Gahhh!

So many things to write, so little time! You'd think staying home gives a woman loads of free time, right? Think again. Try one day in my shoes and I beg you'd be begging to trade places again.

Gibran turned 31 months yesterday, and yesss... it's the first time I forgot his birth-day/date. Pffft. Nevermind lah, right? It's impossible to do monthly updates as kiddies grow older anyway.

Will do a more thorough write-up tonight but for now I gotta finish my Arabic class homework, cook H's dinner, prepare Gib's things to send to my parents' place tonight, make a chocolate topping for the choc cake I baked on Saturday (no time to make it on the same day!), clean the room, check on Sarah and Shamel who I am babysitting today, pack our things into the MPV, make sure everyone (and every kid's things!) get to my parents' house in one piece before 6 pm., bring the younger kids to the park to run out of access energy so they'd sleep better tonight, then bathe and feed Gib before I bathe and feed myself before I head off for Arabic class tonight. Phewwww.

So... anybody wanna trade places with this "lady of leisure"?

Huahuahuahaa... Forget it, though, coz I wouldn't trade my shoes in with anybody for the world. Wah... manyakk bagus wohhh..

The Endless Questions

Of course, Gibran being a toddler who talks his head off, we can't escape the endless questions of "why"s and "what"s and "where"s and "how"s.

And the questions are getting harder!

The latest is..

"Mummy.. kenapa pokok colour green?"

"Err.... because leaves contain klorofil and the trees use that to absorb sunlight, which they'll make into their food. Just like Mummy's car makan minyak... trees drink up sunlight!" Wah.. pakai hentammmmm only. Can't even properly recall the facts learned back in primary school.

"Oh"... and then; "Apa klorofil tu, Mummy? Apa dia??"

Okay......

Alamakkk.

Half a Year Gone

Note on 2/7/09: This was written more than 24 hrs ago but when I tried publishing it, I couldn't! What's up with blogger?!

It is officially July and half of 2009 is officially gone. Can you believe that?

And oh, by the way, this is also this blog's 500th post. Gosh. I can't believe that too.

I might be suffering from a writer's block of some sort (not for lack of wanting.. more from lack of remembering.. gahhhh!). This doesn't happen very often because, well, I might just be the most talkative person in Damansara when the mood strikes. But the mood's missing its target right now. Pffft.

Maybe that's also because we've been staying at home a whole lot lately due to the H1N1 pandemic. To avoid cabin fever, we've been briging Gibran to my parents' place a lot more. We've been going there everyday for the past week. When we need to buy something, only the adults go. And not for very long because we don't like leaving the kids home for long with the men and maids. The kids don't seem to sense the adults' restlessness (even though Gibran has been asking why we haven't gone to Giant in ages) but life justttt hasn't been quite the same since the whole H1N1 issue started.

Half a year's gone, folks. Lets not let the rest of it go to waste!

P/S: Am going to the Early Readers Workshop held by Lorna Whiston at Eastin today, thanks to Anis! :D Now that's something to blog about later!

When in Public Places

We don't usually leave Gibran alone in public places. If H and I are going to be occupied (like during our walking/jogging sessions), we'd leave Gib and his cousins and the maids at the playground so that they would be under adults' supervision. We try not to leave him alone at home too because he'd go looking for some "projects" if we leave him alone too long. But I can foresee the possibility of leaving him alone to his own devices for longer periods of time as he gets older of course.

Today however, I witnessed something that I take as a lesson-to-be-learned.

I was at a park in KD, trying to get in at least 20 minutes of brisk-walking (hold your horses, ladies, I work out for the sake of the spinal problems and not on a mission to lose weight.. hehehee) ... when we were on our cooling down round, we spotted a girl crying her head off while staring into the far-side of the park while holding her shoes in her hands. A woman holding on to two kids, and another woman who was walking ahead of us stopped to talk to the girl and at first I thought they were consoling a troubled preschooler (the girl looked about 4 or 5 yrs old), and then I realised that the little girl was on her own and the women were trying to coax her to talk.

"Eh... dia ni hilang Mak dia ke..?" I asked.

The woman with two kids in tow said; "A'ah la. Dia kata dia nak Baba dia. Mummy dia takde, kat rumah, dia kata. Macam mana ni ye? Kita nak bawak dia jumpa park guard ke..?"

"Alamak... camne ye... " I replied. While H and I contemplated for a few seconds, the little girl started running up the hill and the whole bunch of us followed suit!

