confessions of a stay-home mum

1. I was born 28 years ago; dad’s an architect and was an active child artist (still paints a bit now) while mum’s the family’s ‘official’ interior decorator and maker of many of my childhood bits of crafty lil bags and other girly things.
2. I’m the middle child, with a sister above me and a younger brother. And as it turns out now, my sister’s shorter than me while my brother’s taller than me! Hehe…
3. I’ve natural curly hair. As a child, my hair was a pile of springy curls. Now, it’s just wavy. Phewh!
4. Among my siblings, I’ve the biggest collection of moles (well… last I checked). Just on my face, there are five. I was the earliest to wear glasses; at 11 years old. I’ve also the thickest pair of eyebrows and the straightest set of teeth.
5. I love to crack my knuckles though I almost always regret, thinking how it could be a not good thing in my later years.  :-S
6. I’m a classic pear shape. Darn it! A bit too flat-chested, with a bit too much hips and thighs.
7. My long and skinny fingers just seem so odd to be part of the rest of me. And just because of that, they are my favourite assests/features.  LOL
8. I attended kindergarten for 10 days at 4 years old, then decided it was too much of a separation period from my mum. I came back the next year and completed 2 years of kindie then.
9. I was in a local all-girls primary school, then moved on to a co-ed secondary school before flying off to UK to do my GCSEs (at 16 years old) and then my A-Levels, before entering uni.
10. All my life as a child up to college level, I was certain I wanted to study architecture. I got myself into architecture school at uni, then realised it wasn’t my forte after all. 
11. I changed course and later graduated in 2001 with a BA (Hons) Marketing Communications from University of Greenwich.
12. My best academic years, performance-wise were at uni. Which was good, I suppose. Still, I worked only a year after that before deciding to stay at home and be a housewife. I now play wifey, mumsie and do a bit of work from home.
13. I got married on the 8th of August 2002 to a certain Mr Izmet Iskandar. We clearly didn’t waste any time, coz in our 3rd month of marriage, I found out I was already 5 weeks pregnant.
14. My pregnancy was such a breeze. Too good to be true. No complications, no pain I couln’t bare. It was too good a pregnancy, that I’m now worried my next pregnancy (whenever that’ll be) will be a not-so-easy-and-pleasant one.
15. I was in labour for 4 hours. Our son, Muhammad Zarif was born on Wednesday 20th August 2003 (10 days before my 25th birthday) at 1:36pm. Interesting note: I was born on a Wednesday on the 30th August 1978 at 1:15pm. Not bad eh? Says my mum though… it’s no wonder both my son and I share almost identical tantrums! Haha.  LOL
16. The number ‘15′ has always been a favourite number of mine. Can’t really say why, I’ve just always liked it. We now live in our own house (well, thanks to my dad really). The house number is 25 though. Shame it wasn’t 15. I would absolutely LOVE to visit the restaurant ‘Fifteen’ in London (Jamie Oliver’s place) the next time we holiday in UK.
17. Aahhhh…. speaking of UK, and London, more specifically, I’ve a very very absolute loyal soft spot for the city. I spent 7 years of my academic and ’soul-searching, personality-shaping’ years there, I can’t stop missing the city and the whole country really.
18. I obsess over my biggest responsibility to date. My son. My 3 year old character-full son.  :->
19. I absolutely love driving alone with my son. Surprisingly, his best behaviour is in the car with me driving and him belted up in his carseat singing and talking away.
20. We spend weekends at our parents’, then at some mall for a bit of retail therapy and food, then drive around looking at houses (from the very ugly ones to the absolute gorgeous ones).
21. Drive time is actually the most intimate time we have as a family of three. When at home, we tend to wander off doing own things.
22. Drive-thrus are visited dangerously too often. McDonald’s does extra well thanks to us!  LOL
23. I try to treat me to a good manicure and pedicure once every 2 months, though I’ve been told to do more often.
24. Spas are made for pure pampering. Why make them so pretty? Well, not all, but some really are darn good!
25. 25 is the number of our house. But you already read about this above.

