Mama22beas

Yup, I'd found Facebook....

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 10:19:00 +0000

*head hung low*...and this blog has been neglected! I'd been refraining myself from FB but hubby opened an account for me and the rest is history. So it's his fault. I write this post to kickstart blogging again!

Water babes

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:16:00 +0000

We didn't hit the pool for two weeks due to flu bugs attack, coupled with El Nino;). The weather does not really bother the kids but it is just too hot for mama who prefere to stay out of the water.

Last sunday, we finally did and here are some pics, not in particular order.

It's normally hard to snap a pic of all 5 together.

It's the very first time I let Atef in the water 'on his own'. I imagine he said "I really like this, mama!". I just replid "Enjoy, baby, enjoy!".

Bea3 looking at her 'food'

Adel making funny faces for the camera

Bea2 eager to 'serve' drinks for everyone.

Bea3 chasing Adel with some water...

Bea1 being 'served'. No wonder we never have enough plates and cups in the kitchen.

Atef under a shade when it's too hot!

More funny faces...

Bea1 teaches Atef splashing water, as if he does not know it already!

A wedding....

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:50:00 +0000

...in lot of pics and not too many words, I hope.
I start off with the hantaran. Kak long decorated all dulang for both sides. Such tedious work! According to her, the cage-like thing is a new trend.

Thought she ran out of sticks (3 sticks for the square). She insisted, it is a trend!

Thought of attending a class for kek hantaran, then bring the cake home and claim to orang kampung I made it hehe...but of course, I where got time wan! So, I just left it to the expert. Generous me contributed cakes for both sides.

Hijacked some pics from my brother's FB page. Dad's hard work in some old oil palm estate to get the 'umbut' of an old oil palm tree. I just have no idea what that's called in English. It is the inner part of the lower trunk. This is the first time I got to know that the one from oil palm is also used. I knew about those from coconut. My brother said oil palm is better. That combined with beef (only the head shown here....ewwwww) produced gulai kawah....yummmm!

The colour theme was blue and white. Suddenly we saw bright yellow seating area for the 'makan beradat' that made my sister freaked out...muahahahaha!

Mandatory pics of kids playing on the 'pelamin',

a sleepy, moody kid that didn't want to be part of anything,

a baby that was just too tired to bother!

The youngest in the clan, my parents' 30th grandchild. We managed to snap a pic before the drool dropped;). Nice!

Let me tell you about 'ngele'. In Kelantan, when you are invited to 'doa selamat' or 'baco doa' ceremony for a wedding, you are not expected to contribute money or gifts. But if you are invited for 'ngele', yes contributions are welcome. The differences are, invitation for 'ngele' is always done with cards, but only verbally for the other. 'Ngele' is normally more exaggerated than 'doa selamat' and, small gifts (called 'siso') are given (normally bunga telur) to guests. So, baco doa is always like free meals for the kampung folk. And, money is always given in a subtle (or very sopan) way, you see in the pic...mom was handing a bunga telur, and at the same time receiving money (of course not visible) from the guest. And yes, definitely, I was shooed away for being a busybody, snapping pics of hands away hehe!

Adel's act for the camera.

I just love this pic. It was almost over, mom was alone under the tent, almost smiling. She looked tired but content, maybe she was just being grateful that everything went just well.
And finally the pengantin...I'm sorry sis, you got to know this from my blog. Frankly the fake eye-lashes made your eyes BIG and diminished the soft look on your face, and the make-up made you look older;). Anyway, I wish you all the happiness in the world. I remember saving RM3 when I was little just to buy you a baby doll in a red overall that closed her eyes when laid down. I was always trusted to feed you when mom's busy. Can't believe you are a wife now. I hope you will realise that it does not really matter if the freaking bright yellow does not match your colour, the thought of the people who made the effort that counts. Looking at the trend in the family, in a year's time you will bring a baby to this world, and another two years after that....then only you know what a marriage really means...*evil laughs*.

Girls' wardrobe

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:22:00 +0000

Got so excited with the Ikea sale, went there on the first day and loaded the MPV with the girls' new wardrobe.
Off course, earlier they wanted these

but I had to give lectures on why they could not have those. For the price of one cartoonish Mammut, I could get two tall Trofast that comes with bigger space. And Hensvik looks too flimsy, to me.
And more importantly, pine Trofast goes well with the Vikare beds (that I got from the As Is many months ago for only RM190 with the mattress, I still can't get over it).

Loved to have all red, but they had ran out of it. Bought the blue ones as the staff could not confirm when the new stock of the red doors comes in. That's a total of RM430 saving with the sale. Please ignore the artwork on the wall, still can't bring myself to get the painting done.
For some fun, I stitched the Kallt stars on the Minnen mirror (also from As Is) and the girls were so pleased with that. Ok, the boy too;).

I can't stay away from Ikea. For this sale alone, I had made 4 trips. The first one to get the furniture, the second, on the next day to get some points for the card from a friend's purchase, the third on Sunday to return shelves (of the wrong size) and get the right ones, plus some shopping at the Curve to fill the wardrobe a bit;). Yesterday, went there to get the Kallt lights. All are very fast visits, the last one is only half an hour while waiting for Bea1 to finish school. And I still have a voucher from the shelves return. So, definitely there will be the fifth...see, that's how crazy I am!

Some modification and late night therapy

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:24:00 +0000

Some of my cuppies never made it to the table and stay dormant for a while in the fridge. I copied a recipe of some muffins with ground almonds. I was excited when I looked at them rising in the oven. Minutes after that I was not so sure if I was really happy as they just continued rising. The moment they came in contact with the cool air, some sunk right away, producing something like a huge caldera in the middle, others erupted like some mini volcanoes but without the lava and the volcanic ash.
Think since I grinded the almonds myself, it was not properly done resulting in a mixture of inhomogenous coarse and fine grains. The coarser grains might have provided too much spaces for the hot air to fill but the cakes later collapse when the air was forced out. I got muffins with crispy texture and filled with vesicles LOL;).

So what do I do with them?

This is how one of them looks first

I removed them from the liners and grinded in the dry blender and they turned like some bread crumbs. I modified a choc cake recipe by replacing some of the flour and cocao with them. They rose beautifully like the morning sun and the best part is they didn't collapse...yay! The first batch of 20 was gone in a few hours. Hubby had two of them. That means they were ok.

Made the second batch to finish off my volcanoes;) but reduced the amount of batter in the liners.

After some swirling and sprinkling, they were ready as buah tangan for a visit to my brother's.

I even love doing that!
And tonight since I'd stay a bit late to prepare for tomorrow's lecture, I might as well bake too. I had leftover pumpkin, looked for some recipe and we now have some yummy cuppies. I had forgotten the eggs but they turned out well. The recipe asked for some cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger powder, and I added some choc chips. Bea2 stayed up late too as she had a late afternoon nap and helped me. She already talked about bringing some to school.

That's her with a hand in a cookie jar;).

