Happy Birthday Daddy!

1st November 2011

Daddy is 34 years old today!

Happy birthday to you!
Although you are now thousands of miles away,
Always remember that we love you very much
and we are proud to have you as our dad.

Hugs and kisses from
Syafi, Safiya, Safwan & Syifa

Signs of joy and happiness

31st October 2011

At only a few days old, baby Syifa has already shown us that she will grow up to be healthy and happy, just like her brothers and sister. She can already smile when engaged in a conversation and also when she's asleep. Mummy managed to take a few shots of her smiling and she definitely looks pretty. She is also a heavy sleeper (as expected!) and is easy going.

Daddy off to Holland

29th October 2011 (Part II)

In the evening today, daddy boarded a plane to Singapore in order to catch his connecting flight to the Netherlands. Daddy will spend the next few days in Rijswijk, Den Haag to attend a course and will be home again next Saturday. This is the reason why our parents decided to induce the delivery of our baby sister a few days ago, since mummy didn't want to go into labour without daddy by her side. See you in a week, daddy!

Our baby sister has a name

29th October 2011 (Part I)

After much thought and discussion, today we have finally decided on the name of our new baby sister. From today onwards, we shall call her...

Syifa Hana Amani

It's Arabic, which translates to [cure/healing, happiness, wishes/aspirations]

The baby is finally here

26th October 2011

With gratitude and happiness, it is our pleasure to inform all of you that mummy has safely given birth to the latest member of our family this morning at 6.37 am, with the birth weight of 3.36 kg. It's a girl!

Thank you to doctors, midwives, nurses and staff at Jerudong Park Medical Center (JPMC) for all the help and support in making the delivery and recovery easy and memorable.

Safiya turns five

15th October 2011

Safiya is 5 years old today!

The party will have to wait though. It doesn't seem to be the best idea to invite family and friends with mummy possibly having her baby anytime since she is already full term and ready to deliver. As such, we decided to wait until the baby arrives and then hold a doa selamat both for Safiya as well as our new family member. Oh, can't wait to see the little one!

Anyway, at the last minute, daddy and mummy decided to buy a birthday cake for Safiya. We then headed to our grandparents home and had lunch there. Safiya chose her own cake, purely based on the decorations - a heart shape with two flowers in her favourite colour. We were a bit skeptical about the taste at first since the baker told us it's plain vanilla, but it turned out really nice. The cream in between was also lined with orange filling and the cake was spongy as well.



After tasting the wonderful cake, Safiya showed us her drawing. She definitely had the picture of her cake embedded in her mind since she remembered how it looked like, after only a short glimpse of it at the bakery. She also had some writings on it which took us a while to understand. Can you figure it out?

Okay, the trick is you have to read from the bottom up. It says:

"(This) ees mi kak (is my cake). I love my cake. Hape (happy) bfda (birthday) Iman"

Quite impressive for a 5 year old who had just started learning how to sound, read and write words!


Safiya then received her present from Nini Bini. Big smiles all the way home!

Local fruits are in season

10th October 2011

Local fruits lovers are definitely looking forward to this. It looks like the supply of local fruits will be in abundance soon. Rambutans, tarap, kembayau, membangan and others will soon fill up the fruit markets, we're sure of that.

The first fruit that we taste this year from our grandparents' orchard is the durian which is also dubbed as the king of fruits. We know that some people cannot stand the smell (and taste probably), but this is definitely among our favourites. There are lots of varieties of durian, and the one that we ate was of the Monthong family, originally brought in from Thailand.

And wait until you see Borneo's unique kinds... our durian come in different colours as well. The flesh come in yellow, orange and even reddish in colour. For those who dislike the strong smell of durian, you probably will like "durian polo" which is also yellow in colour and tastes sweet but minus the smell. We'll post pictures of the different kinds of durian next time if we have the chance.

Sleepy bowling

1st October 2011

Question:

Do you know what happens when a toddler plays while feeling sleepy? This!

We really thought it was funny when Safwan was busy testing out his bowling skills and suddenly went to bed all by himself... still with the ball in his hand. Cute, right?

Chicken pox "on the loose"

16th September 2011

During this festive season, visiting family and friends is definitely one of the main activities. Unfortunately for us, that had to be limited. The reason - chicken pox. Safiya got infected about a week ago and is now almost completely healed. Unfortunately, it's Safwan's turn at the moment. Thankfully, both my siblings did not have any fever and only complain about the itching and a bit of pain when the lesions burst. One good thing coming out from this - my parents won't have to worry about any of us having chicken pox anymore!

Openhouse for Malaysian visitors

3rd September 2011

This year, our first few days of Hari Raya were a bit busier than usual. Our grandparents had catering reservations to attend to, and at the same time Nini Laki was welcoming a group of visitors from Malaysia who were here to experience celebrating Hari Raya in Brunei. Their main aim definitely was to visit the Sultan's palace (Istana Nurul Iman) since it is open for three days to the public. Who wouldn't want the chance to roam the palace grounds, and meet the monarch and the royal family up close, right?

In support of their intention of experiencing the warmth of Bruneians, mummy had agreed to Nini Laki's suggestion to invite the visitors to our home last night. Nini Bini cooked a lot of Brunei traditional dishes. Unfortunately though, due to limited time, daddy's plan to serve ambuyat had to be cancelled. It would have been a great experience for our guests.

Before the night ended, they performed a zikir or marhaban and kindly presented some gifts to show their appreciation. We surely hope that they bring back home fond memories of the Abode of Peace.