Alrighty. Am off! Till my next bit of (random) blogging…

Been a while now since my last entry here in my Friendster blogspace. So, thought I’ll exercise my writing a bit and ‘enlighten’ you with highlights on my life the past recent weeks.

As in the above title, ballroom dancing. Yup! Never has the idea of me dancing, nevermind BALLROOM DANCING crossed my mind in all my years as an adult (kecik dulu, tak kira la). But I guess there’s always a first in everything. And this is exactly that. A first for me. Dancing, or rather, to be real honest here, LEARNING to dance. It’s like this…. My parents’ in law are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary next month. In true (my in laws’) style, they’re having a dinner to celebrate this occasion. And this time, it’s a formal black-tie (and lace for the women) dinner, with ballroom dancing! So, just to set us all in the whole mood and spirit and enthusiasm to celebrate their big day, we (the kids) have been roped into joining dance lessons, just so we won’t make such clowns of ourselves on the night of the function. It’s Ballroom Bootcamp for us Ramli Kushairi kids and anak in laws. We’ve only under a month to ‘brush up’ on our moves and let’s just say, I’d anytime sit for an academic exam than to try and coordinate my clearly-not-made-for-dancing feet! Having said that, the class, as it turned out, was rather fun, and a good workout it was too for me. But, whether or not I moved correctly, complete with good posture and all, is a completely different story la! All in all, it was, surprisingly fun and a good laugh too all the same. We’ve another 3 classes to attend before the function middle next month. Wish me luck as I try to not trip over my husband, or over my own feet even!

Since my last entry, one thing we’ve been doing a lot of are birthday dinners. Starting with both mums in April, then my dad in law in May, followed by Izmet’s in June, then my sis-in-law’s early July. Tomorrow, my dad turns 61 (or, as he’d say it, 50-11). Another family gathering. Another birthday dinner out.

And then it’ll be Zarif’s 3rd birthday. As usual, we’ll have a small party at home for him. I’ve been busying myself with the party preparations, invitations, favour bags, and just generally CLEANING UP THE HOUSE ready to welcome our guests over. The part I like most when it comes to hosting parties, dinners, tea-time meets, etc… is the actual planning stage. There’s just an abundance of ideas out there, just waiting for you to take on and customize to your own preferance. It amazes me just how creative so many people are and the lengths that one goes to ensure his/her party is of a very high, charming, elegant standard. There’s the invites, the party venue’s decorations, the party favours, the menu and presentation of food spread, the dress code/theme, and the photography (just look at the number of wedding photographers available online now… all trying their bits of photo-taking creativity…some really are oustandingly attractive, I must say…others, well, they’re probably pretty new). It’s all very exciting to me. And wouldn’t it be just lovely if I could take on all of these lil ‘party ingredients’ to form my own lil home business. (Always thinking of home-biz ideas this one…. but sadly, very little is done most of the time. Why? Takut!)

So, besides my life looking a (teeny-weeny) bit like scenes from "Shall We Dance?" (hahaha!) and me a picture of this stay-home mum making out party things for her son’s birthday, I’ve really nothing much else to blog about here.

Well, there’s always that bit on me putting on weight and turning rounder and rounder around the waist, the hips, the thighs, the face even! (think Bridget Jones in her jammies eating away… I’m not very far off la from that picture!) And that bit on me dreaming of the next holiday… But I think I’ve taken up enough of your times already and so, let’s just save the next bits of writing for a future entry.

If there’s one movie you should watch over the weekend, try to get hold of "Crash". This year’s big win at the Oscars.

