The Carnivall

It's opened!!! The first water theme park in Kedah is now opened. It's called THE CARNIVALL: Water and Dry Land of Excitement. It's situated next to Cinta Sayang Golf & Country Resort and managed by the same company running the club. I've been going round the area a few times while it was under construction and couldn't wait for it to open.


So on Friday, all of us plus nephew Amir, like sardines in a can, drove down to Sungai Petani. Amir's parents followed in their own car and met up with Bro#1 and nephew Daniel in SP.

For a few days before that everyone was talking about this trip, buzzing with excitement. But deep down, I knew Nadiah's first experience will not be what everyone expect it to be.

Sure enough, when we got there, without realizing it, dad parked the car right in front of the loud speakers. We couldn't hear anything whilst in the car but as soon as we opened the door, music from the park came blaring away numbing everyone's ears. True to form, Nadiah started crying away and refusing to get down from the car. We asked everyone else to proceed and we'll follow them in a little while when Nadiah has calmed down.

After plying her with popcorn and ice-cream and Shukri quickly grabbing Nadiah and carried her into the park (and in doing so twisted his left hand), she was ok. We sat her down in front of the children's pool and let he absorb all the fun and not long after she started to join in. And so the fun begins.

written on Saturday, 23 Dec 2007, 10.36 AM
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I had planned to continue with an elaborate description of our time at the park but am now too lazy to do so. So I'll let the slide show do the work for me. So here goes:

The Weekend That Was

Gosh! It was such a hectic weekend. My BIL got married and I, of course, had to volunteer to make the hantaran. As if I didn't have so much work to do already. But nevermind. It was the least I could do to help out with the wedding preparation.
The kenduri on the bride's side was on Saturday and the groom had his on Sunday. On Saturday the bride & groom decided to wear pink. PINK I tell you!!! Ok, I have nothing against the colour pink, but pink on a guy??? And on his wedding day!! This is not just a sweet pink or dark pink but SHOCKING PINK!! I guess BIL did not mind so whatever.

On Sunday they wore green. In fact the whole theme for the groom's side was green. So I had made all the hantarans to co-ordinate with everything else.

We had the kenduri on Sunday at BIL's new house. He decided to rent a house for him and new wife to live, which is not far from MIL's house. At first BIL decided to paint the house green. Dear me!! They'll be in green and the house will be green as well. I was afraid they would blend in with the walls. Thank god he changed his mind.

So here's some pics to feast your eyes on

Hot!!

We went to Sungai Petani yesterday. Supposedly to take Nadiah swimming at the club. But in order to get there we had to drive passed Tesco. At first it was all quiet when we passed Tesco. Then suddenly we could hear a small voice whimpering at the back of the car. The poor girl wanted to go to Tesco.

So we made a quick stopover at the chalet to leave mom's rendang in the fridge for Bro#1 to pick up later on. Then turned around and Nadiah didn't even glanced at the swimming pool. So much for our plans to take her swimming.

Anyway, we spent an hour or so at Tesco and drove back to Alor Star right after. In the car, Nadiah was throwing a fuss because she wanted something. She kept grabbing my hand and pushing me to get something for her. I kept asking her "what do you want?" and she finally said "susu".

Ok, that was good. At least she tells me what she wants. She used to ask for, and said the word "susu" quite a lot a long time ago. But has stopped using the word lately.

So I started to take out her bottle, water and milk powder. Then I realised that I've forgotten the hot water. I had left it in the boot of the car. Darn it!!. Hubby said to make the milk without the hot water. Nadiah's not going to mind anyway.

So I had mixed everything sans hot water and passed it along to Nadiah. But she kept pushing my hand away, mumbling and looked as if she's about to have a fit. I kept pressing her asking "What do you want? Tell me what you want". I showed her the bottle of mineral water and the milk powder container but she still kept on protesting. I was about to lose my patience. First she said she wanted milk, now she's refusing her bottle. Frustration was starting to boil up my spine but I try to tempt it down.

And then suddenly, she just up and said "HOT!". Just that one word: HOT and me and hubby dissolved into laughter. We just couldn't believe that she knew what was going on.

Sometimes it's so frustrating to see that Nadiah's progress seems to be stagnant; it's as if all our hopes and hard work are not going anywhere. At times I feel like giving up when she would retract and go into her own world again. But it's incidents like these that gives us the strength to go on. It's not a question of her not being aware of her surrounding, but it's how we get her to come out and communicate, say them all out, relay what is in her head.

Anyway, back to the HOT scene: we couldn't stop on the roadside as we were smacked in the middle of the highway and had passed all R&Rs. Finally we got to the toll booth and stopped at the side of the road to fill up her bottle with hot water. But only after having to get her to settle down, telling her to be patient; which I might say wasn't the easiest thing in the world to do. Thank God it was only 10 minutes or so.

I found this link:
Everyday Autism

It's an introduction to autism. Click away if you would like to know more about autism and how the family live and cope with the disorder. It's a video so turn up your speakers (or slip on your headphones).

When Baba Babysits......

When Baba babysits...
Nadiah looses the ability to walk. Instead she is carried here, there and everywhere.

When Baba babysits...
the word "NO" does not exist in the dictionary.

When Baba babysits...
there will be hand-drawn pictures of the Teletubbies everywhere in the room.

When Baba babysits...
Nadiah gets to play in the rain


When Baba babysits...
Mama is thankful that Baba WANTS to babysit.

A Puzzling Day

Nadiah had another appointment with Uncle Alex again today. We left for Penang around 11.30-ish am. Appointment was at 1.30pm. Usually it takes us one and a half hours to get to Loh Guan Lye Hospital, door to door. The extra half hour is for unexpected traffic jam or such.

What we didn't remember was that it's the school holidays and everyone wants to go to Penang. First there was the long queue at the ticket booth to get on the bridge. Then there was another long queue along Greenlane. We finally arrived 20 minutes later that the appointed time.

But of course, the children's clinic was close by that time so I had to go in through the main entrance which is on the other side of the building. So there was me dragging Nadiah all along the corridor to get to Alex's room and at the last minute remembered that Nadiah had to go and do her "small business". Quickly turn around and rushed her to the loo. With that done, we entered Alex's room.

