Ramadhan Day 7

alhamdulillah, we are almost at the first quarter of ramadhan. how time flies, masyaallah. sahur is getting to be a hectic affair at home. used to be a quiet sahur for me and hubby and then us and amir, then asyraf joined in although only a few times last year. this year with three boys at the table, its no longer quiet. there's not even enough seat for the five of us and i usually end up eating standing, unfortunately.

the boys have been pretty positive about fasting. amir's the veteran but still the one who whines the most. he would be saying how his friend pushed him so he must eat, how his chest hurts so he must eat even though he'd be playing football three minutes after that, he watches the clock like a hawk and doesn't stop asking how long more.

asyraf's taking it in his stride. he acts as though fasting is a daily occurrence. he would find things to do to fill his time, be it reading the quran, watching tv, playing with the phone, taking naps. he's pretty easy. ariff's been good for a first-timer who munches a lot of a regular basis. he had a slight incident where he ate a pack of mango jelly he made in his cooking class but he felt really bad after and said he'd never do it again. he doesn't complain much and prolly the only difficulty he has is getting up at 5am. what i'm loving the most is how they try not miss their solat, alhamdulillah. let's hope they continue the positive attitude towards fasting.

for the past week, i've been preparing rice and simple accompanying dishes for sahur. for iftar we usually buy. we don't break our fast with white rice and prefer laksa or nasi kerabu or nasi lemak or mihun soup with 2-3 types of kuih. very simple and quick. of course after they perform the maghrib prayers, they would come back to the kitchen asking for cereal.

sahur so far...

 iftar...one i prepared, one i was invited to

Marhaban Ya Ramadhan

there's always something new to look forward to during the holy month of Ramadhan. with 4 pregnancies & 1 delivery during Ramadhan way back (heh!) in the late 2000s, its now moved to celebrating and encouraging the boys to fast.

amir have been practising during the past two Ramadhan, asyraf started last year and this year, it will be ariff's first Ramadhan. as i'm now staying at home, i'm determined to prepare sahur for the family. we used to buy previously, getting extra chicken or fish or kuah-kuah for sahur when we visit the pasar Ramadhan. sometimes i would prepare the rice, sometimes we just buy and heat up everything. but this year, i'm determined to prepare home-cooked food. and well...asyraf's been pressuring me to have food he loves on the table for his sahur, otherwise 'nanti kita tak boleh puasa, mummy' he said.

we dont know how long they can go with eating rice at 5am though, once they think its already too much, then we move to something else and i'll prepare the break fast food instead. i can only prepare once a day because i'm seriously short of ideas.

so i stocked up the kitchen with all kinds of meat, frozen food, lots of eggs and perencah maggi during the weekend.

to all...have a blessed month of Ramadhan, may we reap as many rewards as we can and bring ourselves closer to Allah the most compassionate and the most merciful, amin.

SFA Football Tournament

SFA (which stand for subadron football academy) organised a football tournament for a few academies around the klang valley. they had a premier league for the ones who excel in and are keen on football and a super league for those who want to play for fun. this way, everyone in each academy would have the opportunity to play, not just the selected few.

MBJ United, the football academy which amir & asyraf attend on weekends participated in the tournament. amir was chosen to play in the premier league for the under8 group while asyraf would be playing in the super league for the same group. they were, obviously, very excited and could not stop talking about the tournament for days before it actually began.

the u8 groups begin their game on saturday at 6pm. those in the older group started earlier. when we got to the field, it was already packed with players, officials, parents and other family members.

amir & asyraf's games were at fields A & B, closest to the car park and entrance and the surau (yeay!) the boys were first asked to sit in their groups and listen to the coach giving pep-talk and explaining the playing format and the player's position. amir would be playing left back, which he was pretty upset about, he's an attacking player and cant easily play in other positions. asyraf was chosen to be the striker (huh surprise?).

amir played his games a bit uncomfortably but he efficiently cleared the ball. he was asked to come in and out during the course of the games. he played all three games, where they drew two and lost one.

asyraf was appointed captain and was running around everywhere. he took corners and throw ins, he defended, he attacked, he won the ball. and of course he almost got into a fight during his second game. they were supposed to play three games but ended up playing only two, both of which they won.

the tournament took a breather for maghrib, before continuing well into the night, ending with a game for the fathers. we wanted to leave earlier, akmal even fell asleep on the bleachers but the boys wanted to wait for the medal ceremony. the boys had loads of fun and it was precious seeing them with their medals that we can overlook that it was way past midnight.

