Jihan's first attempt fasting...

alhamdulillah, my little girl is getting more mature....yesterday, she fast the whole day and broke her fast together with us...she was so excited to break her fast with us and demanded a Chicky Meal from KFC....

it was easy to wake her up for sahur and she had a proper meal during sahur....later, she went to school in the morning and many of the children in the school also fast....she told us that she mostly read books rather than playing with her friends in order to conserve her energy....when she came back, she slept for an hour before going for Iqra' class...

i called her a few times asking her whether she is still fasting or not and i was very proud of her achievement....

when i came back, she was so excited looking at the kuihs and some dishes that i brought home for iftar....and when the time for iftar was almost there, she sat at the table and kept on looking at the clock....

and when it was time, she put almost everything on her plate and drank a whole glass of fruit juice to quench her thirst...

alhamdulillah, she made it on the first day...and today, she was very eager to fast for the whole month...and when i called her just now, she is still fasting...

congratulations Jihan...we are so proud of you..!

humpty dumpty sat on the wall, little imti had a great fall...

well, the title of this entry tells it all....i blamed myself for it...lucky he was a strong boy...here's the story goes....

it was a week after my exam...i've cleared all the book from
my bed...put little Imti to sleep and i slept beside him...when he's up in the
middle of the night for milk, i would move myself to his left or right to get
him to my breast alternately...

the last feed was at 5 am...he sucked well and i dozed back
to sleep...i thought he was awake...he kicked my back but didn't make a sound
(usually he would make noisy babbles and squeak when he woke up)...

and then, BAM!!!! a loud thudding sound followed by a loud
cry...dear hubby saw my little Imti on the floor with his face down....my baby
fell from the bed....!!! he cried so loudly for about 10-15 min....and then i
saw blood mixed with his mucus from his nose...minimal but enough to tell you
his fall with face down had given a trauma to his nose...no other bleeders were
seen....

we managed to put him back to sleep and he slept for 2
hours....he woke up with a smiley face as if nothing happened...he was well
throughout the day apart from the swollen nose...i was assured there was no
broken nose bridge...no vomiting or cranky behaviour...alhamdulillah....

from that moment on, the parents learnt their lesson....we
made sure that the edge of the bed was well protected to avoid him from falling
again...

we didn't experience such fall with Jihan because the 3 of us
slept on the matress on the floor when she was small....

little shaolin....

let the photos tell you the story...

we start at the back...

ayo, mamak...you tilt my head...

half side gone...

owwww!!! don't cut my ear....

hey, mamak!!! what have you done to my hair hah???

i need a shoulder to cry on...

do i look like rosyam nor in castello..?

but i'm still mama and papa's little shaolin....

Imtiaz - 2 months...

only a few more days Imtiaz will turn 2 (months)....he has grown so much...he weighs 5.2kg now and probably a little extra than that....he is more alert and playful and turn to the sound he heard people calling his name....hi is more chubby and his body is more solid...he was so tiny at birth and people couldn't believe it when i told them he is only 2 months old...

he started coo-ing and smile when people talk to him....he is a very friendly and easy to take care of...not a fussy one...he feeds every 2-3 hours and can't wait to latch to the breast during feeding time...he also love sucking his knuckles and hands now...when he does that, we know that he is ready to be fed...

i love applying lotion on his legs after bath...his legs are so chubby and so nice to hold...it is firm and solid....

Imtiaz loves to be held before he sleeps...then when he already asleep, he loves to curl and arched his back and settle back to sleep....

Jihan loves to pat his brother to sleep...she also like to squeeze Imtiaz's chubby hands, and legs....she helps us to change Imtiaz's nappy by getting the diapers, wet tissue and Drapolene ready and throw the dirty diapers away...sometimes, she helps to bathe Imtiaz too...

my two kids are just adorable...

my hair is growing....

my sister bought this troll at Cameron Hoghlands Kea Market during our last visit almost 1 month ago.....it has many different shape but she chose the snowman...

it is actually some sort of saw dust impregnated with some grass seed....you only have to soak it overnight then the next day, just quarter-filled a container and by day 3 you'll see the troll's hair is growing....

my dear Jihan was so fascinated seeing it's hair when it first grew...and she was so excited seeing her makngah gave the troll its forst haircut....

now it has grow longer and my sister had went back to Adelaide and we don't have time to trim its hair yet...

everyday, Jihan will look at the window to see the troll and its hair.....

yesterday....