Alex was his usual cheerie self. He took out some jigsaw puzzles for Nadiah. She loves puzzles. At home that morning she had already gone through several rounds of puzzles on the computer. Now there was more for her to do. First Alex had her do puzzles that was coordinated around colours. There was a middle piece that shows a specific colour eg. orange. Around it, that has to be assembled are pictures of orange stuff like orange fruit and a carrot. Her first try was a bit of a struggle. She kept trying to get us to give her a hand but we refused to. Instead we cheered her on and in the end she she managed to put all the five pieces together. And once she had the concept, all the other colours was a breeze to her.

After that there was more puzzles to do. . Then Alex tried to get her to say out numbers but she refused to do so. Was more interested in all the little figurines that was neatly laid out in the cabinet next to her.

Sometimes it's so hard to get her to concentrate on something because she refuses to respond to our voices. Unlike normal children, Nadiah looks away when we call her. Although she gets better each day, there are still times when I call her name a few times and she would just ignore me even though she is just standing right there in front of me. In the end it would see me screaming her name for a response. I hate it when that happens but it is so frustrating sometimes; especially when we thought that she had progressed so much. I know that Nadiah is only mildly autistic and I should be very thankful that she has very good chances of getting through life as a normal person, but still what mother does not bleed inside to know that her only child may have difficulties surviving in this world independently.

But I digress...

So anyway, even though Nadiah was refusing to cooperate, Alex was very happy with her overall progress. Gave us more stuff to do with Nadiah till the next appointment which will be in February. Since Nadiah is clever enough to use the pc on her own, we are to get some educational games software for her and we have to get her to practice her colouring.

Till the next time we see Alex again. In the mean time, the body brushing and the tongue brushing must still go on....

Rock Concert

Just got back from KL again. This time the whole household went down. Since G had started school holidays, Dad decided to take everyone to see the new baby. So off we went.

We didn't get out much except around Bangsar area. Everyone was busy with preparation for baby Irfan's first haircut. Mom with getting all the equipment ready since she's going to be the hairdresser. Kak Yam and Chik busy with cooking, Shukri had some meetings in Melaka and Dad busy with his meetings in KL. Me? I was busy with taking G and Nadiah out to the shops.

before

after

We went to Bangsar Village and Nadiah of course made a bee line straight to Toys'R Us. She went round the whole store but always getting back to the basket of balls. She was so attracted by the colourful balls in it. Thought to myself "this is going to be a good trip" because the balls were below RM10 and that's MY kind of shopping.

But just before I went to the cashiers to pay for the ball, Nadiah made a detour to a corner of the store and would not leave. So I went to look to see what was holding her attention. It turn out to be a small drum set which the store had put up for demos. There wasn't any drumsticks on the set but Nadiah saw some toy snooker cues and grab them. She jumped on the tiny stool and started drumming away. All my pleas for her to stop so we could pay for the ball and go was a complete waste of time. After a while I went to put the ball back in the basket in defeat, knowing that she's not going to want that anymore.

With a sigh, I had a quick look in my purse to see if I have enough money. Alas! only a few tenners but the shiny silver card was blinking at me; a supplementary from dear hubby. So a quick call to hubby asking if I can just sign for the drums. They weren't THAT very expensive. RM89.90 with a further 20% discount so that makes it just over RM70.00. Hubby gave the greenlight.

A last try to get Nadiah to just up and leave the store but to no avail. I can see the glazed look on her face meaning that she is sooo totally in love with that thing. Not until I was holding the box and showing it to her while telling her that we will go to the counter and pay for it will she got up and followed me. Since she wanted it so much, I let her carry the box down to the parking lot. Yeah I know. That was so bad of me. But she was determined to carry it so I just let her. :)

Here's a video of Nadiah drumming away:


When Bro #3 came over, he took out his keyboards and him, G and Nadiah had a little rock concert. Bro on the drums, G on the keyboards and Nadiah singing on the mic. Well, blowing was more like it.


I also got some books for myself. It's been so long since I read a book. The last was IKEA catalogue. Bought three from Times bookstore and 4 from the book rental store down in Bangsar. That was my first try at renting books. I think if I like those books very much, I might "forget" to return them. I bought:

• Every Breath You Take -- Judith McNaught
• False Impression -- Jeffrey Archer
• Confessions of A Shopaholic -- Sophie Kinsella (everyone is talking about this book so much and thought I'll give it a try)

I rented:

• Against The Rules -- Linda Howard
• Faery Magic -- Mary Jo Putney, Jo Beverly et al
• To The Limit -- Cindy Gerard
• A Gentleman's Honor -- Stephanie Laurens

I don't know when I'll have the time to read them all, but read them I shall... someday.

Apart from baby Irfan's haircutting ceremony, we also cooked dinner for Mak Ndak and family. I made my (in)famous apple crumble. That was my "zipedidooda" dessert dish to make when I was in the UK. It's easy and quick. But most of all, it's yummmmmmyyy!!! Since there were no vanilla ice cream to go with it, I whip up some vanilla sauce. It's my first try but it wasn't bad. Nope, wasn't bad at all!!

Well, the short break is over and am now back in Alor Star, pouring over more beading projects. In the last two weeks, I have stayed up all night a few times to finish up the beadwork before the customers came to collect. At the rate I'm going, I'll probably be wearing glasses by June next year. We shall see, shall we??

To Create or Not To Create...

That is the question. Well, maybe not because I have already created it. It's my new blog. One that shall be called "Yatie Travels". As the name suggests, the blog will have stories of places that I've been to.

I've always love travelling and I love taking pictures. They say "a picture says a thousand words", so there's going to be a lot of pictures. There will be funny stories and sad stories. Ones that make you want to pull out your hair in frustration and ones that make you realise how great Allah The Almighty is.

The blog is more for myself than anyone else. It's for me to remember and reminisce. But then, why waste a good story. For sure I'll never be a published writer, so I'll publish myself in MY blog. :)

Yes, I shall do it. I've created the title and it only waits for these busy fingers to start typing. I will put up the link once the first entry is published.

On a different note, everything has been real quiet these past few days. Nothing much has been happening apart from me being stressed out finishing my various beading projects.

Nadiah is her usual happy self. Remember I wrote about her ability to use the pc mouse in my previous post? Well, she has become more competent now. I found her a Teletubbies site for her to play around with. The first day, that really kept her occupied the whole day; stopping only for food and after I dragged her out to play in the garden.

