Shania's Arival

It’s just AWESOMEEE (americans favorite verb). Shania is finally here. Beautiful and sweet. Maz exact words were ‘sweet giler dan sangatlah sopan-santun’ (i ‘left out’ the tunggu lah seminggu dua lagi comment) sebab tak nangis ape pun.. bunyi ‘eh-eh’ je. Kalau tak caya dia cute and sweet... check out more pictures kat album shania arrival

Yesterday a few of us visited Shania at SMC. Wafi (half awake), Peeps and wife Rozilawati (i hope betul aku eja), Soraya-nana-yaya-razlan, mamru (nana’s pronounciation of amru), Bo the losing M.U. fan, Mr and Mrs Mas (Mr Mas = Faizal) and Uztazah Fatihatul. Anids and Cha-cha kot (yg muka macam agus) was arriving when we were leaving.

We heard all the gruesome details of the delivery (let the father tell it to you personally). Sebab kalau my ‘ajinomoto’ version, memang tak nampak macho langsung ayahnya... hahahahah..

Oh i forgot to mention Shania is Shahrul and Su’s first born. Get used it to guys, ppl just tend to forget you when you have kids.

Once again congrats and especially ‘GOOD LUCK’ with the Shania! (cant imagine shahrul basuh bontut Shania)

Welcome Shania to our extended family.

ps... Shahrul or su, your welcome to write anything and we will post it in our blog here (publisity murahan)

Baby season

It’s baby season! A couple of years ago it’s mating season.. Now come the production season.. hehe.. It feels like we just had Zara, but she’s one year old already! Anyway, we are blessed with our friends’ productive outputs. Eliz n Kench, our Form 3 classmate and Ohio buddies, are blessed with their first born baby boy Izz. He is just so cute and fair like his mother. I made a mini accordian book for baby Izz. It has blue and yellow theme, suitable for a cute baby boy like Izz.

Right after Eliz is Matun & Zul’s turn. Matun is also our Form 3 classmate. They are blessed with a beautiful baby boy, Baby Irfan Haziq. They have been married for almost 2 years (if I remember correctly) and Haziq is their first child. For them, I made a small card. (Sorry Matun.. no time to make mini album). He is also so cute (baby mana yang tak cute, kan?). He was fast asleep when I visited them last time.

Shortly after that is of course, the arrival of baby Shania Amani! She is the first child to our close friends Shahrul and Surini. We are excited to have Shania into our extended family. Welcome to the parenthood world, guys! hehe.. For them, I made a special star album especially for baby Shania. You can see more in our album. Can’t wait for her to grow up a bit so our kids can play with her. :)

The latest arrival is Eric & Loges’s baby girl, which was borned just yesterday. Congratulations to the happy parent! There’s more in line.. Next is Kak Nora’s and Kak Zal’s baby boy. Other preggy ladies are Soraya, Diana, Yus, Chot, Hanan, Amelia and Anis. Anybody I missed? It’s mating season, people!

Soraya is expecting her third girl. Kuddos to you Soraya, I can’t catch up! (not that I want to. Her first & second is similar age like mine) heheh.. Diana, Anis, Kak Zal, Yus and Chot are on their second pregnancy.. Kuddos to you too, good job catching up! hehehe.. To Amy and Hanan, I am excited that you are finally embracing motherhood. But the big momma is certainly Kak Nora, with her 5th pregnancy. She is due anytime now! All the best to the mommies, can’t wait to meet your babies!

Zara hospitalized in Selangor Medical Center (SMC)

We just got backed from the hospital. Zara was warded since last wednesday due to acute bronchitis and A.G.E (something to do with muntah2 and diarrhea). Th same reason on her previous stay in the hospital when she was 8 months old (second visit in 15 months.. i hope its not going to be a ritual).

She hated the medicine, the gas treatment (nebulizer), the nurses and the docs. Each time she saw anybody in uniform intruding her 2 ft personal space she’ll just scream and buat muka takut (or memang dia takut pun). Personally it was hard seeing Zara in the hospital but it wasn’t as bad as our previous visit because this time she wasn’t I.V-ed (yg needle cucuk tangan bagi liquid tu) and a little bigger/stronger.

