| Wednesday, July 15, 2009 |
| Dear Teachers |
hubby and i get a lot of comments about how we manage out household with no maid. just because we have no maid, doesnt mean we dont sought external assistance. a big help for us (apart from tiza who we call on a short notice) are the teachers. we rely quite a lot on them. daily, they look after the boys for 12 hours. if we need to work late, the teachers are there. if we need to be away overnight, they are there. if we have errands to run on saturdays, they are there. we try to maintain a good relationship with the teachers as they regularly update us on the boys' developments. one teacher that stands out for hubby and i, is cikgu ummu. she was asyraf's teacher for only 3 months but she brought asyraf out of his bubble and mold him into the chatty, bubbly boy he is now. asyraf, younger, was a quiet baby who only cried his days away. when he was with ummu he changed so much, became dependable, cheerful and stopped taking his bottle in school. the first time we noticed his change was during the school's concert when asyraf took command of the stage in his ladybird costume. he was an absolutely a joy to watch and he followed everything ummu did off stage. asyraf's first teacher (or pembimbing awal kanak-kanak "p.a.k") was wonderful too. hubby and i regret not knowing her name. she was a small-sized girl and always looked wary of us. we constantly asked about asyraf when he was a baby. we wanted to know how he was, if his threw up, if he had diarrhea, how much he drank, what he ate. those were our daily questions. she probably thought we didnt trust her but it was because asyraf was constantly sick and we just wanted to monitor him. after a while, she probably realised it was for asyraf's benefit and would gladly supply us with details of what happened in school from the moment we dropped him off to the time we picked him up. now asyraf has another good teacher, cikgu ida. he loves her madly. he would talk about her constantly at home. i know cikgu ida calls him 'acap' but asyraf denies it vehemently, as he knows i dont like people calling him that. very protective of his teacher, isnt he? his recent exam results showed how much influence cikgu ida has on asyraf. amir has gone through a lot of teachers. his first teacher was disappointing. it was because of her carelessness that amir came away with a hugh bite mark on his cheek. then cikgu faizah became his teacher. he was very attached to her, would always give her a hug every morning and before he left the daycare. when he turned 3 years old, he had cikgu sally. cikgu sally is the teacher everyone was scared off (asyraf and ariff are terrified of her). cikgu sally is such a commanding figure, we can see her controlling the crowd of children during sports day and concert. amir's current teacher is cikgu huda. amir had her for a while last year and now she's in charge of the pra-tadika class. i think she's doing a pretty good job. amir knows (at least) 6 doas, can count up to 100, know roughly how to pray and he's only 4 years old. hubby and i werent even in school when we were 4 years old. i'm not sure who ariff's teacher is. i know he had different teachers for a while and i dont know if there's finally a permanent teacher for his age group. when he was younger ariff had kak yus as a carer. kak yus absolutely adored ariff (her bujang). because of kak yus ariff became, well...fat!! he ate so much under her care and hasnt lost the weight. akmal's carer is kak ima. she's just wow. seriously she is. even i melt whenever i see her. she's just so sweet and motherly. she's so animated whenever she updates me on akmal's developments. i love that she takes in every thing i mention about akmal and practices them immediately. when i pick up akmal i would let the kak ima know what he likes, what he doesnt like, how he likes to be held, not to get her to do it but just to share how he's grown. i get very touched when, the day after, she tells me too does the same thing to akmal and he loves it. she's so sweet.
another teacher who is practically the teacher of all four boys, is cikgu atim. she's our main contact person when it comes to the boys. she has a thing for ariff who is so attached to her. there was a time when ariff refused everyone but her. ariff would want to be dropped off at the tadika every morning because atim is there and would scream when we walk towards the daycare.
we are grateful to all of them ( and every teacher at the school - ummi, kak long, cikgu dina) for taking care of the boys. our lives would be unmanageable if not because of them.        Labels: my heroes, school |
posted by eiseai @ 1:49 PM  |
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| Thursday, June 25, 2009 |
| The Boys |
its been a while since i wrote about the boys' development. my next entry was supposed to be of amir & asyraf's Hari Kecemerlangan Pelajar, but it has been cancelled due to the MOE's directive. it would have been a nice entry, with both boys performing and getting number 1 for their recent mid year exam. so for now, it'll be an entry about the boys, in a different outlook.
