Welcome 2010

Nothing much to say..

Looking forward to work very hard in everything that I do, getting more pay and makes everyone happy.. Hoping that Allah continuously provides me with a good health..

For Emir, can I target that he can read at the age of 4?? hahahah.. or recognize Alif Ba Ta at the age of 4..

InsyaAllah.

Saya nak lompat gembira ..

Saya melompat dengan gembira!! Remember my entry on Curious Kids Need to be Tough Inside.. Click here


Yada yada, I received the invitation for Family Day Out at Kizsport this coming Saturday.. As I said earlier, dapat invitation tu pun dah happy dah.. Kalau menang is a bonus.. Sape dapat pergi, nanti kite jumpe ok..


and oh ya.. i accidentally cucuk mate anak i.. sampai merah, ade kesan darah and bengkak... ish ish ish.. will update later..

Datang rumah

So finally, the whole family except Che Yah and of course Saffuan came over to my house for a lunch. And as promised yesterday, I was super duper one busy woman cooking what she call special. Hubby was kind enough mopping the floor and cleaning the guest toilet and only after he finished everything, he woke me up which was already 930 am. So being me, I loved to take my own sweet time on the bed before start my day.

So, I started cooking around 10:40 and I made a big mistake - masak dessert dulu, and as usual Caramel is my choice, but not today, the sugar became too sticky and it took me an hour to get the right melting sugar. I have planned what to cook - sambal udang masak petai, roasted honey chicken, bendi + ikan bilis, sotong goreng tepung, and soup. Simple kan buttttttt sambal tak buat lagi, ikan bilis tak kopek, pastu nak blend, sotong goreng yang banyak ituuu, nak buat satu satu.. and the best part, terlupa nak keluarkan ayam pagi pagi, so nak kene handle ayam yang keras tu.. Nasib baik dah siang udang and sotong the night before.

Mr. husband walaupun tak sihat, tapi dia gagahkan diri tolong buat carrot juice. Thanks honey!!

And Im done with cooking around 3 and lucky me, they came around 3, setakat tunggu nak siapkan meje.. kalau tak berlapar lah..

Jiji and Akhir -first time datang rumah

My mum was beside my father, tak pakai tudung, so tak leh nak amik gambar..

Tak sure la kenape dua beradik ni amik gambar sendiri, tahu tahu ade gambar dalam my phone.. and not sure why Mimi berkenan dengan topi mickey mouse tu :)

p/s Alfatihah tu kawan hana, arwah Reza, i tak kenal arwah personally, tapi selalu tengok hana post gambar-gambar sebelum sebelum ni dekat blog.. thats why rase macam dekat.. meninggal mengejut (i guess) masa dalam perjalanan ke surau untuk solat subuh, meninggalkan seorang isteri dan seorang anak lelaki yang nak masuk dua tahun.. moga arwah ditempatkan orang yang beriman. Al-Fatihah..

macam mane pula bahagian kite yer?? dekat mane Allah nak panggil kite? Ke Surau?? Hospital?? Rumah sendiri?? Atas Jalan?? Allah Maha Besar.. doa lah supaya nyawa kita dicabut bukan di tempat-tempat yang tak diingini, berdoa supaya kita meninggal bukan dalam keadaan mengaibkan, berdoa supaya kite meninggal dengan baju dan kain masih lekat di badan kita.. paling utama berdoalah supaya kita mati dalam lafaz kalimah syahadah..

dan untuk kita-kita yang masih ada orang yang kite sayang kat dunia ni, share your love and ensure that YOU SHOW YOU LOVE...

Panggilan pagi!! -- erk pagi sangatlah

My mum called just now and this is how was the conversation

Mama: Mira, baru bangun tidur ker.. -- mase ni dah pukul 1030 pagi, semalam tidur pukul 2 hehe alasan, two heroes still zzzzz

Mira: Taklah, (walaupun suara baru bangun tido), tak laa baru, tapi tak de la buat ape2 lagi (memang pun, tengah sibuk browse internet)

Mama: Hari ni ade rumah tak

Mira: ade kot (cadang ngan naz nak pergi office hari ni - CANCEL)

Mama: Haa kalau macam tu, mama nak datang rumah la, dah lame tak datang rumah.. (gulp)

Mira: Mama, tak  boleh tak b oleh, rumah tengah disaster.. (yes, it is indeed true)

Mama: Tak pelah, bukannya ape pun

Mira: Tak boleh, tak boleh, esok mama datang, mira masak lunch yang best sekali okeh

Mama: Laa tak boleh pulak ke

Mira: Hari ni tak de lauk, esok mama datang, mira masak special punyer

Mama: Haa yelah yelah..

