When Travelling With Them.. ALONE!

Yes, I hope you could imagine it. A few days ago, I went through it and survived! 

Since Mr.Fadzil decided not to come with us in this journey, I've been thinking and wondering how am I supposed to handle my kids alone. With Tini, a 5 year old, it's not a problem. A leash should settle everything. And an eye on her all the time. 

while Mr.Fadzil is checking in for us

But with my delar, dear Falisha, which is her 2nd journey on a plane and 1st time for me, with her being able to walk..NOW.. it's like a nightmare that won't END! I bought a special body leash for her. Instead of hand, like Tini had. It's safer for me and her.

 the body leash for Falisha

Mr. Fadzil went in and helped us with the luggage, 2 bags and 1 IKEA moving box. Which are filled with goodies and souvenirs. After he left, then there we go, our journey by ourselves. Rasa sebak pun ade tau! Nak tinggal kan suami tercinta sendiri for 2 months! Kesian die..

Me, being alone with the kids when we go out is not a problem. But traveling alone, I don't know! I felt like crying. Eventhough Falisha is in her pushchair, and Tini is on her leash, means I have nothing to worry about for now, I still worried.

And then, there we go. Waiting at the boarding gate. Falisha fell asleep that means, it's gonna be pretty hard to fold the stroller while carrying her at the same time. 

 at the boarding gate

As I expected, it is. And the person incharge won't even help me. And I did asked him to help me fold the stroller. He just ignored me and asked me to do it myself. (and he saw me carrying the sleeping Falisha and a big heavy tote bag on my shoulder). Heartless man! As the result, Falisha woke up and started crying and screaming once we got in our seat. We got a window seat. That's cool! But the not-so-cool thing was when Falisha was crying non stop for almost 20 minutes and everybody started staring. Ya, Allah! Bantulah hamba Mu ini! I prayed. 

Thanks Allah! She stopped and slept. But the other bad news is, the MAS MH157 supposed to fly-off at 18:35pm, but it was 2 hours delayed! And the air in the flight is HOT! Is the AC busted? Oh, no! This is a 7 hours flight and I am supposed to go through this? Falisha started sweating but she still sound asleep, on my lap. As they are giving the bassinet after the plane took off. Okay, I can deal with that.

Instead of the announcement about the delay, Tini kept saying, 'There's something wrong with the plane Ummi. I know it is.. Why aren't we flying yet?'

I explained to her what happened and that we're flying in a few minutes. I felt so tired and sleepy, and accidently felt asleep. Suddenly, I heard voices and I opened my eyes. I thought we already left. But surprisingly not yet! I took a short nap around 20 minutes and it has been 1 hour in the plane. It still delayed.

Falisha having a good time

 Tini with her Alice in The Wonderland

I am restless. Suddenly an announcement of the technical problems being solved made me smiled. Falisha woke up. And she's not crying. Alhamdulillah! At exactly 20:30pm, we took off. Huh, I finally can breath.

The stewardess installed the bassinet for Falisha and I put her in the bassinet where she continued sleeping. They start serving the meal, and the best part was, the AC started to cool the air. And it was so refreshing! 

After the meal, the kids watch Alice in Wonderland and finally Falisha slept after a good meal of pasta. And so am I. I am so tired of all the hectic and surprisingly slept until the time they served the snack. Means we're about to land. And I am thankful that Falisha slept through entire flight.

We landed about 7:15am, Malaysian hour. 15 minutes earlier than they expected. Alhamdulillah, that's all I can say when we landed and entering the arrival hall. I called my mom to inform her of our arrival.

To make it more challenging. Fatini asked me if she could go potty (pee/poo in the toilet). 'Okay, let's go!' The simple task turned out to be disaster when Fatini, screaming in the toilet asking for my help, because she can't turn off the tap. But the problem is, she locked the door! I told millions of time not to lock the door because it's dangerous. If anything happened, I can't help her if the door is locked. After a while she opened the door, the tap still bursting and she put her legging on the floor, all wet and panicked. I helped her, turned off the tap, and membebel about her doings. Luckily I always got a spare clothes for both of them. I gave her another legging (different colour) and we left the toilet.