Everybody (mama, bibik, ayah and the nurses) had a hard time giving her the medicine . She knew when to scream/cry without opening the mouth whenever the syringe is loaded. Somehow the crying sound was still powerful although it had a muffling resemblance. She also developed a technic/payback spit, the harder you push it in my mouth the messier i’ll make your clothes and face. Who knew how far an angry infant can spit. On a serious note, the nurses taught us to always keep the head upright and try feeding the medicine at the ends of the mouth (not the middle) to avoid any choking especially when their are crying. Closing the nose (forcing them to breath while swallowing) is to be avoided but Zara just didn’t cave in.

The nebulizer is just the worst.. Zara will not stop crying and try to pull the mask away from the first gas sound it makes until the gas runs out. Leaving her all exhausted and red (muka dah lah pale and white). This happens every 4 hours for about 5-10 minutes each session. But alhamdulillah the trouble was worth it, the doc said her lungs are all cleared this morning apart from a little kahak and gave the discharge instruction. We were relieved because everybody was getting a little tired of the hospital/being away from each other and home to be honest.

Something to share about the hospital (forgot to mention it was SMC in Seksyen 20 Shah Alam), they were really helpful and courteous. Made us knew what was going on all the time, never showed any ‘kerek-ness’ (all malaysians know what i’m talking about) when we asked for anything. Everybody (from the parking guy, security guard, nurses and docs) seemed accommodating, professional and that melayu caringness feeling. Lets just say it was a lot less hassle (seriously) and more client driven than any hospital (SJMC, Damansara Specialists and Pantai) we went before cuma it needs a facelift to look new and all.

Datuk Dr. Zul was good, made us feel that he really cared for Zara (tapi garang giler ngan staff dia) he was thorough by malaysian drs. standard. The only problem we had was that they forgot the give us the antibiotics to bring home. The Dr. Hoe (changed dr. sebab Datuk cuti) reminded me, and i did ask the pharmacist when i collected the meds but biasalah in Malaysia.. ‘takde2 antibiotics.. ubat semua cukup’ (confident je). Once at home (maz dah bising takde antiboiotics), called the hospital up to find out what happened to the antibiotics (wasn’t as hard as i expected to know who was at fault). The ward nurses called us up a little later and as the Dr. predicted they forgot about the meds sebab antibiotics kat dalam fridge (power dr nye ramalan). Petang ni kena gi amik.

Kesimpulannya... lets all keep away from hospitals (live healthily) except the maternity ward ( the only happy place in a hospital). Oh yeah, Su was in labour when we were leaving (ward sebelah-sebelah je). We met the soon to be grandparents tapi miss jumpa shahrul (rasanya dia tengah gelabah time tu.. what am i sayiang.. MEMANG gelabah). i think dah deliver by now kot. Jom lawat diorang.. (temankan sekali aku amik antibiotics Zara)

Embarrassed/humilated with Real Madrid

Last night was the thrashing 4-0 (5-0 aggregate) Liverpool against Real Madrid. ‘Ma-tha-cun‘ (curi dari slumdog millionare) was among the words coming out from my mouth. A lot of other ‘very stern descriptive’ words but maz will disapprove and just edited it out if i wrote it here. Thats how distasteful i felt. Really pissed me off watching the game. How i would really like to light up a fire cracker up Robben’s a*se right now. A few others too while we’re at it. (Heinze, Sneijder)

AAAHHHHHHHH MATHACUNNNNNN... its been half a day already.. but the ache in my heart is still there. I think its gonna be there a while (my dear Liverpool friends will make sure... YNWA [you’ll never walk alone] lah konon). Still thinking how ugly and stupid Madrid played. I keep running in my mind some of the bad passes, awful goal attempts and how Madrid conceded. Makes me sick.. literally. Then mula lah... comparing to the galactico days.. telling if the ‘zidanes’ are playing it’ll be different. Start hating the management, politics and instability in Real Madrid... etc. etc.. semua lah salah.. raul and casillas je betul.. the only ones i still love and like. Yang lain pergi langgar lorry lagi bagus.

Yes.. i am very ‘EMO’ about football. Everybody close to me knows this and uses it against me. Its just that my passion in football (cant really describe it) helped me during some of the rough patches in my life, especially watching Zidane (the best player who ever played the game.. sc*ew everybody who disagrees.) The picture above is the goal that he scored during the champions league final against leverkusen. That goal (again best goal ever... sc*ew everybody who disagrees) made me ecstatic for a long time (at least a couple of years). When i’m focused on football (ups and downs), other problems seems not that important at the time.

