Alis Nadeera and Erin Safiyya..

Both were coming from the same womb, different by only 2 years apart but their personalities are like sky and earth. Alis is more reserved, shy and passive especially at her current age while Erin is active, cheerful and bubbly. I just can't wait for number 3's arrival to see which sister's she will resemble. Ahhhh yes, I haven't spill the bean yet haven't I? We're expecting another princess in August. Lovely.. My husband will soon have another lady to spoil, another all-about-pinky phase all over again he he he...

Anyway, not that I meant to compare because it is occurred to me that percaturan Allah is very fair, indeed He is  the wisest and best planner. He made Alis looked exactly like me but having my husband's personality more while Erin's with my husband's face while having character of mine. You know, kepohhh kecohh liddat ha ha ha.. It kept the balance in the family.. If things got too serious, Erin is there to spark things up and while things got too noisy beyond control, Alis is always there to spread the calmness.. They made a good team, working the same way hubby and me worked things up regardless our differences. Sort of.. Well, nothing different from how any other families out there functioning, I liked to believe so.

Out of many differences I've yet to noticed, I realized two very obvious, crystal clear things between those two that separate them far apart. One is the way of thinking and another one is their interest. 

Alis is sooo into arts and she's very good at it. I'm not pretty sure though where she got that artistic trait, probably from my father because my he likes drawing and can draw quite well. She even representing her class in art contest recently. Nothing attract her more than drawings, paintings and such and that's how she spent most of her free time lately, drawing and painting or making anything artsy. Erin on the other hand, loves anything related to music and entertainment, without a doubt, she got it from my father in law.

As how their hobby and interest were different, so did their way of thinking. Alis is usually logical, by the rules and books on most time, observant and predictable. Erin is opposite of all the above. She is spontaneous, does things always her way without a care in the world and surprised us most of the times. 

Let me show you in pictures form on how they can be similar yet sooo different... 

P/s : I'm not boasting or anything here. Mak bapak memang akan nampak anak sendiri pandai and cute kann regardless of what... Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. So please take this post as light reading and a mere sharing between parents or feel free to judge. Not that I care much :)

:: My eldest ::

:: This is common view during every free time, be it after school or during weekends. She always have 'project' on hands. School related or not. If she doesn't have any art homework she will assigned herself her own project. She loves to makes present for us, her teachers and friends herself. Some of the outcome she came out with is really amazing and way beyond my simple minded imagination. My only wish these days is to dedicate a corner and turn it into her proper little art workshop, complete with drawing easel, suitable table, papers and art supplies, everything she need so she can pour her ideas better. May we can make it realize soon, Insya Allah ::

:: This is what she's been working on in above pictures. She usually draw a 2D photo but it seems that 2D is too ordinary for her liking. Therefore she decided to went up another notch by producing 3D flowers instead. She asked me how to make a flower stands a day before and I uncooperative-ly told her that she need a sponge for that matters and we need to get it from flower shop bla bla bla. The next day, she came up with this idea, all by herself !! Gosh I felt like one bad mummyyy :( ::

:: Amazing isn't it? She even made the grass stands ! ::

:: Back view ::

:: Came back from school at the end of the weeks, on Thursday to be exact, and said she need to submit a solar system in any form by next Sunday. We decided to make a poster so I googled a solar system image and picked the one we liked most, and easiest, to my opinion. When I was just about to do the thinking on how we should execute the poster, you know what material we need to use, she already started cutting mineral water boxes!! And as can be seen, the final product of Alis's solar system. All I did was helping with touch up and some simple writing. The one with liquid paper on the black background part coz she can't handled the liquid paper very well. The one using black marker was done by herself. Quite impressive isn't it?  for a 6 years old ! ::

:: This portrait was done by her quite sometime ago but I don't think I ever posted it here. My first self portrait ever, from my eldest point of view ::

:: She learnt about farm at school at one time, came back and immediately working on this picture. I failed to detect dari mana de kutil bunga matahari tuh! ::

:: Drew this within 5 minutes before sleep and presented it as a little gift to her class teacher the next day ::

Recently, they learned about plant at school and a story book that related to plant is Jack and The Bean Stalk. They have been discussing about the story the whole week and they were even requested to bring a pot of plant to school to which they will have to water it everyday and watch it grows. Apart from all that, they also encouraged to bring something related to Jack and the Bean Stalk to share with their class mates by end of the week. Honestly, if it was me, I will just asked my parents to buy me a story book then but clearly, I wasn't Alis. She decided to made her own story book. What she did was, she searched the story from youtube via iPad and copied it line to line, words to words.. For once, I am really grateful that we got her iPad and iPod caused it's finally served it's purpose.