Away Day

hubby was outstation earlier this week. because schools were closed on both days that hubby was away, i decided to bring the boys for an overnight stay somewhere. i surfed the booking website and decided on traders - close to klcc and it had an indoor pool. the boys have been cooped up for three days due to the haze, so a dip in the pool would be good for them.

so off we went. i packed a small bag, they didn't realise i brought a bag to the car. they thought we were going to tssc's house. the slept the moment we got in the car. did not wake up during the many stops on the packed road from home to klcc, did not wake up when i drove through the mcd outlet nearby, did not wake up until i parked the car at klconvex.

to say they were excited would be an understatement. they loved that they were in a hotel, they loved that they were out of the house, they loved that they can play in the tub (they wanted the pool but hubby said no! to them).

they were well-behaved initially, i brought their toys, books and colours. a little bit after that they started to get restless and wanted to jump here and there. luckily it was almost 7pm so i put all of them in the tub for about an hour while waiting for room service to send up our dinner. i ordered pasta & fried rice for them and beef tenderloin from the kids menu for myself. food came with 3 glasses of orange juice, which i took 2 and gave 1 to ariff. the boys had choc choco chocolate for dessert.

surprisingly that one hour in the tub made them quite tired and they were all down by 9.30pm.

the next morning we went to level 2 for a quick breakfast with some warga K. they loved the buggy ride from traders to klcc. i wanted to walk back but they wanted to ride the buggy again. when we got to the room, they had another dip in the tub and we left for home just after 11am.

i like the hotel. the staff were friendly, especially the buggy driver and the girl who checked us out. food was ok too - the beef tenderloin was especially yummers. another trip when hubby's around. could take the boys to the klcc pool too...

It Happened Again

this is the second episode, after the horrible one three years ago. the first was during raya morning last year. a bit weird though, that during our 'sleep disturbed by hourly feeding' phase, we had no scares. but when we're at our '10pm-6am' sleep, we had 4 episodes in 6 years.

anyway, it started in the morning (it always does since hubby's trigger has always been his sleep, or lack thereof). when hubby was about to go downstairs he said that his head was a bit whacked-out. he said he didn't know why he wasn't praying on the praying mat. yeah, small things like that could, or could not, be signs.

he had breakfast with amir and said they were going off. about 5minutes after that i got a missed call and a text from hubby asking me to come by to the nearby kopitiam to pick amir & asyraf up as he didn't think he could drive. i was on the way out to send ariff & akmal and made a quick detour. apparently hubby had a near miss at the 2 roundabouts between the house and the kopitiam and felt it would be a bit too dangerous to continue driving.

i picked up amir & asyraf, asked hubby to get himself to the nearby clinic and drove all four boys to school. i drove passed the clinic on the way back and decided to stop by to see how hubby was doing. it felt a bit weird as he didn't see me at all until i was sitting next to him, and he was directly facing the door. yet another small sign. he had already seen the doctor, who said he seemed normal. i didn't think so as he was mumbling and could not speak proper sentences.

hubby got the doctor to write him a referral letter to see his neuro and his knee surgeon at dsh and was talking to his colleague on how to proceed with the letters. when he put down the phone he called me over to him to explain the procedure. in the midst of explaining he suddenly stopped talking and looked up. i remember thinking 'oh no...its happening!' and i was right. his mouth opened wide, his eyes went to the back of his head and he was about to start his shout/scream, for lack of words to describe the noise he makes when he's having his episode.

i called out to the man sitting near hubby to get the doctor. he ran in and came out with 3 other men who picked hubby up, who at that time, was all stiff and shouting, into the emergency room. the doctor quickly followed in with 3 nurses and an attendant. one of the men came up to me to give me hubby's phone (alhamdulillah). the doctor and his team pulled the curtain around hubby's bed and i stepped out - not wanting to see hubby in that condition. the attack lasted longer this time around - i think it was almost 4-5minutes.

as his attack wore off and the doctor was able to get some response from him, i pulled back the curtain to see how he was. he was utterly confused and the doctor asked me to continue talking to him to help him overcome his confusion. i was later informed that the longer the attack lasted, the more confused he would be once the attack wears off. that explains hubby throwing off the oxygen mask and his growls and angry looks whenever the doctor and his team spoke to me.