My maz is an unwilling witness/onlooker/bystander to my football passion. Certain days she’ll just catch me smiling for no apparent reason (during lunch, waking up or just daydreaming) and knowing me she knows that im thinking of real madrid or zidane in particular. At first it was just silly getting caught daydreaming but after a while i couldnt be bothered. I’d rather look silly and be myself (crazy zidane [madrid] fan). Its been a couple of years i havent been like that and i DEARLY miss how it feels. I JUST MISS WATCHING ZIDANE PLAY. i need a ‘zidane’ to follow and fall in love.. tried looking at ribery and kaka... but not there yet. Messi looks promising but dia Barca... geli.

As for Real Madrid, bring back the galactico days. Bring back Perez.. he said Zidane is coming with.. as an adviser and youth coach. Rebuild and follow through the plans. For football sakes, do and think of something.. its just heart breaking how they are playing now especially against big teams. Humiliating and embarrassing (its not easy being the only real madrid fan among your friends)

To end this blog entry lets just say last night hurts a lot.

Growing Family

Here is another layout I did capturing snapshots of Raya family photos. I am very blessed for this beautiful family, and want to capture the “growing family”. It starts from 2005, with the arrival of Zareef in June 2005, up to 2008, when we are blessed with our daughter, Zara. I tried to find 2004 Raya photos, when there are only two of us (well, two and a half actually) but I couldn’t find any! Then I remembered that Zul was down with dengue fever that Raya, thus we don’t have any Raya photos! He has to stay in hospital for one week during that Raya.

For this layout I choose a simple and clean template, with a hand made flower occupying most of the space. I enhanced the flower with hand-stitch border, and also hand-stitch green ribbon as the flower’s stalk. For the title, I also hand-stitch the flower’s stalk to let it blend in with the theme. I am still experimenting with different techniques, but I really love stitching as it gives dimension to the whole layout. I will do a lot more stitching after this, that I may need a sewing machine next! (hint* hint*)

Scrapperocks

I was introduced to Scrapbooking by our dear Kak Own. She made a scrapbook for Zara when i just delivered, i was hooked. I was impressed by her scrapbooks; it looked so professional.

I love art, I even have a minor in art (and one in maths too - all A’s lagi [zul tambah.. dia insist to post it]) and I need a new hobby. I was hesitant at first and seem to not have the time for this (solved by staying up on weekend nights). But I dived in nevertheless, I am loving every minute of it! I can apply my ‘artistic’ side and do something with passion.

However, the scrapbook materials are very expensive. Import stuff, exchange rate, limited resources and all. Money is one thing, passion is another. I realized, if you are still happy/not regretting paying for it when the credit card bill comes it’ll be worth every penny. Anyways, its a great way to keep a documentary about our lives. Treasure the memories lah kononnya....

I am quite surprised a lot of people are into this. They are forming a club soon in the office . The more the merrier where we can share ideas and materials. I believe everybody can do this if you have the interest and perseverance . Why not you...

check out a few amateurish example at our page:

Scrapperocks!

Su & Shahrul’s Baby Shower + Cranium Wars

Baby Showers... at first i didn’t know what to expect. Haven’t been to one, never heard any stories of it here, cant grasp the idea.. but heck its for a good cause and i can’t miss out on anything fun anymore. We did the well wish writing on the big cardboard message board, the signature book, presents, stickers and all the lovely-dovey thingy (some of the boys [luqman, mazlin, haziq, wafi] had a hard time thinking of things to write.. .memang tak jiwa romantis langsung). A lot of people turned up. It was just great.. full of baby loving people. Even though Mazlin looked scared or out of place with babies.

The rest of the evening was spent playing cranium. Our latest favorite past time. You’ll be surprised how entertaining to see Shahrul imitating Anna Karnikova with the bouncing b**bs and ‘aah’ sound or how Jazdee’s scultorade of a gondola..making a bald head (kononnya GONDOL..AAAA), Luqman’s drawing of a peacock, Wafi’s absurd snooze button answer and how simply cute Benjy changed the tires. These are just some of things that i remembered. Please add more if u guys remember anything else in the comments.

