There's something about...

…My Two Boys.

I have been blogging in my head for the last few weeks about the development of Ashraff and Aliff. Constructing sentences in the LRT, before I go to sleep, in the toilet..almost everwhere. Now that I have the time to actually blog, I seemed at lost. I just don’t know where to start.

Emmm…

Naturally, I’ll start with Ashraff.

Ashraff

He is currently 3 years and 10 months old.

As mentioned earlier, he has been sick on and off for the last few months (not a nice opening, I know). Not so much of severe fever, but more of runny nose, then proceed to coughing…and then ended up with mild bronchitis. He wouldn’t cure by its own without the help of antibiotic. Thus, depending on how often he fell sick, sometimes he has to take the next course of antibiotic in the span of two weeks gap. Tell me mothers, is it okay to take antibiotic that often?

As for development wise, he developed quite some skills and knowledge, thanks to the school, books and VCDs. He can count from 1-20, although he misses on few numbers like 13 and 15. I guess if the number is spelt out as “three-teen” or “five-teen” instead of “thirteen” and “fifteen”, I’m sure he’ll not miss those numbers. If the quantity of the object is less than 5, he can tell us the quantity without pointing at each object and count.

As opposed to numbers, Ashraff still has not recognized most of the alphabets. Yup, he’s improving as compared to before attending school, but I still feel he’s lacking in that area (or am I too enthusiast?). He doesn’t show us much interest until recently, where he’ll try to spell some of the words he found in his book. And I guess now he can figure out that when we mentioned “A is for Apple”, he actually have to look at the first letter to tell..and not the letter in between (got what I mean?). And then he will ask something like “S is for apa, Ibu?”…and I’ll have to give him some words as an answer.

Although he hasn’t reaches the age of 4 yet, but some kids I know has able to recognize alphabet well…and some even can read simple words. Ok, am I putting high hope on him should I expect him to read simple words by the end of this year (though I do not say that to him..i’m just keeping my finger crossed in silence)? Or at least spell out his name? Or am I freaking out here? Hahaha…

As for spoken language, I would say Ashraff’s English vocab expands tremendously. He can speak full sentence in English. And sometimes we had a conversation without one word of Malay coming out from his mouth. I’m quite surprise…sebab kalau nak ikutkan we mostly talk in Malay at home. He must have learnt it from school or the VCDs. But the thing I noticed recently is he’ll start changing the name he calls us to “mom” and “dad” everytime he speaks in English. Sekali dengan slang American lagi. Geli babe!

Ashraff also shows us some tremendous interest in animals. First, he loves to watch Animal Planet, his second option after Ceria. And it shall follow with a string of questions yang amatlah mencabar nak jawab. These are few questions that came out of Ashraff’s mouth:-

1. How does a fish sleep?

2. Caterpillar tidur kat mana? Grasshopper pulak? Kalau owl tidur kat dalam lubang kan? Ibu dia jawab,“errr…I guess.” (note to self : check the internet).

3. Mana ayah animal tu? Mana ibu dia? Yang kecik tu baby dia ke? Mana Ashraff dia? Aliff dia mana?

4. Kalau owl dia tidur siang ke? Malam dia tak tidur? Animal apa lagi tak tidur malam?

5. Kalau baby dog is puppy, baby wolf apa ibu? (is it a cub?)

6. Coyote dalam Melayu apa ibu?

7. Owl makan apa ibu? Bee makan apa? Macamana bee buat honey ibu?

8. Kat mana nak tengok dinosaur Ibu? Kat zoo ada tak? Dia big ke Ibu? (note to self : buy him Jurassic Park CD).

9. “Kita boleh pegang stingray tak ibu?”
Ibu dengan selambanya jawab, “Boleh!”.
“Mana boleh ibu. Stingray ada poison tau..kalau kena cucuk boleh mati.”
“Opps sorry..ibu lupa…Pandailah Ashraff ni”
Nice going ibu!

