11 years

as man & wife. 6 years as mom & dad for Umar, Zaky & Aqil. 12-12-2009 it's the 11th year anniversary. Alhamdulillah. Praise to Allah for everything.

Back to home country

of Mummy's :P So welcome to live in Malaysia Naz, Umar, Zaky & Aqil. After 8 mths transition of weather and culture in Singapore from California, from England. And I can't believe it that the weather, air quality has changed so much from 12 years ago! So now our body system's struggling to keep up with the hot weather and obviously 'not good' air quality. All i can think of is, it's like summer in the dessert of Las Vegas! but worse with the humidity. For the first time, Aqil got runny nose for days, Umar & Zaky with coughing. Mummy with sinusitis. Dad? Daddy cool? :P He's used to life of drastic change of weather as he's been travelling to all sorts of different weather in short notice for the past 7-8yrs. From summer, spring temperature to thick snow etc. Good for you then
;-)

As of the kids, 1,2,3. No.1 Umar-Finding his new kindy and taekwando, No.2 Zaky-Getting him to school too? we'll see. He can recite Al-fatihah on his own now, before 3yrs old. Yippee! And last night he cried in his sleeping, on and off, Mummy already thought it's due to unfinished business with us just before he slept ;-) So i asked him today, "Who cried last night?" "Me" with a smile :P "Why did you cry Zaky?" "Because I need batteries" yea..he wanted batteries as laptop switched off due to battery nil. We purposely did not plug it in so that they wouldn't play too long, as what always happened. Now Umar gotta see optometrist after initial check-up at his kindy last month.
And our No.3-Aqil..he can sing Thomas song his way! :-) And he is so keen, too keen on what he wants, be it to go out from the house, type of food etc. If he did not get what he wants, he will try to knock his head on the floor and throw his body to the floor! My goodness. I got 3 kinds of superheroes here, and my helper need to deal with all these everyday. When I'm around, I make sure I give her every single tips i can think of on how to look after my children, how to handle different arguments, battle situation, resentment at meal time etc.

We pray to Allah that our family can survive the weather, the culture and Malaysia.

Happy New Year 2009

Well.. the new year, the new beginning of kids/our life, the family in Asia. Umar started his K2 (Kindergarten 2) on Jan 7th. First 2 weeks was really a challenging time for him especially. The new school environment, new friends-to-be who he cannot understand well their English (Singlish!) and Malay and vice versa. And we did not know how is the school system here, early childhood school. Mum kinda worried when Umar seemed not happy at all at first. When asked, he's not telling what we would like to know. Luckily the communication book between parent/teacher been given few days after school started :P Management. Talking about it, on his 1st day, a parent should be with their child on the bus for the driver to know the exact place to pick up/drop off. And not to our knowledge we were on the wrong bus, following the information given on the orientation day! :P Another management issue and they really apologize to us, new comer that they thought have the same experience like the old students who are used to different buses! :P Sabar...

So Mummy started to write to teacher about what I see in Umar and so forth (including some incidents with him and friends-to-be that is worrying). After 2-3 times Mummy wrote in the book, with concerns, comments, suggestions etc. Umar's teacher called Mummy, and we basically discussed things out when I convinced her that I just want to make sure my child can learn alongside with other children, happily without the feelings of been left out in social circle. Yea..after a week and a half, eventualy he can name out one of his friends in class! (hey! they did not use name tags at all (can be just stickers as i suggested! :P) and most of them have been friends with each other since a yr or 2yrs ago! Umar is all new to everything here, the culture of the school, the children, even teacher said that the way I brought up my children is not the same like they do it here. I totally agree, which out of the conversation/discussion with Umar's teacher, we understand that Umar is in adaptation process to the whole situation, the culture and all, even the food at school! (I never thought school can give chocolate spread for bread, jammy/choc biscuits at snack time, token sweeties from teacher (doesn't matter if it's end of school), junkies from bus driver assistant, friends giving sweeties to friends, OMG. What happen to the fruits, healthy food for the children? Even parents allow sweeties/junkies to be brought to school. Umar is surprised, so is Mummy! :P So this is one of the culture. Are we suppose to adapt to this unhealthy habits?...We gotta choose wisely here, which culture for the children, for the family etc. But it's not easy for a 5+yr old to understand this whole culture thing.