"Mana bapak dia? Takkan lah bapak dia tinggalkan dia sorang-sorang???" Asked another father who had joined the crowd trailing after the little girl.

The girl could run, I tell ya. H had to go into a trot to catch up with her. And H's got long legs. I was of course left behind. She was heading up a path which led away from the park and onto the sidewalk along the main road. I was starting to wonder if we should just grab her because I didn't want her to get into any sort of accident!

Then we saw a man standing up the path by the main road, gesturing to her (she was still screaming and crying at the top of her lungs calling out for "Babaaaaaa!!!!!!!!! Babaa!!!!!!!!!!!!") and a boy who looked about 11 years old (probably the older brother) walking towards her and calling out; "Mana kau pergi tadi..?!"

Phew. The small crowd that jogged behind her stopped and heaved a sigh of utter relief. When we turned back to our respective businesses, I could see conversations starting in small groups of people and the look of disbelief and relief on everyone's faces.

Yes of course we being humans are tempted to judge but nope, I don't want to judge for fear that karma could/would come biting me one day in the arse. I'd rather take a lesson out of this.

Never ever leave your kid alone in public places. Even if you think he/she will stay in that one place and wait for you, better safe than sorry.

I can imagine the dad leaving the kid at the playground (she had her shoes off so was probably climbing on the playground bars or something) while he goes for a jog, but a kid being a kid... five minutes may seem ages to them. So.. better to leave someone by the kid's side.. just in case. My Dad does this really well. He'd plant himself on a park bench and announce to his grandkids; "Atuk duduk sini tau. Atuk tak pergi mana-mana. If anything you can find me here."

God knows what age is safe to leave your kid alone to monitor him/herself in public places. What do you think?

On a different note, I'm sincerely glad to see that in our society where so many bad things happen everyday.. there are still many good people out there who truly care and would do the right thing. Praise God.

And going off-tangent, I remember when I lost my Dad during a pasar malam one fine Friday when I was about 6 years old. I was twirling around-and-round-and-round while Dad was buying fruits. Then when I stopped, Dad wasn't there anymore. I asked the fruit-seller where my Dad was, and she said "Dah hilang bapak lah tu! Dah.. dah... jangan pergi mana-mana.. duduk sini dengan makcik.. nanti bapak datang balik lah tu." And yes, I'm one of those lucky ones because Dad came back. Dad said the whole thing happened in less than 5 minutes, but for me it seemed like a lifetime then.

Things look different when you're a kid. A minute seems to tick by slowly.

So.. stay safe, people.

An Experiment

I was tired of Gibran's endless-rolling-arounds during bedtime and decided to take one step back and let loose a little. Maybe this is really taking one step back instead of forward, but anything to make life easier (and the fellow sleep earlier!).

So what was the experiment?

For the first time since he moved on to his own bed, I put him to sleep in between H and myself just like I used to. I told him I needed the company and that Baba would be putting him into his own bed after he's fallen asleep. He complied like the good boy that he is ;) Alhamdulillah he was asleep within 10 minutes!

Yeah maybe it was a fluke because he had an exhausting day today (Shamel and Sarah spent the whole day at our house because Sister had to take Nabeel for a Colgate photoshoot). We went to Kiara Park to feed the turtles (our usual activity when the kids are around) and Gib must've run miles. Even from afar I could see the maid chasing after him breathlessly. Heheh. And can I just digress from the topic and say that the kiddie playground at Kiara Park is a total disgrace??! H made a lame joke and say that in Taman Tun kids are of no importance. Hehhh... Tak sedar diri issit, he himself was raised in Taman Tun :p

And then we had dinner at H's family's house and Gib was doing the usual Tasmanian Devil Act (you know how the Tasmanian Devil runs around and around and around in circles endlessly without tiring out? Yeahh.. exactly like that). So maybe that's why it wasn't hard for him to fall asleep before midnight.

Whatever it is, I'm sticking with this experiment for a few days at least.

Little Changes

Kids change and don't stay the same for long, right? Well, if you asked me, I'd rather go without some of the changes.

Back when I was working, Gib's bedtime used to be 10 p.m. The latest he'd sleep was 10.30 p.m. and near to 11 p.m. on weekends when we had functions-or-such to attend. I don't know howww it happened, but now he's managed to stretch his bedtime to 12 midnight. It is soo not pleasant to have to force a 1-metre tall toddler (he's seriously tall for his age) into bed and into la-la-land. It is TOUGH. Very testing and irritating.

Yes some blame is to be put on us parents of course because we'd go out a couple of nights per week on family outings and such, and at times we'd arrive home only at 11-ish. Now the li'l fella thinks it's okay to stretch his bedtime till at least 11.30.

