I want to be myself!

Yesterday on my way back home, my daughter Nabilah sat on her usual car seat while playing with my space-water-bottle. She was deeply into that water bottle, I don't know why. Nabilah is going into 3-years old this coming January 2007. She likes Little Einsteins very very much that she can memorise their songs, and what they said. As I was driving on the highway, she told me "Mak, I want Rocket.." Then I said "Ok, who you want to be? Leo? Quincy? June or Annie?" Unexpectedly, she replied with confidence "NO, I want to be KAKAK."

At that age, she does know what she wants to be, herself. Not anyone else even though I knew she likes all of these cartoon characters in Disney.. Barney, Baby Bop, BJ, Little Einsteins, Rolie Polie Olie, Elmo and others.. to name them all, may need me to type all evening :o)

I'm proud of her, indeed I am.

Hooray!

I received an email this morning from owner of One Year of Writing & Healing, an informative site on writing that my article for Freewriting will be published in their December issue. Very unexpected because I wrote the piece during lunch time and sent it without editing, sent it as it is. She offerred to edit my work though. I was thrilled even though no payment will be given to the contribution. Writing for site like this will increase my credibility that my writing is acceptable and I can gain more exposure in term of writing experience. This is second time that my work, outside of my technical expertise, will be published in the net. The first one was for a business owner who sell cruets. I wroter informative articles for him, 20 altogether and was paid every single piece. Honestly, that was the starting point that I began to realize that I can write for any topics provided I was given time to write. My director, after I came back to work last August, did ask me on how I was doing with my writing at State, the payment, and so on. I told him, and was to busy to start writing again, until recently when my work load is too much, I stop and write to ease the tension before resume work again. I bet it is working perfectly. Try it, then you know what I mean. Satisfaction. Thrill. You will never look back again if you are doing what you love to do.

Donation or Scam?

Yesterday I went to Guardian at Warta, Bangi to buy pacifiers for my daughter. On the way, I was stopped by a lady who claimed that she is working for orphanage house (charity organisation). She was trying to ask for 'seikhlas hati' donation whereby they will give a book on some sort of 'doa' and religious story. Being a good samaritan, I looked out for change and gave her RM3, because that is all I have to spare after I bought the pacifiers. To my surprise, she said "If you give me RM3, I will take it but you will not get the book. You have to pay 'seikhlas hati' about RM7, or RM 10 or more, for the book." Ya right, a donation of certain amount is not a donation at all. I don't mind if she said the book will cost only a certain amount less than what is sold in bookshop and I got a resit for donation that I can get tax rebate. But no, she said any amount that I can give, and I got a book, with a hidden agenda to get at least RM7 from everyone she approaches. Very dishonest group of people. She is very very unsuitable for this type of charity work.

Long Silence...

Long silence never meant I have stopped writing. Indeed, I gave myself a space to think and rethink of what should be my next step to raise my family for a better journey. Life has been hard for the past couple of months after we came back from the States. My plan to continue the unpaid leave was cut short due to our financial situation. Luckily the house already completed before we came back and my parents helped a lot with the settings and house cleaning while we were preparing ourselves on the journey back. The weather was challeging especially for Najihah, who could not stand hot weather in Nilai. Nabilah was fine but she was having trouble with the new school, new environment and most of all, everyday without her sister accompanying her. I sent Nabilah to her old Taska nearby my office, but I have to send Najihah to the nearest Taska to our house because there is no more room for her at Nabilah's place. Quite sad, and until now Najihah still cry when I left her with the caregiver. Life must goes on.

When the bad news came (as we have expected), I still firmly believe that it was not our wrong doings that brought us to where we are here. He was just careless and he paid the price for it. But when the bank turned down the loan, I was speechless. The situatioan worsen when the car and notebook that we depended on, will be taken back should the debt cannot be settled within a couple of months. Up till now, I am still waiting for the bank decision for the loan and keep praying that everything will be fine sooner. My circle of close friends is very small, and my husband, after the incident, does not have anymore close friends. I was sad for him, but sadness will make things worse.

