My umrah story with a toddler and a baby - Part 1: the travelling experience.

As salam everyone!! Sorry for the overdue post, been trying to settle down with the girls' jetlag and my everyday routine. And now I'm back.

So, we (my parents, hubs, both my girls and I) left Malaysia on 13th January, our travel agent is Rayhar and using Saudia Airlines. Departed from KLIA where we needed to be there 3 hours before and a short briefing by our agent before we went into the departure hall.

Flight duration was 9 hours, we left Malaysia at 2pm and arrived at 11 pm Malaysia time (7 pm Madinah's time). Transit for less than an hour in Riyadh.

I prepared everything I could because by far this is the longest flight for the girls (Khaira had 8 hours flight from Japan to Malaysia 2 years back, the longest flight Aisha had was only 3 hours).

What I brought in the flight:
1) Colouring books for each girls with colour pencils
2) Lots of videos in my phone
3) Legos
4) Play Doh
5) Jigsaw puzzles
6) Lots and variety of snacks

What I actually used in the flight:
Just snacks.

Haha! It's ok to be over prepared right!

Turned out the kids were already happy with the movies and games provided by Saudia, they couldn't care less about other things. They were too hungry in between meal time (meal was served twice), so the snacks came in handy. The rest of the time, they just slept all the wayyyy and everyone in the flight was complimenting them, Alhamdulillah, I always said to my husband, they were born traveler like us. We have at least two holidays a year, so I guess they are used to it.

Also, I must highly recommend Saudia, the kids were pampered with other toys and gifts in the flight, they were so happy.

Arrived at Madinah with the airport so packed of people checking out. Alhamdulillah, it took us about one hour and a half to clear, very efficient service I must say. We had it longer in Goldcoast Airport last time, with less people. Their immigration took all 10 fingerprints of ours, I have no fingerprints due to eczema, so I came in prepared with letters from JPN and from my specialists. My first miracle in my Umrah journey came in when for the first time in my life, the device managed to scan my fingerprints in only one attempt (Some of my family members had theirs up to three times although they have no fingerprints problem).

Arrived in Madinah with temperature outside around 17 degrees. Took a bus around half an hour to our hotel.

Happy baby in holiday mode!

Will continue my Madinah story in Part 2.

Read my Part 2 here.

Preparation for Umrah; bringing baby and toddler

Hye everyone!

At the moment, I am soo soo excited, counting the days to be the guest of my Creator.

To breathe the same air and be in the same land where my Prophet used to live.

December has been a month where I cried more than the whole year itself. The month where I have been depressed more than the PhD itself. The month when my beloved Grandmother whom I dearly called 'Mak' passed away.

To be given the opportunity to be in Makkah and Madinah just a month after Mak's passing, I took it as a way Allah swt wants to cheer me up.

So let me just share with you some of our preparation to go there:

Financially
1. Package varies from RM5k to 10k. Ours is around RM7k. RM5k for 4y.o Khaira and RM1k+ for 18m.o Aisha.
2. Overall for adult, would suggest to prepare around RM10k -> RM7k for package, RM500 for documentations (passport, injection, etc), RM1k for clothings, snacks from here and RM1.5k expenses there.

Flight
We are going with Saudi Airlines. Please check where you will be heading first. As far as I know; you have 3 options:
1. Land in Madinah and stay in Madinah first, then from Madinah by bus to Makkah (6 hours) and from Makkah to Jeddah (1 hour) and fly there.
2. Land in Jeddah and stay in Makkah first, then to Madinah and fly back from Madinah.
3. Land in Jeddah, then bus to Madinah, and from Madinah back to Makkah and fly back from Jeddah.

I opt for Option 1 as suggested by Rayhar. First timer is always advised to go to Madinah first and because they said airport in Madinah is more manageable.  I would suggest to avoid Option 3 as it requires twice travelling; Jeddah to Madinah and Madinah back to Makkah.

Hotel
We took a package with Rayhar where our hotel is just around 120m away from masjidil haram, which I think is very convenient when bringing kids along. Make sure the hotel provides at least 3 meals a day; again for convenience.

Documentations
1. Sijil nikah verified by jabatan agama if you're going with your husband and if you are below 45
2. Surat beranak verified by jpn for your kids
3. Visa photo wearing black scarf - RM12 for 4 pieces
4. Passport - now standardized to RM200 for 5 years
5. Acyw-135 vaccination. RM165 per pax. For child below 2, must go to paed and will be evaluated case by case whether or not need the vaccination. If not needed, the paed must produce a letter.

Physically
1. Walk 5km a day as suggested. Need to do it pronto

Mentally
1. Solat taubat and solat hajat may everything will be ease for you.

School holiday activities

So what's Khaira doing at home during this long holiday break?

Basically, before I leave to work, I would give her 5 pages of homework. Be it tracing or maths, but very simple ones. Just to discipline her.

Then, she would play all day and watch TV. Her favourite shows at the moment are Ultraman, Ninja Turtles and Didi and Friends. I bought her lots of arts and crafts stuff as well. Mostly from Toys R Us, I borong so many last Christmas as it got way too cheap. So mommies, YES is nearing.. go grab yours.