My mom called me and asked how long until I'll be out. I said, 'Baru nak cop passpot, ibu. Ade hal kat toilet dengan Tini.' 

We got through the passport control, faster than I expect. Next, the luggage. I found the belt section. Now to wait the bag. In my previous experience, it's going to take forever. I left Falisha in her push chair with Tini's leashed to it. Without taking my eyes, I took a trolley and went back to them. Looking for our bags is so depressing! There's no sign of it! Huh! I did saw a guy removing and grouping the bags. I saw a familiar red bag, with a silver rimmed wheels. Is that mine? It's in the group! I went there, and it is! It is my bag! I took it, put it on the trolley, went there again, and found the 2nd bag, and finally the goodies box. A luggage handler saw me and asked me to get my trolley. He helped me with my luggage arrangement on the trolley. 'Terima kasih pakcik!' So nice of him.

Now imagine..

Me carrying Falisha on my right, on my left, pulling Tini with her leash, and trying to push the heavy trolley to the arrival hall. Ahhh..! But the best sight that made me smiled and relieved was the sight of my sister Farhana and my ibu, waiving and smiling.

I think this is the most tiring and fun travel adventure I ever had! What do you think of my adventure?

Concert and Graduation : Tale of Tini Tots!

Tini :  Ummi, Miss Alvita said, I have to bring a plain shirt and a black legging.

Me :  Why do you need the legging?

Tini : There will be a concert, and I will dance like this, (moving her hands like an Egypt dancer while singing 'zing, zing, zang)

Me :  Okay. 

Since last month, she's been telling me that the teacher told all the students, to get a plain shirt or tops and leggings for girls. Because they are going to perform a dance and singing.  Everyday, I will hear her sing that song and dance. Sometimes I overheard her practicing her speech, and she will smiled and stop practicing when ever she noticed I heard her. Hmm... 'pandai segan jugak ye..' 

Finally, the day is here! I watched her practice, singing and dancing and telling her activities everyday. And today is the day. What day? Oh, yeah! I forgot. It's Tini's Graduation Day! 

Today, marked the official day she graduates from Foundation Stage (FS) (macam Tadika kat Malaysia la... sebelum masuk darjah satu), so that after this she can join the Primary Level which starts at Grade 1. Here in Dubai, all expatriates children goes to International School. So is Tini. At the age of 4, they start at Foundation Stage 1 (FS1) and finishes at Foundation Stage 2 (FS2).

Before I get on the story. Some info for you guys out there. The international schools here, starts their Autumn Semester (kalau kat malaysia, start awal tahun..) in September after long hot Summer Break. Kids who wants to attend the school on certain grade have to be at the right age by the March of that year. For example: FS1 (Foundation Stage 1), the child must be 4 years old by March of 2010 if they want to start at September 2010. So, by the age 6, they already in Grade 1 (darjah 1). The syllabus in most school here are based on UK (United Kingdom) syllabus. Oh yeah, Tini's school is using the UK syllabus. Uhuh? Yes, her school name is  Winchester School.

Now back to our story.

The ceremony was simple. They grouped the children according to their classes. Tini's class was scheduled at 10 - 11am. I took the liberty to order 50 pieces of colourful decorated cookies from Fida, but pity the kids, I found out that food are not allowed in school because they are afraid of any food allergy among the kids. Ok, their lost then. Hehhe.. *wink*.

the arrival with box of cookies made by Fida

 parents taken their seats

 the welcome sign

 'come on la Tini, smile!'

'A wee bit more, Tini.'

'now why aren't you moving like everybody else?'

 Me and Falisha ended up sitting on the floor as everybody start

standing up and blocking our view

They started by performing the concert. The dance, singing, which was very entertaining and all of them looked so cute! Now I see the fruit of her practice. The zing, zang dance. They sang a few familiar song which I learned myself long time ago when I was in the kindergarten. It brought good memories.. suddenly.