I sold things that I brought back from the States and enough to cover our expenses for the past months. My bonus was not in the account yet despite my continuous nag with the HR to expedite the process. The kind clerk helped me with my ESOSII which I am going to sell for the car, and I am still waiting for RM800 checks from LHDN for my husband's excess paid tax. While Maybank was cruel to take the only RM300 left in the account to cover the credit card debt, which is obviously has all the reasons in the world not to be paid, BCB helped with the new account and AmBank insurance for the kids are still on.

I have lists of things to do: for the house, for the kids and for the life waiting for us the next couple of months. I am gonna spend the remaining savings to invest in something that I believe will change our life for a better one. I hope this time the fruits of my labor will be sweeter and juicer. For the sake of my kids. Insya'Allah.

It has been a while...

Since my last post, I was busy trying to sort out things to do before we move on. The news changed the way we used to live, it was better and more meaningful. I guess everyone that knows our family kind of puzzled of what is going on. Nothing much except for the last 3 weeks or so, we had lots of 'tears' and collecting our strength to fight back and move on. We will be back again here to carry out our 'unfinished' business when everything is settle back home. I wish I can work from home and earn substantial income for my kids and get them the most treasured things in life, being with mom and dad most of the time.. instead of, only after work hours.

Life is Unfair?

I have waited for 2 years and 3 months before I get to see my husband everyday, at home with my kids. He works in different states and we only see each other during weekend, sometimes 3 days a week, and sometimes 2 days. I went through my first pregnancy alone, most of the time. When I was pregnant with my second child, slightly alone because my first born accompanying me 24/7. At last in August 2005, when he finally got his opportunity to further study for PhD, we got to live under one roof as a family of four. It was tedious to teach our kids to live in this country, but we settled down eventually without much problems.

When things seem to be going great for all of us, the bad news always come to us. Why those people just cannot let my husband alone? After all hard work he had done for the university, let see - student orientation, retreat, sports, cultural activities, exhibitions, students' programs, and not to forget - lists of published papers and presentations overseas (yepp, he went to Canada last year when Nabilah is one year old), they simply wants him broken into pieces. First, they started with no job confirmation after almost 2 years teaching, for lame excuse like 'You don't have enough teaching time' - when his colleague who joined much later than him, confirmed after few months but have similar teaching time as my husband and without a single paper published. Then, the clique thing plus office politics (hate this sooo much!) - among themselves, boycotted him because he hated to attend department meeting, just because they always talked among themselves without any actions afterwards. Talk, talk and talk. He only interested in Faculty meeting because that was where all important topics were discussed and chaired by a responsible Dean.

I am in no position to make any decision right now. I like this country, but my home is where I belongs to. After 6 months break for tiring job, I have clear mind of what actually I want to do with my life and my family. I hope to stay but everything happens for a reason. I do pray alot that we gonna go through this well.

p/s: My dearest, I will be by your side no matter what happens. Our journey is long and we will go through this together as always. Our kids are wonderful and they know their father is a wonderful adorable dad every kids dream about.

Finally..

Finally we went to Women's Clinic for my routine checkup on IUD that I'm wearing. I have postponed it since last February. After a weekend of bad flu, tiredness the whole week after that, I was actually anxious to go because I did not know whether it is a 'sign' or not. Negative was the answer I was looking for, and it was actually negative. Yeay!

People say I am a busy mom because I have two babies in two years. I am a busy mom, but when I was waiting for my doctor for checkup I just realised that I was alone completely, after 7 months. It was a bit strange because everyday I will be my kids, at least one of them. Everywhere I go, there must be someone following me. A strange feeling. I went out from the room just to see my husband holding our daughters each in his arms. They are really torturing him! Hehe.

I am due for another checkup plus a pap smear test in July. By that time, both my kids are big enough to wait patiently for their mom to those uncomfortable-but-important test.

A Tiring Weekend..

Few more hours, and my weekend is over. Today, we did not go out because of the rain and there is tornado watch from weather station. I just hope we are all fine here. My babies were all tired after one whole day staying at home. We napped 2 hours in the afternoon, and Nabilah started to act in the evening which drove me mad, and my husband was mad even worse at her. They both went to bed at 8 pm. Thanks very much for the boredom!

I talked to my husband on the instant pumpkin pie I made the other day. I found out that those boys likes my dessert so much that they went to a deli after soccer game to eat more desserts!