Phew!! hehehe Takgune punye anak kekekee, padahal mira ni setiap kali balik Kemensah, ajak mama baba datang rumah, bile derang nak datang, tak  bagi pulak.. ish ish ish.. nasib baik mak sendiri.. it if it was my in laws, takkan nak cakap macam tu.. berserah je laah.. jeng jeng jeng..

Cut cut cut cut...

Cutting hair is a nightmare for Emir and bringing him to barber's shop is also a nightmare for us.. He refused to go to barber's shop and only opt to go to saloon.. (sape ajar tak tau).. until recently, he rejected everything, siap nangis guling-guling tanak masuk kedai gunting.. then i asked him

"then who want to cut your hair, nanti panjang orang ingat girl"

"ATOK can cut my hair"

waaa, immediately I called my dad and my mum answered the phone. Told my mum and my mum directly informed my dad and my mum said "tu, baba tengah senyum melerettttt"

So that weekend, I asked my dad to cut Emir's hair

 

Mase ni steady lagi anak jantan aku ni,

 

Mase ni pun ok lagi..

 

Sekarang dah tak boleh duduk diam...

 

 And tadaaa.

Emir geli okeh, geli geli, geliiii last last. LARIIIIIIII!!! so projek tak jalan!! rambut senget sebelah, but luckily not too obvious cos jusssssstt started

and until today, nothing change :)

Thank you The Picture Company!!

Remember my post on The Picture Company last Thursday on 17 Dec 2009.. If not please click here or you can just scroll down to see my entry on it.

And wah lah, and two days later, I received a call from Jo, the beautiful photographer (can i just exaggerate more :))  asking for my email address, and without further doubt, bagi je lah kan..

And to my surprised, I received this email

Click for better view.

To cut it short, I received an email from Jo - the photographer!! see, isn't blogging is interesting?? :) and she sent me THREE gorgeous pictures of Emir for FREE!! suke okeh!! Habis i cerite satu kampung hehehe..

To Jo and team, thanks a lot for this surprised, you all really make my our day!! hoping that we will have more photo session with you in the future.

And these are the pictures, sorry Jo, I have to insert the frame and my initial.

Hanya baju pade sekolah saje.. :) He refused to wear any costumes..

See from one  moody toddler, he can finally gave his warmest smile!! I told ya, Jo has done a great job :)

Jo's favorite picture, she said Emir has the wind blowing  heheh

Curious kids need to be tough inside

Kids are always kids. They are the most honest people in the world!! Kids are such a curious creatures one ever know. Kids will not easily get bored to ask you 1000 times for the same questions until they get satisfied with the answer and kids will not afraid to explore. By doing so, they learn.

I am a mother who will just let my son do wherever he wants to, but of course, I will have my third eye to ensure he is safe. So here is what I have identified as Emir's curiosity

Sometimes I am upset to see my house full of mess, but Emir (Nuffnang and Friso, FYI, that my son's name :)) will calmly come towards me and say "Ibu, it is alllllllllllllllllllllllll messssss!!" To him, it is an achievement for him to pull out at least 60 pages and sit on it.

Of course, he is now very firm to feed himself. Extra work for Ibu since I have to thoroughly wash his shirt. Penat wooo. But Emir will come to me and say, "Ibu, seee I feed myself" Note: Those I mentioned what he said, is exactly the word he is using.

and usually Emir loves to be left alone. I mean they do not want us to accompany him when he is exploring. His new discovery will give him pleasure and it is such a reward when he gets to share it with anyone and it is extra bonus for him if he gets the credit from us. Enough if we just said "Pandainyer Emir" and he will smile all the way..

And yes, one of his curiosity that happens to every child is he loves to imitate his parents. I don't mind Emir's imitate our behavior as long as it is a healthier behavior. When Emir imitates something, to me he practices what he sees and as parent we just facilitate what he does. I believe this kind of environment will then stimulate his growing process and thinking.

Of course at time, I would stop him to avoid any accident, and of course he will protest with either

using the most powerful gun!! or

giving me this angry face!!

But as a parent, how could I help my son to be tough inside??