I have to say, watching the awards live from our hotel room at Brunei’s Empire Hotel that morning, I was rather surprised to see the Best Picture award going to a movie, which at the time, I assumed it to be a typical drama set on the streets of LA (whatever that typical movie is laa…). Note too, at the time the Oscars were screened, I had only just watched "Walk The Line" about couple days or so before. And I had absolutely loved that movie. A sucker for true stories and drama, it fit the right equation for me no doubt. Plus, in my opinion, I thought both Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon were excellent actors in their respective roles. The fact that the movie moved me to tears in some bits must have meant quite a bit.

This afternoon though, I brought myself to watching "Crash"… quite honestly, to see for myself what earned it the award…. and post-Oscars remarks on the so-called controversies surrounding its win (apparently the western gay dudes should have won). Hold your thoughts on "Brokeback Mountain" a bit for now though…

So. Watched "Crash" today. And, from the very first scene, it was intense. The first 10 minutes reminded me of a CSI episode actually. Zooming in on crime scene and all. And then came the introduction to us audience of the many characters who will all stumble, cross paths, collide with each other during the course of the 2 day story. I loved that it had a cast consisting of more the not-quite-big-Hollywood-types than the already-done-the-Hollywood-thing ones. A good mix, not the most obvious, but hey, it worked incredibly well. You can tell by now, I’m all convinced already why it was what it was meant to be. The Best Picture winner.

Nevermind the fast-paced and deeply engaging storyline (won’t detail this, so as to not spoil your watch-time), the acting was just excellent. All actors magically roped you into being very close to the scenes of their actions and lives. From the expected scenes, to the ‘damn!-i-didn’t-see-that-coming’ scenes, I was crying away from about midway of the movie till the end.

You’re drawn into liking, respecting and sympathizing with these characters almost as much and on parallel grounds to hating and being terrified of them. The controversial issue of one’s ethnicity has never been portrayed in such an alarming way as it is in this movie. At least, not from a viewpoint of your ordinary moviegoer. The family relationships and bonds that shone through these characters among each other too, were too real.

Overall, Crash is one of those movies you finish with a whole lot of thinking done in your head (…hence this blog entry!). There’s also this urge to want to keep all your loved ones well protected under your arms for as long as you can. It’s a moral story. Lessons to be learnt. Things and lives to be thankful for. Characters to be weary of and characters to love for their sheer humility in society.

For those who absolutely love movies, a good intense one especially, I more than strongly recommend you NOT watch any of Rob Schneider’s, or even Jim Carrey’s elasticized actor self. Instead, seriously, SERIOUSLY consider "Crash". And while you’re in the Oscar mood…. "Walk The Line" won’t disappoint you either. Honest!

Will be off now…. to go watch another Oscar movie, "Capote".

… A mother needs her share of movie time every so often.

Alright. Here goes. Confession time. I’m embarassed to admit here, but hey, I did ‘conveniently’ name my blog a lil something with the CONFESSION word in it! So read on. Another one of my lil-nothing stories.

My sin of a ‘crime’ here (please note: domestic terms) is my growing habit of TV watching, coffee-drinking, magazine-buying activity. What’s bad here is, half the time, I’m not really into whatever’s on the telly. But it’s become a convenient companion to have in the background while I attend to my very important needs of magazine reading. Having spent lots (let’s not mention exact figures here!) on them magazines, I better do justice and read them as many times as I can bring myself to without boring myself sick. It’s also left on while I work on some cards, or put Zarif to sleep after school.

So, on a typical weekday, I start this bad habit of mine from about 1:30pm. Basically, from the time Zarif is back at home with me after his long morning at school. We have our lunch together to the sounds of Spongebob Squarepants and his entire cast members. This is one cartoon where you’ll see both mother and son laughing almost in unison more often than not. Such funny characters they are, and great humour too, I think. After that, it’s bath time for Zarif and this usually lasts a long long time, as he takes the hard ‘initiative’ to bathe his trains pulak! When he’s finally done, and satisfactorily says "dah cukup" as he walks out of the bath, I dress him up and get him to sleep. He’ll finally doze off for a good 2 hours. It is now that I go about doing my smayangs and whatever other lil house chore or work that needs seeing to. Oh, the tv gets a break from me as soon as Z starts napping.