After the singing and dancing, they went back to their class to change into uniform for the certificate give-away ceremony. While waiting, we were entertained by the kids from the other class that already had their concert the day before.

'when can I join them?'

After 10 minutes Tini and her friend came back and went to the stage again. This time in a school uniform. And handmade graduation cap, and a simple satin black robe (bole la kan, graduation budak2). Looking so cute! They sang a graduation song and finally the certificate give-away. It's not like our graduation day, but it's the most important day of her life. I don't care what other people think. Mr.Fadzil took a half day off from work just to attend her 'historic day'. 

Mikhail, class speaker.

'Mikhail is my partner.' said Tini.

Her class teacher, Miss Alvita.

Thank You, so much!

cookies by Fida. Love you Fida, thank you so much,

sebab willing amik order saya last minute! 

As her parents, we're so proud with her achievement this year. She can read and count (mostly english, a wee bit Malay), she can recite the Arabic letters, can recite Al-fatihah and Doa Makan (boleh la kan, duduk oversea, belajar ngaji pun Ummi je ajar, xde kelas special). She has the effort to learn, and very curious. I started teaching her a basic Arabic as she has the interest to learn it. We hope she will do better this new semester no matter where she is. And also, I prayed that she will be a good girl, daughter and sister. Amin!

Belated and Coming Birthday Presents for Them

Her birthday this year was on Sunday 31st January, and we postponed it on 5th February 2010. As it wasn't enough, she didn't even get her birthday present from us on her birthday or on her postponed birthday party. But she never complained. I am touched by that!

So finally, we got her belated birthday present last week. A new bicycle! All she ever had all this time is her old tricycle that she never got tired of, until today. It was her dream, having a new big kid bicycle.

For your information, to buy a bicycle her, in Dubai is not cheap. If you don't know where to look for it, you will end up buying a AED 500 (RM450) worth of bicycle, for a 5 years old. We got the bicycle with a really good price which is AED 180 in Good Baby Shop in Karama. 

So there it is, a new bicycle for her. She was so happy that night, she slept with her new bicycle next to her bed.

 

 'going my own way'

  

  

pulling her toy just to get even

 

you see how she try to get the bicycle from her sister? 

Most kids her age can ride a bicycle without the training wheels, but Tini having her first bike, was about to learn how to cycle. Which took her about 10 minutes to learn. 

Hmm... don't forget the little one. Well she is, a jealous type. She would want whatever the sister have. And will fight for it until she gets it. Things that I am working on so that she would grow out of it. Anyway, as she turning 1 in a couple of weeks, and 28th February was the last day of Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF), we bought everything altogether, with a 40% discount from the same shop. Oooppss!! What we bought for her? 

Tadaaaa!!

just look at her!

 A new car seat! :))

Yes, she grew out of the bucket seat. She's getting taller, the foot started coming out of the baby carrier, well it seems to me like a good reason to get her a new car seat. It's an early present for her from us. There is no point of keeping it from her, as she need it, and need to use it A.S.A.P. :))

You guys should see how happy she was, when she first gets to seat at the back in her new car seat. She giggled happily when her sister teased her. But it doesn't last long when she started crying for feeding. Luckily I was riding with my Mr. Fadzil, so I can BF her and arrived at the destination on time.

Anyhow, we're so happy to see our babies happy and enjoying their presents. Very useful presents! Because it has been a hard time thinking what to buy for them.

What would you buy for your kids?

Go, Tini Go!

It was a very nice day even with the cold wind chilling through the 3 layers of tops and jacket I am wearing. The school compound is full of the parents' cars. We walked to the lobby and was welcomed by the administration staff and lead us to the field where the sports will be held. I never been to this part of Winchester School.

 

 

The memory makes me smile. Since the last 2 months Tini's been telling me that she's in the RED group. Assuming a special group in her class activities, I always listened to her whenever she told me about the group. Last week, we got a memo from the school informing about the Sport's Day. She has to go to school in a House Color T-shirt. I said to myself, 'what is her House Colour?" and then I remembered, RED. No wonder she's been talking about RED group the whole time!