Tomorrow, Spring break will start. Our routine will stay the same. No breaks, no holidays. My husband will go out and study while the rest of us will stay home, sleep eat and play. I just need to make a quick phone call to the clinic and schedule my long-overdue routine checkup. On Saturday, there will be Seed Fair for gardeners at Eagle Heights Community Center where we can get our vegetables, flowers and other seeds to plant in the next few weeks. My gardening articles I promised to Rebecca are not finished yet, and my salmon articles are waiting for touch ups. I need to write more and procrastinate less!

What a week to look forward too! *sigh*

Carrot & Cucumber...

Yesterday, my husband invited his friends for dinner. I was down with flu over the weekend and had not much energy to prepare proper dinner course for them. I served them with tomato rice, 'ayam masak merah my mom's version', pickled carrot and cucumber, and my instant pumpkin pie. Yepp, instant because I only decided to make it 2 hours before our guests arrive, and it did not need any baking work. Hehe. The dinner went well, Nabilah was the center of everyone's attention since her baby sister went to bed earlier at 7.30, and we met Suri's new boyfriend-cum-fiance.

What I learnt most from yesterday was I need to focus and do things right once and for all. Okay, I may be cannot do things right at the very first time all the time. But I'm talking about slicing cucumber and carrot as thinly as possible, it took my time and I was exhausted from the flu. The night before I decided to use cheese grater to slice the carrot. I sliced the cucumber well, but the carrots are too fresh and hard to slice faster. I was completely out of my mind that time, and went ahead anyway. Took me only 15 minutes and I sat down for other work. The next morning, I looked at the freezed carrot and cucumber, my spinning head wondered whether those guys will actually eat them, and I don't want to let my husband down seeing them to thin! I sliced another batch of fresh carrots and cucumber when my babies napping, took me half an hour to finish them. If only I did it correctly last night, I can spend my rest-during-baby-naptime doing other work or finish my writing. Well, I made a mistake and learned from it. What else is better than that?

Loose Weight by Gardening?

I found these tips from an article written by Candee Stark. Useful tips for us, mommies who is trying to loose weight in a healthy way! For the full article, visit ArticleCity - there are lots of articles for us to read.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You CAN lose weight by gardening ~ eat less and move more! The following list shows what a typical man weighing 180 pounds will burn in 30 minutes of activity. If you weigh more you can burn even more calories!
Watering lawn/garden~61
Raking~162
Bagging leaves~ 162
Planting seeds/seedlings~ 162
Planting trees~ 182
Weeding ~ 182
Clearing Land ~ 202
Digging, spading, tilling~ 202
Laying Sod~202
General gardening~ 202
Chopping wood~ 243
Gardening with heavy power tools~ 243
Mowing the lawn with a push mower~243
Shoveling snow~ 243
Shoveling heavy snow~ 364 cals
Tips for your success:
Don’t over do it~ one or two hours of gardening is plenty, especially when you are beginning!
Don’t lift objects that are too heavy for you. If you injure yourself, chances are that you won’t be able to continue to garden for exercise and weight loss.
Stretch before, during and after gardening. Don’t stay down on your knees while weeding or planting for extended periods of time~ get up and move!
Get out in your garden and exercise at least 3-4 times a week.
Continue your outdoor exercise routine even after you last blooms have faded. Shoveling the snow, raking leaves, and splitting wood are great calorie burners that will lead to weight loss!
Don’t forget the added benefit of growing your own healthy fruits and vegetables and your yard will look beautiful from all of your hard work!
Once you get into the habit of viewing gardening as an excellent way to lose weight and stay in shape, you may never go back to the gym again!

About The Author
© 2005, Candee Stark and Flowers-and-Garden.com

Nursery Rhyme..

I have been thinking to put down all nursery rhymes I used for my daughters in writing. It will be useful for my family later on (I hope my daughters will used them to pacify their children too!).. and for all mommies out there who loves to sing nursery rhymes and silly songs for their kids. This will take some times, but for a start: Nabilah's Favorites

Air Pasang Pagi (Malay Version)
Air pasang pagi surut pukul lima
Bangun pagi-pagi siram pokok bunga
Pokok bunga melur tanam tepi kolam
Itik bertelur, ayam mengeram
Che Baba jatuh dalam parit
Che Aminah ketawa jerit-jerit

Buai Laju-laju (Malay version)
Buai laju-laju
Sampai pokok sena
Apa dalam baju
Sekuntum bunga cina

Wa Wa Wa (Malay version)
Wa Wa Wa
Tu bulan, tu bintang
Tu pucuk kayu ara

~to be continued...

