Raya Tag

Got this tag from Loly.

Berapa pasang baju raya anda tahun ini dan kaler apakah?
Due to the fact that I like to kumpul kain sampai time raya baru pegi tailor, I have 5 pairs this year. Colours vary from blue to pink (!). I've got matching ones in blue and purple with my daughters. And the family colour theme this year is peachy on my side of the family and purple on Hubby's side of the family.

Apakah makanan raya tradisional kegemaran anda?
My nenek's rendang paru. And my uncle's ketupat palas. Both of which I don't get to enjoy anymore because nenek's passed away in 1998 and my uncle will be in Doha this raya. Although I must say, Mama is attempting rendang paru this year (nyum! even thinking of it makes me hungry) and Kak Eita would be doing some ketupat palas. Yeah!

Apakah biskut raya kegemaran anda?
When we were small, we used to visit my mom's cousin and she baked the most yummylicious brownie-like candy. I've never seen it anywhere else. Note to self : must get the recipe from her. Apart from that, our fresh from the oven chocolate chip cookies. Have to say, it takes longer to bake it than to finish it. Haha!

Berapa banyak duit raya anda dapat n spend untuk bagi kepada budak-budak?
Sejak kerja, tak pernah dapat duit raya dah. Haha!

Because I have like 40 cousins on my mom's side and we normally meet all of them during 1st Raya in Kg Baru, you can imagine lah berapa banyak kena set aside. What more now, the cousins my age have gotten married and have kids of their own. That's not even looking at the numbers from Hubby's side.

Apakah aktiviti malam raya korang?
Malam raya in Kg Tunku is never a quiet affair. After iftar, the women will be busy in the kitchen preparing the dishes / kueh to be served to the house-to-house takbir entourage of men and children. Dulu, before they pecahkan into small groups we sometime had to wait up until midnight before they reach our house. Now, it's more organised and plus the perk of Papa being the ketua kumpulan they would normally converge at our house first.

Tsk.. somehow thinking about that makes me sad. Coz starting from next year we will have to start a new tradition for malam raya.

Salam Aidilfitri

Ramadhan is nearing its end. By iftar today, we would have completed 26 days of fasting. By the end of the day, the city would start to be less busy and more quiet. Everyone will be headed back to their respective kampungs. Our office will close for a whole week, thus today is the last day of work. Best kan? Hehe.. Tak tolak AL pulak tu.

We will be in PJ / KL for the Eid. Petang 1st Raya baru gerak balik ke Kuantan. It would be quite significant because this will be the last raya in Kg. Tunku. So much so that all my brothers beraya in KL first this year. Next year, raya would be in Bangi since Mama & Papa have already sold this house. *sigh*

The kids have yet to understand the significance of Eid. Aliah likes the fact that she gets to play bunga api, all the festive cards that we send and receive but that's about it. And I would think she can understand about duit raya. Jannah is still very oblivious to all this.

Anyway, here's wishing everyone a Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri and Maaf Zahir Batin.

Drive safe, have fun and see you again after the raya break.

-nana, herman, aliah & jannah

Aliah Updates..

[edited @ 1235hrs]

She is 3 years, 8 months, 1 week & 3 days old according to the Lilypie today.

She can be a chatterbox if she wants to, but she can still play quietly on her own too.

She dotes on her baby sister and declares that Jannah's not a baby anymore because she can go down the slide by herself. But the other day she contradicted herself when I was scolding Jannah for touching the wire cables. She said to me,"Mommy, that's not very nice. Jannah's a little baby. She cannot talk yet." (meaning J doesn't understand what's right and what's wrong)

The past couple of days we let her play with some sparklers (read : bunga api). So as soon as the day turns to night, she'll get really happy and bouncy as in really go boing-boing. "Is it night time yet Mommy? Can we play with api?" (she can't comprehend where the bunga part comes from, so she just calls it api)

She still loves to draw, play the guitar, watch TV, but most of all she loves playing computer games. And she's quite good at it. She understands the concept, she knows what needs to be done, she's got good motor skills (i.e; hand-eye coordination with the mouse). Most importantly, she's learn to take turns (with me of course.. heheh).