We saw the marching band, followed by the FS2 kids lining up to the field. But I didn't see Tini. Mr.Fadzil found a spot and I start going around the field to find a perfect place to shoot.

The best thing about little kids Sport's Day are :

• They didn't care about winning, they just have fun!
• Enjoying themselves are the 1st priority
• Just look how cute and funny they are.
• While bigger kids, try their best, or run as fast as they could, this kids didn;t even bother even they are the last one arrived.
• No, fighting or crying because you lose.

There are 4 teams named by colours, Red, Green, Blue and Yellow. On the field, there were 4 sections of telematch for each class (there's 5 classes). There are, 'bawak Ping Pong dalam sudu', 'Building up a block',  'Fill up the jar with water' and 'move the balls'. So each classes will rotate or take turn after they each finish the game until every class had their turn. So the point is total up on how many game each House win.

At the end of the game, the Red House won over-all.  So, Tini's team got the 1st place and a cute medal! 'Boleh lah budak2 kan?!'

Even Falisha enjoyed herself. Walking, rolling and sitting on the field. She even crossed over the line and ran towards Tini and her friends.I loved seeing my daughters running around the field, and how Falisha wanted to push the stroller all by herself which is so cute!! How the two of them bonding with each other, which was the sweetest moment and I get to capture it, perfectly! Giving me the chance to 'test power' my new 'teropong' and the manual features which I am now quite familiar with it.

By 10 a.m the sport is over and I even get to bring her earlier so she doesn't have to go home by bus at 12. Seems Tini had fun and slept all the way home, with Falisha at the back.

Birthday Bash and Then There Goes The Teeth!

As I mentioned before, Fatini just turned 5. Yesterday, we had a small gathering with friends, for makan-makan (aktiviti biasa la Malaysian kat sini).

I cooked, and that's a must! I am not an excellent cook, but everybody expects to have good food when they come. So I made Nasi Ayam (my own recipe), kuih bakar and popiah basah. Not much, but I was hoping that they'll enjoy it. That's the reason, why I've been away, for quite sometimes. I really want to blog, but the commitment to cooking and, tarts orders kept me away from my laptop.

The day came and I started in the morning and got everything ready by the time our 1st guest and baker, Fida arrived. She brought a lovely cake for Tini, not only lovely, but taste so GOOD!

I put Tini in her red cheong-sam from last year's Chinese New Year (yes, we do attend the celebration by TAK). She so adorable with her newly cut hair. 

Guests arriving, and I started to worry about whether the food is enough for them? But everything turned out, just fine! Alhamdulillah, the word, "Sedap!" that came out from their full mouth, made me smiled.

I am glad that most of invited guests excepted the invitation and came. So there it goes, makan-makan, borak-borak, and makan-makan some more!

The kids, they had great time too! Running around, climb up and down the stairs, eat more cupcakes, and running again. And I enjoyed seeing them enjoying themselves.

The party lasted until 9pm, with the guests from RAK and Sharjah is the last one to went home. Let's not forget Fida and familly. Thank you so much you guys.  And  for those lovely presents you guys brought for Tini, she is so happy!

 

 

Wait, the story doesn't end here.

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this is before I pulled the teeth. There you can see the new teeth already came out at the back, causing the baby teeth to loose all by it self.

Because it's a her birthday party, I waited until the next day. Well, it is time for her to face that one of her baby teeth have to be pulled out. I explain to her, that she already got the grown up teeth coming out from the same place where the baby teeth is. If she doesn't get it pulled out, she'll have a crooked teeth. And she was crying, saying that she wants a pretty teeth. And she was crying, saying that she doesn't want me to touch her teeth, only the DENTIST can touch it!

The problem with dentist, it's expensive here! Even you're covered with the insurance, you still have to pay hundreds of dirham for the service. The privilege of being covered are, you just need to pay 50 dirham for the service charge and less 20 - 25% of the original teeth service, whatever it is.