Jihan found an album full of her photos when she was a baby...she was so excited looking at those photos....she kept on kissing her own baby photos and was really amazed looking at them....

she enjoyed telling stories of each photo and criticizing them....

she also said, "oo, comel nye Jihan.."

children are indeed very adorable....

potty training...day2,3

well...after a few days of potty train, i made the conclusion that my Jihan is not yet ready and not willing to potty train..but i still continue doing so as practice makes perfect...

i called her to go to her potty every hour but she refused to go...if she did go, she won't take her panty off...she would just sit at her potty for a few seconds and that's it...

another problem is she would hold her rectum and would not poo poo....and that contributed to hard stool and possible constipation....

it is very challenging for us....but at least, she already had the experience on how it actually feels like to pee and how she'd get her panty wet if she peed not inside her potty...so, when i'm back to work, my maid can just continue what i've started and hopefuly she'll get used to it and it'll be over soon....

potty training ...day 1

yeah, i'm on a long leave now...one of the reason being is, i want to potty train Jihan...a very nice potty was bought few months ago...and she loves the potty...

so, yesterday we started our training...she woke up in the morning, had her breakfast and later her bath...i told her that her diapers were already finished and she only had to wear her underwear...at first, she was quite reluctant...then after a while she got used to the idea...

we reminded her every now and then to tell us if she wants to pee...but as expected, the answer was "No"...she was playing with her toys and reading her books....after 1 hour, i brought her to her potty and asked her to sit on it...but she refused to take off her underwear and pretended to pee on the potty...so, no waste product yet in the potty....

later, i went to take my bath and she was left with my maid and my sister downstairs...soon after bath, i heard her crying....and everybody was laughing downstairs....guess what..??she already peed in her underwear..!!!...i wasn't sure if she cried of embarressment or scared of being scolded or what...but i told her that it's okay and we changed her underwear....

later, my cousin came with her kids and the children was playing around together...while we were having our lunch of homemade pizza, Jihan came around and told me, "kencing..kencing.." and her panty was already wet...this time, on her tricycle...so, 2nd time changing of her underwear...

then, it was time to take her nap...i put her back on her diapers and she slept peacefully....

it was a good experience for her but quite a tough work for me and my maid (to clean all her mess)...at the same time, i realized that she refused to poo without her diapers...and later in the evening, she had difficulty to poo due to hard stool...

we bought more panties for her at Carrefour yesterday...and we'll start training again later today and more and more later....

a good night sleep...

Jihan tends to sleep late at night nowadays...she'll make herself busy playing with her toys, reading her books and watching TV...(yeah, i know it's not good for kids to stay up late at night but that's the only quality time she spends with us...)

yesterday, i brought her up to the bedroom (she has been sleeping with her Makngah since Makngah came home)....i told her to lie down on the mattress and watch her favourite Astro Ceria channel....while in then meantime, i took my shower (after cycling 10km before that)....after shower, i went back to her room and saw she was fast asleep on the sofa....so, i carried her to her mattress and covered her with her blanket....i left the room and went to read my novel...

after a few minutes, i heard her cried...i rushed to her room and my sister was comforting her....she had a bad dream, i supposed...i cuddled her and comfort her but it took some time for her to calm down...my hubby said, she forgot to recite her prayer before sleeping that's why she had the nightmare....(usually, my hubby would recite the prayer with her but yesterday he was preoccupied watching CSI)

anyway, Jihan never fails to brush her teeth before sleep and would eventually sleep when we switch off the lights and while she watches the TV and seldomly after she was fed with a bottle of milk...and she would sleep peacefully throughout the night....and we would have a good night sleep too....

making friends...

my dear Jihan is very friendly...she loves making friends with other children even with adults...we were in Kuantan for a short vacation last weekend and we visited the Mini Zoo in Taman Teruntum....

she really enjoyed herself watching the animals and making friend with our photgrapher, Ramzi...

