76 Months

76 months of Yaya! [[image:2014-yaya76month-01.jpg:Bloooooooooooood:center:0]]  * Mouse over the pictures for captions OK since it is almost January as I sit to write this entry, I feel like I can barely remember what November was like. It was busy. We spent two weeks in Tampa, Florida (including another quick Clearwater Beach getaway), then it was Thanksgiving and we had a houseguest and went to Elkhart, Indiana. So it was a busy busy month. Reading status: no change. Still the same. We are still trying to gently encourage her. She does like it when we read to her. It will come together for her, inshallah. Food status: Yaya tried a few more things in November. This includes:* croissants (she’d tried this before but for breakfast at the Hilton Clearwater Beach, she ate them like crazy, dipped in butter)* fresh juiced orange juice (Becky has a juicer and Yaya helped prepare the […]

Continue reading

Halloween 2014 Spooktacular

So since dressing up in costumes is one of Yaya’s favorite things to do, Halloween is something she has been looking forward to for a while. Despite the non-candy-eating child that she is, she loves to go trick or treating and we often play “trick-or-treat” games at home. So here are our Halloween photos! [[image:2014_halloween_15.jpg:Jack-o-lantern says Boo!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions This entry is organized into three sections: 1. Trying out costumes2. Let’s carve a pumpkin!3. Trick or treat! So we begin with trying out costumes. The plan was to have Adik wear Yaya’s old Tiny Pteranodon costume from 2011. Yaya wanted to be a witch. So we are trying the costumes: [[image:2014_halloween_01.jpg:Yaya Witch watches Adik Pteranodon flap his wings:center:0]] [[image:2014_halloween_17.jpg:Yaya Witch complete with broomstick, Adik Pteranodon’s head is starting to fall off:center:0]] [[image:2014_halloween_18.jpg:Happy Yaya while Adik fiddles with his costume:center:0]] So then Adik said enough and […]

Continue reading

Clearwater Beach – October 2014

We spent a short weekend at Clearwater Beach in mid-October. It was quiet, relaxing and warm. Just the perfect beach vacation. We were here in March for almost a week but I totally did not have time to blog about it. We had lots of fun then though. It is fortunate that my current project is in Tampa so it was only an hour’s drive to Clearwater Beach. [[image:2014_octclearwater_01.jpg:Me and the kids are watching pelicans divebomb for fish at sunset:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions This entry will mostly be beach photos with few remarks. I miss the warm and the sunshine as I’m sitting here writing this in Ohio (in December!). Ah well. We arrived on Friday evening and went straight to the beach to enjoy the water and the sunset. [[image:2014_octclearwater_02.jpg:Pelican on a pole:center:0]] [[image:2014_octclearwater_18.jpg:Look how clear the water is:center:0]] [[image:2014_octclearwater_19.jpg:Running and playing:center:0]] [[image:2014_octclearwater_20.jpg:Adik embraces the […]

Continue reading

Rafe’s 34 Month Birthday

Two more months until Adik turns 3! He is now at his 34th month! Whee! [[image:2014-adik34month-01.jpg:Adik loves the Nutella jar!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Adik’s reading skills just seem to keep improving. He is retaining words and recognizing them again. He is also able to approximate the sounds of words that he is not familiar with by looking at the letters. We are constantly amazed by the words that he knows. He loves reading the names of the authors and titles of my books, for instance, and so it did amuse me when he read “The Causal Angel” by “Hannu Rajaniemi” with no issues when I pulled it out of the amazon box. Speech-wise, Adik continues to speak in complete sentences and is more and more expressing his own ideas. He now joins in our conversations about the dreams we had at night (sometimes what he says […]

Continue reading

75 Months

75 months of the girl! [[image:2014-yaya75month-09.jpg:Yaya smiles in the shadows and light:center:0]]  * Mouse over the pictures for captions October has been pretty action packed. We have been back and forth to and from the new gig (Tampa, Florida) twice in October, and everyone is pretty much travel weary by now. But Yaya and the Adik have done well, despite all the carting around. We managed a weekend getaway to the beach (more later), Vin attended a wedding and we saw some friends, and of course there was Halloween. Busy month all around. In the food status section, Yaya has also had an action filled month of trying new foods! She tried: * Superman flavored ice-cream (red / yellow / blue kind of berry or tutti frutti sort of flavor)* Blueberry pie (she liked mostly the filling but was surprisingly not fond of the crust)* Fresh Blueberry (she did not […]

