Stay at home mum

From the buggy, mama

2012-01-26T13:37:00.003+01:00

I taught Haris about normal stuffs to improve his thinking and vocaboulary since at this age he easily absorbs the information.

Mama-Haris, where is the feather comes from?

Haris-It's from the hugggggggge bird.( Can you imagine he said huge while showing the hands language of huge so cute !)

Mama-Ok, what else Haris?

Haris- From chicken mama.

Mama-Yes, well done Haris! Next, where is the egg comes from?

Haris-Egg from chicken mama.

Mama-Well done! and egg comes from a bird and a duck too! Do you understand that Haris?

Haris-Yes, mama.

Mama-Haris, where is the honey comes from?

Haris- From the bzzz bee ( he wanted to say the busy bee but he only managed to say bzzz as a buzy hehehee).

Haris- He asked me back about the honey but his question was like this, 'mama, where honey fom?'

Mama-Honey comes from the bee.

Haris- No mama, listen! bee comes from honey.

Mama-No Haris, honey comes from the bee.

Haris-Listen, bee from honey ( while screaming because wanted to say his right hahaha).

Mama- Ok ok. Haris! Hmmm one more time ok, where is Haris comes from?

Haris- From the buggy mama. Baby from the buggy, baby crying no good bla bla bla..He kept telling me a story about the baby.

Mama- Haris, so you come from the buggy?not from papa and mama then?

Haris-Yes mama..

Hahahaa, I think he must think he really comes from the buggy hahahah!

Inappropriate, oh dear!

2012-01-18T03:19:00.002+01:00

Nurturing our kids need us to say more positive things in hoping they will build their self esteem and confidence . The kids will grow up and become a person in a way we teach them how to be. As for me, I admit I am not a perfect mum, yet to be a supermom, is out of my reach. When I have so much in my plate, I could not control my anger towards Haris and the innocent toddler becomes one of the reason for me to let go my 'grumpiness'.

I realized my mistakes but sometimes, it did happen beyond my control. As per example, when Haris kept demanding things when I was busy rolling up my sleeves in the kitchen, I easily felt annoying when he asked for my attention by dropping stuffs , asking so many questions etc.

Thus, this happened today,

Haris-mama, where is the rabbit?mama, what sound does the cow make? mama nak hot chocolate,..mama this and mama that..!

Mama-( Making the sighing sound likes this) 'uhhhh, what else do you want Haris?I am busy plsssss!' My intonation just about losing patience.

Haris- copying me by saying 'uuuhuhh'.. and he copied my intonation too!

I was breathing in and out while watching at the small face and thinking, oh dear, what have I taught to my kid?

Soon after that, I asked myself, 'Is this what I want? My kid to reply me like this when I old?'

Seriously, I felt sorry for him and for myself. InsyaAllah, I will try to control my grumpiness better in the future. Err, do I need a session for anger management counseling? Hehehe ok just kiding!

Mama was sorry Haris, I know that was the inappropriate manners of me as a mum..To be honest, I did say sorry to Haris and he replied me by saying 'it's okay mama' ;-)))

About making choices..

2012-01-11T01:33:00.001+01:00

As for today, Haris knows how to used a sentence about making choices. When I was with him in the train off to Brussels in an early morning, he kept talking, non stop. Asking me about this and that, suddenly, he said..

Haris- which way mama? (he asked me about the toilet in the train).

Mama- that way haris, while pointing to the door.

Haris- okay! that way..yet's go mama (let's go mama).

Then, he continued...

Haris- Mama, which want do you want?

Mama-Err..I want both ( he asked me to choose the jackets, hehehe).

Haris-want both?okay!

I am pleased, with his achievement. I t might be nothing but it is something for me.

Pre loved Fossil handbag anyone..?

2012-01-10T23:36:00.002+01:00

If anyone interested in this pre loved fossil handbag do let me know at niniey78@gmail.com. Tq. All I can say this bag is rarely used, perhaps not more that thrice time. The asking price is RM 399 but negotiable ( with relevant price only!)

Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-01T23:02:00.001+01:00

I was meant to write this last night, a few minutes away before the clock strucked 00.00 in the midnight. Unfortunately, I was busy having keoy teow tomyam and then went off straightaway to the bridge to watch the fireworks.

Last night was Haris first experienced of watching the beautiful and amazing fireworks under the drizzled. Well, it could be romantic if Haris was not there but with his presence the surroundings more on like FAQ session between a toddler and the parents.

Trust me, everytime he hears the bang sounds on the air he will ask 'what is that sound?', non stopped! And, he kept saying' the beautiful fireworks bla bla bla' .Luckily he did not cranky or whatsoever. He just enjoyed the joyful night and staring in the sky without blinking, amazing perhaps!

Anyway, before it is too late, Happy New Year 2012..Bonne Annee...

When the tiny mouth speaks, I feel like 'lempang' hehehe

2011-12-22T01:37:00.001+01:00

Haris was playing doughs at the living, all I could say was, the dough cutters were everywhere. I tried to tidy up some of the cutters and put them in the basket, suddenly he came behind me and said,

Haris-Mama, what u doing ?( mama what are you doing?)
Mama-Doing nothing.
Haris-Mama tidy up (mama is tidying up)
Mama-yes, mama is tidying up your toys..Can you help me please?
Haris-Okay! What a mess!

Seriously, I have no idea when he learnt about the last sentence. Though, it was funny when it came out from his tiny mouth.

__________________________________________________________________________________
Haris and I were watching tv and suddenly I blocked his view by sitting before the telly.

Haris-Mama, yook out! (look out)
Mama-err, what did u say Haris?
Haris-Yook out, while pushing my head aside.
Me? I was confused hahaha and I asked Am, Was he using the right words 'look out'? The answered I got from Am was, 'you better check the dictionary'. Hahahahaa..

Kids are innocent

2011-12-19T13:47:00.001+01:00

Lately, I have a very little patient in me. I have been ignoring haris question when I feel like 'malas nak layan' of answering him.

Haris- mama, mama..mamaaaaaaaaa..
Mama- Hmm..(my eyes are glued on the screen)
Haris-mama, mama where's the coin?more coin? (and he kept on asking non stop.)
Mama-( silent and pretending not hearing what he's been saying.)
Haris-mama, mama, say yes Haris..
Mama-omg! I have been teaching him to answer, 'yes, mama' if I called him and now he teaches me to do the same thing..hahaha..serve me right!
Mama-yes, sorry Haris..

_________________________________________________________________________________

haris-mama, kiss me please..
mama--kiss u?ok, come here.

(Haris is approaching me to get a kiss on the forehead.)

mama-muahh..ok?
haris-yes, that's better..

Haris, haris..sometimes you make me angry and sometimes I could not help laughing from your pot pet pot pet

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Wifey- Ling, bangunla..dah nak masuk asar ni.
son (haris)-Ying, ying wake up
Wifey-Haris, you must say papa not ling.
Son-Hey, ying wake up..and ke kept banging on and on and on hahaha

Life means...

2011-12-15T16:29:00.002+01:00

Life is about making a decision. Life is about making choices. Life is NOT about 'me, me , me'...

What lies ahead remain mystery, until it did happen!

2011-12-14T01:42:00.002+01:00

Many things happened yet so little time to share with in this blog. To make it short, I wrote an entry about 'cripple' a few days back. Actually the reason behind my 'cripple entry was, our apartment was breaking in. The incident happened around 3.30pm when we were out and about in the city center. When we returned home at 6 pm there was no sign of breaking in at the main entrance (we live in a second floor out of 3rd), but our main apartment door was left opened by the burglar. The loss was quite bearable, well sort of! My compaq mini netbook, Am's laptop, my Canon dslr, my compact camera panasonic lumix, and money worth Eur 260 were robbed. The icing of the incident was, we had to pay 240 Euro for changing the broken door.

We called the police to report about the incident but I was pretty sure there was nothing the police could do especially without the witness. It was quite tricky. Alhamdulillah, Allah nak uji :-))..

Though, bad things happened for a reason. The wisdom behind the tragedy was, Am got a better laptop and it was free because the sv bought it for him. He is now, a proud owner of 15inc Mac book pro, and as for me, Sony Vaio is more than good because I was expected to get a mini netbook only.

Ok, enough about the burglary.

Today tragedy was far unforeseen.

I have been living in this peace and serene city called Liege for almost four years. I have not experienced something out of league that could be a drawback of living in this city. Language? Yes, it quite a barrier but what to expect you live in people's territory so you must follow their cultures not otherwise. There are few things that I can say as a scarcity but they are still tolerable. Though, today at 12.35pm there was an attacked right in the city center on the busiest roads and christmas market. I did not know about it until my husband ring me to tell about the hand grenades attack at the bus stop just a few meters away from our apartment, across the street of the main shopping gallery.

Initially, I was thinking to bring Haris out today for buying cookies and muffins but fortunately, I got held up by chatting with my old friend. I could not imagine if I was out as per planned. From the latest news, the death toll is 6 and 123 people wounded.

The attacker, died at the scene. What I could tell was, blood spattered on the roads, people were screaming and crying out loud seeking for help, the arms policemen and policewomen were everyehere, the roads to the center were sealed off, the helicopter was whizzing around the sky to monitor the condition and it reminded me the incident in CSI.

The saddest thing was, the baby as young as 18 months died due to the grenades attacked. Poor soul, sigh!

Thus, by the time I write this, everything is back to normal.Alhamdulillah!

This makes me think, kalau dah ajal sedetik pun tak boleh dilambatkan, hidup dan mati di tangan Allah...mati itu pasti cuma cara kematian yg berbeza..

Nevertheless, I still love this country ,Malaysia ?Of course lerrrrrr

cripple

2011-12-04T09:47:00.001+01:00

I am feeling cripple without my DSLR and the netbook. Fortunately, the new viao is mine now but Am will be using it for a while before his supervisor replace another laptop for him. Now, we have to start surveying a new dslr for me and I have four months duration before my next travel.

What a month!

Farewell

2011-11-30T12:07:00.001+01:00

A friend of mine, Natrah has finished her PHD and went back to Malaysia for good yesterday morning. Her flight departed from Brussels International Airport at 8am. As a good friend of mine, I could not help watching her back for good without bidding farewell for the very last time. Thus, Ina , Haris and I made an effort to meet her and we left the house as early as 4.30am to catch a train to the airport. Alhamdulillah, everything went very well.

Natrah,
I met you as a stranger,
I took you as a friend,
I hope we will meet again,
Where our friendship is never ends..amin, InsyaAllah.

The soul...

2011-11-24T20:20:00.001+01:00

A picture speaks a thousand words, thank Allah for giving me the son..

Tuhan berikanlah aku cinta..

2011-11-23T14:35:00.001+01:00

Ku bertemu sang adam di simpang hidupku....Mungkin akan ada cerita cintaNamun ada saja cobaan hidup.....Tuhan berikanlah aku cintaUntuk temaniku dalam sepi....

When HE said ....

2011-11-23T11:44:00.001+01:00

Kun fa ya kun...who is us, to deny the fate...

Fruity tears..

2011-11-22T22:29:00.001+01:00

After being four years apart, today marked the day we reunited, Alhamdulillah syukur..My patience has paid. I could taste the fruity days ahead..

'Soft spot' does not so soft anymore..

2011-11-22T08:50:00.001+01:00

Any words which came out from my lips did not reflect my heart. The mouth said okay but the heart was otherwise. Caught in the middle is pathetic sometimes, and I realized pretty soon my heart will no longer the only thing is getting heavier....

