New Year Resolutions #1

As Muslim, we had just celebrated our New Year last week. Last year I did not achieve anything mainly because I did not set any goals. But for this year, I have one thing that I really wanna do. I have read somewhere that if you want to make sure you meet your goals, make your commitment in public. This way, you will feel more obliged towards your commitment. Ok, so here goes nothing. For this year I want to make sure I finish all my puasa ganti. All 41 of them. I know it's alot. I managed to fast for 2 days so far this week. So, the countdown is now at 39. Hope I could complete another 2 days this week.

How about my resolutions for 2009? Well, I am proud to say I have achieved some of my goals. Some is better than nothing right? I haven't make any resolution for 2010. Tomorrow I hope I would be able to sit down and reflect on what I have done so far and plan for next yeat. Maybe I would share it with you once I have made my decision.

In the book "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari", there was a story about a monk who was avery good archerer. Once, he brought his student and place a rose at the bark of a tree. Then, he asked the student to blinfold him with a cloth. He was standing only 100 feet away from the tree. The student has seen the monk strike bull's eye 300 feet from the target. The monk then drew the bow with all his energy and released the arrow, aiming at the rose. The arrow struck the oak tree, missing its mark by an embarassingly large distance. The student was curious. He thought the monk will show him one of his magical talent. Then the monk explained that you will never be able to hit a target you cannot see.

So my friends, if we want to achieve something, we have to set our goal first. Do spend a few minutes of your time to set your goal and let us together be an achiever by end of 2010 ;p

Christmas 2009

What we did last weekend? As both hubby and I were only available on Friday, we made sure our Friday with Adam was filled with fun :)

In the morning, we went to Hari Peladang expo at Shah Alam stadium.

Adam was excited to see the goats

Welcome to our home :p

Adam dared not touch the rabbits :p

Then, we went for lunch at Wendy's, Sunway Pyramid.

Adam buat perangai kat Sunway Pyramid

Eating fries

I never know that SP had kids' zone. Adam had fun riding the horse on the Merry Go Round. (Actually mommy had fun too :p)

Us at the Merry Go Round

Adam loves the red chair

But he's scared of Santa Claus

Then, we went for dinner at Kuala Selangor.

Adam hammering the crab :)

Us and Pak Su Hakim

After dinner, we dropped by at my BIL's house in Klang and watched Up with them.

Adam and Amirul

It was a really great day spent with great people.. We really had fun.. Wish for more great days in the future! :)

~ the baking session ~

Inspired by Munirah's baking session, my cousins and I had our own baking session a few weeks ago. We baked cookies, cupcakes and chocolate cake. Even the boys had fun decorating the cookies and cupcakes.



I was surprised to see how simple it is to bake cookies! We made two batches of cookies. We divided the dough into a few portions and let our little chefs pick their favourite colour for their portion of the dough.



The kids (ok.. and teenagers) then, mould the dough and use the cookie cutter to shape the cookies. They even used their creativity to make other shapes like rugby ball and snowman!



We glazed the cookies with some coloured egg yolk first before they continued to decorate the cookies with the colourful stuff (i don't know the name of the stuff.. i think they are coloured choc rice)..



We also made hundreds of little cupcakes.. My cousins made some royal icing to decorate the cupcakes. They also used the icing to decorate some of the cookies. The cupcakes turned out great! They are fluffy enough and not too sweet. Just to my liking :)







One of our cousin requested for a chocolate cake. So we asked him to bake his own cake using the Pillsbury Devils Food Cake. He was amazed to know how simple it is to bake the cake. The rest of the cousins made fun of him and wrote "Fuad Nur Kasih" using icing on top of the cake.



Well, we had fun during the session. It was not that hard to organize and most important is, it was not that expensive.. Not only we made delicious cookies and cupcakes, we also created great memories :)

link to post

As recommended by Faith, I have explored the blog setting and allowed the create link to post function. So now, you can email my post to your friends.. erk.. ada ke pun? :p

Happy Monday!

The baking session went great! Will update once I have copied the pictures into my computer.. still could not find the memory card reader.. huhuuhhuhu...

Have a great week everyone!

tepid sponge

As new parents, one of the most common advice we receive is to tepid sponge your kid if the fever is too high. But what is tepid sponge?