we were at the clinic for about an hour, getting hubby to overcome his confusion and deciding what to do after leaving the clinic. we went home for a bit, made appointments with the neuro and knee surgeon, picked up amir & asyraf from school and went to dsh. we were at the hospital for almost 6 hours, seeing two doctors.

it was a long, stressful and confusing day. on one hand, hubby had a long attack and was majorly confused post the attack. on the other hand, he recovered relatively quickly, being able to drive by that afternoon. its different from the attack three years ago. honestly, i am pretty confused about the difference. maybe i shouldn't be but i am. i would like to know why he was feeling the effects for almost a week three years ago, when his attack lasted about a minute or two, and was fine within a day after this attack, when his attack was twice as long. not that i want to push for answers but i would like to know.

anyway, we were running non-stop from morning and it was not surprising that hubby and i was totally out once we got home. i think we slept for almost two hours, leaving the four boys to entertain themselves. they hardly disturbed us and were accident-less the whole time, syukur alhamdulillah.

we had many many friends and neighbors offering to help out with the boys after hubby's attack. we're eternally grateful for that. we're also thankful for every single text, status comments, whatsapp messages, facebook PMs, wechat notes that we received from everyone, near and far. its lovely to know we have wonderful friends to support us during times like these.

Asyraf and his Skin

i noticed a couple of white spots on asyraf a few months back. one was quite big, like a pimple, one was smallish, almost non-existent. i left it at that, didnt think much of it. he's almost seven so i dont check his body as often as i did when they were younger - had to check quite often to make sure there's no eczema, rashes, bumps, bite marks etc.

one fine day, i looked and woah...the spots multiplied. there's even some on his side and back. he said he didn't feel comfortable, he wanted to scratch but i wouldnt let him, afraid they would scar. i decided to bring him to a dermatologist since ariff too had some rashes under his arms, and while we're at it, i've got some itchiness on my fingers - ever since the housework been piling up, right?

took them to dr mardziah, whose clinic is next to dr azizi's. she's a paedriatic dermatologist as i wanted a skin specialist for this. dr mardziah's queue is a blessing compared to our other doctors at dsh - dr maziah, dr azizi, dr azmi, dr awal, dr rozman (oh yes...we have loads of doctors that we visit at dsh, hence my no. 3 on the expenditure list ehem!). ahead of us, there was only a family who was already inside and the doctor's assistant got a quick reading of the boys' height & weight. asyraf's 113cm at 17kg while ariff's 112cm at 19kg. yeah...my twins.

we got in to see dr mardziah after about 10minutes (or even less) wait. showed her asyraf's chest, she asked him to lie down for her to see. quick look from her and she said 'its viral...its called molluscum contagiousum'. well...that was quick. she said treatment is to put dried ice on each spot so that its not active. thought i was supposed to get the dried ice, i was a bit blur then. but she pointed to her table and said, there's ice there, depends on us when we wanted the treatment to be. oh ok, again...that's quick. asyraf wanted to do it then, so she called her assistant, put on her gloves and got to work. she warned asyraf that its cold and may sting but asyraf, the drama king, had no expression what-so-ever. she applied the ice using cotton buds on the spots.

once she was done, asyraf started fidgeting. he was grumbling that it stings and hurts, and the spots quickly redden. the doctor was surprised, saying his skin must be sensitive to change colour so fast. oh well...that's asyraf, mr sensitivity! we'll be back in a couple of weeks time to see if all the spots have been taken care of. hopefully they have because i dont want more $$$ going out!

note - molluscum contagiosum as explained by mr. wikipedia.

molluscum  contagiosum (mc) is a viral infection of the skin or occasionally of the mucous membranes, sometimes called water warts. it is caused by a DNA poxvirus called the molluscum contagiosum virus (mcv). mcv has no nonhuman-animal reservoir (infecting only humans). this common viral disease has a higher incidence in children, sexually active adults, and those who are immunodeficient, and the infection is most common in children aged one to ten years old. mc can affect any area of the skin but is most common on the trunk of the body, arms, and legs.

surgical treatments include cryosurgery, in which liquid nitrogen is used to freeze and destroy lesions, as well as scraping them off with a curette. application of liquid nitrogen may cause burning or stinging at the treated site, which may persist for a few minutes after the treatment.

oh...we saw this at the clinic...