10 years

SOON it will be our 10th year of marriage...

Once a while, walking hand in hand strolling at the beach under the magnificient round moon , its amazing how I can still feel like we are just newly married or at the phase of our married life with no kids of our own... Arissa came during our 2 year of marriage. Perfect timing blessed by Him.

So here we are in Bali. Its our first outside Jakarta holiday... And alhamdulillah , everything went smoothly..

My Miss Van Gogh

I was having dinner with my husband tonight when this piece of art work done by my Aisyah caught my attention.

Straight away it reminded me of the conversation that I had earlier with one of Aisyah's friends' mom at the school library today.

As you can see, the drawing is purely done by children . And its not a piece of art work like Van Gogh or any other famour painter.

Nevertheless, to me as Aisyah's mom, its Van Gogh to my naked eyes. And I can see Aisyah in it with all the girly frills and pink color that she had chosen.  And its precious to me . So are all her other art scribbles and paintings done at school.

That lady friend of mine shared with me of how nice it would be to hang up beautiful paintings done by her girl.. Just like what she sees at some of her friends' houses.

So i texted her after dinner. Told her to go easy with this things... Of course we parents only want the best for our children. And who wouldnt be proud when our offsprings can paint beautifully ..

But along the line, it is better if we try to see through our children's naked and naive eyes...All the chosen colors and all the naive lines and scribbles were actually done from our children's heart.

And when they show it to us, just look at those happy excited eyes of our children. How proud they are to share and show it to us..

Aisyah do this almost everyday when i pick her up from school. She just cant wait to show it all to me..It can be some.colorful scribbles , or small paintings or any craft work that she did in school.

Each day, I will stop and listen and look at what she has for me... And those are so precious to me ...

And we have displayed what ever we can of our children's art work.  Come to think of it, there are a lot ....

Rewards

Blamed it on my new hectic daily routine.

Blamed it on my spouse for what he had learned at some company training.

For I have been rewarding myself by buying a few stuffs since the last summer holidays begins.

And yesterday, I did it again.

At first it did cross my mind that I shouldnt be buying on impulse. But somehow I did managed to do a quick analysation on the rationalisation of buying that. pair of sneaker.

Yes . It was a sneaker not by expensive brand but by the humble brand Bata... Humble in the sense that its shoes are comfortable and stylish in a certain way that fits everyone's budget.

To tell you the truth, I have been buying Bata shoes or sandal ever since I moved to Jakarta. When I couldnt find the comfortable heels in any other brands, I found it in Bata. And just so happen that I like the design too.

Back to rewarding myself unstoppable , it feels good .. For my work has been getting busier in this new school term..

Currently its like a touch n go system between my house and my children's school. I am in and  out from the house like 3 - 4 times in a day... And its tiring ...of course having a supir helps a lot...but to be in and out from the house more than 2 times is tiring...

And I have started drinking cafe latte , cuppachino or mocha too... Even the guy behind the cashier at the school's cafe knows my drinks. Irk!!!! 

Eventhough being a homemaker itself is rewarding in the sense that I get to be with my kids all the time, it feels great when I rewarded myself now and then...

Pity the boy

How I pity the 5 year old boy if he were to know that his ex-nanny who had taken care of him for the last 3 years is now a nanny to his best friend..OMG !!!

If it wasnt for me who spotted that nanny, none of this will be known. I guess we all will have to wait until either the mother or the boy will bump eventually with the x- nanny at school.

And my only assumption that i can make on why the x-nanny quited her job is that salary issue..This is because the new employer of that nanny is an ambassador here in Jakarta. Entirely a different league from the former employer who is still wealthy but just not as rich as the ambassador..

At the end of the day, money rules in this side of the world..Even for a difference of a few hundred rupiah.

Forget about the kindness of the former employer who had been good to you for that last 3 years.  Nor the feelings of the little boy...

The mother is a friend of mine. How shocked she was when I told her that I saw her former nanny at the school. I told her how shocked I was when I saw her waiting for another boy who is the same class as her boy.