She's walking!!!!

Yeah, at last.. the long waiting moment for every mom and dad. My baby is walking!! Hehehe. Najihah is walking at 9 months and 17 days old. I am so glad and surpised too. Here's how it started.

Last few days, she tried hard to stand on her own. On the first day, she tried to get up from squatting but she found it is too scary (she was like "Oh Mak! I am too heavy!"). Eventually she found her own way of standing on her own by cruising on the edge of the sofa and lifted both hands up in the air. I'm standing!!

This evening, when I was busy trying to trim Nabilah's hair, Najihah was anxious to get hold on to the hairbrush. I tried so hard to put her away, and suddenly she rushed forward with three small steps just enough to reach me, I was startled for a second before I clapped my hands so excitedly to see her walking towards me. Nabilah was stunned too, well, she was having her hair cut, that was scarry enough I guess. Later, Najihah kept practising her new found skill - walking small steps. She proudly showed her dad and kept smiling for the rest of the evening. Well, I guess she will follow my footsteps - I walked when I was 9 months old, that was what my mom said. Hehe.

We should be looking for new shoes for Najihah soon!

Doodlebops...

Who are the Doodlebops? I forgot to include them in my latest post on what are my kids watching everyday. The Doodlebops are Nabilah's favorite, they simply undeniable funny and loves to entertain children. They are from Canada (too bad, we cannot see their show cause it is too far!) and their shows have been aired on Disney channel for quite some time. Deedee, Rooney and Moe are simple characters that loves to sing and dance for the children. They taught them many things from eating you veggies, growing up, friendships, making music and sometimes, how to make your friends happy. Nabilah will surely glued to her feet (not seat, as she will be dancing and singing along with them during the show) and that will left three of us (Najihah, my husband and I) to do our things undisturb. Hehe.

That's my lovely Nabilah's favorite show other than The Backyardigans for NickJr Channel.

Maybank Online too slow...

I don't know why Maybank2U online banking is too slow today. Usually it will only takes few minutes to transfer funds, view transaction history and other things, but today.. urgghh! I've waited for almost half an hour to finish 5 fund transfers, excluding several disconnection problems. My internet connection is reliable, of course it is since ours is provided by the University. Never down so far. I hope Maybank IT geniuses will look into their traffic problem - add more gateways or servers or whatever needed to make you customers happy. Customers are always right, don't you agree?

It's Sunday..

I woke up this morning only to find my daughters are ready to get out of the bedroom and watch TV. It was 6.30 a.m. I let Nabilah out but kept Najihah inside to make her wear her sweater and changed her diaper. Nabilah sat quietly in front of TV watching Sesame Street.

Well, we let them watch TV. Yes, we did. Even for Najihah who is only turning 10 months old this month. But we choose what kind of programme they can watch. Here are the list: The Backyardigans, Sesame Street, Barney, Dragon Tales, Clifford the Red Dog and Reading Rainbow - these are great programmes for early learners like Nabilah who loves to sing, count and read story books, Teletubbies & Booh Bah - mostly for Najihah because she can see bright colors and movements of those pluffy things flying like rocket in the air but Nabilah loves her Teletubbies too. Sometimes, I let them watch Spongebob Squarepants just for fun with underwater creatures like Patrick the Starfish and Squidward the Squid, but Nabilah knew which is Spongebob, the yellow sponge.

My daughter are very bubbly babies, they can talk earlier than walking. We sent Nabilah to day care, twice a week for half day programme. She loves it very much. At 2 yr old, she can read her ABC's and 123's in both languages. She sang her perfect version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star without any help and now I kind of hearing she's trying Baa Baa Black Sheep and Old McDonald songs on her own. Well, honestly we sang those songs and other native songs like 'Air Pasang Pagi' and 'Buai Laju-Laju' (she can sings those songs too!) to her everyday after she was born - while traveling to work, during shopping, waiting in line and anywhere when there is waiting. I guess that's how she learn to talk and sing and converse earlier than walking. And I noticed that Najihah is following her sister's footsteps since being with mommy and big sister talking all the time, made her want to join too.