But then… I turn to my laptop pulak and have some DVD on. At the moment, I’m watching the 3rd season of Nip/Tuck. These boxed sets are so addictive… what DID we watch before we could so readily and easily get them? Or more specifically, how DID we tahan a whole week before our favourite TV series’ following episode. A WHOLE week! Patutla I never really understood any drama I watched before. Used to annoy my Kakak SO much as I had like a million questions everytime we watched something on TV. But now, I’ve ‘control’ over how many times I want to watch a particular scene, just so to understand more whatever it is I’m watching. So nice! And say lah, I want to study a certain piece of furniture, or haircut, or shoes, I could also pause on that like forever. K, now I just sound so jakun, and digressing a little too. But haven’t you too thought about it? DVDs really are quite something, aren’t they? And the icing on the cake for me is definitely boxed sets. My favs have got to be CSI (not the Miami ones though), Desparate Housewives, OC, One Tree Hill, Nip/Tuck, ER and oh, definitely definitely Cold Feet. Love that British series!! Also Dawson’s Creek (though shy to mention at first! hehe).

So, back to my confession earlier. I DO love the tv and with American Idol back on, let’s just say, both Izmet and Zarif have to put up with me wanting maximum ‘alone time’ while I watch and be humoured by so many ‘talented’ Americans. That’s the other thing. It’s fascinating how a a talent show has been formatted into such a way that it exudes drama first, the talent-spotting second. It’s both great and bad. The rise of reality drama series… Makes you wonder what the contestants actually gear themselves up to/for, and what the audience (us loyal followers) actually want to watch. I mean, say if the show was formatted like Asia Bagus was (my god… can’t believe I still remember that one!…hehe), I doubt we’ll get that many people talking about last night’s audtition episode. But throw in a lil more than a handful of wacko characters who truly believe they can sing, it’s a whole new however-many-part drama series almost. Having said that, I wouldn’t buy any American Idol (nevermind Malaysian Idol) boxed sets. It’s watchable and addictive at the time, yes. Very. At least for me. Hmm… my parents too! But, definitely not one I’d watch over and over again.

(where IS this blog heading to…? hehe)

So. The TV, the dramas, the reality-tv shows (local scene: how weird has Malaysia’s Most Beautiful been?), the boxed sets. They’ve all been getting my attention alright. Slightly more than I should have allowed really. But, as I’m bordering couch potato status (with coffee or tea, usually comes biscuits or some other snack!), I should really be picky with the things I watch and the hours I ‘clock-in’ watching them. We all know, it’s not healthy (can jadi so damn gemuk like this!!) and there are plenty still for me to do around the house. Then again, better to watch someone else’s drama than having to act out or even live through my own pieces of drama. Coz then, will obviously get too involved, then get all worked-up, and stressed, and will end up posting yet another blog piece here! On that note, YEY! to tv and the brilliant minds behind the drama series and the DVD boxed sets.

A fellow mummy friend recently updated her blog. A very interesting entry too. I’ve decided to write an equivalent blog entry here, and then leave a comment on her space. Reason being, I didn’t want to comment too long there only to see it better to write longer in my own blog space, and leave a more personal short comment on hers. So, this is my ‘reply’ of a blog, if you like, to her, and to others reading this now.

My 2 year old son hasn’t got one of them baby genius vocab. He’s pretty slow, in fact, when it comes to speech development. He ’speaks’ a lot, but it’s very very little that we understand. If at all, it’s only me, his mummy who understands his lingo.

So, below is a list of the few things he says, or at least tries to say…

Family

Yayih - Zarif

Daddy - daddy

Mummy - mummy

Tok - my dad

Kah - my mum (should have been Tah, but it’s Kah to him)

Te’ Ki - Tok Ki (my dad in law)

Nana - my mum in law (should be Nona, but again, he’s changed this too!)

