About a Girl

Ayisha is turning 4 in two months. Not long now and she's such a big girl. She goes to the toilet all by herself, no problems. So proud of her. This is after months & months of 'accidentally' poo poo'ing in her undies, mind you. So, go Squeaky go!! 

I like having conversations with her and having girly girly talks like girlfriends do. So much to talk about. Tho sometimes when she's busy doing her own thing, only mummy do the talking lah. She also mumbles a lot - bebel2 to herself then when I asked what she's saying, most of the time she'd answer "I say nothing". Bit sad lah cause I want her to be able to tell me everything! So if at 3 she's already not telling me stuff, then 10 years from now how??

It's funny how when they wanted to talk to you, you keep 'hang on, hang on, later, wait a minute' them. Then when you miss them and craving so much of their attention, they just ignore & give the 'talk to hand, mummy' look. I still feel so guilty sometimes for not giving her more attention, eventhough sometimes I do let Eli cry to tend to Ayisha's needs first. Just have to remember to play and be silly with her lots & lots more times.

I also love getting her opinion on things and find out what she thinks of things. I love how she gets emotional watching some TV shows. Tho sometimes a bit too much. Like the other day I was watching bits & pieces from The Joy Luck Club and there's a scene where the girl was crying outside her house in the rain & the husband left. So she asked what happened & I explained as simple as I can what went wrong. She then suddenly started crying & sobbing, like seriously sad sad cry 'My husband left me too!!!!' Hoih.. Drama drama drama!

Well, every morning is a little drama with Ayisha. This morning I dropped her off to school hoping she'd not cry & carry on after bribing her with a toy yesterday. Of course it didn't work. Didn't you know you're not supposed to bribe your child, woman?!!

Well I thought it might be different this time cause she pinky promised! You know, like Gru in Despicable Me - "ooh yeah, my pinky promises" she would say. Then when I asked why she still cries, even though she pinky promised me, she said;

"My pinky is a bit sad mummy, she wants to go home too that's why." *aaarghhhh*

So yeah, it's coming to May and she still cries when I dropped her off. She's getting more & more dramatic and the cries & screams are getting louder.  Ok, in our defense, she only started in February because we were still in Oz in January and we've been taking her off school quite a lot to go to KL etc so altogether she's probably been in school for less than 2 months.; this month being close to a full month straight that she's in school. But still, tell that to the mums & dads who gave me the "what the what!" stares when they saw me ignoring Ayisha's cries. Haih..

However, everytime I pick her up, she's always so happy and seems to be enjoying her day. The teachers would assure me that she was absolutely fine soon after as well. So, it's not like she's miserable the whole time at school, in which case I would consider stopping sending her.  It's just the early morning drop off that's causing dramas.

The thing is, every morning waking up for school, she's sort of like in auto pilot mode. I would wake her up, put her in the shower, brush her teeth, put her clothes on and all the while she'd have her eyes closed. But she doesn't show any resistance at all. She'd happily cooperate and let me do whatever, even brushing her hair! (yeay!!) So, there was no struggle there. This would continue all the way in the car, obligingly sitting in her carseat, eyes still closed.

And then....

The beast woke up.

When we got there, the sad & frown face appear and when we reach the door, the crying & screaming would start. Luckily I've had practice leaving her all those times in Bali at her Little Stars Playschool. So mummy's kinda like a pro now, just quick hug, no turning back and drive away!

The weird thing is, sending her to school for swimming lessons is a breeze. See the school also does swimming once a week and we have no problems with that at all. When asked why, she'd say;

"Swimming best mummy, school tak best"

She said she likes her teachers & her friends, she simply just doesn't want to go to school and would rather stay home with mummy & Eli. So I don't know. Maybe she's just not a morning person!

Every morning like this mah

After school, ok what...make gingerbread man some more!

Oh well, let's hope things get better next week!

Quick updates on her brother:

1. Yesterday he stood by himself, unsupported for a good 5-10 seconds!! Is he walking soon? Panic attacks!

2. He also knows to turn & swing his body around to go down the stairs. So so cute lah!

we dancing soon, yeah??

Chubby Chubs

Ok, I admit. As much as I wanted to update daily, I just can't do it. I can give a million excuses right now i.e.. me sick, Ayisha sick, daddy sick, my mum sick blablabla but the truth is, whenever I do get a little bit of time on the computer, I consciously (most times I was just unconscious) choose sleep. 