I love my children, they are fun and simply irresistible! :-)

Can she eats that?

When I first had Nabilah, I never came across this question in mind. I sent her to nursery with a tupperware full of porridge mixed with veggies and fish flakes for her lunch, I went to work, picked her up at 5 pm and that's about it. For dinner, she ates cereal and sometimes the same porridge I blended a day before. Dinner and lunch, all the same. She never complains (nothing that I aware of) and now she is a healthy bubbly 26 months old toddler.

Now with Najihah, I am staying at home 24/7 with nothing much to do day time except playing and entertaining my kids. Play, eat and sleep. And the routine continues every 3-4 hours for Najihah.. sometimes for Nabilah too, if she is down with flu or fever. So, I kept thinking, can Najihah eats this, can she eats that. The only thing that her paed said, avoid giving her eggs and peanut for allergy precautions. Other thing, he said, give her a try.

I did. First, gave her fish - ok, no problem, then chicken - little stomach ache at first but now she can eats chicken nugget on her own, but I guess it makes her cough a bit, then donut - not sure it has egg in it, but she can't stop asking for more (by sign language, I mean), then ice cream - some says it may contains egg, so I gave her just enough to taste it, let's see what happen tomorrow morning. Hehe. I gave her a lot of other things, just enough for her to taste new food, not until she is full. Porridge with mixed veggies is number one priority in my list of food for her meal. In fact, Nabilah always ask me for her little sister's porridge because the fragrant rice made it more delectable than her rice and chicken soup. I wonder what mommies out there think when they are feeding their babies with new food. Mmmm..

Btw, in Madison, eating ice cream is a must for everyone. Wisconsin is America's Dairy land. Ice cream made in Wisconsin comes from the finest dairies, it tastes different from ice cream bought in store back home. We did not allow Nabilah to eat ice cream that often while in Malaysia, because she will definitely cough after eating it. But here, she ate like 3-4 times a day, no cough whatsoever. Just imagine, the kind of ingredients that they use in those delicious ice cream. Well, we also make sure that there are no gelatin, no added sugar and no ingredients that non-halal when we bought the ice cream.

Oh well, hope my babies are all fine with all food.

Writing?

I need to let this out now, or never. Hehe. I write for fun, but now, I hope to write for living. Sounds good to me. Maybe to all of you, who like to blog, or read other people blog or just like to spend an hour or so, thinking about how you can do to make Earth a better place to live. It happened incidentally. I bid on a project at Get A Freelance, an outlet for IT people to get IT project; web design, scripting etc. I put myself on data entry and translation work, not knowing that most projects offer are IT-based, and I am not an IT person at all (I am an Engineer!!) but I do know HTML, Flash and other website things here and there. So, I bid. Shortly after that, the service buyer asked for my writing samples, and I ended up been paid for my articles!

What I learned after that was I have been wasting too much time while I'm working in the office. I mean when I am in my 'comfort zone' I rarely think outside it. Now I'm here, with tight resources while still determine to get the most for my kids, I did my researches and found out that writing, any kind of writing, whether paid or free, will bring sense of fulfillment to oneself and it is lots of fun. Well, I bet everyone will have fun writing about your kids achievement, your findings and tips and trick handling your children at home, and be paid for. For stay-a-home moms out there, I strongly encourage you to try out, you may have hidden writing talent that you never know of before!

I'm back..

