Money, oh money...

It's the talk of the town - The BIG salary increase for civil servants.

And who is happy?

Mak, of course.

Mak cakap "Duduk rumah jaga cucu pun boleh dapat duit lebih tiap bulan."

Bestnye!!

This is the best part if you served the government for all your life, like what Mak did.

Revision of pencen.
Free medical benefit from government hospitals and clinics (kat dalam kad medical tu Abah jadi tanggungan Mak so Abah got to enjoy free check-up at HUKM as well).

And another person who shares the joy?

My MIL.

She also served the government throughout her working career.

Me?

Masuk angin keluar asap. Still waiting for increment.

Semua harga barang sudah naik...Cash outflow naik tak ingat punya *lap dahi kat peluh*
Tapi cash inflow masih static. Masih ditakuk lama.
Parahhh...

So, what should I do?

Some advised me to find a new job and request for big jump in salary. Sometimes that's the best way to do it.

But I'm comfortable where I am now. Last 15th May is my 7th years working in this company. Kalau mau carik keje lain pun, mana mau pergi? My experience is in finance industry so that's where I end up to be. And it's so damn challenging nowadays.

My target is to breakfree from this industry. I want to do something that I love to do. Enjoy to do.

So bila target tu mau capai? Tu lah yang tak tau lagi. Plan dah ada. But too scared to make a move. Coz there's a price I have to pay if I want to make that switch. In monetary terms. Tengok-tengok, kaji-kaji, if you want to start something fresh in another area, then you have to forgo the pay that you earn currently. Meaning which, you have to settle for a lot lesser. Hmmmm....yang ni lah beratnya. Dengan cost of living yang semakin naik, how can I afford it?

Ishk...ada orang nak offer saya keje kat public sector tak? Mana tau boleh jadik macam Mak and MIL bila retire nanti. Dok rumah je, duit dapat lebih tiap bulan.

Hmmm...Bestnye...

Updates - Pt2

Last week, when I was attacked by the fever and flu bug, I was dysfuntional as a mother. Almost one week, I was all flat and weak. Except for co-sleeping and night-feedings, the rest of the day I left the mothering part to my maid (which I have to say is the last thing I want to do). Seriously, I have no energy left to even lift my head, what more to entertain the kids. Usually, when I suffered from fever or flu, I cuba tak nak layan penyakit tu. I'll continue doing what I usually do and pretend that I'm not sick. After a while, penyakit tu will go away. But this time around, it was different. I seriously sangat-sangat tak larat.

But alhamdulillah, with the help of stronger antibiotics, my fever vanished. And I'm all recharged to become a wife and mother again. Alhamdulillah jugak the kids tak menjangkit penyakit demam teruk itu. Ashraff did suffer from a mild running nose, but after one day of medication, it was cured.

Talking bout the the boys, I really want to update on their development. Yeah, I did make LOTS of posting about them, but it in terms of development it was all bits and pieces here and there. So this is for my own personal record.

Updates on Ashraff

Finally, after 6 months of becoming a big brother to Aliff, Ashraff has learnt to love and do justice to his brother. He no longer smacked, pulled or bite Aliff. He also no longer fights for my attention especially when I'm busy attending to Aliff's needs. He also has learnt to share some of his things (yang mana dia tak berapa suka) with Aliff. He has in fact turned out to be one protective brother to Aliff. If he sees Aliff put something sharp or hard in the mouth, he will say "No makan!" and tried to take the thing away from Aliff. Or if he sees Aliff rolled-over to a place where it is quite dangerous (like tempat tinggi ke), he will say "Ibu angkat Aliff. Letak sini (a safer spot)."

Recently, we've exposed Ashraff to lots of English movies. Animation one that is. Amongst Ashraff's collection include MonstersInc., Barnyard, FlushedAway, Garfield2 and Shr3k1. Some parents might dislike the notion of exposing children to all these movies. In fact, at first I demured the idea as well. But Hubby told me that's how he actually learnt English when he was kids. By watching TV. Being raised in kampung with non-English speaking parent, that's the best way for him to learn. Fair enough, I agreed.

