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Kebun tok wan ada banyak rambutan. Orang lelaki semua pergi kutip buah dan bawa balik. Lepas tu pak ngah tukang ikat. Banyaknya!

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Budak-budak lelaki suka main warcraft ramai-ramai.

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Kami suka main kamera laptop. Buat macam-macam aksi. Kat belakang tu abang long.

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That dream house. It will come.

Meanwhile, there are a couple of things that I have been up to. Could be that the pregnancy hormones playing itself in full term. This trimester is the time for domestic issues to be dealt with. That explains the cleaning up of Harith’s room, finding issues with messy kitchen and toys, smelly cat’s poops, baking and cooking at home. The baking and cooking has taken on a whole new level! It is as though I am obsessed with feeding Saiful and Harith with tasty yet healthy food ALL THE TIME. No matter how tired I am, I will whip up something in the kitchen! But there is a catch- because I have issues with messy kitchen, I will actually refuse to cook anything if I find something dirty in the sink. It is something that I truly cannot control. Is it the effect of having a girl in the tummy?

Since last week, I have baked 3 breads, made 2 dozens muffins and have been cooking proper hot meals for Harith at EVERY meal time. Sounds crazy just typing it out. In the midst of it, I managed to squeeze my free health talk at the Bedok library, HPB project on the weekends and missing Saiful.

Investment!

Explaining the food labels

It was a much smaller crowd than my first talk at the Woodlands library but the crowd was attentive. At least, they stayed behind and finished up all my healthy tuna sandwiches! I really have to thank Saiful for helping me out and Aisha and Emelda for taking time to support me. For me, I am happy to leave a place knowing that I have made a difference in their lives. Maybe not a lot but enough to make them re-think about their food choices.

The week ended on a high at the Botanical Garden. What can I say… I just love Aeroz.

Writing down Aeroz with a heart

There was just so much love and laughter. Made me forget about the week’s problems and nitpicking issues. State-change has been on the overdrive lately.

There'll be more, I am sure.

Harith seems to be attracted to the colourful bits

I am sure I will be baking more and more next week. Cinnamon rolls will be made soon in the kitchen too.

From Harith with love

This coming weekend, I will be off to KL to watch Saiful at KLPAC. This must be one of the longest period where we are apart. 3 more days to go.

Bingo! I got it! I know what it is because I just received the call. The more I think about it, the more I believe that God gives you answer when you ask for it. You, on the other hand, have to be ready to receive it.

In the meantime, I took some magic potion because I refuse to see a doctor this time. I do not want any facial cream on my face! Keeping my face cool amidst the hot weather is another challenge!

Last week was a good and productive week because I managed to send my proposal, went out with my ex-colleagues, prepared for the weekend projects and still made some time for a wedding and an open house. I LOVE being occupied like this. On top of that, I still get paid for the work that I did. Best! For the cream on top of the cake, I received a call from HPB and was happy to note that they are at least considering my proposal.

From all this, I truly believe now that positive energy will attract the positive waves. Of course, I have my ups and downs but perhaps reading helps a lot. I picked up a book from the library yesterday on the “Power of Play” by David Elkind. From now on, I promise to make sure my kids get to play to their hearts’ content. It’s been proven that spontaneous, imaginative activities lead to happier and healthier kids.

So, I am going to take another approach to Harith’s learning curve and let him discover the language through swimming, rhymes and nature. Books are important but I think he learns better and faster through actions. As the author puts it, what happened to free time and lazy afternoons of unstructured play? When did it become a sign of responsible parenting to schedule every moment of our children’s lives?

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Hari ni raya aidilfitri. Kami tengah siap sedia nak ke masjid untuk solat raya.

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Selesai solat aidilfitri, kami pulang beramai-ramai.

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Mama dan Wujdan berbaju raya. Tengah siap sedia untuk gambar keluarga.

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Gambar keluarga tok wan.

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Berjalan raya di sekitar Ipoh. Bergambar di buaian.

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Abang Adam ada beli spek hitam. Dia bagi Wujdan pinjam. Buat bergaya je.

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Esok sambut hari jadi Tok Wan. Kami buat kek cokelat dengan mama. Wani dan Anis pun tolong sekali.

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Sambil tunggu kek masak, kami lepak-lepak di depan TV. Kak Wi suka main handphone papa, sebab nak tengok youtube dan pasang lagu.

Adam the Kodo Beast

Kadang-kadang kami main di luar. Adam jadi Kodo Beast macam warcraft tu. Wujdan naik atas dia.

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Kami datang melawat Ipoh. Harith tengah study score A untuk peperiksaan UPSR tak lama lagi. Kak Wi dan Jidan pun turut membantu.

Jidan-ScoreA

Giliran Jidan pulak buat Score A. Wan, Auntie Zu, dan Pak Long sedia membantu.

