Wednesday, July 30, 2008

that boy thing

no idea if it's really a boy thing.

so azraf was sitting and talking to ibu.
najwan was sitting beside him, he suddenly got up and stood with his back to abang de.
we continued talking.
suddenly, 'pot' and gleefully, najwan sat down again.
sungguh kurang sopan.

and this has to be a boy thing --

najwan was lying down after finishing his milk. me, on the 'net. and he volunteered, 'jen main pepet.'

alamak!

and abang de was sitting, najwan came by, and abang de got mad 'jen tak malu, ibu, adik pegang pepet abang de.'

*sigh* it is the stage though.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

more on hajj

so as per letter received, we went to the tabung haji office to process our hajj passports.

as the lady was scrolling down computer list, she said 'still on standby right?'

so we said yes. I asked when would we know for sure, she said towards the end of ramadan.

so we went through all the process. She counted out the 10 small-sized pictures and 2 visa-sized pictures, checked our particulars, had the passports printed and pasted our pictures and then put on the protecting sheet. then we had our thumbprints checked on the mykad system and then we had to put down 4 prints. we didn't get the passports though, they kept it.

anyway, then all done, she got up and went to a box, and came back with 2 stainless steel bracelets (gelang haji), and asked us to check our particulars etched there. After checking it, we passed the bracelets back to her, and she said, oh, keep it, it's for you to wear in kelana jaya. and we went blank. kelana jaya? wasn't that the haj trip? so she said, you have an 80% chance of going, and then she asked us what package we're going with. so we said rayhar. and she said, hmm rayhar's bags are purple, so I'm going to give you the red ones, you'll get the purple ones from rayhar. and she also gave us an armful of books on hajj.

I asked about when would we actually know since there's the leave application to do, so she said the last week of ramadan, we should get the flight details already and we can get the letter issued so that the HR can start the leave process.

I'm now like, this is more yes than no, not a mere standby but make arrangements for going. Now it's like you want it so much and it looks so 'yes' already but you're just so afraid to grab it coz Allah might have other plans for you actually.

Have started to prep the kids though... and also the mummy next door!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

fasting

the kids are fasting.

no, it is not yet ramadan, but the kids wanted to fast for rejab. I know, wow! it has taken me 30+ years to actually fast in rejab that is pure sunat and not qada'.

last monday syakira fasted. today thursday hania fasted. Impressive!

and the girl who had a hard time keeping her eyes open for sahur last ramadan last night did not require much effort waking up, munched without much fuss on her french fries, drank her milk and went back to sleep.

she was ready for iftar at 6:50 pm, although iftar was at 7:30.

when there's a will...

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

hania's teka-teki

buah apa paling berani.

give up? ibu give up?

buah pisang lah, sebab jantung dia kat luar.

and the 'l' is misplaced to

every weekend there's a person seeling jackfruit in BA. when we pass her, najwan would always request 'nak nangkel' and the others would burst into laughters 'nangka lah adik.' so he would dutifully repeat 'nangkel'.

ohmigosh, drawing a blank, he has 'l' added at more words but brain going into shut down mode.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

hajj 1429

we got a letter to go in and process our hajj passport -- signature and thumb print. we also need to bring in *14* passport-sized photographs, white background, and 2 slightly bigger sized photographs for visa purposes.

that would be on 29 july (tuesday).
the hajj intensive course is on 6 & 7 Aug at the masjid negara.

we still haven't received any letter that we're going, but this is a step nearer, insya-Allah.

we also have finished our sunday haj classes. when we started in march, 18 weeks sounded like a long time, and suddenly it's like -huh, over already? it ended with forum perdana on saturday night and qiamullail later that morning at 3.30am. I didn't go to the forum as there was a wedding, so Amjad went with papa. And only papa went to qiamullail as najwan was running a temperature last night and he was sleeping fitfully and kept wanting to be held as he kept complaining he was cold. we got a set of kain ihram for papa and telekung set for ibu.

of course the kids, even hania, became very curious -- why is papa getting a towel?

side note: as I'm writing this, hania is singing and azraf is complaining 'kak ngah nyanyi nanti hujan.' not that it bothers her a whit.

the problem with 's'

more najwan speak.

smajid! smajid kistal!
spater.
spatik.
speto peto.

translation.

masjid! masjid kristal!
plaster.
plastik.
sos tomato.

amjad used to have problems with his s at this age too, of a slightly different kind.

e.g. scooter -- cooster

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

pen drives

no kids post.

but just grumblings. sure, I'm happy to have pen drives, I can fit in lots of files in one drive, and since it's physically small, I can put a few of the min my handbag with no noticeable effect.

and there-in lies the problem.

ok, which drive is it in? this one? hmmm no, this one then, hmm no...

oh shoot, it's in another pen drive which is in my office. ok class, you guys just hold on while I go get it.

aghh!!! where is that pen drive?

etc etc etc

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

najwan and solat

when the others take their wudhu', he insists on taking his wudhu' too. actually, sometimes he just does it on his own. when we hear the stool being dragged to the sink, that's najwan taking his wudhu.' he does the whole thing -- face, hands, hair, ears, legs except tertib :).

his solat will depend on his mood. if he feels like following others for the whole 3 or 4 rakaat, he'll do the whole thing. sometimes he'll just do one, sit for his tahiyat and gives the salam and 'dah, adik solat dah.' sometimes he'll pray on his own.

mummy has 'banned' him from solat jemaah @ #43 coz the kids all burst out laughing.

he's getting much better though. abah likes to take him to the surau.

last night, he decided to say his isya'. he was only wearing his pajama top and diaper.

kak ngah: eee, tak tutup aurat.
najwan: ha-ah, solat kena tutup aurat kan.

and he proceeded to do his solat :).