 

Below are compilation of some of her latest works that I managed to captured.. The theme this time is flower and trust me, she drew each and everyone of it free handed! No tekap tekap involved. If you find it hard to believe, trust me I even made her swear that she did it free hand-ly, and not copied from somewhere else ha ha ha. I even asked her to do it all over again and she did just as the previous picture before my eyes so okaylah mummy believe you, now go draw somemore kahkahkah..

:: This is one of Alis's daily activities. Sorry la eh malas nak rotate. Some wrong spellings here and there. Even mummy doing her work pun masuk diary ni ape cerita? Ni diary untuk cikgu ke report nak anta ke papa? ::

And this is Erin's attempt to copy Alis's journal. She asked me to spell word by word as she wrote it. 

1) We are playing - so far so good.. 

2) Her original sentence she wish to write : We are already skype with Papa and Nenek!.. Hurmm let see, We ade extra E, E in Are looked more like C, Y in Already terpisah jauh ke bawah nampak nyer and Nenek is missing a K. She blamed in on not enough space. That's right dik, memangggggg buku yang salah. I asked her to read out again what she just wrote, and she read it like this. 

We Are Already Skype Razmady and Nenek!! 

-__-

"Betul la tuh! Papa kan memang nama Razmady", she answered when I asked her why she read Papa as Razmady.. I am utterly defenseless and speechless. 

Ikut suke mu la dikkkk....

Another example on how different their way of thinking that led to their actions..

They were given the same sheets, the same set of crayons and the same instructions but how come the result is tad too different???

See see see see.... Alis managed to get almost all the words right while Erin's, ermmmmmmmm says who we have to always follow the rules?

If you don't get what she was trying to do, let me help you. Instead of searching for the words as the rule goes, she decided to connect the same letters. Easier that way what?? Ha ha ha...

Last but not least, succumbed to her role as soon-to-be big sis of two, Alis decided to take charge. If you must know, the girls have started sleeping permanently in their own room for the past 2 weeks alhamdullilah and Alis have started to perform solat starting from her 7th birthday, albeit inconsistent. It's okay as I liked her to take things in her own pace. 

Own room hence own rules. I found this note selotape-d on the wall while tidying their room. 

Obviously all 8 rules were meant for both of them but apparently, Erin 's one and only contribution is Rules Number Six. 

Can't agree more.. Her forte, definitely her forte!!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ... Good one Kakak but guess what? Now I have to teach Alis that sarcasm is not a very good value!

Nonetheless, I had a good laugh :)

Alis turned 7 yesterday. Hubby at Madinah still, so obviously no birthday dinner whatsoever. Any celebration plan will have to wait till Papa comes back. However, it is such a pity and I will left feeling all guilty if I didn't prepare anything for her. So I prepared her home made chocolate cake and cooked for her, her favorite food, Lontong as a surprise. Surprise because I told her the night before when I tucked her to bed that we will get her a cake only after Papa's back a day after her birthday so she wasn't expecting any cake on her birthday, from the way I see it. However, I did prepare goodie bags to be taken to school for all her classmates and she's quite happy and satisfied with it.

The card I created consists of her pictures collage since baby till recent and this is my birthday wish for her to accompany the card.

"Another year for you dear daughter.. Alhamdullilah.. 

May you grow smarter, prettier, mature, cleverer and wiser 

with every passing year, Insya Allah"

Planning to make a cake is easy, the execution is not! 