Another new thing that she discovered is a camera. It has come to the point that everyone keeps their camera away from her sight; be it the digital kind or handphones with camera. One night while browsing through the picture gallery in my handphone, I found SEVERAL pictures of her own self. These are the "Blair Witch Project" kinda pictures. You know, dark and only a part of the face can be seen. I have absolutely no idea how or when those were taken.

Talking about The Blair Witch Project movie, have you seen it? Gosh! That's a scarry one. I think I was behind the sofa cushion almost throughout the whole movie. Not that you can see anything horrendous, but the music and the kids' conversations give the movie its scariness. Once while ruffling through my VCD collection, I came face to face with THIS picture, I quickly shove the VCD to the back of the cabinet. Bbbrrrrrrhh!! Just looking at it gives me the chills.

Ok, I'll be off for now and will leave you with a short scene of Nadiah playing hotscotch. Cheerios!!!

Well done, Daniel!!

To my nephew, Daniel, congratulations for getting 5As in your recent UPSR exams. Knew you could do it. Now you can ENJOYS!!

My Baby Can Click!!

She's only 4, but she can use the mouse to click or double click.... Mama is so proud of you Nadiah!! She can even use the touch pad on the laptop. Now she won't have to pull me over to the pc to change her Barney or Teletubbies. She can do it on her own. So Mama won't have to stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down... :)

I just got back from KL on. Our original plan to stay until Tuesday got changed to Thursday. But most of the time we were in Melaka with my mom and Mak Ndak. I only got to go to IKEA.... and they didn't even have the lovely RM1 vanilla ice-cream... HWUAAHHH!!!!!

Got to see baby Irfan. He's got smiling lips just like his father. Soooo cute even when he's crying. Cute because when he cries, the parents have to deal with it and not me!! eheheh!! Now that we're back here in Alor Star, Bro #3 hooked up the webcam so that everybody here can watch Irfan sleep, cry, kick, burp, vomit... the works!! Not feeding time la.. coz then his mama's *toot* could also be seen!!!
Here's some pics of Irfan in action:





Got to go. More beading to do. Alhamdulillah murah rezeki. Probably won't be blogging for a while since all of the bajus are to be ready by the end of the month. Then there's BroIL #2's wedding on the 8th December and I volunteered to do the hantarans.... kes terlebih rajin la ni!!!

Before I go, a HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CS.... my friend from school who we all call "THE SUPPLIER" because she's got everything. You want glue, she's got it. You want stappler, she's got it. You want a steel, long ruler, she's got it. You want kain buruk, pun she's got it. Basically everything lah!!! Thanks for all the laughs, CS. You have a good one this year. Present??? Lain taun boleh?? Anyway, this one's for you:

SURPRISE!!!!!
CLICK HERE, HERE, HERE...!!!!!

Darn Allergies!!!

I’m now in KL. Arrived around 7.30pm. Both Mom and Dad are now at Bro#3’s IL’s house, I’m sure goggling over baby Irfan right now. Me? Am not allowed near the baby because my stooooppid allergies acted out!!!! I cleared out some of Nadiah’s old clothes last night and kept the boxes nicely stacked in the storeroom… the dusty storeroom that is. The result? I’ve been sneezing and sniffling all the way from Alor Star to KL, in addition to my swollen eyes and red nose.

Ever since I was little, I’ve been allergic to dust and cat’s fur. I love cats. They’re so cuddly and cute. But even the thought of cuddling a cat gets my nose twitching already!!

Well, I suppose baby Irfan would have to wait till tomorrow then (that is if I do get better!!). Okay, will report more on the morrow.

He's here! He's here!!

Dear all,
This is to anounce that my brand new nephew has arrived!!! Woohoo!! As of now, 6.09pm, he is 5 hours old. I will be going down to KL tomorrow so that he can get to know his dear Mak Su as soon as possible.

first picture of baby sent by Bro#3

Happy Birthday to G

Today, 31st October 2006, is G’s sixteenth birthday. Sixteen years ago today, a baby was born into our extended family where for quite some time there had not been any new babies. My youngest cousin living in Alor Star at that time was already 12 years old. You can imagine what our world was like having a new baby in the family. One of my uncles would go over to granddad’s house to “borrow” G for a few hours. Another aunt would go long past his bedtime and woke him up to play with him. And G, being the nicest baby that he was, wouldn’t complain a tiny bit.


Then one fine day in the month of Ramadhan, Granddad passed away leaving G, who was then only 5 months old, and his mom. My mom had promised Granddad that she would take care of them if he were to leave us forever. So begin our new family life. G became the little brother that I never had. He was more like a son to my dad than a brother in-law (or rather more like a grandson). Dad decided that G should call him Baba instead of Bapak like all of us do. And G calls my mom Koko, which is his baby word for Kakak but it stuck, even until now.

Bro#1 taking G around in a sack

I remember when I was in high school, G would come and fetch me with our then resident driver, Pak Eei (short for Ismail). I would take him out of the car and show him off to my friends (like a newly acquired toy.. ehhehee). At that time only Bro#3 and myself were living at home. So our friends all know about G and they became his friends too. Once when Bro#3 went off to ITM in Perlis, one of his friends would come over with his motorcycle to take G for rides around the neighbourhood just because my brother used to do that. One of my aunts who was the Director of Kedah Library would sometimes come and pick him up to take him to the library and would introduce him to all her staff. They know him not just as G, but also as Poji or Ketoi (because he was so chubby and “berketul-ketul” when he was a baby). So when I worked at the library while waiting for my SPM results, and would take him with me, everyone would come over to say hello to G; even Pak Mat, the security guard!!

One of the guys - w Bro#3 and friends

Mom and Dad would take him everywhere with them. Trips to KL are on the First Class seats, okay!!! Even us the children would seat in the Economy Class even if our parents are in front in the First. Dad lavished G with anything he wants, within reason of course. When his tonsils were swollen and the doctors warned not to have him drinking or eating cold stuff, it was Dad who would secretly take him out for an ice-cream.


Even when I was studying in the UK, every summer before coming back for the holidays, shopping trips would not be complete without a visit to Hamleys (only THE biggest toy store in the world!!!) I once bought him a Batman costume. That was the time when everything was Batman this and Batman that to him.

