The Black Man and The Red Lady...

Last Saturday (24/2/2007), I've attended my hubby's company annual dinner. This is hubby's first annual dinner sebab dia pun tak sampai setahun join this company. The theme was "Men in Black, Ladies in Red". So this hot gucci mama pun bersemangatlah carik baju merah untuk pakai for the dinner. Thank God, ada red attire dalam simpanan, so tak payahlah nak membazir duit yang tak banyak mana untuk beli baju merah. Actually I've got a few since my office dulu pun ada use "Red" as its theme, but that was when I was anak dara...I tried hard to squeeze into the same old attire tapi dah sempit yang teramat, sampai nak nafas pun susah, so lupakan saja (kurusnye aku masa anak dara dulu!). Thus, I kena opt for a simpler red blouse, paired it with a red pants (yang ni kena beli baru). No "berkelip sana sini"...But what's important is I got to wear it comfortably without having to spend money. Macam tahun-tahun sudah, kasut and beg tangan merah mak jadi sasaran...Hubby pulak nak tak nak kena jugak beli shirt hitam sebab dia memang takde...

Ok, enough of 'baju' talk. Now on the event itself. The annual dinner was held at KL Hilton (just in case if you don't know where it is, it's somewhere near KL Sentral. No! Yang dekat city centre tu is no longer called KL Hilton. That is Mutiara Hotel. I know a lot of people got confused with the one yang kat Jln Sultan Ismail tu). The emcee for the night is our own penyanyi kecil molek, Ezlynn. I have to tell you that she's damn good as an emcee! So the next time around, kalau your office nak buat annual dinner, do suggest Ezlynn...

Nice black and red door gift

Now on food. I've attended few annual dinners since I stepped my feet in this corporate world, but this is the first time the foods served are Western Foods. The normal foods people served selalunya Chinese or Malay. But this is Western, man! Mahal tu! I chose chicken as the main course, and hubby fish. Memang lazat yang teramat sampai lupa nak ambil gambar...

During the dinner, we were entertained by a guest artist - V1nce from AF1. His voice is good. And I have to tell you he looks better live than on the TV Screen.

Then, ada Best Dressed Theme Awardslah, Long Service Awards lah (LSA) etc. I really like the presentation of the LSA, coz the recipients could bring along their spouses up the stage, and the slides shows the recipients' biodata plus their driving force i.e. their families. I pun startlah berangan-angan, kalau hubby lama kat company ni and received his LSA, Ashraff dah 12 tahun and Aliff pulak 10 tahun...and ntah berapa lagi 'pertambahan' dalam family at that time. As for me, lagi 3 tahun nak received LSA for the company I worked with. Tiba-tiba terasa tua...

After dah selesai awards-giving ceremony (which by then is 11 pm), we were entertained by another guest artist, yang memang ditunggu-tunggu sejak sebulan yang lepas. She's no other than Malaysia's No 1 Singer - D@tuK S1t1 Nurh@l1z@!!! Ok, don't get me wrong. I'm not a fan of her, but to be able to meet her and hear her sing live (for free lagi!) is such an honour for me. Bila S1t1 keluar je, apa lagi masyarakat se-company pun (termasuklah my hubby), berpusu-pusu dan berasak-asaklah nak tangkap gambar penyanyi kita ni, sampai we all yang meja terdepan sekali ni pun kena block. But S1t1 then politely asked the audience to sit. Oh, dapatlah i tengok dia dengan sebegitu clear sekali. Memang tergamam sesangat tengok dia! Her skin is flawless, comel dan petite je orangnye (kalau tengok dalam TV macam berisi sesangat!). Baju dia not bad (way better than the one she's wearing masa Grammy's). And his voice, tak payah cakaplah. Frankly speaking, sapa yang tak minat dia pun, akan turut terpegun tengok kecomelan dan kemantapan vokal D@tuk S1t1 kita ni. Sampai at the end of the show, hubby dok tanya kawan-kawan dia "Kau ada poster S1t1 tak?" Hampehhh betul...

Well, that's not the highlight of the event. The climax was when hubby won the top 10 lucky draw. He got a voucher from JJ amounting to RM500!! Wah! This is better than winning an LCD TV, yang kalau dapat tak tahu kat mana nak letak...or the Selberan jewellery bernilai ribu2 ringgit coz I'm not a bling-bling fan thus don't really know how to appreciate it. But winning something liquid, something yang boleh diguna di waktu kesempitan, something yang boleh dijadikan excuse to shop, memang makcik suka...*grinning from ear to ear*

All in all, it was such a memorable night, and the best annual dinner so far (marah company aku kalau aku cakap macam ni). I asked hubby to stay at this company as long as he could sebab bolehlah nak attend dinner macam ni tiap-tiap tahun. Then again, it all depends on the performance of the company. During the lucrative years, memang we got to enjoy the benefits but during the downturn, duduk termenung sahajalah...

For my own personal record....

Hmmm...haven't been writing for quite some time. Nak cakap busy with work, not really. But I guess most of my time on Internet is shifted to other places of interest. Well, we are planning to go on a holiday ('We' means the whole family). Somewhere 'over the sea', meaning which we are bringing the toddler and the baby naik plane. Crazy idea? Maybe. A cousin of mine told me that I've just sign up for Fear Factor : Parent's Edition. I've had a bad experience with Ashraff during our flight to Bandung. But, leaving them both (or any of them) makes our holiday meaningless. Thus, whatever it might be, we just have to face it. So, basically my surfing time is spent on reading reviews on where to stay, where to go, what to do etc, rather than blogging (and blog hopping).