We all didnt know that she is now working with the ambassador. Plus she is now wearing hijab. And because of that, none of us notice of her while waiting outside the class room to pick up our kids.  She will be picking up the ambassador's son sometimes during the week. This is because they have a supir to help to do it also...So one day it could be her while the next day could be the driver..

And you want to know what my friend did after she found out about this? Well, my friend asked the xnanny  not to let her son see the xnanny face when in school..

My friend's son is still missing that x-nanny who had stopped working since the last 3 months. I really pity that boy. All because I had seen both the xnanny and the boy together in school for the past one year. Liked me, they will wait at the school from 12 noon until 240 pm. This is because the older sibling finished school late. So during that two hours of gap, I will always bump into them. Either at the cafeteria where the xnanny feed the boy his lunch . Or at the waiting area just before the school bell rings at 240 pm.. They are the sight that I used to see for the last one year..

so how on earth would the little boy not be sad and shocked if he were to find out about this!

The big nite

Its the nite before tomorrow.

Its the nite that were supposed to happen two weeks ago on July 2nd 2013. But it did not happen as Alya was not well.

Tonight there is only Alya and me in this hospital ward. Baba, Tuk Mi , Kak Arissa and Kak Aisyah came around 845 pm to see us.

As usual , two girls were sad that they have to sleep without me tonight.

As for me, i know they can accept the reason eventhough they are sad.

But tonight, I am worried . And the next best thing for me to do after doing my solat hajat and my doa's is to leave it to Him. ALLAH knows best.

I doa that Alya stays well before and after the operation tomorrow.

I doa that all the doctors and staffs involved in tomorrow operation will be able to perform their work well and safely and carefully for the sake of my Alya.

Amin

New gadgets for BFMoms

I felt like having another baby to breastfeed!!!

And i should blame this to the moms and baby expo that is going on at Mid Valley Mall now...

I was at the Philips Avents booth last Friday... And OMG !!!!

Latest designs of bottles steamers. Latest  breastfeeding pumps. Latest designs and shapes of  bottles and teats...

Any mommies will go gaga and crazy  when seeing all those latest breastfeeding gadgets ....

The thoughts of getting a new bottle steamer is dancing in my head..And so is the cool  breast pump and the new teats and bottles too...all avents!!!

But sanity came knocking quickly too to my head.. Alya is going to be 2 years old in October. And it wouldnt be a good idea to buy latest design of that bottles and teats that look almost identical like a mother's breast when breastfeeding.

I want easier transition from bottles to cup for Alya for her milk drinking. Which is why new bottles n teats will just delay this process or even make it harder for Alya to switch to cup ...OMG !!!

Wished that I could stay longer but only managed to be there for less than 30 minutes..

Arissa didnt like it being in that crowded place..We arrived almost noon. Cant blame her also..

Pity her..Quickly did my exit from that place once I got new teats for Alya's avents classic bottles, bibs for Alya again as no spare one left in our malaysian house , and a bottle holder for our one and only stroller. Hope dearest hubby will like it as i he has been asking for it....

this moment

There are three of us now lying on the mattress on the floor. Arissa is missing as she is spending the night at my abang's house.

I know for sure that night like this will soon past.

Kids grow up fast . I noticed that in Arissa  and Aisyah. How school in Jakarta has had shaped their growth within less than 2 years.

Gonna miss nights like these when I am an old woman .

mak cik tua sleeveless

ahaks!!!! Again I was in shocked when I saw a woman in late 40s , sleeveless in mini skirt and wearing high heels walking out from mussola....hahahahaha

Ya Allah!  Memang terkejut saya dibuatnya..Dah la rambut macam balik dari salon dan muka make up..

I was really in shocked seeing a muslim lady with her lady friend who dressed equally like her , walking out from mussola.

There i was sitting on the cold steel benches  outside the mussola, waiting for my  eldest to finish her solat. Aisyah n Alya was with me eating the yummy delicious DQ ice cream.

If you ask me how sure I am that that woman was praying in the mussola, well, all i can say is that i have seen some young muslim women dressing like that in the mussola.

