ihtifal countdown

azraf is having his ihtifal this saturday.

he's been practising hard, he has to do hafazan. the first time he was given alhumazah. but he kept forgetting the name of the surah and also the beginning, and he kept asking the teachers "teacher, I want to change surah." and I think he just blanked out on this since it was actually given after an "audition." so now he has an-nashrah. which he is also so worried lest he forgets he's asking to go first.

he also is doing a magic show which papa taught. teacher lin taught him this script "do you want to see this again?" and during practise, when teacher lin prompted him to say that, instead of repeating after her, he's reply "don't want" and went off the stage!

that little boy

is not so little anymore....

najwan is just growing by leaps and bounds.

last night, as syakira, amjad and hania were playing batu seremban (five stones), he thought his kak ngah was cheating, and he chanted out "ayooo, kak ngah dosa!"

he's getting bits and pieces of the alfatihah. he'll recite that when he is praying (ajen's style), and if you listen closely, there are legible phrases here and there. he now has the doa before eating and doa before sleeping down pat. ok, so maybe we *all* need to remember to recite the doa after eating too.

he's claiming ownership to abang de's bicycle, now that he can ride it. he's not cycling the full circle yet, but enough to get him moving pretty quickly on the bike.

but he's also learning pretty quickly that the easiest way to get his way is to bawl out! ouch!!!!

oh, and he has times he refuses to wear the diaper, but doesn't quite remember to hold his pee until he gets to the toilet, much to the chagrin of the older ones who have to wipe the floor! so we're not being quite as supportive as we might be to his initiative to go diaperless :).

the future zoologist

Azraf has been pestering us for pets. Rabbits, birds, hamsters, you name it. And when we went last raya break to KB, he was playing with tok ayah's baby goats and wanted to bring one home with us.

The pictures spoke for themselves.

boys and cars

what is it with boys and cars?

hania couldn't tell a kancil from a kenari, and like she even wants to, but najwan will go 'perdana!' 'citra' 'lisa' 'keta abah' 'ami' when he sees the respective makes of the car.

sure it's currently limited to cars he often sees family members drive, but then he is only a tad under 2 1/2 year old. I didn't even realize someone in the first block of 1/5 has an odyssey until najwan kept saying 'keta mama' every time we passed the house. and sure enough, they do own an odyssey.

and all hot wheels, if possible, are now 'adik nya'.

sahur time

the first day of ramadan, all the kids woke up for sahur. azraf and najwan -- not by design obviously, but they woke up. alhamdulillah, they didn't get up the following days.

hania woke up pretty perky for the first two days. that was good. and then she had a difficult time with sahur. with eyes still shut while sitting, papa had to feed her. but at least it wasn't taking her an hour to finish her sahur! after the kebelai thing the first day, she had to take in tamar and also a glass of pedia sure in addition to the rice and water.

amjad still moody but he's getting better day by day, I just have to make sure everything is ready before waking him up. His MO -- get up, wash face, eat, go right back to sleep. waiting for his sahur is a big no-no.

showing his fangs?

the other night, Papa brought the mail in and handed a few to Najwan, telling him "give to mummy." Najwan went "tak nak." Papa repeated the request, Najwan went slightly farther away from Papa and said, "An De."

oh yeah, this boy will give us a merry time.

the little pond in the house is now practically storage space after being dry for so long. when there was water in it najwan would go in. so Papa had it drained. then it became najwan's trash area, we'd find little pieces of rubbish or fruit pits or half-eaten stuff, all courtesy of you-know-who.

we've successfully kept things away from the kids by putting them on the upper storage space in the kitchen. this little boy? hmm... he'd push the stool, and climb up the counter top to try and reach that.

azraf wants a smiley so here it is :)

ramadan mubarak

alhamdulillah, ramadan is here again.

amjad still has difficulties waking up for sahur. he'll wake up easily, but he'll be moody for the whole meal and will go right back to sleep afterwards. the plan to study after sahur? at least for these past two days, that remained a plan.

hania surprised us by being very okay during sahur. but yesterday, the first day, dia realy kebelai. but she didn't want to break her fast before time. her lips were truly colourless at iftar, but half an hour later, they turned rosy again. let's hope she'll only get stronger after this.

syakira and syazmi, as usual, have no problems waking up for sahur, and so far are doing okay for the fast.

azraf wants to join the club. so today, he is supposed to start 'fasting' after his lunch. that way, he can join the others in the joy of iftar. we'll see how he does. he wants to do it the whole day, but getting him up for iftar would be a chore -- this is a boy who has much difficulty waking up for school at 7.45, so his 'sahur' will be during his lunch.

najwan is simply enjoying all the food for iftar and having everybody around pandering to his whims more hours of the day.

this and that

so someone complained I haven't updated the blog in ages (probably the only other person who reads this blog :)).

life is simply, thankfully, busy.

work-wise, I think everyone is trying to get things in before Ramadhan.

