Mother daughter bonding time

Khaira had so many funny requests in a day.

"Ibu, do you mind telling me the story of Ikan Nun and Nabi Yunus?"

If it was for the third time of the day already, I would just asked her to go to Abi instead.

"Ibu, nak Ibu pakaikan seluar." Always when I nursed Aisha.

But lately was,

"Nak ikut Ibu pergi kerja."

Or..

"Nak Ibu manjakan Khaira."

Then I realized it has been the longest time since I spent a quality time with her.

Right after my industrial training visit on Friday, I rushed back home. Arrived slightly before 6pm, picked her up, off to Jusco. I only have an hour, but I was determined to make it a quality time.

I dropped off at Studio R and bought her a new pair of slipper.

Then to Jusco to buy her a dress and 3 blouses.

Because this week Khaira moved to Book 3 (she was the first one to start book 3, it's only May), she deserved all the presents. Teacher targeted book 3 for 5 y.o.

Another dress for Aisha, 2 pairs of leggings and 2 new sippy cups.

Looked at the clock, it was just 45 minutes, such shopping skills I acquired as a mother of two now. *blows nail*

"We still have 15 minutes before 7pm. Would you like a slice of cake?"

She hugged me.

This reaction is priceless.

And all she need is an hour from this freaking busy mother? What have I become?

Oh no worries about Aisha, she was happy with my mom when we were out.

Vietnam with a toddler and baby...

...and not using travel agency is crazy.

Lucky we went to Ho Chi Minh for only three days.

Flight from KL to Ho Chi Minh is around 2 hours. We left via KLIA2, my first. Was amazed with so many shopsssss!! Must come early and lepak first.

Time difference is around an hour. 1pm Malaysia = 12 noon Ho Chi Minh.

RM1 = 6000 dhong. You can use RM as well in Ben Tanh market. And if you change RM to Dhong in Vietnam (we changed it in their airport) you'll get more compared to exchange rate in Malaysia.

They are using 2 flat pins plug like this, so converter is needed.

Travelling with a toddler and a baby, what you need?

1. A small portable stroller mainly for baby Aisha, or for Toddler Khaira if K fell asleep. Which left A to use..

2. A carrier. We love our Pognae so much.

3. Diaper bag with only diaper pants. Ho Chi Minh is not at all baby friendly. Don't expect to find any nursing room. Diaper pants are much easier option.

4. Formula milk for the toddler and baby food for the baby. First day I brought frozen food for A (which I reheat by submerging the tupperware in hot water). Since Baby A is not a colicky baby, we just gave her instant cereal for the other 2 days.

5. Light clothing, comfy shoes.

6. No jewellery please. I'll talk about it soon.

7. Snacks while travelling for the toddler.

Our first happy day.

Flight to Ho Chi Minh was smooth sailing, Alhamdulillah as both my girls were born traveller. We had a peaceful time in the flight while they were playing happily.

We arrived at Ho Chi Minh at 12 noon local time. We purposely did not take the first flight like we usually did so that by the time we settle down, hotel was ready for us to check in.

Stayed in Hoang Lien hotel with one queen size bed for all of us girls and one single size bed for Love. The bathroom was equipped with a bathtub so the kids love it. Comfy to bath the baby as well.

Funny though.. you need to leave your passport at the reception of the hotel or otherwise you need to pay a deposit of 100 usd.

We had our lunch in the hotel. Knowing it was hard to find halal food in our area as we did not stay in Ben Tanh area, I bought extra food from AirAsia. Each guest is entitled for 2 meals, so I bought 5 meals altogether for our lunch and dinner. We had a very heavy breakfast at the airport before.

After lunch, I called the hotel reception to buy us 3 tickets to water puppet show later at 6.30pm with the price of 150k dhong per person with extra 50k dhong for the hotel's sercive.

Then, all of us took a nap so the girls would not be cranky. Then we took a bath and off we went.

We walked to the water puppet show. Around 10 minutes walk that felt like forever. The traffic in Ho Chi Minh was crazy, I tell you! Motorcycles outnumbered the cars here. They move like a swamp of bees. Zebra crossing not working here, don't bother wait for traffic lights. They don't comply with the system AT ALL. Just brave yourself to cross the road, and the motorcyclists will find a way to avoid you somehow. It's like they don't need a system to work because they are soooo in tune with each other, it just works you know. They texted while biking and honking like alll the time but, not a single accident we saw. Total opposite of Japan but perhaps too systematic causes us to lose our common sense.