Come to the 3rd week, his 1st spelling assessment. Alhamdulillah, as teacher said (after I asked in the communication book, coz i'm not taking Umar's every words yet! :P) "he did the spelling very well both in English and Malay!" I thank to his Ayah for the spelling at home. Yea..it's the parents homework; but we are used to teach Umar at home. Then his 2nd spelling, which i knew he would have done it well too. And that Umar said, "I did well Mummy" :-) At the end of the month, he brought back the book that proves he did very well indeed, with good writing, which Mummy thought he's a bit behind in that; as here, they enhanced the writing skills from age 4!

And Zaky at 2 1/2yrs old?... still home learning in playing. Yea..whenever we got the opportunity, not everyday as we got Umar & Aqil in need of attention too. Can't help not to send him yet to 2hr daily school (Nursery 1=3yrs old) as I don't want him to be culturized (yet!) with the too systematic early childhood school programme here and the 'local English'. I've read lotsa expat forums that they agree the early childhood school here is too systematic/rigid. But the advertisement of the school tells you the opposite! Probably the context of learning through play here is a bit different from the one in UK, US. And so far, at any playground, i can't see any 8yr old can ask politely (with a simple please and thank you that is..), teenagers considerate to younger children, let alone the younger ones, going towards the same path!? So what's going to happen to my kids?..We can't be there all the time with them, mmmm.... Shouldn't it early childhood education emphasize on civics, social behaviour, imaginative thinking skills, freedom of opinions/speech. This is where the politeness of the Malay culture become useful ;-)

Back to Zaky..Hey! He started recognizing words! His dad (again ;-)) discovered when they went out from the car park and he pointed to his dad saying ,"Exit". Yippee! We always wonder (may be Mummy! :P) when can he start reading, will it be like Umar a week shy of his 3rd b'day? We were not convinced at all with Zaky, esp when most of the time he plays with Umar of 5+ age games! But they do have fun, enhance his speech, vocab and thinking skills when playing with Umar. And just yesterday when his dad asked us to get any book that he likes to read, he took this book and said, "Shapes" and dad was surprised he can read the title of the book. May be he recognized the word itself through memory, including a few more others. But that's the start of the reading stage. We are happy for you Zaky, and we still gotta work with you more on reading or reading on Starfall.com! Yea, he prefers games on other children websites :P Unlike Umar he got more reading for himself (actually the daily bedtime story reading with Dad) until the age of 4+. When Zaky became a toddler, Dad gotta put 2 boys to bed, so ended up only with Surahs and doas (it takes a while for Umar to read 8-9 surahs and his own long! duas) , which Zaky is yet to pick up. He can now say 'Bismillah' that's when we sing to him, "Before we sleep we say (Bismillah)." And he can follow us reading Al-Fatihah. May Allah give us strength to teach our children to make the best out of them. InsyaAllah.

Excerpts from a newspaper recently,
Said one of the local politician "..a vast difference in the scale and depth of efforts in improving the primary education teaching force as compared to preschool teachers. When can we do the same for early childhood education?"
A new fastrack course in kindergarten education will be launched this year to attract quality preschool teachers and raise standards in the sector.

10th Anniversary

12-12-1998 -----> 12-12-2008
HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY to us

10 years in marriage, now with them 3...Umar, Zaky & Aqil; 5,2,8mths, growing day by day, year by year..
Some conversations with them last few days.

While Mummy drink up her drink in front of tele with Umar who's watching Ben10 on CartoonNetwork (can say he only 'got in' to CartoonNetwork from weeks ago, we prefer other kids channel)
Umar, "This episode is not only about Ben10 fighting, it's about how Ben10 got his Ben10 alien watch and how to use it to go to the planets that got aliens; So Ayah is right that I can watch ben10" while looking into my eyes..
Mummy, (??) "Owh..really.." :-)
Umar is actually taking a defending mode to make sure Mummy is ok he's watching this Ben10. Hehehehe... (Mummy wouldn't like his kids to watch all the fighting stuffs, be it in cartoons at early ages, 2,3.. (but Zaky watch what Umar's watching? :P) :-)

Mummy said to Umar,"Come on Umar, finish up your drink if you want to follow us to Giant" Mummy just wanted to bring him, leaving Zaky & Aqil. Right after saying that, Zaky came in front of me and looked deeply into my eyes and said, "Can I fowow you Mummy, can I..can I..." It's so cute moment! :-)The 2 year old asking. Lately he's always aware of any conversations around him, and understand the language very well, to our surprise.

At one time while Mummy was holding Aqil, Zaky came to me and said, "Cuddle me, cuddle me, Mummy.."
Mummy, "I'm holding Aqil Zaky.."
Then Zaky hold my hand like dragging me somewhere and said, "Put Aqil on the bed..Put him on the bed.." (??)
because he wants Mummy! LOL He thinks so well on how to tackle the problem! hahahhaha..
He always use politics to ask for things..."Can I.." "How about..." "May be.." He's not even 2 1/2 yet, but he's ever so good at language. Sometimes he said long sentences clearly to our surprise, from his thoughts, to ask things etc. Cool Zaky! Keep it up!..