I just love baking and constantly trying to improve. But at the same time refraining myself from attending classes as I think I just have no time for all this. Such dilemma!

Since a girl is 6 only once....

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:57:00 +0000

...and wanted a princess cake for her birthday, mama had to look for ideas and came up with this:

I choose a dark pic purposely so that the not-so-smooth fondant does not look that obvious. Anyway, it was only my 3rd time 'playing' with it. It was 6 am with Atef staring at me with please-pick-me-up look on his face. And it was supposed to be Cinderella, but I just could not figure out how to get her hair in place. I let Bea1 and Bea2 did some finishing touch to it while I got myself busy in the kitchen.

The birthday girl

She was very pleased with it, but the first thing she said was "This is not Repunzel!". I guess she got that idea from Bea1, who else.

One thing that I would always remember about her is, one night when all of us still sleep in one room. Everybody was already quiet except for her. Bea1 was tired of listening and asked her to continue the next day. She was quite frustrated with that request and said that she just could not stop. What she meant was it was beyond her control that she must talk. I could not help but to laugh at that.

Most of the time I love listening to her stories, but sometimes I just got to ask her to stop;). She talks about everything to tiny details. She is also the drama queen in the family;). Hubby said obviously she inherits that from me!

The party
We made it like any playgroup gathering at our place except for no potluck this time. I asked everybody not to bring gifts as not to get others to feel left out. We just invited the same people that used to come over, and Bea2 also said she just wanted to have the same friends over. We let the kids play at the pool after eating and continue eating after that. So we had 4 of my friends and their 7 kids, and the babysitter with her children and my sister with her fantastic 4.

The food

I planned to have it simple. Bought an Ikea 365+ 3-tier cake stand and I must fill that up;). Made some flourless cuppies with ground almonds and the texture turned to be airy and crisp *LOL*. I didn't know what happened but I baked that at 4 am that day. I was still asleep, maybe. Made fruit tarts the night before, and kept them in the fridge and the pastry turned soggy. Fried mihun that turned out to be a little dry, and even the birtday cake had egg-smell. It was white-butter cake. Maybe eggs were not fresh or I should put in more vanilla. Added some kuih from a pasar tani on the cake stand. And grilled some chicken wings, and poured some bbq sauce on them later.

Hubby brought home satay and LOTS chocolate, icecream for the kids 'kenduri'. My sister brought some lauk-pauk and I cooked rice for those who must have rice. Everything's almost gone after they came back from the pool. Must always use the pool to get people to be starving that they could just 'hentam' anything. No left-over, this is the kind of party that I like;). And minimal cleaning left as friends and babysitter kept clearing plates etc. throughout the party. And I also got a good cooperation from the girls keeping the house clean before the party. They even arranged the shoes at the door, something I never taught them to do *LOL*.

Eventhough I tried not to get anyone to be left out, we still had a drama. Bea3 was dissapointed that even after cake-cutting, she still was not allowed to eat the dress on the doll;).

It was sorted out anyway!

My friend said birthday girl would be sad as people didn't bring her gifts. Told her, I had already explained to Bea2 already. We could not expect everybody to bring 5 gifts each birthday and she was ok with that. Kids are easy sometimes;).
The first guest arrived at 12.30 pm and the last left at 7.30. Such a beautiful birthday bash yesterday!

Colourful tiara cookies

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:52:00 +0000

I shouldn't stay up this late, but I guess I'm just as excited as the girls. So, just a quick one.

Saw a tiara cookie cutter at the cakeconnection and thought the girls would love it. I bought it along with my first REAL vanilla extract. I'd been wanting to have that for ages.

You know how girls love everything princessy and kept pestering me to start making tiara cookies and I just got to try my vanilla.

So we did it tonight. 10 pm on a school night, my girls (and the bigger boy too) started decorating, while Atef observed from his high-chair, and maybe wondered what's the excitement all about;). I shooed them to bed after that and promised that they would have the cookies cooked and cooled in the morning.

Everybody talked about bringing them to school and Bea2 already searched for a tupperware already.

My favourite simple recipe is always the shortbread. 1 stick of good unsalted butter, 1/4 cup brown sugar and about 11/2 cup of flour, some rice floor, some vanilla and a pinch of salt. It gives us 9 tiaras and a tiny one from the extra that I didn't decorate to have the real taste of the cookie. The cutter is huge, they are the biggest cookie I've ever made and it was a challenge to tranfer the cookie to the baking sheet after cutting. But practise makes perfect, I hold on to that.

I ran out of granulated brown sugar and I used gula melaka, powdered with mortar and pestle;). The cookies turned out very nice, and yes the vanilla does make a difference. I'm refraining myself from eating more and frustrating the girls in the morning.

I just learned that a mixture of an eggyolk with a few drops of water and food colouring is food paint. It's better to use new paintbrush or pastry brush but we don't have any. So I just let the girls used their hands. They were all ecstatic about the new technique hehe;). We combined that with sprinkles and dragees that I so want to finish, so that I can buy new ones.

Try it, it is so much fun for us!

What's (not) cooking!

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:58:00 +0000

I hope everyone had a great time with the family during Christmas (for those who celebrate) and the long holiday. I was so occupied with getting the kids occupied during the school holiday;).

Atef's new middle name is clingy;) and I'm not much into cooking lately. But I watched Jamie Oliver doing some pumpkin soup and I made it tonight.

Everything was done in a hurry including when picking up the squash in the market. I ended up with a not-so-ripe one. No nice photo either but I managed to throw a sage leave for garnishing. I don't have the gadget that people use to mash up food, so I just used my hand-mixer. It worked well to just mash the squash and it left some chunky bits. But Bea1 didn't really enjoy it as she could still see bits of union. She is ok when she does not see it;). Hubby said I need to cut down the rosemary. I remember I used the same amount of garlic, union, rosemary for 3 kg squash (like the great chef does) on only 1/2. No wonder the taste a bit strong, and I had forgotten the carrots too. But I sense if everything is right, the soup is just wonderful.

And you know what, to me a good thing about cooking is if we fail the first time, we will want to try again fast. That's what I'm going to do. I also added some bbq-ed chicken in case kids could not take the soup. Anyway, the crouton is nice...love it!

I'd like to share some of things that I did in the kitchen in the last few weeks when I managed to get a breather from Atef.

Lots of cut-out cookies and I love this the most. Bea2 complained that she didn't like to wait for the cookies to cook and cool before decorating. I found a recipe of some colored dough that can be used before baking.

The girls decorating with some gels.

Hubby stopped at Cameron Highland during a trip and came back with a huge bag of zuchini that I didn't know what to do with it. I just replaced the carrot from a carrot cake recipe and I can't really tell the difference, except for the green instead of orange bits.

Some not-so-neat chocolate tiny balls with ganache.

I looked for my bowl high and low and found Bea3 licking off the chocolate from it, in front of the TV.

Some friends and family came visiting from Kedah during the Christmas holiday. I was about to pipe the icing on my simple butter cuppies when I got a call that said they were already at the lift. I eventually just spread it with a spoon. I just love the buttercream icing with lemon juice and zest. Must do it again!