Also, when you blog, u bloghop right, that's part of the fun. So I would find myself catching up on all those blogs I've followed and and and... I just started reading some new blogs like BarelySupermommy & Modg and they're just so so good it's so hard to stop. So how? *sigh* 

So I'm proposing to myself a more realistic goal. At least 1 posting a week. How's that? Let's move on shall we? 

I haven't written about Eli's development much so here goes. Chubs, as Michael lovingly nicknamed him, for obvious reasons, is almost 11 months and is growing up too fast. 

He's really waving now, not graceful at all with hands flapping everywhere but super cute. He's blowing kisses too but you really have to be going/leaving. For real. He won't blow kisses if you're not going anywhere. He's also giving sloppy open mouthed kisses too. If you're lucky you'll get the "mmmm-uaaah" sound. So far, mummy le the only lucky one. Ok, sometimes daddy and kakak too lah. The most special kiss happened on the 31st March (cheh note in diary siap). It was the day that Eli suddenly crawled towards me, climbed on top and planted a big fat 'mmmm-uaaahh' kiss on me!! I felt so very loved & almost cried. 

He laughs & laughs when tickled, when playing peekaboo and when dancing with mummy. I must have some funny moves. But nothing beats him laughing his heart out at Ayisha's antics - be it when she's forcing Eli to sit & watch her do her show, making funny faces or simply walking past him with a little skip & hop & 'Hi Eli!' He'd be squealing from too much excitement. He absolutely adores her. 

"baby brothers love their big sisters ever so much"

He loves rolling around with Ayisha, trying to grab her clothes, hair & anything he can get hold of and hugging her and sometimes biting her. Ayisha would freak out but she's been pretty good at not fighting him back. Just resisting him gently & pushing him away. Most times just using words to get him to stop in her mak nenek/nagging ways. 

Trucks & trains doesn't excite him as much as Dora, Cinderella & other dollies as well as the bottles & dummies that come with playing babies. He loves brushing their hair and would sometimes put the brush up his head, moving his hand up & down. Oh and he also loves making sure every single thing that's on the table or the couch is scattered all over the floor. yeayy! 

When he gets impatient, he'll bite me. Most of the time on my shoulder when I'm carrying him. If only I could do the same when I need something asap! He is noisy & LOUD. Ayisha squeaks & squeaks all through toddlerhood and rarely cries but Eli grunted as a baby & slowly but surely developed all different kinds of loud - noisy humming before sleep, sudden high pitched cry whilst he was asleep, squeals & screams & cries when he's excited, happy or frustrated. All so loudly. Like, embarrassing-mummy loud.  

He's lots more active than Ayisha. He crawls, climbs, tries to walk - with support. Sometimes when he sees Ayisha running he would just let go of whatever it is that he's hanging on to and wanting so much to follow her. Luckily most of the time I was nearby to catch or stop him from falling flat on the floor. He'll then pull my finger & terkedek-kedek would try to catch up with Ayisha. Then he gets impatient and then guess who gets bitten? 

He points a lot with his pointer finger and goes 'tu' or 'der' at everything. Pretty cute but when mummy had to go downstairs to get water in the middle of the night and he starts pointing out the window - so not cool. 

Loads of people said he's Michael Jr but one thing that I would like to point out proudly is that his big teeth (gigi kapak) on the top, comes from me, hokey! Woohoo! 

He's got rhythm. Loves to shake his booty to any sound of music, fast or slow. The thing is, I don't find myself singing nursery rhymes to him as much as I did with Ayisha. Must be the girl-boy thingy. But he looooves it. 

He loves his food, Ayisha's food and everybody else's for that matter. Keropok ikan/fish crackers has to be his favorite snack ever. He's been drinking from a sippy cup like such a big boy and recently he's figured out the joy of sipping from a straw. So he's obsessed with Ayisha's purple straw drink bottle.

Early training for my future driver

NITE NITE EVERYBODY!!

That's What She Said

On mummy's baking skills when I offered to bake her cake for this year's birthday,

"I think it's a little bit tricky for you, Mummy. Let Grandma make the cake ok?"

On what she wanted to be when she grows up,

A: When I grow up, I want to be an astronaut. I will put on my suit and walk on space and ride the spaceship.

Me: Did you learn that at school?

