or "rabbit" or "monster". his favourite book is "where's spot?"

eai #2
this boy...this little boy. he is my little teddy bear, my little huggable toy. he has the sweetest smile and the most genuine laugh. he has the most expressive eyes and the most kissable cheeks and the most pinchable bum. he's very independent, but loves to be hugged and kissed although he chooses his hugger and kisser.

asyraf is easier than amir now. amir has a lot of emotions and wants to show his feelings, while asyraf is laidback, low key and prefers to observe (well, now at least). bringing him to watch a movie is easy. he watched pirates and fantastic four happily, even following us to have drinks after the movie. he just slept over my shoulders, and the bibiks shoulders when i get tired.

hubby commented that asyraf has a very 'clean' face. muka bersih, muka sejuk...hubby would say. alhamdulillah, lets hope he carries his name well. i dont like people calling him "ash". to me, a name is important, a name is a doa (kan rafiqah...)

asyraf's getting cheekier by the day. he knows how to play now, especially with abang long. every night, after we've done eating and cleaning up, after we've bathed the boys and performed our prayers, we'd just sit on the bed with asyraf and watch amir terrorise the room. asyraf would watch abang long run and jump and hide and throw toys. he loves it when abang long jumps on his mattress and hides from him. he would give out this loud laugh and throws his body forward so that he can see amir hiding.

asyraf has started crawling, although he hasnt mastered it completely. he combines crawling and shuffling. he would be on all fours, throws his top forward to the ground, pulls up his feet and then get back on all fours. that's how he moves around nowadays. he can tawaf the whole of the family room.

asyraf's starting to play with a lot of different toys now. he loves his good night pooh bear i bought for him recently, he loves his teethers, and he seems to give extra attention to amir's truck. i'm thankful that amir is not kedekut with his toys. there are times when he roughly pulls away his toys from asyraf, but he always exchanges with other toys. and its not done spitefully, as in pulling away the toys because he doesnt want asyraf playing with them. when he pulls away a toy, he would always say...ni baby munya, ni amir munya. he would substitute a toy with another. amir is not kedekut with his parents either. he doesnt mind asyraf getting extra attention at times. if his parents gave asyraf attention, he would also join in, going asyraffffff. he would wait until asyraf falls asleep before going to daddy for his manja-manja time.

eai #3
a name has been chosen. its easier to choose earlier on so that amir knows what to call, and amir knows baby #2 and baby #3 are 2 different people. i think amir would accept baby#3 as easy as he accepted asyraf, insyaallah...

Visit from the Stork

had 2 cukur jambul/aqiqah to attend over the weekend. both were for newborns of my former unimates. welcome to the world ikhwan hasri & erica reeda, and congrats nina & imran and man man (i absolutely refuse to call you ezal) & syikeen.

saturday morning we were supposed to go watch my officemates in a bowling tournament, but i dont know whether hubby forgotten or didnt want to go. i had dressed the boys in stripes, hoping ti zu would score strikes but in the end, amir went only as far as the terrace to watch hubby trim the grass.

that night we took the boys to watch "fantastic four" at the curve. asyraf was a good boy throughout, waking up only once for susu. amir got a bit whiny in the middle, i think he didnt really like the movie, prefering pirates instead. after the movie we lepaked at one the the cafes in the curve. thank god there were a lot of bibiks around to help carry asyraf while i enjoyed my hot chocolate.

on sunday we rested at home. i was still tired from the event the office organised on friday. didnt get to qada my sleep on saturday, so i took the opportunity to sleep in late on sunday morning. we ate pulut kuning that nina packed for us from the day before, and had lunch at man's house - again i had pulut kuning.

we got back around 2pm and i started dinner immediately. i had only minced meat in my freezer and had cravings for pegedil. boiling the potato took almost 2 hours, so i did a couple loads of laundry, folded the clothes and played with asyraf while waiting for the potatoes.

after asar prayers, i cooked 2 more lauk and they were done in 30 minutes.

last night's lauk or pegedil, kacang goreng and sup telur.

All I Want For Christmas...

is my two front teeth...

House Projects Planned

tssc called me, while i was on the way to the surau. i'm always sceptical about answering his calls, because it'll either be about money (that i owe him...) or about dinner (and its so difficult to turn down his invitations) or, worst, it would be about maids (and how he doesnt understand why we dont want to have one...)

this time he gave me some good news, a little too good to be true. i mentioned to him that i was on the way to the surau. his reply was...well, pray that i put some money into your account. my immediate thought was...omigod, what do i want to do up at home?

the ccd in me made up this list in 3 minutes...
1. do up my garden - which includes digging up the hard soil and replacing with a more fertile soil and changing the grass with a more child-friendly grass (no lalangs, semalu). i intend to plant about 3 big trees towards the back of my house, mainly to cover a nuisance of a fish pond next door. while hubby's in his gardening mood (which has only been 2 days) he plans to buy those flower seeds packs to plant near the front and back fences. i also want to buy 2 goal posts and a slide and swing set for amir and asyraf.














