Najwan again

recently concluded phone conversation with the 6 y.o.

Ibu: dah solat?
N: belum.
Ibu: Solat dulu then.
N: solat apa?
Ibu: Solat zuhurlah.
N: dah pukul 4 dah, solat asar je lah.

definitely good things:
a) he doesn't lie
b) he knows the solat names and their times
c) he can tell time

still making up my mind whether this is good or not
a) negotiation skills

it's probably good just now in the immediate context!

Back again!

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Wow! The cobwebs have surely gathered strength here, luckily spring cleaning is not that difficult online :)

Just a question of trying to be more consistent in writing, and as one of the things to do is to really write, this blog has to really get going again. Maybe getting the ipad2 is the way to do it (thanks sayang for this gift). Although the more pressing pieces of writing would be those articles, the motto for now is 'just write'. Ha ha, not that original, but it'll do.

The baby is now going to be 19 months old soon, and she certainly has everyone wrapped around her fingers. She is demanding excusive attention right now so ciao!

School holidays

Kids' project this school holiday -- charity sale.

This is Syira's idea. Basically, a garage sale with the proceeds going to charity. They haven't decided which charity to give to.

They had their first meeting last night. Syira has given out the tasks already, the kids seemed excited about that, even Najwan. Things they no longer want but is still in good condition will be put up for sale.

This morning, they started clearing up #43, target date 5th Dec.

our new princess

Nurhannan. Born 21 Oct 2009 1:45 am. 3.1 kg and 49 cm at 38 weeks gestation.

The birth was quick and relatively easy -- 1+ hour, 1 push, no pain killer.

After work, we went for my 38th week checkup. Dr Zana took a look at my past record and did a VE, and said 'see, you're already at 4-5 cm.' I told her the contractions weren't painful and weren't consistent enough for us to get excited about. Actually, it had been hurting *a lot* when I walked, regardless whether it was contraction time or not, but that was not a reason to go get admitted to the hospital.

Anyway, this time she let me go home and have dinner and told us to come back at 10 pm. So we went home. Had dinner, had my shower, solat isya' then did solat hajat. This was a little different as with the previous ones except for Amjad, we had to rush to the hospital.

The kids came back from their Quran class, we said goodbye. Then we went out for ice-cream and finally at 10.40 reached the maternity centre. They were ready for us, the midwife asked if I was in pain, I said no, she said, 'hmmm.. that's magic.'

We went straight to the labour room. They did the triage their, the contractions were there alright, but I was happy not to feel the pain :). I was at 5 cm. at 11:30 I was still at 5 cm. This was looking to be like a long night. So they decided to hurry things up a bit, put me on IV. The nurses came at 12 and was like surprised I was sitting up and reading the newspaper -- it was the most comfortable position anyway. Another VE, still no progress. So at 12:30 they broke my water.

The big contractions began. After 1 it got progressively painful.

But still with enough presence of mind, at one point I told Rozi "I don't know how to manage my pain anymore", and he said something like 'it's just the age thing' and that got a slap on the wrist from me and a shared laughter, much to the amazement of the nurses :).

1:30 am, I told the midwife I needed to lay on my side so that it wouldn't hurt so much, and it did actually work, and then suddenly I told them, I feel like pushing, and they were like wait, hold on, let's call the dr first, plus I was on my side, I'd squash the baby. The urge came and went, I didn't fight it but I didn't not fight it (?).

So the dr came. They prepped me up, gave me a little refresher on what to do. And then... nothing.

There was no urge, no pain. But the dr just said we'd wait.

And then a little urge ti push, that turned into a big one, and I wasn't really expecting the baby to come out yet, after all, it was the first push, but it was so surreal when I actually felt the baby coming out, and I was so relieved, I forgot to push anymore, and the dr had to tell me to push a little more for the shoulder.

And Nurhannan came into the world, all delightfully covered with vernix -- forgot that part too :).

She was put on my tummy while Papa got the honour to cut the umbilical cord.

snippets

dusting the cobwebs...

3/5/2009. Azraf finally lost his lower front tooth, way after the permanent one is out. In the car, he bit into a burger and ouch! it started to bleed, so no burger there then. A few hours later, he accidentally hit his jaw, and out came the tooth. He's getting RM10 for saving us a RM20 trip to the dentist :).

Najwan is now coming home with the van. Teacher Hani says he's getting naughtier in school -- hmmm.... He has a crush on Fatima (at 4!!!! already!!!). He doesn't want to do Furqan with me at home but insists on getting a turn to do that in school. And 1 page isn't enough, it's usually 3 or 4. He's also Mummy/Teacher Hani's 'pilot test child' on the reading system she just started after attending a course.

Last night, Najwan came to me and told me to eat a lot so that the baby can grow bigger quickly.

Hania is back to pretending on glamorous stuff, this week, it is supermodel, she has mastered the supermodel walk. Blue is still her favourite colour.

Amjad isn't as stressed out about his upcoming UPSR as ibu is. 125 days more to go, but who's counting (definitely not him!).