And after a while, I find it works really well with Ashraff. His English vocab expanded. Of course, what he did most of the times is to imitate the characters in the movie. And because Ashraff ni jenis yang kuat berangan (ehem...of course that one he got it from me..hehe), so I found him most of the time talking alone with himself...or sometimes with his toys. And he uses the scripts from the movies that he saw. Adakalanya macam tak sesuai je letak ayat tu kat situ, tapi yang penting he can say the sentence properly and we understand what he's trying to say. Contoh macam hari tu, Aliff nak ambik one of Ashraff's drawing yang bersepah-sepah kat lantai. Ini memang pantang besar bagi Ashraff. So, he tried to snatch the drawing away from Aliff and he said "No thanks, okay!" dengan muka yang cukup tak puas hati. I'm like huh?! Nape pulak ayat tu kat situ? I immediately asked him "Cerita apa tu, bang?" Ashraff jawab "Cerita Shrek. Shrek cakap kat donkey." Hehehe....I didn't tried to correct him though. Let it be. He'll learn to use the sentence appropriately one day.

Of course, he has watched the movies or any DVDs in his collection (either educational or non-educational like Ultraman CDs) for 100,000 times so he has memorized most of the scripts. At times, even before the character actually said it, dia dah cakap dulu.

I'm not that worry if Ashraff spends his times in front of TV because most of the times he actually spent in front of the TV, but did not watch them. Maknanya TV je on, but he did something else like playing with his toys or do some drawings. It just happened that his playroom is also our family TV room. In the evening, he'll usually spend his time lari-lari keliling rumah. He'll 'help' atok abah mending the garden. He has his own set of equipment so he could do exactly like what atok abah did. And at night, I'll try to read both Ashraff and Aliff book before they retire to bed.

Now, Ashraff hardly naps during the day. So he'll sleep at about 9 pm at night and wake-up at almost 9 am the next morning. 12 hours of sleep in a day for Ashraff. Should be enough. But if he happens to nap in the day, he'll sleep like almost 12 am at night. Penat jugaklah nak tunggu dia hingga tidur.

Hmmm...what else. Okay, knowledge-wise. Ashraff knows his shapes - circle, triangle, square, rectangle and oval (thanks to Baby Einstein CD and some practice with Ibu and Ayah...hehehe). He can say all the shapes well, no pelat. He can also identify the shapes everywhere. For example, steering wheel is circle, door is rectangle, door knob is circle. He usually tested me with his knowledge like he will ask me "Ni shape apa?" while pointing at an egg.
"Errr..ibu tak taulah. Why don't you tell me?"
"Oval!" giving me the cheekiest lil smile.

He masters his colours as well - blue, red, green, black, yellow, orange, gray, brown, white, pink and purple. He also knows how to count object now. But he still doesn't quite recognize numbers. He only knows no 1 and 8 (kenapalah tetiba 8 pulak ye). And alphabet, he still doesn't know. I wanted to start on Alif, Ba,Ta with him but I really need to find time for this. Seriously.

Now on drawing. This seems to become his favourite past time. He can draw triangle now. He also draws Shrek, with the long ears and ada round bit kat hujung. He even tried to draw bird nest, with 3 eggs inside. And monsters and ultraman (with one horn). Basically he learnt how to draw by looking at us drawing. He'll gave us pen and paper and by using his wild imagination, he'll instruct us to draw. This is the fun...but the most tricky bit especially when you are not born a natural artist like me. Here are some example of his wild imagination that we (the adults) are persuaded to draw for him:-

"Draw rumah Pontian (my MIL's house)."
The we drew rumah pontian.
"Draw bird nest. Atas trees."
Then we drew bird nest and tree.
"Lukis eggs"
Then we drew eggs inside the bird nest.
"Lukis satu egg pecah. Ada baby bird."
Then we have to draw that.
"Draw bird fly"
We drew few birds flying.
"Draw cloud"
We drew as instructed.
"Lukis rain"
Then kita buat rintik-rintik hujan.
"Lukis Ashraff."
Yang ni kena buat full body.
"Lukis Ibu"
"Lukis Ayah"
"Lukis Aliff".
Done. So we got Ashraff, Aliff, Ayah and Ibu kat rumah Pontian. And sebelah rumah pontian ada trees, which have bird nest with three eggs inside. One egg is hatched with a baby bird inside. It was raining at that time.