I am not good at baking, at all. Cooking is different story all together from baking. With cooking, you can adjust to add or lessen the ingredients, depends on your liking and taste bud. No fix measurement.. With baking, you had no choice but to follow the exact measurement, right temperature, correct ingredients and accurate technique to make it works. And it is not helping when I don't own any stand mixer or hand mixer, which is pretty essential in almost all cake recipe. The only utensils I owned that usable in baking is a whisk and spatula that I don't even remember I had for quite a while.

Call me ambitious but as long as I can put a smile on my girl's face, anything is worth to try. However, I do have a plan. I'll do the baking early in the morning just after they left for school. So based on my calculations, should my cake turned into disaster, I still have window of 1 hour or so to run to nearest bakeries and get her another cake ha ha ha. This is my first time baking a 'serious' cake from scratch, with decorating and all. 

Therefore.. Bismillah hirrahmannirahim.... It's do or die..

:: Cake checked! Candles checked! Simple decorations is clearly done by a very amateur baker but heyyy I tried my best okayyyy. The thought that counts! ::

:: Honestly, the texture is still not up to my expectation. Alhamdulillah nonetheless. What more can I say, for a first trial, I couldn't ask for a better result he he he ::

:: Happy daughters all smiling, checked! ::

:: Lontong, if you didn't know already ::

Among many perks being pregnant is that you'll usually get what you feel like eating. Either people around you will pour all efforts to prepare or find it for you or you yourself will use all your will to find it or even cook it yourself. My craving was not that severe which means I'd still sleep fine even if I couldn't have it but it will remained in my mind till I get a hold of it.

On separate note but still on pregnancy bit, I noticed few differences between this pregnancy compared to before...

I can't live without coffee or nescafe.

I have strong urge to have ice cream EVERYDAY!

I craved for kuih kuih kampung like nobody else. This is peculiar because I never really like kuih kuih traditional before especially the sweet and sticky type but now, I craved for bingka ubi, kuih koci, pengat pisang and whatnot..

Okay, moving on.... below are few craves of mine that I managed to prepare or get someone else to prepare for me he he he... Geez I was blessed with so many good people around me

:: Nahhh I don't crave for sandwich. This is one of my girls's lunch box, since it's already in the folder, might as well  just upload it. Egg Mayo & PBJ sandwich ::

:: Nasi Minyak Hujan Panas, Ayam Masak Merah & Acar. I saw a friend, Ija, uploaded the pic in her FB and immediately hooked. Made this a day after ::

:: Mee goreng basah ::

:: Bendi goreng cili. I purposely cut the bendi in that manners because I was particularly craving for nasi kandar and mamak food. Although, usually bendi in mamak shop was fried with turmeric and mustard seed but takperlah, dpt potong rupa macam tu pun jadi lah ::

:: My utmost favorite bun is red bean bun. I usually bought mine from The Bread Story. Unfortunately, I can't find any red bean bun here so far so I had to make them myself. This is my second try though. My first dough did not rise at all due to bad yeast. I had to seek opinion from a friend of what to do with the dough and she suggested that I made roti goreng instead. A successful Plan B indeed ::

:: 1/2 kg flour produced quite a lot after divided into small portions so I made a few types of bread. This one is cheese bun ::

:: Sausage bun for the girls. Excused my so ugly shape bun. I am so un-talented in this department ::

:: My red bean bun yeayyyyy.. I don't know how to make the one like at Bread Story so let's stick to simpler  style to be safe ::

:: End result. Not that bad ehhh ?? Therefore I declared my bun project a success *kibas rambut*

: My neighbor was not well so I helped to baby sit her 3 kids since she need to go to clinic. So all in all, I got 5 kids in the house, 2 of them was sick as well. Chaotic! I was running from living hall to kitchen, monitoring them and tending to the bun at the same time. Explained the gigantic size of the bun. It will be nicer and more appealing should the bun in smaller size  reckon. Nonetheless, looks can be deceiving heheh... It tasted alright after all ::

:: Mine.. oh chentaaa ::

:: I finished 10 pieces in one seating I swear. Nuff said! ::