Ayin - my sis in law

Mummy Abam - my kakak

Abam - my kakak’s son (should be Abang)

baby Aaaaina - my kakak’s daughter (name’s Alaina)

Bil - my sis in law’s son (this he gets it right)

Pekah - his uncles

Kakak - all maids and cleaning ladies at shopping malls, hospitals, etc

Everyday objects and talk

nak - i want (and it goes on and on, very demanding! … was his first word too)

tammow - i don’t want, i refuse to have it

car - car (his second word)

where - where

there - there

whereayouuuu? - where are you?

di di - mandi, bath

tiddo - sleep

book - book

mamam - eat

num num - drink

um there - i want your milk, mummy!

nana - banana (yes, looks like his Nona is also a banana!)

pekak - chocolate (this is where anything goes!)

ailo - Milo

ooh ooh hot - hot

cold - cold

aiyer - water

na nak - i don’t want

peease - please

t’queue - thank you

do dok - sit

kuku aiyer - fresh milk (susu becomes kuku!)

poon - spoon

door - door

naaaih - nice

jatuh - fall

takit ni - this hurts

takut takut ni - scary

tumpah ni - look mummy, i’ve spilt water or my food again!!

totop - shut

bekak - open

kick-ne-boll - kick the ball

boll - ball

dirty dirty ni - very dirty

tam tam - come

noh - no

pilllowww - pillow

gon - phone (???)

nak pegi - i wanna go

nak pegi nee-nee-nga - i wanna go Disneyland (has completely changed Disneyland’s name)

leh towww - let’s go (???)

nite nite - good night

hewwwoh - hello

byeeeee - bye

cheeeseee - cheese

nuh-ngo - noodles

ki ki - nasi

ottdowg - hot dog

ti’hboll - fishball (very challenging this one, F and S, both can’t say)

mot - remote control

teeyee - tv

chain - change

beedge - bridge

ouhhh - out

jimmy - satay (this has got to be the most ridiculous one, but yes… somehow, satay is jimmy to him!!)

koooos - shoes

nak pakkaiiii - i wanna wear this

daw daw daw - i wanna draw

jtump jtump - jump

baby - baby

uh’jan - hujan, rain

Awwah Baba - Allahu Akbar, when he tries to pray

Characters from Thomas & Friends

Ma Mas - Thomas the tank engine

Daggeh - Douglas

Pi Pih - Percy

Onivor - Oliver

Emayeeh - Emily

Cancky - Cranky

Deejoh - Diesel

James - James

Gogoh - Gordon

Other animated characters

Bobbob - Bob the Builder

Muck - Muck

Titi - Lofty

Dizzy - Dizzy

Pudd - Spud

Toop - Scoop

Nemo - Nemo

Pooh - Winnie the Pooh … but it’s also push to him

Bahbub Kehken - Spongebob Squarepants

No noh - Noddy

Beezseetann - Busytown, Richard Scarry’s characters

Baby Rhoo - Roo from Winnie the Pooh

Tigger - Tigger

Chicken Tuhtle - Chicken Little

Animals

cat - cat

dok - dog (sounds Kelantanese when he says it)

bey - bird

mut or mok - semut

tigger - tiger (how to differentiate Tigger the character from tiger the animal?)

tih - fish

towtowr - turtle

cicak - lizard

Parts of the Body

aiihhh - eyes (he can’s say S, substitutes this with a K, H or T)

nose - nose (about the only word we can hear the S)

mow - mouth (pronounced like ‘cow’)

teeeh - teeth

ears - ears

tigguh - fingers

kaki - leg, feet

neeee - knee

Utter Shock 

oh man! - oh man! (hangs out with the mummy too often la…hehe)

oh noh! - oh no!

eee yuck! - when he sees hair, fluff, lil tiny piece of paper on the floor, or pictures of reptiles

Places

coool - school

tititi - BSC (very malas effort here)

mamma - One Utama

Gymbo - Gymboree

Colours

booo - blue

geeen - green

yeayowh - yellow

That’s the lot that I can think of right now. There’s more, but not too many more la. I do hope he’ll increase his vocab soon though.