amir - 4 years, 6 months
amir's so big, yet he's so small. he's big as he's progressed so far but he's only 4 years old. hubby and i are in awe of his developments. maybe because he's our eldest and we dont know what to expect when a child is his age. but he's small in terms of size. he's seriously just skin and bones. there's not an ounce of fat of him. he's turning off rice but is more into bread now. he loves cheese on toast and bread with peanut butter. last night he finished 5 pieces of doughnuts with asyraf in under 20 minutes.
amir can draw. i found a paper with scriblings in his school bag once. i looked at it and thought i saw a fish and maybe an orang lidi. so i called amir and asked him what the drawings were. when asking, one has to be calm and not make a big deal. children tend to get embarassed and would not open up. amir pointed to 2 orang lidi - that's mummy & daddy, and then a fish and said they have a fish in school (turns out to be quite many and not just 'a'), there was also stairs and 2 balloons and a very obvious 3 cirlces making out mickey mouse.
he's into ben10 now. we dont really mind...its better than ultraman or power rangers anytime. he has been asking for a ben10 watch even though hubby bought it a long time ago.
amir chooses his clothes. on weekdays, he just wear whatever i pack for him but during the weekend he would dictate what he wears. sad...no more matching clothes for my triplets. to avoid a confrontation with his mummy, he would run to his room and pick out his clothes for the day as soon as he wakes up in the morning. his first statement in the morning is, nak mandi. ahhh...i've trained him well.
at the moment, amir seems more into football than asyraf. he enjoys training with the coaches and the abangs every weekend. probably because he understands the instructions given and feels more part of the crowd than asyraf.
asyraf - 2 years, 7 months
this boy is such a joy. after all the suffering he put us through, he's such a delight. he's much calmer and can listen to reason. getting him to stop crying is easier now and he doesnt bawl out in the car as much anymore. he also doesnt cry out for susu as soon as he step into the car.
speaking of susu, asyraf drinks 2 bottles per day. we give him both bottles before he goes off to sleep. he doesnt need to sleep with a bottle as he used to do. once he finishes his 2nd round he would thrust the bottle to me and say, mummy...wash! i'm ever so glad that we didnt resort to pacifiers during asyraf's difficult period. we won the war!
if amir is into ben10, asyraf loves watching the shows on nick jr and playhouse disney. he's slowly moving away from mickey mouse and would watch animal mechanicals. every so often he would scream out 'clifforrrrrrrd' (stressing on the R) and amir would then scream 'ben tennnnn'. they absolutely cannot sit together in the car, else world war 3 would start.
asyraf's favourite line is 'mummy wangi, daddy busuk'. if he's having a good day, that's what he would say. if he's angry, he would scream out 'mummy busuk' or 'daddy busuk'. at least he knows how to express his feelings other than by crying, so its good.
he hates it when people call him acap. he would say 'ei...apa manggi acap, asyraf lah' when we ask what his teachers call him, he would quickly say 'asyraf'. shows how much he loves his teachers.
asyraf loves pizza. he can eat 4 slices at one go. he's very much into pasta as well.
ariff - 1 year, 9 months
if amir has lost weight, this boy has put on...if its possible! he's just so big! ariff is rough and tough. he's called "gem" in school but we call him "oso" at home, after special agent oso. he's so keras and huggable that whenever he passes by, hubby and i would grab and hug him.
he eats a lot. his taste is more towards malay food, rice. he doesnt like bread for some reason. of course cereal and cookies, jangan cakap lah, all children loves those. he has to hold food in both hands and would stuff them in his mouth at one go. hubby used to say ariff doesnt chew his food.
ariff is rough. dont ever mess with him. he would grab and bite and scratch and sondol anyone who upsets him. he's on a constant fight with asyraf. asyraf being the big brother would sometimes back down, not something he would do last time. ariff is very soft with akmal, though. he calls akmal, jekkkk...jekkkk.
ariff is starting to talk. he loves saying 'nak minum'. he calls hubby 'dad' (eleh mat salleh konon) and can say 'jommm', 'car tok', 'bawah', 'atas'. when we're about to reach home he would say, 'dah sampai'. he doesnt like to be left behind. its been amir asyraf ariff for so long. now that amir & asyraf is stepping up a bit with their outdoor activities, ariff's been excluded and he doesnt like it one bit. he would scream and run to the door, then to the windows when he realises abang long and abang has gone out with daddy and he's left with boring mummy and akmal izzat who doesnt do much.