:: I was yearning for my mom's asam pedas ikan pari but I don't have both, neither my mom nor ikan pari here! How larrr? Actually they do have ikan pari, seasonal but it was different type from the one we had in Malaysia. Ikan pari sini rasa macam ber gas sikit.. Ermm macam rotten pun ye ha ha ha.. Isk tak reti lah explain. Gassy is the closest term I could come up with. So I substitude it with Ikan Kerisi. Extra bendi! ::

:: On the same day, I made this also because I feeling like eating both. Therefore I cooked both konon2 yg tak pedas version is for the girls lahhh... Pindang Ikan Kerisi with bendi ::

:: Kerisi goreng garing.. Not craving for this tapi saje je letak ::

And lastly, Kurma Telor with Kentang...  

It has always been his dream to own a big bike since we were still a college student. But living in Malaysia, even with 2 salaries, we can't afford it what's with 2 growing kids, house that is still on mortgage, 2 cars and high cost of living in KL.

It is a different story altogether here. Not to say that our earning is too much of a different because even if the figure is slightly higher, we still have car loan to pay, ongoing house loan, maintenance and other miscellaneous bill that just did not go away just because we're living abroad. However, I had to admit, we can now afford something little extra than before. We can afford travelling to places, albeit on budget and we also can afford things that I don't even dare to dream of before, Alhamdullillah. 

So, recently, my husband's dreams came true. He purchased his dream bike, albeit second hand and I am giving my full consent and bless because I knew it was from his hard earned money. He deserved it. To make it sweeter, the bike arrived exactly on his birthday.

Anyway, do take note that the cars and motors's prices here is much much cheaper from Malaysia by triple. Fuel is 0.65 cent a litre so it is possible and still considered economical even to own a 6.0 cc vehicle since you don't have to sell your kidney and both arms just to maintain it.  

Having new toy, it is natural that he was fixated to the bike. He kept going down, wiping the bike and belek every inch of it. Sighhhhh, I started to regret giving my approval ha ha ha... Anyway, one evening, he alternately took us for a short ride around our house compound. Since non of us except him own a helmet so short ride it is.

:: Erin was super-psyched and can't kept her enthusiasm to herself. She kept shouting yeayyy, wooooo, wowww along the ride ha ha ha. I can see her as papa's future riding partner in future ::

:: Alis on another hand, always the ladylike in the family so bike isn't really her genre ::

During on of his off day, he asked me if I want to join him for a ride to Nuwaiseeb and I said yes. Given my circumstances right now, there's just not possible for me to join him after August so let's take the opportunity while my butt can still fit on the passenger seat kahkahkah.. So we made our move after the girls left for school, accompanied by another biker's friend, Hairul. Helmet borrowed from Luqman as I don't have my own one yet. 

I tried few jackets and my old brown leather cropped jacket was the one hubby approved of. It's beginning of summer here so it's not chilly anymore but heck it's windy during the ride, plus for safety reason. We put every factor into deciding which jacket is better, like it had to be leather incase anything happen so it can protect my body, plus this leather jacket is the only one that makes me look little like a rider. My other jacket are more suitable to be taken to a mall than on a bike ha ha ha. 

Unfortunately, we forgot to put my before and current size into account. As a result, I couldn't even zipped the jacket no matter how hard I forced it or how hard I tried to hold my breath as there's at least an inch gap between the 2 flaps. And because it was very windy, I had to endure having my back being hit constantly by the flaps and it wasn't really a pleasant feeling. The trip however was joyful and relaxing even though I ended up with cramp and numb butt after an hour ride. Must be occupational hazard! You know from my profession as a pregnant domestic goddess *wink wink wink*

We just strolled from Mangaf heading to Nuwaiseeb and sped a bit after entering the motorway. Our main destination is Starbuck Nuwaiseeb. After enjoying a cup of ice blended coffee and a piece of croissant over light chat, we headed back to Mangaf and that's about it. It is in fact one easy ride and was not meant to be eventful.