after strolling around, we stopped by at a stall to have some refreshment....at a table nearby, sat a young lady with her daughter who is about 8 years old..Jihan went to her table and said "Hai" to them...luckily, both of them accepted her greetings and had a very friendly chat with Jihan...(I missed taking their photos together because i was too busy eating my rojak)

Jihan also played with the big girl for a while before saying goodbye to each other....

she loves companions from other people that are other than us...she offers her warm friendship to others and she behaves well with them...no hitting each other, no pushing each other , no fighting over toys with them....

am i ready for potty training..?

last weekend, we bought a VCD "Elmo's Potty Time" and a storybook on potty training for Jihan..we wanted to introduce to her about potty and toilet usage before she undergo a proper potty training later...

she loves watching the VCD "Elmo's Potty Time"... it is quite interesting and funny and she seems to understand the purpose of potty and toilet... then, the storybook is also very interesting and she kept saying, "friend go to toilet, go to toilet.." ... and when i asked her, "Jihan wants to go to toilet..?" she replied, "no!"



it's ok if she is not ready yet...but yesterday, my maid told me that Jihan asked her to go to the toilet with her but she already poo poo in her pampers....



i'm planning to take a long leave end of this year to potty train her...probably she'll be ready by that time...

a good eating habit...

we went to midvalley megamall in the evening and planned to have dinner there today....after strolling along the mall, we decided to ate at Manhattan's Fishmarket....

my dear Jihan was so excited to have dinner there...she said she would like to eat rice today...

my hubby ordered garlic butter mussels and fish and chips while i ordered for jihan fish nuggets with calamari rings and rice (Big Boat)....she sat at her high chair sensibly and had a wonderful chat with us...

when the food arrived, i scooped some rice and fish nuggets onto her plate...she simply loved dipping the fish nuggets into the tartar sauce and i alternately fed her with some rice...to my surprise, she ate quite a lot though...almost half of the rice and 3 pieces of big fish nuggets....and this time, she behaved quite well...not throwing any tantrum at all...even when we had finished our food, she was still eating hers...

and there was less food on the floor as well....most of it went into her mouth...i observed her tiny fingers picking up the nugget chunks and she has a very good fine motor movement....

this was a very good meal times at a public place...i admit it that it's not easy to have a proper meal when you have a baby or a toddler to attend to...i have had a few episodes of having bad meal times when my Jihan would threw a tantrum and wouldn't sit still and finish her food...and we would take turns to eat and to attend to Jihan....

as parents, we need to make sure that our children have a good eating habit at home and at public places because that reflects their personalities and how actually the parents had educate their children....

MERDEKA!!!!

yeah, MERDEKA!!!!.....Malaysia is celebrating its 50th independance day today....! i'm so proud to be a Malaysian....i have a year+ experience in Manchester in 1992 when i was a kid...an exciting experience but i really missed Malaysia at that time...especially the food...nothing is better than home...

my dear daughter , who is currently 2 year+, is very excited upon seeing Malaysian flag....she calls the flag as "merdeka"....and when she sees any advertisement with Malaysian flag and people saying out loud "merdeka", she will join the excitement as well...she will ask for her flag and starts dancing with it....she might be too small to understand the meaning of Merdeka, but it's good that she has instill the value inside her...

as Malaysians, we should treasure the meaning of Merdeka in many ways....it can be implied in our daily life as well....what we had achieved today is due to the achievements in the past....work hard today to harvest a good quality of grains in the future....

MERDEKA!!!

another cupcakes project....

i made some cupcakes for Dr GG and my aunt, MakTam, and as usual Jihan loves being at our lovely home in Bukit Mahkota as she can run around at the big house....

Jihan loves to disturb me when i iced the cake...she loves looking at the various colours and at the end she will pretend blowing the candles on the cupcakes....

ooopsss...i "spoilt" your "adik"...!

a memory of "adik"..

yesterday, my Jihan was playing with her "adik"... she was being rather naughty yesterday...she went up the coffee table with her "adik" and was dancing and jumping up there with her "adik".....i feared that she might fall from the table, so i put away the table inside the room...she was upset and threw a tantrum but it subsided after a while...

an hour later, i brought the table back to the living hall...remembered what she did before, she got her "adik" and went up the table again...i took the "adik" from her and suddenly, "psssssssssssssss....." and the "adik" went floppy and flat....