Another scenario.
"Draw TV"
I drew a TV.
"Mana tempat tekan-tekan dia?"
So I had to draw the buttons on the TV.
"Draw table"
Kenalah draw TV cabinet, exactly like the one in the TV room, with one big and long drawer containing Ashraff's toys.
"Draw toys"
I thought I got away with it by saying "Toys kat dalam drawer. Drawer tu tutup so tak boleh nampak toys".
But this lad got a better idea...
"Draw toys sepah-sepah kat luar drawer"
So I had to draw his ultramans, cars, lorries, blocks, crayons, papers, semuanya berterabur di luar drawer. Phewhhh! *lap dahi kat peluh*

But that's how he learns how to draw. After few times looking at us drawing, he'll try to draw on his own. I have to say I was mesmerized by his drawing skills.

One thing about Ashraff, in terms of soft skills, he is kinda a bit slow to catch up. Only recently he knows how to take off his own shoes and how to open the door. He still doesn't know how to take off or wear his own clothes. Or even wear his own shoes. I tried to let him do it by himself but all he keeps saying is "Ashraff tak pandai." Tak tahulah dia memang tak pandai ataupun dia malas nak buat. I still insist by saying "Ashraff kan pandai...cuba Ashraff buat, Ibu tengok." Dia terus buat muka dek, like bukan dia yang nama Ashraff. Dia punya gaya tu ala-ala "So what kalau tak bukak shoes, kita masuk je dalam rumah dengan shoes" or "Kalau Ibu tak bukak baju ni, tak payah mandi..." Kadang-kadang tu grrrrr betul tengok dia when he started to take that "degil" approach. But I think it's battle not worth fighting for. So, I buat jelah....I'm sure one day he'll learn to do these things by himself.

He also still not toilet train. In fact, we do not make any effort to train him. I'm sure if it was my old maid, Ashraff will be toilet train by now sebab bibik dulu tu selalu cakap "Bila dia dah 2 tahun nanti, kita ajar dia k*nc**ng dalam tandas, ye Puan". But she left before Ashraff reaches 2 yo. With this maid, dia couldn't be bothered kalau kita tak suruh. And this ma'am pulak, belum ready nak train Ashraff. So, let it be dululah. Anyway, no one walks down the aisle with diapers on. So, why create unnecessary pressure and stress to rush things?

Phewhhh!! Guess that's a long update for Ashraff. Now on Aliff.

Updates on Aliff

This little cherub of mine completely idiolises his brother. Everytime he sees his brother jumping or running, he will scream and jump up and down excitedly. Like trying to join in the fun tapi apakan daya, tak dapat kaki lagi...But at times when he is hungry or sleepy, he hates it when his brother comes and "gomol'ing him. Dia cepat rimas.

One thing I noticed after starting giving Aliff solid beginning of this month, he has started to become more active. Probably it's a growth spurt. If before, he seldom rolled-over, now dia pantang letak, terus tiarap. It makes me think whether I've been depriving him of solid before. But the development was tremendous. Unlike Ashraff who moved in vertical movement, Aliff doesn't know how to moves forward or backward. Instead, he maneuvers by rolling and sweeping the whole floor. He rolls really fast, and by the time you know it, dia dah terperuk kat bawah meja.

Because he's the type that rolls even in his sleep, there's no way for us to put him in the crib. He HATES it, big time! We tried but he simply loath the idea. People told me because we did not train him to sleep in crib from day one. But Ashraff pun tak tidur from day one jugak, but he's okay in the crib till today. That's because maybe Ashraff jenis yang tak lasak masa tidur. Aliff, on the other hand, very the lasak masa tidur so he doesn't like it when his space is confined. Even at night pun, if he bumped into me, he'll wake up crying. Ishk....So, looks like tak lama lagi, once Ashraff graduated from the crib, we'll have to dismantle the crib and campak dalam store (till next baby arrives).

Recently, Aliff has started to "angkat punggung". It's either he wants to crawl or sit on his own. I presumed he'll skip crawling and terus duduk. My MIL told me hubby and his siblings did not crawl. So, looking at Aliff yang sebijik muka ayah dia, and the glaring contrast with Ashraff in terms of development, I have the feeling he's gonna skip crawling as well.

This angel also loves to coo. He coos more than his lil brother at this age. But senyuman dia sangat mahal especially with strangers. He, unlike his social butterfly brother, has strong stranger's anxiety. He'll cling to you as though there's no tomorrow if a stranger approach him. Macam anak koala, okay?! This is a new thing I have to deal with. With Ashraff it was much easier coz Ashraff jenis tak takut orang. So anyone can come and take him away. With Aliff, he'll cry everytime a stranger tried to talk to him. So, kalau bawak gathering ke apa ke, ada sikit susahlah...But, I'm sure that's a just a phase and it will pass after sometime.