Water puppet show was amazinggggg!! The girls love it very much surprisingly. Must watch. It was a 50 minutes show in their native language.. but you don't need to understand the story to appreciate their tradition. I'm still amazed as of how the water puppet works. And K still refers Ho Chi Minh as "the place with puppets".

After the show, we had the time of our life in Trung Nguyen coffee shop. The coffee was amazing, never found a coffee this beautiful and strong. Then, we went back to sleep. Took me 2 hours to sleep, damn you caffeine!

But at least, I slept that night happily; loving the Vietnamese and the coffee.

Second day sucks big time

Woke up early and went to War Remnant Museum, 15 minutes walking. Was so so. Entry fee is 10k dhong. Opens daily from 8.00 to 11.45am and 1.30 to 4.45pm. I still wonder why so many Japanese in the museum.

Play area

Had Trung Nguyen coffee and shopped for some souvenirs, then we took a cab to Ben Tanh market.

A metered XE taxi driver looked kind enough and drove us to so called Ben Tanh market. Meter went out soo fast.. It was only 15 mins away, he charged us RM100. Even worse, he brought us to Bin Thay market, not Ben Tanh.. Ugh! But we shopped for Vietnamese cotton there. 10 pairs of them and other fabrics as well.. Vietnamese cotton was only RM 22 for 4 metres. Can get cheaper if you know how to nego.

Asked the salesperson how much does it cost for taxi from Bin Thay to Ben Tanh for validation, she said around RM25. So we saw a taxi driver with Vinasun's (the reliable taxi) clothing and cap, we asked how much, he said around RM25. But as we got to the taxi, it was not Vinasun, it was XE taxi again. But since he carried all our stuff already, off we went to Ben Tanh. As we arrived, he said we need to pay RM80 because RM25 times the number of people in the cab. We tried to nego and guess guess.. he grabbed Aisha's golden anklet ok!

I officially hate Vietnam after that! I hate Vietnamese so much, we felt insecure there.

Felt insecure to the trishaw drivers that pushed us to use their services. Felt insecure with so many people polishing Love's fabric shoes without permission. Insecure with people walking too close to the girls.

Had our lunch at Muslim shop near Ben Tanh and tapau for dinner as well. The Vietnamese salesperson spoke Malay fluently. The price tag of some items in the shops also in RM. Funny.

For me, Ben Tanh is messier that Philippine market. Price is so overrated. A tshirt for RM45, negotiable to RM8. Merepek tak? I don't like to nego, so I just walked away until I found honest salesperson that put the cheapest price.

Ben Tanh is not suitable for baby or stroller. Sempit, panas, kotor.

Then we took a Vinasun cab which charged us appropriately and got back safely to the hotel. At night, we lepak at a different Trung Nguyen shop and shopped for coffee to bring back home. Trung Nguyen coffee is quite pricey but for the premium taste, I must say it is worth it.

Can't wait to go home: Day 3

After breakfast, we went to Tao Dahn Park near our hotel. It was fun. Khaira went crazy.

Back to the hotel, packed, checked out (don't forget your passport) and straight to airport. Had lunch at Domino's; vege pizza. It was delicious.

Then, home sweet home!

Not missing Vietnam. Not coming back, hopefully, in shaa Allah.

I'm sorry, girls. No more places like these without travel agent. Even if we go after this, we'll stay in a place where we can have fun for you, girls k.

Alhamdulillah, Malaysia, I love you.

Water chalet @ Avillion PD

I had a retreat end of last month at Avillion, PD. They gave us a water chalet, wooottttttt!!

Avillion has been super fun. The best chalet in Malaysia I must say for me.

They have mini zoo inside, a play area, 24 hour swimming pool, near the beach, food was super good. Would go there again and again.

The chalet was nice, with 1 king sized bed that Love slept all by himself while I slept at the other smaller bed with the two girls fighting over who slept closer to Ibu (T_T)

Bathroom was superb, where you can see the skies and the sand, even crab. Khaira was the most excited with the bathroom. But at night, we found three cockroaches in less than an hour, ohh.. that I cannot tolerate.