10. This is the best so far.
“Ibu, spider minum air apa?”
Ibu sambil berfikir spider minum air ke? menjawab “Air hujan”.
“Hah?! Ye ke ibu?”
Alamak ibu panic! “Kenapa Ashraff? Tak betul ke?”
“Kalau lagu itsy bitsy spider tu, spider takut air hujan..kalau kena rain, it will wash the spider out kan?”
Way to go Ibu! Siapa kata orang yang makan garam dulu akan lebih berpengetahuan? Emmm… I should stick to “Spider tak minum air kot. But Ibu’ll check.” Now I’m wondering, spider minum air tak?

One thing good about the exercise above, I got to find out the answers and at the same time brush up my knowledge in this department. I can’t remember being so inquisitive at this age. Yup, I do ask a lot I remember, but not so much of what I’d categorise as intelligent questions.

Ok everybody, Ashraff finally make friends with some girls in school. Let me see, we got someone by the name of Heidi, Aisya, Aliya, Sara, Amanda. Among the girls, Ashraff likes Aisya. Kalau tanya kenapa. Dia tak jawab. Anyway, I’ve met with Aisya. Cantik budaknya. Fair, long hair and has that Chinese look. Hehehe..

Now my very picky eater, has some favourite dishes as his meal. He loves to eat daging masak kicap..and anything that has ikan bilis. For him, kalau the dish takde rasa pedas, he’ll refuse to eat. Dia kena ada slightly rasa pedas. He told me that he refused to eat at school because “food dia takde cili”. Gee! Even his daging masak kicap, I have to tumis sedikit cili blend first.

Hmmm what else with Ashraff. Gaduh dengan Aliff, tetap. Tak nak share toys with Aliff, tetap. Kalau hitam kata dia maka hitamlah, tetap. Minum susu pakai botol, tetap.

Move on with Aliff…

Aliff

He is currently 1 year 7 months old.

He’s still breastfeeding, but now he has started to drink formula with chocolate favor. He doesn’t take it from bottle, instead he prefers drinking from a cup using a straw. Looks like he’s weaning from bottle very soon.

Now that he has started drinking formula, I’ve reduced my pumping time in the office from twice to once. I’ve also started to think how I can completely wean him from breastfeeding. I want to do it gradually so by the age of 2 he shall officially wean from bf. Ehem…I’m actually planning for a new baby. So far no sign yet. But Mak told me since I’ve pasang niat to bf Aliff till he’s two, so I presumed Allah has granted my wish by not making me pregnant before he’s 2 (of coslah dia belum 2 lagi). You know, there’s a big possibility I have to immediately stop him from bf once I’m pregnant..esp I have experienced the sign of miscarriage while I was pregnant with Aliff last time.

Eh, ni update pasal Aliff ke atau Ibu dia?

Back to Aliff. He’s thriving well. He eats almost anything. He is very adventurous in food tasting. He’ll taste whatever is in front of him, and if he dislikes it, he’ll spit it out. I remember with Ashraff, how he dislikes food so much at Aliff’s age, we have to force him to eat..and once the food is inside he’s mouth, he’ll immediately throw it out. We ended up having to bathe him as he vomitted lots of times. Gosh…those were the days.

Aliff, just like his brother, loves Ultraman. He’ll go “Hayak! Hayak!” all the way, complete with action and what not. Just like Ashraff, he can also follow in the tune of Ultraman’s song..altho his was a “pelat” version.

Talking about pelat, this boy is pelat babe! Boleh tahan pekat jugak. Sometimes tak faham satu hapah pun yang dia cakap. But he talks a lot. I remember Ashraff having very limited vocab at this age, but Aliff, he can construct sentences at this age. He can even ask “Ibu buat apa?”. And everyone will love him like hell whenever he said “Hi Ibu!” or “Hi Ayah!” with that big cheeky smile on his face. That smile yang sangat mahal as he doesn’t smile a lot. He doesn’t laugh as much and as loud as Ashraff either. Oklah maybe Ashraff is a bit too loud and extreme..be it laughing or crying…hahaha. With Aliff, if he laughs once in a blue moon, it is infectious. Everyone will laugh with him. He has that chubby cheeks yang memang sedap untuk dicium..altho unlike Ashraff, he hates to be kissed. Ashraff is kissable and huggable. Ashraff loves to rub nose with me, something that I did since he was small. With Aliff, he hates it!