Home-wise, the kids had more break than necessary. After the 1-week school break, it was the Merdeka celebration week, so no real classes then, and we took Thursday off to go back to KB. Then it was UPSR, so they had three days off school.

oh, our baju raya are ready. we have started shopping for other raya clothes too. and I don't care if people say 'but it's not even ramadhan yet!'. so ??? I'm not that young anymore to be going around during ramadhan with 4 kids in tow getting their stuff together. or we'll just call it getting more raya-smart now :), break the preparation in small steps so it doesn't pull you down.

ugh, now if only I can get someone to change the duit raya -- my least favourite raya task.

seems to be off on a tangent, so this is it for today, just want to start getting into the blogging groove again.

papa's home --not

so there were a few times papa and ibu came home together.

and now when ibu gets home, najwan -- who invariably is the one opening the door -- sees ibu and promptly says 'papa?' and looks beyond ibu for papa.

hello????

maidless again

this was so not expected.

but sahrim's family called and asked her to go home, her mom's condition had worsened to the point she wasn't taking in anything anymore. this was saturday during maghrib.

so called mama, after she checked there was a flight to lombok everyday, we all went over to bangi. drove at 4am to the airport and got her on standby, the flight was fully booked, the officer said we'd know by 7, the flight was at 8. that was a long time to wait but then we had to, so we waited. alhamdulillah, at 5 he came and said there was a cancellation and there was a seat for her. it was an open ticket valid for a month.

this was yesterday but when you start your day at 3:45 am, it had seemed like a very long yesterday. back from the airport, went to pasar borong selangor, did the marketing, so had to deal with putting those away when we got back.

mimi was sick today so the kids stayed home with her the whole day. when I got back, we went to go to the ustazah's house. upon returning, I discovered they had boiled water and left it on when we went out!!!! definitely not ready to stay home by themselves. mummy had cooked already but the boys decided to cook maggi and that was what they feasted on.

najwan had on tshirt and shorts that totally clashed. not that that really would have been that much different if kakak were here, he is now in the phase where he's choosing his own clothes, and then becomes very adamant with his choice. the "i do it" phase -- but that deserves a post by itself.

amjad's bicycle

I had a call at almost 3. Syazmi asked, 'abang ada call ibu?' I said no.
Syazmi: angah cakap ni ibu jangan panik tau.
Ibu: Kenapa?
Syazmi: abang kena langgar kereta.

seram sejuk, tersirap darah. more details.

they were on the way to mengaji. syazmi went the long route, amjad took their usual short cut. that was when he got hit.

not quite sure of the details here. but the short of it, the person came out, took a look at her car, then asked if amjad was okay and went on her way!!!! grrrr!!!!! the boy tried to bring his crooked bike to the ustazah's house but it was too much for him so he left it there and walked the few meters.

apparently someone else saw it, called the ustazah and even gave the registration number of the car and when the ustazah asked if onyone was hit, amjad raised his hand and that was when the others realized it. the ustazah sent him home later, syazmi and hazmi and some others brought his bike to ustazah's house.

I cut short my appointments, and went home, he was asleep then. saw the lacerations on his chest. ouch! then went to see the ustazah. saw the sorry state the bike was in, the tires were both crooked, and other things (don't know the names of the bicycle parts) but in short it looked bad. just made me doubly glad he was okay.

took him to the clinic. he checked out okay. but wondering if we should go and get him a chest x-ray tomorrow. we'll see how he is overnight I guess, he refused the dr's offer for mc.

papa went to bring back the bicycle from the ustazah's house. she said the person called her and asked if she should replace the bike. papa said we were very concerned because of the lacerations and bruises on him, and ustazah was surprised to hear those. i still can't believe the person left amjad, as much as he got up by himself, I would think you would at least want to see him safe to his destination, if not actually take him to the clinic yourself.