Tepid means lukewarm. Maknanya air yang digunakan hendaklah suam-suam kuku. Bukannya terlalu panas atau terlalu sejuk. Senang cakap, suhu dia macam air suam yang kita minum. Sebab kalau air paip kadang-kadang mungkin terlalu sejuk atau di hari yang panas mungkin airnya agak panas. Menurut ehow.com, suhu yang sesuai adalah di antara 27 hingga 37 darjah celcius.


Sponge ni pulak tak semestinya sponge yang macam nie..


Sponge itu tidaklah perlu terlalu ceria kerana ia mungkin boleh menakutkan anak kita yang sedang demam itu. Jika di rumah anda cuma ada sponge yang digunakan untuk membasuh pinggan, jangan risau kerana kain turut boleh digunakan sebagai pengganti sponge. Mengikut pengalaman saya, face towel adalah kain yang paling sesuai kerana saiznya yang kecil dan air mudah meresap. Tapi kalau nak pakai towel mandi pun tak ada masalah cuma leceh sikitlah sebab nanti bila dah celup dalam air, basah dia akan spread ke seluruh towel dan mungkin akan membasahkan tilam anda.
Setelah anda sudah faham apa makna tepid sponge, marilah kita belajar cara-cara untuk tepid sponge.

1. Mulakan dengan mengambil suhu badan anak anda sebelum proses ini dimulakan.
2. Sediakan air suam (sila refer maksud tepid di atas) di dalam bekas yang kecil seperti gayung, besen atau mangkuk. Air ni tak perlu banyak sangat nanti senang tumpah. Agak-agak dalam 1/3 bekas cukuplah.
3. Sediakan sponge atau towel seperti yang telah diterangkan di atas.
4. Buka baju anak anda. Kalau tinggal pampers sahaja pun tak apa kerana ia akan mempermudahkan lagi kerja anda.
5. Celupkan sponge/kain di (3) ke dalam air di (2). Perahkan air berlebihan supaya air tak menitik dari sponge/kain anda dan seterusnya membasahkan tilam anda.
6. Lapkan kain yang basah itu ke seluruh badan anak anda. Tak tau dari mana nak dimulakan? Mana-mana pun boleh. Yang penting area yang selalu panas seperti dahi, ketiak dan groin area. Lakukan selama 20 hingga 30 minit dan ulang jika perlu. Kalau selepas 10 minit suhu badan anak anda sudah turun, terpulang kepada anda samada hendak meneruskan atau tidak.
7. Bolehlah diteruskan proses mengelap di seluruh badan termasuk your child's back and buttock. Masa yang diperlukan adalah di antara 5 hingga 10 minit. Oh, perlu diingatkan, selalunya proses ini tidak melibatkan bahagian perut dan dada. Takut nanti kena pneumonia pulak. (Er, boleh ke? Ni my mom cakap :p)
8. Seterusnya, pakaikan anak anda dengan pakaian yang nipis dan tidak panas seperti singlet. Seluar adalah optional. Selalunya saya cuma pakaikan rompers yang sleeveless untuk anak saya. Menurut ibu saya, dada anak haruslah ditutup supaya tidak mengundang sakit lain seperti batuk dan selsema pula.
9. Jangan lupa ambil suhu badan anak anda. Sekiranya suhu semakin tinggi disebalik usaha anda, sila bawa anak anda ke hospital dengan segera!

Mungkin ada yang bertanya pada suhu berapakah tepid sponge ini boleh dilakukan? Kalau sayalah, ini saya, bukan nasihat doktor ye, apabila suhu badan anak saya mencecah 38 darjah celcius, saya akan memulakan proses ini. Sekiranya suhu badannya tidak turun dan terus naik, saya menyerahkan kepada mereka yang pakar dengan menghantar anak saya ke hospital.
Mungkin ada pula yang bertanya pada suhu berapakah patut dihantar anak ke hospital? Pada saya, jika setelah ditepid sponge suhu anak anda tidak menurun, silalah bertindak dengan segera. Contohnya, anda mulakan tepid sponge pada suhu 40.4 darjah celcius setelah memberi rectal suppositaries dan setelah itu suhu badannya semakin menurun maka mungkin tidak perlu ke hospital. Tetapi jika anda tidak mempunyai ubat di rumah, saya selalunya membawa anak saya ke hospital apabila suhunya mencecah 39 darjah celcius.
Harap maklum, saya bukanlah seorang pakar perubatan. Juga bukan bidan, bomoh atau dukun. Kesemua yang saya tulis di atas hanyalah menurut pengalaman dan juga sedikit bacaan saya. Yang penting, ikutlah gerak hati anda. Kalau 37 darjah celcius nak bawak pergi e&e terus pun tak ada masalah. Sebab kadang-kadang as parents, kita akan lebih tahu mengenai anak kita.
Sekian pelajaran kita untuk hari ini. Terima kasih.