Now Aliff, as compared to Ashraff, is pretty hard to teach dual language. Ashraff at this age can use both Malay and English interchangeably. But Aliff, if he associates an object with a word, he refused to associate the same object with another word i.e. another language. He’ll usually follow the first word that we teached him. If it’s Malay, then it’s going to be forever the Malay word. Contoh macam “buku”, is forever going to be “buku” (so far) and mata is always “mata”. We tried to teach him to say “book” or “eyes” but he refused to budge. Dia akan cakap “mata, mata mata” or “buku, buku, buku”je. But if the introductory word is English, so English it is. “Lizard” and “Cat” are some of the words that he’ll say in English. He’ll never say ‘cicak’ or ‘kucing’. So spending most of his times with bibik, u can guess lah bahasa apa yang dia mostly cakap…yup, Malay with Indon slang. Damn!

In this area, I usually seek for Ashraff’s help. I told him to speak English with Aliff. So at times I overheard him speak to Aliff “Talk in English, Aliff. Not “dua”, but “two”.

This may be my instinct as a mother, but maybe Aliff is not of a linguistic person like Ashraff. Instead he is very good with his hands. He can open almost any packaging, no matter how tightly sealed the packaging was. Patience is his virtue. He can sit for hours dismantling stuffs and constructing things. Ashraff has never had that kind of patience. Kalau suruh buat tu semuanya “Ashraff tak pandai bukak. Ashraff kan kecik lagi”. *Roll eyes..roll eyes* But, you see, having kid which is good with his hands at Aliff’s age, lots of stuffs are destroyed. Bedak berterabur, air dalam botol tumpah, minyak masak baru beli sikit lagi nak tumpah..eh banyaklah kejadian yang catatrophic berlaku…hehe…

Now about teeth..hmmm…I can’t tell how many teeth he actually got but what I can see is only 8 teeth. Maybe he has few gigi geraham at the back, but I can’t really see. Asking him to open his small and pouty lips is a major dreadful thing to do. He’ll throw tantrum for sure.

About taking medicine, gosh with Aliff, susahnya nak bagi makan ubat! Ashraff senang sangat! Bukak mulut, terus telan. Takde nangis, takde jerit. With Aliff, susahnya! Menjerit2 macam kena pukul. And he’ll gurgle the medicine, refuse to swallow and sembur balik kat muka kita. Bengang ok! Yang peliknya, bila kita tekan hidung dia, tak jugak dia telan ubat tu. Nasib baiklah dia jarang sakit.

Now about TV time. Just when I thought I’ve passed that The-TV-is-Mine-24/7 stage with Ashraff, Aliff is now entering the same stage. Rasanya baru 6 bulan I berjaya negotiate with Ashraff on TV time. Tiba-tiba sekarang I have to berebut dengan Aliff pulak. There were few times, he was mad when I switched off the DVD player and turned on my program. And I’m expecting that kind of behaviour to be intensified in a few months time. Looks like I could never watch my program with the kids around.

Emmm…I guess that’s all about the boys.

Wow, finally I’ve updated about them. I’m glad.

As for me pal, I’m a very busy woman. Office work is hell! I’ve applied for transfer. Tengoklah kalau ada rezeki, maybe I can be transferred to a lesser busy department. Or at least, a department where I don’t have to deal with external clients. Babe, tak larat melayan kerenah client ni…And oh, guess what, 3 pregnant ladies in this department have now miscarriaged. Yang sedang mencuba pulak, tak melekat2. Must be the stress. I have to do something…kalau boleh, taknaklah stop at 2. I want baby no 3, babe..Hoping for a girl:)