The strangest thing happened this morning. To help the hours go by quicker (before picking up Zarif), I decided to take a trip to Ikea. Aim was to get house plants. I took my time walking through the whole store, at the same time taking mental notes of possible add-ons to the house.

Took a trolley downstairs and picked some things for the kitchen; table runner, trays and serviettes. After picking up some cardboard storage boxes, I headed for the plants section; the initial aim of trip. As it’s pretty tight an area to maneuver my trolley around the many pots and plants, I parked it just alongside the first aisle of plants. I must have left it for no more than 5 minutes to look for the new plants. Having chosen two, I walked back to where the trolley had been left to put them plants along with my other picked items. But…. to my suprise, the trolley wasn’t there. Vanished! I traced back my steps and walked through the plants section a good 4 to 5 times, still no sign of my trolley. Even looked at the neighbouring sections, and still, the trolley was nowhere to be seen.

Very puzzled and a bit frustrated by then, I decided to abandon my hunt for the missing unpaid items in the disappearing trolley, and just walk my way out to the check-out area. All the while, checking left and right, takut anyone could have taken my trolley by mistake. Very possible. By the time I got to the counter, I parted with just RM50 for my plants. All’s good financially, yes. But, whatever happened to the trolley? Who took it? And if it was mistaken for another, surely he or she would have realised by then and turned back to exchange it. Hmmm… very strange. Maybe it’s a sign. Maybe it’s Ikea telling me to visit them less and let some other shopper spend their money there instead. Hehe.

Moral of the story? Always always guard your belongings well, be that the ones you already own, or even those you’re just minutes away from owning. I guess even ‘unattended trolleys’ could be taken away and destroyed immediately if left even for less than 5 minutes. Or, the lesson to learn here is simply get my eyes checked maybe, coz honestly, at some point just now, I thought my eyes were really just playing tricks on me.

It’s just past 10am now, about an hour after I left Zarif at his kindie. As expected and much predicted, the separation and saying goodbye bit was HARD, to say the least.

We got to the school just after 8:30 this morning. Zarif was very promisingly in a happy and chirpy mood from the time he woke up. Not bad, considering he normally wakes up at the earliest, 10am. Today though, he had to leave his slumber at 7:45am, then straight to the bath. A quick noodle soup breakfast and water later, we sat ourselves in the Swift and headed for the-big-first-day.

As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by other new parents sending their young ones, the young ones themselves looking their cutest and smartest (gray shorts and white shirt…very crisp, very smart) and the welcoming teachers. Zarif fitted in better than I had anticipated. Shy, generally, preferring to play with the toys on his own, but by the time I left, he was already trying to sit near some other kids. Warm-up session kicking in then. So, having seen his positive mood and excited self, I figured best I leave soon before he starts to get used to having me there for long. I stayed for about half and hour from the time we got there to my walk out of the gate.

Walked down the road, into my car and then it happened. IMMEDIATELY, the tears came rolling down my cheeks. More like an unstoppable open tap really. I just sat there, with the aircon and music on crying and still trying to control myself when I decided I be generous and share my sadness with Izmet. Rang him and cried to him for another 10 minutes. He, very Izmet-like, offered his giggles instead to his crying-wife-who-misses-son-after-just-kissing-son’s-cheeks-goodbye. Sigh… Was deciding then whether to just drive around aimlessly, go over to my parent’s, go to BSC or go home before pick-up time. Options 1 and 2 weren’t particualrly good, coz it’ll just invite more nangis from me! Option 3 was possible, but I didn’t want to spend too long there. I went with Option 4 and so here I am now, updating my blog. Lepas rindu la this is. I think.