But, after a long CNY break, I've decided to make an entry, just for my own personal record.

1. Aliff has made its first roll over on 8th February 2007. In the next two days, he tiarap again, and back on his back after a few seconds. And none of it, I was there to witness:( After those two occassions, dia dah tak buat-buat lagi, though he put an endless effort to try it again.

2. Ashraff is puting-less for two days in a row (starting 19th February 2007). Yippee! We told him that his pacifier ada banyak ulat colour black and immediately he believes us without even looking at his puting. Macam tak percaya it was that easy to convince him. It took him a while to sleep without his candu but he made it and I'm so proud of him. Of course, there's an element of bribery involved (I'd prefer to put it as reward-based). I promised to buy him a Blue Ranger (Power Rangers SPD) should he managed to remain puting-less for three days in a row...hehehe...

3. My menses are here!! (This happened 3 weeks ago). I am in great shock! I've been breastfeeding and pumping religiously day and night, but still...This was not the case with Ashraff. I'm period-less the whole time I breastfed him. I don't really mind about the menses thing, but this occurence has causes my "Milk Production Index" to drop. I don't know whether this is a coincidence or is it due to hormonal changes. Apa-apa hal pun, tensionnye!! Now, instead of twice pumping in the office, I had to do thrice.

4. I am currently suffering from a severe postpartum hair loss. Rasanya macam belum recover daripada hair loss waktu lahirkan Ashraff dulu, tetiba dah kena lagi another round of hair loss problem. My hair is thinning. I hate the way it looks, and feels. No choice but to cut it short.

Guess that's all. Back to work...Ahhh...malas je nak buat keje after a long holiday....

Watch Me Grow, Ibu!

WATCH ALIFF GROW

Last Friday, Aliff has turned 3 months old. His colic nightmare is finally over, though he still has that teeny weeny gassy behaviour occassionally. He is back to his usual self - placid and contented, alhamdulillah. The good thing is he has started to sleep well at night. Thus, we decided to bring Ashraff to sleep in the same room again. Now, we are sleeping as a family again..alhamdulillah. I'm less lethargy now since I got a good rest at night. Memang syukur sangat-sangat since everything is settled down now.

Now, a check on his development track (source:babycenter):-

3-Month Old Development
Even though your baby has been able to recognize you since he was just a few days old, he may now be able to show it. About half of babies this age begin to exhibit an obvious recognition of their parents.
(It's pretty obvious that Aliff recognises familiar faces. He smiles and coos instantenously when he sees me or his Ayah, bibik, or Abg Ashraff (he simply idolise his brother). But when he sees strangers, he will start to look straight into their eyes, and if he does not prefer them, he'll start crying. Like he has started developing stranger anxiety, which is very unlikely in Ashraff. Ashraff is a social butterfly... )

At times, Aliff is trying hard to roll-over. He is not as persistent as his brother, but he shows good effort in doing so. I hope he'll be able to master the skill soon, probably with tangan tersepit in the beginning.

This is what I love about babies. They show significant development every month, in fact every week. It's so fun to watch them grow (of course it comes together with bags of worries and lack of sleep).

Weight-wise, Aliff has not increase much as compared to when he was 2-mo. This is resulted from a ight drop in the mid of last month where he weights only 6.1 kg. Then he picked up really fast after full recovery. Now he weights 6.8 kgs!

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WATCH ASHRAFF GROW

Ashraff nowadays is so into pen and paper. He likes to scribble down things on paper. So far, no damage is done on other places i.e. the wall, cabinets, floor etc. We've been training him to write and draw only on paper since the first time we saw him holding a pen. Alhamdulillah, he obeys to the rule, hopefully sampai bila-bila...

At times, he would insists us to draw Ultraman or Power Rangers so that boleh lawan dengan dragon, katanya... I'm not a good artists so if he asked me, I can't fulfill his desire..hubby too. But Tok Mak is his saviour...

Ashraff has been writing on rough paper using a pen all this while. So I thot of giving him proper materials for him to express his imagination. Thus, I bought these while book browsing at T1mes...

He was thrilled by the newly purchased arts materials. Of course, the penggeli Ashraff will look at his dirty hands everytime he draws something. But, I told him it's washable so he continues drawing...one after another...

Here are some of Ashraff's masterpieces for the time being...

I'm sure more will come after this. I was thinking of buying some arts and crafts books for kids so I could explore together with Ashraff during some of my limited free time. Something which I'm longing to do since Ashraff is merely a baby. Or perhaps the cheapskate me can just browse at the Net to get some free arts and crafts ideas...should I have extra time...

Next on my list is finger painting...We bought the necessary materials last weekend but we haven't try it as yet. I don't know whether my super-duper pembersih and penggeli Ashraff will like that idea...Belum cuba, belum tahu...

Oh yeah, did I tell you we have enrol Ashraff in a weekend programme for kids his age at L0rn@ Wh1st0n at Taman Tun last Sunday? We went for the trial and Ashraff seems to enjoy the class, so we sign-up for the programme. Will give it a go for one term and we will see how thereafter (see how means see Ashraff's acceptance, our budget and our willingness to travel from Ampang to Tmn Tun every Sunday!).