Saddo

2011-11-21T19:09:00.001+01:00

Blood is thicker than water, Unfortunately I am 'the water'. Now, I am really really sad.

Heart wrenching

2011-11-20T17:36:00.001+01:00

Feeling left out is not a good things. Trust me, it is really heart wrenching...

Alhamdulillah

2011-11-14T10:02:00.001+01:00

After 45 days of performing Hajj, my parents have safely arrived at Terengganu International Airport today ar 7am, Malaysia time. Alhamdulillah...

I think..

2011-11-09T23:54:00.000+01:00

Absurd,Well not everything is about logical sense. So, nothing is new.Sincerity,I have a huge respect for people who sincere in their jobs because I could not do so in almost everything.Death,I kept thinking about what , when will my turn. What is going to do if tomorrow is my day! Ya Allah, please forgive my sin. Blessing me with your rahmah..amin ..Secured,I used to think, if my husband or I , or perhaps both of us work with the government, our future will secure, but not anymore because whatever will be will be, the future is not ours to see. Government or private, both are about the same. There are pros and cons and it just like a coin. The truth is, you cannot choose one side of the coin!Happiness,I get everything that I always want thus it looks like everything is rosy but do not forget, everything in the garden is not rosy. After all, I just a human. Never fully thankful for what I have and always think the grass is always greener on the other side.

Eid ul adha everyone

2011-11-07T11:32:00.000+01:00

The cold and windy air are here as the sign of winter is approaching. The icy weather makes our skin dried and scaly. For my son, he always has a sign of an eczema on his legs so before the itchiness is unbearable, I keep applying emollient to moist his skin, though for this morning I have forgotten to do so. He came to me while scratching his body and said, 'mama itchy'. Thus, I took a tube of lotion and applied onto his skin. Suddenly, out of the blue, he said, ' thank you, it fells better'. I was like when on earth did he learn about feeling etc. I guess the programmed from tv has taught him so much. Maybe it seems cliche for some parents, but for me it something to be proud of plus, the development of each kid is not at the same pace. ;-)Anyway, salam aidiladha to all muslims out there. 10 zulhijjah = 6th November 2011. Maaf zahir and batin.

The golden vibrant colors of the fall season.

2011-11-02T11:12:00.000+01:00

We went to the park yesterday afternoon to enjoy the fall colors. The sun shone and the vibrant colors of the leaves were really exquisite. I could not get enough with the surroundings. I kept snapping pictures for my autumn collection and as I shared in my Facebook, the leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools. Subhanallah!

Haris-Mama, wants fire wangen please..
Mama-No, it's heavy Haris n dangerous. If it hits your toes, u will get hurt.
Haris-okay, sorry mama!

' 'It' a.k.a fire wangen is his toddler's accent for fire extinguisher because he does not know how to say fire extinguisher instead'. ;-p

Little bandage for the little man

2011-10-27T11:54:00.000+02:00

X-ray film showed no strained, no fractured , no broken arm..but he still hurts. So this is the temporary bandage the doc in the emergency room put on him to make him feels comfortable. The next step is, making an appointment to see the orthopedic ..If I were in Malaysia, aku p berurut je sng cite ;-)

It sucks

2011-10-25T16:30:00.000+02:00

It sucks when I have to..

1.Online with the lousy notebook because my netbook has a problem with the internet connection.

2. I need a huge effort to make the alphabetical popped on the screen due to the problem on the old keypad.

3. Just if I lost my sanity in the mean time, the smart phone will be mine..Let's see if the hubby can repair my netbook or not, if not will think about this seriously.

I hate to online with this condition.

Chiow!

Leap pad by Leap frog

2011-10-18T10:23:00.000+02:00

I never bought an expensive toys or gadgets for Haris before, considering that I am not a gadget freak. Apart from that, Me, myself never owned something so hi-end or hi-techno for my hand phone either. Frankly, Am did offer me once for the 'iphone', but I chose the designer handbag instead, though I never regretted my decision because the handbags are long lasting especially the classic design. ;-p

Nevertheless, after seeing this Leap pad by the Leap frog, I changed my mind. This toy is one of the cannot-resist-items for me. It is really eye catching especially with the applications thingy. Initially, I was contemplating between the Vtech brand and this Leap frog. The price is about the same. There are pros and cons of these two brands.

At the end I chose this one because, I wanted the camera, video cam and some other functions that the Vtech does not offer on their products. Some of the apps are not free but it is ok because he learns so many things from this small tab.

Perhaps, it is about the time for me, to go technology myself ;-)))

Enduring the pain

2011-10-17T17:04:00.000+02:00

Ulser does hurt so much especially to the little one. Haris easily gets ulser since a few months back due to the weather. When it summer, it is scorching hot and when the fall comes, the weather is getting colder and these two types of weather makes my boy suffers from this little tiny white dot in his mouth.

Bonjela is one of the cream which is good to treat ulser but it does take almost a few days to sooth the pang of the soreness, and for my boy, he cannot wait for that longer. He has had enough, I can tell !

The pain is really annoying, at least in his 'diary' especially when he could not eat his meal properly. He will scream at the top of his healthy lungs every time the food hits the ulser while saying 'ulser is hurt' repeatedly.

As a mum I could not stand watching him making the agony sound. I know my way of preventing this ulser seems quite mean but I have no other way.

I had this tips from my dad since, when I was a little girl, I always have ulser in my mouth. Almost every month and it really sucks!

What I do is, making some salty water and drop the water by using the syringe onto his ulser. He does scream too much but I have to. Believe it or not, it only takes maximum four times drop in a day before the pain is easing out. Day two after the salty drop treatment resulting in Haris can eat well without a hitch. To compare a little stinging pain during the treatment with the results after the process is making me stick for the salty water instead of the bonjela.

Sometimes we have to endure the little ache to get better. That is life, baby..InsyaAllah everything is going to be all right.

Kasih suci

2011-10-12T14:44:00.001+02:00

Perjalanan masih jauh harus kau tempuh
Ku di sini memerhati tanpa rasa sangsi
Jangan gentar ada sabar semai di jiwa
Ku di sini mendampingi agar kau mengerti

Berlarilah kau berlari
Terbanglah dikau terbang tinggi
Bumi yang engkau jejaki
Janganlah dikau lupai

Andai kucapai si pelangi
Akan kuserah kepadamu
Agar dapat kau mewarnai
Seluruh hidup nanti

Yang hitam harus dijauhi
Jangan disimpan dalam hati
Putihkan jiwamu dengan
Kasih suci

Kuterima dirimu dengan seadanya
Dalam suka dalam duka
Kau tetap cahaya

Ku bersyukur pada Yang Esa
Punya segala-galanya
Sederhana tapi oh sempurna
Oh oh oh...

Yang hitam harus dijauhi
Jangan disimpan dalam hati
Agar dapat kau mewarnai
Seluruh hidup nanti

Putihkan jiwamu dengan
Kasih suci

Self reflect

2011-10-11T15:48:00.000+02:00

Many thing happened, well .. lately.
I realized how lucky I am even though ...

I did complaint.

I sighed.

I cried.

I asked for forgiveness.

I tried to change.

But, it has never been easier. Sometimes I made the same and stupid mistakes. Though, from the top of that, I learnt these...

1. blood is thicker than water.Love u my siblings!

2.Parents are everything. Love, respect, call and visit them as frequent as we can because, if they departed from this world, nothing we can do to replace them. If we want to seek forgiveness, to help them, to say how much we love them, say it now before it is too late to do so. Remember, people who disrespect their parents will not have respect from others. I love you mak n ayah.

3.If we love our kids, do not allowed them to be disrespectful us as the parents, if not they will not have true respect for anyone.

4. Parents, please respect your kids or otherwise they will disrespect you in the future...

Love,
Nurul

My first learn to spell puzzle

2011-10-09T11:21:00.000+02:00

I realized, this blog is slightly changing to 'parenting and toddler activities' , but seriously I am too fond of any activities which related to the toddlers since I have a little explorer at home. He is too into any activities and he seems never tired of doing so.

Thus, when I was in Primark yesterday evening, I bought this puzzle cards for Haris. The cards are designed to develop the kids' spelling skills. There are 12 pcs of puzzles with the very basic pictures and spelling.

As usual, my boy loves them! Can you spot the crescent? My boy called it, 'moon honey'. Do you want to know why he said so? The answer is because, he was influenced by one of the cartoon in the kids programmed channel ,Cbeebies.

There was a fox in Tinga-Tinga Tales, craving for the honey from the moon and that fox kept saying 'moon honey' repeatedly ;-p.

I am older yet wiser?

2011-10-09T10:45:00.000+02:00

I am getting older I guess. After giving birth to Haris I can easily get back pain especially if I did any hard works. People said, that was because of the epidural. Frankly, I think it makes sense but not 100% certainty because a friend of mine who did not take the epidural while giving birth is still having a back pain like me and to be honest it worsen than mine.

Ageing is the answer! Yes, I always know it...

Ok, all I need is now, forcing en hubby to give me a great massage or sometimes Haris will do too. His weight is just right when he stepping on my back every time I say , 'Haris , massage mama please',hehehe. Unfortunately, sometimes he wants me to become a horse instead. He will say, 'mama horse pls, then when I positioned myself like crawling, he will climb up to my back and said,'that way ,mama' and when I did follow his instructions, he will thank me by saying, 'kuku mama'. the words bring the meaning of the 'thank you' version of Haris.

The pics are not related to the post, I just want to share my current obsession which are cooking nasi dagang, keropok lekor and all Kelantannese style of foods.

Nasi Dagang

Keropok lekor

Created by Allah from his oven, Haris at 2 years and 2 months old. And, for the reason of that, I thank you Allah more..alhamdulillah.

That is why the customer service is important ...

2011-10-07T14:58:00.000+02:00

I am in the midst of planning my weekend getaway to one of the countryside in Holland.What I am so pissed of is the way the owner of one of the Bed and Breakfast replied my queries.

Here is the email between me and the owner. Basically, I asked the owner about the reservation. I wrote something like this,

Hi,

There is slightly changing the programmed. It is two nights instead of one night.

Do you have a vacant room for two night on 14 october until 16 october 2011? And is your B&B is easy access by bus from Steenwijk train station?

If the answers are yes for all the queries above then I would like to confirm my reservation.

Thank you

nurul

And he replied in Dutch something like this,

goede morgen de prijs 80 euro voor 1 nacht voor 3 pers voor bed and braekfrast vr gr hoeve montigny

In the web, they said they speak Dutch, German , Italiano and English. When I asked them in English..

1. They replied in Dutch. So, what is the point of saying they speak English if they did not use the right language to reply my email!

2. They did not answer my queries about the vacant room, how to get there etc. If I received an email like that, I guessed they have a vacant room for us. But , unfortunately when I replied that email to confirm my reservation, the owner replied back by saying something like this.

we have not a room for you

That is exactly the replied which I got from the owner. Can you see how unmannered they were? No, greeting at least 'Hello or Hi' will do in this email. Besides that, There is no 'sorry' or 'thank you' in this conversation.

I do not expect the customer service in this B&B to be this poor. I tell you what, I am glad they have not got a vacant room because I can see myself cursing them if I stayed in their accommodation with the bad service. With Eur 80 per night, I can find much better quality hotel with a good customer service.

So, people out there, if you want to visit Giethoorn, do not book this B&B, Hoeve Montigny Giethoorn. Personally, I have deleted this B&B in my list, forever! As simple as that.

