Kids

1. Huda is now almost 5 while Farah is almost 2. When both are asleep, I'll always tell TheHusband that our children are just too cute. Sometimes we even take pictures of them when they are asleep so that when they are awake, we'll have proof that they can actually be cute.



2. Food

Farah is at a food-refusal stage. She had a terrible bout of stomach flu and barely ate anything during the episode. All she had was breastmilk and Pediasure. Prior to that, she was on a soft-food diet. That was by choice. For whatever strange reasons, she started rejecting rice and wanted to eat porridge. So, for a couple of weeks, I cooked porridge for her.

Now, she doesn't want any food at all unless we are talking keropok and chocolate. I've resorted to force-feeding and will be satisfied if I manage to stuff 4 spoonfuls of rice into her mouth.

Some mothers tell me that I shouldn't force-feed. The kids will eat when they are hungry. But no, sorry. I must force-feed because if I don't, she'll open the kitchen cabinet doors and help herself to my secret junk food collection (which must now find a new home because it's no longer a secret). And in case you are wondering why she can open the kitchen cabinet doors, that's because she has learnt to work the child-lock that we installed. Grrrrrr. Besides, I have skinny kids. They are underweight (I'm talking 3rd percentile here, not even 25th percentile) and when they fall ill, the weight just slides off so quickly, leaving them with only skin and bones. So, once they are better, I'll try my very best (ie, force-feed, at times) to make them gain back the weight they've lost.

Huda, however, has long outgrown her picky-eater stage. She now eats very well and always insists on vegetables to go with her rice. Yay! (She's still skinny, though. But at least, she's a skinny girl who eats well.)

Huda, Farah and their small cousins (Farouq [on the right] not included in the small category; I've divided all the cousins into 2 groups - the waifish ones and the normal-sized ones)
(From left to right, their age in 2011: 8, 2, 5, 5, 10, 3)

3. Sleep

Huda now prefers to wake up later in the morning. In the past, she would wake up outrageously early but she has now passed that baton to Farah. Farah wakes up very early, poos immediately after she wakes up and has a shower.

Bored to tears because her sidekick is still asleep, she'll join her sister back in bed. But, not to sleep. To disturb, to annoy and to wake her sister up.

Fresh out of the shower and off to perform her morning mission

4. Speech

i.   I don't worry about Farah's speech development the way I used to with Huda. She's doing just fine, talking and talking and talking non-stop and she makes sense most of the times. She can string a sentence involving up to 5 words.

ii.   She has one annoying quirk, though.

She sees a picture in the newspaper and asks, "Mak, apa ni, Mak?" (Mak, what's this, Mak?)

"Ini gambar banjir kat Australia." (This is a picture of a flooded area in Australia.)

"Ah?"

"Banjir." (Flood)

"Ah?"

"Banjir."

"Ah?"

"Banjir."

A thousand of the exact same exchange later, I'll be exasperated and I'll ask her, "Farah, ni apa." (Farah, what's this?)

Nonchalantly, she'll reply, "Jir."

iii.   She tends to only say the last syllable of every word. I told her to say "Tumpang lalu" (excuse me) when she needs to squeeze her way through people. What comes out of her mouth is "Pah lu." But, the gangster way she says "Pah lu", I might as well have taught her to say "Siam! Siam!"

iv.   Oh, there's another quirk of this girl. She has successfully copied my "You, ah." If you are not a Singlish speaker, there is no way I can explain how "You, ah" is used. But I shall try anyway: you must say it in a nasal way and it is used to affectionately reproach someone.

Now, this Farah is using "You, ah" for anybody and in any situation. She wakes up at 2am in the morning, cries for milk. I asked her to ask her father to make her milk. The father goes to the kitchen to heat up water. She follows. And suddenly she smiles and says, "You, ah!"

It doesn't make sense but at least she's not crying.

v.   She no longer calls herself Nunumeh Tan. She knows that her name is Lalah.


5. Clothes

Farah is beginning to make her own choices when it comes to clothes. This is a bit problematic sometimes because she makes strange choices.


For a trip to the library, she insisted on putting on swimming cap and no pants.

Completely unrelated, this is Huda and Cousin Nabilah. They performed at their school's graduation concert.