abah wanted to stop the kids from mengaji, we'll just let them walk for now. not really to punish them but we're just a bit jittery for the time being.

alhamdulillah, given the state of his bike, I just can't be thankful enough to Allah for keeping amjad safe. if the car had hit his leg, he'd probably be in a cast right now. a lot of ifs so we're really just so thankful he's alright.

do we need another bed?

actually, the right question to ask is "do we need a bed?" and the resounding answer seems to be "not at all."

went to say good-night to the kids and lead their doa going to sleep, they were all huddled on a comforter on the floor, nobody wants to be on the big bed by themselves.

the bed doesn't quite get the same blast of the air-cond.

oh well.

counting with najwan

it used to be: aa, ee, oo (1, 2, 3 --the sounds were really unrecognizable, it was the tone of the voice and the context).

then he got so much better. it would go like this.
ibu (or others): one
najwan: two
ibu: three
najwan: four
ibu: five
najwan: six
ibu: seven
najwan: eight
ibu: nine
najwan: (pause) TEN!

but only when he felt like it, sometimes he'd just pretend not to hear us.

and then this week, he got either lazy or way too smart. this is how it goes.

ibu (or others): one
najwan: two, four, six, eight, TEN!

we'll just go with way too smart and say our precocious two-year-old is counting by 2's! :)

of course it's about najwan

since he's having so much fun in front of me right now.

the phone in the tv rang, and he goes, "hello."

abang is doing his science. and now he's asking najwan to show parts of the body, with najwan faithfully repeating the words.

he is also such an echoer. he usually echoes the last two words we say, whether we are talking to him or not.

mata -- kelip mata; nose -- point to nose; ear -- point to nose (alamak!), tangan -- shows his hands.

he is also into singing. sometimes he sings himself to sleep first. yesterday at 5 am, he woke up and wanted his milk. Upon finishing, he started singing and talking to himself. I was like 'alamak, don't tell me he is waking up for good already!' I pretended to be asleep, and soon, he was also fast asleep. alhamdulillah.

he just took abang's eraser and threw it away. abang asked him to pick it up and he did. if it were his other siblings, a fight would have broken out. Najwan has just gone to the TV and switched it off. Azraf went 'adik, NO.' he switched it on again while laughing gleefully.

the boy is getting away with a lot of stuff. he just pulled Amjad's hair. but yeah, he didn't get yelled at. Abang just messed up Najwan's hair, so najwan thought that was a fun game.

gotta have to learn how to put up a video file or at least an audio file and put up his laugh up here.

this is how he calls the others : 'aBammmm' 'NiOOOO''bang de...' 'alom' 'angAHH' 'kak te'.

pre-"confinement" shopping

The big day is two days away, if you don't count Saturday itself.

Ibu usually goes shopping before giving birth since during confinement you can't go anywhere, so it's only fair the boys get to do a little shopping before their post-khatan 'confinement.' :)

So we went to Jusco for the boys to get a game to keep them occupied, since according to Amjad, they really wouldn't be able to sit in front of the computer playing games then (I wouldn't know, the mechanics sort of elude me at the moment :)).

It took them AGES to pick out something. After going round and round the toy section -- I even offered to take them somewhere else -- they finally decided on a remote control car each.

And then it was time for IBU to go shopping :).

Let's just say I think it was pretty fun going shopping with 10 year old boys. They can carry stuff for you, and you don't have to be constantly on guard watching them -- just trust they will follow you! Of course, Syazmi had to drop the goggle I was going to buy and we couldn't trace it back so I didn't get the goggle. But we bought clothes for the kids and a few other small stuff.

Then we went to Ampang Point to buy CDs for the school trip tomorrow. And then went to have the car washed.

Syazmi was keeping track of the odometer. On the way home, he said, 'eh, we've been going round and round but the number has changed only a bit.' and then he corrected himself, 'oh, we've been moving but the car has not' (yalah, masa dok pusing dalam shopping complex, kereta dok kat car park).

They have their packing to do and I think they're set for their big day.

waiting for the big day

Insya-Allah, if all goes well, the boys will finally get their hearts' desire to be circumsized.

Sounds weird to look forward to something that scares other boys but I think having had it postponed time and again, they're thinking -- finally!

Hopefully, they'll be okay with it. I am clueless what post-khatan caring entails, and after asking around, I think I'd prefer to remain clueless!