Batboy to the rescue....



But when he was 4, Bro#1 had gotten married and had a son. So there goes G’s status of “baby in the family”. At first we could see that he was jealous but after a while he got used to Daniel. And up till now, they are each other’s best friend.

Above: Daniel was born - see the possesive hand on Dad's thigh

Right: still the best of friends

G is now sixteen; a little stubborn and hardheaded at times, as all teenagers are, but deep down lies a soft heart full of sentimentality. He hates changes, especially when it involves a person that he knows well. When Pak Eei, whose been working with us for as long as he could remember, decided to retire, G couldn’t accept it. I think he cried, although he would kill me if he knows I’m telling this to everyone!!!

Music is G’s life now. He plays the guitar and drums, all of it self-taught and with some guidance from Bro#3.

Nobody realised it at this time that he was actually going to be a guitarist




So here’s to G. Happy Birthday and may your life be Blessed for may years to come (and Happy Halloween!!!!!! ehheheh)

Mohamad Fauzi - The Journey Through The Years

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Hari Raya Aidilfitri 2006

It was the night before Hari Raya and I was still labouring away with my kuih makmur. This year everything was a last minute occasion. Two days before Raya and Mom realized that she’d forgotten to order the ketupat. All through my growing up years, the ketupats were wrapped by our maid, Kak Yam, who has been living with us for more years than how old I am. But since the past 3-4 years KY has not been very well so Mom had to order from someone else. But two days to Raya no one wants to take on the job anymore, so super-maid volunteered to wrap them. And since Chik left for her kampung to visit a sick relative, Mom was in charge of the cooking for berbuka. That left me, a one woman show, to bake the remaining cookies and cakes. I could have gone out and buy cookies at the shops but these are the "tak ada tak sah" sort of cookies. So by hook or by crook, they had to be done. And Nadiah was left with Baba to babysit for two whole days. But that’s a story for another day.

The last night of berbuka, brother #1 and #2 and their families joined us. So it was a case of squeezing oneself at the dinner table. The kids were shooed away to eat at the kitchen island so that mommies and daddies can all squeezed together to have a decent meal. After isyak, it was time for firecrackers. I took Nadiah outside to join her boy cousins for the sessi mercun. But the sound was so loud that she ran away in fright. So I went back to my cookie making and left Baba to entertain her.

Mom wasn’t feeling well after all the cooking she had been doing all day and it didn’t take us much guessing to know that her blood pressure must have gone up again. So told her to go up and have a real goodnight’s sleep and leave it to KY, Chik and me to get everything ready for the next day. By the time I finished topping the chocolate cake it has gone past midnight, and there wes still so much to be done: lay out the table, line all the dishes with doilies all set for the cookies and cakes, get the plates and glasses out, get the cutleries out and make sure they were polished, rearrange the tables around the main dining table so there will be places for the buffet stuff, change all the table cloths and some other dozens little stuff that needs to be ready for tomorrow morning. It has gone 2.30 in the morning by the time I climbed up the stairs to my room.

6.30am woke up for subuh and woke Shukri up for him to get ready for the Raya prayers at the mosque. The prayers are scheduled to start at 8.30am and knowing my Dad, I knew he would want to go at least a half and hour earlier. Since Baba is the kind who spends hours and hours in the bathroom doing God knows what, so it’s 6.30am it is!!! After laying out his baju melayu, samping and songkok, I went back to sleep until it was time to help him with the samping. Only then did I took a shower and put on my new bead-less baju kurung.

After the men came home, it was time for salam-salam and minta maaf. Then me, the "cina gambaq", went to work clicking everyone’s pictures except my own. This year Mom broke the laksa tradition and made mee curry instead. So it’s eat, drink and be merry.

Around 11-ish Nadiah finally woke up and gave her a quick shower and put on her new dress that my Mom had made for her. It’s a cute pink creation that she laboured away for three days. As soon as I buttoned Nadiah up, she started to cry insisting I took the dress off. I refused and the crying went on and on. Tried distracting her and for a little while she forgot about the dress. But as soon as she saw her reflection in the mirror, the crying started agai. In the end I changed her in to her jeans and t-shirt. There goes her girlie-girlie dress for Raya.

Went to MIL’s next and had the sessi makan-makan again. This time it’s MIL’s nasi tomato although it’s actually SIL who cooked. After an hour or so BIL #3’s fiancé came over with her family. Future bride was the ayu-ayu and malu-malu, helping out in the kitchen, typical of all brides-to-be in front of future MIL. Me, the IL #1 sat at the lounge chatting with guess and goyang kaki saja. That’s the privilege of being SIL #1 and producing the first grandchild *wink*. Just kidding, actually I have 2 SILs plus BIL#2’s wife and the future bride, all crammed up in the kitchen so there’s really no need for me to menyibuk.

By the time we went home around 4pm, it has been raining really heavily and we found out that water had risen along the driveway almost to the porch area. Kids who were going from house to house asking for duit raya were splashing each other away. I noticed Nadiah had this longing look on her face and sure enough, as soon as Shukri opened the car door for her, she speeded down the driveway towards the water. There goes her new shoes all soggy and wet.

At night we went to my aunt Mak Teh’s house for nasi beriani. Again sessi melantak!!! Came home and everyone was very tired and went to bed early.


Second day of Hari Raya, all the aunts and uncles and cousins on both Mom and Dad’s side came over one after another. So it was a busy day for me, most of the time with washing and drying the dishes as Kak Yam and Chik had gone back to their respective kampungs.

Third day Raya, brother #2 called up to invite everyone over to his house. Mom wasn’t feeling very well and Shukri had gone out to a friend’s house so it was just Dad, G, Nadiah and myself. Upon arriving, we found brother’s son, Amir, crying his eyes out because his father won’t let him follow his cousins back to their house. Asked Amir if he wanted to play firecrackers with me and Nadiah. That got his eyes dry fast enough. Went out and borrowed Amir’s bicycle for Nadiah so she can ride around while we light up Amir’s firecrackers. This time there were no loud sounds from the firecrackers as Amir’s collection consists of sparklers. That got Nadiah really curious. She just sat on the bike ten feet away looking at us. After a while she got down from the bike and came closer and closer. Before long she was happily lighting away the sparkles and having a jolly good time.

