Budak Sekolah Berhariraya

This morning, at Huda's school...

Raya 2009 v.1

You can generally figure out who belongs to which family based on the colours of their outfits. But, occasionally, that may not be the case as Adib has shown. And the little boy in maroon in front of me is not my son, hor?

Pictures from Day 1 and Day 2. We took loads but I don't have the patience to upload all the pictures.
This is only the beginning of the Raya season. It will be a loooooooooooooong month filled with visiting and returning visits. It's great meeting up with friends and family.
(But I do not look forward to the ironing of bajukurungs and tudungs and the special delicate washes they require..)

Raya Ready?

1. Hari Raya is a few days away. Unlike previous years, I am almost ready with my Hari Raya preparations. There are still a few things to be done. Like putting up curtains and cleaning the windows and grilles and window sills.

I cleaned one window + grilles & sills just now and the main culprit who goes around dirtying the area is, of course, the lizard. I sprayed the entire area liberally with lizard repellant. Hopefully, it will keep away the lizards and their excrement for a few weeks, at least.

I also intend to move all of Huda's toys from the living room to her bedroom. I'm not too sure if this is a brilliant move because her toys will then be accessible when she's supposed to sleep. Hmm..

2. Hari Raya cooking - I've always thought of the massive cooking session on Hari Raya eve a bit wasteful if I were to do it. The Husband and I will be out visiting the elders and feasting at their houses on the first day so what's the point of cooking all those food for Hari Raya, right? The fact that my culinary skills is desperately wanting doesn't help either. All this while, I would just help out my mother on the eve of Hari Raya.

But this year, I have this great desire to prepare something. Only one dish, though. Not a banquet, hor. Anyway, we'll see. ;p

3. I still have no bajukurung to wear on the first day of Hari Raya. I dunno when I'm going to Geylang to hunt for bajukurung.

4. Now, I'm waiting for Farah to take her afternoon nap so that I can iron and put up the curtains.

/end of boring stuff

Added on September 18 2009: Getting baju kurung at the last last minute is a bad idea. The ones I like are not available in my size. Never will I do this again.

Everything..

Wah leow eh. After I posted this, I just realised that this entry is very long. I write as a way to get a snapshot of my life (and that of my children) at this point in time. In a few months, things change and I would have forgotten. So, I write. I write for me. (So you shouldn't feel obliged to read. Really.) And I also write because if I don't, I wont know how to speak write in English anymore. Staying at home for so long and not having to speak in proper English, I oredi dunno how to speak English liao. When I try, everything sounds strange. So, I write lor. At least, if cannot speak, can write, good oredi.

 

Farah

1. Farah is such a good eater! She's really unlike *someone we know* who absolutely detests food (other than her mummy's milk) for the first two years of her life. Farah has porridge for lunch and dinner. It is a simple porridge of rice + vegetable + fish. I'm glad I don't have to pore through baby recipe books to figure out what to serve her. It's such a joy to have a child who readily eats what you prepare!

I'm not giving her breakfast yet because she normally does not wake up for milk at night and so I'm terribly engorged in the morning and I want her to finish up the supplies first. But honestly, the other reason is, morning is a rush hour for the household and by the time I'm ready for breakfast with her, it's too close to lunchtime.

2. Farah is getting ready for the crawling stage of her life. She's beginning to lift her body up and she will be on all fours but not covering any distance yet.

3. Unlike in the past when I would read up everything on baby's milestones and when they should achieve what, I am now only vaguely aware of the milestones. I'm only a bit concerned about Farah's weight because she is small-ish. But, she seems healthy (other than the frequent bouts of coughs which doctors have ruled out as just that - coughs) so no cause for concern there. As a mother the second time round, I think I've read up a bit too much during Huda's time and there should be some residual information lying around in me somewhere to carry me through Farah's progress.

 

Huda

4. To be fair, if I talk about Farah, I must talk about Huda also. Even though I've talked about her a lot in the past.  ;p  

The thing about older siblings is, they love their new sibling.

If they have been in the centre of attention for (far) too long, I think, the love they have for their new sibling is like loving a toy: they want the toy; no one else can have the toy. But, if the parents happen to spend too much time with the new toy, they'll do something (not necessarily positive) to divert the attention back at them.

Well, at least that's what I observe about Huda. Heh.

5. Huda is getting extremely creative in getting us (me, mostly) to sleep with her. She is a prime example of what-not-to-do-when-putting-your child-to-sleep. Worry not. We have learnt. And we're not repeating what we did with her with Farah.

