HAPPY BIRTHDAY AFEEQ

Today Afeeeq is 1 year old. Happy birthday Afeeq...!!!

Afeeq is now walking. He has been for almost a month. Although he is not as talkative as his big brother, he seems to understand us when we ask him to do some things. When we sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to him, he usually makes noises that sound like "Twinkle Twinkle". When we say "Ta' Tih" whenever we walk him around the house, he would make almost the same sound.

His favourite show is Mickey Mouse of Playhouse Disney. He never fails to smile when he sees Mickey walks and greets on the telly. Another one is "Danny & Daddy". He would stop whatever he is doing when the show is on.

We have bought a cake last night for him. That is to be sent to the "school" where Abang Iqie and his friends would enjoy most of it. I hope they will sing "Happy Birthday" to Afeeq. Although I doubt he understands why the whole commotion... but I know Abang Iqie would be the happiest kid there and would fuss around Afeeq.

Happy Birthday Afeeq... Mummy, Daddy and Abang Iqie love you so much...!!!

Mummy

SNIPPETS

OF ABANG IQIE

Abang Iqie can now converse quite well. He understands what we tell him most of the time. Having a conversation with him nowadays is a fun thing for me and hubby. The way he expresses himself with the limited words that he can utter sometimes make us laugh.

"What dat Mummy?"

"Mummy play wit Iqie, pleassssss"

"WOW... Daddy car fast..."

He can even sing all his favourite rhymes, like "Old McDonald Had a Farm", "Ba Ba Black Sheep", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "The Wheels on the Bus", "Mary Had a Little Lamb", and many more. We sometimes hear him humming while playing. He can even sing Barney's "I Love You, You Love Me" song. And that's the funny part...

When Hubby and I speak to him, we always say "YOU" - referring to him. He takes it that "YOU" means "IQIE". Whenever we say "Mummy / Daddy carry YOU", he takes it as "Mummy / Daddy carry IQIE". So, when he wants us to carry him, he says "Mummy, carry YOU, pleasss..." hehehheeee... Funny how kids perceive things that are said to them. Another one is the word "park". We always reverse park the car. So we say, "Mummy park the car". So when Iqie is on his electric bike and he wants to reverse it, he says, "Iqie park bike". Even when we reverse the car he would say, "Mummy park car".

The case with the word "YOU" extends to Iqie's singing. Sometimes when he wants to close his eyes to sleep, he would hug either Hubby or me and sing Barney's "I Love You, You Love Me" song. But in his case, he cleverly changes the lyric to this:

I love you...

YOU love MUMMY... -> which means IQIE love Mummy :)

We are happy family...

With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you -> funny how this is not changed ;)

Won't you say you love me too...

Another development that we see in Iqie is that he now can recite his ABC and his doa whenever he wants to eat (ever so loudly...). And most importantly, he seems to be connecting with Afeeq more. He plays with him and involves him more in his activities at home.

OF AFEEQ

Afeeq is now 11 months old. He has 4 teeth so far, 2 upper and 2 lower. He's very active and just can't sit still. He crawls everywhere. He's now beginning to take a step or two whenever we're around him. But he's still a little bit scared.

In the house, he is the one who makes a lot of mess. He knows where the toys and the CDs are. So, whenever we leave him alone, he would crawl to the toy box and the CD box and BANG... the whole floor is covered with toys, CDs, books, etc.

Hmmmm... I am still amazed at how fast these 2 have grown...

ieja

COMPLACENCY

It's such a big word... But I have fallen into its trap. I have written a number of entries in this blog, but unfortunately they all are unfinished and now are growing in number in my draft folder.

It's very hard to find time nowadays to even read a book (I don't read mainstream newspapers, just in case you have forgotten). It's even harder to sit down and relax my strained muscles. Well... unless if you are up at 4 or 5 am doing work... and serving as a distraction, here I am, typing an entry to my blog.

I wish I had more time... I wish I had more money ;)... I wish I had a lot of other things... hehhee. Don't we all...?

ieja

FIRST DAY AT "SCHOOL"

After we terminated our helper, we decided to send Iqie and Afeeq to a nursery. There are a few in our neighbourhood, but not all are suitable for us. We would prefer to send both of them to an Islamic taska with an English medium (I would prefer to be with them all the time, but of course that's not an option at this moment). But that can only be found in areas like Kajang and Cheras. Other nurseries in our neighbourhood either don't take toddlers like Afeeq, or too expensive and don't match our "odd" working hours.

So, we decided to try one taska which is very near to our place - about 1 minute drive from our condo to be exact ;) The day before, we had sort of prepared Iqie for this transition. We kept telling him that he would go to "school" soon. So he kept on repeating "Iqie go skool" all day long. So, when the morning came, it was quite easy to coax him to go with us to his "school". Well... he can't actually hear the words "go out" anyway... hehehhe.

When we arrived at the "school", the principal was there waiting for us. While I was filling up the forms, Hubby was observing Iqie. Afeeq was easy... he blended in immediately, crawling to the boxes of toys and minded his own business ;) Iqie, on the contrary, needed some time. So, they let him walk around the place and play for a while. Then, when we say "Mummy go to work and Daddy go to work. Iqie stay at school", Iqie started to look worried... "No Daddy... Daddy no work...!!! Iqie go work with Daddy..." I was almost in tears, but the principal took Iqie away and distracted him with the playground. But he was already in tears and screaming for us. We had to quickly drive away.