I am hugely indebted to that helmet because a pregnant lady riding a big bike is an uncommon view here. Heck even a lady riding a big bike is rare! There fore, we did invite a number of unwanted attention from onlookers. And the full face visor did save my face, like a lot!!! If you notice, I seldom lift up my visor no matter how hot it is. I even wanted to wear the helmet inside Starbuck but the staff and my husband won't approve ha ha ha..

My husband left for his second Umrah last Thursday. The initial plan made last year was we're going together again but Allah has better plan for us. I found about my pregnancy before the visa application opening time. When the visa application is finally open, I was severely sick with morning sickness plus the girls was not on any school holiday, on our plan date. After given much thoughts and discussion, we decided that he should go by himself this time with a group of friends, and I will stay in Kuwait with the girls. I shouldn't get too greedy since I believe everything happen for a reason. If not this year, Insya Allah if I keep praying, Allah will invite me again some other years in future. 

:: His umrah's group of four travelling by road. They left around 3pm, just about time Alis arrived from school so I was really glad she could at least have a chance to say goodbye ::

Thank to technology's advancement nowadays, even though we were apart by thousand kilometres, we were never short of updates given there's an internet line available. Below are series of pictures sent by him through his journey to Mecca apart from constant smses and whatsapps.

:: At Miqat Qarnul Manazil ::

 :: Subhanallah. I had lump in my throat when he sent me this ::

:: Jabal Rahmah ::

:: Abang Haji he he he ::

Case in point, they're still at Mecca and will only left to Madinah tomorrow (3rd April). May Allah protect their health, journey, istiqamah and may their deeds be realized. 

Anyway, moving on to something related to my husband's going for umrah. 

Erin is indeed closer to me compared to my husband in many aspects. She would want only me to wake him up for school, help her taking shower or preparing her school's uniform and such. Must be because mother's and father's touch is definitely way different. I am more of a softie especially when it comes to waking her up because I am a sleeper myself so I would drenched the idea of being shaken from my sleep and waking up to loud firm voice calling out my name from the back of the door. Instead I prefer soft warm touch, massage on my back and my head. Exactly like how my father would do us every morning for school and that's exactly how I treat Erin and Alis every morning.

Anyhow, in terms of melayan her antics, I had to gave up and give my husband a credit for that as he's the only one who can stand Erin's attitude sometimes. Usually Alis and me chose to ignore when she started being tantrum-y and plain difficult. Therefore, with him leaving, she's suddenly not being herself. Not in a good way or bad way but in a ermm funny and weird way. 

A day after my husband left, miraculously Erin decided to stop using her pacifier. Alhamdullilahhhhh.. She's turning 5 so it was quite an ugly sight actually but I have given up trying to ask her to stop since last year and decided to let her pick her own suitable time. As a result, she being totally extra sensitive out of boredom. She doesn't have papa that she loves to bug and the only one who usually response. She can't turn to her puting anymore so she started picking up on Alis and me for no reason ha ha ha. As usual, we ignored her and let her be.. 

There's this one particular day, around 3 days after my husband left, and 2 days after she dissed her puting, I noticed a note on a mineral water box that I was about to throw away. I guess it's taking toll on her..

:: Definitely her hand writing! ::

The whole day I noticed she prone to play by herself and I caught her doing this..

:: She put her tudung syria on her bear ::

Shortly after that, I saw her play ustazah and conducting an Iqra' class to her one and only student which tudung dah terbarai barai, so I shot a video of her, secretly..

Opppsssss I was caught red handed. Goshhhh she was pissed of at me for taking her video to the point of crying but I can't help but laughing out loud. Then she sulked for good 5 minutes before slowly starting her favorite you tube clip from my desktop and started play rockers....

Disclaimer : Pelaku dalam video ini is not under influence of any drugs whatsoever, not even Panadol Cortal. The closest possible thing she was high on is Snickers. She was not either possessed or under some kind of exorcism. She was not forced to do this, as everything is voluntarily and came from her sane mind. And ohh no animal was harm in the making of this video.

 -__-

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....

'Children have never been very good at listening to their parents, but they never failed to imitate them'

~James Arthur Baldwin!

The question is, I wonder which side of her parent did she imitate now???

Hurmmmmmmmmm......