Bantal busuk - do you think it's cute?

I am thankful for everything Khaira Asyikin turns up to be.

She's an easy happy baby, Alhamdulillah. Last Saturday, I brought her to a wedding, a stranger with a 7 months old daughter came to me and said, "You memang terror, how do you raise her to be such a little angel? Share tips and tricks please!"

Alhamdulillah, all praise be to Allah SWT. Alhamdulillah :)

And among many things I am thankful for, I'm thankful because she doesn't have any bantal busuk (or comfort object) to make her contented.

I know some of you might think it's cute.

But, I just finished my morning read, and this one is worth sharing. Do you know that bantal busuk or other comfort object is a sign that your baby is a little insecure?

When your bundle of joy realizes that you are not gonna be around for him/her all the time, he/she will become attached to a transitional comfort object (bantal busuk, stuffed animal, blanket, etc.)

As I am a working mother, I always hope Little Khaira understands what I have to go through everyday. And that she knows, regardless of the job that I have to attend to, I am always around whenever she needs me.

The love of my lfie ♥

I believe babies tell many things in their own way... longgg before they know how to speak. Even when Khaira was inside my tummy, she would rub the inside of my tummy with her little fingers whenever I was down. People would questioned on how do I know it's her fingers, I just try to connect with her every single time possible. Same as when she's growing up now.

I don't believe in sign languages. Because baby has their own languages that we need to understand. We have to understand them first before we start to make them understand us. So I take the cue from my baby.

First, to understand the meaning of the different type of cry. Then, to understand her facial expression. It tells a lot of thing. And now, the body languages and behaviours. I believe as a parent, we must always aware of the little changes in behaviour that our baby tries to show us.

Like one time, Khaira refused to sit in her car seat. We took it as a sign to change the car seat (it became too small for her) before she got used to sit with me and totally refused to sit in her car seat.

Another time, when she had the separation anxiety. We followed BFF Maria's advice by taking her out whenever possible to make her see new people, and hence, she's okay with strangers now.

Alhamdulillah.

Baby speaks to us in a different way that we need to master. Whether it's through reading or classes or observations, it's just worth to know :)

143, Khaira Asyikin!

Love doesn't work one way

I've been quite unhappy with work for the past couple of months.

You see, the place I'm working currently is also the place where I did my foundation, my undergrad, my master, my PhD, my first real job, everything lah in a way. And I've a very sentimental value towards this place.

I used to go to the office smiling.. :) Greeted by beautiful horses every morning, awww how I used to love this place.

But love doesn't work one way, and lately I feel like I'm the only one loving, so it breaks my heart; pieces by pieces, waiting to shatter.

Since I plan to retire early, I thought of retiring here, but now my future seems a little blur.

At the moment, in probably what seems like some attempts to make me happy, the company I'm working with try to compensate with this..

1)

2)

And several other things.

But seriously.. there's only one person that can make me stay..

And I'm waiting for him to come "home" hopefully very soon. They said "patah tumbuh hilang berganti."

But not in my case. I miss him, a lot.. still.

Muslimah hair salon, please!

I know it's not a good thing to do, but I'm just gonna do it anyway..

SIGHHHHHHH...

Ok. Done.

I love pampering myself. I save a little every month to pamper myself, whether for facial or body scrub or hair treatment or massage. (Ohh.. speaking of massage, I still have 6 free massage vouchers to be used as a present from Love for winning gold in ITEX yay!)

Anyway, since I've been trying to be a good Muslimah nowadays, I've to consider a lot of thing on my beauty regimes. You know, dealing with all that stated above means I've to open myself to strangers.

I've settled down with facial, body scrub and massage. If there's a thing a salesperson should know about me is that I'm a loyal customer. Once I've found a good place, I'd definitely stay. I've stayed with the same spa and salon since I started working, heck I've even married my high school sweetheart ;p That's how loyal I am.

So, for spa I'd always go to Seputeh Kapas, the most convenient place ever. Sometimes to Dermalogica because I always received  free vouchers since I've been using their products for years. So, there, settled.

But, I'm having trouble to find Muslimah hair salon, haish! I used to love the ones in Equinne, Headkandee, oh my so superb!



True definition of bliss :)


I googled and some suggested Hairven in Alamanda, hmmmmph.. not good enough for me since the hair stylists are mostly Chinese. Not that I'm being racist, but it's still aurat with them though they are Chinese lady. And not that I'm being too "alim", but I'm trying to improve myself as a Muslimah, you know in life we need to always aim for improvement. Baby steps, insya Allah..

Then, I found a hair stylist that I love in Bangi. She was a little slow, but she did my fringe the way I liked it, cut my hair the way I asked her to. Though the appointment was always full, but I was contented.. until yesterday she moved to a new place. Then, I'm back to square one. :(

I surveyed some other salons yesterday. Conclusion:
1) Most Muslimah hair salons are small and... hmmm.. a little dodgy. A little old and dirty. I like a big hair salon.
2) The price for hair treatment in these big hair salons are damn expensive. And they are using weird brands I've never heard of. Harga lebih kurang L'oreal.

Though the price for hair cut is half than what I've to pay in Headkandee.

So, if you are planning to start a Muslimah hair salon, a proper one, around Bangi or Seri Kembangan, please contact me. I might be your loyal customer ever!