And this incident today took place at PIM aka Pondok Indah Mall...  Yep Pondok Indah is like our very own Bangsar... but we dont get to see muslim ladies coming for prayers in a dress or clothes like what I mentioned earlier...

I think that only in Jakarta do we see scence like this.. Pening kepala saya tengok cara wanita muslim di sini berpakain terutamanya yang pergi solat.

Ini belum lagi dengan yang bertatoo dan bernail polished!!!!


Hahahaha!!!!! selamat datang ke jakarta babe!

Baba less

its a public holidays here as its israk and mikraj day.. Thus school is off and so is tomorrow. Somehow the school is giving extra holidays to the children. 

As the house is lonely without a man of the house ie my hubby , and no supir  to drive us around ( I was lazy to ask him to come to work and hate the idea of having to pay him double of the amount of his daily salary) , today is spent at home only.

I had today's itinery mapped out last night. This to keep the girls occupied. Alhamdulillah half of it went out well except one plan failed to materialized.

Woke up early to cook the nasi lemak . My maid helped me to cook the rest.  After that, the girls played together . Aisyah with her play dough while kakak helped her out.

Soon it was nappy time for Alya. Aisyah was already asking when can we make the iced lollies. All because she wasnt interested in wacthing the telly like her big sister. Told her that it will be after i put alya to sleep first.

By the time Alya was asleep, my two A's was upstairs in Aisyah's room. Glad that kakak kept to her tv's time limit . Found both of my girls busy making crafts on the floor with nice cooling wind breezying through the opened balcony doors.  It wasnt long  before Aisyah started reminding me to make iced lollies..heheh

After done with iced lollies, it was painting time with them...Alya was up from her nap by then. Allhamdulillah, this coloring activities really engaged them until lunch time. In fact I fed them lunch while they were still enjoying doing it.

One plan that we didnt get to.do was swimming. The pool was just behind our house. The girls were so upset and dissappointed that the pool water was dirty with dead leaves and insects.

Aisyah was the most upset one  as she was crying and couldnt stop voicing out her dissappointment while walking back to our house from the pool.

Infact, she and kakak cried once we were in our house. I pity them as they had been looking forward to it since morning. How we prayed for a good weather that evening and it was a cooling weather indeed . Ideal for a nice swimm in the evening as it wasnt sunny.

To compensate it, I allowed them to have a pool bath in the bath tub..alhamdulillah the smiles were there after the pool bath.

The last itinery of the day was movie night. I joined them watching again the repeated vcd of the 12th princesses.  Dinner was Dominos pizza treat. And some Tuc biscuits too. Even Alya was enjoying the pizza minus the pepperoni .

Alhamdulillah. They are all fast asleep now.

Tomorrow is another babaless day...how i hate being mommy alone this week...how i wish we are in singapore with baba...

Ex collegues

My excollegues at my old company are peoples who had seen and been with me for a good and bad 13 years of my working life.

They had seen me as a young single lady.

They had seen and witnessed my three pregnancies.

I bet they did see part of my dating life too..

yes they did as i remember them commenting how io and my hubby would be sending sms during office family trip. I was in my dating years with my hubby back then...

These people are my friends that have touched my life and leave their footprints in it.

Evennow after leaving the office for almost two years, we still keep in touch.

I can still remember Rafi who always give me a lift to lrt station on days that I stayed back after office hours. Sometimes he would give me a lift to my car which was parked behind the office building. I remember telling my hubby how he would wait in his car and only drive off once I am safely inside my car. At that time, I didnt have my own shared car park ..

And its hard to forget Nadia who always buy me nasi lemak and kueh for morning breakfast.  And it was her nasi lemak that I ate on the morning that was the day that i gave birth to my 2nd daughter. How we still laugh at it when it crosses our minds.

And there was Azim who  until now is easily remembered by my dad as the couple ( he and his then Gf now wife)  who visited me after i gave birth to my eldest.  He said I like to perli him sometimes..yeah... it hit him at his nose...my sarcastic remarks..

hmmm.....tonigh these people crosses my mind as one of them are in mekah performing umrah..

actually, we have been pretty closed during that 13 years. So closed that most of us know what had happened within their own family life. And some on personal life too..