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

All in all, Hari Raya 2006 has been a little quite. We didn’t go out and visit that much. But Raya isn’t over. It’s a month’s celebration, right!!! Come this Saturday, 4th November, we’ll be having an open house for Shukri’s colleagues. But if any of you were to be in Alor Star on that day, you’re welcome to drop by……

Raya, Raya, Raya...

Tonight is the 27th night of Ramadhan. My dad has turned on the raya lights outside. Hari Raya is just around the corner. I've yet to finish one more baju for a friend who's coming to collect this Saturday. Then there's my baju kurung to finish. Hmmm.. I think laziness has crept into my bones and I'll probably go bead-less this time!! I've made two types of cookies so far and there's still three more to go, and there is my traditional chocolate cakes for our hourse and mom-in-law's.

Pulled an all nighter last night to bake almond london and chocolate cookies. Sadly to say the almond london didn't come out as good as I anticipated. I made the mistake of not roasting the almonds till it's crunchy enough. So when you bite into the cookie, it'll be a bit tough and sticks to your teeth. Argh!!! What a waste of time... and precious sleep time!!! Can't be bothered to make them again. But the choccolate cookies came out delicious. They were more for Nadiah than for Raya. I cut them out into teddy bear shapes and there were also star, moon and heart shapes. Had Nadiah sprinkle hundreds and thousands on them today, but she ate them more than she did the sprinkling *sigh*

Raya this year will be the usual routine. Early in the morning the men will be going to the mosque for the Raya prayers. The woman folk will be at home laying out all the food stuff on the table for the guests. Once the men comes home, my mom and dad will be sitting in their special chairs while my dad would call out to the grandchildren to come and get the duit raya. That's the signal for all of us to queue up and take turns to salam and minta maaf with our parents and each other. Only the kids will get money though.

Usually my eldest brother and his wife and son comes back a day before hari Raya. The second one lives just a few minutes away so he will come back the morning itself with his wife and son in tow, after prayers. Brother no. 3 is in KL with his wife but will come back alternately every year depending whose side of the family they are celebrating raya first that year. But this year his wife is expecting a baby that's due on the 5th of November so they will be staying in KL. When the baby pops out, we'll be going to KL to see the new baby. Yeay!!

Luckily MIL's house is only 20 mins away from ours. So there's no fighting over whose house we should go back first every year. We'll probably go around noon and back again after a few hours.

Every year my mom will cook laksa for the main dish during raya. There are also the usual ketupat and rendang and also nasi himpit (that's ketupat nasi for you guys in the South) and kuah kacang. My favourite is the nasi himpit with kuah kacang. Every house we go to will see me eat only this. Most of the time I'll be too full to eat anything but out of politeness I will try to eat the nasi himpit. Mom's laksa is well known amongst our relatives and every year they'll come back to devour the dish. Funily enough all of mom's children don't particularly like laksa. We'll probably try once and that's about it. But all her son and daughters IL are really hantu laksa. They will eat laksa repeatedly the whole day and the day after. Me? I think I only really eat laksa when I was pregnant. Most times not at all.

Hari raya usually sees the kids having a blast. I remember getting up in the morning excited to don new clothes and getting all those duit raya. Not to mention the joys of bunga api (firecrackers). It saddens me to think that hari Raya is just like any other day for Nadiah. To her it makes no difference that everyone is dressed in baju melayu or baju kurung/kebaya. When people give her money she would slap their hands away. When all the kids would be running aound with bunga api in their hands, she would rather be inside painting or watching tv. When all the relatives meet up and cousins gang up together to play, she'll be on her own doing her own stuff, in her own world.

I would love for her to enjoy Raya like I did. To relish the times spend doing nothing but play with her cousins on a day that only comes once a year. To sit at one corner secretly counting all the money she's got so far.

Hmph! I don't know why all of a sudden I'm feeling a little meloncholic. Must be all the stress and the lack of sleep. I shouldn't be complaning really. Nadiah is a happy child, hari Raya or no hari Raya. Just be glad that she's happy, right???

Okay, I need to go. SELAMAT HARI RAYA and MAAF ZAHIR BATIN and HAPPY DEEPAVALI to all. And have a wonderful holiday y'all!!!

Old Wives' Tales

Do you believe in old wives' tales? Especially those concerning pregnancy and confinement and such. What is deemed acceptable and what is considered ridiculuos?

I was having sahur with my parents not a few minutes ago and my mom asked me

Mom : Have you been drinking ayaq nyok )(that's coconut drink for my non-malaysian reader)?
me : Err.. yes
Mom : You know you can't drink that. People in your condition cannot drink ayaq nyok forever.
me : What condition?
Mom : You know... it will make you kembang urat (hmmm have no idea what this is equivalent to in english.. expansion of the vein???)

What she meant by "my condition" was that: should I have more children it will result in premature births. Before having Nadiah, I was pregnant for the first time with a baby boy. Upon reaching my sixth month, my water broke and I was experiencing, what I did not know then, some normal signs of pre-birth. Except for the contraction pain. I was spotting and by the time I went to see the OBGYN, and upon checking down there, he pronounced that the baby was coming and he could already feel the feet and if I had kept on walking about, the baby would just slid out of me!! How scary was that? Everything was a blur to me after that but within an hour or so I was in the delivery room and was duely induced and was pushing for the baby to come out. It only took a few minutes and a tiny baby boy appeared. I could hear him crying for a little while and saw the doctor putting him in the kidney shaped dish thingy. He was so tiny. Unfortunately due to his smallness and underdeveloped organs, he did not survive the night. My husband took him home for the funeral preparation and was safely buried the next morning. We named him Alif Imran. My OBGYN imformed me that the premature birth was due to cervix incompetence.

Just a few months after that, I was deliriously happy with the news that I was pregnant again. I took extra precaution and had my cervix stitch at four months gestation so that the baby would stay put this time. I also stopped working right after the stitching surgery and would just laze around the house. By this time people (and by people I mean well-intentioned relatives) were telling me I all sorts of dos and don'ts.