That will be all for now. I'm gonna get ready for driving lessons with my (younger) sister. Yesterday was my first day on the road and I am just sooooooooooooooooo very slow. And I'm not very sure how I'm gonna park at carparks given that the lines showing the lots are faded. Aiyoooooooohhhhhh.. But I'm going to try and try and try til I am confident of driving alone. (And my sister would have lost her patience with me for the nth time)

Paiseh

I am:

a. shy in person (seriously I am. if you don't think so, that's because you've known me for a long time. but, given a new situation and new people, i enjoy being the wallflower rather than being in the thick of things)
b. in possession of a poor memory
c. sometimes absolutely clueless about people and things
d. not aware how people can remember me when I can barely place them in my life, not because they are insignificant or not important but because of (a), (b) and (c) mentioned above
e. curious (to put it bluntly, kay poh to the max)

This post came about because for the nth time, I met someone who went, "You are Nadirah, right?"

"Errrrr... yeah. And you are?"

"I'm AAA from BBB. Do you remember me?"

By this time, I'll be hard-pressed to recall something, anything about this person but because of (a), (b), (c) and (d) mentioned above, I drew a blank.

So, with this person I just met, we chatted for a while and I asked her more questions about herself and being ever so humble, she replied vaguely. The kay poh in me was not satisfied and I pressed on with my interrogation (oh how I prayed she didn't perceive it as such!) and I still received vague answers.

Today while the kids slept, I decided to google her and ~ oh my goodness ~ we have so many mutual friends between us and I was so clueless about what she has been up to. She has a PhD now and is a professor at a local institute of higher learning. She's also in Berita Harian's list of 50 people to watch. Can I please not embarrass myself like this again in the future? Just stop interrogating people I barely remember and keep the conversation on neutral grounds.

Another time it was a well-known local playwright. When she introduced herself, I thought her name sounded familiar but couldn't quite place it. And as usual, I did my kay poh interrogation; she must have thought that I've had my head buried in the sand all this while. *shakes head*

I'm gonna add a new point to my list of resolutions: Don't ask people I don't know well enough too many questions.

(PS: There's so much I want to write about the kids but the more I delay, the more time I'll need to write and in the end, I just get distracted and not write about them. Must write!)

Anxiety Attack

My driving test is tomorrow and the butterflies are already doing somersaults in my stomach. Urgh. This feeling of extreme nervousness will be my downfall if I do not keep it in check. But, how?? How do I get rid of it?

Last Friday, I waited for my instructor at the driving centre. When I saw all the testers moving to the cars, my stomach just lurched! And it wasn't even me doing the test! Gaaah!

--

When my firstborn, Huda, was just a few months old, I took her to a park where there was a slide no more than 2 metres high. I remember how I felt afraid of going down that slide despite having gone down slides a gazillion times without any fear when I was a kid. I attributed that feeling to old age.

Now that I'm old, little things that never bothered me in the past make me jittery now - looking down from the 20th story of an apartment, going down slides, taking roller coaster rides etc. I guess this is also why my grandmother (who is most of the time lost in her own world thanks to dementia) will wake up from her stupor and rush to my daughter the moment she climbs up the dining chair. Growing older makes you a worrier and you think of all the worst possibilities in any situation. You lose the recklessness and bravado of youth - which would have given you a degree of (over)confidence which in turn will help when taking a driving test.

(Note to my daughters: Once you girls turn 18, I'll herd you off to a driving centre to pick up driving. Don't wait til you become a senior citizen.)

--

So, back to the driving test.

I've been going for lessons daily this past week and I have to admit that I've been driving pretty well. I didn't climb kerbs or even touch them. I parked the car nice and straight. But what does that matter when shaky hands and a muddled head rule the day? Sigh.

I'm hoping for divine intervention. (However, sometimes, when we ask Allah for help, He can always say no because He knows what's better for us - a chauffeur, perhaps?)

I've been performing solat hajat, asking Allah to soothe my nerves, help me pass the test and after passing, make me a good and safe driver who does not cause any harm to people or things. My friend who just passed her test a few months ago told me that she performed the prayer for more than a month prior to her test. She also shared with me a verse from Surah Al-Kahfi that she recited continuously throughout to calm her nerves. She's the same age and she agrees that age is a factor that affects our performance during the test. It's those old nerves at work, I tell you.

Sigh. I am already getting cold feet (and hands) thinking about the test tomorrow. Pray loads for me, everybody!

-

Jan 10

I passed! I did okay at the circuit but after making a boo-boo on the road, I proceeded to make more silly mistakes which prompted the tester to say, "You must improve, ah."

By then I thought I was a goner. I just hunched my shoulders and hung my head low thinking that I will have to repeat this entire saga again in 2 months.

So, imagine my surprise when I passed. :D

Alhamdulillah.