80 months of Yaya! [[image:2015-yaya80month-13.jpg:I was framed, I say!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions It is mid-May as I write this and so I will keep the chatter brief. March was another busy month where I had my very first taste of having a “real job”. I had to get in my car and drive to work Monday to Friday for 2 weeks. It was both good since I got to be home every day, but also brutal. I am not sure how people do this every day, to be honest! But we all adjusted and it was interesting. But again, we kept it pretty normal for the kids. Food status: Yaya tried Jonathan apples. Whee! [[image:2015-yaya80month-15.jpg:It was not bad, she said:center:0]] Reading status: good progress! The glasses have been a game changer for her. Yaya seems to enjoy reading. I also make her read the synopsis on […]
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TV first
Here are blog posts of things and events that happen at home…
Finally TIme for a Breather and a Kitty
I have not been posting much because life in the last month or so has been very hectic. [[image:bettycat-arrives05.jpg:Betty loves Google+:center:0]] First, I was commissioned to proofread a doctorate student’s thesis from a neighbouring university. The work has – to put it simply – given me the desire to take a Master’s Degree once I’m done with this Bachelor’s Degree in English Studies, and perhaps if the opportunity opens up even a Doctor of Philosophy Degree eventually. What in? I have no idea just yet, but I am looking into Applied Linguistics. Perhaps I could integrate tabletop gaming into it somehow. Secondly, I began writing the assignment papers for this semester, which should be my final semester in this Bachelor of English Studies programme. I spent all weekends reading and writing for these assignments. Although some of them are freeform writing requiring no reading, most of them required me to […]
Continue readingRafe – 38 Months
Here are Adik’s 38-month photos. [[image:2015-adik38month-05.jpg:My happy little boy:center:0]] Mouse over the picture for captions. So, when I mentioned in last month’s entry that we were moving to the smaller entry, I really meant it. Especially since I am writing this so late it is practically April. So let’s stick with the basics. Food status: still good. However still can’t get him to eat fruits, although I get to sneak vegetables in via fried noodle dishes and spring rolls. Reading status: Adik is even reading words in other languages now. He can attempt to read his Malaysian flash cards (courtesy of Uncle Zarin, thanks, yo!). And he is very interested in languages, asking about words in different languages and whatnot. He still prefers shorter books over the longer ones. Even though he can read the words he doesn’t want to grasp with plot lines and character development yet. He wants […]
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An Unexpected Guest: The Wet Sprocket
Upon returning home from Pasir Mas to pay our last respects to Irfan’s Nyang, we discovered that the house had an unexpected guest. It was a big katak puru that took refuge among the old laundry causing Ain to scream out loud when it jumped after being startled. Ain and the local fauna appear to love to startle each other at the same time. It attempted to flee deeper into where the glassware was stored, but Irfan and I boxed it in, literally. Soon, the toad was released out to the recently-harvested bendang. Where I assume he lived happily ever after.
Continue reading79 Months
79 months of Yaya! [[image:2015-yaya79month-02.jpg:Peekaboo!:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions February was another crazy busy month. I traveled (without Vin and the kids) 2 out of the 4 weeks of the month. In fact, I’m writing this entry so late that it’s almost April now and I’m only just writing the February entry. Since this entry is being written so late, I will keep it brief. Despite the craziness that was my life, Vin and the kids had a pretty quiet month. They got to stay home and be normal, and we all learned how to enjoy FaceTime and cope with time differences and distance. Yaya did very well during my absences, it’s a little sad for me to realize that my little baby girl is growing up and getting independent. She does enjoy the bribes that accompany me (and my suitcase) upon my return from these work […]
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Irfan Gets a Dendrobium
Atok and Opah came to visit for a better part of the week to see Irfan’s first official day in school. They also spent some time with Irfan, visiting some sights in the area. Opah took Irfan to an orchid nursery where she bought for him a white Dendrobium, which I believe is the RX-78GP03 third development model of the Gundam. Now he has a plant to take care of every day and we will learn how green Irfan’s thumb is.
Continue readingRafe’s 36 Month Birthday (And he is 3!)
And so, the boy is now 3 years old! Or as he would say it, “thwee” 🙂 [[image:2014-adik36month-32.jpg:A beautiful smile on my not-so-babyish-anymore baby boy:center:0]] * Mouse over the pictures for captions To be in line with how I did Yaya’s blog entries, this will be the final one of Adik’s entries that document how he spent his day. Instead, from next month onwards, Adik’s entries will be more of a round-up of the month with fewer photos taken from the entire month. I feel a little bit sad as I’m writing this, since this will really be the last one of these kinds of entries, but it is time. Adik is three. We will keep to a shorter format with favorite photos from the month. Like Yaya’s entries are now. Second announcement, I suppose as a way of overcompensating for the fact that this will be the final long […]
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First Entry From The North
Here we are at the northernmost part of the country, over a hundred klicks away from the nearest population centre which could be called a “city”. We live in a kampung, although not in a kampung house. There is a mango orchard less than fifty metres away. Beyond the mango orchard is a rice field. Between that rice field and another one a hundred times bigger than it is a canal with plenty of fish. A far cry from the city. I love the sound of insects at night, the patter of rain on the roof and on leaves of nearby flora, the immediate friendliness of neighbours. I don’t miss city traffic one bit. More to come.
Continue readingHalloween 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 readingRafe’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 reading75 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 […]
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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 […]
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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 readingRafe’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 reading73 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 reading72 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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