But I will be there again, Avillion, just waittt!!~

Khaira's first parents teacher meet

K's first PTM was everything we expected and more

Teacher said she was the first to read Book 2 and the most fluent in reading. Alhamdulillah.. I have faith that if you chase akhirat, Allah swt eases up the dunia for you. We only taught her hijaiyah, but the concept made her understand alphabets and numbers fast.

Teacher also said Khaira is very matured. She behaved like she is 6. She is very independent. She made sure she finished her work first before playing with her friends.

Most surprisingly, teacher told us that Khaira can do everything on her own. Toilet, bath, wear and fold her own clothes. It was like we talked about different Khaira there. Khaira at home is so princessy, she wants us to do everything for her.

Alhamdulillah for the blessings dear Allah.

K in kindy

Month 3 in kindy.

Oh wow.

Did I just type that?

Did I seriously survive a crying toddler every morning to school?

Wow! There should be some kind of award for this (T_T)

First month, crying everyday for two weeks. Just when the crying about to subside, down with mild fever, a day MC and the whole drama of "I don't want to go to school" began.

Just about to get better, a few days after that another MC for UTI. UTI stands for urinary tract infection, we detected it because she peed very frequently, like once every hour. Happened due to not enough fluid in the body and hygiene. So we bought her a new 1L 'Frozen' water bottle for kindy and taught her how to clean herself after peeing, before this we did everything for her, we thought she knew how to do it herself.

A week plus after that, just about the crying subsided, she was down with some kind of naughty viral infection. Cannot pee, shaking, vomiting, headache, cough, running nose, and pain in joints. Fever hiked up to 39 for more than 3 days, antibiotics didn't do much.After a week and still the same, third visit to clinic made us ended up in pediatrician's office, blood test showed everything was fine. Ped asked us not to give fever medicine until the fever goes beyond 38 so the body will develop own antibody and she said it was very normal because before this she was in confined environment, and now she was about to familiarize herself with all the viruses around her. Should get better but a little slow. Alhamdulillah, indeed she made fast recovery that same day after seeing the Ped. Ped said she would be on and off with fever for a couple more month until her body familiar with the viruses around her. Alhamdulillah, 2 months after, she only had one mild fever.

After she recovered from viral fever, the school was attacked with chicken pox. 30 out of 60 students were infected, can you imagine? Left me no choice, but to stop sending K for a while until the KKM asked the school to close down for a week.

Then, again.. just about the crying subsided again, guess guess.. Khaira was down with chicken pox. 2 weeks MC that obviously later on infected Aisha.

As far as I can remember, this is the first time, Khaira went to school for 8 days straight without MC. Still crying, at days very little, at days very very bad, but overall it just gets better. Both the body and the emotion. The drama. The drama.

In and out of clinic, such experienced we have never felt before. Used to go to clinic once in three months, now like, hello, here we are again! (T_T)

As the after school tantrum and "clingy"ness subsided, my emotional torture of leaving her and dying inside everytime she cries subsided as well. Now rasa nak gigit everytime dia nangis.

But all these hassles are just proven worth it.

Khaira now dah pandai solat, all the bacaan dalam solat dah betul. She recited a few doas with English translation. She can zikir after solat and while playing, jangan main2, lagi banyak pahala than Ibu ok. Main pon zikir. She can read very fluently now. Although roughly macam baru sebulan setengah school sebab banyak sangat MC, the teacher must have done a good job. She made friends, taught us lots of new songs.

My little girl is not so little now.

Ahhh.. I'm just glad the drama is over. To a healthier years ahead, Bismillah!

Ibrah surah Yusuf Perspektif Parenting - a review

Recently, I went to two different talks by two different speakers. Talk number 1 is a two day event, while talk number 2 is an hour event.

I found it ironic on how an hour talk provided me with more contents than a two days talk.

And even more ironic on how a supposedly 2 days motivational talk left me unmotivated and judged. :( Shall not talk about that, but if you're a motivational speaker reading this.. please be careful when you're joking demoralisingly, because people listen to you.

Anyhow, this afternoon, I went to Bangi gateway and I must thank mama yaya zone for the effort, it is totally free, such kindness. Thank you Ustaz Syaari, Subhanallah.. such a good speaker as always, I can't even..