Playing with the dough

2011-10-06T13:09:00.000+02:00

Dough is one of the favourite things that Haris loves to play with. Playing with the dough teaches him to understand better about the colors, rolling, pressing etc.

Rolling pin-he knew how to say this!

The red and the blue dough-He was asking to make a dinosaurs and the stars.

The stars that he made

The car by using the mould

Was making the car

I guess that was something that he imagined of in his mind

The colorful doughs in the air tight containers

Kept rolling

This activity was lasted for about an hour ;-p

Puffy paint

2011-10-06T12:08:00.000+02:00

I learnt about making the puffy paint from here. The recipe for this paint are the equal amount of flour, salt and water. Then added a small amount of the food colouring. Keep stirring until all of the ingredients look smooth and puffy.

After that, scoop the puffy paint into the squeezing bottle and you are done!

Unfortunately, Haris did not enjoy squeezing that much. He was amused and kept saying 'bobo' when the colors hit his hands. Thus, I changed the style of painting. Instead of squeezing , I put the colors in the baking tray for the cupcakes and stood the board on the 'easel'. He used the brushes to apply the puffy colors on the paper.

Guess what? He enjoyed it!

p.s-The finishing product of this type of colors are, lumpy, silky and shiny...

Links

2011-10-06T01:22:00.000+02:00

Dear friends,

could you please drop your blog links in my comments. I have changed the templates yet I lost some of my precious links in my previous templates. After received the comments, I will link it back to my blog. Thank you.

Painting ..painting..and more painting...

2011-10-05T11:10:00.000+02:00

Every morning when he wakes up from his slumber, he will show himself out from the bedroom and straight away heading to his learning space. He will rummage in the toy's basket to find something that he can play with. Though, it only lasts for about half an hour or so before he returns to the bedroom to wake me up. What I love about this is, he will say ' mama wake please'. He keeps saying that over and over again to my ears just like the buzzing bees ;-p.

Well, there is time when I feel like not entertaining himself but I could not help listening to his demands too frequently, so I will wake up and play with him.

Today, he asked for painting activity, thus I set up the board to resemble an easel. Perhaps, I am going to buy the easel for him soon, InsyaAllah.

So, those are the pictures of him when he 'engrossed' in his painting world.

Working on shape recognition and hand-eye coordination

2011-10-05T00:30:00.000+02:00

I was thinking to continue teaching Haris about the shapes and the colors for a couple of weeks before moving to the next activities. Learning about the shapes and colors are part of the Montessori activities and I should have introduced these activities to him before he reached one year milestones. Actually I did but I never taught him properly due to lack of patience in me, sigh! Though, I think it is better late than never. Furthermore, the first child is like an experiment time for a parent, like me. Whatever is bad InsyaAllah I will improve myself if I had a chance to have another kids in the future.

Nevertheless I read somewhere ,the writer said something like this 'Toddlers start recognizing the difference in colors and shapes at around 18 months. When an interest in shapes and colors begins, it is time to start teaching and practicing with them.' . So I guess I am not that late ;-p

Back to the title of this notes, to gain knowledge about the shapes and colors means my boy needs to do more activities which related to the shapes and the colors.

Hesitate not, this afternoon off I went to the toys' shop to buy the wooden blocks shapes for Haris.

The adorable pieces of the shapes

These wooden blocks are not just simply 'a block', They allow the kids to create and build anything from them based on their imagination. In other words, this activity generates the kids inner creativity. This set also helps the kids to work on shape recognition and hand-eye coordination considering that, this adorable set available in all sorts of different shapes and sizes and trust me, they attract my son to play with them ;-))

The view from the top of the container

What he needed to do was choosing the right shapes and inserting them into the hole on the lid of the container. While he was playing with the blocks , I kept mentioning to him about the shapes together with the colors i.e-the orange triangle , the blue circle, the pink square and etc to make sure him understood better and if he did, I can beam widely ;-).

He said 'x-engle' means rectangle.

Watching the block drops

Montessori skills life basic-spooning, pouring and picking

2011-10-04T11:25:00.000+02:00

The two years old toddler in my house is eager to explore everything. He is really fond of spooning any foods to the plate. Seeing of his interest in this life skills, ending up in me putting the beans in the container, laying a plastic mat on the floor, placing the cone on the glass vase and asking him to scoop the beans and pouring them into the cone.

From this activities, he learnt to master his skills in spooning, pouring, dropping and picking. I said spooning because he used the spoon and spooning the beans carefully before pouring them into the cone and watching the beans to drop, hitting the bottom of the vase. At the same time, he learnt how to pick the beans which scattered all over the mat even though I did not ask him to do so. He only used the spoon for a couple of minutes and then 100% used the hands instead ;-p

Picking a big items are easier for the toddler but for the tiny miny beans are tricky ;-). I am happy seeing him occupied for about an hour or so doing this activities. Good job boy!

Earlier, he used the spoon

picking

pouring

Watching the beans hitting the bottom and perhaps he's thinking and wondering ;-)

Quotes

2011-10-04T01:01:00.000+02:00

People love quotes, so do I. Lately, my mind keeps creating the quotes and I think it is better for me to compile all the quotes here for myself. Pardon the grammar etc because it just for my personal only.

Two faced quotes

You can smile and you can pretend but you will never knew that people are actually know the real you. It just the matter of they keep it quite or they just watch how you are going to play your role.~nurul~

Friendship quotes

The same wavelength is important in friendship, or otherwise we could never be closed and the friendship is not going to work~nurul~

Life quotes

Age is not just a number, age is telling how near you are with the death~nurul~

Learning about the shapes

2011-10-03T14:39:00.000+02:00

I was inspired by one of the mums' blog about teaching our kids about the shapes. I was running out of the colors so I just used the yellow color instead. I am going to stock up the colors soon since Haris keeps asking for painting.

The yellow color, a tissue holder and a potato were used to do the art work about the shapes. After done with the painting, I showed him the shapes around us in the living room and he answered them just right. For today, he has already known the shapes of circle, star, square, crescent and triangle. Rectangle is quite tricky shape for him :-). Does not matter, I am pleased though...

When a best friend says something, It means a lot...

2011-10-01T12:15:00.000+02:00

Best friend does not mean we have to stay closed of each others physically, at least for my opinion. The best buddy is the one who always gives you support, being there when you need them and always knows even though you say nothing at all.

Yesterday I received this message from one of my best buddies. She wrote this to me when she read my notes about the message from my father after he's leaving on a jet plane.

nurul sweetie, the message from your beloved parents was indeed full of emotions, genuinely from the heart. It makes me realize that sometimes I hurt my parents. Thank you for this sweet reminder my friend. My do'a to pakcik and makcik, may your haj will get full blessing from Allah. Amin. Take care my beloved friend nurul, I love u so much .

Trust me, this message means a lot to me. That was a very thoughtful of her to send me those sweet words. I love you too dear...

message from ayah bonda

2011-09-30T10:30:00.000+02:00

Our beloved parents, are now flying off to Medinah. They will be staying over there for a week before jetting off to Mecca and InsyaAllah this is going to be their second time to perform the pilgrimage. I hope they will have a smooth sailing journey ahead. Ameen.

Now I know where is my interest of writing sometimes comes from after receiving this forwarded text message from my Ayah after he was leaving on a jet plane. I guess it runs in the genes.

Salam sayang anak-anak tercinta. Doakan kedua2 ibu bapa mu semoga sejahtera. Semoga haji mabrur yang diterima.Pejam matamu seketika, apa perasaan mu semasa kita bersama. Apa pula tika kami tiada.Anak2 ku berilah kasih setia kpd kami berdua.Sejahteralah perasaan kami berdua.Umur kami bukan berjuta, hanya seketika.Jangan huru harakan keluarga, kami ingin tenang di hujung usia. Belailah emosi kami sentiasa bahagia.

Pelbagai penyakit menimpa diri kami berdua.Sejambak doa daripada kalianagar kami berjaya. Salam sayang,Salam rindu moga2 kita masih akan bersua.Selamat tinggal anakanda kalian. Doakan kami selamat pergi dan kembali.Janganlah buat angkara yang menyayat bonda dan bapa.Bye2 anak2 ku. Doakan kita jumpa lagi tanpa perkara yang tak didingini menimpa kami berdua. Seandainya kami tewas dipersada tanah muliairingi kami doa2 anda moga kami sejahtera dialam fana. Assalamualaikum sayang2 semua~ ayah and bonda tua~

Seriously, this message really makes my heart wrenching, heavyhearted, gloomy~mix feelings~.especially when I am the one who does not have the chance to send them at the airport , sigh.

My beloved parents, semoga selamat urusan disana dan selamat pergi dan kembali dan mendapat haji mabrur..amenn.

We are not certain about the circumstances but we pray for the best..InsaAllah.

Speechless, perhaps..

2011-09-26T12:24:00.000+02:00

I was on the bus last night after coming back from the park with my family. Since the bus was sardines packed, I gave up my seat to an old man and stood by the middle door. suddenly, I saw one African boy about 7 years old gave up his seat to sit at the other seat at the front, so hesitate not, I took his place instead. After 10 minutes or so he returned back and reclaimed his seat from me by saying that was his seat. His mum who sat next to my seat said nothing. She seemed pleased and agreed with him. I was like, 'err this is for real?'. Seriously, I was 'speechless'.

Since, there were too many people on the bus, I did not want to make scene and show my bad manners so , I just said this to him' your ticket has not got reservation seat number, once you left you must know that this is not yours any more'. After saying those words, I stood up and let him took the seat.

I did not know he understands or not but I think parents should teach the right manners. This is not Africa, even though you as a parent did not get a proper civic lesson in your back home, does not mean u should not teach your kid about civilization'. Sometimes, people from some countries do not know how to adapt with the local cultures. Such as the driving attitude, taking turn and etc. Please people, when you go to other's country do not expect to behave like when you were back home. It is not appropriate .

So, in a nutshell, 'When in Belgium do as the Belgian do'. take a good example, leave the bad one...

This is a picture of my son. The little girl who stood behind him was taught by his dad to take turn with Haris, see this is what we should do! nurturing our kids when they are still small.

What is stopping me?

2011-09-25T12:09:00.000+02:00

Family planning anyone?

Honestly, I do not know what is stopping me from falling pregnant again for the second time. There is no exact reason in this matter and I do not know how to say in a proper way. The best words I can type in here are- 'mix feelings'-. I am not on the pill, well I had the pills before but it only lasted for three months after giving birth to Haris and then I stopped. Nevertheless, I still keeping the balance of the two boxes of the contraceptive pills in my safety aid box.

Thinking of the precaution for not having another babies in the mean time, my husband and I have decided to use another protection in practicing our so called 'family planning'. We opted for natural way because I do not feel taking jabs or medicines at all for planning. Alhamdulillah, until now we still ok with the option.

Now, Haris is 2 years old plus, I was thinking to have another baby perhaps in the next year though I still having double thought on it :-)). Never mind, because I believe if the God wills, nothing is impossible. 'Kun fayakun'..Insya Allah.

How does my son learn his first thousands words?

2011-09-24T23:08:00.000+02:00

I do not know how or what is the approach learning method that the mums out there take in introducing words to teach their kids, but for me I use the books with the colorful pictures and the flash cards. I love teaching Haris by using flash cards because there are words and pictures on the same cards. No matter how difficult the words are, I will keep saying them over and over again until Haris recognizes the things. It is a long learning process but patience is the key.