This started happening on a nightly basis ever since Gib moved onto his own bed. So while there is that perk of not having him do karate-moves on us in the middle of the night, it's much harder now to put him to bed now that he doesn't nuzzle into Mummy's arms to doze off. Now he'd rather roll around and put himself to sleep (which is something good, I'm told by many people), but helloo... I'd rather have him nuzzle against me for 5 minutes and then doze into deep sleep rather than have his rollllllll around endlessly on his little bed till he can't fight sleep off any longer.

Then there's the resilient-factor. Gibran is his own person. He's very opinionated and I don't blame him for that because Mom said I was that way too when I was little. Who am I kidding? I'm still like that! Well. H may look like Gibran but unfortunately (or fortunately??!) his resilience and somewhat-stubborn nature is so much like mine that Sister laughs when I scold him for being stubborn and exclaims; "It's like you're scolding yourself! Tuhan bagi kau rasa what it was like for Mak to handle you when you were little!". Hmmmmmmff.

When we say "Jangan... Gibran... You'll hurt yourself... "... will he listen? Nooo. He's got to do what he's got to do and hurt himself first, and then he'll stop doing it. And only for about a day or two, coz he'll start right back up reallyyy soon.

As dramatic as this sounds, I find myself "mengucap-ngucap" ("Astaghfirullahhh..." "Masyaallahhhh".... "Yaaaaa Allahhhhhhh..."...) and silently seeking for mental strength ("Ya Allah please give me patience..!!!!")... and then sometimes resorting to a smack or two on the bum in the end. Sigh.


Posing with my light hand weights while bugging me on a workout session.


All strippped and posing "macam Hulk!!" (as he exclaimed) before getting ready for bed.


The usual Spiderman-pose when one asks him to pose for a picture.

What's With The Hiding?

Last Sunday (21/6/09; yes it was Father's Day but H says everyday is father's day.. heheh), we were at H's parents' house and H was helping Mama out with something while SILs and I veged out in the living room after a nicely heavy lunch when Gib started up the stairs to look for Baba.

I yelled out at him to come down because H wasn't upstairs and slowly got off my bum to chase after him. By the time I got to the staircase, he was at the top of the stairs (well he does move at lightning-speed yeah) and by the time I reached upstairs, he was nowhere to be seen. A few minutes prior to that, H and Gib played Hide and Seek and Gib had a ball. So Gib wanted to play some more.

I swear I looked everywhere I could think of and could not find him. You bet I got increasingly worried and yelled louder and louder for him to stop fooling around and come on out, it wasn't funny anymore and I didn't wanna play anymore. SIL#1 and H's Papa joined in the search and H hurried upsairs to help too when Papa suddenly found Gibran hiding in SIL#2's bathroom. I didn't think he could be hiding in there because the doors leading to that bathroom were shut tight, and Gibran usually hides in "obvious" places (like behind a wall, beside a bed or by a chair.. somewhere he can peek out from). He even had the nerve to push the bathroom door really hard when his Papa Tok tried to open the door! He was still busy pushing the door and shrieking at his Papa Tok to go away because "Nanti Mummy datang!!"... when I entered the bathroom from the other room and sneaked up on him from behind and gave him a good smack on the bum for being so dangerously cheeky.

Pffft. What a not-amusing incident! He couldn't understand why we were so mad (more like dead-worried okay!) and cried and cried for being scolded for wanting to play hide and seek. I told H no more hide and seek for now.

Then this evening when I was fetching Gibran from my parents' house (Dad took Gib and the maid over there while I went to the weekly class I like to attend), Dad told me that they had a real rucus for a while shortly before I arrived because Shamel went missing and they looked for him all over, to no avail. All three maids and four kids also helped look for Shamel. After a whole lot of shriekings and yellings, Dad heard a small voice softly saying; "Shamel kat sini....." and they found Shamel hiding behind my Sister's MPV. How they missed that spot noone knows. Everyone was just glad that he was found.

This hiding business is just not funny!

Now just as I thought that life's gotten really good since Gibran's learned to entertain himself without having us watch over him every second of the day like eagles... I'm just not too sure about the possibility of him not repeating the same scene he did the other day!

And with cousins like his....

Anything can happen when the kids get together.

Penatttt lah okayyyy. What will they do next..


Pictures taken during Sarah's 10th birthday party on Saturday 20/6/09.


And of course there has to be a photo of the birthday cake which yours truly made...