...
Ustaz started his talk with the needs of understanding the Quran. Not only for parenting, but for everything in our life, treat it as our hidayah. Try to read the meaning of each surah and think what is the significance of each line to us. And if we suddenly heard a surah, try to think that Allah SWT is telling us something through the surah. Go back and read the meaning of that surah.

The specialty of Surah Yusuf is that Prophet Yusuf is the only Prophet that has a special surah in the Quran. Also, he is the only Prophet whose story has been told since he was born until the end of his life.

Some points captured from the seminar as has been enlightened by Ustaz Syaari:

1. From Surah Yusuf : 7 

Iman tidak diwarisi. Prophet Yusuf's father, grandfather and great grandfather were all Prophets. Yet, look at  his brothers. Meaning to say that, after the kids baligh, then it is beyond our control. We could just give the best, try our all and later on, pray and redha.

2. From Surah As Safaat : 102

And when he reached with him [the age of] exertion, he said, "O my son, indeed I have seen in a dream that I [must] sacrifice you, so see what you think." He said, "O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast."

On how Prophet Ibrahim asked for the child's opinion. Even he, a Prophet himself asked for the son's opinion although he obviously not in need to do so.

3. From Surah Hud : 46

He said, "O Noah, indeed he is not of your family; indeed, he is [one whose] work was other than righteous, so ask Me not for that about which you have no knowledge. Indeed, I advise you, lest you be among the ignorant."

On how Allah SWT tells Prophet Noh that his own son is indeed not of his family because the son is among the ignorant.

The 4 out of 10 principles in raising your children

1. Be a good listener

Surah Yusuf : 4

[Of these stories mention] when Joseph said to his father, "O my father, indeed I have seen [in a dream] eleven stars and the sun and the moon; I saw them prostrating to me."

Although Prophet Yaakob was very very old as compared to Prophet Yusuf who was then 12 years old, it shows that his son did not feel awkward to share with his father about his dream.

2. Call your children with a name that she/he loves

Shall call Khaira, princess now. Kbye.

3. Raise your kids accordingly.

Surah Yusuf : 5

He said, "O my son, do not relate your vision to your brothers or they will contrive against you a plan. Indeed Satan, to man, is a manifest enemy."

On how Prophet Yaakob told his son to not tell the brothers about his dream. It was a good news, the dream was one of the signs that Prophet Yusuf was about to become a prophet. But Prophet Yaakob did not tell that in fear of the son's security.

Moral of the story, treat your kids according to their age, maturity and capability.

4. Look what lies beneath..

Referring to Surah Yusuf : 5 above, how Prophet Yaakob diverts the conversation from talking about the brothers "O my son, do not relate your vision to your brothers or they will contrive against you a plan." to the Satan, "Indeed Satan, to man, is a manifest enemy" shows that our real enemy is not human.

When our kids throw a tantrum, remember, Satan is the enemy. And always study why they throw their tantrum rather than quickly punishing them.


I know, I know, my explanation was not as exciting as I sounded like. Truth is, I am not good in this matter. (Plus I'm hungry, need Nasi though I just ate a couple of hours ago. Seriously, breastfeeding makes me eat like a Giant) The real explanation, is wayyyy beyonddddddddd.. Like, seriously.

So, go! Tomorrow :)

Fast reading technique (Little Caliph) seminar - A review

Last Friday, when I picked Lil K from school, the teacher came to me excitedly and said.. "Khaira dah pandai baca dua sukukata dah."

I stunned.

"Na.ma. Sa.ya. Su.ka," The teacher further explained.

"Ohhh..." Was the only syllable that managed to escape my mouth. It was just February, and she had a week off last two weeks due to viral fever. Only four weeks in school (plus adjusting herself with new environment, first time being away from family) left me speechless.

"She is one of the advanced student in my class," the teacher added, beaming proudly and I finally smiled.

Too many things in my mind. I never taught her A, B, C. I struggled finding time everyday teaching her hijaiyah. Now she mastered fathah, dhammah, qasrah, huruf sambung and tanwin. In 10th surahs now. Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah. No, never taught her A, B, C at all.

Called Love and he reminded me, "It's true, when akhirat is the one we're aiming for, Allah SWT gives us the dunia for Khaira. How hard learning hijaiyah for her, makes A, B, C as easy as apple picking".