And this is the latest pic of the baby that keeps me away from the kitchen, but I love him to bits anyway. He has some rash that is healing beautifully now.

It's a Gingerbread House! (Updated with some tips)

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:55:00 +0000

First I bought this:

It comes in a few biscuits in the shapes of different parts of a house, flat-packed;). After dinner, I had a lot of help to finally put this up. Even the 2-year-old was excited to be allowed to participate. Not so neat, but it does not matter.

One happy kiddo!

And 3 more!

The attack!

The aftermath:

Good easy fast less-messy fun for a very busy mom (and the kids haha). It costs only RM15, some leftover icing and colourful candies! But the kids needed thorough teeth-brushing last night;).

For muslim moms who are not sure of the emulsifier E471 used in the biscuit, I had asked the staff and they assured me that its plant-based. Still not satisfied I sent an email to the company in Sweden and received the answer in less than an hour. So efficient!

Try it, we will definitely do it again! Off course with different designs, and maybe more elaborated with grass and snow...can't wait!

Update
I add just a bit more to share some tips.

If you use melted sugar as the glue, please remember that it is VERY hot!
And it is hardened fast when cooled and you no longer have glue to work with;) ...unless you reheat again.

What I did was, once the sugar melted, I turned off the fire (to avoid the sugar to caramelise (sp?) too much and turn dark), I quickly dip the edge of the biscuit (where I want to attach to the other, you can also use spoon to spread). It may look messy on your house, but you can cover that later with icing. Once the sugar turned stiffer, I reheat again with a very low fire. I added sugar bit by bit (and didn't follow the instruction that says 200g in a go) and keep on doing this till the house completed;).

It is a bit tedious, what more when you have 4 eager kids aged from 7 to 2 fighting to look closer at what mom's doing, and in a tiny kitchen. Easier way is by using glue meant for food, I guess. The one for cake decoration, but I'm not very sure as I've never tried that.

But that's a lesson for the bigger kids, that sugar can be glue. Hubby just got back from golf when the kids were decorating. He asked "How do you put that up?" Bea2 almost jumped to explain. Mama just smiled.

I don't really like the biscuit, too much spice to me. For the next project, I will just use it as a template, and I will bake simple butter cookies.

There, hope that's useful for you, Sizuka and Madre!

A lil bit of this and that

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:14:00 +0000

For an Ikea freak like me, I feel happy just to walk aimlessly around the showhouse even without any purchase. But I feel happier if I return with a few flat-packs;).

November 19th is the first day of year-end/Christmas sale. And I must have their Baked Salmon dish and a peaceful meal alone. I went there just and only for that, but I had this delivered the next day!

No, not the kiddos but the Mamut cot!

Well, that's not our first cot. We had a playpen that we used as a cot. I hate it after a while as when the bed is at the lower height, the baby does not get good air circulation. It was never my idea to get it, it's hubby's! The girls used it for a while and we just left it in our old house when we moved. Now, I'm so glad that sister-in-law asked for it. I'm sure she will hate it too haha!

I'd been eyeing cots in Ikea but Mamut looks the sturdiest of all. Think Atef can use it till he is at least 3 years old. Adel is happy with an extendable bed, also from Ikea but it's a discontinued product now.
It was a surprise purchase as I found it in the As Is, heavily discounted for almost invisible few chips. I just love As Is!

I could just dismantle it and drive it in the MPV but I'm not very keen on re-assembled it at home. Was too lazy for that! And since I hate paying RM65 for the delivery charge for only one thing, I threw in a few more stuffs.

When I first designed the cabinets for the kitchen, I left a part of the wall bare as I just could not find a cooker hood that suited me, and I was not sure of the design. I had forgotten that I purchased a hood at a Teka warehouse sale a few months ago.

And I had this installed on Monday. We were not allowed to hack wall for ducting but we purposely designed the grille to have some space for that. Before this, we had only a ventilation fan, a small one that does not work well for my heavy oily cooking. Hubby just pulled the ducting above the cabinets and attached it's end to the fan with some modifications. So we have two ventilation systems now, the air from the hood is further driven out by the fan. And the hood has 1200 m3 suction power. I'm not sure if you can imagine it, but it looks ugly and that's why no pic is taken of that. And I will always try not to look up.
That's how hubby does it, functional but ugly DIY. It's ok to me, as long as a man can do some DIY, it's good enough;). And I'm not going to spend more on cabinets to hide it.

I wanted some color, that's why the Applad orange door. But now I have 3 colors, orange for the new horizontal cabinets and the beech worktop, white for the other new cabinet and now yellowish (due to accumulation of oil and dust) old doors. The good thing about Ikea is, for slightly over RM1k, I could change new doors for the entire kitchen....but, I'd wait for that. Sabar, sabar...

While I'm excited about my kitchen, I'm a bit worried that Atef is not feeling well. Think he caught the bug from Bea3, who had only slight fever and cough. I never exprienced any kid that get sick at this young age. I drove to an A&E at 5am on Monday. His temperature goes up every 8 hours. Last night it went up to 39.1 degrees C. Off to the A&E again as I also could not distinguish noisy breathing (due to phlegm) or wheezing. The doc said he would be fine but asked to return if the breathing gets noisier and if I detected wheezing. I talked to the doc with my eyes closed as I was just so sleepy. Returned home at 1.30 am.

Today, I just spent the day with the boys. Hubby sent the girls to the kindy for Children's Day party and he's off for golf *rolls eyes*.

Atef's temperature still fluctuates but he looks a lot better today. He is having a good time that mama would jump at his slightest squeal *sigh*. I had to cancel a fieldtrip yesterday and Alhamdulillah for the postdoc and Masters students, at least I got something done today in the office.

And finally, I would like to share with you that we've just had our first bloom in the house. After 3 dead plants here and a few others in the old place, hubby said I should give up already. But a few weeks ago, Bea1 and Bea2 persuaded me to get some mini-roses, yes also from Ikea. I thought it would wither away with the falling flowers but no, I saw some buds. And yesterday, one of them opened up nicely....lovely! I just have to keep it alive.

Thanks for reading;) and happy holiday!

What I got myself into today!

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:30:00 +0000

I have a journalist friend who has been bugging to make a story out of me for years. Stories of a lady geologist, a mother, a breastfeeding mom, a blogger mom, stories from my work/research. Most of the time she wanted to put pics of me and the kids. My excuses are "Tak mau la glamor2 ni!", "You can find someone better", "I can't let reporters write about my research before a proper publication", "Husband tak bagi la..." or anything you can think of;).

Today, she was just desperate and needed someone to do some cooking demo. And I couldn't think straight and had ran out of excuses. So, in between work, fetching/sending Bea1 from/to schools, I had her and a photographer at our home. I mentioned that I have access of eggwhites in the fridge and a Pavlova was what I made

It was kind of amusing that for someone like me who normally just 'campak-campak' stuffs when I cook, was told to act for the camera. And it was really time-consuming.
It was only the second time I did Pavlova and I'm still experimenting. Anyway, my friend said ok as long as it looks good. And I think it can still be improved.

