Happy Birthday, Papa...

it's my dear hubby's birthday today...a wonderful husband, friend, soulmate and the lists go on and on...he's a great papa to Jihan too...a dad that every kids would dream of...he's a real superb when dealing with kids...

we've known each other for more than 9 years but started to get close only 4 years ago...to be exact, 10 months before our solemnization...our love deepened and bloomed within that 10 months and we decided to tie the knot during our final year in the medical school...i got pregnant about 4 months later...and he had been great helping with the house chores and we gave support and encourage each other to study and strive in our final exams...

with the birth of our dear daughter, he had been there throughout the delivery and thereafter raising our dear baby together...i admire his determination and charismatic character...and i love him more and more everyday...

i gave him a surprise today...hope he likes it (he was startled when he received it today)...and more surprises to come...just had dinner at chili's midvalley, the two of us...

Happy Birthday, Jihan

yeah, it was Jihan's birthday yesterday...mama was so tired to update it in the blog yesterday...alhamdulillah, the small family and friends gathering yesterday turned out very well...in conjunction with my parents going for umrah this Friday, we held a small prayer as well...

Jihan woke up with a smile and a good mood in the morning...she was so excited playing with her new tricycle ( a birthday gift from atok) and playing with the balloons while waiting for mama and papa to come back from collecting the birthday cake..she was all sweat after playing and running around....at around noon, we had quite a difficult time to get Jihan to bathe as she wanted to play with her 2nd cousins...she threw a tantrum, crying and even vomited! (oo..oooh..such a bad time to do a party because Jihan always had a nap at around noon and she did not have a nap yesterday due to excitement)...

anyway, we managed to calm her down and she managed to put her smile back on her chubby face...

we started off with a little prayer, followed by a cake cutting ceremony by my little princess...she was so excited singing "hepi bedey ta yu" and loved blowing the candles...i bought her a mickey and minnie cake and she just adored it so much...

Jihan was so happy being surrounded by her 2nd cousins and played around with them (especially after opening the presents...before that she only clung to her papa)...despite being sleepy, she forced herself to stay awake until the last guests left home at about 4 o'clock...then, she played with all the toys that she got as birthday presents...

we took her for a ride in the car, then she fall asleep...zzzzzz until 8 o'clock....everybody was tired but feeling satisfied and happy with a successful gathering....

thank you all for coming....more photos and stories at our fotopages...http://ezzuramd.fotopages.com

preparing for the BIG DAY!

it's 2 more days to Jihan's birthday and we are so excited towards D-DAY! we are planning a small family and friends gathering on the day...so, is everything ready...??

well, here's a checklist:

• menu for the day - checked (mama and wan)


• guests invitiation - checked (mama and wan)


• Jihan's presents - checked (mama, papa, wan and atok)


• birthday cake - checked (mama)


• Jihan's birthday gown - checked (mama and papa)


• venue preparations - checked (awaiting cleaning and polishing by all of us)

basically, that's all i think...her 1st birthday last year, we had the similar things as well....so nothing extra special...it's time to meet friends and relatives and chit chat and eat and eat and have fun together....and the most important thing is to make everybody who comes happy and satisfied...

since Jihan is still small, this special event is to help her to socialize and make friends....i just hope that she'll be in her good mood on that day...

Break...

we're going back to papa's kampung in Kedah....! won't be updating this blog probably until wednesday 20/6/07....

take care everybody....

antibiotics...?

a healthy child....

very often when parents bring their children to seek treatment at clinics or hospital, they expect a correct, confirmed diagnosis for their children's illness....and they also expect that every illnessess need to be prescribed and cured by the wonder of antibiotics!

it is difficult to change our culture's mentality about antibiotics....antibiotics are prescribed for BACTERIAL infections and not VIRAL infections...not all common cough and cold need antibiotics as part of the treatment because most of them are viral in origins....it takes about 5-10 days to subside as that is usually the course for viral infections....

