Semalat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri and Eid Mubarak from the ol’ hometown. From the our household, who are spending the Eid at Irfan’s Atok and Opah’s place. We drove home from KL at 2am. Everyone except Ayah Cik, Cik Dik, Yaya and Adik! Whom we all miss. Lumut promenade at the waterfront was all lit up and filled with merry makers and street vendors. Irfan met Qayyum and they talked about the Transformers. They also saw Transformers the Movie. The last day before we left, there was a gathering of old ACS schoolmates at Nazri’s house. I met old friends I’ve not seen in more than 25 years! We casted off early for our journey back toward KL at 3am.
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On top of spaghetti all covered with cheese
A list of our family’s adventures through this simulated universe. Strangely, this is represented by several methods. Firstly, my thoughts in words and then a host of two-dimensional images configured for the human visible spectrum. Finally the blog itself as a medium of information. Also, sometimes there is cake.
72 Months (a.k.a the sixth birthday!)
And so the girl is now six years old! 72 months old! Hurrah!! [[image:2014-yaya72month-33.jpg:My big six-year-old:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Apparently we are feast or famine type people. After the end of June (and the end of my contract), a month where we did not do anything at all – did not go anywhere or do anything much – July has been very very active and social. I had a 20-day break before the start of my next contract, and since it was Ramadhan and the days were ridiculously long, you would have thought that we would have just holed up and done nothing. Nope, we were not going to waste the beautiful summer days where I didn’t have to work! We had a trip to Elkhart to see Becky and her family, and my next contract dictated that we be in Minneapolis on July 21st. So […]
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Iftar at Some Place Fancy
We rarely ate out for iftar this year. So we thought we’d go to the Kluang Station restaurant before Ramadhan was over. The Kluang Station restaurant was nearby and not in Kluang; though I’ve been to the Kluang Station restaurant in Kluang. Ain headed there after work to get some groceries. Irfan and I rendezvoused with her there after Maghrib for dinner after breaking our fast first. It took a while for the special iftar buffet to end before we could order ala carte. I got some seafood broth and Ain had nasi lemak. Irfan had a burger. Irfan loved that burger.
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Iftar at Irfan’s School
Irfan’s school raised enough money to build a dedicated surau not just for the students and staff, but is open for the public. We attended its opening ceremony which also had Maghrib, Isha’ and Tarawikh prayers. The school principle was on hand with the PTA president to commemorate the event with a plaque. There was a tazkirah by an uztadh from Al Hijrah TV station. For iftar, we broke fast with some dates, then we performed Maghrib prayers before having a meal. After that it was time for Isha’, Tarawikh and Witr prayers. The surau is a comfortable sanctuary, which Irfan has used for Zuhur prayers before coming home after school during Ramadhan. Hope he uses it a lot more before the end of the school year.