• no drinking tea as it is "cooling"
  
• no pineapple as it is very "tajam"
• no carbonated drinks as it is also "tajam"
• put my feet up against a wall so there is less pressure upon the cervix
• don't walk too much as this would also put pressure upon the cervix
• no eating all sorts of beans for I don't know what reason
• do not let anyone walk pass behind you or your baby would take after that person (not sure how this is possible if you're walking out in public)
• do not "tegur" other people's children's shortcomings or your baby would end up like that or worse
• do not look at weird pictures if your don't want your baby looking like the picture instead look at cute baby pictures and your baby may come out very cute and cuddly (but aren't all babies cute and cuddly??)
  
• etc etc etc

Ok, there are more don'ts than dos. I think I followed through all of the above for fear of the outcome if I don't . Some are more absurd that others and I have no idea if they are scientifically proven, but I didn't want to take any chances.

But despite all my cautious conducts, Nadiah was still premature. But this time it wasn't due to my cervix being incompetent (remember I had them stictched earlier on), it was due to hypertension. This resulted in the tearing of the placenta from the uterine wall and causing a substantial amount of bleeding. By the time they opened me up, the baby was laying in a pool of blood. Alhamdulillah everything went well and Nadiah was born healthy despite being small. She weighed at 1.9kg.

So the quetion is, what about all those dos and don'ts? Do they really work? I mean, yes we can be the most prudent person in the world but there is no going against fate. Que sera sera - whatever will be, will be.

The funny thing is, I have never liked ayaq nyok. Not until just this past few days. Will my drinking it effect my chances at having more children in the future? I guess we'll just have to see, won't we?

My Precious

I've found it! I've found it! I've found my ring!! Actually Chik found it.. under the dinner table. How did it get there? Beats me! The important thing is I've got my precious wedding ring back. Am soooo relieved!!!

Puasa Updates

Well I've been remiss in updating this blog for a while. Most of the time I'm busy either with Nadiah or beading and other times I was just plain lazy. A few stories to tell so I thought I'll try to cover everything in this entry:

Where's my ring??
I've lost my wedding ring!!! Argh!!! How could I be so careless!! It's wasn't that I had put it somewhere and couldn't find it. I am not THAT forgetful especially about something so precious. I usually keep it in the jewellery box when I'm at home and would slip it together with my engagement ring on my finger were I to go out even for a short while. I remember precisely that I had slipped both on my finger just before we went to the pasar Ramadhan. Then it was off to my in laws and back home again to break our fast. But when I went up to our room and took off my wrist watch and rings, I realised that there was only one ring. I had slipped both together earlier and I remember that well but how come there was only one left? I didn't go to the toilet or put on any hand lotion that would usually require me to take them off for a little while. Did it just slipped out without me noticing? Had I lost so much weight that it didn't stay put on my finger?? Nah!!! Can't be that!! Or maybe my finger lost weight where everywhere else stayed the same? Is there such a thing??

I dreaded telling Shukri about it but braved it out so that he can be on the look out as well. This is actually the second wedding ring that he had bought me. No, I did not lose the first one as well. It shrank and is now too tight to slip on my finger.

Well alright... it didn't shrink, just that my finger expended so decided to keep it in the safe and Shukri was lovely enough to buy another so that I would always have two rings on my finger.

But now I only have one!!! *sob sob*

Nadiah
Nadiah had a fashion show a few days ago. Not of herself but of her cat. The stuffed one, of course. She decided to don a t-shirt on her cat and started out with her Art Attack tee. Then proceeded with all types and colour that she could find in her clothes drawer but they were all too big. In the end I decided to dig out her baby tees and put that on. Along with underwear. Can't have the cat's bottom sticking out, can I?? She would be embarassed (the cat that is, not Nadiah.. she couldn't care less!!) So here are some pics




Oh notice Nadiah had a haircut? The second picture was actually taken the day after, after she had the haircut. We took her to the "sitting-in-front-of-the-pc-watching-Elmo" saloon. I actually cut the front of her hair but had trouble with the back when she started wringling everywhere. I accidently chopped a wee bit too much of her hair (whoopsie!!). Fortunately Mak Tok (my mom) came to the rescue so she did the back.

My baby can draw!!! Nadiah had always loves crayons, or any types of colouring; be they paint or coloured pencils or magic pens (gosh! I hate those pens... always manage to "write" on her clothes rather than paper!!) Countless times we would take her to Toys 'R' Us and she would only get some sort of colouring. I think it's the multi colours that's attractive to her. But that means I've got a cupboard full of crayons and pencils and paints... whole, broken, chipped, plastered with cellophane tape, glued together, torned wrappers... you name it, I've got it!! Not only does she loves buying them, she loves using them.... on just about everywhere. We don't have to waste money decorating the walls because Nadiah has done it for us. No matter how many times I've told her not to write on the wall, she just keeps doing it. But at least now the habbit has lessen considerably. But I'm going to wait until she has stopped completely before re-painting the walls. Or it would be just a waste of time and energy.

But the other day she took out a piece of paper and announced "apple" and drew this:

The fact that she told us what she wanted to draw, rather than merely scribbling on the paper and leaving us to guess what it is, was simply wonderful.


Elaborate, please!!
Reading my friend, Iza's blog about when her daughter asked her THE question: what is SEX??, reminded me of a similar encounter I had with my uncle G. I can't remember if I've told you about G, but he is my mom's brother from my grandad's marriage after my grandmom passed away. Sadly G was only 5 months old when Grandad passed away and him and his mom (everyone calls her Chik or Tok Chik in the little ones' cases) came to live with us. G is now sixteen and he is more like a brother to me than an uncle. Anyway, the story happened when he was about 7 or 8 years old. One day I was driving around with him and he asked me :

G: Yatie, what is sex?
me: um.. ah.. ehem.. ahhh
My mind was reeling thinking what to tell him. How to explain in simple terms what it is. So in the end I asked him

me: where did you get that word?
G : I saw it in the school form. It says Sex: M or F
Ohhh! Sex as in gender. Phew!! *wipes sweat off forehead* That's easy enough to answer...

Another encounter I had was with my nephew, Daniel. He was about 10 years old then

Daniel : Mak Su, what is a virgin?
me: err... umm... ahhh... (alamak!! how to explain pulak!!). Where did you get the word?
Daniel : I heard Mama said the word. It's someone who only eats veggies kan??
me : oohhh... that's a vegen not a virgin!! *ran away before he could asked what a virgin is*

Moral of the story??? ALWAYS ask them where they hear such words. It could be something simpler that you might think.