At the end of the day, when we collected them back, Iqie was engrossed playing. The supervisor said that he had a good time playing and making new friends. He looked happy too. Now, I can't predict what the second day at "school" would be like. Hopefully, Iqie would adjust quickly and develop good social skills there.

ieja

DAYS WITHOUT MAID

As of 09 June 2009, I am officially maid-less. We terminated our "super-efficient" helper for the reasons that are just too painful to elaborate heheheh... Did I manage to make it sound so dramatic? We actually terminated her at the end of May. So reinforcement had to be called to watch over Iqie and Afeeq. Thank god for Mums...

My Mum came for the first shift... taking care of Iqie and Afeeq for 3 days. Then the second shift reported for duty from Thursday onwards. We sent my Mum-in-law back yesterday.

I was a bit skeptical about not having any helper at all after being pampered by the luxury of not having to do anything much around the house. Well... except for the weekends where the helper didn't come and I had to do everything. My worst fear was the cleanliness of the household. I now have developed the "allergy" to messy and dirty house... hehehe. See... I told you I was pampered!

To make things worst, my vacuum cleaner was broken. I don't know what was wrong with it but it refused to work at all. So, almost immediately after terminating our helper, I practically dashed to Carrefour and bought one, plus a new mop (the one that uses sponges). So, I was like slaving myself at 8 am hovering and mopping the whole house while Iqie and Afeeq was watching in amazement.

Then, my attempt to have the whole wardrobe pressed was cut short because the iron refused to be slaved by me after 2 shirts. It short circuited the whole house!! Again, I dashed to (this time not Carrefour anymore) Best Denki in KLCC during work to buy a new one. I ended up with an iron and a new hair dryer (they call it hair styler!) that uses hair brush to dry and style your hair ;)

Today, after feeding Afeeq dinner, I hovered the whole house again. My feet just can't stand the dust on the floor (Hubby said that I'm a freak, but what does he know about all these!). And at 2 am, I took out the mop and did the whole house! The feeling of clean floor under your feet and the fresh smell of it are priceless... I wonder how long I can actually stand doing all these at odd hours ;)

MY NEW REGIME OF DIET

I am so glad that Hubby is not the kind of person who would (either once a while or always) insinuate that I have actually put on "a little" weight. I am so fortunate that he doesn't mind how light or how heavy I am. Although he is concerned with what I put on - as in my dresses - when I go out. But as much as I like that about him, I have my own self-conscious about my own weight. The lighter I am compared to him the better ;)

I used to fit into size 'M' or '8' whenever I bought clothes. I can also fit into size '28' or '29' whenever I bought pants (how long ago was it?). But lately, I (sort of) was smacked in the face by the fact that my wardrobe now contains 'XLs' only. I can barely put on an 'L' size shirt. What actually went wrong?

So, to satisfy my super-ego (for not being able to fit into my old and very old clothes), I have decided to go on a diet. I call it my Smart Diet Programme... hehehhee... well.. i don't know about the smart part, but it is my diet programme. So... since I'm too lazy to run and I haven't bought a new swimming suit (the size could be the main reason), I now run up and down the stairs in my condo... hehehee...

The first two rounds were horrible. I couldn't move my feet the next day, and I couldn't even walk properly. So I had to stop for a few days, then resume the exercise. Thereafter was easy. As for the diet... I know it's going to be very hard for me to stop my bad eating habit - I eat all the time! So, I have decided that I will not stop eating, but I shall control what I eat. Hence - only veggie soup for dinner.

I'm not sure how long I can keep this up, but I will sure try my best to achieve size 'L' first! Then, I'll see what I can do to get to 'M'... heheheh...

ieja

SNIPPETS

I have been lagging in terms of blogging my thoughts and what I feel. I do have a lot to say, but so little time to express them. So, I'm going to summarise them instead ;)

1. It's our duty to be happy
I had a hair cut (after trying to find time for it for a few months now!!) today. While my hair was steamed, I read something interesting - a poet (or was it a philosopher?) said something like "being happy is not just an emotion, but a duty that has been bestowed upon us..." Well... something of that sort... but the meaning is very clear... we owe it to ourselves to be happy... not just to make other people happy. So, what have we done so far to make ourselves happy? I had a hair cut ;)

2. A son buying his father's 1 hour of attention
Today as well I read an email sent to my Yahoo! Group mail by one of my ex-MPIK mates. It was a story that I had read a few times before. Every time (without fail!) I read the story, I would feel my eyes getting watery. The story touches my heart in a big way that I always share it (again and again) with Hubby. It was about a son who asked his father for $25 after asking his agitated father how much he earned for an hour. When given the money, the son took out his own money and asked his father if he could buy 1 hour of his father's time. All he wanted was for his father to spend 1 quality hour with him. What does that teach me? How much time do I have for my sons in a day? How do I treat my sons after a long day at work? Do I appreciate the time I have with them?

3. To be a good leader is to be a good listener
Today (again... hehehe) I had a training on a KM system that we use in one of our projects. Throughout this training, I try to put myself in the actual users' shoes (which are our clients). But it was funny how most of my questions being brushed aside. Not just today, but for the past few months I think that my inputs were not being taken into considerations when plans were being made for this project. Those frustrate me a lot since I am the one interfacing with the clients a lot. What do I learn? When you work in a team, listen hard. Don't dismiss their inputs however useless they may sound. Take into considerations the inputs given when you make plans. This applies in life as well. Listen hard!

ieja