Bday Celebration

As mentioned in my earlier post, we decided to celebrate my daughter's 4th bday (6thJune), my mum's 60th bday (9thJune), and my son's advance 2nd bday (14thJune) today. It was an honour too to have my grandfather there to celebrate with us. Despite his limited mobility, he still came. I believe he has a strong heart to be there with us.. and he looked very happy to be there too (see last picture below). Thanks Ba/Kong/AhCho! Glad you enjoyed the food too!

The birthday cake - the promised Little Einsteins and Diego characters for Aqilah and Irfan respectively. As for mum, the beautiful carved butterflies and flowers :) oooohhh, and beautifully decorated with lotta cocopops and M&Ms

Little Mickeys and Minnies

Our beloved father, grandfather and great grandfather

Shopping @ Sarah's

Spent the day at Jazz's finally to crop my long-awaited project. Met a friend of Jazz's having to find that she has her own little home-business too. She brings in products from the US - the oh-la-la Victoria Secrets and scrumcilious Bath & Body Works products. We (as well as our little girls) had a go at the testers and came out smelling all fruity and flowery! Of course, we brought home gifts for ourselves too!

My BigBaby turns 4!

Wow! 4 years it has been since I last had my 1st experience of labour pains and cramps! Not only birthdays mark the day your child is born, I like to see it as the day the mother experiences the strongest forces her body can ever experience.. However, I did not quite experience such - not only did I experience strong contractions, I also had a caesarean wound to look after the birth.

Woke up and greeted my little girl a happy birthday. My parents and I got ready her surprise we kept the night before.. two little green birds in the cage. So this morning, we covered the cage and presented it to her.. She couldn't guess what it was and was quite hesitant to open. Though she loves surprises, she hates loudness that is accompanied with the surprises. Anyway, she peeped under the cloth and was happy to see the little birds :) 

Hmm... What's under the cloth?

Today is my little girl's day... Besides my personal time in the morning at the banks, the rest was hers. She met up with her little cousins, Kholil and Alya. I brought them 3 to the mall for yummy hot&sweet popcorn, and the little girls got themselves some hair accessories, while the boy got himself an animal book.

Sisters at heart... with their new diamante hairbands

Today was not intended to have a party celebration as it is planned to be held on the 9th June - inlieu of mum's 60th bday!, and an advance celebration for my son's 2nd birthday (falls on 14th June). There will be 3 people to celebrate together, so I went to search for a cake for that night. Aqilah insisted to have June (a little girl cartoon character from The Little Einsteins) on her cake, and for my son (not that he chose), I decided to give him Diego, a little boy cartoon character, Dora the Explorer's cousin. As for my mum, will have to think about that. Didn't manage to pre-order the cake today, but the little kids got their own little cake to bring home.

The afternoon, it was the little girls and I to the toy shop - to get Aqilah's friend a birthday present. She is celebrating her birthday in school the next day. Next to another shopping mall for teatime with sis in law and her son. Had some yummy dimsum (hot steamed dumplings).. and at this place, Aqilah learnt her first stake at holding a chopsticks and ate her dumpling from it! I was surprised she could do it with ease! Something to remember on her 4th year milestone :) Well done!

We finished the day back at my parents house, to have a go with singing the birthday song and blowing the candle... Did this on her small Little Mermaid cake we bought earlier on...

Kholil ate his Spiderman cake earlier the day

Aqilah with a funny grin to her face... and her little birthday cake

Alya wanted to have a go as well in blowing the candle on her cake ;)

Irfan with choc - Yummy!

We were all exhausted in the end... but it was a nice day to cherish! 

On the Bottle!

It will be another one more month till I start work so it's time to start Nasha's training on the bottle. Two weeks ago I rummaged cupboards and drawers for bottles bought but never been used and my breastpump, and stuffed them in a basket. A week ago, I went through all of them sorting which bottles I will need to start Nasha off. Irfan had 2 new bottles bought when he was a year plus. Since he is a growing boy, I got him to start using a bigger bottle. Well, anyway, he did use it for awhile but didn't like it as much as his old little 5ounce bottle. The problem with his bottle is that the teat is has only 3mth+. Anyway, now he is two years, he is still happy on it.
So, I've decided to have Nasha try on this big bottle although it will look gigantic on her (I think they have smaller bottles with this range). I thought as long as she is ok with the teat (I was doubtful knowing both my older kids preferred smaller teats, and this one looked a little bit bigger), then let's just stick with it.
And finally today, I got the bottles and pump sterilised AND managed to express enough for trial. We waited for the moment she cries for her next feed... and when she did, POP went the bottle and she was happily sucking her new bottle away. YAY!!! I know it sounds corky, but I was so thrilled Nasha managed to feed straight from the bottle her first time through. She was either very hungry or she likes her bottle:) I had to go through 3 types of bottles to find the right one for Aqilah which was why it was a relief to see Nasha fuss-free. Yea she did fuss abit of course, but next thing you know she was bottle-drinking like she has done this before!