I love everything with cream on, so as the kids. And now, it's Pavlova no more;)

This is how it looks before the attack!

Pics are those from my camera only. The demo will be out in an insert of a major daily next week, according to my friend. For all that I did, it's better be published, or else my friend sure kena...*evil laugh*

And regarding what I wrote earlier, I was just being frank and casually said that I just envy my colleague (muka tak malu hehe). Earlier, another professor also suggested that I should go too. The lord replied and wrote this:

I noticed that the Air Asia flight last Saturday was only about 60% full. If you feel like a bit of winter?s chill, you could try for a late cheap ticket and join the tea-party at the House of Lords !

He either can read my mind, or also thinks it would be once-in-a-lifetime experience for people like me or reads my blog *shudder*.

Hubby would let me go but very reluctantly, and he just killed it off by reminding me it's Eid's time. Anyway, at the temperature of 2 C I couldn't think properly in Bristol, and was in delirious state at -8 in Budapest. So, I will continue trying to avoid winter.

Some other time, maybe!

I'm green with envy!

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:47:00 +0000

And the green is the greenest of green!

I have been running around with my colleague, the PhD student this past few days. And that also means putting other important things on hold. She is preparing her trip to London and Leiden next week for a month, and due to some urgent matters, I have to be on my toes getting things done too for her.

She will be working in the British Natural History Museum and Museum Naturalis in both cities, with the British lord (who managed to her grants for this trip), and I just received a forwarded email. The lord just came out with a programme of part of her stay there.

To be able to work with people in the museums is enough to make me green and in between the work in the museums, I saw "Tea in the House of Lords...". To me, that could be once in a lifetime experience!

And luckily for her, kids are big enough and can be trusted to be left with the husband. But I'm sure they would miss their mom. And I will be making more samperit, that they really like. Hope it would cheer them up a bit before the mother leaves. The mom has asked me for the recipe twice but I'm sure she does not have the time to do it. She is just as ambitious as yours truly;).

She promised to send me emails on every little detail of her work and finding while she is there, I just can't wait to get some results from her.

But, I'm still green....!

School term is almost over

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:05:00 +0000

And yes that means Bea1 will enter Standard 2 in less than two months. I remember how jittery I was at the beginning of the year when she started Std 1. Time sure flies fast and it is not bad at all.

I promised to get involved in educating her, and I did just that. I did because I think any mom should do that and frankly I don't 100% trust the school;). And please don't say that I should send my kids to private school. For some reasons (money definitely one of them), that is not an option for us.

Anyway, I'm trying to avoid of having that "my-kid-is-doing-well-because-of-me" feeling. Bea1 did well throughout the term. No, I'm not referring to grades that she got, or her place in the class. She is developing and absorbing and looks happy with school and friends.

And while a friend already said 'Tak dapat no 1 lagi, siappp!" to his Standard 1 kid, I still can't bring myself to explain what the numbers mean to Bea1. I'm a little worried that she would get pressured. Or maybe at this stage she knows that already, I never asked;). Am I being too protective. But once she showed that she was having a peer pressure already. Peer pressure at 7 years old!

Anyway, I still want to take some credit. I still think that all the practises/reading that we did together has complemented what she receives in school. And I also can't help it but to blame myself when she didn't really do that well in Pengetahuan Ugama. The reason was while her hand-writing is better than mine, I'm not patient enough with her Jawi writing. So I didn't really go through the subject with her. My bad:(.

And that also does not mean I spend a lot of time with her, just everyday I try to make sure she finishes homework and after each test, we went through the sheets again.

At the beginning of the term, I remember she memorised my phone number. Thought of some day, I might teach her to use the public phone. But before I did that, she surprised me one day and it was so good to hear her ecstatic voice from the other side. Then, she called me every recess and the moment she finished classes in both schools.

Think I could go on and on about my complain on the education system. But now, I change my mind, the system is ok but maybe not the people who are implementing it. For example, Bea1 was already asked what colour change happens on a tree if it is not being exposed to the sun. All are given in textbook but no experiment...yilek, nothing! I don't know if they would do it later on, but at this stage think kids are required to memorise. The same with the box with a hole (it is about light, they put some objects, and see through the hole with the lid on and off), taste (Bea1 knows bitter gourd is definitely bitter but she got confused with seawater and mango, ripe mango of course sweet, she said;)).

And one question that I would ask the teacher come the Open Day "Does this mean that all the experiments must be done at home, supervised by the parents (kalau macam tu buat apa saya hantar anak saya pegi sekolah...cikgu buat apa ya????).

Luckily, we had some withering plants at home that I have shown to my girl.

One of the teachers once boasted that the school set a higher standard for the students. Even my babysitter agreed with that when she looked at Bea1's test papers. I still can't assure myself if that really is a good thing.

Am not going into that any further and I'm still grateful for a year full of adventure for Bea1 and myself;). Now, I start to get jittery whenever I think about2011 when Bea2 will join her too. And in 2014, Bea1 in Std 6, Bea2 Std 4, Bea3 Std 3, Adel Std 1 and Atef in kindy....pengsan!!!!

But being a muslim, one thing I must remember Allah will provide;).

Doing it the 5th time around

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:39:00 +0000

I mean expressing breastmilk so that I could continue giving the best food to my baby while I'm away. And that includes stocking up, a lot of sterilising, fighting for space in the freezer, worrying about not enough stock and a lot of expressing-and-nursing simultaneously.

Actually I got tired when I even think about it. And it is almost like a must that I do it as long as I can. In my case till I got pregnant again, or till it actually hurts my boobs to keep on expressing.

That's why, with new pregnancies, I felt a bit relieved that I have a reason to get some 'rest' before doing it all over again in about a year's time.

And I must talk a lot about it too. Thought hubby normally does not really listen to my ramblings. I was surprised one day when he said, he told a female colleague who just got a newborn, that she needed stimulation to get the milk out. I quoted him "You need stimulation...get anyone to do it for you!". I almost yelled "Hey!!!...not just anyone la...the baby, of course!".

The moment I heard anyone having challenges to express, I'd volunteer to help, even to strangers. Breastfeeding and expressing consultation for free;). Not to say I'm an expert but hey, I'm doing it for the 5th time!

I used to have storage in plastic bottles, later thanks to a mom for her brilliant idea, I used ice-cream plastic bags. Now, thanks to Chanel, I have proper storage in breastmilk bags.

With Atef, I started leaving him at the babysitter's when I have about 60 oz in the freezer. During Ramadhan, I cut down on expressing due to just being plain lazy. At one time I had zero, yilek, zilch stock. Now I have about 9 oz and I'm working on to build that up.

Fortunately, I don't need a lot of stock as I see my baby during lunch (or anytime I like when I got no class and urgent matters;)). And it's me who make my own schedule for trips etc. Lovely job, I have here;).

