Random

In couple of months, wouldn't I write in this space it just meant ONE year of shear neglect. Hmmm…. I blame Mr FB for that. It has taken all the glory on updates about Nada’s antiques, my past time favorites, our family stories bla-bla-bla. Hehehehe… what a lame excuse. But today, I feel like blabbering.. on random things.

• Alhamdulillah, I’d don the headscarf on Harris’s 43^rd’s birthday last year December,27. O Allah, please guide me.
  Hi-Tea at Hyatt in celebration of our little family only boy's birthday.

• My beloved grandmother, Mok had a mild stroke early this year. She fell in the bathroom. I was devastated. 

           -         Once got the news, I can say.. almost ALL, ALL of the family members from near                       and far drove, flew, swam (err…) back home to see her. We gathered around her,                       we talked to her, we cried near her.... together. I’m proud of my big family. 

-          She eventually ‘recovered’ but not fully. She now has short term memory which is so not her just a year ago. Sometimes, she remembers my name. Many times she forgets. It breaks my heart every time, for I’m a self proclaimed her favorite grand daughter!

-          Recently, she gave me 16 sets of her baju kurung all nicely paired and folded in plastic wraps. Reason – those kurongs are now too big for her that she has lost weight and in a way shrunk due to ageing. Those kurongs suit me well.. I know, I'm always her favorite grand daughter.

-        Now, at any possible opportunity we have - we will go back home to visit Mok. We here means, my whole big family.

I love these colorful photos of may be just 1/8 of my cousins taken during 2013 Raya at Mami's house. Many times, people tell stories of how close they are with their brothers and sisters. Not many however, can describe their cousins like my family do. 

• We threw Nada the first birthday party (which actually deserve an entry on it's own) she ever had at Jungle Gym Bangsar. My favourite girl is 6!

 She was excited about the party, she didn't mind at all to make her own invitation card,

helped with the making of goody bags.

• ·         Nada is soon to start ‘real’ school in 2015. Yikes! Really? She’s gonna be 7? S.e.v.e.n? 

•         My cousin Ika married in March.

and I was entrusted to make the flower girls dresses. 

•   Then another cousin, Shasha got married in May. They are same age and both are now preggars. 

 Shasha - didn't I tell you she has the most beautiful eyes. Those are real lashes..

I made Nada a special dress to wear for Shasha’s wedding.

• Ika’s two younger sisters, Nina and Mira got engaged. Both in August. It will be a busy year again next year for us.
• Mira’s engagement was held in my cousin, Feby whom is Mira’s other sister living near us in Ampang. Since my family somehow, is fond of cooking for our own family affairs, it was decided cooking to be done at our home. Hence, we were the co-host for Mira’s engagement dos.

• We went for a holiday trip in Krabi last April.

• I so love travelling and totally agree with Diyanazman, that travelling is the only thing that you buy and makes you richer. Even if one invest on a property, one remains 'poor' until one sell the property off.
• For the love of travelling – we’re planning for another family trip upcoming October. Oh – I’m so excited
• Speaking about travelling, my most-trusted-sought-after aunt, Busu and her husband are now in their most sacred travel, being one of the selected ones to perform Hajj this year. I pray for their health and may they be rewarded with Jannah.  
• Harris and I celebrated our 10^th year wedding Anniversary last August, 20^th.  It’s been fancy years living with this man so far. I love him.

• I sure made few handmade dresses for Ms Dew in the last 8 months or so, which I'll put up photos later if I have the time.

I'm still here

It’s been long.. It’s been long!

The blog sure needs some mowing. I could see not only grass has gone wild in this pasture but cripples too has conquered many parts of it.

So many things and events had taken place for the last 5 months or so, good, bad and the in between. But let’s leave the bad aside and just cherish the good ones because seriously, there're too many good ones that the bad one just seems unseen.

In the big family, we had weddings, engagements, Raya this year which was so much better than last year’s though I was forced to do office work during the break, welcoming new family members … among many more other happy events.

Yeah, I know... the one showing fist is mine....

 At 3.45kg, Zairoul Naquib. My cousin's or more like little brother's son.

 

In my immediate family, of course Nada has the most to tell about which I just do not know where and what to start.

She really talks a lot now – Malay and English equally used. Kelantan dialect, she’s trying so hard to master. Sometimes I just can’t seem to believe what came out of her 5 year old mouth.