I know every parents have their own style of teaching and practising towards a healthier lifestyle. As for me, I am putting this effort in 24 hours of Ibu Emir's style and divided into three categories that the child encounters - sleep, eat, play

I shall start from 12:01 am in the morning - Mickey mouse clock - credit picture to http://www.mouse-watches.com/

1. Sleeping time

So from

   

From 12:01 am to 8 am, 12pm to 2pm and 10 pm to 12pm, that consists of 12 hours Emir will get his  sleeps. For Emir's age, he needs around 10 to 13 hours of sleeping. As a toddler, the quality of sleeping will affect his activity throughout the day, and therefore, getting enough sleep is essential for Emir

2. Healthy meals

Emir's eating time will be around 8am to 8-30am for his breakfast, 11 am to 1130 am for his lunch, 430 pm to 5pm for his snack time and 7pm to 730pm for dinner. Honestly, it wont be this fixed hour but Emir will have 4 time meals per day not inclusive his milky session.

For this hour, I will ensure that Emir eats healthy food. Healthy foods consists of

Carbohydrate -(Rice) His major source of energy. Sometimes he refused to eat rice, so I will replace with spaghetti but if he is not in a good mood, bread will be his main source of food for the day. Yes, Emir loves bread, so feeding him with the bread is not a problem for me.

 Protein -(egg, meat, fish, dairy products) - Honestly, Emir is having the same source of Protein - the egg. I might say he is not the meat lover and on my side, I refused to let him eat fish after cekik tulang incident. But as I mentioned above, Emir is a fan of bread, so i will feed him with cheese instead.

Vegetables - Some say, giving vegetables to your kid is such a challenge but again not for me :). But he only has three vegetables in particular, the rest he will reject - carrot, cucumber and tomato.. He will eat carrot like nobody business which is good.

Fruits - He likes durian, but I know, durian is not quite good for kids. But anyway, he loves apple, so he will eat an apple per day. It is like a routine for him to request for an apple after his heavy meal. Again i have no worries on this part.

Calcium - This is OK :) and this is where I spent my money most for each month.

But i would like to draw your attention of breastfeeding. Yes, Emir just stopped breastfeeding for two weeks now :). I always encourage new mum to go for breastfeeding no matter how hard it is, not only it is rich to jump start baby's immune system which you could not get from formula milk but the bonding between a mother and a child is infinite.

How Friso may help? source: http://www.dutchlady.com.my/en/home.asp?page=brand&subpage=view&CategoryNameShort=category&SubCategoryID=2&ProductID=23

Frisoshield™ with P2 Dual System™ is a combination of nutrients:    

- GOS, lcFOS and Friendly bacteria - Bifidobacterium lactis to help increase intestinal bifidobacteria and help maintain good intestinal environment.

- Friso Gold 4 also contains DHA, AA and SA, essential nutrients that aid a growing child’s overall development.

 3. Activities time

First of all, sorry for the bad drawing :)

For me, activities time is the most CRITICAL time as it involves A LOT of child's curiosity as I mentioned above in the earlier part. After eating and sleeping, the rest of day is full of activities where Emir gets to learn every single thing around him each day. So as a parent, what should I do??

a. Protect Emir from germs

Germs are everywhere, if you could see most of my pictures above have germs all around. We could not kill the germs as it spread quickly, but as a mother, I should protect Emir from germs. But how actually i can teach Emir to protect him from the germs

i. teach him how to wash hand with hand soap. yes, he is really GOOD in this as every time he washed his hand without my supervision, ended up, I will change his wet shirt.

ii. teach him the proper manner how to sneeze or cough especially not straight to someone's face. at least he knows how to help others as well.

iii. Cleanliness of the house (ehem ehem, my house is messy but away from dirt and dust :)) and the cleanliness of food preparation is the most important of cleanliness amongst all.

b. Safe environment

Yes, the reason why I choose him to stay at the nursery is that nursery is tailored for kids activity. At my son's school, everything is small and short, the sink's, the toilet bowl , the stairs - all are custom made for kids. Unlike staying at the babysitter's house, a house is always a house no matter how tidy it is. A nice table with sharp edge, a beautiful vase on the table, coins on the carpet or cookware placed beside the sink. Yes, I dont deny my house is the same too but at our house, we know where he goes, spot he loves to play and I believe we as his own parent will keep an eye of him everytime.