It will be on Saturday afternoon, at Grandma's and Atok's place. We'll be going back Friday night, lunch and doa selamat on Saturday and khatan after Asar.

the sick bay is busy

it started with Amjad getting mumps three weeks ago.
then when we got back from KB, Amjad was okay, but not the others.
We got here on thursday. Najwan started running a bit of a temperature Friday. Friday night Najwan and Azraf were tossing about.
Saturday morning we took them to the clinic. Saturday afternoon Hania started running a temperature so we took her later that afternoon. The dr was like 'what's happening to you people.'
Sunday Syakira started running a temperature and we took her to the clinic.
Syazmi was like 'yeah, I'm the hero.'
Then everyone was okay for a couple of days.
It was just the lull before the storm.
Syazmi started complaining his jaw area was hurting. Argh! It turned out he had mumps. Apparently, Amjad picked it up from school, then he must have passed it back to school because another boy had mumps in-between him and Syazmi. (their class has now had 4 boys down consequetively -- they're #2 and #4).
Then Azraf contracted mumps also.
So current count, we still have two staying home from school. And keeping a close watch on Syakira who wasn't feeling very well yesterday.

happy mother's day :).

maidless

last night, we sent their kakak sahrim to mama's house. she left for a months' break back to lombok.

so our adventures begin.

the kids, all except for najwan, are independent enough. and there's mak ngah, so we're not like totally in a bad shape.

but there's still one week of class to get through, and mummy has 2 projects, and papa's leaving for india for a few days in april (that china trip had better be a joke!) so we're still not just sitting pretty....

last night, before going to sleep, amjad reminded me to be up early as kakak would not be downstairs with him. that was okay since I had an early class anyway. left the alarm on for papa just in case, so that he could get azraf ready for school on time.

there's been a few phone calls already this morning.

oh, I forgot to remind amjad to take out the clothes from the washing machine and hang them when he gets back from school.

amjad practised ironing his own clothes two days ago.

tying shoe lace

this morning, amjad proudly told me, "i can now tie up my shoe lace."

amjad is 10.

how times change. when we were in school, of course one of the most important things we have to learn before going to standard 1 was how to tie up our shoe laces. the teachers were not going to tie up our shoe laces for us if we didn't know how. those who had that pre-velcro type of shoes then were the 'rich' kids.

now, the only shoes these kids want to wear to school are velcro shoes. like we're going to buy them anything else -- it's not that we're richer, but velcro shoes are now the same price as laced shoes, and we'll by-pass the hassle of teaching the kids how to tie up their shoe laces and worse still -- hunting for lost shoe laces!

the other kids have yet to realize that there are shoes with laces.

the climber and the aper

= the monkey???

this may sound bad, but najwan is such a monkey boy at times! Such a cheeky monkey boy that he's getting away with everything!

everything like eating only the middle of the cucumber and then offering the outer ring to others.
... like drawing his hand and legs with whatever writing utensils he manages to get his hands on.
... like climbing up the stool and the breakfast table while others are eating
... like insisting on eating (again!) when others are eating
... like joining someone who's already praying by praying in front of that person
... etc etc

he's now in two-word utterances. so far, it's just combining 'nak' + 'noun'.

he'll also try to imitate whatever sounds he hears. he can do longer imitations now and not just the last syllable.

oh yeah, he's growing up.

my baby will be 2 in 2 1/2 weeks time.

midnight sojourn

najwan has gotten a new habit this past two weeks.

at around 4 am, he'll wake up, and presumably looks around and finds that only his siblings are in the room, and starts bawling.

the first few times, it was usually hania who would wake up and bring her brother to our room. if the door's locked, you can hear her knocking and saying -- adik najwan kat luar ni. as if we wouldn't know since he would be bawling all that time.

the past few nights, hania found her way to our room earlier than najwan. but najwan has learnt to make his own way to our room and climbed on the bed, while bawling.

last night, it was even merrier, shortly after najwan bawled and wriggled his way to our bed, amjad came to pick out his own spot.

the sniffles

najwan had the sniffles last week.

azraf caught it this week and some. he had the high temperature and also the cough. hmmm... well, it has been some time since he last saw his dr aminah. so he's been out of school this week. but he'll probably be well enough to go on the school trip to the national library this friday :).

najwan still has the sniffles, but alhamdulillah, that didn't seem to bother him much. he's just a trite jealous when abang de gets to be carried here and there (kaki bang de sakit huk huk ...) but he's too busy climbing here and there and going 'cicakmaaaan' to really make an issue of it.

hello.......

recent phone conversation with 2005 babies.

syameel

syameel: lo
me: hello, syameel.
syameel: [silence]
me: panggil mama.
syameel: lo.

najwan

me: hello
abang/kak ngah/kak de etc: ibu, tunggu kejap ya, adik nak cakap.
me: ok
najwan: HELLO
me: hi sweetie.
najwan: dah. [hang-up]

growing up...