I also just discovered that Mr. DIY has so many arts and crafts items for kids with the price of just 10% from what I paid to buy stuff in Toys R Us. For example, I bought this keychain for Khaira to colour below for RM3.90.

At night, she would:
1. Revise 5 surahs.
2. 3 pages of reading. Her current read, and first story book. Now at pg 50.

3. Mengaji plus a line hafazan from the current surah she is at. She is now in her 17th surah.
4. Then, she would do one of these:
   a) spelling on Monday
   b) English reading on Tuesday, Thursday
   c) Maths on Wednesday
   d) Mind games on Friday

All these would take less than half an hour.

As for Aisha, she would play all day and watch TV. At night, 3 minutes or less on flashcards. And.. that's it. Yesterday, I decided to eat first before teaching them as opposed to norm. But just after Maghrib, she took her own book and sat where we usually sit waiting for me.

Hehe.. body clock.

Ya Allah, semoga the Asyikins istiqamah. Ameen.

My taichi story

It has been 4 months since I am actively involved in my Taichi class.

It started off with so many of us, until it became only two Malay ladies in the class. I was, as always the youngest.

My Master, of course was so excited to introduce me here and there. Wanted to bring me to the Grandmaster who came all the way from China, proudly saying that Taichi in Malaysia is multi racial and even attracted the youngsters. My physique obviously made me looked younger. I'm 30, Sifu.. not that young anymore (T_T).

But to be, honest.. I'm not that proud of my Taichi.

I have been in sooo many classes before. I excelled in my Aerobic class, doing okay in my Yoga class, so-so in my Tae-Kwan-Do, BUT Taichi is not something I'm proud of yet.

Taichi differs a lot from other classes I've been into. It is so detailed, and gentle and requires a lot of memorization.

The Introductory class, there were 16 steps. 16 complicated steps to memorize. Just when I thought I am doing okay with the 16 steps, I went to Taichi 103.

What is Taichi 103?

"Ohh.. it is just the extension of the 16 steps," my Sifu said.

Right....

Except that the extension means you add 87 more steps, hence Taichi 103.

16 steps + 87 steps = 103 steps = Taichi 103.

I don't even consider it as extension okay!! It's a whole new thing. *cries*

"How do I memorize all the three steps?" I asked my Taichi class monitor after my last session ended.

"It's like a lab session, you know.." He answered. And his following reply made me cursed myself for asking that stups question. "When we want to test the students on psychomotor, we ask them to do the prelab first. Practice is like doing the prelab. Then only you can master the session."

Okay. I deserved that punch *sigh*

Need more practice after this. Like my Sifu always told me..

"Do not cheat Taichi, or else Taichi will cheat you."

Whatever that means..

Sab's wedding and Mochi's birthday

It has been a while since my SABians clan got hitched. Last month, Sabri got married to her 11 years girlfriend, leaving Fai the only one among us.. of course, no pressure dear. Actually this one needs to be pressured, because she is sooo workaholic ok!

Also that weekend was fun for me because it was Mochi's birthday! Got to meet my Ampang friends, it has been a while.

The kids had so much fun, must have bouncing castle for the girls' birthday next time! (>_<)

Always blessed to have these bunch in my life ♥

My Little Octopus

After my last visit to see Grandmom in IJN, we went to Putrajaya for Genius Aulad's Little Ihtifal.

Ohh.. that proud moment of seeing your baby girl on stage. I did not know what to expect. Turned out she was very brave and confident that it almost made me cry. Emo mom!

My baby.. here's to more on stage performance after this. In shaa Allah.. lepas ni Quran recitals/hafazan ok :) Make Ibu and Abi proud. Datuk and Nenny were there to support her as well!

Spot Khaira!

During the show, when Khaira looked at the crowd to find me, our eyes immediately met and she waved. Up until today, she proudly claimed that she immediately spotted me among the hundreds of people. May our bond continue until the end.

P/S: Khaira was the one wearing ballerina yellow dress on top of her pants.

There will not be a day

There will not be a day that shall go by without me thinking of you, Mak.

...

During the last months of the passing of my Grandmother, my aunt and family, my uncle and my uncle's friend have contributed so so much for my Mak. In fact, my uncle's friend was the last person to be there half an hour before Mak passed away, and stayed overnight in the hospital with Mak. He was not an actual family member, but he took care of Mak as if it was his own. Everytime we came, he would wash the dishes, do the laundry or even cook for her and to the extend brought Mak to kubur Datuk every now and then. Mak spoke so highly of him, it was only natural to approach him and thanked him for taking care of Mak all these while after kebumi yesterday.

"I wasn't the one who helped Mak," he said. "It was the other way around."

It turned out all these while, when he spent time at Mak's house, Mak taught him how to solat and mengaji. He couldn't thank her more. He said half an hour before Mak's passing, she was soooo happy, even made some donation and small talks to patients next to her bed. ... So, this morning, when I woke up numb, feeling more lost and empty than yesterday, his words made me able to get up to know that Mak had an easy ending and husnul khatimah, in shaa Allah.

Too soon, Mak.. You left us too soon, too sudden :(

Al fatihah to my Grandmother.