Staying at nursery, he will learn on his interpersonal skill. He learns how to share, how to make friends and how to be among his friends. This skills could not be learnt from a mother but it learns from his environment.

c. Relationship between Emir and his parents

Building a relationship is an effort and I dont believe is ready and will be there. As a parent, building a relationship is like harvesting your farm everyday. The more you harvest, the straighten the relationship is kan kan (those on Farmville, will understand better) hehe. I hope I wont forget to say I love you to him even though he is already 30 years old and he too not afraid to say the same to me for the next 40 years to come.

Communication is not about teaching, but also developing relationship. We share our stories, telling him what I have gone through for the day, of course at his age, he wont really understand the situation but he knows how we feel based on how I express my feeling.

We are not at the era where scolding is the best method to teach children. Nowadays, softly educate them will definitely work and reduce rejection from the child. Communications work when he understands what we say and able to response and practice what we say.

Why I am cracking my head for the above entry??

Yes, the above statement is purely based on my motherhood experience and I do not copy from anywhere except for the picture here and there. So again, why I spent some time to share this experience..

Nuffnang Friso Gold Family Day Out is back on this coming 2 January 2010, what a good day of the year to start with. And they are inviting 80 bloggers parents to share the fun with them at Kizsports & Gym at One Utama I wont throw this chance to bring Emir there for FREE!! You can read the last year review here

Yes, they are giving away 3 days 2 nights trip to Hong Kong Disneyland for 2 adults and 2 kids for the most creative blog post, but yes, I know they are thousand good bloggers out there, I am just happy if I get the invitation.

I know two of my fave bloggers have been invited. Hopefully I can meet them and say "Hi, saya Mira, ibu Emir, saya bace blog you" what a stalker hahahaha.. You know not only kids having fun but at the same I can share some of parenthood experience too.. Nuffnang & Friso, do I have a chance ?? :)

Dugro - The cheapest price so far (dengan ucapan Salam Awal Muharam untuk semua)

Yes, my little Emir hanyalah pengguna Dugro, susu yang murah sahaja. Last time we gave him Similac but one fine day, Mr. Husband has accidentally gave him Chocolate Dugro and he was kinda like it very much. And since then, we are the loyal buyer for Dumex Dugro, despite that many have advised that it was not good to introduce him with flavor milk powder and Dumex Dugro has lesser this and that. But hey, dont you remember that Prof Diraja Ungku Aziz or Tun Mahathir's parents doesnt even know about Enfalac, Enfagrow, Similac or whatsoever but look who they are now kan..

Of course, I don't deny that every parents will go for the best for their kids, but the decision is ours kan. And thankfully, Emir is the Dugro user as the price is way cheaper, imagine every one week + I surely have to buy the new pack, and every month we spent around RM130 for his milk. If only Emir is Enfagrow baby, most probally we will spend around RM300+ for his milk. We are lucky on this part :)

So today, his teacher told me that his Dugro is nearly finished and at my mum's house - totally finish and my house - ade laa dalam dua kali buat.. There you go, need to top up 3 packs of Dugros at the same time. Usually, I would watch closely the hypermarkets bargain and will buy the milk at the best price offers at the hypermarket, but today, we have no other option except to just go to groceries shop nearby and of course the price is at least RM2 - RM3 higher from the hypermarket.

Ok, I went to PASAR KECIL MELAWATI - near to the International School and I was amazed to see this..

1 pack of 650g Dugro cost at RM11.50 only!! Normal price kalau kedai biase RM16.50 while 1kg cost at RM19.50 Normal Price is RM24.50. Wah la weii.... They just want to clear the old stocks as Dugro now has its new packaging. I checked the expiry date and it is on November 2010 and September 2010.

Oh, its not only for chocolate flavor but to all type of Dugro and Dutch Lady 123.. Haa, to all mothers yang pakai Dugro or Dutch Lady 123 silakan ok. I only bought three packs, hubby said "Asal tak borong jer".. errr sebab i tak de cash hehehe, so tomorrow, we gonna come back again to grab as many as we can!! Cross fingers.. hopefully ade lagi..

p/s anyone wanna ask me to buy? Boleh jer.. tapi collect kat I sendiri naaa.. :) Mamak tu confuse asal laa aku ni pi amik gambar kat kedai runcit dia hehehe

The Picture Company

First of all, The Picture Company should thank us for this free review :)

Honestly, I have never heard about The Picture Company before. It happened when Emir's school gave us the free voucher during Emir's school concert. And yesterday, was the deadline to redeem the voucher, and normal for us, Mr. Husband would let me to call the shop to request whether we can postpone at least until today. And lucky us, they agreed.