In terms of meal, Aliff still eats instant cereal. But I intend to make him home-made food, something which never works out with Ashraff (Ashraff is such a picky eater and he won't eat home-made food when he was a baby....we tried to cook but...hey, it was a long story). Aliff, unlike his brother, looks like he loves to eat. He enjoys eating. Macam mulut burung.

Ok, what else on Aliff. Anything else? I guess that's it. I don't know what's his current weight were because we have not weigh him recently. But terasa semangat jugak angkat dia sekarang. After all, he eats three times a day and have milk in between meals. Oh yeah, talk about milk, he still fully breastfeed. Belum campur. But since he started on solid, my milk stock increase balik sebab supply exceed demand sekarang ni. Yippee! Less pressure to pump nowadays..hehehe...

Oh yeah, Aliff has started to love his car seat. It was harder to train him to sit in the car seat because unlike Ashraff, there's no help from a good friend called 'pacifier'. So, bila dia nangis in the car seat, we had trouble soothing him. But we persevere. We did whatever necessary so that he is well-trained in car seat. With two boys, I insist on the use of car seat coz I don't want them to be chasing each other in the car later on. Plus of course for safety reason. At times, Aliff still cries but it is lesser than before. I hope this difficult part of training will pass soon. We did it with Ashraff. And we hope we succeed with Aliff as well.

Hmmm...guess that's all about the boys. They are the apple of my eyes. Raising them is a part of joy and part of guerilla warfare...That's why I love them both, very dearly.

Updates

On Moi

For the whole of this week, today is the only day I'm working. I was on MC from Monday till yesterday. It started with a bad sore throat on Friday evening, followed by normal running nose and mild coughing on Saturday. But on Sunday (which is supposed to be my third Mother's Day), I suffered from quite a severe fever so I'm all flat and weak. Doctor prescribed me with antibiotic . It felt better after a round of antibiotic but after like three to four hours, the feverish feeling started again. And then after two days, I started to shiver especially during the night. I have problem getting a shut-eye. It was so uncomfortable with running nose (or blocked nose), coughing, shivering...and then tetiba rasa kebas kaki dan tangan. I can't remember when was the last time I kena demam teruk macam ni. Mak gave me air asam to basahkan kepala so that panas dalam boleh keluar. I felt better. But only temporarily. I still couldn't sleep at night. And I lost my appetite. Tekak rasa pahit. And everytime makan, I rasa nak muntah (nope, I'm not pregnant).

On Wednesday I couldn't take it anymore so I decided to go for further check-up. Doc suspected I had dengue fever so he did a blood test. At that point of time, my temperature has already risen to 39.2 degrees celcius. Kepala rasa cam nak pecah. Badan rasa melayang-layang. Tekak still rasa loya.

Alhamdulillah, it wasn't dengue (or else I wouldn't be in the office today). Instead it was a viral fever. My white blood count was so low so it couldn't fight with the virus in the blood. Doctor prescribed me with stronger antibiotics. Two of them - one to be taken before meal and another after meal. And doc immediately gave me a jab to quickly reduce my temperature. After two rounds of antibiotic, I felt a lot better. And alhamdulillah, I can work today. My tekak still rasa loya but I've gained my appetite back. I still do feel slightly weak, but this was way better compared to before. As a result of almost one week of fever, lost of appetite and sleepless nights, I lost 2 kilos much to my dismay. I don't quite like my "cengkung" look.

And talking about sleepless nights, I still could not sleep well at night. For example, last night I could only sleep at 3 am. For no apparent reason. Now, I'm scared I've developed some kind of insomnia. That's even harder to cure. Oh please, let me have a peaceful slumber tonight...

On Hubby

Hubby is officially a frequent job hopper these days. He has just landed a new job in one of Malaysia's biggest shipping companies which is a subsidiary of Malaysia's biggest oil and gas company. Job function, still the same. The good old InternalAuditor.

He'll be joining this company middle of next month. He has met his new team leader (which turns out to be a lady) and got to know that his first assignment is in the city of L0nd0n!! Wuhuuuu!!