Continue reading
On the platform

Cave of Dramatic Lighting

We visited Gua Kelam yesterday. Gua Kelam is officially translated as “Cave of Darkness” at the plaques we saw at the site. The cave is a tunnel that runs through a limestone hill for about 350 metres. Here are is photojournal of our visit. It had been a wet weekend with rainfall every day, aptly putting the “rain” in rainforest. Water was dripping from the leaves and roots and vines of the foliage above the entrance to the cave. In the 19th and early 20th century, Gua Kelam used to be a passage for tin miners to transport their ore from the mines to their staging area. According to the plaque, many miners perished during heavy rains when the river flooded the cave. The walkway that traversed the entire length of the cave began at the entrance. At first Irfan hesitated at the thought of travelling on a wooden walkway […]

Continue reading

14th Anniversary

It’s been 14 years since we got married. Since then, through shifting soil, moving goalposts, storms of ablative particulates and a deluge of fish entrails, Ain has been an excellent partner, wife and mother to our son. 14 is not a big number, but we thought we’d celebrate surviving this radioactive wasteland for another year. I love Ain so strongly that Hawking radiation is being emitted on the surface of the singularity of our sordid story. We went to a restaurant that we had been to several times which served delicious food. However, the food did not live up to its delectable precursors. But that, I suppose, is no excuse not to enjoy the night. [[image:anniversary-2014-01.jpg:Irfan and Ain:center:0]] [[image:anniversary-2014-02.jpg:Irfan’s chicken chop:center:0]] [[image:anniversary-2014-03.jpg:Irfan takes a photo:center:0]] Here’s hoping for a much better year next year. I’ve heard myself say this every year for the last 20 years. 20 years of saying […]

Continue reading
KLCC Aidiladha 03 2014

Aidiladha at KLCC

Monday was a carry over holiday for Raya Haji which fell on a clear sunny Sunday. A trip into town would be nice, we thought. It was too far for the car to reach the Bandar Utama region, so we drove somewhere closer: Kuala Lumpur City Centre which was not too far away by car, via the AKLEH elevated highway. It even has a dedicated exit into its underground car park. Despite it being situated relatively close, we do not visit the Suria KLCC mall all that often. Things appeared as they usually do in the mall. Irfan mapped out the door infrared sensor area at the department store. Who knows it might be useful some day. Our lunch were takeaway boxes from Cold Storage. Ain had the nasi goreng. Irfan and I had a slice of pizza each. We ate in the shadow of the towers. Meanwhile, the new […]

Continue reading
Visitors

Aidiladha at the Tenth Floor

Another year, another Aidiladha spent in Kuala Lumpur. There was no balik kampung because of insufficient resources. So yesterday we tried to make the best of it. In the morning, we went for Solat Aidiladha at the Pandan Indah mosque. This morning, for some reason the khatib was not firing all engines. Perhaps he was exhausted. Then it was time for salam hari raya between ourselves. First, Irfan salam and kissed Ain. Followed by the same with me, after which, Ain started cooking some nasi lemak in anticipation of impending visitors. In the afternoon, Irfan’s school friend Fikree and his family, as well as his cousins Aiman and Zara, came a-visiting. Apart from savouring the nasi lemak, Irfan, Fikree and Aiman played some Tsuro while Star Wars Rebels was playing on television. Even young Zara was intrigued by the game. Since boardgaming was pretty fun, the crew moved on to […]

Continue reading

Rafe’s 33 Month Birthday

We are 3 months away from Adik’s third birthday. 33 months old! 2.75 years old! [[image:2014-adik33month-12.jpg:My beautiful baby boy:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Adik just loves to read. He is obsessed with the written word. He knows most of the Arabic letters now and reads English easily at a first grade level I think. He loves to read the names of the authors of the books that Vin and I are reading, and also the titles. He enjoys being read to but he mostly does the reading so really, he’s reading to us. But he likes the company and guidance. His book tastes run from actual simple story books (he does not seem to follow the plots of the novels that Yaya and I are reading, for example, although he does know the names of the characters and some of the scenes) to board books, and flap […]

Continue reading

Circus!