Geek joke #3 - Capacitor

Take a break!

Took a few days leave before our holiday to Bali.. I was in need of a time out, motherhood + phd + work already took a toll on me. Not that I was not enjoying them, I just needed to have some "me" time; else I'll get too attached to my baby as much as she'll become too attached to me.

So, while Love was out for the weekends with his guy friends, FJoe came over and spent a day with Khaira Asyikin! :D

And the next day, I came over to her house to pick her up for a girl day out at Sunway Pyramid!

I love this girl a lot :)

We discovered a really nice shop, Brands Outlet that sold a lot of beautiful clothes and shoes like what Jess wore in New Girl (my current obsession!) And we went crazy. Spent seriously 2 hours there, haha. Crazy..

 

 

Tell me how to not love these!

And the day after was our (Love and I) 2 years anniversary! Wheee!! We did not have any extravaganza celebration. Just a normal date.

We were both in need of the usual dates we used to have. It's been more than 7 months since we spent a day watching movie and having fancy lunch just the two of us. That was pretty much what we did. We went all the way to Pavillion to watch Avengers.

At the end of the day, he went mohawk for Bali, just for fun. Wheee!!

That was pretty much how I spent my holiday.

Recently, I spent an evening with a dear friend who are going to be a mommy very soon.

Another baby boy soon!

Haha, now I'm all happy to go back to mommyhood + phd + work. What's not to love about them :)

A beggar in Pasar Malam

I feel so happy the moment I wrote this story. Blissful. For EVERYHTING I have, Alhamdulillah :)

Just a random story anyway..

Back when I was little, Mom would always leave a few RM1 note by her computer. So whenever someone came over to the house asking for donation, Mom would asked me to take one note of RM1 and gave it to them. As a child I figured it was an interesting thing to do. It made me happy, though I was uncertain of why I felt that way at the moment.

So, when I finally received my weekly allowance back when I was in kindergarten, I saved up some coins and changed them to RM1 note. Remember back in early 90s, we can find a lot of beggars in Pasar Malam and this one particular beggar caught my attention so badly. He was a really skinny old man, reminded me of my grandfather a lot.

The day we went to Pasar Malam, I gave the RM1 note to this old man. And Mom scolded me, "You're not being fair. You gave it to only 1 beggar when there's a lot of other beggars and they all should be treated equivalently."

Somehow, I really took that advice to heart, and tried to be fair whenever possible. Although sometimes, some beggars looked fishy; like a syndicate or something but my job is to just give sincerely, whether it's a syndicate or not; it's not up to me to judge.

Kind of reminding me of someone I knew back in high school. This person would donated whatever leftover money he had from his weekly allowance for donation during Friday prayer. And I somehow fell in love with his kindness; and later on to the person himself.

And today, he's my better half, the father of my little girl, may she turned up to be as generous as her father and her grandparents; the three most generous people I know :)

Stimulating your baby

I read this in "What to Expect: The First Year" and found some interesting parts I believed worth sharing.. So, I combined them and came up with these..

Currently reading

Stimulating your baby (below 6 months old)

1) Love unconditionally  
     Even during colic or tantrum.

2) Relate to your baby
     Your goal at this moment is not to teach her, but rather be involved with her. Sing or talk to your baby when you're changing her nappy or when you're bathing her. Play with them, the most educational toys are useless if you don't play with them.

3) Get to know your baby
     Learn what makes your baby happy or miserable, excited or bored, soothed or stimulated.

4) Take the pressure off - and have fun
     Please don't pressure your baby! Let them progress at their own pace.

5) Give your baby space
     Adequate attention is vital; too much can be stifling. As much as Khaira seems to be clingy with me, I realized I am also clingy to her. Urgh! Baby steps.. The tips: spend quality time playing with your baby, but sometimes, just get baby and toy together and watch from sidelines.

6) Follow the leader
     As of now, baby is in lead. Let her choose what to play, when to end the play session (though it's just starting), again try to have fun with your baby.

7) Time it right
     Remember your baby has VERY short attention spans.

8) Provide positive reinforcement
     Hugs, cheers, applause. Khaira usually smile shyly when we did all these :)

Stimulating your baby (above 6 months old)

1) Large motor skills
    Stand on your lap and bounce, pull to sitting, squat, pull to standing, anything physical.

2) Small motor skills
     Soft toys, blocks, real household objects (which they love a lot eventually), balls, finger games, etc.

3) Social skills
     Expose your child to a varitey of people of different ages. Do this while shopping, while visiting your frinds, try bring your baby as much possible when you go out. Teach them to say 'hi' or waving bye, blow a kiss, say 'thank you'.

4) Intellectual and language skills
     Names are recognized first - Ibu, Abi, etc. Then, basic words - Yes, No, Bye. After that they will imitate what you say before saying their own words. You can encourage them by playing stimulating games like peek-a-boo, sharpening baby's auditory perception (emphasize and repeat the same words), introduce concepts (coffee is hot, wates is for drinking, etc), encourage curiousity and creativity, and always remember learning should be fun!

P/S: Also, I read What to Expect when You're Expecting, when I was pregnant, I believe it's a good read, and every pregnant mummy should have it. It makes you feel so normal. Hee :D I shall rate that 5/5 :)