reality check

am too fat!

.................................

need to lose weight ...

need to push aside all temptations in the form of Starbucks and well, everything else really ...

need to look like i just had a baby, not about to have a baby ...

need to like what i see when facing the mirror ...

need to be able to wear wedding rings once again ...

need discipline ...

need more discipline ...

need to act fast ...

need to act extra fast as Big Z's having a ball calling his Mummy "a big and fat bear"!!

a fine Friday ... Alhamdulillah ...

on the day this one turns exactly 2 months old (to the date - she was born 25.02.08) ...







this one attended his first Friday prayers at the mosque.



according to the Daddy, he did all the different praying positions, but after one particular sujud, decided to lie down on his back for a bit before resuming the standing position and joining the rest of the jemaah. LOL also, after each sujud, instead of just coming back up to stand, he'll jump up and stand, and depending on his own two feet's temperament, his new standing position may not necessarily be the same as in the previous rakaat's standing position. haha ...



ah well ... a start, i guess. he came back from the mosque feeling very pleased with himself and said "yea, see .. i'm a big boy now, i'm going to be 5 years old ... yes, but not now, only in 6 months time" (mind you, it's been 6 months to him since February! haha ... his birthday's in August btw)

at 8:40pm ...

... she finally decided to call it a day. what an extra long day it was for her (for me too, as a result!). she woke up at 7 this morning and refused to nap even for half an hour today. has it been a tiring day then? oooh yea! i'd want to deny the possibility of it, but i think her not able to sleep could largely be caused by her missing her Daddy - Daddy was away whole of yesterday, last night, today and still is out now at a meeting with his UK business partner. truly a Daddy's girl this Z.A. is.

:: sleeping in Daddy's arms ::

today ...

at 8 weeks 1 day old ...

Zayaan did her first roll over. She rolled from her back to her tummy, back to front. Big brother Zarif and I witnessed this.

I Googled 'rolling over' after witnessing Zayaan's lil move. This was what I got from babycenter.com ...

"Your baby may be able to kick himself over, from his tummy to his back, as early as age 2 to 3 months. It may take him until he's about 5 or 6 months to flip from back to front, though, because he needs stronger neck and arm muscles for that maneuver".

Based on that piece of finding then, I'd say, all the milk that Zayaan's been consuming thus far has clearly done some good in packing in those much needed muscles then. ;-) She really has grown a lot in the past month; so much so that some think she's already 4 or even 5 months. Eeek! I do hope she'll slow down a little; being a healthy above average size is fine, but let's not enter the overweight category, yea. The grandma (the husband's mum) has already called her 'Cik Lat' (hehehe...) last week upon meeting her chubby second grand-daughter.

:: our chubbikins :-) ::

a change would be good ...

any thoughts on how best to create 3 different 'zones' in one room?
i'm looking at zone 1: makeshift nursery, zone 2: tv room and zone 3: workstation for Big Z.

i've seen many many lovely photos of homes prettily done up to serve the many different needs in any one family. some really are inspiring, they make me want to revamp the said-room immediately. but when i walk into the room and am greeted by the lot that is Big Z's things and mine all thrown in together, it turns me off. and then i go online, and such lovely eye-candy sites such as Nesting of Cookie magazine, Apartment Therapy, decor8, Design Sponge and the likes of them urges me to tidy up, reaarange, reorganize and simply make-over a room. to my own ability, that is - nothing comparable to what you'd see on the above sites.

so. my problem is this. we spend a lot of time downstairs, leaving the family area upstairs pretty much redundant for now. the room downstairs on the other hand, is doing much too much over-time work. as you can imagine, at the end of the day, it's very much an eyesore of a room. too many activities going on in one large(well, large-ish la) room. what i need (as a solution of sorts), is for the room to function three-ways, yet still remain as tidy as possible.

so. what say you?

starter reader (speller)

the following took place tonight after dinner ...

Big Z clicked open an Internet Explorer window, which automatically opened up Google and then typed in 'thomas and friends'. i was pleasantly surprised. granted, it was (yet another) round of Thomas, but yea, the Mummy had a bit of a thrill and a 'proud of son' moment just now. i already know he can spell, recognize and read the word 'Thomas', occasionally able to read 'and' (yea, i know ... that should have come first, right?), but that was the first time he had typed out 'friends', able to spell it correctly. his favourite 3 words then - thomas and friends - and complete with spaces between the words. am now happy because, though it isn't much at all, at least, i now know he can spell something else besides his name, Thomas, James, Percy, Gordon, Emily, Edward and zoo. LOL am also happy because he knows to space out the words and identifying the spacebar as the key to space them out.

he'll be 5 in august. i'm so eager to see him able to read a complete sentence on his own. and not just by memory of the story. he does this at times, but i know that it's purely from memory, not exactly him reading the words one by one.

tell me, at what age should kids be starting to read? (if he can spell - albeit his favourite words - he should technically know how to read too, yes?) and at what point should a parent start to worry?