On  one Sunday at Ikea, she missed the boat in her queue to enter Smaland by just couple of kids in front her. I told her the next session would be at 7.30PM which really boiled her up that she had to wait for another 1 ½ hour.

In a single breath, she just needed to let the steam out, almost shouted at me :

“This all your fault. Not my fault. Why do you come here late? I am so upset with you and angry. You stay away from me. Don’t come near me!”

… o my.. I almost crawled on my knees hearing she said that.

One night, out of the blue she asked us :

“When Mommy and Daddy were children, you meet is it? Then, did Daddy ask you – will you marry me?”

... like, why would she thought about it?

We celebrated our 9^th year wedding anniversary the night before 20.08.13 at home. Only us, where I bought a Baskin Robbins cake for the tiny celebration we had. 

 

However to Nada, all cakes are for her. Hence, she wasn’t happy that the cake was not meant for her, till the extend she sobbed so badly. I didn’t want her sulking for too long and told her that the cake was indeed for her.

 

You see, she needed an event for herself to be having the cake.

She asked me : “Why do you buy cake for me ? My birthday is in January. Now not yet January”

Clever mom I am, I told her : “O… I bought you the cake because you did well in your spelling bee at school.”

She was delighted with the explanation.

The next night, that is the actual day of our Aniversary, we had steamboat at Johnny’s we called it “NADA’S SPELLING TEST EXCELLENCE CELEBRATION DINNER” instead of Anniversary Dinner. Talking about the extent parents would do to make their kid happy, huh?

 

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Of course, handmade dos that I wish not to miss the blog.

I finally fixed Baby’s OR Ary's leg!

 
 
I also managed to make this cute baby smock romper for Baby Naquib…. And of course, a pair of cloth shoes to match. Owh.. I'm in love with that boy already.

 

I now can cross the ROMPER from my list.

Eid 1433H

How’s Raya everyone?

My Raya this year was a mix of  joy and also sorrowfulness as I anticipated.  Even I tried so much to put the energy to the joy, the grief is still in everyone’s eyes. I do pray hard things would change.

 

Our new-old pad is getting it's way with us scratching our heads hard for the moo-lah.

Photo just before breaking off for Raya.

 Yesterday photo of our backyard view from dining.

Nada said : "But this house got no playground, Mommy."
Mommy : "Owh.. you'll play in the backyard. Mommy will get a trampoline for you."
Nada : "Got mosquito here. Later I scratch my hand here-here-here. And you angry me."
Mommy : "Mommy will apply mosquito repellant on you."
Nada : "What's that? Mosquito spray-spray one?"
Mommy : "Hmmmm... " (dalam hati : ha-ah.. elok jugak, Mommy spray Ridsect, kurang sikit songheh)



Make over

I have a special attachment to this modest house. It is a home that I frequent ever since I was a child until now. We had Nada's cukur jambul ceremony here too.

It is my cousin's, Mentibang Paku's pad.  

For the last five months or so, it had gone through huge transformation and I have been.... none other than a busy-body. Saturday mornings after breakfast, it became a routine for us to visit the house under renovation. Many times, I made way alone after having a meeting nearby I am scheduled to have fortnightly. 

I'd like to thank Mentibang's family for bearing with me. There were occasions that I found out the contractor didn't really built according to the way I pictured it was supposed to be. I quickly drove over to my cousin's house and made such big complaint to her.

~ "Why there's a column there? It isn't supposed to be there....." bla-bla-bla

~"Why is the ledge like that? It's not supposed to continue all the way at front......" bla-bla-bla

As always, Mentibang is a very patient person and I guess  my complaint reached the pay master. Somehow or rather, things were fixed !

I am not sure if both of them agreed with me because I did make noise or they just don't want any hustle from me.

But I really hope, they trust me that I want their house nice.

Mr Mentibang is accommodating. When asked by the contractor if he wanted the roof as designed. His reply was "Just follow..."

When the contractor informed they already went to 10 building material shops to look for the item that I suggested to be incorporated into the design and they still couldn't find it, he himself made the effort to scout for it.    

~ yeah, the railings aren't there yet....

Congratulation Mentibang for the make-over. It may be different, but the soul and spirit of the home that I've known for 20++++ years is still the same. 

"school"

Couple of Saturday ago, we attended the regular bi-term Parent-Teacher Meeting (PTM) at Nada’s school.

I guess, I do owe a write up la about Kindicare Montessori & Pre-school. In case, someone google to find out about it, at least my experience herein could be made as guidance. Like la this blog gonna appear at all in google search…, I’ll write anyway.