For the past few weeks I was gone. Hehe. Venturing new outlet at Blogit! - the so-called paid to blog avenue for blogger like me. For a 'small' fee, we kind of be paid to blog on anything. Readers (who also subcribers to the site) will read the blog and their subscription fee will be divided to authors that they read. Do you get me? Anyway, I was a bit surprised to see that many people actually read my blog. I wrote mainly about family and parenting. Unlike here, where I can write in 'rojak' term, at Blogit I have to write plain English - no 'rojak' at all. That makes a little bit 'not interesting' for me as sometimes, I like to just pour my thought off, and even put out some 'my-own-term-fot-that-thing'. Well, at the end of the cycle, I write just enough to get 1/10th of my fee back. But somehow, I lost time - writing in between lunch and naptime is not enough to make blogging to paid a significant income for the moment. So, I unsubscribed and back to updates my lovely 'free' avenue to write - rafdina.blogspot.com. I better off with my online store and freelance writing. Hehe.

p/s: If any bloggers out there would like to try out this site - go to http://www.blogit.com/

Journey to Madison - Part III

The PLAYPEN was left in baggage collection (or conveyor belt) at NY airport. We accidentally left it, there were too many baggages already. I felt guilty, I was the one who said 'We got all the bags! Let's move on" to my DH that night. He went back to airport to check the playpen, but nobody was there to help anymore (it was midnight, everyone went back home, I supposed). Luckily my daughter were already tired and the youngest slept on the bed.
The next morning, Nabilah was really hungry and look for cooked rice. The night before we asked the stewardess to pack us some dinner leftover. She gave us steamed rice and a spoonful of steamed vegetables with fried egg. When she saw the rice, she screamed "Nak nasi.. nak nasi" translated to "I want the rice.. I want the rice" and ate them like she never eats rice before. I was so sad, I cried, actually cried in front of my hungry like wolf, at that time, 18 months bubbly daughter. My DH also cried, but in his heart (hehehe).. I knew him, he loves our daughters so much. They were tired and jet lagged after a long haul flight. My DH went to the airport again to check on out left playpen but no luck. No one can help him. He went back to the hotel and it was already 11.30 a.m.

I got the kids ready, and we went to the airport again at 12 o'clock. That was our big mistake. We did not know how NY airport check in work, we took for granted that the system they used are simpler than what is in KL International Airport. It turned out that flight check-in counter is different with baggage check-in counter. And you have to walk quite a distance to get the baggage x-rayed and check-in. The most important fact, there were lots of people waiting in line for check-in!!! Our flight to Madison via Continental Airline was scheduled at 2.10 p.m. When we finished check-in processes, it was already 1.35 p.m. Both of us ran like mad to the immigration check, I pushed Nabilah's stroller and my DH pushes our trolley of hand carry luggages with Najihah in her car seat sitting at the front of the trolley.

Luckily we passed the checked without much problem. The officers pitied us when she saw all the stuffs we brought along and with babies in tow, everybody seems to be nice and helpful. I even asked a man to help me pulled down Najihah's seat handle because I cannot do it with one hand (my baby is in another arm). It was hard, try it yourself. And came the most tiring part, running to the gate! Ours was at the end of the hall, like 20-30 minutes if you walk normal pace. My DH ran to the gate, asking them to wait for me. I was holding Najihah in her seat (it was like 15-pounds weight, could not run faster that a snail.. hehehe) and somehow, my luck, an airport buggy passed me by and offer to send me to the gate. Phew! What a relieve. We went in exactly 5 minutes before the gate is closed and got on the plane, eventually.

Well guys, there rest of the story was pretty much normal paced. We arrived at Madison around 4 pm and was greeted by a Malaysian family. They waited for us, thanks so much K. Nafisah and Abg Andi! They provided dinner for us that night and next day breakfast. K. Rohany cooked us lunch and somehow we managed to get some sleep with the kids. Our journey to Madison was not an easy one, but it was all worth remembering.

Circus in town..

We went to the circus, eventually. My daughters' naptime was changed from 10.30 a.m. to 12 noon. Why? I need to adjust Nabilah routine, so that Tuesday when she will be starting her first day at nursery she won't be too sleepy to eat her much. Changing naptime means changing wake up time, totally. I tried so hard to make them fell asleep no later than 12.30. They will wake up around 1.30 to 2 p.m., just in time for snack time at 3 o'clock, and later dinner around 5.30 p.m. Kids's routine, hate it but that's what all mommies should take care if your kids are staying at home. Play, feed, sleep and the cycle goes on.. never ending.