And the other day she suprised me by jumping from a height. I didn't realise at first, but when she insisted I clap my hand for some reason I took notice and figured out it is a big deal for her. She can also throw the ball quite well now. And throw it far, with good aim pulak tu. I honestly thought she would be all dainty and unsportswoman-like but so far she has suprised me.

psstt.. moto sape tuh eh? :D

[edited]
Oh, Uda's comment reminded me of something. She loves cooking. Obviously this one is following right into her Papa's footsteps. She can make her own cheese omelet. Of course, we still have to be around to oversee it but she knows what ingredients she needs and when to put them in. She also boils her own spagetti. And does the spread herself for her bread. Mostly she just loves watching when her Papa cooks.

Most important achievement to date would be the fact that she can write the letter "A" already. Woh. I was suprised. She asked me how it looked like and how to do it, and I just showed her once. And she got it. Mommy was amazed. And somehow she figured out how to do "P" by herself too. Mommy was doubly amazed!

And I think she'll continue to amaze me more...

Marriage 101

On the first day of Ramadhan, we went to the MP.H Ware.house Sale. Apart from the obvious, thrash books (haha!) Hubby bought 2 new cookbooks. And he has been more bersemangat to be in the kitchen ever since. In fact, his first attempt at home made pasta was successful! It was really lembut and the kids loved it! See what I have to go up against here? *sigh* Anyway, that was not the point of this post.

Apart from all those books we also bought this table calendar. It was one of those "365 ways to say I Love You"; one for 1 day of the year. (It was cheap pulak tu - RM10; that was why I bought it in the first place)

This was the entry for 12th September :

When she's upset, go after her.

And aptly, the entry for 13th September was

When he's upset, leave him alone.





Hubby then had 1 very important question..

What happens when both are upset?

Haha!

Betul jugak tu.

Newsflash!

Cik Comey Kiut nih telah berjaya menyebut 1 of the elusive words yesterday. After iftar, she was busy babbling so I thought I'd give it a try and say "Papa". Tetiba dia pon sebut "Pa Pa". Apalagi, semua orang pon excited. Me and Anik and Aliah were all so suprised and excited that she could say it. Lagi la galak dia kan. Hah.. lepas tu.. tak nak berenti..

"Papapapapapappapapapappa"

Sampai lah nak tido pon dia asek trying out that new word.

Out with the Old, In with the New

We stayed home last weekend.

A first for a while now.

And since we were both in the mood, we spring cleaned! Bottom to top. Rearranged stuff.

Whatever stuff that is old and unused we tossed. That didn't sound right. Especially when the next paragraph is talking about clothes. But we did toss out boxes (big and small), them bunga telur and bunga pahar from all those weddings etc etc.

And clothes. Mine, Hubby's and the kids'. Seeing that we have so much more than we can wear. (the fact that I went crazy at Brands Outlet didn't help either). A lot of them are really still in a good condition. Mostly dah kecik. And quite a few I deeply sayang, but rather than watch it left idle I'd rather give it away. Someone will be happy to have it.

Anyway, to keep up with the theme (i.e; in with the new) and because Aliah can really be determined (determined because pagi petang siang malam she will ask about it), we bought this. Its nice, it was reasonably priced and most importantly we needed one. The broken TV is still around, waiting for us to take it for repairs. (anyone knows where I can repair TV in Bangi?) So now dah berkobar nak beli all the nice movies on DVD. Haha!

The ball pool had to go too. Seeing that 4 sides dah bocor and have to be pumped on a daily basis. It was high time to bring out Jannah's best birthday present anyways. Hubby decided to be extra creative and that is what was left from the old ball pool. And as you can see, Aliah lah yang lebih excited over the new car. Hehehe...