When I was looking for a school for Nada to attend last year, I had in my mind something like NO FRANCHISE!. I am not sure of my own reason, but I am also not saying SMART READER, Q-DEES or the like are not good. It’s just the matter of choices we have. I just don’t fancy the sort of chain for pre-school.

Kindicare was introduced to me by a friend. I visited the school before enrolling Nada and it just fit into my wants and needs. It is a modest, small scale school with homely environment. Each class contains small numbers of children. The big part of me actually, I don’t really want to send Nada to ‘school’ as yet. That’s why I was avoiding those with daily uniform schools.

I remember myself being a free kampong kiddo, unschooling until primary. It was a fun childhood I had, tagging along my big brother everywhere he goes. I played a lot. Underneath our on-stilt-home, climbing trees, running in the meadow full of ‘kemuncup’, sometimes in the woods collecting rubber trees seeds, when monsoon season came – we played in the stagnant flood water! My brother would catch fish (read : tadpole and worms) or even did some stunt, doing summersault into man groove. I was his most trusted and loyal spectator. Dangerous it may seem, but it was F.U.N.

I enjoyed myself playing back then - I wanted the same for Nada because PLAY is a child’s job.

Would I been a SAHM or a WAHM, she would most probably be a homeschool or an unschool child. The fact that I am a typical 9-5 (read 10-9, sometimes 10-10) office working mom, I just don’t have the opportunity of providing the luxury of homeschooling. Quitting my job is an option but not really possible, I have my mami that is my responsibility all my life.

The fact that Nada is sent to an Indon Nanny while I’m at work added more points for her to be in a place where she could play, interacts, make friends, exploring creative minds and develops or else she’ll just watch Indon soaps on tele all day long. She needs to be at least in a more conducive environment, I hope so.

During my visit to Kindicare earlier, these were my questions :

1. Would there be homework ? Answer : NO
2. Would there be ‘examinations’? Answer : NO
3. Would there be grading of children, like No 1, 2, 3, 4….. in class? Answer : NO

All the NO answers makes me happy. I really don’t get it as to what is the need of homework, examinations and grading pre-school children? They are “babies”. It’s intimidating for me to hear parents telling me : “Ooo, my child got number ONE in his/her 3year old kindi”.

At this point, it’s not my objective to know if Nada is the smartest in class or less smart or least smart and I do hope it will never be my objective.

For now, all I want for her is to play like I used to. The difference would be the sorts of playing I had with her sorts and my play was free but hers is at cost! .. O, well…

I did ask a lot of questions and this one really got into me :

“ What happen if my daughter feels like taking a nap? ”

Aunty Jeane (the principal) gave me the most diplomatic answer : “Awwww… you’re not ready to let her go yet, don’t you? Not to worry, we have all the fun activities,  Nada won’t get sleepy.. trust me. Besides, a child shouldn’t be sleepy from 8am to noon. If she’s sleepy, that means her sleep routine is not right, mom! ” 

So, Kindicare offers the needs of what I was looking for in terms of it’s “syllabus”. But what actually captured my heart was the warmth of the teachers or all being called as Aunties. They are lovely, humble people, and they enjoy being around children, I can see. There’re a lot of hugs and kisses, dear and darling in their words.   

They also treat us parents with kindness no matter what car we are driving. J It so happen, every other kids’ parents drive or being driven in monsters the like Porshe, Beemers, Merce, Volvo, Audi, Vellfire bla-bla-bla. I am the cheapoket one, not wearing Christian Louboutin or Hermes… still very nicely treated.

Kindicare is also well-organized, Nada thus far never mistakenly brought back other children’s stuff or other way round such as bag, containers or water bottle. I don’t know how they manage it as no names written on any of the stuff being brought to school. What I do realize, they make it a habit to scrutinize every and each child every day. Example, when I hand Nada to them in the morning, there’ll be greetings like :

“Hi Nada.. Good morning darling.. hey look at you…..Today you are wearing plaid smocked dress. Did Mommy make this dress also? Is that new Barbie snack container you bring ?”…. Things like these, give me confidence.

I’ve experienced other nursery for a short period that I sent Nada when her Nanny returned to Medan, the very first day she came back home, all her stuffs were name written. Towel, milk bottle, milk dispenser, food container… yet they still got mixed up!