whereas bacterial infections make the patient more sick and unwell...and usually it is supported by several blood tests and other investigations...and the course of infections is usually longer....good doctors will know how to judge when to give or not to give antibiotics appropriately...

the reason why antibiotics are not easily prescribed for all ilnesses is because the patient will develop antibiotic resistant in their later life and may need stronger antibiotics to cure simple bacterial infections....the emerging of antibiotics resistant in the world is really frightening....

i observed 1 parent came to a private clinic and asked the clinic assistant to give her the medications that the doctor prescribed to her child previously as the child now is having fever, cough and runny nose....i saw the clinic assistant dispensing antibiotics and other medications to the parent without consulting the doctor!! this is absolutely wrong and easily will escalate antibiotics resistant!..

just imagine how it will be, if you or your loved ones, one day are down with a severe illness and have problems treating the infections just because there are no other antiotics that can cure the infections?....seek professional advice if you are in doubt...do not be your own "doctor" if you are not one...as you might out yourself or your loved ones in danger..if not now, maybe later....

constipation or not...?

i love fresh fruit juice...

i often come across mothers who come to the clinic complaining of their babies do not pass motion for few days and it is very stressing for them (the parents)...

parents need to understand that as children age, the normal physiologic changes occur in the intestines and colon that decrease the daily number of stools from a mean of 2.2 in infants younger than 1 year to a mean of 1.4 in 1-3 year old children...thus, less frequent stooling may not be constipation....

if your doctor has rule out the causes of organic constipation, we as parents need to see what our children eat....increase the fruits and vegetables intake as this can alleviate constipation...prepare your child's milk (if not breastfeeding) according to the instruction stated on the formula milk can...do not overdilute or overconcentrated it as this can cause hard stool in your child...for older child, increase their other fluid intake as well...

explore your child's toiletting habit...when your child is ready to toilet train, make this learning process as an interesting experience....a cute potty especially for them and perhaps you can pretend doing your "business" as well in the toilet with them...if they succed, perhaps you can reward them with something they like...you can encourage your child to go to toilet every 2 hours even though they don't pass out anything....

it is important to ensure that your children pass motion about 1 or 2 times per day or minimum of 3 times per week...if a child frequently avoids defecating, the stool will stay longer in the rectum and the stool will become harder....passing out hard stool is traumatic to a child..

after a thorough examination on the child, a doctor will then decide whether medication is really needed...usually, medication is used if there is evidence of rectal impation...so, if your doctor does not supply you with the medication for the above problem, maybe your child does not need them...sometimes, dietary modification alone can solve this matter....educate and encourage your child to pass motion everyday....

the magic word...

once your child starts talking and understand simple conversation, it's time for parents to instill good values and manners in their daily life....

you don't have to be harsh or strict in implementing rules to discipline your children...start off with simple instruction or cue and encourage him/her to do it everyday...

i started off by teaching my daughter to say "please" everytime she wants something... sometimes she she would inpatiently scream for something and there i was telling her " say, please" and she automatically calmed down and smiled back and said, "please"....

that's not all....i also taught her to shake hands with people when encounter with them....at first, it was quite difficult but then she was used to it...although sometimes she wasn't in the right mood to do so.....

there are more that you can do....start early and you are on the way in sculpturing a perfect human nation of the future....

learning discovery

i love to learn my ABC

help to water the plants

my Jihan is now almost 2 years old...she has shown her interest to learn new things everyday...she loves going into the kitchen and takes some spoon, small frying pan, plastic cups and plates and pretends to cook...we bought her a tea set but she loves playing with the real stuffs...

when we are cleaning the house (sweeping, mopping, vacuuming), she loves making herself presence and join the "fun" as well...so we bought a cleaning set for her...whenever she sees us cleaning the house, she will take her cleaning set and help us with the housechores...she also loves watering the plant (as she can get herself wet!)...