Thank you Allah for giving me the wonderful 13 years of my working life...

coz i am a mother n wife

Its 12.25 pm  and my 3 lovelies are past asleep. And i am just done with cooking tomorrow breakfast. A simple mee hoon goreng or mee goreng lekat like what my eldest called it.

I was about to called it a night when this face of my other half came to my mind. Something in the what was painted across his face that made me think that it was best if I cooked the tomorrow breakfast tonight.

This thing about cooking the night before is something normal to me even when I was a working mom back in my old days in KL.

We mothers really put our lovelies' needs first and foremost.

Sometimes it does cross my mind if my children will remember me for the little things and unnoticed things that I do for them.Well its easier and  honestly that we human easy to remember the ugly thinngs that others did to us. Dont we?

Lesson on life No.1

Ada masanya bila saya melihat keluarga org lain, diri sendiri jadi takut dengan ujian dan dugaan yg diberikan oleh Allah saw. 

Kedua ibubapa orang terpelajar dan dihormati. Dan alhamdulillah, hidup yg dulunya sukar sudah dirahmati oleh Nya dengan kesenangan rezeki yg bagus. Bisa makan di resto yg mewah dan belanja eceran di toko2 yg bagus .

Alhamdulillah juga kedua ibubapa  juga sudah berpeluang menunaikan rukun islam yg lima  yg butuh uang yg byk iaitu haji.

Namun bila melihat dugaan yg diberikan oleh Nya utk kedua ibu bapa tadi , diri ini rasa takut dan bimbang.

Dugaan dlm bentuk anak anak yg tidak mampu utk menjadi manusia lebih baik tingkah laku terhadap ahli keluarga yg tua .

Dugaan hebat dlm bentuk anak anak gadis yg tidak tahu etika berpakian yg sopan dan manis . Ada masanya saya yg seorang wanita ini menjadi lebih malu utk berdepan dengan anak anak gadis manis itu yg saya kira  akan lebih manis jika pakaiannya lebih sopan dan manis.

Dugaan dugaan ini la yg membuat diri sendiri risau dan bimbang dgn anak2 sendiri. Sudah pastinya diri merasa bersyukur sebab Allah sudah menunjukan dugaan ini depan mata saya.

Namun yg menjadi kerisauan adalah bagaimana pula dgn keluarga saya sendiri. Mampukah diri yg kerdil ini menghalang dugaan dugaan seperti di atas dr berlaku ke atas anak2 dan keluarga sendiri.

Diri ini hanya mampu berdoa dan terus berdoa kepada Allah yg maha esa dan kaya agar terusan diberikan petunjuk dan hidayahNya dlm membimbing anak2 sendiri dan hidup ini.

Dan berdoa dan terus berdoa agar anak2 ku akan menjadi anak2 yg soleh dan ditetapkan imannya.

Amin. Amin .

that used to be me

Spoken to my dad and mom over the phone yesterday at lunch time.

They were at empire building  in subang for lunch. Earlier they were seeiing a chiropractor somewherethere too.

I told them to eat at Serai or Belanga rather than at madam kwan. For the price that they are going to pay, serai or belanga is much more better. 

Somehow when we were done talking and after a couple of minutes later, it dawn on me on how much i used to go outing with my parents whenever they were in KL.

I was single at that time. So whenever they are in town ( KL and seremban is just less than an hour drive ) , I will drive them around KL.  We could be eating at the chillis in bangsar  or go to mid valley.

Back then I was staying at FAjaria apartment. It was sooo conviniently located  !

Looking back , those are precious moments that i would not trade for anything.

Up to this day, my mom still complain a bit on how difficult for her to buy things in KL. How things are easier if i was around eventhough i am married .

I guess she got used to have me accompanying her to buy stuffs at KL. Or i would be buying it for her and pass it to her whenever i go balik kampung.

