Safwan 11 months old today

15th February 2011

Safwan is 11 months old today. He has now started to baby-talk more frequently, and can already differentiate the names of different people: daddy, mama, baba (for abang - brother in Malay), tata (for kaka - big sister in Brunei Malay), nini (grandparents) and auntie, referring to his nanny. He likes to play with remotes and puts phones straight away to his ear.

As always, he smiles and laughs a lot. He has also started to take baby steps and soon he'll be walking around. His favourite game is peek-a-boo and he's also fond of being chased.

One dilemma though, we still can't figure out whether he resembles mummy or daddy. As he grows, he looks more distinctive and different from both Safiya and myself when we were babies.

Now below are pictures of mummy during her early days. A quality that we're sure of that Safwan (all three of us actually) inherits from mummy is his wide forehead. Elders say that it's a sign of intelligence, and we certainly hope so!

Of course what's important is that our baby brother is growing up well, healthy and happy. A month to go before baby Safwan's birthday! Yipppeee!

Magic in our home

13th February 2011

Last night, lots of people gather at our home for the sole purpose of celebrating cousin Syahmi's 2nd birthday. Mummy and daddy were only in charge of providing the venue, whilst Syahmi's parents take care of everything else (of course with the help of other family members as well).

After the night was over, only then mummy realised that she didn't take lots of pictures of the event... not even the birthday cake! Hehehe... perhaps she was a bit tired after a whole day at work. Thankfully, food and drinks was provided by our infamous caterer - our grandparents - through their expanding [catering] business.

The highlight of the celebration last night was a magic show. It was entertaining for kids and adults alike, although some adults might not be that impressed, especially after seeing magicians' secrets being revealed on tv! Hehehe... Even in the pictures below, you can see some peeking over the magician's shoulder! Having said that, it was impressive for an aged man to have successfully pulled off his tricks in front of a live audience.

Happy birthday Syahmi, and the most special present for you is yet to come in April. We know that you will enjoy every minute being a big brother.

P/S: We heard that another cousin is coming in October. Congrats!

Kaka Eyah's birthday party

3rd February 2011

Last Sunday, our beloved cousin, Basyeerah or as we call her, Kaka Eyah, celebrated her 5th birthday at her home in Kg Agau Pengkalan Batu. Kaka Eyah looked pretty and sweet in her purple dress with her long hair let down with just a touch of some hairclips to show her cute face.

Her cake was no less impressive. It was purple and blue - her favourite colour - with a mermaid "sitting" nicely on top.

Kaka Eyah received lots of presents. Actually, she had celebrated her birthday the day before at her school, but she was patient and didn't unwrap the gifts from her friends until the next day.

Happy 5th birthday Kaka Eyah, we wish you a wonderful year filled with love and happiness from all of us around you!

Syafi and Safiya in wonderland

29th January 2011

We spent our Saturday with daddy today. The RTB Media Carnival 2011 is being held at the International Convention Centre and we heard that they have interesting displays there. The original plan was for us to go there with mummy during her lunch break but mummy had only a little time. This is due to mummy's new commitment as a part-time lecturer and her class starts at 1.30 pm every Saturday.

Anyway, we then went to the carnival with daddy alone and it was no less fun getting to spend quality time with him. Frankly, he's busy on weekdays and spending the weekend with him more or less makes up for the lost time when he's not around.

Coming back to the carnival, we are very amazed with what was in store for us. I think lots of visitors agree that the "Once upon a time" displays were enchanting! We had the chance to experience being Alice in Wonderland, right here in Brunei!

Congratulations to RTB for hosting a successful event. As for our fellow blog readers, enjoy these pictures:

Cupcakes, anyone?

28th January 2011

Here is an easy recipe for great-tasting fluffy cupcakes:
(Courtesy of Azli Razali)

Ingredients:
250gm butter
240 gm caster sugar
240gm self-raising flour
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence

Directions:
Beat butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Put in a few drops of imitation vanilla essence (not too much as it leaves a bitter aftertaste) and mix well. Put in eggs alternately with flour. Bake in a preheated 180 deg C oven until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the centre.

This recipe is actually for a cake but mummy bake them in cups instead and added some raisins as requested by daddy. Delicious and easy to make!

"Makan lagi!"

23rd January 2011

Hehehe... Food again! Our cousins Adam and Sasya and their parents (we call them wawa) was away on vacation to London since last week and arrived back today. Understanding that the travellers must be tired and hungry, we invited them over for lunch, together with Ngangah who was in charge of their pick up from the airport.

Daddy was the chef today and he prepared two dishes; lau si fun and yong tau foo.

Cousin Nazrah didn't want to smile for the camera. Her exact words were "Ani mulutku panuh ah"

P/S: Thank you wawa for the souvenirs and hope you enjoyed the lunch...

Unplanned but successful

22nd January 2011

We had a special dinner just a few hours ago although it was unplanned. Daddy went to the fish market in the afternoon and as a coincidence, nini laki, nini bini and bungsu Hazim came by to drop our maid who had been helping them out to entertain a [catering] reservation yesterday. Nini bini brought some dishes as well for us that she had already cooked beforehand.

In addition to that, nini bini was also excited to pick some lamiding leaves - a fern-like plant that grows wild at the edge of our land - and wanted to cook them as well. As such, the dinner table was set and we had lots of varieties of food to enjoy.

On top of that, we had ambuyat too. We are proud to say that our parents have now mastered the skill of making ambuyat and their teamwork usually ends up in "deliciousness". Hehe!

Our dishes ~ from the top; fried "geronggong", salted fish in coconut milk (gulai lemak ikan masin), sayur pakis, sayur batang pisang and last but not least, the freshly-picked lamiding. Not in the pictures are udang galah rebus, ikan rebus, sayur bayam and Malaysian-style sayur lodeh.

Superheroes on a mission

21st January 2011

It was an interesting school day today. JIS Junior School hosted a "Superhero Week" in celebration of welcoming [Alan Gibbons], an award winning children's books author who came all the way from the UK for our Bookweek, 2011.

The climax of the week was today when all children were allowed to come to school dressed in superhero costumes. We were also invited to create our own superhero costumes ~ which we didn't manage to do. Nevertheless, we still had lots of fun! Just look at these pictures!

Safiya created her own superhero cape, mask and belt in class yesterday with the help of her lovely teachers.

I had lots of choice but finally declined the temptations to become Superman or Ben 10 and became Batman instead (Hahaha... I know, since when did Batman wear grey, right?) Safiya was adamant to wear her "Supergirl" costume with the addition of her self-made belt and mask.

Painting

9th January 2011

We have been nagging mummy for the past few weeks that she buy painting utensils for us. At last, our wish was granted on one condition; that we only paint when either mummy or daddy is around to monitor us. Hehehe... if we were left all alone, we might finish all the water colours in one go!

Thank you mummy!

Bruneians start the new year with the welcoming of a new princess

7th January 2011

~ Photo courtesy of [infofoto] ~

As was reported all over the news, we would humbly present our congratulatory message to His Royal Highness Paduka Seri Pengiran Muda Mahkota Pengiran Muda Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah (the Crown Prince) and Her Royal Highness Paduka Seri Pengiran Anak Isteri Pengiran Anak Sarah on the birth of a princess

Her Royal Highness Pengiran Anak Muneerah Madhul Bolkiah
born on Sunday, 2nd January 2011.

We would also like to express sincere congratulations to the family of nini Pg Hj Salleh Ab Rahaman on this occasion.