Hajar and her business

These pictures were taken by my daughter on our way back from her french class....Hajar was slightly cranky after our visit to the Curve [for GUiT hunting (after two weeks of failing to purchase a copy) and to meet our friends with their kids to pass on Dewa concert tickets] only to realise that she wanted to pooh.... This is how she normally poohs (just like her sister!). The last picture shows how satisfied she was thereafter.

Hajar's hectic weekend

Look dad, I'm in denim

Hajar's 2.5 months now and weighing about 5.5 kg. She's fully breast-fed and wifey plans to breast-feed her until she's 2 years old. I salute her and thank her for that for it takes a lot of determination and discipline and most of all - I don't have to wake up at night! (LOL). But seriously, it's for Hajar's well-being!

Hajar had a blast of a time last Sunday....We brought her to the Curve (well it's not her first Mall; she's been to Great Eastern Mall, Ampang Point, KLCC and Pavilion) - Borders in particular and later Ikea for lunch. Being a good-natured baby, our outing was a pleasant one save for the usual antics by Umar (surprisingly Ibraheem was quite good yesterday) - Umar rolled himself down the ramp (the underpass between Ikano and Curve) - yup all the way and usual ran about! The hazards of bringing them out all together! But it was FUN!

Met up with my sister, bil and their son for lunch and later adjourned to see the development where they just bought a house -NICE!

Dropped off the brood except for Hajar and went to a wedding feast (wifey's tukang urut's daughter's wedding). Food was brilliant! And the best part was that it wasn't a buffet meal. Hajar's adventure didn't stop there....- dragged her to wifey's colleague's house to see his baby son (delivered a week after Hajar)....Spent almost two hours there and finally went back home about half six! By that time Hajar was exhausted - and the parents too! : )

Ayat-ayat Cinta

This book came highly recommended by a friend...Went a few times to MPH thereafter only to find that they were all sold out. That heightened my curiosity even more! Finally made my purchase during the month of Ramadhan this year. I started reading the first four chapters and abandoned it as there were other pressing agenda for me. Khadijah finished it within a day!

I resumed reading two days ago, and made good progress today by finishing the second half of the book. I just couldn't put it down (wifey's comment was "Better finish the book soon so that you can concentrate on me more...!" LOL).

I have not read a malay novel for as long as I can remember.Well this one technically is an Indonesian novel but translated to Malay. It received rave reviews and won the Most Favourite Book award in 2005 (in Indonesia)! The underlying theme is of course love - but it covers wide ranging topics of love - God, neighbours, family, friends, teachers etc etc.....religious tolerance and interlaced with abundant of Quranic verses and Hadiths. Go buy it....The last few pages were heart-wrenching...And i shed some tears for fear of God...!

The movie will be out soon, but don't know when.....Meanwhile enjoy this trailer! Thanks Ahmad for recommending! Ya...I left it abandoned for some time!

Well done Ib

School : Assalamu'alaikum.

DoF: Wa'alaikumsalam

School: Is this Ibraheem's Dad?

DoF : Yes ...

School : Just to inform you that Ibraheem is eligible to be admitted to Primary One. In fact he did extremely well considering that he didn't go to our kindie.

DoF : (stumped but smiled from ear to ear...). Owh...

School : Don't forget to come to the book-sale from 10th to 13th December!

That's the teleconversation before lunch today. Mmm..I was stumped as I really thought that admission to Primary One is a matter of right and that the entrance exam the other day was for streaming purposes. Don't tell me that kids who are not up to the mark would be sent to K1? Anyway, I once used to be the super kiasu dad - but only with Khadijah....Even for her entrance exam to Ib's school's predecessor, I bought tonnes of work books (this school uses Singapore syllabus for Maths Science and English) and drilled her for almost two weeks... I got to a point where my blood pressure would shoot up weeks before exams...! She would cry everytime I drilled her for her exams and of course the results came out with briliant colours. I then came to realise that it's all a process and that forceing and drilling are creativity-inhibitors.

Came Yusof's turn, I had to learn to be more relaxed and let the joy of learning to come naturally..Ib didn't have to go through worksheets with me before the exam and I just threw him into the deep end! Some parents may disagree..but that's us.

Well done Ib....We are so proud of you.

Hodgepodge

Ib was hilarious this morning - I was flummoxed and lost for words!

Whilst bathing Hajar this morning, Ib hugged me from behind and the ensuing conversation went on something like this:-

Ib : Dad, why do you have grey hairs?

Dad : Mmm...I suppose I'm old already.

Ib : Old people can have babies? (in a perplexed and naive tone)

Dad : (laughed......). Of course!

We attended Ib's school concert last wednesday night. He was one of the main characters, Atuk (Grandpa) throughout the show with the theme "Our Heritage" which touched, inter alia, the issues of global warming, 3Rs (recycling, reuse and reduce), etc. Scheduled to be held last Sunday, it had to be postponed because the venue was affected with closure of roads in Kuala Lumpur by the police.

During the second scene he forgot some of his lines and had to be prompted by his teacher. In the third scene, he had us all laughing - yes he forgot his lines again but he took off his songkok
and out came his script. Yes he read his lines from the script!

And he graduated from his kindie that evening too receiving a scroll...Primary One next year and he's looking forward to it!

I love this pic taken by Khadijah. It's a self portrait and she definitely has improved in her style of taking pics. And now to enrol her in a proper photography class......

Khadijah surprised us yesterday...She actually made a bag from scratch (see pic above). Her sewing is not bad at all for a first timer. And....she got two orders from her flickr friends. She was inspired by RANtAI Art event which is taking place between 12 to 16th December (read here for details) that she has planned with her friend Aisha to create the brand name "Aku-Streka" for hand-painted t-shirts and has expressed her wish to participate in next year's RANtAI art event...Now she has expanded her merchandise by creating the bags...Keep it up girl!