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Kami buka puasa sama-sama di dapur. Jidan dah buka puasa dulu.

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In the health booklet that parents are given, there are 3 questions under the language capabilities and I suppose these 3 questions are telling of the child’s abilities to speak. The 3 questions are, 1) child says mama and papa, 2) child points to different body parts such as mouth, nose, eyes etc and 3) child says other words other than mama and papa.

I was not overly worried about his results until the doctor said

“… if children do not pick up language skills at this age, they will usually be the slower ones when they start to go to school…”

“… mums are usually busy with housework that they forget to spend some time with the child and motivate…”

There are apparently 3 different types of children, according to the doctor at least, 1) child needs no motivation 2) child needs a lot of motivation 3) child has medical problem. So, because Harith “failed” under the language section, he has been categorized as a child who needs a lot of motivation.

Never mind that his motor skills, personality and physical growth, according to the book again, surpassed those kids at 21 months.

Why do I feel like I was going through PSLE or “O” levels? I felt like I was being made to feel incompetent as the main care-giver because I scored 97 out of 100. I got an A but I still had 3 questions wrong. This reminds me of the over-zealous moms who send their kids to all the possible tuition centres just so that they can score a perfect 100.

I do not have an issue with Harith’s probable inability to pick up the language quickly. Rather, it is the doctor’s suggestion that we are not doing enough as parents and due to this, he might end up as a “slow” kid. I mean, come on. As first time parents, is that really what you need to hear from doctors? What amazes me is the lack of EQ from the doctor when she said it. Even after assuring her that I am not consumed with housework whenever Harith is around, she carried on with her “usual” observation about moms.

I am not your usual mom, doctor. I am passionate about Harith and his growth. Our family and friends know that we are always trying our best to be the best parents we can be for our kid. We bring him out for socialising and we speak to him in proper sentences. No one in the family baby talks to him- even my dad. We pretty much let him explore everything in the house except for the kitchen.

Are we bad parents just because our kid cannot say our names?

He can ask “what is this?” and say “very nice”, do that count?

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Kami balik Ipoh dengan bibik-bibik. Di sana kami bawa Harith dan Sabrina berjalan-jalan di Kek Lok Tong. Taman di sebalik gua. Cantiknya!

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Taman tu cantik dan bersih. Kami ikut jalan pusing taman tu. Keliling dia ada bukit batu dan gua.

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Di tengah taman ada tasik. Kami selalu pergi sini sebab tempatnya aman damai.

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Pemandangan dalam gua.

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Pintu masuk gua. Dah nak balik dah.

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Kami sekeluarga balik Ipoh, jumpa semua sepupu-sepupu. Kami terjumpa teleskop lama tok wan, duduk dalam kotak. Kami bertungkus-lumus memasangnya.

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Lepas penat bermain, kami bergambar beramai-ramai di ruang tamu rumah Tok Wan. Ramainya!

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Hi ayah mates! Wait, I should be calling all of you uncles right? *except for the occassional requests from some to call you abangs* Today, I tried to make mummy listen to my voice cos everyone seems to think am a quiet boy these days. I think mummy’s delighted cos she seems to be covering her ears all the time. Is that the sign for “good boy” in the adults’ world? I should think so cos she smiles at the same time and she keeps calling my name.

I’ve been meeting a lot of ayah’s friends lately but I met mummy’s friends recently and I lovveee them cos they look like my mummy with the long hair and the soft voice. Ayah says I am a cheeky boy cos I smile readily at them. That must be a good thing then cos mummy’s friends carry and kiss me on the cheeks all the time! Hope mummy and ayah will bring more of their friends around cos I like those hugs and kisses.

Oops, have to go now cos Mumy wants me to watch Tigger and Pooh on TV. Love those!

For those who listens to MixFM; chances are, you’ve heard that this song is from Pete Teo. I love this song. It’s such a brilliant collaboration between Malaysian Artists. The music and lyrics sounds great, the video is equally funny as it is impressive and overall amazing job. Such warmth and love; it’s probably one of the reasons why I love Malaysia. Plus, I like the title a lot. Reminds me of happy times.

song & video project produced by Pete Teo and directed by Yasmin Ahmad and Ho Yuhang.

song features:
afdlin shauki, awie, ning baizura, atilia, jaclyn victor, reshmonu, pete teo, jason lo, klg sqwad, altimet, suki, daniel lee, nikki palikat, melina william

video features:
tony fernandes, maya karin, harith

For more information, click here.

Years of fears and years of tribulation
The heart keeps searching for that endless devotion

Please won’t you fall in one by one by one with me?

On this very day, at this time, our son, Harith Rizq was born.  Weighing in at 2.800kg and 49cm long, he came into the world via c-sect due to his breech position.

Never thought I would go into blogging again.  Let’s just see how long this one lasts.