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.