18 January 2007

Flowers in my Home






These are all the artificial flowers in my home, some dating as back as 7 years ago (bunga hias bilik pengantin during my wedding) and some as recently bought as the last Ramadhan ( a week before I gave birth to Ariff).
With 4 creeping, crawling, jumping, running, under 6 years old, children in the house, I could not afford to place any Bohemian glass, crystal vase around. Ini pun dah cukup baik, ada gak bunga.
So, enjoy the blooms...

16 January 2007

Ariff is 100 days old today!















































































































My Ariff was born on 9th October 2006.As of today, 16th January 2007, he is 100 days old. He is now 5.6kg ( without diapers), nearly double his birth weight of 2.9kg. He can now recognises faces and voices. And loves to smile.He hardly cries but will cried out to get attention. A small shrill cry....aaaiiii...aaaiiii... meaning, please pick me up so I can jump up and down. I know I don't cry much but that doesn't mean I love lying around.





I copied this from another proud mummy's blog.








I think in traditional malay culture, a baby is no longer considered a 'newborn' once it has passed its 100 days mark. Therefore the baby is not susceptible to dangers that a newborn is thought to face. It can now jijak tanah, which literally means 'step on dirt', basically the baby is allowed to go out of the house. I guess by 100 days, the old folks think that the baby's spirit is strong enough to withstand the disturbances caused by devils and spirits and such. *shrug*. Izani, of course, has gone out of the house months ago.. we've been dragging him along on shopping trips and such. Because we are not traditional malay parents.. heh heh. The baby is also considered to be free from the threat of colic. It can now be free of it's barut, which is like a tiny soft cotton girdle that is said to keep the gasses out of the baby's tummy. Izani has been free of his barut for a few weeks now, because he had outgrown them! His tummy is so big, I can't even tie them up properly and his tummy would still be exposed. The bit about the baby being free from colic is not true either. I think all my other babies had colic till they were about 4 months, when they start eating solids. I don't know what else is the significance of the 100 days, perhaps some of the other Malaysian mommies (who are more atuned to the malay culture, unlike me *shame*) can help elaborate. Courtesy of Elisa Taufik blog

15 January 2007

Arrival of Ariff Ikhwan















These pics were taken at the hospital, a day after Ariff was born. Among the visitors that day were my Auntie, Ucu from Seremban along with my cousins, Jehan and Nazhan.

Makciks from my office also came. They came around during lunch hour and take turns cradling the baby. Ariff has yet to be named at the name, so the makciks suggested a few names.

By the way, all these pics were taken by Anis. She stayed with me throughout my stay at the hospital. Sejuk perut mak beranak, dapat anak rajin.Bolehle, tolong amikkan mak air while mak was bedridden.

Around KL with Brother Kaptan






Kaptan is my hubby's cousin's son. Or hubby's uncle's grandson. He lives in London and came to Malaysia for 10 days to visit this side of the family. He brought along tapes of families in London. Looks like Anuar has a whole clan of family living over there. The looks are unmistakably the same although they dresses differently. Anis and Aiman resembled some of their cousins over there. So does little Ariff, who at this stage looks a lot like his brother Aiman.
We had to speak in English most of the time as Kaptan only speaks in English. He is also fluent in Urdu and Hindi. Well, the only Hindi words that I can know is kuch kuch hota hai which means what will be , will be....or something like that.
Anyway, we brought him to KLCC which seems to be the'must see, must visit, must buy something as souvenir' place. He took a lot of photos over there, with Nuar being the official photographer. Not unlike the tourists swarming KLCC on that day, he took every possible angle of the tower and surroundings. He also did some shopping, buying watches, digicam, some jeans and shirts.
We took through a whirlwind tour of KL. Instead of shopping in KLCC, we took him to Giant Batu Caves instead.
BTW, he's the one in the white shirt in the picture of me and kids in front of the water fountain at Istana Budaya. Nuar was, well, he's the photograher...

Port Dickson - Glory Beach Resort











BBQ New Year's Eve 31/12/2006






It was an impromptu idea. I thought instead making chicken rendang for Aidiladha, why don't we just grill the chicken. It will be less hassle for me. I was in no mood of cooking.
I came across some frozen satay at the local supermarket and bought it. Manalah tahu tak cukup ayam 3 ekor ayam kat rumah tu. And also bought some burger buns. Nuar suggested that we prepared spaghetti as the main meal.Note, we refers to me as he is only capable of boiling water. He cooked rice once, I had to threw the rice pot away. He burnt the rice and the pot as well. So, he went to buy ingredients for the spaghetti meat sauce and the barbeque marinade sauce. Again, I was in no mood to make the marinade sauce from scratch and opt for the easy way.Buy the bottled ones.
Kak Wan brought in some nasi minyak. We also brought out the leftover lemang, nasi impit, kuah kacang and laksa. So we had bbq chicken,burgers, sausages, coleslaw, spaghetti, satay, fries with leftover Aidiladha lunch.
The kids had a jovial night, eating and playing around. The older kids manned the bbq pit together with their uncles. I just laze around, chit catting and enjoying the food. There was not much washing up required as we used styrofoam cups and plates. After tidying up the place, we went to bed around 11pm. I didn't even realise that the year was ending and a new year is beginning. I hope that the new year 2007 will bring much joy and laughter, such as the one that I had on the last night of 2006. Amin, InsyaAllah.