Because the teeth is loose , I planned to pull it myself as my dear husband doesn't have the GUTS to pull it out! Huh! (*&^%%&*%$#@)

lepas cabut gigi, kesian sayang ummi!

 

There it goes!

that's her teeth, put under her pillow for the tooth fairy.

Dah ok dah, tak nangis lagi.

So that afternoon after the party day, I told her to lay down on the sofa. I prepared a bunch of folded sterilized cottons. Using only sanitized rubber gloves and tissue to pull the teeth, I managed to pull the loose teeth after a few pulls. There goes her cute tiny baby teeth. She was crying, and crying. I know, it's painful. So I hug her and told her to bite the cotton to put some pressure on the bleeding gum. I told her to go to sleep so that the pain will go away. She lay down there watch her favorite cartoon but didn't go to sleep. After 30 minutes, there she goes playing and jumping around forgot about the pain and her teeth.

That's her first experience pulling out a teeth and the pain, and getting new teeth. I am glad she's doing fine!

She turned 5!

This is a backdated post.

Happy Belated Birthday my baby! My 1st born turned 5. Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah until this day, she turned out to be a girl I always prayed for. (nakal2 tu biasa lah, mana ada yang perfect kan?)

Now she can:

1. Read (merangkak lagi) both Malay and English.

2. Speaks fluent Malay and English (still struggling, but doing better)

3. Mengaji, kenal Alif, Ba, Ta,  hafal surah Al-Fatihah (alhamdulillah!!)

4. Counting (both Malay and English)

5. Bath and brush her own teeth.

6. And still sleeps all by herself until now. (I'm so proud of you!)

7. Tell a story of anything that interest her, in her own way. (my personal favorite)

Thank you friends for all the wishes!

To atok and nenek, don't worry about your grandkids. Ummi and Babah, will always make sure they turned out alright.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TINI!!

My Baby's 1st School Project (in 3D)

I'm supposed to post this like weeks ago.. but the big 'M' word are sooooo.... BIG... and I just kep everything in my camera.

Anyway, my 4 year old baby just received her first school project. Making an aquarium with recycle items. Well, I.m not much of an inventor or what.. so me and hubby helped her with the project. Draw the fished for, use her cereal box to make the seaweeds, and let her do the coloring and put some glue and some fun and other fun and easy stuff.

I don't know what else to write, but my baby were so proud of her aquarium that she talked about it ALL WEEK!!

Oh, Ummi so proud of you! Keep it up, girl!

Until the next post,

Kakak Pegi Sekolah Budak Besar

My baby goes to school! Kata Tini, sekolah budak-budak besar. Alhamdulillah dapat jugak dia Winchester School. Dekat dengan rumah, 5 minutes drive je. Tini masuk kelas FS2D. Cikgu die, Mrs Alvida. She was so excited. 3rd September hr tu orientation, but still both of us went to send her. Kita orang tunggu, dia macam pelik lepas tu tanye, "Ummi dengan Babah tak mau balik ke?" sebab dah biasa pergi nursery dulu, hantar tinggal. Oooohhh.. Iam so proud of you! Yalah.. compare to this boy yang sampai saing Tini, terjerit-jerit kena tinggal dengan parents dia. Haru-haru.. Oklah.. that's all for now.

The Call..

Before asar tadi.. aku tgh menyusukan Falisha..tiba2 rasa ade vibrate jer kat bwh bantal.

Tengok handphone, nombor aku tak cam.. tp nombor landline dubai. Angkat le..

Rupe2nyer Angela, dari Winchester School. Tergezut gak aku! Ade ape ye? Angela tanye aku samada aku still berminat nak enroll Tini ke sekolah tu. Aku jawab le, "Definitely!" Then dia explain la, ade vacant untuk Tini, because aku apply untuk FS2 @ KG2. Alhamdulillah! syukurnya, makbul doa aku.