Ehem..I'll love to join him just like what I did four years ago when he had to audit a subsidiary of his old company in L0nd0n. But I don't like the idea of travelling alone with the two kids on an 11-hour flight. And neither do I like to leave the kids at home while I fly and join him in L0nd0n. So, I'll pass on this one.

Ehem...but don't worry I'll come out with a long list of wishlist..hehe..

All in all I'm happy that he managed to secure a job in this company. This company and the company that he currently works in (which will end this June) are the two companies that hubby aims to work in since his graduation day. The only thing the latter company is a bit too far from our house. So, when he got this new offer, I'm happy for him. At least it'll save his travelling time and money (in terms of fuel and toll). The most ultimate reason why I'm happy is I don't have to take LRT anymore! We can go to work together-gether like before, which I think is the best time for us to communicate and discuss things.

So, I guess since hubby got what he dreamt of, I presumed this will be his last job till he retires. No more job hopping after this, betul tak Hubby?

On the Two Boys

Ishk..tak sempat nak update hari ni. Nak balik dah ni. Minggu depan je lah sambung.

The Inquisitive Minds.

Today's paper reported that 303 children are missing this year making it a total of 6,000 children altogether. Pretty alarming right?! When things like this happened, the first party to be blamed on is the parent. When I look at this kind of report with that kind of statistics, it immediately send shivers down my spine. Being a parent itself is such a tough job. The toughest job with no pay...Fuhh!

Anyway, that's for any parent to ponder on. But, that's not the topic for today. (Tu cuma intro je ok?!).

Today's topic will be on Children’s Inquisitive Minds.

It all started on one fine Saturday afternoon, when a mutual friend of me and hubby sent
his 5 yo daughter to my house. He said that her daughter was bored at home. Her Ibu had to work in Thailand and she was left with bibik and her sister who hardly can speak. Her Ayah wanted to play futsal (dengan sape lagi kalau bukan dengan my dearest Hubby). So, she wanted to play with Ashraff. Fair enough. In fact, I looked forward to it (which is so unlike me before..like before I got a child of my own).

I know this girl as an intelligent, articulate and flexible (in the sense that she can adjust herself to play with either a typical boy or a ladylike princessy kinda girl) little cherub.

Ashraff actually looked forward to seeing and playing with Kak Dalila (yes, that’s her name). Biasalah Ashraff, dia akan suka main dengan orang tua daripada dia. Kalau sebaya ada susah sikitlah.

They fused immediately. By the time I made sure that the food is ready, Ashraff and Dalila have started running around the house, playing “catch me if you can”. I didn’t quite like the idea of kids running around the house, so I brought some art block and some art materials which consists of crayons, colour pencils and water colour all in a box.

“Ibu Ashraff, Dalila nak buat painting.”

She called me “Ibu Ashraff”? So cute and funny. Hehehe..

“Dalila, please call me Aunty ok? Not Ibu Ashraff.” I replied, oncle my giggle subsided. “Are you sure you want to do painting? Nanti kena pakai air, takut tumpah.”

“Tak. I promised I won’t mess this place. I akan paint dalam ni je” while her finger follows the outline of the art paper.

“I’m sorry. Tu bukan maksud Aunty. Aunty takut Ashraff terlanggar air tu. Nanti tumpah.”

“I promise I’ll jaga the air.”

So she did the painting religiously. And Ashraff did some art work with his usual crayon and colour pencil. He only stopped just to look at what’s Dalila’s doing. He’s mesmerized by the way she did the painting.

“Ni buat apa ni?” Ashraff asked Dalila.

“Ni painting lah” Dalila jawab.

“Dalila tulis apa tu? Orang ke? Mana kaki dia? Hand dia?”

“Kejaplah. Nak buatlah ni. Dia pakai skirt. And this is tree.”

After a while the children got bored with painting and drawing. So I moved on to next activity i.e. watching “Happy Feet” (you know the story of the singing penguin).

This is when the very, very curious mind took place. Sudden rush of questions came out from Dalila’s mouth. Like a chain reaction. Question, follow-up questions, new sets of questions. It started with some basic questions… and later build up to much harder questions.

My brain is working really hard. Spinning macam gasing.

“Apa nama penguin ni?”

“Errr…kejap let me check *read the synopsis on the DVD cover* Oh, his name is Mumble.”

“Mumble? Kenapa dia mumbling ke bila cakap?”