Puasa, 13 days gone, 17 more to go
This year's puasa has gone considerably faster than before. Probably because I've been busy with my beading and didn't particularly give notice to what day or date it is. Most of the raya preparations are well under way except for the cooking bit. I've reserved the last week of puasa month to do the baking. I have decided to make most of the cookies myself rather than buying them ready made like we usually do. So that means I have to stop beading just before the last week or I'll be swamped with work and not have much time for anything else.

Must remind Shukri to get his baju melayu from the tailor of he'll have to wear last year's. He decided to make a black baju melayu suit this year. So we're going with black this year. Well, just the two of us that is. Nadiah will be in her usual pink and cuteness *grins* I really hadn't planned on having another baju kurung of which I seldom wear after hari Raya except for kenduris. But what the heck!! It's Raya. What's another baju kurung eh?? My next door neighbor's son is getting married in December so I can wear it again then.

Can't wait to pass the 15th day mark. Then puasa will go by even faster!!

Puasa

Phew! I've been so busy this past week and had absolutely no time to update. Been trying to finish some beadwork on time for the customers. I didn't even dare to go online on my Y!M in case anyone of my friends wanted to chat and I would get carried away with it and spend endless hours chatting. So here's some of the of the beading that I've been working on:







Sleeves to a Baju Kedah










A girl's baju kurung. So cute!!





I especially like the gold and brown sleeves. I spent so much time on them and the end result was pretty satisfying. Mind you, there are more than 3,000 beads involved and a very, very bad backache. On well... the feeling's great when the last bead was sewed on and would labour through it again (me thinks... after some deserved sleep time!!)

On the family front, everyone is doing well puasa-wise despite the pouring rain we've been having since day 1. It really spoils the mood for the browsing activity we usually do at the Pasar Ramadhan. In fact I've only been to the one near my house once, and that was really a quick walkthrough in search for air tebu.

Since being able to paddle a bike on her own, Nadiah is really taking biking like a fish to water. On one of the rare times that the rain actually stopped for a few hours to give people a breather, Nadiah "tricked" Baba into walking with her while she paddled away. Shukri ended up doing a kilometer walk around the neighbourhood. Talk about exercise during this fasting month. Heheh!! Poor Baba!

Appointment With Uncle Alex

We just got back from Penang. Nadiah had a session with her therapist, Uncle Alex (note: In previous posts I always refer to him as doctor but he really isn't. He's a clinical psychologist and is refered to as Mr Alex and not Dr Alex. Well, you go to a hospital and the person you always see when there is something wrong, you would automatically call doctor. Same goes for surgeons). The appointment was at 11am but we had to wait half an hour because Uncle Alex had to push the time forward of one of the patients, but we still get a 1-hour session. Nadiah was really getting impatient because she had to wait for so long. She wanted to go in the room as soon as we arrived. Not because she was looking forward to seeing Uncle Alex but rather looking forward to the toys in the room. I'm so glad that she likes going to her therapies. And nowadays she would be so earger to follow directions as long as she gets to play with what she wants. The first few times we went, she would try to grab everything to play at once and gets angry when she's not allowed to. Now, she would quickly sit on the chair and pull the table towards her (note that she doesn't pull herself and the chair towards the table but the table comes to her :D) and impatiently wait for Uncle Alex to bring a toy to play. But not for very long though. If the toy is not to her liking, she would just jump up and go ahead and get another one. But it's a good start.

Today we happily informed Alex of Nadiah's success with paddling her bicycle. He was glad to hear that and encourage us to push Nadiah more because he can see so much improvements with her. And we showed her this video :


I kept showing this video to everyone in the family coz I am so proud of Nadiah. It has taken me a year to get her to paddle to the front. She kept paddling backwards and couldn't figure out why she wasn't moving forward like everyone else.

I also recorded this video of Nadiah playing with bubbles during the session.


You may ask what sort of therapy Alex is doing with her. Nadiah is supposed to try to poke or catch the bubbles. It's to see how good her finger and eye coordination is. I love this kind of therapies. It's just playing games that she already loves. Keep doing this and pretty soon she would be able to point to an object or identify a certain object by pointing. This is because auties rarely points to an object. They would grab your hand and make you point/touch the object. Neither would they look when we point to the object. It's great! I never thought that by playing bubbles, we can make it into a therapy that would help Nadiah.

We left Alex's room with yet more exercises to practice with Nadiah and set another appointment for the end of November. One of the things that I have to do with Nadiah is to massage the inside of her cheeks and her tongue using a baby toothbrush. She is talking a lot more but some of her pronunciation are a bit stilted as if she's got a short tongue. It's due to lack of speaking that her muscles have stiffen up. By using the toothbrush and gently brushing in an outward motion on her tongue would help to soften it up... I hope!! Shukri said it's just like training to get a bird to speak. Some people asah (sharpen) the bird's tongue so it can talk. He's comparing his daughter to a bird??? tsk tsk tsk!!

The big question is: do birds have tongues????

After that we had lunch at Gurney Plaza and a quick stopover at Toys'r'Us, of course. And Mama made a really quick stop at MPH to get a couple of books to read. Yeay!! Usually after her sessions with Uncle Alex, we would treat Nadiah with anything she wants (within reason and budget, of course) at Toys'r'Us. Guess what she insisted at getting this time?? A firefighter's costume. It's red and it's a "fire fire" (Nadiah says "firefighter"). She's been watching Elmo's World lately that has firefighters in it. Tried to get her interested in something else at the shop but she just wouldn't budge. So Baba closed BOTH eyes and paid for it (Mama still busy browsing at MPH... hehe!!). Here's Firefighter Nadiah:


Ahh... so cute!!


P/s: Selamat Berpuasa to all the Muslims

On Being Autistic

Yesterday I watched a documentary, I Want My Little Boy Back, on Astro TVIQ, about Jordan, a 5 year old boy who is autistic and how his family cope with it and what measures they took to overcome autism. I have been waiting for this documentary for a month now, since they started showing the preview in August. Some of you may already know that Nadiah is mildly autistic and I have written about this. It is heartwrenching to see the boy struggling with everyday activities and sounds and sights, and connect that with Nadiah. And yet I feel comforted that these people went through what I have, or is still going through. Although I am ever thankful that Nadiah's case is not so severe. On the scale of 1 - 10 of how bad his autism is, Jordan is a 6. He is not too severely autistic but there were a lot of things that he could not cope with. Nadiah I would say she was a 4 or a 5. Now after a lot of therapy, I would say she has improved to a 3 even on her worst days.

