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....