For far too long, we have developed a bedtime routine which is unhealthy. To make her sleep, one of us must lie down with her until she falls asleep. By the time we realise that this was no good, more than 3 years have passed. Heh. So, now we are trying to make her fall asleep on her own. But, she keeps on coming up with better excuses.

The most recent one is, 'I'm afraid of helicopters and aeroplanes.' (She's not afraid of ghosts because the only ghosts she knows of is either her uncle or aunty covered in sheets in a dark room - something they do to frighten the kids on Sundays at my mom's.) Anyway, up to 9-ish at night, there are still helicopters flying overhead. Must complain to Mindef liao. Why on earth are there so many helicopters flying over Woodlands? And so, she keeps on coming out of her room to complain about the helicopters. *rolls eyes*

Some of her other interesting stories are - there are lions in the bedroom. To that, her father would just command in an authoritative voice, 'Go away, Lion.' Then the lions were replaced by an assortment of zoo animals - tigers, hippopotamus, elephants.. Her father sent all the animals away. Then, she became a hypochondriac. She complains of aches and pains everywhere. Stomach, foot, arm, head, hair. Yes, hair. How fake an illness can you conjure?

Well, I'm sure she won't run out of ideas anytime soon when it comes to avoiding sleep. I really don't know why she hates sleep so much.

6. Having said all those, I must also add that she's so lovely. She's so helpful when it comes to picking out clothes for Farah. I just have to ask her and she'll start to rummage through the neatly-folded clothes ;p for something for Farah to wear.

She enjoys playing with her friends in school and it's so funny the things she picks up from them. Two weeks ago, she started making shapes with her Lego blocks and then, she'd pick up a sword-like shape and point it at you and she'd go, 'Ben Ten Ali Fork!' I had no idea what she was talking about. I could only guess it had something to do with Ben Ten. When I met my Ben-Ten-loving nephew on Sunday, I asked him whether there's such a command in Ben Ten. He was just as perplexed as I was. Then, I explained to him what Huda did, and enlightenment dawned on him. It's supposed to be, 'Ben Ten, Alien Force!'

 

Weather and Everything Else

6. Don't you think the weather has been extremely cool of late? So cold that my toes are almost frozen. Soon, my ears will get frostbitten if I don't start wearing earmuffs.

Because I'm so free, I checked out the normal weather pattern in Singapore and August is supposed to be similar to June and July - which means hot hot hot.

But, really, I'm not complaining. I hardly need to switch on the fan these days. Saving electricity there means I can spend more time on the computer without leaving a bigger carbon footprint. (Oh sure.)

7. Talking about computer, the games on facebook are really vile. They are always developing new things to pull you deeper and deeper into facebook. I think I'm going to be addicted to Scrabble for a long, long time. When I first played it, I didn't really enjoy it because I prefer having the tiles in my hands to move around so I can see what words I can form. But the electronic version grows on you, I guess.

8. I was sick yesterday with a terrible migraine. Haven't had one in years and it was the only time in a long time when I actually wanted medicated oil. I blame it on a lack of sleep. The lack of sleep was due to my mind being too active even though the body desperately wants to shut down. I had the same problem when I was on my first round of unpaid leave in 2007. And now I'm facing the same problem again. Sigh. The solution is really not that difficult. Find something which I'm just so lousy at and then study that topic like crazy. Chemistry comes to mind. Then, sign up to take Chemistry at O Level. I'm about to break into crazy laughter. Chemistry? Oh, stop joking! (Wait til I tell my story of cation and anion..)

The point of this point is, because I was terribly sick, I didn't use the computer for the entire day yesterday. My Mafia Wars energy bar was up to almost 400. Not that anyone but Dianah would know what I'm talking about. :p

9. Hari Raya is coming and this time round, I'm actually getting the major cleaning done slowly but surely!! The thing which I'm extremely lazy about is the windows. I hate hate hate cleaning windows. More than I hate ironing.

I plan to bake only one type of cookie - chocolate chip, of course. And in all likeliness, I'll eat everything myself. Way before the first guests come.

10. Talking about eating - I knew that the fasting month will do something to my tummy. Reducing the waistline is not a problem for me. Simply cutting out the rubbish food is enough. And it's not all that difficult for me because I crave for junk food mostly in the day. At night, I hardly get chocolate cravings.

But, the problem is the bottoms and thighs. Big big sigh. No matter how much junk food I cut out, once they have expanded, they don't shrink. Never. They just remain that way. Forever. Despite all the thigh-slimming pants I wear. Maybe liposuction is what I need. Kidding lah. Well, for now, at least.

Okay. Sleepy oredi.

If you've read up to here and you are still awake, congratulations. You are an insomniac. Nothing will make you fall asleep. Not even long, rambling entries about nothing.