To the winners, no congrats or well dones... just wanted an answer for the record was it soy, soya, soya bean, soy bean, bean soy, bean soya, soya bean tree or what???

ps.. gambar kura2 dalam cardboard baby wishes tu cute lah.. talented luqman lukis.

Sticky situation

Is it normal for an almost 4 year old to still be sticky? He is an attention HOGGERRR, even more so than his little sister.. Every night he has to sleep beside me.. plus he has to hold my hand. “Mama.. i want handdd...Buat macam batu!!” That means I have to form a fist for him to hold. Only mama nye hand je laku... i asked him to try ayah’s hand. Zareef slumberly answered ‘tangan ayah tak best.. banyak bulu)’

It’s time for us to kick him out of the room. We tried. We painted, put stars up, bought an ikea kid table, laid an ABC play mat, bought forest/cars kid themed bed-sheets and put all the toys in his room. Ayah told bedtime stories (sometimes ran out of ideas.. sampai ceriter pasal engineering - zareef layan part construction), sleeps halfway through the night and the standard tepuk tidur. It all seems to fail because in the morning when we wake up, his sleeping at our feet (the major issue - zareef never fails to wake up in the middle of the night). But the top it up, even though he fails to sleep in his room he asked for a TV with cartoons (the cheek of innocent kids.. rasa macam nak cubit je)

Every morning before work (mind you, it’s 5.30 am!), I have to ~layan~ him first.. Give him susu to drink (while holding my hand of course!), bring him around the neighborhood in my car (code name - ikut sederhana) and then lots of kisses, goodbyes and promises (‘mama jgn balik lambat tau’ & ‘nanti call zareed tau’) all this while in his ‘ngengek’ mode.. he is even known among the morning joggers and neighbors because of it. Alasan biasa.. budak2 tak cukup tidur.

I guess I am blessed for this unconditional bottomless love, but nevertheless feel overwhelmingly sticky. Even baby Zara is not this sticky, she’s very independent(ke tak keluar perangai lagi..mintak2 lah tak keluar). Whatever it is, anak adalah kurniaan Tuhan.. and without doubt our colors in life. Specially for this case, a very STICKY color.

Shahrul’s Birthday Lunch

Last Sunday we had lunch to celebrate Shahrul’s 28th Birthday at around 1 p.m.. We had it at Ole-Ole Bali, Solaris in Mont Kiara. Nearly everybody showed up. The birthday boy with Su the wifey (due to give birth any time), tall currently well-groomed Wafi, slimming-dieting Amru, ever-charming seemingly happy Bo, Never-tiring Soraya with 2 lovely princesses Yaya and Nana (zareefs current interest), all-unique appearance Faizal and Maz and our beloved family zara, zareef (Nana’s new bff), maz (lynn) and zul were all there.

The food was interesting but we expected more, pricey but yet stylish. Ambience was great with all the traditional Bali decor. The kids especially loved the gong by the entrance. We had trouble with the sitting though, seems like they weren’t really family friendly and can’t/willing to cater for big parties. We had fun even though the kids had their fair share of attention seeking (Nooooo - the most used word during the lunch). Shahrul tried his parenting skills as you can see in the above picture. Zareef seems jealous. ‘Zareef nak pegang tangan Qarina’ was his response when i asked him why he looked so grumpy. Yaya seems to enjoy Zareef’s company particularly when he ‘suap’ and ‘lap mulut’ Yaya. Zara was just too excited with all the stuff around (they had like 30 model giraffes, stuffed-like chickens, miniature colourful toys and so on)

Due to the lack of interest with the dessert choice, we went to Haargen-das (hope i spelled it right.. sounds european but we all know its from new jersey) after walking the whole solaris complex and finding out the dessert-bar was closed for renovations. Shahrul even complained that he had sore knees after the walk. Funny coming from a husband to a 9-month old pregnant wife. After ice cream, everybody bade good-bye with the typical kissing kids ceremony and so-called hommie handshake. Had a blast and definitely one for the books. So to the others that didn’t make it, hope this blog will make you jealous somehow.

Everybody can check out the pics at the ‘Album’ section of the website or click on the link livepage.apple.com (hope the link works).