Well, what's about the circus? I thought there are lots of clowns wearing fancy clothes and red noses. But no, there were so much more. They are bunch of kids, as young as 4 years old performing various circus acts such as cycle unicycle, walking on stilts, low-flying trapeze and much more.. We arrived late, the seats were full. My DH sat with Nabilah on the floor, who was so excited. She clapped her hands, danced and moved her body to the music. I was with Najihah all the time, and she too, was excited to see many people around her. At one time, a spotlight shone on both of us. I startled a bit, because everyone around me ran away (I was standing all the time, carrying Najihah in my arms). Luckily, the clowns exited to the other spotlights. Hehehe.

Another weekend with my family. Both my tired but happy daughters were fast asleep now. Next weekend? No plan yet, but I sure hope there will be something free for family outing in town. Otherwise, got to chekup on my beanies and other stuffs.

Journey to Madison - Part II

It was early in the morning, like 5.30 a.m. We took off to KLIA in 3 cars, our car, my dad's and my brother-in-law's car. We were tensed, with the kids, my family, in-laws and everything. At the airport, I had nerve to check the bags again in front of check-in counter, my DH definitely furious at me that time.. hehehe.

After so-many kisses and goodbyes, we went into departure hall about an hour before the flight took off. It was scheduled to take off at 9 a.m. but out flight was delayed until 12 noon. My parents were already on their way back to Muar, and the in-laws are already at Kak Ngah's house. It was terrible. Luckily we were on business class, so we got free snack at the departure lobby. We did not eat anything yet that morning, so it was a bit relief for both of us. Our daughters were both tired but not that cranky. In flight, our stewardess was very helpful and polite. I really thanked her for making our halfway journey to Madison a breeze. Najihah slept almost all the time in her basinet. Nabilah had difficult time to sleep because not enough space for her! Eventually her dad managed to console her and pacify her to sleep on his lap. But not too long, she begged to sleep on the floor. No choice, just to keep her quiet.

After almost 12 hours flying, we stopped at Sweden for transit. It was horrible. We had to take out all cabin baggages (ours were 5 not-that-small cabin bags with baby basket, stroller and baby car seat) to the waiting lounge and check in again after 2 hours. Luckily they allowed us to leave our bags with them outside the plane and pick up at the door again. Back into the plane, we were served with different team of steward/stewardess. This time the stewardess was not that friendly and helpful. She did not even ask our names (she should actually) and the senior stewardess (not sure what her rank is but I am sure she's older..hehe) was bold and rude to us when Nabilah (who already having fever) slept on the floor. Being a mom, I defended myself and my child saying that we will take care of her ourselves and if the plane is going into a storm, we will pick her up. The captain said nothing actually because the weather was calm!!

We landed in New York about 9 p.m local time. No one else except our flight at that time. The kids were tired, we were more than tired, exhausted! I carried Najihah in her car seat, my DH pushing Nabilah in her stroller and carry other bags. We were the last one to be out from the plane! Moved to immigration and wait for another half an hour in line. Got our bags and went to custom check. Luckily, the lady officer who waited at the entrance waved 'Goodnight' at us.. and off we go to the arrival hall. No custom check, phew!It was nearly midnight when we arrived at Best Western Hotel, and we noticed something was missing from our trolley.. the PLAYPEN!

~to be continued...

New Shoes for Nabilah

She wanted that shoes. It lights up when she walks. But stubborn me, I went to pick up another shoes, cheaper shoes for her. And guess what, she did not want to wear it at all!

Unbelievable, but true. My husband and I looked at each other yesterday night when Nabilah tried her new shoes and started jumping up and down just to see her shoes did not light up like it did when we were at Walmart. There and then we decided that we need to return it back to the store and get the 'laser light' shoes. This evening, when her father opened up the new shoe box, she looked, smiled happily and gave me a big hug. Then she said "I love you" to her dad and gave him another big hug. I almost cried!!

Lesson to learn: When it comes to buying shoes for your child, if she or he said "I like that one better" and start to behave like she did not want any other thing or just don't care, just grab the one the child chooses.. even if they are only going into 2-year old next week! (Tips: make sure you put her on the cheapest shoes first...)

Journey to Madison - Part I

Our journey to Madison was not an easy one. I want to share my own experience in a long-haul flight with babies and lots of heavy luggages. So, the date was August, 27th 2005 Saturday 9 a.m. That was our flight to Madison, Wisconsin USA. The journey started from KLIA, transit at Sweden and stopped at New York. A night at NY then to Madison, the next day. Sound simple, eh. Hell, no. Let me start with the preparation time in KL.