Notice the oversized bottle for 1mth old Nasha.. She's doing well:)

Classic Lock-Out!

While skype-ing with my husband just this night, my sister-in-law was also online. Hardly able to catch her online at this time of night.. but this was a rare night. She just completed her night giving tuition class in her home, and a funny little incident happened right after that. She got online and having to found me online too, decided to share her funny moment with me.

As I mentioned earlier, she just completed her night giving tuition class in her home. She was outside her bedroom and she heard her bedroom door closed by her intelligent little 4year-old daughter... Not only did she hear the door closed, but she heard the lock of the door clicked. She then thought to herself, "OK, that sounded like the door is locked, am sure Alya will open the door soon". Few moments later, sister-in-law made her way to the room, door was still locked. Great! Knock.. Knock.. Hello... Open the door.. - no answer.. no sound of movements.. Not sure how many times she knocked.. till she decided not to bother her tired little family in the room (hubby, son, daughter, and baby son). If I'm not mistaken from her story, she called her husband's phone but to no avail, it was not answered.

I can imagine her standing outside her bedroom door feeling left and locked out, thinking how in the world could she deserve this. And after having such a tiring day (their family spent the day at our parents), and also a night stressing her brain out running a tuition class (although with only two kids).. and to be left outside, laughing but crying in the inside... Not be able to sleep on her big comfy bed, but to resort to her older son's playroom-cum-sometimes-bedroom for her night...

Think the kids were too tired too to realise their mum is not in the room with them! She was telling me how she felt like she was in one of those comic strips, where kids locked their parents outside.. and what kids do are just unpredictable sometimes.

Oh well, she thought to herself, she could have her night all to herself... so, may you sleep well sis!!! Thanks for the funny moment to share and yes, a classic story to cherish :) And am proud of you for staying sane about it....!!!! hahaha..

Playtime at nenek's house

Don't tell me what that thing Irfan has on his head! Found lying around my father-in-law's house and decided to wear it as a hat.. or a wig?!

Always surprises me boy.. xoxo

More updates coming up

One Step At A Time...

As mentioned in my earlier post, Nasha's 1mth jab had to be postponed. So today was the day she had her jab, which involved us driving an hour and a half to our destination.

The night before, I pre-packed what there is to bring especially for entertainment in the car... Aqilah's game, colouring pencils, and notepad, and Irfan's books (he especially loves his sister's phonics books), and as for Nasha - the ride itself should be comforting for her.

Arrived our destination before noon in time for a quick visit to my office and for early lunch at the town's Discovery Centre. Lucky there was no crowd so having the kids running around was not making too much of a scene. Left for my house after half an hour of lunch as Nasha was starting to squirm here and there in her car seat she was happily sleeping in during our lunch.

Once I opened the door of the house, Aqilah and her little brother was so thrilled to enter the house they left for a few months. Out came the toys and the house was back to normal - a mess! After their satisfaction of play, we left the house an hour later and it was a good time too as the afternoon office hour has started. Rushed to the clinic in case there would be a long queue, and within half an hour, Nasha had her 1mth jab! Yea, she cried - but only for a few seconds! Phew!

Throughout the journey, Jordin Sparks' first 2 tracks were the only favourites for my children especially my son. They were played repeatedly... over and over again. Once it hit the third track, a faint voice at the back of the car crying "No mummy... no mummy...". Irfan 'demanding' to repeat the first two tracks once again! Sure, I can handle the repeated songs :)

Anyhow, after Nasha's jab, on the way back to Bandar, we stopped over at my father-in-laws house. He said that he will be home during the afternoon, and it was a good thing I pushed Nasha's jab with the clinic earlier on. We stayed there for a good hour. It was nice seeing him again and having all the kids visiting their Nenek (grandfather) after a long while. He was a happy man that day, which I saw in his eyes. Irfan had a terriyfing experience when he walked out the front door to check out the 'neighbourhood'. He didn't realise there was a black cat was relaxing at the porch. While chatting with my inlaws, suddenly we heard a loud scream, and it was Irfan, screeching back into the house. I assumed the cat must have come up to him to greet him... however he was not happy with the greeting perhaps!

Kids with grandparents... (notice Nasha's thigh)

Finally, we bid farewell to my inlaws and set ourself for our final journey back to Bandar. No other music is to be played other than Miss Sparks' tracks. 

Driving on the road home was an opportunity for me to have some reflections on the day we had. I was actually surprised at myself to have managed to do what I have planned to do - from setting off early, to have managed cleaned the house, to have the kids visit the fishes at the Discovery centre, and to have met my inlaws. Of course, having extra hands (domestic helper) was a lot of help too!... It was a nice trip back, having all my kids in the car with me, and to have fulfilled all the things (small things) I deemed I may have not be able to do so, and within limited time frame.

I thought to myself again, that we are all given the strength and energy, and we should be blessed by that. It is how we use it and to what extent. And with determination, we can always achieve it. And it is not about the product, but how we get to it is worth thinking of. Anyhow, here is an article to share with about knowing your limits...

Oh and also our track of the day! ENJOY...