I only use one breastpump for all 5 kids. I only changed the main body once as it cracked. Overall, so far I only spent about RM400 for it. RM400 to feed 5 kids for over a year each. Tell me which husband/father would not get proud of that;).

I know most of you may have heard and read about this over and over;). But in case, young moms are here and need help, just give me a holler. Or just find extensive explanation in mymomsbest.com, a place we the experts used to hang out;).

Tiring, yes but any mom would keep on doing it for their babies. It is like having to read Peter and Jane series over and over. Thought I would puke doing it the second time (with Bea2 now) but seeing her got so excited with her new 'skill' is all worth it. Thought of just leaving it to the teachers but it is a routine now that she must plonk herself besides me before bedtime, with P&J in her hand.

And this is the healthy breastfed baby, doing some acrobatics!

Samperit or Dahlia

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:57:00 +0000

Ok I know Raya is over but please bear with me. And I know you can just google and find hundreds of post about it. But this is my 'adventure' in finding the right way to bake Samperit.

But first, Samperit or Dahlia? I guess both are of the same recipe but different shapes. The one with the flowery shape is called with both names but the long, with grooves on top is definitely Samperit.

Previously it was always ignored by me. I thought it was just some kuih made of butter, sugar and flour.

Someone that I consider an expert at baking said she got her samperit to taste good but she was not happy with the look. I wondered, how hard can it be?
Then during Raya, my sister showed me the most beautiful and tasty samperit I have ever seen and eaten. She reminded me that it is also called Dahlia, made with mainly cornflour and we used to make a lot of it when we we were younger.

Then I have a little "walk down memory lane" moments. I used to be assigned to cut the cherries into tiny, I mean really tiny as they were just expensive. And how I just loved that. Now I can relate to what Bea1 feels;).

So, I just got to make my own. The look of course is determined by the mould, and we must not get the dough to rise. I have made it in 3 batches, using 2 sizes each of closed and open star nozzles, and two samperit mold that the babysitter lend me. I was not satisfied with the look on the first two batches but they tasted yummy. Hubby said he promised a staff in the office some kuih raya for a favor that she did, and I guess my samperit was representable enough and I brought some to the office raya party. My Iraqi PhD student brought home some, and she told how her kids raved about it.

I finally had it close to what I want the third time around. But with Adel keep on asking to eat the raw dough, I didn't get all of them to be nice. At least,I found Wilton 6B is the most suitable for me, so far.

As not to get the dough to rise, I didn't even sift the flour. I only add the soften butter bit by bit till I get soft dough, that I could just pipe it from a piping bag.

The recipe basically is for a part of cornflour (always use good quality one, I used Brown and Polson), you need about 1/4 of plain flour, and 1/4 of icing sugar (depends on how sweet you want it), egg yolk (when mixed with the flour and sugar, enough to make it like breadcrumbs) and finally the addition of butter (good quality also), just enough to make it soft dough.

I just use my fingers to mix, and I just love using piping bag for cookies. It makes shaping the cookie faster. Now, I officially include Samperit as a must-have for raya cookie baking;).

Seriously, baking is like a therapy and challenge now, not something that I do when I have free time. What a minute...I, where got free time wan?;)

A restaurant in the apartment

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:52:00 +0000

The kids love to play "masak-masak", and sometimes they pretend running a restaurant. But before I bought the play kitchen, they never had something this extensive. With the other toys and stuffs available, they come up with this:

At the back, castle tent is the restromm. That's a relatively very huge restroom for a restaurent;). The piece of white paper is a "tandas" signage. A peek through the door would show a chair in there as the throne;). On the kitchen high "cabinet", small books from the Ladybirb series are used as plates. There are also rolling pin, baking pan and a few other from the Ikea Duktid series.

That's Bea2 busy running the kitchen. Besides the two toy containers is our old TV stand, that I just so want to trash. They use it as an area to place the food before serving.

Food can be from anything...wooden blocks, parts of an aeroplane, small pieces of paper that they tear, rice/spaghetti from the kitchen, I mean MY kichen *sigh*.

The easel is where they paste the menu of the day;). And you can see more food waiting to be served. On the table, the purple thing is an activity table but without the legs. It is a cash register. Bea1 used to beg me to buy one, but the only thing I saw costs over RM100. With this, she stopped asking.

And on your right are the table and chairs for the customers. When they are really at it, each would take specific role: chef, cashier and waitress. Adel is always persuaded to be the customer. And he always can't sit still and that's frustrating to the girls;). The waitress is always Bea1, as she is the only one that can take proper order. And yes, it is with the right spelling in a small booklet.

A lot of time, they involve the parents too by coming to us and asking what we would like to have.

That part of the apartment is the messiest BUT frankly I love it when my kids play that way. So I don't really mind. They spend a lot of time here, and that always mean peaceful time for me to do my stuffs and no fight with papa over the TV remote
*rolls eyes*.

I plan to give this area a good paint and get their toys to be more organised but it stays as a plan for a long time. It really does not matter and the kids do not complain.

A few things are missing from my kitchen but I don't really mind if they don't touch my baking stuffs. And you may guess that 99.9% is Ikea in that restaurant.

And I even love looking at them playing. And I knew it, the purchase of the most expensive toy (the kitchen) is all worth it. Who knows one day, they decide to really operate a real restaurant and mama23beas can goyang kaki already...haha!

Look who turns 4 today!

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:05:00 +0000

I remember I cried buckets when I first saw the two lines that appeared on the pregnancy stick. I planned to have two first, and then concentrate on building up the career.

Career or no career, who really cares when one has such a cute baby! Bea3 is the beginning of the other 3 subsequent surprise pregnancies (one ended with a miscarriage). I just went "Oopsy...", no more tears, nothing only the fuzzy wuzzy feeling of yet having another chance at motherhood and being grateful.

It just happened that I really needed to practise swirling buttercream. So I made over 100 tiny cuppies to be shared with the whole kindy. Alhamdulillah for the bigger fridge, I managed to hide them from her. This pic does not really potray what she felt, she just didn't know how to act for the camera. She was so excited when I walked in with the huge box and yelled it's her birthday today.

This is more like it.

She is quite a handful. She goes "Hi pakcik polis" to some security guards or "Hi makcik kuih", "Hi kucing" everywhere. Despite the thought that she started talking a bit late, now she is a chatter-box. She whines a lot too. Her best friend is Adel, her worst enemy...yup, you guessed it, Adel. She calls him swiper. She treats Atef as if he is a doll. She loves books, is easy with food and eats kaya on its own;).

Ok or not my swirls?;)

I just love looking at kids with cuppies. They all went "I want green, green!", "I want pink!" over and over. It makes sneaking out of the bedroom at 3 am to whip some icing all worth it;). And of course, the look on Bea3's face is priceless!

Meringue pulak!

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:24:00 +0000

I have about 20 extra eggwhites from raya cookie baking, and they've been sitting in the fridge. I tried making meringue cookies last night and it is quite easy peasy;). Since I normally let the kids stay up as long as they can tahan on weekend nights, we had some colourful-meringue-sprinkling moments.