On a different note, we will be going on our yearly getaway soon! Wohooo.... Happy Happy Happy!

Aliah's Quirks II

* She talks to her toys now. And herself too. But that also mean she can play by herself.

* It could be my best friend Papa, my best friend Uncle or my best friend Jannah. But never my best friend Mommy.

* She has a certain way of drinking her milk, she'll turn the bottle until the oz marking is facing her. Only then she will start drinking. She's anal that way.

* You also need to have the right bottle with the right cap. Or the same coloured plates and glass and cutlery. She's anal that way too.

* She does not like PHDC that much now, she's moved on to Nick. Much to my dismay! And she watches Ultraman too. Arrghhhh!!

* She insists to have all the same things with Jannah. The other day, we bought her a Do.ra cap. The first thing she ask was "Jannah punya mana?" So now, kalau bawak dia gi kedai.. ada sikit susah. Pasal sume pon kena beli for two. But at least we know she loves her sister and will always think of her. Epitome of Kakakness.

14 month old Baby

[edited 080908; 1130hrs]

Sebenarnya, sangat malas nak buat this monthly update. However, I know that this is the only way I will ever remember when my daughters did what so I have to persevere. Dah la last month dah skip. Tsk..

Comparatively, Jannah's skill sets are much advanced than Aliah was at this age. At this point, I don't know whether to put it as a good thing or a bad thing. Haha! One thing for certain, we have to be extra diligent with her. She still is forever climbing here and there. And has now even graduated to sliding down the slides by herself! Silalah jangan cuba pegang dia, anda akan di halau dan di jerit.

She loves her nursery rhymes and will do the actions accompanying them. Lately she's been joining in on the singing too - the best way she can that is. She would sing the "e-i-e-i-o" on Old MacDonald, she would rhyme the Row Row Your Boat, she'd do the Twinkle Little Star and Itsy Bitsy Spider.

I've noticed that she has this aversion for scary characters from the TV. You know la kan, in cartoons the bad guys are mostly always ugly and scary. So Nickelodeon is mostly out of bounds now, much to Aliah's dismay.

According to BabyCenter.com, her milestones include :

*eats with fingers : definite, kalau makan both hands kena pegang makanan

*empties containers : one of her favourite activity. She does it with glee! No matter how many times Anik clear up their toys it will always be berterabur again.

*points to one body part : she points to her nose and eyes, but after pointing to her nose she will insist on digging it. *sigh*

Tsk.. can't think of what else to write. I had this whole post in my head last night (so what else is new lah kan!).. I'll add on when I remember more.

Oh, I just remembered something. She KNOWS when she has done something wrong. Like yesterday, we were in the kitchen and she accidentally knocked over a tumbler while waving her arms around. Immediately she had that "I'm screwed" look on her face. I didn't even have to say a word, I just looked at her with -that- look of mine and she started mencebik and cried. Haha!

Accomplishment

I feel happy. Contentment kind of happy.

I cooked this week.

And the people who knows me, knows that I very seldom cook. VERY SELDOM. The fact that I have a husband who likes to be in the kitchen more than I do does not help the situation either. So, when the mood strikes, please leave me be and let me cook.

So, just now we had daging stir fry and sayur campor and sambal tumis ikan bilis complete with petai and ayam goreng.

And Hubby finished it all.

The other day, we had sotong goreng tepung and terong sambal and ayam masak kicap.

And he finished it all too.

*me happy now.

*me happy and beaming now.

Fenats

Jannah is at that phase.

Clingy.

Mommy only.

Don't want anyone else if Bibik not around.

And due to that, I have a bad back now.

Aliah had this phase too. But at that time, it was Papa only so I was spared from the ordeal. I guess it's payback time now eh.

She would literally cry buckets and insist on being carried - all the time, if we are anywhere else but home. As soon as she gets into the car, she's back to being the angel everyone knows and loves. *sigh*

I hope she gets over this soon. If not Raya would be one hell of a time for us this year.