It’s coming up to 20 past 10 now, will soon cook Zarif’s lunch, then get ready to go out. NOW, I might go visit a bookstore and pharmacy and then fetch Z from there. Doesn’t sound too bad now…. K. I think I can do this. After all, it’s only still the first day. And as it turns out, I guess when it comes to parting with your child for the first time, this long, I mean, it’s all well to say the mummy actually becomes the child and the child the adult. Coz leave him with new toys and other kids, he just sees it as more play time. The mummy on the other hand, has to quickly find some form of distraction before flooding the car. Or house!

… two and a half hours to go now…

To those of you who read my blog on kindie shopping… here’s the much-awaited (or not!) sequel I’m calling "separation anxitey, mummy style".

Date on the bottom of my Fujitsu Lifebook reads the 3rd of January 2006. Two things here. First, it’s the new year. And to that, HAPPY NEW YEAR to all… (also see the lil announcement I made just for you lovelies among my photos :-)) But more importantly, the date here marks the first day of school of the year in the Malaysian education calendar. And, among the thousands waking up early tomorrow will be our not-so-lil-anymore Zarif.

Izmet and I registered Zarif at a local kindergarten about a month back. All exciting it has been gearing Zarif up for a whole new experience and daily routine. Even more exciting, if not emotionally-ridden, was and still is, gearing MYSELF up for this new lil big change. In just 8 hours, Zarif will be put under the care of a new set of adults, his cikgus at the nursery. For 5 hours thereon, I will be filling up my time with no Zarif around me, be that at home, or over at BSC or BV. Is Zarif ready for this? … Am I ready for this??

Zarif’s ‘readiness’ . . . The plan was to get Zarif in bed and asleep by 9:30pm latest. Needless to say, that didn’t happen! We were a little off-schedule, only got to the bedroom at 9:30pm. He amused himself with his Thomas trains while singing James Blunt’s "Out of My Mind" song to himself and to me (he’s a very pelat boy, mind you, but song tunes, he gets them almost spot-on!). After rounds of ferrying his trains along the bed’s platform, he finally showed hints of nantuk-ness. So, at 11pm, he got into bed and I had to baring with him and stroked his forehead, reading ‘bismillah’, ‘fatihah’ and some short surahs in between some Thomas songs, until he finally dozed off not long after. As long as I can get him up by 7:30am the latest, he should be able to have a good bath and a quick breakfast before I drive him to school. Once there, it’ll be the inevitable test of staying just long enough to see him settling in with his other classmates and his teachers, or just with the toys in the very colourful room. Then, Insya-Allah, he’ll be as happy as he can be for the next 5 hours before it’s pick-up time.

As for me, how prepared am I? Well, I packed his bag earlier today. The necessary change of diapers and baby wipes (yup, he’s still not potty-trained, but the school assured me they’ll train him as well), a change of clothes, a face towel, tissues, travel baby powder, one favourite piece of toy, his water bottle and a couple of potato buns. I’ve taken out his attire, as well as mine (handbag included). My car’s got enough petrol and I’ve set the alarm clocks for just before 6am coz I take so long to get ready! So, on that note, I think I’m ready. Except… I’m not looking forward to saying goodbye to him. I read in parenting magazines (I absolutely love Australian’s Family Circle and American’s Child and Parents) that the trick is not to linger at saying goodbye. We should, apparently, drop them off and once we’ve seen they’re in good hands (ie: the teacher), we should slowly walk out and leave. The real long goodbyes (kisses and all) should be done before we actually sit them in the classroom. So, I’ll try this tactic, and well, see how well it works. As I’ve been telling Izmet, I fear I’ll be the one who’ll have the harder time saying goodbye, rather than Zarif. I even joked that I might just sit myself in the car and park outside the school till he finishes. Equipped with enough reading material and a snack or two! Hehe.

So there you have it. Was my smart decision in the first place to want to send my son to kindie this early. Now, I’m not just excited about it, I’m also anxious and dreading the separation bit.

Insya-Allah, all will be fine… and Zarif too won’t cry!