*Tips Tambahan*
Cool room and kain tu tekap lama-lama sampai kain tu warm.. owh, perut dan dada pun boleh! ada-ada saje petua ibu saya :) thanks Marliza!

can't wait for Sunday!

the title says it all :p

my lil' bookworm

In my childhood days, I would consider myself a bookworm. Wherever I go, I will carry a book to accompany me. If you look under my bed, there will be dozens of story books that I read to sleep.. Today, though I still love the idea of reading, I just don't have the luxury of time anymore.

I noticed that kids nowadays don't read as much. Or at least the kids I know don't read as much as I did when I was younger. When visiting a family friend, or travelling, instead of a book, kids today carry PSP or handphone to keep them company.

I don't want my kids to be like that. I want my kids to love reading as much as I did. That's the reason why hubby and me started to read to Adam since I was still in my confinement. We wanted the habit to grow into him as he grows older. Alhamdulillah, so far, it seems to work. Adam enjoys reading his books as much as I enjoy reading them to him. Family friends who came to visit were surprised to see how Adam enjoys his reading session.

When I read to Adam, I will try to be as animated as I could. I think that is the only way to make the book seems interesting to my little boy. The best part is, Adam knows who can read his books to him. He will ask me, my husband, my parents or my siblings to read to him. But with the maid, he will read to her instead! And complete with hand gestures and all! How cute is that ;p

Whenever we go out or travel, apart from his formula and diaper, one of his book will always be in the bag. It never fails to cheer him up whenever he starts to get bored.

Through reading, I could introduce Adam to things around him and teach him how to make sounds. Adam's first word, Ba' = bird, also came from his favourite book. Now, Adam can recognize cows and birds, among others, no matter how they look. He will say Baaa' for cow and Beee' for bird :) A child is never too young to read :)

Here are some photos of my lil' bookworm with his book :p

Adam's collection so far.. can't wait to fill the rack :p

why oh why..

.. did we get you a single bed when all the space you need is just this much..

Bubbles

This is a video of Adam playing with bubbles.. Did you notice his new haircut? His granny can't stand to see his messy long curly hair so she asked my brother to cut Adam's hair! And now my aunt said Adam looks more like his Daddy.. Do you think so?

Dibo Cake

I owe this entry to the kind lady who has been kind enough to accept my last minute request for the Dibo cake. The lady I was taklking about is Ms Faith of My Sugar Creations. She has been asking me for the feedback of her cake but I have yet to answer her.

Actually, I have been a frequent visitor to her blog to stalk on her work for quite some time. I first chance upon her blog when I was looking for a cake to celebrate my father's birthday and found the most beautiful golf themed cake I've ever seen.

Anyway, the Dibo cake we ordered was Moist Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Garnache. It was marvelous! It was not so sweet and the taste is just great! After the party, I heated some of the cake with the microwave and eat it with vanilla ice cream. It reminds me of the cake at Chillis.. or even better!

Even better, my son recognized Dibo immediately and started dancing! The moment worth every single cent spent on the cake :)

Thanks Faith for the lovely cake and I can assure you, for the rest of the birthdays, I will surely find you :p

Our Qorban this year..

This entry was supposed to be out much earlier when people are still celebrating Eid Al-Adha but I just received the photos from the photographer, i.e. my brother. Anyway, this is our Qorban* this year..