Nothing is perfect I would say. So far, there’s no big blunder that could make me angry except couple of small encounters at Kindicare. I didn’t receive school newsletter which in the later I checked, I was told it had been distributed. I couldn’t blame the school also, because it might had been given and dropped in the chartered car that ferries Nada after school or it could be at her Nanny’s. I don’t really know. It’s no big deal, anyway. Other than that, Aunty Jeanne is very-very careful and meticulous.

So, for this time PTM, we were briefed of Nada’s progress and what-not, which was fine.  

Until towards the end, Aunty Marie (the class teacher) told us, again in a very diplomatic way..

“Nada is an independent child, confident, she knows what she wants but……….. she’s rather BOSSY.” Toing! Tu… dia.

Apparently according to Aunty Marie, my girl has the tendency and very much successful in directing and ordering her friends around. She would get agitated if they don’t listen to her. OMG! whose DNA does she inherits here? I look at Harris…. Harris look at me.

OK-OK-OK –OK.. that would be Mommy.!

Aunty Marie also told us, despite her bossiness… she does have close friends (that she also directs around).  Three of them are clique. They play and learn together but they can never agree with each other. All have their own opinions. OOOOOhhhh.. This,……..Mommy like. Good!

My Saturday morning routine this couple of months. Inspecting my cousin, Mentibang Paku’s house renovation. I’ve been ordering the contractor, here and there, practically treating this house like mine. Mesti Cik Ripin berbulu dengan Mek.

Well, we have no money to renovate ours.. at least this feels like ours!.. hehehehe..

Harris sure can be awarded as Bapa Mithali. He let his daughter step on his foot not wanting her bare foot on the ground whilst little miss uses her slipper to play sand.

Could it be me, I would just shout : “ It’s OK !.. You sit on the sand, later wash your feet ! ”

She and her imagination

An unfortunate incident happened to my family last Saturday. My aunt’s house was broke in and the culprit whom could be depressed because he/she couldn’t find anything to his/her liking that he/she decided to burn down the house. Isn’t that so pathetic?

My aunt was away in Penang, she had to rush back home upon receiving the emergency call from concerned neighbours that the house was on fire. Of course, once she arrived, the fire was already put down by fire fighters, with signs of breaking in from roof top and a left opened back door. Though aggrieved with the mishap, I am grateful that my aunt and uncle are safe.

Receiving the bad news, my cousin just had to fly back to check out on her parents. Since, it would be a quick trip, she went back alone. Hence, for a while the children came over to our place for play dates.

Children conversations, I over heard :

+   Kakk Izz : Rumah Ibu Tok terbakar, kakak jadi doktor, abang jadi Bomba. (Grandma’s house on fire, I want to be a doctor and Bro Aqil is the fire fighter.)

+   Abang Aqil : Alllllllaaaaa….. Abang la doctor.. Kakak jadi Bomba (oh noooooo… I want to be the doctor, you are the fire fighter…)

+   Kakak Izz : Okayyyylaaaaaa….. Nada? Nak jadi apa. ( Nada? What do you want to be?)

+   Nada : Nada nak jadi Superman. Boleh pusing-pusing.. tiup asap!!! (I want to be Superman. Can spin around and blow off smoke!!!)

TOING ! my daughter and her wildest dream…

I hope they'll forever be close and loving to each other.

Nada loves to draw, though her drawings aren’t necessarily justifiable in our naked eyes

This is train or shinkansen (too excited for Japan?) with Mommy, Daddy all inside and she’s at the driver’s seat mending the steering wheel !

This is Princess with big eyes, multi-colored hair, frolicking under passing blue clouds.

And this one… I asked : “Ni apa Nada ?” (What's this Nada?)

She answered : “Ooooo…. Ni TV rosak… No service!”

Waaa… I was so pissed off ! sometimes ASTRO  can be extremely annoying with No Service tagline. Really got cut off in the anxiousness of Bree, Gaby and Lynette in Desperate Housewives last night. What did they see in the woods?

A dress and A game

Another dress in the making. Almost... almost..

My big family made a trip to Skudai for an engagement do recently. And I selected this photo shot by Harris as my favorite photo taken during the trip we made.

* Family

*Cousin nephew - Skinny-dark eldest of siblings, Aqil

*Cousin - Chubby-fair youngest of siblings, Zarif

*Kids = play is their job

*Love

*Happiness

*Game Fight

*Traditional Game - I used to play too

* OOOOO-Som! or Jusss!

*Bird, Stone, Plank, Water & Scissors. 

(Both Zarif & Aqil showing birds signs in this photo, so they are tied...)