Stick it right

29th June 2010

As we mentioned in the previous post, our parents bought for Safiya and I sticker books for us to play with.

As for myself, the sticker books require reading and understanding the instructions - which sticker to go at which page and so on. According to mummy, this is a good way for me to pratice my reading skills and I am proud to say that I can "solve" the clues on my own (the dinosaur names are difficult to pronounce though!).

For Safiya, her sticker book is actually a story book with pictures on it. It is easier to figure out since shadows are provided on the pages so that Safiya can match the sticker to the right shadow.

A good activity for young, creative and curious minds like ours!

My small birthday party

27th June 2010


Last night, daddy and mummy decided to hold a small celebration for my birthday. The real party had been delayed because we want to wait until NiniBoy and the rest of Lumut family come back from Singapore. For last night, we only invited Nini laki, Nini Bini, Machar & family and bungsu Hazim for a family dinner.

Of course, before anything, prayers was read by daddy.

I also took pictures with my beloved sister and cousin for something to remember the event by. Such lovely pictures!

After the prayers, it was time for dinner. Mummy was the chef last night. We had steamboat with two types of soup - chicken soup and tom yam soup. Yummmyyy!!!

Since Nini Bini's birthday was three days before mine, we had two birthday cakes last night.

After a satisfying dinner, I was the happiest since it was present unwrapping time! Here are pictures of my presents this year.

A six-in-one movies-based sticker book from my lovely parents :)

Dinosaur sticker books from Safiya and baby Safwan

From Nini Laki and Nini Bini

From bungsu Hazim


And my biggest present to date was given by Machar and family. It's like a dream come true for me to now have a car racing track. Of course, it comes in small parts, and it took about close to an hour for daddy and mummy to assemble them together. Thank you Machar!

It doesn't end there. In the afternoon today, cousin Nazrah and her mummy came over to give my birthday present. It's a Hummer remote controlled car.

The best thing about our family is that nobody felt left out. Nini bini also bought Safiya, Safwan and our cousin, Eyah presents too. Safiya was happy as well that mummy bought for her a sticker book of one of her favourite "princess" characters. We'll post pictures of us playing with the sticker books soon.

Shirts from Nini Bini for Safiya and baby Safwan

Off to Singapore

26th June 2010 (Part II)

Wow... what a birthday present it would have been to fly to Singapore!

Hehehe... Sadly, it's not us who are going on vacation. Actually, last night cousin [Lizam] and his parents as well as [Mama Usu] decided to sleep over. They had a flight to catch this morning at 9 am and making an early morning journey from Lumut would definitely be difficult, especially with a toddler involved. As such, this morning, Safiya and I together with daddy sent them to the airport. It was fortunate that there was no heavy traffic jam and they managed to catch the flight in time.

Before leaving our house, daddy and mummy prepared some breakfast for our guests. We had porridge with condiments, bread and steamed sweet corn. Lizam looked really cute munching up his corn - closing his eyes at every bite he took! Hehehe...

To Warya family, Mama Usu, NiniBoy and NiniGal, hope you guys have a great time in Singapore - not to mention your upcoming visit to the newly opened Universal Studios. Hope that we will go there sometime in the future too!

6 years old

26th June 2010

Syafi is 6 years old today!

Happy birthday Nini Bini

23rd June 2010

Happy 59th birthday to our one and only
Nini Bini

"Semoga dipanjangkan umur, sihat sejahtera, murah rezeki dan sentiasa menyayangi kami semua"

Love always from your grandchildren
Syafi, Safiya & Safwan
WE LOVE YOU NINI BINI!

***************************************
(New addition at 8.30 pm)

So what did we do today? Here's what...

Since we knew that nini bini always visits baby Safwan during the day, we decided to give her birthday present during lunch time. Daddy was home today (he got a sick leave from the doctor) and made a special request that nini bini cook her delicious fish head curry. We think that on her birthday, nini bini would love to do the thing she loves the most - cooking!

I decorated the envelope while Safiya scribbled inside the card. She drew caricatures of nini bini together with nini laki, and us - their three grandchildren.

This year, the birthday present for nini bini is...

A batik hand-painted fabric in nini bini's favourite colour - green! We also heard that nini bini received a microwave oven as her gift from Machar and family.

Below is a picture of the curry. Nini brought some home in the afternoon and we are glad that Machar and family got to taste it too.