Let's say I teach him about ball, but I make him understand not all the round things are the ball. There are circle and sphere, with the same pattern but not the same meaning. Baby accent is no-no. I will correct his pronunciation to make him say it right. Sometimes, he keeps saying in his accent but does not matter, because there will be a moment when he will definitely know how to say it in a right way. Toddlers' brains are like sponges. They absorb everything quickly, so that is why we need to avoid saying something bad in front of them.

Well, actually I was meant to tell about the folder's book that I bought for Haris on the first day of Eid, I went to the book shop to buy the English magazines for me until I came across with this folder for the kids. A folder about learning the first thousands words. This folder contains a pictures dictionary, a hundred flash cards, the cd , the sticker's book and the stickers itself. Without having second thought, I just grabbed the folder even though the price was quite expensive. Though, for learning I do not mind, because it is like an investment. Investment to give a proper learning to my son in hoping he will be a smart person, InsyaAllah.

I taught Haris the words by using the pictures on the stickers and after recognizing and knowing every single words on it, I will ask Haris to stick the pictures on the sticker's book, right in the small boxes on the left hand side of the book. This sticker's book is like a self made dictionary and trust me, he was having fun while learning. As a mum, I would be delighted seeing him happy!

I will show the rest of the items in this folder's book in my next entry ;-)

Small Learning Space

2011-09-21T13:34:00.000+02:00

his small playing n learning space. The table, the old laptop for nursery rhymes time, the sandpit, the ABC's mat, the toys' basket, soon to be added the book shelves to arrange his books. Mama just loves buying books for him :-). Oh and the magnetic board! The rules is, he must tidy up after playing, and amazingly he did. After being scolded by mama if he did not.

video of him

2011-09-16T08:01:00.000+02:00

Up to two years in his life...Haris..who else? hehehe

The moment he said good bye to his best buddies..

2011-09-15T11:53:00.000+02:00

Weaning is easier if the time is right for the babies. My personal experience of weaning my boy was only took a month or less until he definitely stopped breast milk. The initial planned when I knew I fell pregnant was to mix feeding the formula with the breast milk but it turned out I fully breastfeed Haris because he totally rejected the bottles and the formula. Being a full time housewife was a privilege in giving direct supplied since he 24/7 with me. Thus, from the day onwards he became a baby who breastfed exclusively. Alhamdulillah it was his sustenance.

When he reached 23 months old, I was having a thought of the ideas to stop breastfeeding. I got so many infos from friends and some of them said, 'try to apply something like tamarind juice, food coloring , nescafe etc on the breast in hoping, the baby hates the taste of those things and stop taking milk'. Unfortunately, I never tried any of them.

One day I chatted with my old unimate, I asked her what did she do to stop her first baby from the breast and she said, she did nothing because by two years old her baby just quit by herself. So, from the day onwards I kept praying to Allah in hope Haris will quit easily before turning two. At the same time I tried to feed him lesser than his daily intake. No more feeding during the day only once at night before sleeping or in the early morning. Usually, Haris always forget to drink before sleeping due to his tiring activities in the day , so it ended up he fell asleep easily at night.

After a week or two left for Haris to celebrate his two years old milestone, he got used with the ideas of weaning.

Nevertheless, one think I will definitely remember for the rest of my life which was the last day he had the breast. I never realized this but it made me thinking lately. It was Friday the 5th September 2011. I was spending my night at Sheraton Hotel to spend my last moment with my closed friend before she went back to Malaysia for good. It was in the fasting month. As usual, when Haris wake up in the morning, he will ask for the milk but he stopped asking since the past two weeks.

Though, on that Friday he was not himself, I could tell. He was dreaming and sobbing continuously in his dream . Sounding like heart wrenching :-( until making me whispered on his ears something like this ' Haris, nak susu ke haris, kesian kat haris..Ya Allah kalau betul anak aku haus dan nak susu sangat2 tolongla bagi ada susu dan cukup utk dia pagi ni'.

Exactly that was the doa' which I was saying in that peaceful morning with sorrow heart after listening my baby sobbing in his sleeping. When I fed him, he kept weeping and seriously his voiced resulting in me had teary eyes. He kept sulking for the milk for a few minutes and the tears kept dropping on his small cheeks. Hesitate not, I stroked his hairs to wake him up and gave him a morning bath. ( We woke up very early since we needed to check out the hotel before 8am and went off to the airport).

The incident on that Friday morning, was the last time he had breast milk and he never asked for the milk anymore. After a few weeks, I can conclude why he was so sad that day in his dreamed. Perhaps, he knew that was the last time he will had the milk and perhaps he knew he had to say good bye to his best buddies because he was no longer a baby and he just knew it was the time to stop, forever. He stopped just 16 days before he turned two years old.

Allah granted my dua. Alhamdulillah, it was an easy journey for me as a mum to wean my fully breastfed baby. It melancholy moment for both of us when the time was up but I am happy and glad because he had the best milk ever and trust me, the bonding between the mum and the baby while breastfeeding is unspeakable...Very exquisite indeed....

As the time I write this entry I could not help shedding tears of thinking ' Am I going to have the chance to breastfeed again in the future?'..Que sera-sera.. I hope I will..InsyaAllah. Weaning does not mean Haris and I are getting apart. Everynight before sleeping he will ask to hold my hands before drifting in his slumber and I guess, no matter what, he will always be my baby to me and deep in my heart I know it...

Let's talk about the chatter box in the house.

2011-09-13T15:04:00.000+02:00

It has been a while since the last time I wrote about Haris. There are plenty more I want to share with in this blog so that by the time he is able to read ~~he will take a peek at this blog and knows exactly~~ he will know why I am doing this and that in order to nurture him.

After reaching the two years old milestone, he speaks a lot! The vocabs seem to improve tremendously without us, realizing it. He learns from the tv, songs and definitely from the parents ;-)

The latest thing he said was really made me laughed! I was in the midst of getting ready to go out and Haris was glued on the tv, watching the wheels on the bus cd. To cut the story short, I called his name and asked him to put on the trousers, suddenly out of the blue he came to my room and just peeked from the door while saying, 'mama, wait a minute'. I was like, err....when did he learn about the sentence.

The ~~next thing~~ other things that he loves saying to me are 'thank you mama (kuku mama in his accent), 'sorry mama (owi mama), one for papa and one for mama etc. So many sentences to jot down with but I will save for the next entries.

Besides of the fact that he becomes a toddler aka the chatter box in the house, there is one thing that really makes me stress. About Haris eating habits. I shouted at my wall yesterday about how stressed I was when people kept saying my boy was getting thinner as if I did not feed him enough. I had so many feedback and I was calmed after knowing I was not alone in this problem. Actually, Haris is healthy even though he does not eat that much. He only fell sick once when we were back home in Malaysia due to the weather .

Apart from that, he is an active toddlers. He hates rice, but he loves bread. He can survive with the bread for the whole day without having rice or spaghetti etc. I do not want to force him to eat something that he does not want for the reason that, I did it before and it ended up we both felt stressed and tears dropped down on his small face and I could not help feeling sorry for him.

Though, I do not stop trying to boost his appetite for the reason that I want him to gain some weight before he starts schooling. To cater this problem, I bought a bottle of multivitamins for the toddlers and he does not has any fusses to eat the pills. I hope he will love the foods after this, InsyaAllah.

He said ' nak kiss papa'...

Anything for you, my dear Haris..

lagi lagi raya

2011-09-12T12:34:00.000+02:00

Beginner cards

2011-09-08T14:09:00.000+02:00

I was so tempting to introduce a jigsaw puzzles game for my boy, so I think the beginner level of the puzzles are the best decision to buy. Thus, hesitate not I bought this 'My first animal match cards' for him to play with.

The very first time he played with the cards, I could see he felt annoyed and upset because he did not know how to match the pictures with the words. This game was quite difficult considering that he did not know how to read yet and it totally a new challenged to him.

To be completely honest, he could shout every single names of the animals on the cards but not the spellings. Never mind though, Learning is step by step basis right?I kept encouraging him to pair the cards by showing him the words for each pictures. The second things that really made him disappointed was, when the cards were turning upside down or the other way round, so they could not match. In order to match them, he must turn the cards in a right way and this task was quite challenging for him, I could tell from his expression. hehehe.

He did not know when he should turn the cards so ended up he felt stressed and kept screaming and shouting at the cards. My first time of getting him to know this game was failed but I did not give up.

Today, after a few days since the first incident of throwing tantrums towards the cards, I had decided to give him another chance to try. This time, he more laid back and patient to learn. Even though he did not success for a few times but he kept trying and I was so impressed when the failures did not upset him like before.He seemed to enjoy the cards. Relaxed and unemotional at all. I love seeing him stimulating his small brain in this game.

Well done boy, next time I will share the way he played with the flash cards that I bought last week.Passionate and the satisfaction at the end ;-p, that all I can say!

2 years and 1 month old

2011-09-07T16:39:00.000+02:00

Again, there is nothing much to share with just a few pics of him that were taken by me.
And these are our raya pictures
.

Salam Aidilfitri 2011

2011-08-30T01:08:00.000+02:00

Today is the last day of Ramadhan. Salam Aidilfitri and Maaf zahir batin to all..This year is the 6th year beraya di perantauan..the routine raya activity is, celebrating at the Embassy Malaysia of Brussels.

p.s- Haris is really a big boy. He asked me to lay a mattress for him while saying, 'mama nak sleep' and after I laying the mattress, he showed himself out from my bedroom closed the door and fell asleep..sedih..huhuh

Our wooden anniversary on 25th August 2011

2011-08-27T01:55:00.000+02:00

On the 25th of August 2011, we had reached our wooden anniversary, the parable for the fifth. This time, nothing was special except I received a bouquet of yellow roses from Am and in returned, I just cooked my home made spices for the chicken beriani. There was no romantic lunch or dinner since the iftar was quite late.

Never mind though because the most important thing is, the thought is count after all.

I have not got neither special words nor special surprised for this anniversary but I did receive plenty of very nice thought comments from my friends in the FB regarding my anniversary status ...

Today marks the 5th year of our marriage. We have overcome many challenges and obstacles to be at this level. The happiness, the sadness, the overjoys and etc, all blend in one word, the 'mix feelings'. Anyway, my dear hubby happy wooden anniversary..May Allah bless this marriage forever.. this year is a lucky year for us considering that our anniversary falls on 25th Ramadhan and I really hope the Ramadhan blessing to sail through this marriage, InsyaAllah.

And believe me, I am flattered ...Tq for all the warm wishes my friends....

The consequences from scribbling on the sofa..

2011-08-23T11:18:00.000+02:00
Ok, he made a real art and craft by scribbling on my sofa, so what? He just 2 years old. He still in the midst of learning and discovering this big world . The actions and the consequences to be exact. 'The papa' asked me to hide all the magic pens but I refused to do so. Furthermore, all the pens are washable just if he made any murals on the wall, but I do hope he won't go that far ;-))

So, after the sofa incident, Am and I went to the toy's shop to buy him this magnetic and black board ( 2 in 1 board ) for him. I was looking for the magic easel drawing but I could not find any so I chose this board instead, though I still hoping to buy the magic easel for him, insyaAllah.

Overexcited or what? You tell me ;-p

While scribbling, he could not refuse from watching the telly , oh mind the mattress behind him.

Great job Haris, hehehhee

Zoom in

When I asked him about the name of the stuffs that he was holding on his hands, he said ' olk n ord' that means chalk and board in his accent..hahahah .

As a mum I realized one thing, the more he is into the activities, the better he will be. Remember about the 'sand pit' that I made for him? He could not help playing with it. He kept playing until he did not want to go for a little lie down at all!