On Sunday, we attended a "Fast reading technique" seminar organized by Khaira's LC. They allowed one adult for each student with the price of RM30. I literally begged her teacher to allow both of us to be there and we paid RM60 first before she could even give us the confirmation. #Clingycouple.

The seminar started 45 minutes late, and we came half an hour early. Imagine the wait.. not a good start.

But, ended up so well. Highly recommended ok, please goooo!!!

Do you know that at the age of 0 to 9, kids learn using both brains? And from 0 to 5 they absorb as much as 80% of what they learn? Like sponges, these kids. And that from 0 to 5, they progressed according to month of birth. Kids born in early of the year learn faster than the end of the year. K was born in October.

Basically, the LC method starts by first teaching them to read in Malay, then English and finally Jawi. They teach these languages via Phonics. They have their own reasoning and logic behind. So, please go and listen to their explanations.

And they treat each word as a picture of sound. They associate each word as action.

a - hysterical 'a'
ba - bouncing the ball
ca - caca dancing
da - playing drum
fa - flower
ga - shaking
ha - like "ha.. ha.. tak tau" like that.
ja - janggut (beard)
ka - laugh as in "ka.. ka.. ka.."
la - singing "la.. la.. la.."
ma - "mmmm maaa.. delicious, Alhamdulillah" *
na - pukul nyamuk
pa - candle blowing
ra - driving motorcycle
sa - snake
ta - shooting people
va - driving van
wa - crying
ya - "yahooo! Alhamdulillah" *
za - bees

*See how they integrate Islam as much as possible?

I always asked Khaira what she learned in school. Her answer would always be, "colouring, playing". To be honest, I am ok with it. Come on.. she is just 4. But actually she learned via playing. So, she thought it was just playing.

For example, the teachers would put the words at the floor and asked them to pick up the letter by saying something like, "Khaira, run like a cheetah and give me a 'ma'". Seriously how funnn??? Or they would asked them to catch the words using something ala2 joran. Cool ok!

They also have individual reading. Not forgetting, stickers everytime they finish reading. No wonder she is sooo obsessed with sticker. Rewards everywhere. Hand clapping, so funn!!

After learning all these, then only they would learn other vowels like "bi, bu, be, bo". They learn these by associating the "ba" with other vowels. One of the way is the Ulat Bulu song.

"Ada Sang Ulat Bulu
Punya kaki seribu
Siapa nampak kakiku
Jikalau tak nampak
Terpaksa ku melompat
Denagn kakiku kurang satu"

So they need to change this song to other vowels. For example..

"Idi Sing Ilit Bili, Pinyi kiki siribi.."

Make sense? No, and according to the speaker, the more ridiculous it is, the easier it is to stick in their mind.

Afterwards, they will learn to make sense of the words they are reading.

"Sa.Ya. Su. Ka. Ba. Ca" is actually "Saya suka baca," you know. All that.

Then they would learn huruf tertutup.

"Sa. Yu. R" is "Sayur"

Then... English. And Hijaiyah.

LC teach only small letters first because they are more common. Anddd, surprise, surprise.. they said, city kids are harder to write (too many tablets, fine motor skills needs to be stimulated). Khaira now, can write Alif, Ba, Ta and all slowly. Like I said, I did not teach her other than Hijaiyah and hafazan at home. Tapi lepas ni, kena kerja lebih keras.

After the seminar, I tried reading some stuff with K, and yup, Alhamdulillah.. so fast, she got almost all correct, just needs to work on her "ba" and "da". A bit confusing.

All in all, the teachers must have done a good job, only Allah SWT can repay their kindness.

Having said that, I have no regrets sending K to LC regardless of her traumatic first day experience. I am a lecturer myself. And the first rule, on the very first day I taught in my class, I would always say to them, "Have faith in me. I won't disappoint you. I would teach you as accurately as possible, kalau ada tersilap sekalipun, I would rectify as soon as I could. The moment you don't have faith in me is the moment it would ruin this course."

It's true.

And with clear conscience, hati ikhlas full of trust, in your hands teachers, I'm putting my "life" kain putih bersih for you to shape, to train this caliph, this little hafizah to be someone to contribute to the Muslim society. Not only to excel in her exam, no, but to contribute to the human beings, in shaa Allah.

In you teachers, I have faith :) And to you, dear Allah SWT, I let her go.