Two new sofa sets for my birthday :) -- one for home, one for the office.

happy birthday jen

Najwan turned 4 yesterday. Wow! And it's not just the number, he's just growing up by leaps and bounds. He is now so into his preschool, so into doing things that big kids do. He wants trucks, cars and a bicycle for his birthday -- he is so into wheels :).

Amjad made jelly for Najwan to take to school today as part of his party pack. That is another big boy.

The party packs were prepared by Hania, Amjad and Syakira. Kids are certainly growing up. No more running around ragged preparing everything, I just have to buy the stuff for them to do. We're not taking a birthday cake to school, Sahrim made mini muffins, that is so much less messier than a cake.

We went out to Spices for his birthday dinner. Abah bought birthday cake for him while Papa went to buy thomas -- there was no Thomas so he got Gordon instead but same difference to him.

He counted his birthday present this morning -- 3 cars and 1 train -- he is one happy boy :).

earth hour 2009

we observed earth hour last night, from 8:30-9:30.

everybody gathered at mummy's house, so #45 was in total darkness.

we lit lots and lots of tea light, mak ngah, pak ngah and umar happened to visit, umar did not seem to have problems in the dark.

the kids passed the time telling stories, remembering the riddles and jokes they heard and re-telling them. it was as much fun trying to answer the riddles and listening to them trying to help out each other in telling the stories.

even the fans were switched off, am pretty proud of the children.

they even went out at 8:30 to check if the neighbours all observed earth hour, and good thing they all did -- the kids could have pretty laser mouths at times :).

Geng

last friday, papa took leave as it was the school holidays.

After FRiday prayers, he took the kids to watch geng.

Boo hoo! and it was my suggestion, and I was so looking forward to taking the kids watch geng, but ibu had a programme with the students at work that day.

It didn't help a colleague had watched it and said it was cool.

still a long time away

everyday, azraf will ask, 'ibu, how big is the baby now?'
november is a long time away :).

I should let him go to websites that chart a baby's growth in weeks, don't think they have any by days.

bad days mean lethargy and splitting headaches. I think the headaches are also withdrawal symptoms from caffeine. so I should be thankful, just nauseuos (sp?) without actual throwing up, it just that that might be a little uncomfortable when you're standing in front of class...

classes are over soon, beach whaling season coming.

hania wants to share the news with her friends already.

they keep rubbing my tummy.

like I said, november is a long time away.

a little excitement

was on leave wednesday.
we sent amjad and syazmi to robotics camp and then went to the dr with azraf and najwan.
azraf was like, why are we here? and we said, just wait and see.
it was a toss-up who got to see the dr first -- azraf was scheduled at the dentist next door.
but ibu's turn came first, and it finally dawned on abang de as he was watching the u/s image what was happening :) :) :)

and they couldn't wait to spread the word around as soon as they got home.
the u/s printout that we got is now pretty much well-worn.
and abang de is so into the new baby. he pored over the 'big book of knowledge' and carefully went through the diagrams and comparing it with the baby.
amjad was speechless at first but is now very protective -- najwan cannot squeeze the baby.
they couldn't wait for mummy to come out of the car before telling her the news.
syakira called mama but mama was at work and she just wanted to tell humayraa, she had to tell someone.
they all wanted to skype grandma to tell her the news.
they have to wait until atok comes home from fishing before they can tell him. the baby's EDD is coincidentally 5/11.

pets up-date

the fishes are breeding!

instead of three different 'homes' all the fishes are now in the nicely decorated pot that papa made for najwan's fishes.

and they're so excited, there are now 2 baby fishes in there.

usrah @ home

today, we begin a new programme with the kids.

after the solat maghrib berjemaah, the kids will take turns conducting usrah. how did we tell them what an usrah is? we just said, it's like cafe akhil hayy -- when he talks to the teens in the surau. so score 1 for tv :).

today we began with syazmi. he chose to read out a paragraph he found about the Qur'an. it went ok for a first try, not a lot of discussion, but insya-Allah, we'll get there by and by.

the current schedule is:
monday: angah
tuesday: kak de
wednesday: abah
thursday: abang
friday: hania
saturday: papa
sunday: mummy/ibu

pets up-date

Amjad's new guppy fishes are doing ok, and so is najwan's. One of Azraf's guppies died three days ago. Probably overfeeding -- Papa would feed the fish before he left for work, and Azraf would feed it again later when he got up in the morning -- a pattern we found out too late.

and they got pets

...again, papa just cannot say no to the kids in this matter...

So yesterday, off we trudge to the fish shop, (when we teasingly said it was closed najwan slapped his hand on his forehead and said 'alamak' a-la abah).

The boys got a pair of fishes each. Hania decided she did not want the hassle of taking are of fishes and declined the offer (smart girl :)).

At home, papa prepared the new home for Najwan's fishes, much to everybody else's envy coz it was much more than a bowl filled with water like Amjad's and Azraf's.

Papa's comment was he'd give them 6 days before the thrill went off.

This morning, Amjad's fishes died -- already!!

We were out when kakak made the call, so we dropped by at the fish shop and he got his replacement pair.

