The birth of one, the lost of the other

My SIL gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on 26th December 2012!

Say hello to Imaan Iris :)

I finally have a niece, and Khaira now has a cousin!

The day Imaan Iris was born was also the day a cousin of mine lost her 6 months old baby girl in the womb.. Or so the doctor said.

The baby stopped moving altogether for a couple of days and when my cousin went to see her gynae, the doctor said there was no heartbeat anymore, the baby's head started to shrink and etc.

After seeing her gynae, the baby started to kick and move again as if telling the mother, as according to my cousin, "she's still alive but in pain." This persisted for two days. And on the second day, my cousin told her daughter, "If it's best for you to go, both mama and papa redha."

And that was when the baby stopped moving altogether.. Permanently..

Sad..

And even more sad when the stillbirth baby as of today, is still in her womb. Her gynae advised the baby to be born naturally, where she'll feel some surges and then eventually she'll give birth normally as it should be.

I pray the best for my cousin and her family. And I pray that people around her would be more understanding and more helpful in helping her get through this.

When I was at risk of losing Baby K at 14 weeks old in the womb, I couldn't even imagine how life would be, to go on without her. Be strong, cousin. We'll get through this..

Assalamualaikum 2013 :)

Yay, it's 2013!!

Alhamdulillah, I survived 2012 gracefully..

My wishlist for 2012..

Bali
Graduate from my PhD
Breastfeeding Khaira for at least 6 months
Sponsor my family to Langkawi
Register for Hajj
Do something for our home
Give a car to my parents
Collect results for PhD
Breastfeeding Khaira for at least a year

Manage to cross all, but 'graduate from my PhD' is still on the way! Doakan..

2013's wishlist..

Goldcoast
Do something for our home
Breastfeeding Khaira for at least 1 and a half year
Senior Lecturer
Save at least RM20k
Cameron Highland
Aerobic class/dance class/gym
Graduate from my PhD

Insya Allah, this year must cross everything :)

Stimulating baby's right brain - DarwishDarwisya's Method

The easiest way to stimulate your baby's right brain..

TV!!

One of the most powerful technology in hypnotizing your mind.

The ones that define everything. That has the most powerful influence to your children, unfortunately.

I'm sure subliminal messages in Disney were not something new to us.

Tangled

The Little Mermaid

The Lion King

Some critics said "it was your mind that has been programmed and hypnotised at one time or another in your life to think that they were dirty or going to be dirty drawings".

Yeah, sure.

Go ahead, take a look at this youtube video, "Naughty Cartoon Drawings".

Then, pause and wonder. Is it safe, those cartoons you let your children watch.

Such a scary world.

So, while you can control what they can or cannot watch, let's just introduce them to something very safe, no hanky panky. My choice at the moment..

Very boring you might say. But if you introduce this early to your children, way before Spongebob and Upin Ipin, this will be the ONLY entertaining thing they know. (Btw, Spongebob also has subliminal message, please google :( )

I might be a bit late. By the time I introduced this to Spiderbaby, she was already obsessed with a ridiculous show called, "High-5". Everytime I watched that with her, I went like, "Seriously??"

But, after a while, she found Al-Furqan VCD interesting and almost every day, when I got home, she would bring me the CD and asked me to play it for her.

Whether it helps or not, in terms of her learning capability, I am not able to assess just as yet. But for me personally, why not educate while entertain.

My choice after Al-Furqan..

Khaira at 14 mo!

Sekarang ni setiap hari excited nak pulang!! :)

Spiderbaby learns new things everyday.

Nearing 13mo, at work, all of a sudden mom messaged me, "Kak, Khaira dah boleh jalan."

And when I arrived home, she walked like a tiny dinosaur, tangan kat depan, 5 steps then she fell down. And clap her hands. That was the beginning. About a month after, dah berlari. Very handful nowadays.

Then, a couple of days after that, she started to recognize things in her baby books. Things like "banana", "apple", "baby", etc. Managed to record a video there.

Then, I started teaching her to show her tummy, eyes, nose. Masya Allah, kids are very fast learners.

Now macam-macam benda comel Khaira buat, would like to write it here for my keepsake. Among the most adorable ones..

1. "No, no, no, no, no" dengan gesture tangan yg sangat comel!
2. "Jap! Jap" Again dengan gesture tangan and kepala hangguk2.
3. "Khaira, nanny masak apa?" Tarik nafas. "Kaghi." Pause. "Ayom" (referring to Kari Ayam). Some other days. "Ambal" (referring to sambal)

And yes, she can say 2 words already. "Nak air", "Bye, Ayah Ngah" at 14 mo.:)

Excited nak balik rumah every day!!

Anyhow, this youtube pages are dedicated for my little angel. Only God knows how much I love her.

Life oh life

Life has been very ironic for Love and I these couple of days.

To cut the story short, we recently found out that Love's car that he bought from a dealer, Mazmi Syah bin Mohamed Munzani (IC num: 791105-01-5377) was somewhat stolen. He faked the signature for the transaction. Hence, the transaction of the car was not valid :( Eventhough the name of the grant has already been changed to ours, JPJ has the power to change it back. We filed a police report towards the dealer already, doakan yang terbaik. Orang yang teraniya insya Allah dimakbulkan.