2. bed - i plan to get new comforter sets for the boys, something cheery and colourful. at the same time (if someone remembers...hint tiza) i also want to change the boys' bed head with another material that is equally colourful. maybe something of a water theme as their borders have similar theme.

3. wardrobe - since we plan to let the boys sleep in their own room before the end of the year, i'd like to do up the wardrobe in their room as soon as possible. i actually like amir's chest of drawers and if possible would like to have a 3-door wardrobe to match it, but i doubt they can. next option is to match asyraf's chest of drawers. that done, i can start moving their clothes from our room and from the storage boxes.

4. of course once the wardrobe is done, i need to fill it up with new clothes for the boys. asyraf needs new jammies while amir needs more day clothes to wear at his nursery. his day clothes are all too lawa for nursery. i'm scared he'll spill food or ter-colour. rosak lah baju...

that's what i came up with in 3 minutes. give me another 30 minutes to come up with 10 more...

Weekend Plans

been so tired at work. when is the new girl coming in? it seems as though they're filling in more and more higher positions, without getting extra people to help doing admin work. i'm just so tired.

weekends are special for hubby and me. as much as we can, we try not to go out (hubby can last half a day, before going...eh boring lah, jom keluar). try is the key word here. before breakfast, amir will start asking...mummy, nak giant, daddy nak giant. we've also got close to nothing in the kitchen so we've got to go out to look for food.

saturday morning, we went to 1utama. i need to get some food and the boys are running out of diapers. i also had a bad craving for o'briens sandwiches. we were there bright and early. only the kluang station was open, so we headed there for breakfast. then off to get some new pajamas for asyraf at parkson, before going into giant to get some groceries.


















my cousin invited us over for barbeque on saturday night. kesian dia...it was drizzling, so he had to put up the pit at the terrace. the chicken was yummy, but i loved kak ani's pasta, coleslaw and potato. tak puas makan...




























a rare family photo...

We Saw...

we want...

Little Big Boy...

asyraf's developments usually comes in batches, not gradually.

first batch was when he first rolled over, slept through the night and found his voice.

second batch was when he had his first meal, slept longer, and laughed out loud.

he went through his third batch of development last 2 days. nowadays he refused to sit still, excited to stand. he's adjusted himself in his new car seat. he can sit still in his car seat, without asking for susu and can even fall asleep (on his back, no less). yesterday, he raised his bum while on his tummy, first sign of crawling. instead of going forward, he went backwards though. he also showed off his skill of standing in his exersaucer yesterday.

Updates Some

hubby...
currently at a good place, in terms of work. but he's a bit unhappy with his superior so he's opening his option, ie looking for other places. but i'm not very keen, as the boys are ok there, his office is mere 10 minutes away. but if he's not happy with the people he work with, he would have less motivation going to work, would he? ah well...any bloggers know of any vacancy in a corporate communication department, we'd be happy to hear from you...

me...
i was surprised (to say the least) earlier last week, when i was offered a promotion in another department. my first thought was an immediate "no" but we could use the extra income. but then...would the extra income be "compensated" with less time at home with my boys? not only that, i would need to learn all over again. and now is not really the time...i'll be going on leave in less than 4 months time. decisions...decisions...

the boys...
my babies, they've grown so much. amir's learning more and more words. he's repeating so much of what we say, too. his vocab contains more malay than english words though (sob sob). hubby took the boys for a haircut yesterday. i've always loved my boys with shaved head. we found yet more birthmarks on asyraf after his haircut.

asyraf has always been a bit difficult in the car. he wouldnt sleep in his car seat, prefering to sleep on my shoulder. he hates it when the car stops. he would only tolerate the car seat for a mininal period of time before screaming his lungs out. yesterday, i've had it. asyraf...i'm gonna make you sit in a car seat if that's the last thing i do! (yeah...i did scream) so off we went to one utama. i had to get him a car seat, maybe that would work. i saw one which was really good. i could be used as a booster seat, and the price was reasonable. but then it would be more suitable for amir. after some thoughts, we decided to get it. went in for asyraf's car seat, went out with amir's. what if asyraf doesnt like amir's current seat...great, so we didnt really put a lot of thoughts before buying.

on the way home, we tried. asyraf was fed before the car ride home. at least he wouldnt scream out for milk. i was anxious. kalau tak suka, habis lah... thank the stars, he loved it in there. maybe its the height. he was able to see more things - buildings, billboards, trucks and cars. it wasnt even 5 minutes when we turned and saw him fast asleep. why didnt we try this sooner?

how are the boys getting along? god...they absolutely adore each other. asyraf would always have this one-sided grin on his face when he sees abang long. amir, on the other hand, loves the attention he gets from asyraf. he's really excited about asyraf growing up. he's always holding his hand out to asyraf, as though asyraf can walk. and he loves it when asyraf jumps and squels watching whatever new tricks he learnt. he's also very possesive of abang, asking mummy or daddy to take asyraf back from whoever carrying him.

my boys getting their haircut...














after haircut...














in their new car seats. where are we going to put baby#3??





























at the curve (i had a craving for paddington house of pancakes...)