4 eggwhites and about a cup of sugar gives us about 40 small pink and blue cookies. I just piped them out from a piping bag. Took 21/2 hours to cook, and left overnight to cool in the oven. They are crispy to the bite and melt in the mouth. Kids love it, especially Bea3. Anyway, they are not something that you would give to your kids often as they are just too sweet.

I can still improve the look by making the batter stiffer next time. Anyway, they look lovely enough that I made the effort to fill some in a glass to snap nice pics;).

On another matter, a friend who is a silent and regular reader to my blog commented that I ranted too much in my previous post;) and she didn't finish reading. So I guess some do not read till the end as well. So I'm doing it again here. Please help Adam in his survey for his PhD and you will be donating to charity at the same time. It's easy and won't take you more than 15 minutes.

All in a day's work!

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:29:00 +0000

It was on Tuesday but the preparation (or rather the lack of it) started a few days before raya.

I got to know from my PhD student, J that a prominent biologist would be spending a few days in Malaysia. I just knew that I must get him to help in one of the sites in our research area.

It is a cave about 30 m above the ground and we needed a 4 meter scaffolding to reach a specific high part of the cave.

J was sceptical due to the short notice. Being a supervisor I must always show that we must be positive and stay focused, followed by a little lecture that she would not finish her thesis if she kept being sceptical (macam bagus...hehe).

One phone call was made to another guy, S who would accompany the expert, L. I just asked him if he (the expert) would have a few hours free to be with us. I didn't know that it brought so much excitement not only to the two of them but a few others, judging from emails being forwarded the next day.

I was like "Ohhh shoot, I must really get this happen!"

Dearest hubby said he could help getting a contractor for that. I believed him but days and later raya passed without anything convincing from him. I started to get a little panicky on Thursday last week as I had not anything confirmed, then.

Alhamdulillah, a caver gave me two numbers of some people he knows. And I talked to one of them on Friday. Told him the scaffolding should be up only a few hours on Tuesday and dismantled right after we finish our work. ONLY on TUESDAY! I repeated that many times.

And I would see the contractor on Monday to show him the site. That guy sound so convincing and I was happy!

On Saturday I received another call from another guy, F who asked me if it was ok for me to come on Sunday. I said Sunday was not good and he somehow agreed with the earlier plan.

On Monday, I drove alone for about 2 1/2 hour one way to meet him at 3 pm and was surprised to see him with another man that he introduced as the 'contractor'. I was a little shocked as I thought F was the man who would do the scaffolding. F said he is also a caver.

During the discussion, the contractor admitted he would have some problem. He said he got to know about that at 12 pm that day. I thought I was going to pengsan already but I was ready to get down on my knees and burst a dam if I need to (yeah...I can be that melodramatic).

He asked me to just drive back to KL while he tried to arrange for something and he would give me a call.

In the meantime, a group of 5 people including L and J were already in the hotel nearby, eagerly waiting for the next day's exciting new discovery.

I received a call at 6 pm, he said he still could not promise anything concrete. I tried to be positive and prayed hard. At that moment it just occured to me to invite my profesional photographer friend, J along to be with us the next day and he agreed. The team was complete.

At home, I waited for some good news. Called F and he said it could not be done. I knew he felt guilty and I tried rubbing salt on the wound;)... I was evil!

Called S and explained that it might not be possible after all. Without the structure not much can be done. He assured me that L is a very easy-going man and I should not worry too much. I told him maybe it was not so much about worrying what L would say, rather my own frustration as I have been hoping to solve that 'mystery' in the cave for the past 11 years.

Got another call from F at 11pm, he sound cool and said he would arrange for something. I could still sense that he really felt it was partly his fault and he was trying to compensate that. He kept saying he didn't know how he got involved;) as he was only a caver who tried to get a contractor for the job.

I left KL with J at 9 am, F mentioned that all the frames for the scaffolding were there and he was rushing to get it done on time. I sighed a relief, finally it was confirmed!

We fetched the others from the hotel, we got lost and wasted a good 1 hour to get out of the city and locate the cave;). I was just too excited, I guess. We were greeted by some workers who built the structure at the foothill and one of them quickly get my huge and heavy drill box to carry, and at the cave entrance I was surprised to meet a prof emeritus from Canada (who got to know about that from F), his assistant, and a reporter from the Star (who follows L around). All together there was 15 people.

I was about to explode with excitement but I just let the others up first. F said the structure was built by amateurs so he hoped it was ok. It looked wobbly but no one was really concerned but we did make some jokes about it.

J snapped some pics when I was not looking.

Up there, I thought to myself "I won't be up here if I think I have 5 kids at home" That thing was really wobbly and no body seemed to be ready to catch me if I fall. I even forgot the helmet...tsk!
The able-bodied workers did the drilling and knocking for us to get samples. It was funny when only two of them up there and about 10 of us down, giving instructions.

I love this pic. To me it shows a student (yeah will forever call myself that) with a 'tok guru', even this was the very first time I met him. I highly respect senior or retired (but still active) professors (or anyone) who I know spend their lives doing things they love, and later share their knowledge generously with other people. And L is also a British lord. I even got excited with that.

I got back at 10 pm after sending everybody to hotel/LRT station/home and fetching the kids from the babysitter and Bea1 from a neighbour cum colleague's house. I was so exhausted but still excited that I could not sleep. My boobs were about to explode too. Imagine this: 13 hours without nursing and expressing for a fully-breastfeeding mom to a 3-month-old. I was just too lazy to bring the pump, and later worry about getting a comfortable place in the cave to express. Manage to get 8 oz from a boob while Atef nursed on the other. I could still squeeze at least 5 if he didn't make a fuss to have me besides him on the bed. 13 oz equals to 4 feedings. Wow...that's how much baby food boobs can keep at a time;).

I digress.

We did some discussion today and that got me more excited, and again now finding it hard to get to sleep.

So, that's what I do when I don't teach;). I'm not comfortable sharing the details of our work now but when data is enough and everything is completed and published, I will give the link to more reading here, I mean if anyone interested to know;).

It was quite satisfying to see the confidence in Y after the trip. She was worried so much about a lot of things, and even said at a stage, she didn't know where she was heading. A lot of people who did PhDs experienced that, including yours truly;). They don't call it Permenant Head Damage for nothing...hehe;).

I spent the whole morning today with a headache due to lack of sleep, got a class summore. Tomorrow, I will drill two Masters students to work harder, faster and smarter, more discussion with Y and a trip to the hospital with Atef for his vaccination jab. That sounds an easy day to me, but I must get some sleep now.

Thanks so much if you manage to read this far. Just a little bit more. Please help by participating in Adam's survey for his PhD research. I just did. I've been reading his blog for close to 4 years now. Just click here and find out.

Biskut Raya

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:37:00 +0000

Finding time to bake is hard but I just got to do it.