The Picture Company is located at 2nd Floor, One Utama and just operated from 1 November 2009. I was understand that it is a franchise from Philippines Company.

Based on my observation, their prime target customer are parents who wants to potrait their child. Honestly, I know this free voucher would end up, us easily get influence from the salesgirl. One thing I would love to comment, their presentation, (welcome point) is  much simpler as compared to DeOne Studio. Simpler here means, I prefer DeOne Studio, more eye catchy and attractive. Sorry ya, The Picture Company, im just giving my 2 cents.

But at least, they know how to occupy the kids while waiting for their turn..

Emir was not in a good mood to cooperate as he saw the train passed by, but after several negotiations with him, finally he agreed.

One thing i like here is the photographer, her name is Jo, put aside that she is warm and beautiful, I love the fact she knows how to handle one moody kid until he can slowly begin to cooperate.

 

We were not allowed to take some photos but I managed to snap few pictures when Jo was busy entertaining Emir. Emir refused to wear any costumes and he only agreed to use his own choice of props which were the balls, ball cap, car cap but at least, we managed to force him to wear this magician hat, Jo was so eager to ask Emir to put this hat as she said Emir looks very cute with it and I did agree with her:)... Costume - we lost the battle with this 3 year old kid - so hanya pakai baju dari itu sekolah aje lah..

Emir really enjoyed the session, jumping, swimming, kicking, whatever that has been instructed by Jo, he slowly pick it up until Jo said we do have a lot of beautiful pictures..Yes, yes yes, sangat geram tengok budak ini.. and Jo did a great job as well. but we didnt manage to get any softcopy until she prints the free 5r photo, and to that, we have to wait another 7 working days..

If you want to know more about the package, click the above picture for a better view. Yes, it is quite expensive as 1 8R photo would cost RM68, but if you join as a member, you will get free pictures during your anniversary and birthday and other additional benefits as well, One year membership cost about RM280. And Im on my way to register as a member.. :)

and the best part.. while waiting for the pictures to be selected, I saw one familiar lady who is very dear to me with ehem ehem from far far far away and I bet she shocked when I said Hi to her.. kan kan..

MomBloggersPlanet Cutest Baby Smiling Contest

I just realize that the closing date for this contest is today and now the clock is ticking at 9:52 pm and I have one toddler who keep asking me thousand questions wherever he sees his mother on computer. so how..??

What did I do to make him occupied for a while??

Yes friend, I give him a scissors.. I repeat scissors or in Malay Gunting and a piece of paper to let him cut cut cut.. hehehe.. I know what a baddd idea but it works kekekkekeke

Mom Bloggers Planet is organizing its last year contest for this year which is Cutest baby Contest and the theme for the month of December is Cutest Baby Smiling.

I might say this is one easy contest to take part. Tell me who doesnt love to snap their child's picture especially when they give their honest smile rite..

Why I love to see my baby smiling..?

Do I have to explain :).  His smiles are wonders. The  honest smile that you can get is definitely from a kid, they never cheat with their smile. The smile comes from my son is purely fill with love and sincere. And with this honesty that he gives to me, one day with full of stress and pressure at work is gone in a split second. His smiles is not only coming from his mouth or lips but the eyes is smiling and twinkling as well. I dont have to force him to smile and I dont have too cos he knows very well how to melt my heart.

This picture was taken as edible image for his third birthday cakes..

The first smile that we captured when he was 2 months old

"Hah, someone just cut my hair"

Smile captured during my sister's wedding 2 years back

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The naughtiest smile so far....

Winners what you will get!!
This month’s Baby Photo Contest is proudly sponsored by:


1x First Prize

• One Medium Landscape Hardcover or Medium Portrait Hardcover Photobooks by PhotoBook Malaysia (worth RM144)
• One bag of his/her choice from AliceWonders (worth from RM50-RM200)

1x Second Prize

• One Medium Portrait Softcover or Medium Portrait Classic Softcover by PhotoBook Malaysia (worth RM80)

1x Third Prize

• One Large Landscape Poster by PhotoBook Malaysia (worth RM68)

3x Consolation Prize

• One PurseHook from AliceWonders (worth RM20)

The First and Second Prize winners will be automatically qualified for the 2009 Cutest Baby of the Planet contest (will be held on January 2010 with more great prizes).