besides doing what adults used to do, she now loves looking at picture books and able to utter simple words and make simple sentences out of them...but most of the time she prefers to play with her toys...

i dont really force her to read books all the times and have to know simple mathematics by the age of 2....at this time, kids tend to play a lot and they learn through playing with their toys...as parents, we need to be creative on how to instill the interest on learning new things....outings can broaden their perspectives in life as they can learn through seeing new things and experience new adventures....

i can feed myself...

feeling happy feeding herself

try to steal food from papa's plate

when my Jihan was small, we tend to feed her during meal times...everybody helped to feed Jihan...by she was about 9 months, we bought her a highchair so that she can have her meals together with us...and we started to train her how to feed herself...

at first, it was quite difficult and i had miserable time by letting her feeding herself...she made quite a mess....pieces of food feel on the floor, dirtied her clothes and smudged her face, head and hands up to the elbow...even both her feet were covered with food and gravy...only 25% of her dish went into her mouth...the other 75%, you know where it went to, right..?

my previous maid wasn't very pleased when my Jihan fed herself...so, when we were not around she would simply feed Jihan without putting Jihan on her highchair and let her feed herself...

by 1 year old, Jihan was still unable to feed herself efficiently...i was worried because she was very dependent on us (sometimes she was lazy to feed herself)...most of the kids at her age are able to feed themselves..!

i realized that at about 15 months, she was able to hold the spoon correctly (with lots of practice) and smoothly put the food inside her mouth...by this time, about 50-60% of her dish went into her mouth...lesser mess!!!!

when we went out during meal times, Jihan would sit on the highchair and fed herself...(although sometimes she would throw a tantrum)...i always forgot to bring her bibs..luckily, she didn't make such a mess, so her clothes were spared...

she loves feeding herself...and she eats quite a lot nowadays...

Playing a role of a big sister....

Jihan with her "adik"

after bath today, Jihan took her (i don't know what to call it) fat balloon boxer/bouncer(?) and played with it. she loves hugging the fat stuff and pushed it as it would bounce back. so, i asked her, what is it called? she replied, "adik"/little sibling. (ooopss..?!)

i just watched her playing with her adik. she took a pen and a paper and showed to her adik. then she said, "no, no , tak boleh, tak boleh tulis" showing towards the wall. (No, don't write on the wall). i found that it was quite funny as if she was telling her little sibling that it was wrong to write on the wall.

then she took a piece of her diaper and said the her adik, "Adik belak. basuh, basuh. Pakai pampers!" (You just pass your motion. Wash and wear pampers). HAHAHA! that was more hillarious!

on a second thought, is she ready for a little brother or sister? ; )

surprise...surprise..! but i'm not...

with papa at the Aquaria

today, we brought Jihan to Aquaria KLCC...she loves seeing fish, so this is a good exposure for her...

upon entering the Aquaria, we stumbled upon the fish mascot of the Aquaria....me n hubby were so excited seeing the mascot waving at us and i told Jihan to shake hand with the mascot....but she was scared and screamed loudly...!!!! what a bad start!...it spoiled her mood throughout the day...! i thought it was nice to take photo with the mascot but it didnt happen as planned...

i wonder if we were to go to disneyland to see Jihan's favourite cartoon characeter - Mickey Mouse - the real mascot, will she scream that loud..??

my cousin's son had the same experience when he was small with an A&W bear...once he was a bit bigger, the mother told him that it was only a person wearing a clothes that looks like a bear...since then, he was not scared of any mascots or even clown...

once i saw 1 family had their lunch at a foodcourt... at that time, there was a clown lingering around to entertain the visitors....so this clown went to the family's table...one of their children was startled seeing the clown's at his face and jumped to the father!! very unfortunate his plate of rice also fell to the floor....the child must be very frightened at that time..!!! i must blame the clown for doing that!

some children loves colourful, funny mascots/clowns but some are just scared seeing big, funny "creature" in front of them....they see the same thing on the TV but never expect that in real life it will be really big!...