Sand pit

2011-08-23T11:09:00.000+02:00
He loved asking about sand after watching 'out and about' . The programmed was about the kids went to the beach and played with the sand.So, after blog hopping then finally I found 'play at home's blog' and was inspired from that blog to make this sand pit for him. Since we have not got enough space to put the sand in a big pool so I opted for this method instead. I bought the sand at the pet shop for a price of Eur 5 per bag and filled it in the baby bath. I used the baby bath to avoid from buying another bucket to play with the sand, so save my budget ;-)).

All I can say is, he played with this for over than an hour.

I do not expect he could love this so much!

Fun + simple= cheap!

Roll up your sleeves, my dear!

2011-08-17T13:06:00.000+02:00
Apart from painting and coloring, I have a vivid idea of teaching Haris to bake. Baking a simple recipe will do for a boy as young as him, thus last night I promised to myself of getting him involved in the baking project in the following morning.

I browsed via internet the suitable recipe for Haris to try with. I ended up choosing a recipe from I can cook programmed by BBC for children. I opted for sweet treat which was, chunky banana cake.

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree Celsius. Please asked an adult to do this because the oven is hot.

2. Ready all the ingredients and measured them. I asked Haris to scoop the flour , sugar etc and I did the measurement.

3.Mashing the banana and adding 3 desserts spoon of sunflower oil and I called this bowl as a wet bowl. The boy just loved the mashing process!

4.Mixed the flour, sugar and baking powder in another bowl (named it as a dry bowl) and poured it to the wet bowl followed by adding an egg.

Kept stirring until the mixture looked fluffy enough.

I was giving him a hand by arranging the paper cups in the cup cake's molds.

5. Carefully poured the mixture into each paper cups. First time of this process, I was the one who held the paper cup but after finished the first cuppy, he insisted to hold it by his own, well fine by me.

Not so neat but it was ok.

While he had been busy with the 'pouring thingy', I snapped this pictures. The cook with the clown's hat!

I was wondering how did the cakes come along. Though I felt relief when the result turned out good!

Ok, till next time..

He had fun!

2011-08-16T13:29:00.000+02:00
Today our art class had started a little bit late since Haris was too occupied in watching the BBC programmed, the baby Jack. As he loved the programmed that much, thus I did not want to distract his concentration.

After finished watching the telly, I asked my boy to sit down properly on his chair to start with the coloring activity. I was thinking to introduce him three techniques of coloring with the water color. Firstly, I was giving him a brush to color the horse. I stick the picture neatly on the tray before starting the coloring process.

Stick the picture neatly on the tray

With the brush in hand, he painted all over the picture.

I kept telling him to color within the line even though I knew it was impossible for a toddler at his age, but who cares. At least he understood!

The activity continued by using hand to play with the color. His first impression was, 'erkkk..the color is wet mama'. I taught him another word today, instead of wet which was, sticky. He kept repeating the new vocab of the day but it sounded funny when 'sticky' turned out to sound like 'iki'.

Using hand to make art

the small hand fully covered with the color

Taraaa

The last stage of the coloring technique was, stamping. I carved a potato with the letter H on it. He did not realized the existence of that letter on the potato until he stamped it on the paper and after that he could not help touching the potato, I could tell this was one of his way in learning the sensory skills.

He just could not resist from touching the letter H on the potato

Stamping..stamping and more stamping!

Hi mum!

The coloring activity's lasted for an hour plus. The final results of the day..

The pictures! I am a proud mum to a cheeky boy...

Q-tip?

2011-08-15T11:23:00.000+02:00

I was browsing on the internet for a toddler's activities since Haris looked so bored playing alone. My eyes were glued on the computer for quite sometimes until I came across one of the blogs that talked about this painting technique, Q-tip. I was wondering what the Q-tip was so I asked my best friend, Mr. Google and the answered that Mr. Google gave me was, ' only use the tip to apply the paint by using a cotton bud.

Firstly, I laid a mat on the floor, put the bib on Haris, and squeezed some colors on the painting tray so that he could choose any colors that he fancied.

After playing with the colors for about an hour, he said 'mama finish'. Straightaway, I gave him a good washed and this is the result of the Q tip technique by Haris.. Not so 'tip', isn't? Apart from the Q tip technique, I also introduced a stamping technique by using a carved potato for painting, unfortunately, he did not like this technique as much as Q tip.

Sometimes, a standard coloring technique with the coloring book also will do.

I know at two years old, a toddler is able to....

2011-08-14T22:53:00.000+02:00

I have not written about Haris development pace for quite sometimes considering that I have been busy with my daily chores. Sounds cliche? Yes I know ;-p

The latest progress of Haris is, he starts singing. When I said, 'singing' I really mean that word.

The situation was like this, I was in the midst of reading my new edition of Marie Clare when I heard he kept saying this rhymes,

' Baby ..bus, waa waa waa, all day long
Horn..bus,beep beep, all day long..
Bell..bus, ring ring ring, all day long...'

He kept repeating those rhymes without baby accents at all. I did not realize it is a song until the certain words bang right on my mind, which were , 'bus and all day long' . To be honest, the rhymes and the lyrics are jumbling up though what to expect, he is just two years old.

The wheels on the bus lyrics continuously flooding through my head and tell you what, we sang the song together, loudly!

Haris also manage to count from one to eleven fluently a week before he was celebrating his second birthday. For the counting lesson , I let him played with the toddlers score game online and after playing the game for a couple of time, resulting in him to able to count. I think the word literacy is not quite there yet to be used in this context unless he knows and learns an arithmetic.

Besides that, his vocabulary is improving from 50 words to more than 200 at this time of my writing. The funny thing is, when Am and I ask Haris to do something which completely impossible, he will say 'No'.

Let me tell you a story, one day we were lying cozily on the sofa, and out of the blue Am said to Haris, 'Haris can you touch the lamp please, (the ceiling lamp)?' I did not expect Haris to respond to this request, but I was wrong! Haris suddenly said, 'No, lamp is high'. Am and I went silent for awhile then we broke into a big laugh. We could not help laughing and giggling with his answered.

The other incident was, when I gave Haris a good bath in the morning. Normally I will use a hot water around 30 degree Celsius but on that day, I did not realize the temperature was around 40 degree Celsius. While bathing, he said to me, 'mama, water is hot', I was like 'err, hot?' and straightaway I turned down the temperature.

Too many stories to share with but too little time to write. In a nutshell, needless to say more because for me this is a tremendous improvement and quite an achievement for a boy at his age and as a mum, I am proud of him. No matter what ;-))

Everything about the bee theme's deco

2011-08-14T11:59:00.000+02:00

This entry is all about the details of my boy second bee party that was held on 23rd July 2011 at our apartment. Though, it was not the best, the grand and the most beautiful party deco ever, still I am happy and glad when the part went very well and the most important thing was, all these made by a mum who loves his boy unconditionally. In other word, the touch of mum's love !

The bees

These bees I bought at the shop that sell an organic honey to make my party looked prettier than it has already had ;-p

The king bee

The king bee made by me by using a Styrofoam which I bought at the art shop. I painted the styrofoam in black and yellow to make it looked like 'bee' then finished it with the pipe cleaner as the antenna and the googly eyes.

The welcoming bee card on the door to welcome all the guests.

The bee hive cake.

I made red velvet cake with the cream cheese topping for the cake. I meant to use the brown colour to suit the colour of the bee hive but due to certain reasons, I opted for the original colour of the cream cheese frosting and put the cake banner made by me and not to forget the number 2 candle on it.

The cuppies

The red velvet cup cakes with the toppers.

The party hats

I cut the card stock in a party hats design and glued the yellow paper on them. I bought the paper at Euro shop to save budget. The hats costed me less than Eur 3 for 12 numbers.

The goodies bags

I bought a thick yellow and black papers, cut and glued them in a right dimension. Taraa..The bee bags for the guests. I produced 12 numbers of the bags with the cost less than Eur 10.

Balloons garland and the paper streamers

I tied all the balloons with the ribbons and placed them properly on the ceiling. This year party I did not buy any helium balloons to save budget. For the paper streamers, I bought yellow and black creep papers then cut and glued them to make them longer enough to be twisted and hung on the ceiling.

Forks and spoons holders.

I bought these two things in bee design at Wibra and they costed me EUR 1 per piece. I added the black napkins to suit black and yellow colours for the bee theme.

The centerpiece,

I bought these lanterns at Zeeman and they costed me, Eur 1 per piece. To added charmed on the center piece, I made this card and framed it. The frame was bought at IKEA for the price of EUR 1.

The bunting

I designed and made the bunting myself to blend with the bee theme party. Self made not just save my penny but it also fit the criteria and design that I wanted. I know this bunting was not the best looked ever, but I was proud to did it by my own.

The invitation card,

I made and designed this card by my own special for his party and printed it to be one of the table deco on that day. The bees card's holders bought by me at one of the art shops at the price of less than Eur 2.

Those chocolate bars wrapping paper are made by me for Haris second birthday party. I know they do not look so professional since I just used a normal home printer to print them. To get the best result is by using a digital printer, normally the printing shops have this type of printer.

And, last but not least, the bee day boy of the day!

counting

2011-08-13T01:58:00.000+02:00
This is the way he learns to count the numbers from one to ten.

1st Ramdhan= 1st August 2011

2011-08-12T19:26:00.000+02:00
Ramadhan has left us for12 days. How fast the time flies.

Happy 2nd Bee day , darling

2011-07-27T19:36:00.000+02:00

Haris second birthday bash went very well. The guests turned out more than I have expected. I invited 27 people including baby but there were an extra three families came over on that day. Here are some of the pics of that day and the most important thing was all the preparation was fully done and made by me ;-)

Smiling faces

2011-07-19T20:09:00.000+02:00

More pictures of him before turning 2 years old in this coming Thursday. Two days to go for the B-day, though I am throwing him a party on 23rd July.

Little thinker

2011-07-17T00:09:00.000+02:00

23 months old

2011-07-16T16:20:00.000+02:00

2011-07-15T11:08:00.000+02:00

My trial of making cupcake topping.

Smoked salmon everyone?

2011-07-15T01:12:00.000+02:00

I love smoked salmon very much. I can eat the salmon straightaway from the packet. It raw but considered under cooked under the smoke. So, my dinner for tonight was 'saumon fumé avec salade roquette et tomate'. Yummylicious!

Coupe les chevaux

2011-07-15T00:24:00.000+02:00
How much is the most expensive price that you have ever spent for a great haircut in your life? Mine, when I was in Malaysia back then, I spent RM 180 for straightening by using rebounding technique together with the cutting. I did it twice, period! I could feel such a waste considering that I had to tie my hair neatly underneath the headscarf. Wiser I think is the best word to describe for the reason that my following haircut I only spent RM15 for washing, cutting and blow dry. That was it no more than that.

The condition seems different when I am here because the cheapest haircut is Eur 25 and the most expensive I have been spending so far was Eur 55 for shampooing, cutting, applying masker on the hair and finished with a blow dry. It accidentally happened once with the masker thingy by reason of limited comprehension in my French language in those early days when I moved to Belgium. After that incident, I am taking extra careful every time I go to the salon to avoid any additional tariff for unnecessary things.

This weekend I am going to give my hair a new life with a great haircut at my usual coiffure (hairdresser). I bet the scorching hot weather is the main consideration why I need my hair to be cut short. I mean very short thus, I was thinking of Rihanna style this time like in the second picture.

Happy weekend everyone!