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The Blasphemous Bookcase at the 10th Floor
The bookcase was getting messier and messier. So Ain thought it was time for a bookcase cleaning. I helped, but I also took some photos. All these books below were all over the place. I thought this clean-up would be a good time to put them all together on one shelf. Maybe I’ll call it the Legends shelf. *snerk* Here are more photos of the selection of novels we have on the shelves. Some of these books I bought myself, but more than 60% of these belongs to Sila, which she bought during or just after college. She brought back home loads for me to read. I have yet to read them all. Also, most of her books are back in our home library in Sitiawan and not with me. This is a Vancian book, this is: Also, I found Deborah Teramis Christian’s book buried in the old piles of […]
Continue readingRafe’s 30 Month Birthday
Adik is two and a half! 30 months old! Happy half birthday, little boy! [[image:2014-adik30month-02.jpg:Innocent and a little amused:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions As stated in Yaya’s 71 month entry, June was a very quiet month where I just worked to finish out my contract. So we didn’t have many adventures outside the house. Adik however is just growing fast. He sight reads so many words now. He can at least approximate the words based on letter sounds but he doesn’t seem to have to work at it. It seems to come naturally to him to see the letters, make sense of it and just read the word. He seems to have stopped asking how to spell words and just going straight to reading them. He just keeps surprising us with all this reading. He recognizes and reads words that seem to not be part of a […]
Continue reading71 Months
71 months! One more month and the girl is six years old! How amazing is that? Where does the time go? [[image:2014-yaya71month-02.jpg:My baby girl:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Where May was a very social and filled with travel month, June was quite the opposite. We sat at home while I worked like crazy to finish out my project and deliverables on time (30 June 2014). So I haven’t actually even done any of the extra entries from May and truth be told, am already crazy late for this entry (despite currently being in a period of unemployment for a few weeks in July). It seems I need to have proper deadlines to get anything accomplished. All that is just to say that we didn’t do very much in June, didn’t go anywhere, didn’t see anyone. So the pictures are pretty quiet ones. That said, there has been […]
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We Keep Going Back To Sungai Congkak
…probably because it’s the picnic spot in the woods that’s closest to us. Still we needed to drive over the hills to reach it. It was Irfan’s school holidays, so Atok and Opah came over for a visit. Sunday morning we went for a picnic. Instead of more pictures of us dipping in the river or having nasi lemak, here follows photos of the surrounding environment. Here are some trees and a gazebo. Someone stat the gazebo. Here are some trees and running water. More water runs through here. Then a challenger appears! We had a great time under the cooling trees and in the even more cooling river. Atok took lots of photos and Opah scored some wild orchids for her garden which she found growing on trees. We’re sure Alya and Rafe would enjoy dipping in Sungai Congkak when they visit in the future.
Continue readingRafe’s 29 Month Birthday
Adik is twenty-nine months old! [[image:2014-adik29month-20.jpg:Sitting in the grass, enjoying the sunshine:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions What can we say about the boy this month? He seems to just be growing up too quickly! Speech status: Full sentences, singing proper lyrics to songs (more properly than I do), and starting to branch out into other languages. He loves to sing the Alif-ba-ta song that Yaya found on YouTube (super cute video!) and he actually pays attention and gets the names of the letters correct (more so than his sister who glosses over some of the letters in the middle of the song). Adik loves the new flashcards that their Uncle Zarin brought them – flashcards for arabic letters as well as Malay-English / English-Malay vocabulary words. In fact, he started carrying around the letter “mim” and seems to quite like it. So I’m trying to step up […]
Continue reading70 Months
And Yaya is now 70 months old! Two more months before the big S-I-X! [[image:2014-yaya70month-05.jpg:Demure young lady:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions It has been an eventful and social month. Really beginning from being on the east coast in April for two weeks where we saw work friends and relatives. Zarin stayed with us for almost 10 days in May (see pictures of that visit in another entry to be written later), and then we went on vacation to Orange Beach and New Orleans (separate blog entries for those as well). Food status: some exciting news! Yaya ate seven disc-shaped pieces of carrot (chewed, swallowed, and enjoyed!). She also tried celery, but did not like it. She also ate bits of apple (not a resounding success like the carrot pieces were). So we are pleased! Yaya has earned some new toys/games now! Reading status: still the same. She […]