ICT know how

22nd June 2010 (Part II)

At this modern time, it's almost necessary that everyone is trained to make use of all the new technologies around - especially computer skills. As for myself, I have started playing with the computer since I was about 3 years of age. Currently, I also learn ICT at school and I can now use other applications, not only computer games!

As for Safiya, she has just begun learning, and mummy decided that the first skill for her to learn is how to use and control the cursor using a mouse. It was really fun looking at how Safiya's small fingers move the mouse around, and especially so when looking at her face - really concentrating and trying her best doing it.

To show my skill using MS Word, I made a simple Father's Day card for daddy. I still have a hard time remembering where the letters are on the keyboard but I managed to finish up my sentences. Mummy then helped me with the touch up process. I'm really proud of my work and daddy was very happy to receive the card.

A challenging morning

22nd June 2010

Talk about a hectic start to the day!

This morning, daddy had to leave early for work, and as such it was mummy's turn to send us to school. The perfect time to leave the house is at 7 in the morning, so that we can reach school at 7.30 when our classroom doors open. However, mummy was frustrated with my decision to go to the toilet and do my "morning business" at the last minute - just minutes before 7, and she was even more annoyed by the fact that I spent 15 minutes in there!

Anyway, we finally started our journey and mummy drove a bit faster than normal to make up for the lost time. As soon as we reach the highway, we came to a halt. There was a heavy traffic jam. Safiya and I wondered what was going on but mummy told us that she was sure there was something going on since traffic is normally smooth flowing.

She was right. Soon after, the DJ on the radio announced that there was a 5 car collision at the vicinity of the Empire Hotel exit. A detour wasn't on the list since mummy said that other roads would be congested as well at that hour. The accident scene was about 2 kilometers ahead from where we were, but believe it or not, it took us about 45 minutes to get through.

To make things worse, while we were stuck on the road Safiya started whining. Apparently nature calls - she needed to go to the toilet to do her "number 2"! She repeatedly asked mummy to drive faster but there was nowhere to go. Mummy asked Safiya to put on her pull-up nappy (which was in her school bag) but Safiya was adamant to wait until we reach school. Imagine holding it in for 45 minutes!

And it gets worse. Out of the blue, Safiya complained about her stuffed nose. Mummy put a hand towel at her nose and suddenly Safiya threw up. Thanks to the towel, there was no huge spill in the car.

At around 8.25, we finally reached school. I helped mummy carry Safiya's library bag and water bottle as we hurried to the classroom. Outside my class, we were greeted by my assistant teacher - she was late too due to the traffic jam. After sending me, mummy rushed to the toilet - Safiya really needed to go and she needed a shirt change too. Mummy also had to clean up her sleeve which was soiled.

Poor mummy, she arrived late for work too, but thankfully it was understood by her senior officer and colleagues.

Now that's what we call a challenging morning!

Similar but not the same

20th June 2010

Before anything, a big shout out to all fathers

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

Okay... We probably have mentioned before that baby Safwan is a true resemblance of myself (Syafi) when I was about the same age as he is now. However, as he grows, we now see a little difference. Safwan's face seems to be less round as mine was, and his eyelashes are really long. Another difference is that Safwan has long finger tips (in Malay we say "jari runcing") while mine is round. But one thing remains the same - we both have dimples on our cheeks! Hehehe...

(Pictures 2 and 4 are of Syafi)

Fighting Rotavirus

19th June 2010 (Part II)

In the morning today, daddy and mummy brought baby Safwan to JPMC for his doctor's appointment. At the age of three months, our parents had scheduled for an oral vaccine against [Rotavirus]. It's not part of the vaccination package that we mentioned before but is an add-on costing B$90 per dose. The second (and last) dose will be given at 4 months of age.

While waiting for their turn to see the doctor, Safwan showed off his skill "holding" his feeding bottle. Everytime he feeds, he likes to try hold his bottle on his own and wouldn't let go until he is full. It's funny though that every time daddy snaps a photo, Safwan loses his grip. Good effort though, baby brother!

At his weigh-in, Safwan gained a good 1 kilogram within a month. The doctor said that Safwan's current weight is slightly above average but we shouldn't be worried. After all, Safwan is still exclusively breastfed without any formula.

When it was time to administer the oral drops, Safwan was a bit hesitant. Thankfully, it all went in and no drop was wasted.

Hopefully mummy and daddy won't have the sad experience again when I had a viral infection a few years ago during our short stay in Holland. It must have been scary having a baby vomiting and having diarrhea at the same time.