I started sitting myself down to a puzzle of sudoku early this week. And ever since, I’ve been pretty addicted to them puzzles. Found a great website (websudoku.com) I now have as one of the active windows on my laptop. It’s a great wake-me-up lil bit of activity. And, the fact that I keep coming back for more puzzles is an improvement, even in the slightest way, considering numbers in general have never really been my forte. Maths was indeed my weakest subject at college. But, after all the hype that surrounds this brain teaser, I just had to try it out myself, and well, challenge me to do as much as I can each day. I’ve done 20 puzzles so far, and my fastest time is 6 minutes 5 seconds.

I can see now how and why people get addicted to Sudoku. It really takes all of your attention and focus while you quickly juggle numbers into those neat boxes. And while I’m doing this, I’ve also taken out some of my magazines to do the crossword puzzles at the back of these mags. I am, if you like, in a very puzzl-y phase at the moment!

A new-found hobby, a new addiction…? Whichever it is, I’m glad I’m busying myself with it, and even more glad that I actually CAN do the puzzles. Not bad la then for one who freaks out at any given number problem simply coz I’m just really a bad Math person. Strangely though, I always remember phone numbers and car plate numbers of not just people I know, but even strangers whose cars end up on the same route as mine pretty often. Hmmm.. mind boggling. Or just plain typical Mika!

Right. It’s almost 2 years and 4 months since I gave birth now. So, really, technically, I need not even touch on this subject right here right now. But, as it turns out, here I am, about to dump my constant ‘problem’ on my blog page. I’m talking about my post-natal body.

How is it, it’s just SO(!) difficult to lose that last bits of unwanted fat and bulges?

A brief recap on my pre-natal, pregnancy and now, post-natal weight and general body appearance. I was 50kg before I found out I was expecting my firstborn. I had a HUGE appetite throughout pregnancy, (hmmm…no) thanks to the absence of morning sickness. Nothing made me sick, no food smell, no food taste, no colour, no texture, no animal, nothing! I was fine with everything, it’s as if my body was doing the usual everyday work as it had been doing prior to the positive Clear Blue test. But, this no doubt had a very very bad downside to it. Coz, what did I do then?? I ate pretty much all the time. Makan, makan and then more makan! Didn’t help matters that I craved McD’s fries and nasi goreng a lot. Was my snack, my dinner, my supper. Thing is though, I only really started gaining weight after the 5th and 6th month. My gynae even remarked that I was rather small at 6 months. Haa…. Then, suddenly, I put on such an incredible amount of weight, that at the very last check-up before the due date, I was a whopping 70kg!! I had gained exactly 20kg and yes, obviously was the fattest and heaviest I’ve ever been. Good part was, I had no water retention, so my feet and hands weren’t swollen. But the bum!! Talk about having hips made for childbirth. I sure had them hips alright. In fact, I still have them, hence the issue here.

So. Lose weight. How la??? I’m now 51kg (i hope i still am la, that was the weight last i checked). I don’t like my lebar-ness around the hips and waist and thighs. Tummy not too buncit, but still not flat anymore. Oh. And the missing collar bone! My future sis-in-law and I were discussing couple nights back. Said we look at a girl’s collar bone as a ‘benchmark’, if you like of her kurus-ness. And these past couple months ni, it’s like my collar bone has just disappeared. Not protruding no more. Panic!

Sigh…

Ok lah… Here’s the thing. I’m like the laziest person when it comes to doing exercise. At this current stage in my life, my equivalent of anything of the sports-sort would be chasing after Zarif, or ferrying things from upstairs to downstairs and vice versa. So really, I shouldn’t be complaining here right? After all, how to get a super slim, no-tummy, no-hips body if my daily routine consists of no exercise but plenty of food and drinks (hot ones especially) consumption.

See this as just one of those nothing-else-to-do-on-a-Sunday-afternoon-so-might-as-well-share-a-bit-of-constant-lil-personal-issue piece of blog entry. Just layan la a bit.