I can only imagine what Love is going through currently. He has the power of letting go, insya Allah.. everything will turn up just fine for the both of us.

But, remember that when Allah closes one door for us, He opens another. On a brighter note, I was at the peak of my career yesterday (Still on cloud 9 today :))

Received a call from one of the big people in the biggest industry of my field. They came and visited my lab yesterday. They were REALLY interested in my project, Alhamdulillah. And I received one of the best offer I could imagine. Alhamdulillah. :) The highest peak of my career.

Who would have thought all these years, someone really appreciates and follows my work. It feels good to be appreciated after a while :) Such a good news for both of us.

But all these are too overwhelming for Love and I. We decided to go out for a supper with Spiderbaby to take a break from all the madness. But after feeding Spiderbaby last night, for what seems like months, she fell asleep after Maghrib, boleh? As if saying, "go Ibu and Abi, you needed this."

Went for a piece of cake at Secret Recipe near our place. And we just talked and laughed. And I began to understand what Love meant when he said,

"Regardless of whatever happens in our life, as long as we have each other, things will be just fine.."

Big bad wolf 2012 - a review

Went to BBW 2012 a week after it started. And ohhh goodness, my first to many visits after this inysa Allah :)

My verdict: Very well organized! Books are placed according to genre. I went like, 'romance' - lame! 'Science fiction' - done with it. 'Young adults' - errr???

Books I bought..

Didn't take much time for me to decide on what I want. I didn't go scrutinizing each book, because the obvious ones are tempting enough.

First went to the Bestseller section, and just had to buy ''The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown, of which I've been visiting multiple times to MPH to buy this book but ended up buying something else, rezeki sungguh. Price = RM8.

Then, saw the only Jeffrey Archer's I could find - "Paths of Glory", never read his work before. Bought this after I have been recommended by almost everyone. Price = RM 8.

Fell in love with this one, which I never heard of before, "Her fearful symmetry" from the author of Time traveller's wife, simply because I love this movie so much. Price = RM8.

Then to Self Help, very disappointing. It's like a compilation of Self Books I never wish to read. Except there's "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell, which I already have them in my Self Help collection.

So, to Memoirs section, and found "Donald Trump: Think like a champion" which I have been wanting to buy for quite sometimes. Price = RM10.

Books Love bought..

Love doesn't read. Period. Except about cars.

He bought his "Porsche The Ultimate Guide" for RM12, which I can assure the only time he is ever going to read it is either in the toilet or while waiting for his flight if outstation.

And he bought another book "More show me how" for RM15 which honestly, I don't categorize it as a book. Just a manual with compilation of beautiful pictures in it.



For everybody else..

I must say the best section is the Children section. Grab these in less than 10 minutes while browsing through. Read along Curious George with CD for RM8 and Kai Lan activity book with crayons for RM6.

These are in the Dummy section. "Natural Childbirth" for RM10 and "Cooking For Two" for RM8.

So, altogether we spent a total of RM103 for 11 books in less than an hour, can you beat that?

It's a must go again event that I totally stamp on! Very well organize, comfortable and the place is big, so you don't feel crowded at all.

As of now, 80 more pages to be done with "What the Dog Saw", 10 more books waiting for me at home. Tak sabar tak sabar tak sabar!!! :)

Co-sleep no more!

Dear Khaira Asyikin,

You're a big girl now! At 14 months, you no longer co-sleep with Ibu :)

We were sometimes worried, Khaira. At a year old, you were still behaving like a baby. You would wake up every 2 hours (Lucky cases, else every hour) to feed at night, you need your rest.

Abi said because you were too close to me and the smell of my milk made you distracted.

I did not argue with that. So, Ibu and Abi tried slowly to separate the bed, though my initial intention was to do that when you were 2.

I first tried to breastfeed you until you fell asleep, then I would carry you to your baby cot. But, it did not work. You would cry, and started to breastfeed again, and it was more tiring for both of us.

Last weekend, you developed an allergy towards tomato. Rashes caused you to have sleepless nights. I had even more sleepless nights, causing me to catch a flu on the third day. The flu worsened until I sneezed non-stop at 3 am, and decided to sleep separately from you to avoid the virus.

To my surprise, you sleep like a baby until the next day.

Since my flu persisted until the next day, I thought it was a sign. So that night, we put your bed next to Ibu and Abi's bed, and I breastfed you at your bed until you fell asleep. Then, I went to my own bed, it was better. You slept like a baby and woke up only one time to feed. And when I climbed into my bed, you were already in deep sleep by then.

Last night was day 2. You woke up in the middle of the night to feed, startled I was not next to you, quickly searched for me and immediately climbed into Ibu's bed. Saddd.. :( But I have to be strong, I can't be that clingy with you, kay. Else, I would make life harder for you in the future.

So, I held you gently and fed you to sleep. Held you a little longer and took that courage to climb up to my bed again.

It's for the best, Khaira Asyikin. You need a better sleep. And if you need anything, I'm still next to you, still wakes up at every moves you made and still holds you at every sounds you produced.. :)