akmal - 4 months
akmal's monthly jab schedule is not on track. it started when his 2nd month jab was due. he was under the weather and had to visit his pead for check up after check up. he finally was given his jab 3 weeks after he turned 2 months and his jabs for the subsequent months ran. tomorrow (a week shy of his 4th month) i'll be visiting his pead for his 3rd month jab.
akmal is getting better with his milk intake. he doesnt spit out so much. 1 towel can last a day. he's drinking a lot. when he wakes up he can gobble down 7-8oz at one go, and for his normal feed, he would drink 6oz. cant wait to feed him his first meal next week. i didnt want to give him processed food but i got some from a friend and may start with that. in school, he would be eating porridge. i've already given his teachers the permission to start feeding him next week.
akmal sleeps through the night. i cant stress how wonderful it feels not to have to wake up to prepare a bottle. at most he would require a diaper change but i'd rather change in the morning, as he would want a bottle to go to sleep if i were to wake him up. other than that, he's wonderful when it comes to sleep.
he likes to sit up and watch his brothers at work. its irritating because he cant last a long time lying down on the bouncer. at most it would be 30 minutes, then he would yell and yell till his voice breaks. once we pick him up and sit him on our laps, he'd stop and look around, watch the tv, play with his brothers. its ok...just another month or so before he can sit up and can be left to his own devices.
akmal cooes. he actually says 'coooo' when he talks. when akmal is well fed and dry, he would cooo and cooo and cooo. his favourite time to talk is when he's rid of his clothes, waiting for a bath. then he would cooo non-stop.
like asyraf, akmal is a bit attached to his bottle. in school, his teachers would leave his bottle in his mouth until he falls asleep. its irritating but still no pacifiers for him.i've gone through 3 boys pacifier-less and i'm not about to start now. akmal, daddy & mummy always win!Labels: my heroes |
| posted by eiseai @ 1:04 PM |
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| Wednesday, June 17, 2009 |
| Story of Pangkor Getaway |
planning this getaway was easy. we wanted to take the new car out of the city but we didnt want to go too far. i searched for a place to get away to and came up with pangkor. hubby wasnt to keen. he said its not nice and it wasnt so easy getting over there - the ferry crossing, mainly. i did some research, asked a few people and managed to convince him (not fully though but just enough).
so once the ker-ching came in, i made the bookings, printed the pictures, listed the clothes to bring and bought the necessary items (sunscreen, travel-size toileteries etc).
we didnt tell the boys as they'd be bugging us with 'bila nak pegi hotel' question. when they slept on saturday night, i started packing and hubby put the bags in the car. we travel extremely light this time - 1 small trolley bag, 1 backpack, 1 diaper bag and 1 bag of toys. i didnt even bring a lot of diapers and the dvd players. hubby wanted to bring a stroller but i thought it would be a nuisance instead of helping. so akmal was carried in a sling, which was much better.
we started the journey at 9:30am sunday morning (after 1 load of laundry...i cant miss that). we got to lumut around 12:30pm & had a quick lunch at kfc. syerah, en zainul & ms lana came by with some long-awaited cheesetarts (sungguh lah sedappp) we took the 2pm ferry and got to the island at 2:30pm.
when we got to the room, i unpacked and got the boys to sleep. getting akmal to nap wasnt as easy, so we sat on the balcony with him. when the boys got up, it was swimming time. we spent 2 hours in the pool before hauling them up for their bath and dinner.
the next morning was spent at the beach. ariff wasnt too keen but amir and asyraf were having the time of their lives. then its naptime, hubby and i managed to get some peace and quiet while the boys napped. after lunch, it was pool-time again.
the getaway was wonderful...it was so nicely planned. from the budgeting, to the timing, to the boys' mood, right down to the amount of formula and diapers brought. we came back even lighter than we left, rested, darker and with a full memory card.
next trip - tioman?Labels: holiday |
| posted by eiseai @ 2:00 PM |
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| Friday, June 12, 2009 |
| Open Day 2009 |
my office had its 2nd open day today. last year none of my boys could join as they were below the minimum age limit. this year, they lowered it to 3 years, so both amir and asyraf participated.
the earlier part of the day was held in the office (the new office in sentral). i took the boys for a ride on the lrt. we could have stopped at sentral but i decided to go all the way to klcc instead. we met zu there and then took a bus to the sentral office.
then late morning, everyone went to klcc for a movie, lunch and a trip to the aquaria. hubby only joined after friday prayers (hence the big difference in photo quality).
it was a great day out. kudos to the committee. we (zu and i) like the part where they are so easily visible and are always in front of us. nice one. thanks zu for helping out. thanks andy for the skybridge plan that didnt materialise. the boys had fun and were tired out.