A: No. Lily told me. (you know, her imaginary friend who apparently lives in Japan)

On not wanting to wear her tudung (scarf) to school,

"I like my curly hair, I don't wanna wear tudun. I'll wear it when I'm bigger ok? When I'm 4"

On why she cries when we arrive at school,

"Im a bit shy mummy. And a bit sad cos I miss you so much" (me cry!!!!)

On learning Malay,

"Mummy,  Adoi means sakit (painful). That's what all my friends say when they 're hurt. Like this, ADOI!!" (with hand on her head)

On wanting more chocolates,

"mummy, I'm still hungry. See, my tummy's still grumbling"

On not finishing her meal

"I've had enough. I only have a small tummy"

On not wanting to go up the stairs

"Daddy!! my legs are hurting...help..." (err..like mummy jek)

On cutting her own hair,

"Don't worry mummy, my hair is still boingy. See??" (whilst showing her other bouncy curls in a boing boing movement)

On wanting to go to the toilet,

"Sakit perut! Sakit perut!"/ tummy ache (all the way to the toilet) 

On tidying up after playtime

"Look what you've done little boy!  Such a terrible mess!" (eh, Eli plak..)

On accidentally poo-poo'ing in her pants

"It's ok mummy, it's just an accident.."

On another of our poo-poo conversation,

"Mummy! I did lots of poo poo. A big one. It's the biggest one I've ever seen!!!

by: Miss Anonymous

Read 1 Book a Month..

..at least!!!

 This is one of the things that's on my list. Oh and note-to-self: Ayisha's Princess & Dora books do not count, ok.

Many years ago, when I was actively trying to excel in one of those Multi Level Marketing thingy (hint: A****y), I heard this quote for the first time: 

 “Five years from today, you will be the same person that you are today, except for the books you read and the people you meet.” 

 ..and it has stuck with me. Since then, I have always had it in my to-do list. It started out rather ambitiously with 2 books per week (whoaah!)  especially during those pre-marriage & pre-babies years. But I've never been able to tick them off the list, ever. Last year it was down to 2 books a month. Didn't happen either. *hampeh* So let's hope this year is the year!

Actually, I have my moments with books. Sometimes I can go months without remembering the last book I read and other times I'd find myself reading 3-4 books in a month (ok, this refers to the Twilight series lah..ok ok and 50 Shades..shhhhhh) 

My point - I'm not an avid reader and I'd like to be one. And not just of vampire books & gossip magazines! 

The year started off pretty good. Well, don't we all achieve plenty in  January???  

I actually did manage to finish this book for the 1st month of 2013.  

Image

I got it for Christmas from Michael who knows I'm borderline obsessed with the whole Freemasonry, Illuminati, New World Order, Conspiracy Theories bla bla. So I read it straightaway. 

My review? It was ok. Lots of information on codes and symbols. Too much maybe. Quite informative but none of the conspiracy theories answered, of course. Like are Madonna & Despicable Me part of the Illuminati plans? :p 

Aaaanyways... 

Whilst still in the month of January, I started this book after hearing so many good things about it from so many different people.

My review? Well, can't really say yet because I just picked it up again 1/2 hour ago and the bookmark's still on Chapter 4. But I know it's not because the book is boring or anything like that but rather because we were close to leaving Oz at the time & I was starting to get busy with packing again and have been pretty slack since we got back to Malaysia. *sigh*

By the by, did you notice my very old & dingy bookmark there? I've had it for ages & it's my favourite bookmark in the whole world! The bottom bit got torn  by Ayisha. She was actually trying to be helpful because the plastic bit was already more than half way torn just begging to be ripped off so she pulled it right off. But still, I almost cried. :( The missing bit had a picture of a kitten & a puppy sleeping behind that big book that the dog was leaning against.

Don't worry, we'll still be here when you get back

It was given to me a long time ago when I first left Malaysia to study in Australia and I cried when I turned it over...

see the cute puppy & kitten??

At the bottom it was signed "The cutest for ever, Wa & Limah" my 2 younger sisters that I left behind...

CUTE right?

ps: in case anyone's wondering, no I did not excel and make millions in that MLM thingy. Tee hee :p

Christmas in Sydney - 2012

I'm having a pat-myself-on-the-back moment, -2 postings in 2 days. So far, so good..woohoo!

Christmas was awesome.

Can anyone guess who's Papa Santa this time?

Teehee.....