So we took the kids to the Ringing Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the Nutter Center! [[image:2014_circus20.jpg:Tickets:center:0]] As it turned out it was also Vin’s first time at the circus. I remember when Hisham and I went when we were children – it was an Indian circus I think, and they would camp at that big field that is now a supermarket of some sort. Or perhaps houses. It was close enough that we could even walk there and avoid the hassle of finding parking, etc. from our house. I remember our Tok and Opah Pasir Panjang (paternal grandparents from Pasir Panjang) also went with us. It was the first time I rode an elephant, at the circus back then. Anyways, I absolutely enjoyed it as a child and was very glad to be able to take Yaya and Adik to the circus too! One of the highlights […]

Continue reading

74 Months

74 months of Yaya! [[image:2014-yaya74month-07.jpg:Let’s make funny faces!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions September had its quiet and un-quiet moments. Vin had to go away for a few days to attend a funeral, leaving me and the kids home alone for the first time. Then we had to go to Tampa, Florida for the new project. All in all, it was a good month, albeit exhausting at the end of the month. In the food status section, Yaya ate a couple of new things:* lime-ade popsicle* sno-cone (blue) at the circus Oh yeah, we took the kids to the circus! It was fun. More on that later. Reading status: still the same. The switch has yet to turn on completely so we just have to keep on keeping on. Yaya still is very into doing artwork and enjoying art in all different media. She still enjoys being read […]

Continue reading
12th Birthday Boy

A Birthday Once More

It’s Irfan’s 12th birthday. We were supposed to set something up for him, like allowing him to invite his friends over. But because of low resources, we had to cancel. But Cikma and Ayah Cik The Younger came with a cake anyway, so we held a small gathering. I was not even in the right frame of mind to take photographs so we do not have photos of the cake. The GOKL group did pass the gift they bought for Irfan, which was the boardgame Tsuro. I did however take a picture of Irfan unboxing and playing Tsuro. We love you Irfan. It’s been a rough year what with – among others – the UPSR fiasco and the absolute unreliability of this country’s education system at this point in time, but we will strive for a better year for you next year. Also, many thanks to everyone who wished him […]

Continue reading

Rafe’s 32 Month Birthday

32 months old now! Only four months (less than that, given the actual date I’m writing this entry) until the boy is three years old! [[image:2014-adik32month-02.jpg:Love this big smile:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions As mentioned before, August was a quiet month where I worked from home and finished out a contract. It was a good month in that we got a lot of family togetherness. Adik continues to develop into a beautiful little reader. He asks us what a word is that he sees (in a book, on TV, on a billboard, on the computer) if he doesn’t know it. We help him to read it and he will usually remember it for the next time. He is also showing a lot of interest in the flash cards that Zarin brought for them. So he knows almost all the Arabic letters now, and keeps bringing me the […]

Continue reading

73 Months

73 months old now! Please don’t mind the belatedness (and backdated-ness) of the entry. [[image:2014-yaya73month-04.jpg:Happy Yaya!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions August was a quiet month again – I worked from home the entire time and there was very little drama, etc. We did have Yaya’s birthday party (10 August) so that was definitely fun. A small affair with neighbors and family. Many of the pictures from this month will be related to the party and the presents that came for Yaya from near and far (what a lucky little girl). Also we went to an Eid gathering which was super fun. Let’s get to the usual monthly roundup. Food status: some more progress: * lemonade (from the farmer’s market)* lemonade (made at home – judged to be inferior to farmer’s market lemonade as I am apparently stingy with the sugar syrup)* 14 slices of carrot in one […]

Continue reading

Rafe’s 31 Month Birthday

And the boy is 31 months old! [[image:2014-adik31month-11.jpg:Happy boy:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Like Yaya’s 6th birthday, we were in Minneapolis for Adik’s 31-month birthday. It has definitely been a busy and social month, despite it being Ramadan and me being in between projects (or unemployed) for almost 3 weeks. Adik is happily reading away, and his recognition of words is just amazing. When we read together, he wants to read to me and not the other way round. He will say “you read it” if he encounters a word that he doesn’t know. Then he will re-read the sentence and say the word again and be very pleased with himself. Chances are, when he comes across this word again later, he will recognize it. I think he is already starting to do what we all do, which is to say, he looks at a word’s beginning […]

Continue reading