I had little time to fully prepare myself and my family to travel. A week before departure, we had trouble with scholarship fund. My DH (this stands for 'Darling Husband') managed to get it done i.e. currency exchange, bank draft and whatever needed for us to survive at least for the first month in US, 2 days before our flight. Three days before that, we transported all furnitures and whatever left in my Seri Putra home to kampung. Tiring journey, and I drove alone with my mom and kids because the scholarship fund did not clear on time so my DH had to stay back in KL. On Friday August 26th, I brought everyone in my family (mom, dad, angah's family and along's family) for short trip to TNB Kondominium at Port Dickson. My mom had always wanted to go there and I somehow managed to squeeze in our tiny relaxing window for so-called family vacation. It went out great. Phew!

The night before departure was chaotic. My DH already exhausted with all preparation and documents. And he was a bit tensed already. Combined with my mom constant reminder of don't forget this and that, made me tensed as well. Put the kids down to sleep early and I continued packing our stuff i.e. clothes, diapers, formula and dry food. Done packing at 1 a.m. Five heavy check-in luggages with 2 hand luggage, 1 baby playpen for Najihah, Najihah's medicine bag and 1 'bakul' full of Nabilah's food and formula. I only can 'tawakkal' on how we gonna manage the bags and our kids together. Hehe.

~to be continued ....

Music for Toddlers?

Today we went to Madison Public Library for the first time. There was a music session for babies and toddler. I thought it would give my kids a chance to see other kids. Kind of playgroup thing but everyone involved. Nabilah was quite shy (very unlike her!) but she sang, danced and walked along with her dad. I was with Najihah all the time (she cannot walk yet) but I sensed she loved the music. The best part is it was FREE! Can't wait to go to Monona Terrace Convention Centre on January 22nd for Circus.

New Baby..

Well.. she's still a baby, but bigger now at the time I'm writing this. Hehe. A beautiful baby girl was born on Thursday, May 19th 2005 11.30 a.m. I'm her mother. Another girl in a family. She was born a week earlier than expected. I was working like mad the week before, just in time to get everything in order for others to catch up. Felt pain, normal I guess, the night before. I'm not that sure that I will be in labor the next day. Thought that they were just normal lower abdomen pain, I slept with Nabilah and comfort her throughout the night, occasionally woke up to tell my hubby that I felt kindof weird and painful.

All well and good, until the next morning, the pain was a bit unbearable but I still can prepare Nabilah to nursery and punch card at the office. My dear hubby begged (with somekind of threats added to it) me to go to the clinic. I did. Just to make sure that it was not false alarm. Went in to the doctor's office at 9.40 a.m. I was already 4 cm dilated. Wowee! Gonna go into labor soon. I was admitted to the labor room at 10 o'clock, my hubby rushed back home to get 'air selusuh' and 'air akar fatimah', and at the same time managed to call Mak. In labor room, I was praying hard for the baby to not come out before her dad is beside me. Scarry though, because she may want to pop out anytime. Hehe.

No painkiller, no medication and no epidural. No, no, and no. Just the plain labor pain that lasted like one and a half hour before I gave birth to Norsafiya Najihah at 11.30 a.m, with my hubby at side, Dr. Khamsiah and another midwifes. It was short and sweet. Everyone in the office was shocked to hear I went into labor that day, because they saw me in the office an hour before that! Hehe.

Now, she's a bubbly adorable going into 8-months old baby girl. See her pic, isn't she beautiful? Look carefully and you may notice that she has a mole on her left cheek, just like me.

New beginning..

There's a reason why I stopped blogging for a long long time... I have not much spare time! Hehe. Anyway, as the new year begins (like a week ago..) I will start telling you guys my everyday tales here in Madison, Wisconsin (yeah, That 70's Show shout-out-loud!). Maybe I'will rewind the tales from where I left.. I have to tell you guys on my second experience in the labor room, then another scary moment being hospitalized.. and most of all, the tales of getting to Madison safely on our first ever long-haul journey from Malaysia to United States. Well frens, check back in a day or two. And keep reading!