On saturday while hubby went out for a few hours with Adel and Bea3, Bea1 and Bea2 played by themselves (after being convinced that they could help later) and Atef not asleep but just behaved very well, I managed to make around 280 pieces of almond london. Thanks to the experience of helping mom with her buah melaka or onde-onde every Ramadhan when I was little;). I can't believe how fast I was.

I let the the girls help with the sprinkles the next day. I had to put up with some chaos as the big boy also wanted to be part of it.

Ours are in pink paper cups, and decorated with white, pink and red sugar instead of almond nips and don't look really neat;).

I hate peeling pineapples and everything about making jam but since the tart is just popular, I forced myself to peel 3. Such a boring thing to do.

Only managed to do around 70 pieces. We went to my brother's place on Sunday for buka puasa and half of them gone. The rest would only last till tomorrow, I believe. I still have jam for about 150 more. Will do it soon.

I hope to make something that involves sprinkles again, just for the girls hopefully on Friday;). Thought of snapping a few pics of the girls doing it on Sunday but I was just too lazy. Anyway we caught someone sleeping on his job!

For that, sentimental mama must run to get the camera while praying dearest son would not fall off the chair. Think my boy just had chocolate overdose;).

More on hospital stay and some shortbread

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:09:00 +0000

Actually I'm still shocked by the action of some people protesting over something by kicking some poor animal's head. That's the reason for the delay in updating, seriously. It killed my mood right away, wish I could share what I really feel about it, but I could get carried away, I might speculate things, I might need more time to do research before I write something that I would regret later.

Anyway, I have decided that this humble blog was created just to share anything about parenting a bunch of kids;).

So let's move on...

Two cots and a bed in a two-bedded room. We had to squeeze in a single-bedded room for the first night before it is available.

They don't really look sick, do they?

Presentation of food is very good but the taste...well what can I say about hospital food.

Of course kids easily get bored. Adel would ask me or hubby to follow him around, to walk around the ward about 5634 times a day!
Bea1 found the CCTV and figured out how it works. She figured out the locations of the camera and took turns with Bea3 to do some 'performances'. One danced and sang, they other watched "rolls eyes".

Time for the medicine. Adel was fine with the drips but hated the neb, and it is the other way round with the girls.

The medicine, antibiotic, prebiotic that they had to continue taking at home....I got overwhelmed by the amount

... hubby created the schedule and pasted it on the fridge, so that no one got confused.

We had another check-up yesterday. Bea1 is officially asthmatic. So we need to watch out a bit. Luckily doc said we don't have to ban any food, just be careful when she shows any sign of allergy. She has to use the inhaler for 3 and is taking Singulair for 2 months respectively. She has stopped sneezing in the morning now, I have no idea how long it will last. She did fasting well on the first 3 days, stopped due to the hospitalisation and today she said she wanted to continue on Friday since she has finished some of the medicine. Awwww...my girl just knows how to melt my heart.

Anyway, my dad, a sister and a brother are astmatic. My sister-in-law just told me, one of my nieces also is. So, we are one big happy asthmatic family;).

*********

I move on to another topic now;).

I was hoping to embark on kuih raya project with the girls during the school holiday but due tothe hospitalisation, it had to be postponed. But they begged me to do something. So Idecided on something very simple, a shortbread recipe with only butter, brown sugar and flour. To get a good result, I believe the butter must be good.

I would like to share with you what I think is the best now:

Been using in for a few months now. It is American, it comes in 4 sticks and handy if you always follow American measurement. It is RM9.99 for about 450 g and that's not expensive compared to the other imported ones. I just read that American butter is graded such as AA, A, B...and so on. AA is the best and I'm glad that my judgement is right!

Anyway, for the shorbread recipe I added some rice flour to get crispier texture and salt (as my butter is unsalted). Since I have girls helping out, they must put some colours on it.

Simple but my girls prefer it over the famous ole Danish cookies;), I mean those sold in the round tin.

Now kids are up, running and kicking, I really must find the time for serious biskut raya baking.

Oops...I have forgotten to wish my wonderful beautiful Muslim readers. Ramadhan Kareem to all, let's make it better than the previous ones.

3 out of 5 admitted!

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:59:00 +0000

It's a long story, but I make it short.

Despite trying hard to get kids away from crowded places (due to the dreaded flu). Bea1, Bea3 and Adel had running noses on Sunday and fever on Monday. Temperature ranges from 37.5 to 35.8 C. I was not overly concerned.

But after sahur the next day, I could hear Bea1 wheezing when I pressed my ear to her chest. Off to the emergency in a hospital right away.

X-rays showed all 3 had pneumonia and they had to be admitted. They didn't really look sickly, and got all excite about the hospital stay "roll eyes".

I was worried sick at first but the doc said it was not that dreaded flu but they must stay for a while as they could have lung infection. Rounds of drips and nebulisers followed.

The doc asked if Bea1 was ever asthmatic as her condition is the worst among the 3. I was not really sure how to answer that.

A bit of history...Bea1 as a baby had severe skin rashes. As she grows, rashes gone but she always has dry skin and depends on the likes of SebaMed and QV for skin care. I knew about tests for allergy but I never took it seriously as think Bea1's case was not serious. Except for certain fish, we allow her to eat anything.

But she must has some early morning sneezing (that could be due to dust mites) especially when it is cold. But it goes away shortly after she gets dressed and she is ok the whole day.

She had pneumonia once when she was 3 years old and admitted for 3 days. I was stupid to give a low dosage of paracetamol (a lot younger and less experienced mom that was worried about overdose), the fever didn't go away and she got it after about two weeks. After that she is just a healthy kid, and the last time she had a fever was a year ago.

I was surprised on how fast it develops into pneumonia this time. The doc said she must have shown symptons such as coughs and flu before that but seriously I didn't see that. She went to school as usual.

We have the family history, so the doc said she will decide if Bea3 has that too in these few days. Both Bea3 and Atef were discharged yesterday but Bea1 had to stay a couple of days more. Really hate the thought that my baby is asthmatic. Will that mean there will be no ice cream for her? Will she depend on medication for a long time? What have or have not done? I have a lot of questions but no time to do research yet, hate to ask the doc yet as she already asked me to wait.

The last few days were spent at the ward. Both of us had to take emergency leave and hubby spends the nights here. When Adel napped, I left to see Bea2 and Atef at the babysitter. I then returned with Bea2 to have buka puasa with huby here. After that, we left, fetched Atef and returned to a quiet home.

As a mom, of course I want the kids to be healthy but I just could not help it...part of me is asking if the hospitalisation is necessery especially to the youngest two. They no longer have fever even on Wednesday.

Anyway, Alhamdulillah it is not that flu. I'm with Bea1 now as hubby went out for the Friday prayer. The two kids, I'm sure are giving the babysitter a hard time. They had been too spoiled by the nurses in the hospital;).

One thing that I dread to see now is my own face. It must look horrible with the lack of sleep and care...but seeing the kids ok surely puts a smile on it, always.