Continue readingRafe’s 28 Month Birthday
28 months old! [[image:2014-adik28month-24.jpg:Yaya is holding my eaw!:center:0]] Caveat: this entry (for April) was written in June. Thank goodness for backdated entries! Also, we kind of forgot to take pictures of the boy to document his day any of those days in April. So this month’s entry will be a roundup of my favorite pictures taken in the last month. * Mouse over the pictures for captions Speech status: Still advanced. He is expressing ideas in full sentences, and is very obsessed with AC/DC’s TNT. I know. So appropriate for a two year old. 😉 Bedtimes: back to a better schedule of going to bed between 9:30-10 PM with no naps. If he does accidentally get in a nap, the bedtime is definitely pushed back almost two hours, despite it only being a 30-minute nap. So from my point of view (being the one who has to get him to […]
Continue reading69 Months
Here are the 69 month photos! [[image:2014-yaya69month-10.jpg:Yaya and her mouse:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions So here’s the deal. This entry was written practically in June. So I will try to be brief and let the photos speak for themselves. Food status: no change. Nothing new was consumed in April. Reading status: same as last month. But we had a busy month of April, being out in Pennsylvania for two weeks. We also saw family during the Easter weekend. Let’s get to the pictures! Here are some of Yaya at play: [[image:2014-yaya69month-01.jpg:Playing outside:center:0]] [[image:2014-yaya69month-02.jpg:Playing inside:center:0]] [[image:2014-yaya69month-04.jpg:Blowing bubbles at Aunt Joan’s:center:0]] [[image:2014-yaya69month-05.jpg:Dying easter eggs with cousins Barb and Claire:center:0]] [[image:2014-yaya69month-12.jpg:First Easter egg hunt for the kids:center:0]] In Pennsylvania, we got to see Melissa and went out to dinner with her a few times: [[image:2014-yaya69month-03.jpg:Love this shot!:center:0]] Also some shots of the kids having fun at the new ducky hotel: […]
Continue readingRafe’s 27 Month Birthday
Twenty-seven months old now! [[image:2014-adik27month-03.jpg:Ooo-chak! Peekaboo!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for comments Speech status: There is nothing this child can’t say. He does have trouble with Malay or Spanish though, but English, he’s good. He speaks in full sentences. He does, adorably, sound like Ming Ming saying his Ls and Rs exactly like she does. Is this a symptom of watching too much Wonder Pets during my pregnancy? Perhaps. I love how he says “Bradley” (the name of his stuffed bearcat). It ends up being “Byadyey”. For whatever reason, this just makes me laugh and laugh. He is also learning to introduce himself. “Hi, my name’s Adik” (or sometimes Rafiq or Rafe). Shakes hands. He also loves pretending we have different names. “Mama, your name Siwa?” I say Yes, Adik. My name is Sila. He says “Not! MY name is Siwa!” And he laughs at his own joke, and […]
Continue reading68 Months
68 months now! Five and 2/3 years old! Whee! [[image:2014-yaya68month-13.jpg:Chuffed about something!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Food status: nothing new. She is still eating our homemade bread. I am thinking I should talk to her pediatrician and perhaps sneak in some vitamins in powder form (hopefully some kind of no-taste thingy) into the bread. We will see. We were on the road for two weeks out of the past month so while on the road, Yaya subsisted on circle toast (cinnamon raisin english muffins), green chips (Lay’s Sour Cream n Onion potato chips) and milk. Some mornings she ate bagels. Sometimes she ate pizza. But she ate so much circle toast that she did confess to missing Mama’s bread at home. 🙂 Reading status: same as last month. Still progressing. However, my friend Amy posted this article that made me feel much better. Yaya cannot sit still […]
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Yaya’s Super Frog
Yaya drew a super hero of her own design for Sila’s birthday earlier in the year. I prettied it up some more for her.
Continue readingRafe’s 26 Month Birthday
And now the boy is twenty-six months old! [[image:2014-adik26month-23.jpg:Happily gnoming on goldfish crackers:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions Speech status: as with last month, Adik is very verbal and loves to use his words. Here are some of his (and my) favorite phrases this past month* I don’t KNOW!!!* Oh my goodness! He has also been obsessed with Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” which he sings to (with or without piano accompaniment, youtube or mikes). He listened to this song enough times that he knows most of the words to it (which is more than I can say for myself). He also loves “Hey Soul Sister” by Train. It is very funny when he breaks into song apropo of nothing. The boy loves his youtube music videos. He has also taken a shine to classic rock – AC/DC and Queen. It’s really funny to see him dance and sing […]
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