the one with no title simply coz i can't think of one!

growing up, i was always told i look a lot like my dad. we both have curly hair, both have a mole above our lips, both sport large ears (good luck ke? heard some Chinese seem to think so ... Ling? what say you?), have the same face shape, have dark skin and share the same eyes. i was also close to him in that i'd fall ill each time he went away for work, and according to my mum, the minute he's back in the country, i'll be my healthy self again. i used to also put everyone's safety in the car in jeopardy as i'd insist on sitting on my dad when he drove (back when infant and toddler carseats were very much scarce, i gather). i'm the one (among my siblings) who can tolerate his jokes and his funny ways. i've the most patience when it comes to entertaining his crude jokes and ideas. we too love taking drives looking at buildings and houses, much to everyone else's annoyance.

with my mum on the other hand, we share a lot of interests. there's the love for a certain European city, our eye for detail and nitpicky ways on many many things, especially tidiness and the arrangement of things (Ms M ... see where i got it from now? ;-) and my mum got it from her dad). we both love crafting and making things, especially as gifts. but while she's good with the needle and thread, fabrics and paper crafts, i'm much more at home with a pen and paper, some paints and canvas or Illustrator and Paint. salads, fruits, bread and desserts are our staple diet ... if we so choose to have them everyday and at each meal. we aren't big on meat. we drink tea more than necessary and trips to cafes for that cuppa tea is always a welcoming treat. my fondest memory with my mum will always be the trips she made up to London throughout the 7 years i was there. how i'd look forward to her visit and rush back from my classes just so i could have a meal, a tea session, a shopping spree, a walk in the park, a movie treat or even just a bus ride with her. those were my special alone times with her and i think a significant part of why i miss London so much is because of this. present day, our special alone times take place in her crafting room at the house as well as at the local malls - BV sees our faces much too much, i'd say. haha. with my mum, i talk to, laugh and argue with and cry to. and they can all take place within the same hour - any given day.

to sum up, i need and love both parents just as much. from each, a different sort of advice, laugh, comfort is received. to each, a different sort of love is given. but always equal, never one more than the other. now that i'm older though, a few have commented i'm looking more like my mum.

so that is me as a child, the middle child, the second and youngest daughter to my parents.


.............................


this, now, is me as a parent, the mother to the two Zs.

when Big Z was born, looking at him anyone and everyone remarked how he was very much a carbon copy of the Daddy. didn't resemble me at all. i saw that too, though i kept staring hard trying to find some little hint of me in his features. what was clear though, was his temper. it was all me. he was such a cranky and clingy baby. everything seemed to have bothered him, and he only wanted me, the Mummy, to attend to him. if we're lucky, he'd give in to the Daddy. hearing him scream and throw a tantrum was the way of life for us for a good year plus. happy to note, he's grown out of his temper-temper self and is now a real chatty and generally very happy boy. as a baby and toddler, i was very much the same - wanting only my mum and/or dad and i'd scream at anyone else who'd take me or even just glance my way. he has certain habits which reminds me of myself - they way he picks out 'foreign' bits of food in his meal, i do the same; the way he arranges and rearranges his things (books and trains), i do the same with my things and often our arrangements may not be the most logical but it works for us; how we can only do our #2 in our own homes and then some other odd habits which i can't seem to recall now. there is also his interest in colours, art, books and hotel-stays which i too love. his diplomatic ways and chatty self though i'd very much say he takes after his Daddy. i'm chatty, yes, but it really depends on the crowd i'm in. the Daddy on the other hand can create lengthy conversations with anyone and everyone!

and then there's Baby Z. when the nurse placed her on my chest just moments after she was born, i saw another Big Z. it was all Big Z all over again, i was thinking. they looked so alike at birth, they're like twins, only born 5 years apart. now that she's almost 2 months old, her features are shaping up more and once again, she seems to take after the Daddy, physically. there's the obvious face shape, for one. and the mouth with the arched lips. if there's any trace of me in her, i'd say it'll be the pair of deep-set eyes and the chin perhaps. different from her brother was as a baby, Baby Z is a calmer baby. she smiles more than the brother did before (at this age), and she's even given us her share of giggles (both while awake and in deep sleep). even this early on, i can't help but wonder what her personality and interests would be.

they say "mummy's boy, daddy's girl". well, for now, it's "mummy's boy" alright in terms of our (mine and Big Z's) temperaments and eccentric OCD ways. and it sure is "daddy's girl" too as far as her (Baby Z) looks and her manja-ness towards him are concerned.


...........................


let's see what the coming days, weeks, months and years bring us ...
naturally, i shall only pray that mine (children) will turn out well and guided in the right direction at all times. InsyaAllah ... (even if they all look only like the Daddy and all have strange habits picked up from the Mummy ... so long as they don't harm people along the way ;-))


...........................


so. now that you've reached this point, any suggestions for this entry's title then? :-)