“Tak lah. Ibu ngan Ayah dia nak bagi nama dia Mumble.”

She’s satisfied with that answer and move on to the next set of questions.

“Kenapa Mumble ni takde yellow kat badan dia? Yang lain semua ada?”

Ha’ahlah kan...Kenapa pulak macam tu yek? I hear myself thinking.

“Mumble is err..special. Penguin yang lain semua boleh nyanyi. Tapi Mumble tak boleh nyanyi. He can only dance. “

I know I’m not answering the question directly becoz I really don’t know the answer. But Dalila seemed happy with my reply. That's more important.

Oh, ada lagi new set of questions.

“Kenapa semua tempat ada ice?” (U know like the ones in Artic or Antartica).

“Because it’s so cold, so all the water freezed to become ice.”

“Tapi kenapa ada water pulak kat bawah dia? Bukan ke kalau ice kena dengan water it will melt? Kenapa tak melt pulak?”

Darn! How do I answer this?

Errr…. “Oh, that’s because it’s so cold, so kalau kena dengan water pun it won’t melt. It’s so cold so the ice is very thick and won’t melt. It’s cold in Antartica, Dalila” I replied grinning, like kerang busuk. Seriously I got to brush up my knowledge pertaining to this matter.

“Kenapa cold pulak? Kenapa tak hot?”

What?!!

“Oh, that’s because Allah dah jadikan tempat tu sejuk…”

Hehehe…not a good one but she seemed satisfied.

And there I was, thinking I would be able to concentrate on the movie when suddenly the movie scene showed a walrus from underwater, knocking a big hole in the ice and landed on top of the ice.

“Ni apa ni?” Question came from Ashraff.

“Ni nama dia walrus.”

“Nose dia macam elephant lah.” Dalila concluded.

“Eh, tadi Aunty kata ice tu thick. Kenapa boleh pecah pulak?” asked Dalila.

What?!! Think, Rafiqah. Think.

“That’s because the walrus is so big and strong. It could break the ice.”

Ok, she seemed satisfied with the answer.

Then, the scene showed mountain covered with snow.

“Eh, tu mountain kan?”

“Yes.”

“Kenapa ada mountain pulak? Tadikan cuma ada ice and water?”

“Oh, just now tu laut yang dah freeze jadi ice. Yang ni mountain pulak.”

Ok, not a good one.

“Kenapa mountain ni warna white?”

“That’s because it’s covered with snow”

Simple.

“But why ada warna gold?”

“That’s because the sun shines at the mountain. Those gold colour tu tempat sun shines.”

“Hah? Kenapa ada sun pulak? Tadikan aunty cakap tempat ni sejuk? Kalau ada sun, kenapa ice tu tak melt?”

Goodness me! How do I answer this? Seriously. I am totally blank. But I tried to smile even though I started to feel a bit panicky. This is even harder than sitting for an IQ test!

“Dalila, errr…let me try to find you the answer. Aunty kena baca sikit pasal tempat ni, boleh?”

“Ok.”

By the time the movie ended, I am exhausted from having to build up the muscle in my brain and what not.

And oh, I never did read about Artic or Antartica. Dalila forgotten about it coz the next time I saw her she didn’t ask the question again

But that’s not the point. The point is it's a miracle when you can actually see the world through a child's great sense and wonder. We as adults are too busy catching up with bigger issues like politics and economics (or making end meets) that we tend to take other small things for granted. We don't even pause and think the way a child thinks. We don't even take time to look at our surrounding and ask questions of nature and science. We thought we know coz we "makan garam" a lot earlier than them. But the fact is we don't know. Or we forget something that we have left years ago.

So when we are put in situation like this, we tend to think "Hey, banyak rupanya benda yang saya sendiri pun tak tahu."

And me having to learn a lesson here, have to prepare myself for this. Soon Ashraff will reach this stage where he’ll have such an insatiable appetite to know and explore things that he sees, touches, hears and smells.

Even now he has started asking questions, but very much simpler as compared to Dalila. Mostly just to verify what he knows (and feel proud when he could correct us). And some just genuine questions.

For example…

“What’s that?” while pointing outside the window (his finger touches the window).

“That is car's window”.

“Taklah. Tu cloud”.

Ok, how am I suppose to know that he’s actually pointing at the cloud and not the window itself?
“What colour is this?”