Ayisha got pampered with lots & lots of presents, as per usual.

This is the dessert spread.



See that sexy looking golden topping, whipped cream filling trifle on the left?

I made that. Yeahaa..

It's banana toffee trifle, recipe taken from Better Homes & Garden. Super easy & crazy delish. I swear to you, EVERYONE loved it.  To date I've made it 4 times and I get the same responses every time. I don't know if I'll ever go back to making my mum's trifle again.

You know what? It's that easy I could tell you right now how to make it. Not to worry about the amount of ingredients whatsoever cos it's totally up to you. Can't go wrong with this one. Ready?

Ingredients (by layer)

1) 6 Crunchie chocolate bars
- or any chocolate bars with honeycomb, chopped into pieces. Save some for topping at the end.

2) 4 bananas
,- sliced & coated with some lemon juice

3) Chopped hazelnuts
- All 4 times I've used almonds cos couldn't find hazelnuts

4) Toffee sauce
- easily found in supermarkets in Oz. In Malaysia, they have this at Tesco. If you can't find toffee sauce, I've made this using caramel sauce and it tasted just as good. You can make it using condensed milk.

5) Whipped cream

6) Rolo chocolates
- or other chocolates with caramel filling inside, chopped

7) Flakes chocolates
- or any other than you can crumble or finely chopped/sliced

8) Sugar
- to make the fancy decorative spun toffee. Apparently it's quite easy to do. I couldn't be bothered so for the one above, I made someone else spun it :p. But it truly does make it look oh-so exquisite.

Method

- Layer 1) -5) twice or more depending on how tall/big your dish is.
- Topped with 6) & 7) and a little bit of 1)
- Drizzle a little bit of 4) on top
- Make it fancy with 8)

After Christmas, the Laidlers went to a holiday house in Minnamurra & stayed there to celebrate the New Year.

This holiday house rocks!!

Behind them the awesome beach house..and its facing...

.. ta-daaa...beach is just right there, taken from the same spot

and of course we needed the pool and the shade!

pool time with Poppy

Eating sand

We love this house so much!!

We celebrated New Year's Eve at the beach house. Well, the others did. I was asleep with Eli. Old, I know. I soo wanted to see the fireworks tho..haih..

The beach house was great and the kids had loads of fun. The only bad thing about our stay there was that almost all of us, kids included, got sick from some kind of stomach bug that caused vomiting & diarrhoea and it seemed to be passed on from one to another throughout our whole stay there. My MIL and I got it the last night we were there and it was just horrible. But other than that, the beach house was absolutely fantastic.

The following week, while Eli & I went visiting my sister & her family in Sunshine Coast, Michael & Ayisha spent some time with the kangaroos at the caravan park.

I haven't been to the caravan park for ages and this was a first time for Ayisha. She was totally loving the whole trailer park living..hehehe

Other times were spent hanging out at Grandma & Poppy's place. It was during these times, at 7 months old, Eli started to, for the 1st time:

- cut his 1st teeth, then the 2nd (now he has 5!)

- getting ticklish everywhere

- eating loads of his firsts including salmon, lamb, avocados, vegemite, grass, hair, magazines and I think, I think,....bits of a cockroach erk...

- giggle & laugh & blowing bubbles

- move himself commando stlye (now he's crawling on his knees, climbing & diving)

- totally get peekaboo

- wave goodbye (he somehow stopped doing that now tho..isk..)

- say DADADDA! (now also kakakakak and mamammama and blablabla :p)

- pull himself up 

..and Ayisha, likes to verangan  (pretend-playing/day-dreaming) a lot!!

And at the end of January, we were off again....

at Sydney airport

..and we haven't been to an airport since. Surprise surprise..:p

My 2013 Is Just Beginning

The 1st quarter of the year has passed and this is the 1st post for 2013. What's been going on? 

A LOT. 

I have no idea what happened. Well ok, I had a little bit of an idea. 

This happened... 

..and this...

..and now there's Keek and OMG I haven't even started on the more important things that's been happening in my life; like Michael and his unbelievable and remarkable work situation, Ayisha's new school and her morning 'no school' battles, Eli's fast growing teeth & sloppy kisses, looking after my ailing mum... 

Even with the Instagrams and WhatsApps and Keek that's been helping me stay in touch with my friends & family even more so than before, I still feel the need to blog. I have so much that I wanted to say that it keeps me awake at night sometimes, I feel like the words should be bursting out of my mouth. 

