the junkyard war

so there I was trying to clear those old toys and stuff under the stairs.
and then one by one the boys came and started rifling through them.
boys including papa.
and papa came up with the idea of having a junkyard war kind of thing.
and so that's what they are doing right now.

and they're blogging

after prodding upon prodding upon prodding by mummy, kids have finally set-up and *published* their own blogs.

the links are on the blogroll.

will post ibu's take on redang soon.

but basically like theirs too -- wanna go again!!!

nak ikut

najwan has very sharp ears. no matter which house he is in, if somebody opens the door of the other house, he will rush to open the door to see who is going out so that he could tag along.

abah nak go surau? nak ikut!
papa nak go petronas? nak ikut!
mummy nak go carrefour? nak ikut?
ibu nak go where? nak ikut!

or else he's other reason for checking out the door opening is so that he can go rush outside and ride his bicycle.

I get home. Najwan opens the door. Gleefully rushes outside. Every mother's dream to have this warm welcome? Ha ha. He rushes outside and gets on his bicycle and goes the few rounds he can get during the time it takes me to put away my shoes and calls him to come inside with me.

Of course, to be fair, if I get in before he manages to go outside, I do get a big hug and a wet kiss.

tooth still there

azraf has had his bottom tooth loose and the permanent one peeking up since early april. we went to the dentist who said the milk teeth should be much looser in a month's time as the permanent one moved to the front.

6 weeks already (from the time we went to the dentist, the new tooth has been out for about 2 months now, and we are not seeing much progress.

so auntie dentist, what's the verdict? been composing in my head the post on his first tooth out for some time now.

kidz on line

amjad and syazmi have been on friendster and gmail for a few months now. not that they are that active, in fact, they think all those friendster emails in their inbox are a bit too much (that requires reading!!!). syakira also has an email.

the challenge was for them to have their own blog running but no one has really put a serious effort on meeting mummy's challenge.

anyway, so azraf *really* wants his own email. not sure what a 6 y.o. would really use it for, but he was really persuasive, or let's just say he was very persistent in his bugging me for one :).

so last night we set one up for him. and he has sent his own email to papa, and today to uda. one-liners as he's figuring out the spelling and also key-board lay-out at the same time, so it was tiring for both him and me! he has learned to log in by himself, then of course we have to guide him after that.

so now all kids but najwan have emails.

azraf actually wanted a friendster account, he was like 'where are all the pictures?' but he's happy just having a little piece of the online action to call his own for the time being. besides, ibu has a bit too much on hand right now to help him with a friendster account. maybe in a couple of years' time after I've figured out facebook and those social utility sites work :).

http://www.safekids.com/kidsrules.htm

"nama sapa"

najwan has learned the given names of the family members pretty well.
abang nama... N: amjad
kak ngah nama... N: nia
abang de nama ... N: azraf (with the z and r blended together -- can't do it myself, only a 3 y.o. can I guess!) of course he still tends to say 'abang le'
papa nama ... N: zi
kak de nama ... N: syakira
angah nama ...N: syami
kakak nama ... N: sahrim (or bella! depending on his cheeki-meter!)
abah nama ... N: encik (!)
along nama ... N: syira

he has problems keeping these names straight though
mummy nama... N: Tihana
ibu nama ... N: Lihani (or vice versa)

fat? moi?

that's the sound of ibu getting pulled down to earth by her kids!

I'm small-sized, and keep getting this sort of remark 'oh wow, you don't look like you have 4 kids.'

but the kids keep me rooted on the ground (if not thoroughly nailed)!

last night, najwan sat on my lap and then suddenly patted my tummy (bulging as it was after my dinner).
mummy asked him: what's in there?
another 3 y.o. would answer 'a baby' but nooo, this one promptly said "fat!" --- agh!!!!

half an hour later, as I was sitting on the sofa with the kids surrounding me, amjad
suddenly piped in "ibu, I think you have to start exercising" while looking pointedly at my tummy. out of the blue.

aghh!!! aghh!!!

it doesn't help that I'm finally starting to do some sit-ups lately.

teeth coming out

we have got to take azraf to the dentist soon.
two weeks ago, he so excitedly showed us his two front teeth (lower jaw) were slightly loose. ok, so it was just very slightly loose but it was exciting for him, sufeeya has already lost hers.
last friday, I wanted to check how loose it was getting, anddiscovered the permanent teeth were already showing!
Alamak! time to go to a dentist.

of course uda still is not back yet. Hania developed this phobia of dentist after her first visit (which went okay by all accounts but she's now one screaming girl when it's time to go).

so we're waiting til this friday night or saturday morning. I'm not sure why, but papa wants to be available for azraf just in case (of what?) so we have to wait til the weekend.

pinggan mangkuk

pinggan is amjad's name for his pet parakeet.
so azraf wanted to name his 'mangkuk' but amjad objected.
the pair of parakeets are now officially Pinggan and T-rex.

they have a big cage for themselves.

hania doesn't want a bird, she's aiming for a rabbit (!).

last week, Najwan and me had this conversation while we were watching the birds.

Najwan: tu abang nye, tu a 'le (abang de) nye.
Me: Adik nye mana? Where's yours?

and a small bird (burung pipit) happened to fly and land on the cage.

Najwan: Tu adik nye!
Me: oh, ok, adik nye nama apa?
Najwan: Cawan!

Gotta give it to the boy :).

bebikel

that's najwan's word for bicycle.

and today, he is one happy boy for he now has his own bona fide big boy "bebikel."

no more 'cruising' around with the others' bicycles. he cruises around holding the handles and walks or runs with the bicycle, as the bikes have no more training wheel.

so today, after a few times 'intai-intai' at a few shops, papa got Najwan his bicycle.

no nap today, as he is having so much fun riding his bebikel.

my drawings

tonight, after their session with mummy, amjad hania and azraf had a drawing session with papa.

here is azraf's drawing. title: autobot (read -- transformers)


and the top one is hania's. untitled. the orientation is wrong, so crink that neck a bit, ibu isn't up to doing more editing tonight.

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????