Labels: my heroes, work |
| posted by eiseai @ 9:09 PM |
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| Thursday, June 11, 2009 |
| Parents of Four Boys |
a lot of people ask me...how is it like taking care of 4, without the help of a maid. my answer? macam tu je lah. how parents take care of 1, that's how parents take care of 4. its actually easier with amir, asyraf, ariff & akmal, than it was with amir. why? for the life of me, i dont know, its just is.
maybe when one has only one child, the child is fully dependent on the parents for company, the child follows them everywhere. and when one has more than one child, the children play with each other, interact with each other, keep each other company that parents actually have more time to themselves.
we rely on this belief a lot to get through the day. when we reach home, hubby and i would be running around, getting our chores done. we leave the boys own their own for about half an hour, checking on them regularly. the half an hour is extremely precious to us as we would use every single second to ensure we finish all our tasks so that we can concentrate on the boys for the rest of the night.
our nightly routine is pretty fixed. basically once we walk in the front door, we know what each other is supposed to do. usually i go in first, bringing akmal with me. amir and asyraf would walk in after that. hubby comes in with the boys' bags, akmal's tub of sterilised bottles and the king of the house, ariff iqhwan.
my first stop is the kitchen. i quickly scrummage through the kitchen cabinets for snacks for the boys (that will keep them in the tv room for about 15 minutes) then i boil water to bring upstairs, put formula into container for asyraf and ariff, clear the drainer, wash the bottles used by ariff and akmal during the day and prepare new sterilised water for akmal's bottles (i cant wait to stop sterilising bottles!!)
then its a skip to the dining table to settle the boys' bags for school. i would take out used clothes and put in new ones. laundry is done every monday, wednesday and friday. i try not to delay laundry as i absolutely hate overflowing laundry basket. not to mention clothes being on the line for too long (which usually happens when there's just too many clothes hanged at one time) and unfolded clothes (which is why i make it a habit to fold as soon as i take them off the line). if there are clothes on the line, hubby would take them and put them in the laundry basket for me to fold.
once the boys' bags are done, i put them next to the stairs with akmal's tub of sterilised bottles and call out to hubby who will put them in the car (we're like a well-oiled production line, eh?) hubby usually takes about 10 minutes doing this because he'll be chimney-ing at the same time. while he does that, i quickly put the clothes in the machine and start it. a quick check to make sure everything's done in the kitchen then i switch off the lights. if the kitchen lights are switched on, it will invite little feet and hands into the kitchen and i'll be too tired to scream at them to get out. on tuesdays and thursdays, i'll spend 5 minutes folding clothes. yes...it really takes me 5 minutes (which is why i prefer to do laundry every other day as the load will not be too full)
so...all chores almost done, in under 30 minutes. usually i would bring akmal and ariff up with me, leaving asyraf and amir to watch tv in the play room. akmal and ariff keep me company while i bathe, perform maghrib and then isyak prayers while the elder 2 pray with hubby downstairs. the three of them then come up and i would lepak with them in their room, while hubby bathes. when he comes out, i would transfer akmal to him (as akmal is very clingy) and run downstairs to dry the clothes. by 9pm usually everything is done and we can finally have a breather.
so there...not very difficult kan? we're realistic. we take out what we cant do. for now that includes, giving the boys their nightly bath, making dinner and feeding them (thank God the school does this for them), cleaning the house, cooking. all that's been taken out of our 'to do' list. when akmal's slightly older, we'll change our daily routine. for now (probably til end of the year) this is how we end our day.
p/s this entry is specially dedicated to mama umar, uzair, aliya & baby no4. tak kuduku punnnnn...Labels: off work, plans |
| posted by eiseai @ 1:49 PM |
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| a mummy's rantings of her babies, her life, her loves, her pet peeves...and so much more |
| About The Blogger |
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Name: eiseai
Home: Shah Alam, Malaysia
About Me: Wife of a footie nut and mummy of 4 active boys with very different personalities. Loves travelling, shopping, good food and Manchester United. Spends hours doing (and redoing) lists. Loves order...hates chaos.
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