From petty things like how I don't want Eli to think that I didn't love him as much as Squeaky when he reads this blog because of the lack of progress updates & cute pictures of him! To more serious stuff like things that I experienced & emotions that I went through from looking after my bipolar mum and how it has affected me & us. 

I want to feel close to our family & friends in Australia again, cos I know they sometimes read my blog and I've been so slack at keeping them updated especially with the kids' progress. Then there's all those trips that I said I'd talk about - and because Michael still bugs me about our Paris trip, ergh. 

Then ultimately, what I wanted out of this blog is that I wanted it to drive me to do the things that I wanted to do. 

See, at the start of this year, like any other year, I made a list of things that I wanted to do, achieve, be, have, eat bla bla that I'd like to see some if not all being ticked off the list. 

So for 2013, I thought it would be a great idea to put it OUT THERE in my blog, so that I'd be more motivated to do them. You know, like that Julie & Julia movie where Julie tried to cook all of Julia Child's recipes in a year (and secretly hopes that someone would write a book then a movie about my blog! *verangan verangan*). No, seriously, more like putting it out there to the universe, law of attraction, the Secret kinda deal. I really thought that blogging about them would get me going. 

So one thing that was on the list was: 

To blog EVERYDAY.

 E.V.E.R.Y freaking DAY..errr...that's a pretty big commitment for me. As much as my husband thinks that all I do is watch Ellen and E! being at home, the only peaceful times that I have to be able to even think to write, are very late at night or very early in the morning when everyone's asleep - and this is after I've had my pamper shower (the kind where I get to shampoo AND condition) and had some cream-crackers-dipped-in-hot-tea moments by myself. But see I love my sleep right? So the little time that I have to do so, I so wanted to zzzzzzzz!!! SO it's HARD for me. Then I thought to myself, how did all these other wonderful bloggers get to have a job and be a mum and have a business and bake & cook etc...I should have time to blog too, no? 

Plus if I started to write things every day, I won't need as much time (like tonight!!) to complete a post. So, gotta start somewhere right?? Hence one of the reasons why it took this long to start the 1st post of 2013...haih...no lah, I'm not afraid of commitment..:p 

So what's been happening to us other than WhatsApping with Michael while we're next to each other and filtering my kids' pictures on Instagram to make them cuter? 

After Christmas and since my last post, we stayed another month in Sydney enjoying as much time with family & friends. I went to Sunshine Coast with Eli to visit my sister, Wa, whilst Michael & Ayisha had a wonderful father-daughter bonding time at the caravan with his good friends. We got to catch up with quite a lot of our friends and I had my first girls night out & sleepover after having Eli - drama, drama, drama! (pictures and stories will come in another post!)   

After coming back from Sydney, we've been busy going back & forth JB-KL for Michael's work & family stuff and just only recently we've been settling ourselves in JB, living at my parents' house, to help with my mum - one of the main reasons why we're back here now. More about this later too.

Then somewhere in between, the kids have been sick on & off and ended with me being hospitalised for dehydration - no drama, am all good now. But it did happen exactly on Michael's birthday so yep, I did feel very very bad for him for that. More stories on his birthday celebration later too (Homaigod, how many posts already??)

Michael has been so busy with work it's not funny. We struggled with this in the beginning, what with me being the demanding 'I need me time!' wife and especially with him working from home, I expected him to be able to help me look after the kids (while I watch Giulliana & Bill for a sec, right???) 

But nah, it didn't work that way. He wanted to be able to work uninterrupted and of course I understood that but I just thought that he might not be able to resist Eli when I told him to 'crawl to daddy' for 1 minute. 

Anyways, the good thing about him working from home is that even though he's crazy busy and work late nights, we still get to see him and we still have meals with him and yes, he'd take 5 minutes to jump in puddles with Ayisha and of course he couldn't resist Eli crawling up to him. 

So yes, I am thankful. So very much.

Eli will be a year old in about 2 months' time and Ayisha is turning 4 in less than 3 months. So a LOT has been going on with them. I have their progress written somewhere in my little old school diary, in my phone's Calendar events and in this computer somewhere, I just have to compile them and blog about it!! 

So, insya-Allah, will see you tomorrow my beloved blog.

Christmas Eve 2012

We're back in Oz!!!!

See? This is why we come back for Christmas every year. :p