Decluttering

2011-07-14T23:41:00.000+02:00
I learnt about organizing clothes based on colors code when I blogged hopping quite sometimes ago. The tips given on that blog by the writer are very good about space saving ideas in organizing clothes but, unfortunately I have forgotten the blog address if not, it is my pleasure to share the link in here.

I started decluttering Haris small cupboard after sick of seeing the limited space in there. Before this, I could fit so many clothes in his petite wardrobe but since he has grown up and the clothes are getting bigger, the space is starting to become one of the major problem in arranging his outfits, accessories, shoes etc. This is the best I can do for the first step after a massive selection of the clothes. The outgrown frocks have been kept in a big sac and I placed it neatly in my storage. The hanging clothes are actually a bit more than this, but due to lack of the hanger only these have been hung.

I think after this, I need to decluttere mine after seeing not- so- neat of clothes organizing in my wardrobe.

They are mixing up in sizes, colors and hangers I think, aren't they?

Playing with the stickers

2011-07-13T22:14:00.000+02:00

Haris had fun today by playing with the stickers. Those stickers were the stock of my collection which I bought in the last year for his first birthday party treat .

I am considering myself fortunate in this art and craft matter because I can buy the crafty things cheaply. Since the few months back, I was collecting papers, embellishments, cutters, paints and many more stuffs for my art collection. The latest in my wish list is a cutter with the various patterns of cutting and it is going to cost me Eur 135 for the whole set. Nevertheless, I am relief to know that Am is going to buy it for me and I hope he will deliver his promised in no time soon ;-))

Sometimes it is not about the Euro, but it is about the presence...

2011-07-12T19:40:00.000+02:00
Being a mum means I have to get creative to tackle my active toddler from being bored when he is at home. Being a housewife also means I have more privileges and time in nurturing and raising my kid in my own way.

I am happy to be the first to see his achievement.

I am jumping for joy to see him behaves in a good manner.

I am proud to say that I am the one who decides what is good or not for him etc.

Well Am does give an opinion and help me on this matter but since Haris is 24/7 under my supervision so I have to do most of the tasks and responsible from the simplest to the most demanding job. Though, I do not dare to jeopardize my solely decision in some matters regarding my baby so I have to ensure both of us agree in finding a decision , I mean the final decision in certain matters.

The best thing for staying at home mum is, there is neither 'no time' constraint of eight to five for the office hours nor the traffic jam to think off like commuting from home to the office. Actually I was thinking to start a small business from home
though I am still looking for an appropriate business to start with, any idea?

Entertaining my son while managing the house chores, teaching him about the basic skills, monitoring his development pace etc do require a very high tolerance and patience, I did lost my sanity before but after a deep thinking I come to the conclusion that, the chances of bringing up my own flesh and blood is like a special gift for me from God, and I will never realized how special it is until my boy is growing up and leaving the nest for good, and I am pretty sure he will before I know it.

Ok, let's forget about my stay-at-home tasks. Actually, I was meant to story about art and craft activity. This morning, when I was thinking of the best activity for Haris, out of nowhere, the idea of creating a coloring activity by using a toilet roll was popping out in my mind. The crafty activity is usually giving us such an enjoyable moment. Thus, I was saying to myself why did not I give it a go.

Straightaway I got ready with all the stuffs and I sat him on his highchair. I gathered all the toilet rolls which I collected since the few weeks back and with some water colors we were ready to start the activity. Ops, do remember to use the colors which are safe for the kids!

I showed him how to paint the rolls and let him did the rest. I could see he was using his small brain to show his creativity. After coloring all the rolls, he arranged them all, like this.

Surprisingly, he loved the activity so much. The cost for the activity was nothing because I just used all the recycle toilet rolls.

So, for the mums out there, spending time with the kids sometimes is not about the money, but it is about our presence, that is the most important things after all to them.

Older and wiser or otherwise?

2011-07-10T23:24:00.000+02:00

Getting older means, less friends, less rest, more stress, more responsibilities. Period!

and the list of less and more are on and on and on..

Some of the deco for bee theme party by me.

2011-07-05T13:07:00.001+02:00
The king bee-i made this hehehe

Banner to be deco on the wall at the main table for foods

Table sign

sticker to attach to the goodies bag

mineral water bottle wrap

Chocolate bar wrap

Practice makes perfect..

2011-07-05T00:33:00.000+02:00

Good, enjoyable, happy are the words to express my feeling of Paris revisited in the last week.

We were staying at four star hotel for 6 days and 5 nights. All the transportation from Belgium to Paris and the accommodation were free, all born by Am's university. Actually this time, Am had to present paper in the conference and the conference only lasted for three days but being 'kaki jalan' me, I requested to stay extra two nights to bring Haris to the Disneyland. Luckily, Greg (Am supervisor) just agreed with the proposal of overstaying in Paris and just paid the bill without being fussy etc, Err..actually, I meant to say the University instead.

The weather was nice except in the day 2, it was scorching hot up to 39 degree and really made me sweating like hell. Haris was cranky for the whole day due to the hot weather. The pinkish cheeks of him was explaining the weather on that day. In the next day, the weather was not promising when we had a light shower in the late evening and in fact my night photography at Museum de Louvre was in the rain.

When I was there, I went sightseeing in the Paris city alone with Haris for three days in the day when Am was in the conference room. I lost in the hectic city of Paris, but with the map and my little French I could asked and understood the explanation that given by the local people easily. I could not thankful enough to the community that I live in now for giving me such a valuable experience in learning French. This time I did not have difficulty to communicate and comprehend the language. I thought I was unable to understand if Parisian spoke French with me, but I was wrong! In fact, I could replied and requested everything in French. Even though my vocab and comprehension are limited but surprisingly it such an achievement for myself.

To cut it short, the overall of my trip was fun!

Have you heard the buzz in the town everybody?

2011-07-04T01:27:00.000+02:00

Haris is turning two in this coming 21st July, so I have planned bee-day party for him. Everything will be made from scratch by me. Will blog about this party in details after the party but for the time being, I just wanna share the invitation card!

Cheers!

Snobbish, cocky, arrogant? As if I care!

2011-06-20T09:50:00.000+02:00

Being rich, having great power and knowledgeable do not mean you have a privilege to despise other people. Double standard in entertaining people is not right in my humble life dictionary.

Working with the Embassy in the overseas does not mean you are the best and people must respect you more. No! no! no! It does not apply in that way unless you are no brain-er.

Holding a title of the spouse of the diplomat does not give you a chance to act like you are better than the spouse of the student. What is the different between us are, the way we behave and the way we create a good image with people. If you have degree, so do I and in fact I have a degree in Engineering. But, this degree thingy is not something you should be proud of because nowadays, so many people have masters and Phd(s). So what is the new then? Nothing!

For these past years of being abroad, I met various people from the Embassy (London and Belgium). Some of them are too modest, too friendly and very easy to mingle around but there is a very little number in a statistic of them are snobbish, cocky and arrogant.

Being stubborn me, I am so not going to entertain these arrogant people. You are upper class people, bosses, spouses to the bosses or otherwise-all ticks the boxes of top ranking people right?But, hear me out folks, I do not care. I will behave whatever appropriate of my mankind behavior. For me, I will approach them twice, for the first time by making ice breaking conversation, getting to know each other better or offering a handshake towards them, if the respond is so-so and plain thus I will back off and trying again some other time for twice, but this time if they keep bragging about how great and powerful they are, so with the wholeheartedly ignorance is my way. People can cocky twice with me but I do not do thrice because I have dignity in me.

The best way to treat these people are by taking no notice to them, just sit and laid back, karma will pay. Honestly, if they think they can get going by boasting around, I guess they are wrong. It is a human nature to being respect and loved but to gain a respect from people, we have to show respect to others too. Respect is something you cannot buy with money and power. So, if you are happy for being cocky, I have no problem with it because that is your call.

By the way, I might be not having a time to update my blog for a week or more because I am heading to Paris this coming Sunday and will be staying in one of the hotel in Paris for a week. This is my second visit to Paris and I am going to blog about it if I had a free time, InsyaAllah.

Mastering the skills..

2011-06-16T23:55:00.000+02:00

Talking about skills of my kid is really stimulating my feeling. The excitement of watching my baby development pace is like unstopping adrenaline flowing through my soul.

One morning, out of the blue, when he woke up from sleeping in the last two days he said, 'teddy bear' loudly. I thought I was hallucination when I heard those words, but it was completely wrong! He really said 'the teddy bear' while pointing at his teddy.

That is one of the new skills of Haris which is combining two or sometimes three words to create a sentence.

Today he amazed me again when suddenly in the midst of playing with the trucks and such, he said 'nak'. I popped a question and asked what did he want and 'nak' for. He kept saying 'nak' on and on. So, I told him gently to show me what the thing that he really wanted. He stood up and ran over the main door whilst saying 'nak' followed by 'dog', 'bus', 'baby'.

Do you know what is that means? Let me translate those baby code for you. It means, he wanted to go out to see the dog, the bus , the baby etc. He does not know how to say 'go out' so he said the things that he really wanted to see instead. As we know, to acquire or gain skill, knowledge or comprehension for a baby does take time. So, as a parent myself, I am happy to teach and guide him to sail through this phase.

Frankly, it is really hard sometimes to assimilate what is Haris trying to say to us, but we learn it by heart or in other word, we learn it through time. Though, I enjoy this phase of his development pace because I know it will last before I know it.

Perhaps, it is about the time for me to realize that my baby has grown up...

Do the reality check, well sometimes...

2011-06-15T01:04:00.001+02:00

I love blog hopping when I have an ample time to kill, it is not like a novel 'to kill a mocking bird' by Harper Lee that all the matriculation students during my time had been forced to read though ;-), I cannot find an exact word to tell how boring the storyline of the novel was, sigh!

Every time I visit from one blog to another, there must be one or two blogs which attract my heart to read the contents. Sometimes, the writers just too good in impressing their feeling and they are really touching my heart. The sincere writing from them lead my heart to an uncontrolled way like a huge wave hits a cruise ship in the sea.

Reading a reality story of them really make me realize, instead of being greedy of what other people have, I rather being grateful for what I have already had because life is too short after all.

But, just if I had a chance to go back to the previous time, there is something I wished I could make a different though which is to be more sensitive and appreciate my family especially the parents. There is a moment when I feel like not giving enough hugs and kisses to my parents in my 33 years of life.

I do not want to blame the parents for their way of bringing up myself, because that is their style of not showing 'parents-kids' precious moment like us the modern parents. Thus, I hope in changing the approaching of nurturing my kid in my own technique, for a better or maybe the best. InsyaAllah.

Until then, I pray and I hope to still having time and chance to do this to my parents before it is too late for me to do so...

If you want the truth, ask the kids...

2011-06-11T00:36:00.000+02:00
One evening an innocent little girl is spending her evening by accompanying an old nasty lady. Below is the dialogue between them.

The little girl : 'can I read you a story?'
The old lady : 'Do I look like 3 years old?'
the little girl : with innocent look n voice, 'no, but you look like 300 years old..'

The kid's answer is served the lady's right because she looks aging than her real age. The moral of the story is, kids do not understand when you talk in a sarcastic way nor to comprehend a statement that needs to be read between the lines. Understanding the hidden meaning in something said or written is no-no for the kids. One thing for certain, they will answer as frank as they possibly can. If they said, you look ugly in your attires, you better get into the house and change the clothes before the public criticizes your appearance, that is just an example of learning the reality check by using the kids.