oooh ooo.....her "adik" burst and the air went out...there's no other way to mend it...my Jihan's face showed a little sadness she was startled seeing her "adik" deflated....i was feeling guilty for ruining and spoiling her "adik" and said, "Jihan, mama sorry ok....adik dah rosak...esok kita beli lain..." she seemed to understand and keep her "adik" at a safe place...

today, i went out with my hubby to midvalley...we went to buy a wedding gift and at the same time went looking for Jihan's "adik"..unfortunately, we could't find a new "adik" for Jihan...there were other similar stuffs but they were without hands....so, we decided not to buy any...

pity Jihan...maybe we'll get new, real adik for Jihan soon ; ).....

my little one's update...

Jihan Qaisara is already 2 years and 2 months old....she is getting smarter each day...

her recent achievements are:

• she is able to answer if people ask her, "what is your name..?"...and she will answer, "Jian...", "Jihan what...?", "Jian Sheqara...." HAHAHAHAHA...it's Jihan Qaisara but she twists it to Sheqara


• she loves to follow us when we pray...she will stand beside us and immitate what we do...this is a very good exposure and hopefully she will grow up and become a good muslimah...


• her vocabs keep increasing each day and she can talk quite good now...


• she has been very good when her papa is outstation in Singapore...now, that's mama's girl...but, wait till papa comes home in a little while..she will show her true colours with her papa...

Transformers....8 random things about my Jihan

oh, i just got back from watching Transformers at TGV with my hubby and my sister (oo, we have to leave Jihan behind..it's too hostile for her to watch Transformers at this age..)..it was a full house, we got to seat at the very front row...! phew...neck pain....! anyway, i would say it was superb movie...worth watching it...

yeah, i was tagged by drNo ...it was supposed to be 8 random things about me but i can't think about it right now...so, instead i'll write about 8 random things about my lovely Jihan:

• when she was born, the first thing that really caught my attention when my obs put her on my belly, was her so big eyes...!!!! (like alien!) hahahaha....


• she was an easy baby....she would sleep throuhout the night, only woke up once to breastfeed....(phew...!)


• she hardly cry when she was a baby....even my neighbours didn't realize that i've given birth because our house was sooooo quite....now, she is so talkative...!!


• i've stopped breastfeeding her when she was 6 months...i did not offer her my breast at all because i was afraid that she might want to breastfeed back whereas at that time my milk supply was almost nil....some time later when i tried to offer her my breast, she would "yucksss" at it.... : (


• we bought her a lot of toys during her younger days but what caught her attention were the toys wrapper, plastic bags and papers....duuuhhhhh....!


• she was smiley baby even up till now...when she wakes up from sleep, the first thing she would do is to throw her beautiful, charming smile....very seldom she would throw her tantrum....


• she is so proud of her smooth, silky hair....she will never let anybody touch her hair...it's a miracle that she'll let us to tie her hair....


• she has a great bond with her papa....she will want her papa to do everything for her....but when papa is not around, then she'll turn to mama.... ; )

well, that's just a bit about my little one...you need to meet her personally then you'll be charmed by her characters...

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....

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? ; )

ooooh...i can't sleep without it...!

Jihan in action!

smiling happily with her "bantal busuk"

i'm sure that many of us had a favourite pillow or blanket or toys during our childhood days that we can't live without it...when i was a little girl, (i can still remember it very vividly) i loved to take the string at the end of my bolster and put it inside my nostril or my ears....(hahaha!) ..i think at that time, it gave me a pleasure by doing so...

my little girl started to have the same habit when she was about 1 year old....she would take the edge of her pillow or blanket and started brushing her eyelids or nose or ears or even her palm...she would do that when she was feeling sleepy and would usually doze off.....

she wouldn't mind if her pillowcase or blanket are washed...some of the kids won't let their parents to wash them...i have a friend who had a bright idea regarding this matter...she would buy 2 sets of similar blanket for her daughter...so she wouldn't have problem of washing one as her daughter will have another similar blanket to sleep with it....

as parents, we need to make sure that physical hygiene of our children is not compromised...pillows/pillowcase/blankets/soft toys need to be washed or aired regularly to prevent dust/dustmites....furthermore if you and your partner have history of asthma/allergies as your children might have that too....