Today, Azraf was playing with his fishes. He swore they knew when he called their name -- oligo and koko, and he insisted they prefer the name oligo. He wanted to leave a candle outside the bowl at night so that his fishes would have light.

Ah, the thrills of taking care of your own pets. 5 more days, is it?

tech-gen vocab

so azraf got a rocket launch kit for his birthday.

it was a home-science kit.

so as they were waiting for the mixture to react and produce the CO2 which will in turn launch the rocket, najwan asked papa, "it's loading, eh, papa?"

yesterday, he was on the computer, and he turned around and remarked, we haven't "telephoned" uda in a long time -- meaning skype.

another trip to the doctor for stitches

as we were sitting slightly before maghrib, kak de came rushing over, shouting "ibu, abang kena pisau, keluar darah, banyak, CEPAT!"

so we rushed to amjad. Abah got to him first. He was in the bathroom trying to wash his wounds away (!) while shouting, "ibu, nak pergi klinik."

there were blood spots everywhere on the kitchen floor.

He had to have 4 stitches. Ugh, it was a deep wound -- at first glance it looked like he could have severed a finger. Deep enough that abah almost fainted after a while, luckily Mummy was there and could tend to Abah while I sat with Amjad.

He wanted to help Najwan make a hole for his "fake" bottle. Najwan had this bright idea he could pretend to be a baby again drinking ribena out of his now empty mini 'milk bottle' candy container, only thing was that there was no hole in the nipple. And Amjad decided to cut it with his right hand -- dominant left-hander that he is.

He has to go back Sunday to re-dress the wound, and next Thursday to take out the stitches.

The other kids -- and him -- have decided they're not going to use knives anymore. Najwan threw away the candy bottle right away.

Let's pray this trip for stitches will not be an annual affair.

we went shopping

two weeks ago with the kids in tow.

we have not gone non-grocery related shopping for ages, the last time was when we went to get things for haj.

so there I was, putting some things I planned to buy into the basket. And then there was Amjad, questioning the need for those things. And if my answer was not satisfactory enough, out went the stuff! And we were not even spending his money...

back home again

alhamdulillah, we're home again after being away for 45 days for haj.

We touched down at 8:20 pm, immigration was a breeze, as the counters were set up right at the arrival gate. But we had to wait a bit for the third bag -- it had to be in the last batch of baggage right, so we went out at 9:40. At first it was like, where are they? we saw all those people waving but none looked like those we knew. And then we saw the kids waving like crazy, and of course ibu went a little crazy waving too :).

Najwan was a bit shy. But he's making up for those times away -- he is either with ibu or papa these past 2 days. Oh, the kids had a little bit of a giggle over papa's new janggut and also new hairstyle.

My very bad cough seemed to decide to stay in Jeddah. Not complaining a bit -- still coughing a bit now and then but none of those muscle-pulling, phlegmy-filled cough.

No time for jet lag the first day as we had doa selamat after zuhur. I think we sort of self-adjusted since we left Makkah at 2:30 am, so not much sleep that night, lots of sleep the following day, and with the flight scheduled at 6:30 am we didn't get any sleep the following night until we got on the plane.

Jottings on the hajj itself will come later.

haj preparation

11 more days... okay, that's getting a little bit worrying.

not that I'm not looking forward to going for haj, it's the preparation part that's getting a bit worrying.

last sunday, we had the taklimat perjalanan. As they were showing the scenes of pilgrims checking in at kelana jaya, it dawned on me, this is for real, we are really going.

during the tea break, we got talking to a couple who seemed to be around our age. their bedroom was already full of stuff, which they haven't managed to pack because they have not collected the bag from rayhar yet. we? ummm... we haven't even got around to buying stuff.

so monday, we collected the bag at rayhar. then we went to mydin and bought pretty much most of the clothing stuff we need. the kids had fun shopping for their stuff. later that night, we went to guardian to get more stuff.

I also got a haircut. which later included a dandruff treatment. after 20+ years of dandruff-ridden, it felt a weird kind of nice to be dandruff free. no more really really itchiness catching me at unexpected times.

as I was going through the stuff at home, it suddenly felt like preparing to go back and live in a dorm again -- this high probability that the room-mates will have stuff similar if not identical to mine, and thus the urge to tag the items. haven't tagged clothing items since leaving mrsm!

and the nearer the day comes, the surer I feel there'll be buckets of tears from yours truly upon leaving the kids behind....

countdown

we have the flight date already -- check-in 9 Nov, flight itself is a little past midnight, and coming back Dec 23. According to the agent, still unconfirmed, but I hope changes won't be major like Kak Mas -- her flight changed from 25 nov to 5 nov!

Tons of stuff to get done. Papa is going to Dubai tonight, until Tuesday, presentation for a major project. Next week is the last week of class, on Saturday Azraf has his Ihtifal and Graduation day, the haj taklimat is on Sunday. Then have to finish all the gradings and submit all the grades in. I'm going to worry about clearing up the office later.

The kids are having their final exams next week.

And have to decide on the menu for the doa selamat.