Jodan's parents took him to the US to treat him with one of the many styles of treatment s which they thought was most suited to him. I learned something important then. They believe that if you cannot get the autistic child to live in your 'world', then you should join them in their's. An autistic child finds it hard to understand everything that goes around them and it scares them and so they tend to seclude themselves into their own world where everything make sense and stays the same. Often you find them giggling about something or just staring into space. When you "force" them to join you, they would start to retaliate. They get scared and frustrated and would lash out and cry and basically push you even further afar. So when Jordan starts running around or bite his hand or squishing himself under the table, the therapist did the same . They just do whatever Jordan did to show him that it's ok to do stuff like that. And soon enough they were able to get his trust and slowly teach him the correct way of doing everything and pretty much have a communication where he would actually listen to them. If you try to reason with a child who is kicking and screaming at you, you can be sure nothing is taken in. Anyway, that have me thinking that Nadiah responds to the same thing. Once upon a time when Nadiah was younger she would carry with her all her favourite things everywhere she went. It was ok if it's just 2 or 3 things like her stuffed cat and a book. But when she decided to carry 5 hardcover books, a box of crayons, a box of colored pencils, some building blocks, 4 - 5 cats and teddy bears in all different shapes and sizes, all into this one big basket that even she could hardly carry them, that's just ridiculous. She would lugged around this basket everywhere and when I say everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE!! To her bed, to the bathroom, in the car and out shopping. I would tell her "No, you can't take that with you" and try to take it away from her and she would start to cry and scream at me. It used to get me really frustrated. After a long while I just let her be. If she wants to take the whole play room with her, so be it. Pretty soon she would start to leave her things behind in the room or in the car. And now whenever she brought something with her and I would nicely tell her to please leave them in the room, she would just drop everything without a blink and walk out. As easy as that.


Here's Nadiah with 2 teddy bears, 1 baby lamb and 2 pianos











Nadiah's 4th birthday... don't forget the cat!!









This time carrying a big cat, a baby lamb and a piano







Another with a cat, a VCD, a book and a container full of domino bricks


I guess from now on I'll be doing a lot of jumping on the bed, throwing toys around everywhere in the room and spilling water on the carpet. All in the hope that she would stop doing them. Yeah, right!!! That'll be the day when Mama starts jumping on the bed with Nadiah. The bed will break!!

Bicycle Ride

I am soooo happy today because Nadiah managed to paddle her bicycle on her own. Yes!! I have been trying to get her to paddle for the last year or so withour much success. Whenever I tried to explain to her how to do it, she would start to ignore me or lose interest altogether. It was so frustrating.!

She loves riding but I would always have to push her everywhere and when I told her to paddle, she would paddle backwards. Oh the backaches I would get those nights!!

We've talked to her doctor, Uncle A, about it and apparently the muscles around her ankles are not firm enough. We had to do some exercise routines with her to firm up the muscles. She also has problems with the muscles around her wrists. They make it hard for her to control her pencils. When she writes (read scribbles), she usually uses her whole arm rather than control the pencil with her wrist. Anyway, the exercises worked and today proved that.

Nadiah was so happy that she insisted that we ride outside the house compound. Since she was doing so well, I said yes and so she rode till the end of the street and I walked alongside.

It must have been one heck of a ride because she was out like a light by 10pm. She usually doesn't go to bed until around midnight. Maybe I should let her ride her bike everday. That way Mama can have early nights, every night. Bliss!!

Shoes

I hate buying shoes for Nadiah because I never get it right. Ever since she was a baby I always get the wrong size. It didn't help that we used to have to buy new shoes for her every few months because her feet grew so fast!

When I was in KL last week I had bought two shoes for her. The first one was too tight and I could not change the size since it was the last two pairs and the other one was a smaller size.

Shoes no. 1

So went out and bought another which was perfect. But this I'm saving for Hari Raya.

Shoes no. 2

In the mean time, her everyday shoes are also getting smaller by the day so went out a few days ago to buy another new shoes. I took her with me and tried the shoes on her. It seemed just right but when we came home and tried it on again, it was too big. Even with socks the shoes would come off. Argh!!! Luckily the shoes was on sale so it wasn't very expensive. I can save them until she can wear them someday. It's better to be too big than too small, I always say.

Shoes no. 3

So again I went out to the shops this morning to get her yet another pair. This time I got the right size which is 31 and they look real pretty and all. So tried it on her just now... and they were very TIGHT. Gah!!!

Shoes no. 4

Why can't shoe manufacturers make the same size for all models, all types of shoes!!! Even Nadiah liked this one and was almost close to tears when she couldn't put her feet in. Poor dear. So I guess it's back to the shop again to exchange the size. I made sure to ask if they have in bigger sizes before I bought them and that I can exchange them anytime. Well, wish me luck!!

I'm Done

Yeah.. I've finished the beadwork just in time. It was a bit of a rush and two sleepless nights too. Want to see the end result? So here goes:





So what do you think? Cantik tak? Actually I only did the bottom half of the dress. The beadwork around the neck was done by another beader. Since the owner decided to don the tudung (headscarf), she agonised that people would not be able to see the pretty beadwork around the collar. So she decided to add more on the bottom half. That's where I come in. I reproduce the same pattern on the bottom edge. See? So you can see the connection. All in all, I think I did a pretty good job and very happy about it. Worth the lack of sleep.

If you want to see more of my creations, you can visit http://beadsnsequins.tripod.com Check it out!!

Beading Skills

Been really busy this past few days. I'm working on a beadwork that the customer sent in on Sunday and wants it back on Wednesday. Argh!! So just a quick update on Nadiah's beading skills that I thought to share.

Ok, I was busy with the beadwork when she suddenly found one of the thousands of play bead that I've bought for her, laying around on the floor. I noticed from the tail of my eye that she was running around the room looking for something. She ran out of the room and went to my mom's room. I realised that she was looking for the celophane tape. Good old sticky tape to tape the one bead to her hat. Remember I told you about Nadiah and the Cellophane Tape? Well, it sure came in handy alright.

I snapped this picture to share:



Hehe... clever huh??