And Aqil can understand if we ask him to clap and wave his hand, or most of the time his hands will be in the actions of "Come here, come here, come here.." :-) So cute :-) He's inputting the language vocabulary to his head at the moment. He can respond when you talk to him, probably you can hear, "Ah, ah.." "Ba, ba.." or "Ahhhhh! Ahhhhhh! " when calling for somebody! LOL

Mother

A baby cried at night, Mum wanted to train her for sleeping through, so tried to ignore as much as she could (trying to follow few different ways on how to make baby sleep through by various child experts, from books etc!). Thinking of how much sleepless nights Mum have had since baby was born, and how it will affect her working day tomorrow.
While trying to ignore the crying baby, Mum thought.. Allah makes baby cries at night, when a mother wakes up to attend her baby or feed her, the reward is like going to the war of fisabilillah. SubhanaAllah..it's a huge reward that no other woman can gain except for a mother! How could we resist that?..How much the duniawi has ruled us, women, which mothers have to think more on other stuffs, eg work. Looking after your zuriat, bathe them, feed them, teach them 'Bismillah' and other foundations that will benefit them and us, mothers; as the rewards of ilmu yg diamalkan is rewarded everytime they use it, like "Bismillahirrahmanirrahim", imagine that word that you teach is used everyday in life! What more if the parents can teach their children more and more.. imagine the pahala from Allah, although we should be doing things sincerely because of Allah, but at least thinking of the pahala will make parents wanted to strive to teach their children, the duas, surahs and the akhlak.
A drop of mum's milk is a pahala for Mother, all from Allah. Imagine the most natural thing, the beautiful moment that Allah grant Mother and baby, is also rewarded pahala! SubhanaAllah.. So many things, natural motherhood that Allah designed for a woman that will gain back benefits to themselves, ourselves..Mothers.
After giving birth to a baby, Allah makes us, mothers like a new baby too, taking away all the dosa. Isn't that wonderful? The pain that we go through, gets the benefit of taking away our dosa. SubhanaAllah, how great is Allah, his creations and his way of designing every each things for everything, and for women, mothers. Yes..Allah put us to test, to gain his rewards in bringing up our zuriat, the patience, the tawakkal. May Allah give barakah to the Mothers.
"Who should we listen to..after Allah..and Rasullullah.."
"Who next?" "Your mother"
"Who next?" "Your mother"
"Who next?" "Your mother"
"And then your father.."
lyrics from a beautiful muslim children song. Again how high is the darjat of a mother that Allah has put us, from what we have been through, and will go through. SubhanaAllah. And that mother instinct that only mothers have for their children, when they are happy, sad, healthy, sick, hungry, thirsty etc etc, even what your child thinks, a mother knows! Isn't that amazing 6th sense, instinct that Allah granted to us, mothers.
MasyaAllah, SubhanaAllah...I'm so thankful to Allah for giving me the chance to be a mother.
*this is what i only know, may be others can add on more ilmu to be shared among us. thank you Allah.

Umar, Zaky, Arissa & Sofea...Holiday together!..

These pictures from Arissa&Sofea's Daddy of http://kitab-atok.blogspot.com/

Watch this video of Umar&Sofea, the 4 yr old friends..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLjckN28zjI

19Dec07-1Jan08

13 days of Happy Holidays for the 2 families...Used to live not far from each other but now separated by the Atlantic Ocean. We have not seen each for about 2 yrs since we moved to San Diego from UK.
What do we do..where do we go...
Eating, shopping, sight seeing...and children having fun time together..
San Diego attractions.. SeaWorld 3 times! La Jolla shores, La Jolla Cove, Downtown San Diego, SeaPort Village, Coronado Island, beach; Old Town San Diego, Laguna Mountain for the snow!, Wild Animal Park, Viejas Outlet, Las Americas Outlet, Carlsbad Outlet!..(not to mention other shopping places nearby!)..
Hollywood!!!..Boomers for the kids..And we managed to have mini bbq, with Satay & chicken wings, 3 times eating at Belacan Grill at Redondo Beach in Los Angeles!..Indian buffet, Seafood buffet! and other halal places... It wasn't feel like 13 days, when u have loads of happy times together!... Thank you Allah for this wonderful time..
Our holiday pictures at http://zienaz.fotopages.com/