As for ayah, i can sensed it is the same too with him. Though no words are spoken, but its not hard to notice when you know that your parents can depend on you.

And that memories are like 10 years old.

that used to be me

Spoken to my dad and mom over the phone yesterday at lunch time.

They were at empire building  in subang for lunch. Earlier they were seeiing a chiropractor somewherethere too.

I told them to eat at Serai or Belanga rather than at madam kwan. For the price that they are going to pay, serai or belanga is much more better. 

Somehow when we were done talking and after a couple of minutes later, it dawn on me on how much i used to go outing with my parents whenever they were in KL.

I was single at that time. So whenever they are in town ( KL and seremban is just less than an hour drive ) , I will drive them around KL.  We could be eating at the chillis in bangsar  or go to mid valley.

Back then I was staying at FAjaria apartment. It was sooo conviniently located  !

Looking back , those are precious moments that i would not trade for anything.

Up to this day, my mom still complain a bit on how difficult for her to buy things in KL. How things are easier if i was around eventhough i am married .

I guess she got used to have me accompanying her to buy stuffs at KL. Or i would be buying it for her and pass it to her whenever i go balik kampung.

As for ayah, i can sensed it is the same too with him. Though no words are spoken, but its not hard to notice when you know that your parents can depend on you.

And that memories are like 10 years old.

Alya @ 17th months old

At 17 th months old, she is no longer wanting to breastfeed or even drinking my milk.

She has completely graduated and weaned herself from breastfeeding.

And for the past 3 nights in a row, she is slowly developing her own sleeping routine.  She will sit down with her back lowered a bit and rested on a pillow next to me on bed. She will be holding the milk bottle with her two hands. The minute she is about to doze off will also means that she has finished her milk.

She will passed the bottle to me. And immediately rest her head flat on my tummy.

Hemm.... Allah Maha Kaya. I am amazed and still cant believe to witness all this happening right in front of me . Coming from a my barely 2 years old girl. Yeah! Something good is instore for me. Alhamdulillah.

Thesedays also she will say "dah" meaning she is done drinking her milk in the bottle. You can see how her small hands handing out to me the empty bottle.

Alhamdulillah also she is beginning to drink milk more thesedays.  But I have to quickly decide either to continue with enfagrow made in malaysia which i still have 3 tins more or do  I switch to local milk brand ? The biggest hurdle will be to find milk that is original in flavour ie no honey or vanilla or chocolate flavour. And  here in Jakarta they dislikes original flavour for toddler milk powder. How cow?

Weaning time yet?

Has the time come? Is she really weaning off from my breastmilk?

Alya is like slowly weaning herself from breastfeeding. I am still thinking that she is stopping  now because of her hfmd that she got last sunday.

And that her sore throat and teething too is just making breastfeeding painful for her.

Other mommies had to crack their heads to find solution to weaning. While me , its like so unwelcome and unexpected.

Ye la...because Alya is not even 2 years old yet. She will turn 17 months in the next couples of days. My plan is to wean her at the age of 20 months old. Its 3 months early.

Dont know how to react to this ...

Experience missed

Today Jan 2nd ,2013 is the first day of school for all schools in Malaysia .

My eldest Arissa would be in Standard Two if she were to school here.

However , something about what my friend wrote in her FB made me realized that I wont be going through that experience she got to make.

Wrapping new text books.

Yeah! I can remember how my mom helped me to wrap my school text books. That was when i wasn't able to do it on my own.

So, with my eldest, I did not get to do it for her as we were already living in Jakarta back in Dec31st 2011.  And there were no textbooks to be wrapped for there are no text books for her. Yeah! Schooling in an international school is not only a fun experience for Arissa but also totally different from what me and my husband had gone through when we were at her age.

If we were still staying here in Malaysia, I would be doing the wrapping ..Ops! I dont think it would be me honestly. It would definitely be my hubby! Some how i just know that it would be my hubby. Hahah!

Not that i will envy him . But he would be the best text book wrapper in the world..hahah

Hmmmm..wrapping school text books! I am missing it surely