“Blue colour” Tok Abah jawab.

“Tak. Ni green colour. Tok Abah cakap blue.”

“Ala sorrylah Ashraff. Tok Abah ni tak nampak. Ha’ah ni green colour” my colour-blind father replied. Hehehe…

“Dalam ni ada apa, tok mak?” sambil tunjuk tangan dia.

“Dalam ni ada darah, isi, urat…Nampak tak line-line ni. Tu lah urat. Dalam urat ni ada darah. Sebab tu kalau Ashraff jatuh, nanti keluar darah.”

“Mendarah ke?" Ok, Ashraff pelat sikit when it comes to “ber”. All “ber” jadi “men” like mendiri, mentukar, mendarah…

“Ha’ah. Berdarah.”

That’s some of the questions asked by Ashraff. Tak mencabar. At least, not for the time being. But like I say, it started with easy ones and as they grow bigger and the curious nature develops, the easy ones will later build-up to more challenging questions. Haaa…masa tu barulah kita tahu langit tinggi rendah.

Phewhhh!!! So am I prepare to face the challenge? Tungguuu….

Meanwhile, how do I do with answering Dalila's questions? Ok tak?

Weekend Getaway?!

What would you do when you are running low of budget for a weekend getaway at somewhere exquisite, out-of-city kinda thing? You spend your time in the city (or somewhere near the city), of course!! So that's what we've been doing all weekends, plus the recent long holiday.

For example, last weekend, Hubby decided to give the family a treat...so off we went to MuaraSeaf00d at P0rtKlang (towards NorthPort). It was my first trip there. We left home at around 6.30 pm and stopped half-way to perform our Maghrib.

While waiting for our turns to perform prayer.

We reached MuaraSeafood at approximately 8pm and the place was already bustled with people, fighting for food. Ok, I may be exaggerating on the "fighting for food" part, but yeah, the crowd was great.

If you intend to eat at MuaraSeaf00d, first you got to know the system. Or else, you'll wait forever for the food. The system works like this - first, choose your seafood be it fish, prawns, squids etc. Then, queue up to place an order - nak udang goreng tepung ke, steam fish ke etc. Then, they'll give you an order sheet. Find a seat and wait for someone to come to take your order for drinks. Then wait for the food and drinks to arrive.

So tip no 1. Do come with at least another two person in order to expedite the process of getting food. One person could do the queueing up, while another one search for the vast choice of seafood. The second person will the past the seafood bulk to the "queing-up" person for him to place the order. In the meantime, another person could search for a place to seat. If you don't do this, then you will wait forever for the food. Reasons - the queue is tremendously long and seats are limited (actually banyak but the crowd is greater).

Well, considering the crowd, the service I can say was good. We didn't have to wait long for the food to arrive. And my oh my, the foods were yummylicious. I had the most scrumptious meal of the month. Let me see, Sotong Goreng Tepung, Udang Masak Cili, and Siakap Stim. Yumm, yumm...

Except for the steam fish that just arrived, the rest are just leftovers.

But, since the drinks came long before the food, so we've run out of drinks once we've finished eating.

The 'culprit' who finished up my drinks.

Thus, we want to re-order some drinks. And that took us a loooongggg time, and hubby punya Coke terus tak sampai. So tip no 2, compromise on the what to drink and order them in jar so you don't have to re-order. Apparently, re-ordering is out of the system. So, the possibility for the drink to arrive late (or not at all) is huge.

All in all, it was a good dinner and we had fun.

So go and have a try at this MuaraSeafood. The seafood is fresh plus you'll enjoy the sea atmosphere. I did.

In another weekend, just what we normally did, we paid a visit to KLCC. Kalau takde idea nak pergi mana je, pergi KLCC. Cuma this time around we brought our camera along and took photos everywhere and acted as though we are tourists from Singapore *LOL*. The thing is when you born, raised and still live in KL you tend to take things for granted. It's either you couldn't care less or you are just too shy to do it. But it's pretty sad when you look at your photo album, there's not even a single photo of KL's famous landmarks like KLCC for instance. And when you look at your MIL's album in kampung, they have photos taken infront of KLCC and you go something like this "Eh, eh, kita takde pun gambar dekat KLCC kan?!".

We want to make it happened that weekend. And also during the long holiday where we brought the kids to KLCC park where Abang Ashraff could burn his energy (yang banyak tu).