Syira registered into SBPI Gombak yesterday. It's close enough for weekly visits (even our drive to work takes much much longer!), but still, an asrama penuh is an asrama penuh. But the parents and the girl seem pretty happy, after all, she so wanted to go to boarding school. But it's only another 10 days before the school holidays so it shouldn't be too bad. She didn't call home last night so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Kak de and Kakak cried.

Last night, Hania decided she wanted to sleep in her own room. Kakak slept with kak de, so she had the room all to herself. Last weekend, she was upset that the new shelf was put into the boys' room, so Papa said, well, you weren't sleeping in your room anyway. But to appease her, we put another shelf in her room, and she could put her stuff there without having to deal with the boys. I guess last night was fulfilling that promise made to us that on her own free will. But I did wake up in the morning feeling slightly disoriented, I guess ibu got so used to waking up with her snuggling beside me since she inevitably wakes up in the middle of the night, comes to our room and snuggles in. Notice the present tense -- I'm not sure if she's going to stay sleeping through the night in her own room, or if I want her to!

Azraf is 5

Happy birthday abang de!

our valentine baby turned 5.

weeks before his birthday, he's been trying to decide what the perfect birthday present for him would be. one day it was a bicycle. then it was a skateboard -- especially after amjad got one for his birthday. then a remote control car. then a scooter. etc etc. some days he tried to cajole us into buying him all of those!

we still haven't bought him a present yet. it really doesn't matter much to them when they actually get the present, the anticipation and the planning are just part of the fun.

we did do a little party at home as usual. the usual cake cutting and a bit of a part pack for the other kids. nobody felt they were too old for a party pack -- not even along.

azraf has decided since I couldn't be in school for his birthday, he'd do the one in school on feb 15. that's two cakes. of course he's thinking of another one where he'll ask kakak sufeeya to come also. that's three.

but at least amjad didn't insist on giving out part packs to his whole class. yesterday, a girl celebrated her birthday and to the delight of the rest of the class, she gave out mcdonald's party packs to everyone -- all 42 of them!

counting

'k', 'n' tee'

that's najwan counting 'one, two, three'

not sure where those 'k' and 'n' sounds come from but we realised he was counting when Amjad and Najwan were playing pass the ball over the weekend, and he would 'count' before passing the ball to Amjad, with the intonation as we would count 123.

when I took him and Amjad to UM, we had to negotiate all these steps, and he started counting everytime we go down a flight.

oh, and whenever I started the engine, he'd put up his hands for dua and started saying 'Allah...', definitely worked as a reminder for dua boarding vehicle, but of course when we're still reciting it, he'd decide he's done and say 'amin.'

2 for a while

Hania and Azraf went with Papa for a project visit with RSP from Feb 1-Feb 3. Amjad opted to stay home so he could do the rentas desa. So we had two kids each.

Thursday late afternoon, Amjad was already restless, 'boringlah ibu.' At bedtime, he became wistful thinking of his two siblings. No pushing around and squeezing around trying to jostle for sleeping space! And like telepathy, they chose to call then. But yeah, it was somewhat quiet, especially on Saturday afternoon, as Mummy and the gang went back to Segamat.

Amjad has decided it is more fun when there are more people around. They may annoy you at times, but they also make the best buddies.

the climbing boy

najwan climbs everywhere.

he's now able to climb up the stools in the kitchen, and then up to the sewing table --argh!

he was climbing at the *outer* edges of the staircase.

he tried to climb up the chest of drawers, and we were all lucky it didn't fall on top of him. the moment it started teetering, he was off like a shot.

he climbs up the magazine rack to play with stuff on mummy's side console.

he climbs up to the attic.

he climbs up bicycles.

you get the picture.

once, we put pieces of the feather duster on those places, and he stayed away from them. but it worked only ONE day until he decided it was really only feather duster, it only slightly tickled, but if he pushed it away with his hand, it wouldn't tickle anymore. so much for that one.