For non-Disney Playhouse enthusiast, it's Dibo the Gift Dragon! On the eid evening, we had a simple do to celebrate Adam's first birthday. Some of you might know that Adam was 5 days short of his 15th months' birthday last eid. So, the celebration is more of to make sure Adam won't scold me for being unfair to him when I myself, had a huge Number One shaped cake on my first birthday. To make the party looks good in pictures, we called some aunts and cousins to join in the celebrations.



I am lucky to have an architect as a Sister-In-Law who helped me with the decorations and I am doubly lucky that she's a good cook too! Thanks Hafidz for giving me such a great SIL.



Never had I know that preparing for a birthday party took alot of time! We reached Terengganu early that Friday morning and the party was in the evening. Though the guests started to arrived at 5.30pm as scheduled, the party only began at 6pm. I should have had the party on Saturday instead so we could have a better preparation.



Though Adam was a bit blurred on what's happening, the most important thing is he recognized the Dibo on the cake and he loved it! As soon as he saw the cake, he raised his arms and started dancing! My boy is such a kaki joget! When we turned the cake for the picture during the candle blowing session, he stopped dancing. And when I turned the cake back towards him to cut it, he started dancing again! He's soooo cute! :D





Alhamdulillah the party went well. There was enough food for everyone. We even had time to play a short game of musical chair. Though many of the kids has already left, we managed to persuade some of the not so small kids to join the fun!



All in all, it was a great experience for me. Now I know how much it cost to organize a birthday party. And this is just a simple one mind you. I can't imagine how much did other parents spent for the birthday party that is complete with the clowns, bouncing castles, magician etc.



*You know I was just kidding about sacrificing Dibo right? ;p Here is a picture of Adam riding the real sacrificed goat for the eid.

Feeding Bottles

During a recent visit to a cousin's house, Adam saw my cousin's daughter, Annysa, drank her milk from an elmo bottle. Right away he danced and tried to talk to the bottle. As Annysa was happily enjoying her milk while lying on the mattress, suddenly, Adam snatched the bottle and drank the milk right away though he had just finished his bottle a few minutes before. Though I was not there (Adam went there with Daddy), I could imagine why Adam did what he did. His bottle is soooooooooooooo boring!!! All the while, I only bought Avent bottles as it helps to avoid colics among babies.



Considering he is already 15 months and is eating almost everything, I don't think colic is an issue anymore. So, I decided to buy him new types of bottles and he LOVED them!



The only thing is, the teats doesn't last.. In less than 2 weeks, one of the teats is already torn. I wish the fancy bottles are available in wide neck versions so I could just use Avent teats which are really good and could last for quite some time. I am also clueless on the sizing of the holes and the teats materials. I saw some came in the yellowish colour and looks like it is thicker.. Anyone can recommend me a good teat?

adam lagi..

Rajin pulak nak upload videos hari nie.. maybe because I am quite free since Adam is in Terengganu. We went back to Terengganu last weekend for the eid celebration and I left him there as we are going back to Terengganu again this weekend.. Long distance travelling is not easy with a boy his age. With bibik and my bro tagging along, we could not bring his car seat so it is much more difficult to control him.. Anyway, this video was shot when Adam was 11 months. He already had a few tooth sprouting then and I had just introduced him to a new toy.. toothbrush! Till today, he really loves brushing his teeth. He would not let others help him with it and will cry everytime the session ends.. huhuhuhuhuh...

anak bujangku yang rajin

these videos were shot when adam was 13 months.. it seems like he really enjoyed doing his chores... hope this will last for the next 50 years the least :p enjoy the videos..

Video 1



Video 2



Video 3

My little 'giant'

A day before we went back to Terengganu, I brought Adam and his bibik to Jusco Bkt Raja. I just wanted to buy a few things for Adam's birthday party. Adam behaved so well and sat quietly in his stroller. Even when I wanted to take him out of his stroller, he refused and tried to buckle back the harness.

As a gift for such a good behaviour (actually he was very sleepy), I treated him with a ride. When I first put him in the car, he turned and bang the steering to make the car move but to no avail. My maid and I was already laughing our heart out then. Being the kind mom I am, I inserted some coins to switch the car on. Here is some footage of him when the car started to move..



He just sit still! He must be scared of the moving car.. It was so funny to see his curious face wondering what has just happened to the car.. After the car stopped, this is what he did...



Mommy miss you!