Sunday, July 13, 2008

durian, durian, durian

after getting the invite every year, this year our calendars matched enough to make the track to suri's home in melaka for some durian binge. not exactly a binge, a binge was when we were small and had load of durians at home every day, but i digress....

anyway, for some nice pix, courtesy of kamaruld, go to http://flickr.com/photos/ks08 and click the durian fest @ suri.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

marbles -- version 20098

the craze is b-daman. (google it and you get the idea)

everybody except nia and najwan has it.

what is it? main guli. main guli! what happened to the plain old using your hands to shoot marbles? no, no, you have to buy b-daman (RM8-RM20+, take you pick) spend hours assemblying it (ok, can live with that, eye-hand coordination and all that stuff), and then drive ibu crazy with all the marbles going around.

too bad if you plan to play congkak, not enough marbles courtesy of b-daman.

pokemon? what pokemon? cool kids today know all the name of b-daman. and yes, the two older boys are proud to be one of those cool kids.

Monday, July 07, 2008

mix it yourself

went out to the kitchen, and najwan was smiling ever so proudly. uh-oh. there he was, with his hands in the milo jar, making his own milo. and no, thank you, i can do it myself.

and oh ibu, i'm done making the milo, please clean up. (yes, he actually said as he was carrying his cup inside -- ibu kesat ya)

Thursday, July 03, 2008

jen and nia

kak ngah and najwan can bring the house down.

kak ngah knows very well which button to push with ajen that the cry "kak ngah buat!!" is like a mantra for najwan. it has to be, when even when kak ngah is miles away, anything that makes him cry is because "kak ngah buat!!"

yesterday, najwan must have felt a bit uncomfortable when he woke up, he started to cry, and then suddenly burst out "kak ngah buat!!" yeah right, kak ngah is fast asleep in the sofa downstairs.

but today hania came home from school with a temperature. so she was feeling down, and just sitting there on the sofa. and najwan came over and offered her his truck to play with (big sacrifice there). and since kak ngah was feeling too down to take up his offer, he played the truck at her side to keep her entertained. and he was solicitious, quick to get her the comforter when she complained of feeling cold.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

cereal choice

chex mix, coco crunch, cookie crisp, waffle crisp, you name it, anything but the plain old corn flakes for the kids (which only ibu and mummy seem to eat).

and this morning, while waiting to go to school, amjad reminded me to buy more corn flakes coz we have ran out of them. I was like '?' since when have you been eating corn flakes. he said, 'sedap bu, masa nak gi sekolah abang makan sambil tengok tv, letak gula sikit, sedap.' (it's nice ibu, i eat while watching tv before i go to school, put some sugar in it, nice.')

should i say i told you so? hmmm... i think I'll just settle with the rest of them losing interest in the other cereals and going for the plain corn flakes again, much better on the pocket!

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

a blog for azraf?

he's begging for one, should he get it?

BTW, his teeth still aren't out yet.

Our car is back!

hmmm... seems like najwan with his car obsession with two posts in a row on cars.

but i'm just glad papa's car is finally back home. it's been at the garage long enough -- a 2-week job (we then budgeted for 3 weeks) actually took 5 looong weeks.

gas price aside (oh yeah, now we are going to feel it!), our work needs are such that having 1 car is a pain.

we were away the first week, so that was fine, it was actually why we sent the car in then anyway.

second week, it was still school holidays. but I had to be in Port Dickson and then Melaka, no choice but to take the car and papa had to fend for himself. later half of the week we went to work together, picked him up later at the lrt station. and gas price went up then.

third, fourth week, school began, and we practicum supervision resumed too. we were supposed to have the car back by then but it still wasn't done. so me the driver, sent papa to work, went around for supervision, went back to um, went back early to pick up nia on certain days, then later went to pick up papa from the station. i don't think we actually saved on gas price through this forced car-pooling, only that my pocket was okay as papa was filling in the gas for the citra :).

fifth week, no supervision, just a coordination of car use, which was also a headache as papa needed the car to go for meetings. once papa went on the train and had to wait out 7 trains before getting into one but it was still packed like sardine. after the gas price hike, more people went on the train, it seemed.

and today, the car is finally done, alhamdulillah. he's not 100% satisfied, but it will have to do, our work-day schedules just don't match well. yes, we'll car-pool now and then, the time together in the car is always nice, but when you're left with only 1 car to work with for an elongated period, we don't do coordination that well I guess :).

it's probably also psychological. I know sometimes out of 4 cars, one car can be at home for many days, but isn't it like murphy's law or something, when you need 3, you have 4, when you need 4 you have 3.

I'm rambling on and on, this is probably the longest post, maybe just trying to find a diversion to the shenanigans of people we call leaders and the media .....

New Car

Mummy and Abah have a new car. Well, it's been 2+ weeks now. a purple persona, which Najwan is in love with :).

We were on our way back after picking up Papa from the train station. Suddenly he chimed in "persona best."

Papa: which is better -- citra or persona?
Najwan: persona.
Papa: (jokingly) oh? then you don't ride the citra.
Najwan: persona best.

oh well :).

And don't think he's not old enough to play politics.
e.g.
if asked : papa or abah?
najwan: mmm.... paaa-bah!