Will get back with pics!

My two-year-old Adel

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 03:33:00 +0000

After 3 girls in a row, I began to wonder if hubby's XY (those that supposed to make boys) swimmers could really compete with the XX. Adel cleared all doubt;). Even when he was a small baby, a lot of people commented that upon first look they knew he was a boy. A kembang mama would say "Oh yes, he is!".

But by having 3 sisters, he could not escape from things like this

and he has no say on the choice of colour for his new stroller.

By his first birthday, people started to ask "All four girls?", "Such a cute baby, how old is SHE?".

We knew he needed a haircut badly. Both papa and mama were with him at the barber's, but he just held on to dear mama throughout!

He loves balls. He began kicking even before he walked. He pushed a ball near somewhere he could hold on to, got up and kicked it. Now he begins to show interests on cars.

He started to show signs that he was ready for solid food at 4 months old but mama must wait for him to turn 6 months. And due to a trip to Danau Toba, it was further delayed a few more days(for mama's convenience of course ;)). This is his first solid food experience. Poor baby, he had waited for too long.

He is such an affectionate boy. He would hold my head with both hands, and press my lips into his cheecks with all his might whenever he needs hugs and smooches.

Before Atef is around, he slept with his hand around my neck.

He makes me think my hands are magical, from soothing the pain when he bumps his head to getting the toys that he wants from Bea3 to scratching itchy feet.
He asks questions now "Apa tu?", "Buat apa?" over and over.

Though he is not as clingy to nen-nen as the sisters, he still helps himself to it now and then. And when he does, he would gaze intently into my eyes.

And he never shows jealousy towards new baby bro, not just yet;).

He turned 2 two weeks ago but papa was away, so celebration was postponed. On the day that he was supposed to cut the cake, he scratched some skin off his big toe at the bedroom door. He needed to rest, according to the doc. So cake-cutting was further delayed and rest, he did.

We finally did it on Saturday. After 8 years of mothering and 16 kids birthdays later, I decided that I would finally make the cakes myself.

Not much decorating skill needed to surprise a two-year old. Some determination, stuffs from ICCA and lots of love;).

Tired of excitement and dozed off!

Just like how all moms in the world think about their babies, I think Adel is the cutest...so are the other 4, definitely;)

And Alhamdulillah, the joy of being a mom is simply undescribable!

Childhood relived

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:14:00 +0000

I always wanted it for my kids even before I have kids. The feeling was stronger when I had Bea1 and Bea2. But firstly it was just too expensive, secondly the common ones in the market are those made of hard, colourful plastic. I prefer wooden type that resembles the real thing more.

I had fogotten about it for a while until last year I got some ideas from the net. A DIY version. Since then, I kept thinking about making it myself with whatever I have at home. BUT that involves a few trips to carpenter shops, DIY shops and some tedious and dirty painting work. Ok la I admit, I'm not much of a DIY type and hubby won't not get involved in that kind of project.

It had been postponed and on and off forgotten until I saw the catalogue of gifts for credit card point-redemption from shitty...ops I mean citibank;). There was one there, the hard plastic type. Tired of waiting, I thought I just redeem it and showed the catalogue to Bea1 and Bea2. They were so excited and Bea2 could not stop asking when they would get it.

But flip-flop mama still thought she was not really into the plastic one.

Still, I could not get it out of my mind. I just got to have one!

And yesterday, during my weekly Ikea trip I saw it and my heart just missed a beat, followed by adraneline rush and I thought I was going to get a stroke (ok, I'm exaggerating). I didn't see it on the first day of sale (17th July, it's Atef's 41st day, I must celebrate end of confinement there;)), and I didn't go to the children section during our trip on previous Friday.

I moved towards it, gazed lovingly and ran my fingers on every inch of it. My heart melted just like cold butter on some warm scones.

What followed was like the scene from "Confessions of a shopoholic" when Rebecca Bloomburg saw the green scarf for the first time.

It would hurt my wallet...I shouldn't. Then again...I have always wanted it for years. But kids don't really need it,maybe...then again Bea2 has been asking everyday. I could just DIY it, if people in the net can do it so can I. Then again...they may not have a small moody baby and the image of me sweating and most probably cursing over some stupid drill etc is not so pleasant.

BUT it is still expensive, and as a new product it's not on sale and to wait for it to be in the As Is would be too long...then again, I'm Ikea Friends member, make a total purchase of RM500 and I can pay it over 6 months, with no interest.

Finally I sighed "I'm taking it back, YES, YES, YES!"

Something struck my mind and I looked at the time "Shoot! Bea1 will finish school in 5 minutes". Alhamdulillah for the neighbour cum colleague that is always helpful, one call and she would fetch her.

I grabbed two reading lights that are on sale for Bea2 and Bea3, and some light bulbs and made my way to the warehouse. With some helps from the staff (I was not capable of pushing the trolley and Atef's stroller with only two hands;), I managed to get it to the car.

At home we loaded the rather heavy flat-packed (two boxes) on the stroller and Bea1 helped to push. I was watching Nur Kasih (I can't believe I watch this!) while watching my kids play. They looked ok without the new toy and I started to have a doubt if that was worth it.

Anyway, once the smallest 3 went to sleep, we started assembling it. Both girls looked like they would explode with anticipation. I took some time and had a break to feed Atef and asked the girls to go to bed as they were just fighting not to doze off. I got up again and finished working at 3 am *yawn*

Tada....

Tell me, which girl would not fall for this. And the moms too! It is just like a mini real thing, and the birch and white match the other furniture in our house and the kitchen too. Lovely!

Look at the induction hobs, they are battery-operated. The hobs light up when on. The girls were delighted. Something I would not have if I make it myself. Bea2 is so happy, she said now they have a proper kitchen for their masak-masak and restaurant pretend play;).

Check out the DIY/hack ideas in ikeahacker. If you don't know already, it is an awesome blog originated in Malaysia and started by a Malaysian. This is what I call "Malaysia Boleh", not some 'kuih kapit terpanjang di dunia' and such...hehe!

I'm sure girls (big and small;)) would drool on them especially those in pink. I still think some of them look even better than the piece from Ikea and I also believe Ikea designer got the ideas from there;).

Anyway, I'm glad Ikea has it for sale. It gives a lot less hassle to people like me.

And why there is no mention about the big guy in the family? He is away on a business trip to Bangkok for a week and will be back this evening and be surprised;).

Having said all the above, I admit the play kitchen is more for the mom to relive her childhood;), then again the kids love it to bits. So, it is all worth it! (Ada sikit nak sedapkan hati juga...;)). Preparation for Raya this year will be minimal, for sure.

Some simple ideas from a kedekut mama

noreply@blogger.com (mama23beas) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 06:33:00 +0000

What would you do to a romper that still fits your girl but it is just too short that you can no longer fasten the buttons? Like the one worn by Bea3 (left) here:

Make it another layer under a dress when the day is a little cold and blowy, just like this (left):

Here's another one:

No one would know...;).