Here comes to the point why I write this entry. The incident was like this. I was in the kitchen in the whole afternoon, rolling my sleeves to cook something healthy and special for Haris. After finishing my cooking, I asked him to taste a spoonful of one of the dishes.

Normally, when he eats something he will say, 'sedap' and that means the food is very tasty and yummy but today, when I asked him to verdict the taste of my cooking meals, here was the verdict.

Mama- Haris, how does it taste? sedap?
Haris- silent
Mama- Haris, is it yummy?
Haris- only showed action by shaking his head like 'no, tak sedap'.hehehe

Thus, I tasted the food by my own and my taste buds was said a big NO to the food? The food was so tasteless and bland because I have forgotten to put a pinch of salt in my cooking. Well, cooking without salt is like lacking taste or flavor and tang. No wonder, Haris did not say a word. Now, I know the best way to test my cooking skills is by using Haris as a tester. hehehe.

Random acts

2011-06-06T00:15:00.001+02:00

A week progress after weaning~ at 22 months old~

2011-06-03T23:25:00.000+02:00

Every kid is different and develops in their own pace. For Haris it has meant to be a fussy baby and he refused to take formula milk since he was two months old, it was not about the formula itself, because he is totally rejecting the bottle. I have been trying various bottles and they all ended up as my unwanted collection in the cupboard.

What I really want to share in this entry is about my effort to stop supplying breast milk to my boy. I have gathered all my mix feelings before starting this and all I can say is, I am glad because it has been a week since I stopped Haris's day feeding without any fuss from him. I intend to reduce the milk supply gradually in hoping by the age of two years he will completely stop.

Breastfeeding exclusively is tough, well at least for me thus it is resulting in me feeling completely proud of myself. An unintentional effort led to the huge success because I was planning to mix in feeding my baby at the first place. Nevertheless, I admit breast is the best for the baby. As my personal experience, Haris is rarely getting sick for the two years of his life. He just ill twice, once when he was six months old when we returned to Malaysia (due to the weather) and the last time he was sick was in the last month, not sick actually but more on flu only, and it was lasted for three days before he started kicking and playing like usual.

The progress of stopping the breastfeeding is so far so good and he seems to understand when I tell him about big boy does need so much milk. Until now, I am only offering him once milk intake during night before he dozing off in his slumber. Only once per day and no more!

The next thing is, I am planning to potty training my darling boy and hoping by the age of two and half years old, he will completely diapers free. InsyaAllah..

Through the eyes of the toddler...

2011-06-01T09:48:00.000+02:00

I can see pure love, a big hope and curiosity through his eyes...divine!

spring/summer 2011

2011-05-30T09:24:00.000+02:00

We brought Haris to climb 400 steps at Liege city. The steps led us to the citadel park. From 400 steps, Haris managed to climb more than half of them. I am so proud of him because he less than 2 years old! After the whole tiring evening, he slept very early last night like adult used to say 'sleep like a baby'...

He is about to start schooling...

2011-05-28T23:17:00.000+02:00

My boy will turn 2 years old in two months away, so my husband and I have decided to enroll him to kindergarten at three years old. I have found a school via internet and contacted the person in charge regarding this matter. The director of the school said,

'If you are interested by what we call ‘immersion’, you should register your son ASAP. He will then be put on a waiting list. At the age of 2 ½, he can start attending kindergarten. There is no problem attending kindergarten between the age of 2 ½ and 5 as he will be taught in French. If he can get onto the right list, he will then be allowed to attend the last year of kindergarten in English and then attend primary school in English, where he will learn to read and write in English before reading in French.

You can make an appointment or come to the school if you happen to pass by.

There are no school fees as my school depends on the County Council, so it is also open to everyone.

So, here I am. Next week on 31st May I have set an appointment to meet the director to talk about this matter and if everything is ok, I will enroll Haris at the school. Just if I have a huge amount of money, International school would be my choice but what to do, though I am glad if Haris can continue his primary in English and French based school. The more he knows about languages, the better. Language is global and important after all, especially the international languages. So, in this case I am talking about French and English.

All the best baby! I can't believe you are about to start schooling.

Slumberland

2011-05-27T15:09:00.000+02:00

The tiredness seems disappear in the thin air when I see my baby drifts away in his slumber..

Photo of Haris at 22 months old.

Worst experience with Hellvetia hotel, Venice Lido Italy

2011-05-27T10:42:00.001+02:00
Ok, as I promised in my previous entry. This entry is just about the hotel that we stayed in Venice. The hotel's name is Hellvetia and it is located in Venice Lido and only 15 minutes by boat to the tourist area, St. Marc Square.

First of foremost, nothing was good about this hotel. The room was small, the furniture was lousy , the staffs especially an old lady in a biker jacket were rude, the hotel's policy was rubbish which was we could not bring any foods into the room except a small amount of drink and with a baby it was quite difficult. The funny thing was, we never saw any notices about this rules until the old lady saw us brought a box of pizza to the hotel and she said it was against the hotel's policy. I could not see any policy about bringing foods everywhere in the hotel until the next day after the incident the hotel put the notice on the reception desk about the foods thingy. I can accept if she said in a polite way but it was not!

Besides that, the hotel was pricey and the location was not so good. If you have a limited time of traveling just stay at the main land. It is quite expensive but trust me, you will satisfy and does not waste too much time on riding a boat.

On the day of our departure, we notified the hotel's staff that we wanted to checked out very early in the morning so we insisted on paying by cash at the counter a day before departure. We settled the bill and the staff said, he can only gave us the receipt on the next day because only one person was allowed to write the bill. Rubbish wasn't? Owh, one more thing, on the day we checked in the hotel, the staff held our passports for I did not know the purposed of that but one thing for sure, your passport is not something that other people can simply hold it. It against the rules.

On the day of our departure, we received an email from the hotel's staff and it said, we had broken the sink and the chamber maid was not there to check during the checking out due to the time of our checking out was too early. We checked out at 7 am and the chambermaid clocked in time was 8 am. The hotel insisted us to pay Eur 195 for this. We were not happy because when we left the hotel everything was in a good nick. Nothing was broken! We replied the email saying that we were not going to pay the amount and it was not fair to do the false allegation like that.

The hotel seemed did not want to give in, so they said, they will charge our credit card for this amount. Before we had time to cancel the credit card, the amount was charged to our credit card. We were so furious and filed a claim to our bank and attached all the receipts of payment etc. The bank said, if everything is ok we will get the refund. Fingers crossed! Though I am not happy with this matter. So, to the people out there avoid this hotel! We put a comment on booking.com website but unfortunately our comment was invisible to other people to review it. Booking.com is taking side on the hotel.

So, if you want to book a hotel, avoid the not so well known hotel and avoid the hotel with the reviews are invisible . There is must be something wrong with the hotel if the guests keep saying negatives comments about it. This is the precious experience for us. After this we will loyal to IBIS or well known hotels instead of searching for a good bargain. Trust me, if something is too good to be true that means it is scam.

Though Hellvetia hotel ruined our sweet memories in Venice but I still thinking of visiting Venice again in the future...InsyaAllah..

Venice-Venezia but avoid HELLVETIA hotel in Venice Lido, this hotel is sucks!!!!

2011-05-26T10:06:00.000+02:00
In the early morning on 24th April we went off to Venice by fast train. The journey took about two and half hour, is I am not mistaken, but no longer than that.

Our journey on board was smooth. We got a very good spot for our seat and Haris's buggy can fit perfectly just behind my seat and it seemed like Haris got his own space. One more thing you must take into account about Italy train, you must reserve your seat number at the counter or otherwise you will not get any seats on board especially during peak season, though this is not apply to the regional train.

The tickets costed us Euro 140 ( but not more than this for return trip for 2 adults ). We bought those at the counter, you can buy it online and get discount for the ticket plus you can avoid a longer queue, when I said longer, I mean very very very long queue especially during the peak season.

Venice has its own charms and unique in its own way. People in Venice get around by boats, gondolas, vaporettos or by feet. The Vaporetto ticket was Euro 28 for 2 days. We bought for 2 days since we stayed in Venice for 2 nights. You can buy it for 24 hours or per trip instead. But, bear in mind per trip ticket is much expensive. You have to pay about Euro 6.50 per trip! Do not forget to validate the ticket at the machine every time you depart from the station. The station is like this photo,

On the first day, we visited the must visit area St. Marco Polo square. With the sea of people, it quite hard to sightseeing especially with the buggy. Venice is a town which full of steps and canals, so for parents with the buggy like us, it quite challenging. We have to lift the buggy together every time we are using steps.

Night is the best time to take photo especially the romantic photo. The quite town is so beautiful at night especially when the tourists are not so crowded.

To those whose fan of the Hard rock cafe, this is a good news for you because there is a new opening of Hard rock cafe Venice. When I was there, I had to queue for an hour just to get into the shop not the restaurant!

There are plenty of museum to visit but we managed to visit Leornardo Da Vinci
museum only. The entrance fees for 2 people were Euro 14.

Too many things if I want to tell in details, so in a nutshell, go and visit Venice by your own. I really like this town though it is not cheap to visit compared to Milan. If Milan is well known as a fashion city, thus Venice is synonym with the romantic word.

If you want to visit Venice avoid during summer and end spring because it will be too crowded and hotels will be too pricey. You can stay at the nearby island, like Lido to avoid paying a huge amount for hotel especially if you are staying in the center of Venice.

Though, one thing I want to stress in here, if you are planning to visit Venice, avoid the hotel that I stayed when I was there. The hotel is Helvetia Hotel in Venice Lido. This Hotel staffs were not friendly and the hotel charged our credit card for the amount of Eur 195 for something damaged that we did not do. They claimed we broken the sink in the hotel etc. They are real scammer in hotel industry and trust me they will rip you off in every aspects that they can.

The hotel, Helvetia in Venice Lido. Avoid this hotel!!

to be continued the story about the hotel in my next entry.

Como Lake, Italy

2011-05-23T22:03:00.000+02:00

In the early morning on the second day of our trip, we decided to visit one of the most beautiful lakes in Italy, Lake Como. The lake is located 33 minutes by fast train from the central of Milan. The return tickets for 2 people is, Euro 50. A day visit to this lake is enough especially if you want to escape from the chaos city of Milan. The lake was absolutely peaceful and beautiful.

Once I arrived at the lake, the childhood memories of painting the hills, the lakes and the boats in my art class popped in my mind. How beautiful the lake was!We spent for about 8 hours at this place before returned to the city and took night shot of the city and back to the hotel. The next day was a day that we went off to Venice by the fast train and spent 3 days and 2 nights in Venice. Loads of pictures to share with but due to some reasons only those are for sharing in this blog. The rest can be viewed in my Facebook.

shooting all these photos by using manual programmed

2011-05-23T15:56:00.000+02:00

I am still learning. Learning how to use my dslr in a right way especially the manual programmed. It is not as easy as it looks but never give up!

Milan, Italy trip

2011-05-22T10:26:00.000+02:00
On 22nd of April 2011, we went off to Milan by Brussels Airlines. We departed at 9.15am and arrived at Milan Malpensa Terminal 1 airport at 11.45am. The journey went smoothly and Haris did not make any scenes at all in the flight.

Once we arrived at Milan, we bought two tickets for express train and those tickets costed us Euro 14 return per pax. The travel time was about an hour to arrive at the Milan central station and at the central, without having second thought we bought 2 days travel passes for Milan. The passes costed us Euro 5.50 per pax for 48 hours from the time of validation. With the passes we can travel by buses, metro and trams easily and cheaply. The word for ticket in Italiano is ,biglietteria.