Bukan ape, sekolah memang dekat gile ngan rumah, lebih kurang 5 minutes drive. Pastu fees rendah klu compare ngan sekolah lain. Memang banyak bersyukur sangat. So diorang minta sediakan all the documents, photos, sebulan fees untuk secure tempat Tini, datang ke sekolah esok bawak Tini sekali.

Tadi dah call hubby, dia kate ok, esok dia masuk ofis lewat sikit untuk settlekan semua tu.. almaklum la, aku dah ada baby ni susah le nak uruskan sorang2.

Oklah.. aku ni tersangat gembira dan lega la sbb anak aku dah settle pasal sekolah. Kalau x aku ni asyik fikir je.. sampai migrain. Ni terus hilang migrain.. huhuhu.. Lepas ni fikir nak balik kampung maybe 20th June, and akikah Falisha kat kampung plak.

nanti sambung lagi.

Graduation Tini

Since aku bersalin, aku tulis pasal Falisha jer.. kesian Tini. Ok lah.. kali ni share pasal die plak. Last Saturday, 28th March, Graduation Day sekolah Tini. Dan yang paling best... anak dara aku ni terpilih wakil the whole students untuk bg speech. So since the last 1 month aku lah yang train dia bagi hafal speech tu, sebab cikgu dia dah pesan ngn aku. Yelah.. anak aku bukan handal speaking sgt compare dgn yang memang pure anak mat salleh kan?

Aku pun tak ade idea sangat nak tulis, korang tengoklah gamba and bacalah komen bawah gamba tu yer.

Anyway, aku tak ade masa ni.. Tini dengan Babah dia jer.. Ummi kat umah dalam pantang.. mana bole kuar.

selepas ceremony terima sijil, tengok la tu.. macam2 gaya masing2

Tini, dengan sape plak ni?


Topi mana Tini?


Tiap-tiap hari lepas balik sekolah, dia practice rutin ni

with her best friend Carla, orang Romania ni..

Kenduri Doa Selamat, Baca Yaasin and Birthday Tini

The food we prepared

It was a day before Tini's birthday. We decided to make a small 'kenduri' and Yaasin recitings. So we invited all of our close friends to come for the 'kenduri'. Almost all of them came and some didn't. Anyway, the kenduri goes on smoothly, accept that it started a bit later than scheduled. As our place is quite far from the others. Our new place is in Discovery Garden just behind Ibn Batutta Mall. We had like, 40 plus people came. And thanks to Allah, our place can occupied all of them.

Some of early guests

I prepared rice and dishes menus as I thought that as this people came, it won't be nice to just make a simple finger food isn't it? Well we prepared white rice, ayam masak lemak cili api, ulam-ulaman, sambal belacan, sambal goreng and I also baked some kuih bakar for the dessert. As Kamil and Zamzuri decided to join the 'baca yaasin' on behalf for their deceased family member, they arrived early in the morning to help with the preparation. Luckily, there was not much left to do accept to cooked the rice and cooked the sambal goreng.

Tini's Birthday Cake

After the Yaasin recitings, and everybody started eating, we took out Tini's birthday cake. I ordered a Chocolate Mousse as most people would prefer that rather than a marzipan icings and sponge. Well my guess was right, most people loved chocolate.

Tini's 4th Birthday

Tini's new friends

Ladies in the kitchen, from left : Zai, Lily

Well, the best part most of all are, people are enjoying the food. It was a relieved! The masak lemak cili api and sambal goreng was a blast. Plus I put some tempe in the sambal goreng. So any Javanese (Jawa) definitely enjoying it. Seriously, how can you get tempe around here in Dubai? It's not that easy! Even some of our chinese friends that came also enjoying it. It was really spicy, but they loved it! Well until today, some of them did ask when are we going to have more 'makan-makan' like that. As the cook and the host, I am honored.

Ladies at one section







New friends I made, Zakiah and Intan

They left about 5 to 6 pm, as most of them planned to go to the mall, but I thank you all of them for coming to our place. And I am happy that they are also happy as they left with full stomach. Plus they liked the food!