Now we have photos of KLCC in our album-:)

As for the park, Ashraff had fun running around and perspire badly (pecahkan lemak..as if he had any). One second he's here and the next second he's there. And Ayah has to do the chasing coz Ibu was tied up with Aliff - Aliff nak breastfeed, Aliff nak makan, Aliff nak tidur. Tough job for Ayah coz Ashraff lari laju. And menyelit pun laju coz he's small. Ayah? Hehehe...had trouble menyelit ok...So, not only Ashraff burnt his energy. Ayah pun.

Basically that's how we spent our weekends. Have fun in the city. We are running a frugal life now. Save and save and save. Ok, stop "poyo"ing and accept the fact. We need to save money for the holiday which is like in 4 months time. Yippee! So, for now kenalah bertahan...

Off topic. What do you get when you take Ayah's face, xerox it and reduce the size?
You get Aliff!!

Sebijik kan?

Dah 6 bulan dah?

Aliff is Half-A-Year old yesterday!

Rasa macam tak percaya. Day in and day out tetiba dah 6 bulan dah...

Here's some photos of the 6 months old chap with his brother, Ashraff...

Finally after 6 months, Aliff got his first taste of solid. Not a good one to start with. Ayah has brought all the essentials like n3stl3 plain rice and a bunch of other flavours but he left it at his office. Ibu, on the other hand, could not wait another day longer to feed him solid. So the only food we had was a teething biscuit we got from my friend son's birthday party. That becomes Aliff first meal...and we gave him at KLCC park yesterday. He loves every bit of it! But after few minutes nibbling on the biscuit, Aliff khayal and nak tertidur pulak...shessh! Mamat ni memang kuat tido! Balik dari KLCC, I asked Hubby to buy plain cereal for Aliff. Ibu dah tak sabar nak bagi Aliff makan, okay..So, I feed him the cereal later in the night, before he went to bed (mungkin not a good time to eat, but tak sabar punya pasal). It was much easier as compared to giving Ashraff his first meal about two years ago. Yang tu horror ok?! Like jerit-jerit, tarik bib, pegang tangan...macam berperang habis! But this one, is more in a tranquil mode. Probably he is much more ready to eat as compared to abang. Or probably he loves to eat, which is so unlikely abang. Another glaring contrast between Aliff and Ashraff . Nampaknya I have to deal with rainbow personalities from the two heroes. Sesungguhnya mereka berdua memang mewarnai hidup ini...Heh, emo pulak Ibu ni!

Happy 6mo son!

Moi, on a personal note, is thrilled that I managed to exclusively breastfeed Aliff for 6 months. Something which I thought was impossible to do but managed to pull through. Thanks for all the support I got from Hubby, Mak, Abah, my MIL, R1t@ from M0mslil0nes, friends whom I contacted during my initial days of breastfeeding (you know who you are). Thanks, thanks and thanks...

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Another little creation from my humble creative corner:-

Photo courtesy of Madam Izreen.

I did this for Hana's Baby Shower at Madam's adobe last Saturday. It's more of a pot luck thingy. This kinda pemalas lady when it comes to cooking really doesn't know what to cook and bring, so I ended up making this personalized chocolate wrap for the occassion.

Now, I'm working on few more designs for birthday parties and weddings. Saja suka-suka coz I love designing...graphic designing that is. And printing. And make something out of it...hehehe...

Oh, thanks Izreen for inviting me and my two boys to your lovely house. We had fun (except for Aliff yang starting to develop quite a severe strangers anxiety). And oh yes, I got to meet Zetty secara live for the first time. All these while, we just communicated thru blogging. And it was also my first time meeting Fina's charming Mr. Alex. Dah 7 bulan ok mamat tu. What else? Oh the food! How can I forget that. It's simply scrumptious - the asam pedas, the masak lemak, the curry, the brownies, the noodles, the veggies..ahhh...You guys are great cooks! Nasib baik I got my cranky Ashraff and clingy Aliff to stop me from eating non-stop.

Hope to see you guys again, perhaps in next gathering...

And now I'm looking forward to attend "ForumSuperMoms : MenjengahKeibuanSejati" co-organized by UKS, Munawarrah and Majalah Anis this coming Saturday at PJ. See whether I'm up to become the next SuperMom..hihi. And hope to meet some of the virtual friends I made thru UKS Y@h00gr0up.