The first agenda was, checked in the hotel at Ibis Milano central and the hotel is a station away from Milan central. The metro station is Republica, which was situated nearby our hotel, ibis central milano. just a stop away fr. central. very convenient!

After checking in, we had lunch and went off to sightseeing until the late night. Milan is not a big city to discover. The city is a shopping heaven and if you have a huge amount of money so this city is right for you. The most attraction place in Milan is the Duomo.

The metro station to visit duomo is, Duomo and look for this signboard for Metro.

metro signs

We never use tram since tram is not user friendly for the people with the buggy like us.

Milano tram

Duomo at night

Victorio Emmanuelle 2 shopping heaven..

the statue at the duomo square

I think this info is worth sharing, the shopping district of Victorio Emmanuell 2 is just around the corner and the area is full with the branded items. Just named it!

From Duomo we went to visit the castelo aka the castle.

the castle

After visiting castle we went to the park and enjoying eating the gelato or ice cream. The must eat when you are visiting italy is their gelato, pasta and pizza!

Gelato-the ice cream. Never miss the ice cream if u visit Italy!

After feeling tired we went to the restaurant to try their pizza and spaghetti and trust me, those foods tasted so yummy.licio.us! The price was ok and considerably cheap for the tourist attraction city. We ended our day 1 Milan visit at 11 pm and continued our trip by visiting Lake Como on the second day.

Daily obsession outfit

2011-05-17T00:34:00.000+02:00
My current obsession for my daily outfit is, wearing a legging. Legging is so comfortable for a mum with an active toddler, like me. Those are the pictures of me in leggings.Do remember this rules, if you are wearing a legging, avoid from wearing a short top and try to wear a dark colour leggings such as black, dark brown etc for the first timer to avoid from feeling awkward in the public. Being a mum does not mean we have to be boring. We should dress up a bit but just remember to not overdone it. The last rules is do not forget to take photo with your kids because they are just like icing on the cake for our pictures.

the ideas..

2011-05-17T00:11:00.000+02:00
I was thinking of doing my online business to fulfill my ample time. Too many ideas in the head and yet so little effort to launch it. I have been researching and thinking about doing business in art and craft, actually more on supplying a raw materials in art and craft thingy.

Besides that, maternity clothes, children toys, books, handbags and perfume are part of my business ideas. The problem with me is, I have not confident enough to start the business. I need courage!

I am so in love with party theme. I just love to take order in designing themes for other people, though I haven't told people about this :-((, yet!. Frankly, I have a few designs in my collection that I have made by my own so here are some of them. These designs are for bottle wraps and chocolate bar wraps.

Happy second mother's day to me!

2011-05-08T11:09:00.001+02:00
I am counting the blessings of being a mum to Haris but I never forget how blessed I am to have a mum like my mum, Pn. Hjh Zaimah Yaacob, and this year marks my second year of being a mum. Two words to describe my feeling is, 'mix feelings'. Feelings of knackered in handling the toddler, happy of watching him grows in front of me and happy seeing his development pace.

At this phase,his action is really testing my patient up to the limit and I am feeling ashamed sometimes when I really cross with this little toddler especially when I have so many things in my plate. Though, I am thankful enough to have a husband that is really really really patient and really laid back in handling an active toddler compared to me.Frankly, he is the one who always make me realize to take it easy with Haris, he is still a baby not reaching two years old yet, but he will in two months away. I can't wait for that !

Nurturing a kid solely without helping from the closed family is not easy. The responsibility is huge and sometimes I can tell unbearable, but eventually I made it with the helps from the husband. When we passed the hardest moment, the next challenge in life feels easy though I can't tell yet because it is long journey ahead. Nevertheless, I hope the bright side is waiting for the three of us, InsyaAllah.

This year of this special day I am blessed when Haris can say many words, some of the new words that popped out from his mouth are,

1. toothbrush

2.toothpaste

3.spoon

4.curtain

5.shoes

6.socks

7.bob the builder

8.papa wake instead of papa wake up.

and etc. Too many words to list down!

Anyway, to make this note short, I wish Happy Mother's day to all mums in this world!

Bless !!!

mama and son

I am a mum because of this little angel presence!

Updates

2011-05-06T13:09:00.001+02:00

1.We went on holiday to Venice and Milan, Italy on 22th April until 26th April 2011. Photos are loads! There were ups and downs during this time trip but overall I like Venice so much compared to Milan.

2. I just received the tickets and hotel's booking in Paris for this coming June. This time we will be revisiting Paris and Disneyland and all are free. I am joining Am for his conference. This conference will be held every other year and this year is in Paris.

3. There is an activity for the spouses during the conference and one of that is, cocktail in Eiffel tower! Unfortunately, with Haris I do not think I can make it. But, will see though when the time comes.

Try again!

2011-04-13T14:17:00.000+02:00

This is the right way to control the control car ye kawan2. First of all kick with your foot or perhaps you can use your hand instead. The remote in hand is for display only..hehehehe

A driver hat

2011-04-12T15:46:00.000+02:00

I have been surveying for this hat since the last year and what a lucky day today when I found it. The size is perfectly fit his head.

Who says only gegirl can be trendy? hehehe

The toddler talks..

2011-04-09T21:32:00.000+02:00

Dialogue 1

He watched the Tinga Tinga Tales cartoon at Cbeebies in the few days before and the episode was about a lion and his roar.

Mama- Haris, listen..I am the king of Tinga -tinga, who are you? ( I mimicked the voice of the lion in the tinga-tinga tales)

Haris- roarrrrrrrrr! roarrrrrrrrr! ( just imagine a lion with the baby's voice )

Mama- Who are you? (Kept repeating the lion voice )

Haris- roarrrrrrr! roarrrrrr!

Dialogue 2

Last night when we watched the telly , I asked Haris to said each person in the picture on the wall while pointing my finger to the picture.

Mama-Haris , who is that?

Haris- The papa ( the is the version of Haris in saying things !)

Mama- Well done Haris! Ok next, who is that?

Haris- The mama

Mama -Well done Haris . Ok next, who is that? While my finger is pointing to him.

Haris- The baby.

Mama- Ok, well done Haris. Then I switched the question. Haris, who are you? I am hoping he will say the baby because he still does not know how to pronounce his own name.

Haris- With the confident and high pitched voiced, 'roarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr'!

Mama- Owh ok! Well done Haris! but I could not stop laughing while seeing his innocent and funny face...hehehhe

Experience is the best teacher in life...

2011-04-08T12:14:00.000+02:00

There are so many friends in my FB just gave birth this year, so congratulations to them. Frankly, I can't help from feeling how fortunate they are to have the family and friends to celebrate their newborn babies to this world.

reminiscence - July 2009.

A midwife entered the room 161 in the afternoon a day after I gave birth to Haris. She arranged a small rack and placed it by the wall while saying this to me, ' this rack is for the flowers from your visitors.'

I just looked at her face and gave a meaningless smile and there was a voice whispering from my heart saying , 'I do not need the rack since I have not got family in this land to visit me in the hospital and bring me the flowers', but I was wrong, because in the late afternoon Am came to be with me in the hospital and he bought me a bouquet of flowers with the congratulations card and not to forget the 'its a boy' helium balloon. He really made my day.

Nevertheless, the day passed by and the only flowers I received was from him and it slightly made me felt lonely and the feelings led to the baby blues syndrome.

The other difficult incident of not having closed relatives in the foreign land was, nobody was there to prepare the healthy home made foods and the hospital foods were limited for vegetarian and fish only and I badly needed the taste of rice in my dinner. How I wished somebody could cook a very good foods that time. I did not blame Am for this since he had to back and forth ran an errand so resulting in him had a very little time left to prepare the foods. A very simple fried rice was the option for him to prepare for the two of us.

I precisely remember when one evening the nurse mistakenly served my dinner with the slices of bacon and bread on the plate and I did not have choices because all the shops and cafeterias were closed. I could ended up going to bed with an empty stomach that night, but thank God when I had visitors on that day. They brought over a warm soup with the rice, and the tasted was like a food from heaven! I do not have to mention their names because they know who they are. Truthfully, I really appreciate their kindness and will remember them for the rest of my life. InsyaAllah.

I am writing this because I can feel how much blessing for those who have been surroundings by family and friends when they are at the hospital after having a bundle of joy. The visitors truly make a good day to the patient . For us, the experience is the best teacher of counting the blessing of having the baby in the foreign land.

I realized one thing, 'actually when we have to do something without any helps from others, we could cope and nothing is impossible,' it just the matter of giving up to the challenge and keep mourning or otherwise. For me, I chose to be positive and alhamdulillah, until today I manage to handle my boy only with the help of my husband.

Anyway, life is not all about us right? So be rational ;-)))

20 months old

2011-04-06T12:42:00.000+02:00

Stay at home mum

From the buggy, mama

Inappropriate, oh dear!

About making choices..

Pre loved Fossil handbag anyone..?

Happy New Year 2012

When the tiny mouth speaks, I feel like 'lempang' hehehe

Kids are innocent

Life means...

What lies ahead remain mystery, until it did happen!

cripple

Farewell

The soul...

Tuhan berikanlah aku cinta..

When HE said ....

Fruity tears..

'Soft spot' does not so soft anymore..

Saddo

Heart wrenching

Alhamdulillah

I think..

Eid ul adha everyone

The golden vibrant colors of the fall season.

Haris-Mama, wants fire wangen please.. Mama-No, it's heavy Haris n dangerous. If it hits your toes, u will get hurt. Haris-okay, sorry mama! ' 'It' a.k.a fire wangen is his toddler's accent for fire extinguisher because he does not know how to say fire extinguisher instead'. ;-p

Little bandage for the little man

It sucks

Leap pad by Leap frog

Enduring the pain

Kasih suci

Self reflect

My first learn to spell puzzle

I am older yet wiser?

That is why the customer service is important ...

Playing with the dough

Puffy paint

Links

Painting ..painting..and more painting...

Working on shape recognition and hand-eye coordination

Montessori skills life basic-spooning, pouring and picking

Quotes

Learning about the shapes

When a best friend says something, It means a lot...

message from ayah bonda

Speechless, perhaps..

What is stopping me?

How does my son learn his first thousands words?

Small Learning Space

video of him

The moment he said good bye to his best buddies..

Let's talk about the chatter box in the house.

lagi lagi raya

Beginner cards

2 years and 1 month old

Salam Aidilfitri 2011

Our wooden anniversary on 25th August 2011

The consequences from scribbling on the sofa..

Sand pit

Roll up your sleeves, my dear!

He had fun!

Q-tip?

I know at two years old, a toddler is able to....

Everything about the bee theme's deco

counting

1st Ramdhan= 1st August 2011

Happy 2nd Bee day , darling

Smiling faces

Little thinker

23 months old

Smoked salmon everyone?

Coupe les chevaux

Decluttering

Playing with the stickers

Sometimes it is not about the Euro, but it is about the presence...

Older and wiser or otherwise?

Some of the deco for bee theme party by me.

Practice makes perfect..

Have you heard the buzz in the town everybody?

Snobbish, cocky, arrogant? As if I care!

Mastering the skills..

Do the reality check, well sometimes...

Haris-Mama, wants fire wangen please..
Mama-No, it's heavy Haris n dangerous. If it hits your toes, u will get hurt.
Haris-okay, sorry mama!

' 'It' a.k.a fire wangen is his toddler's accent for fire extinguisher because he does not know how to say fire extinguisher instead'. ;-p