anecdotes

Ihsan, on the way back from a friend's open house, asked his babah. "babah, hari raya ada dua jenis kan, one is hari raya aidil fitri and another is maaf zahir batin"

Kakak farah's million dollars question, "Ummi, is it hard being a woman?"

Iman, talking about his ambition, "I want to be a celebrity hairdresser!"

And the best of all, my youngest, Fatihah looking at me with her wide innocent eyes and said, " I love you and you love me!" and smothered me with wet kisses all over my face. Sweet!!! Previous darlings!!!

Forum perdana

Last saturday, we attended a forum perdana on israk mikraj at keenan house. To me, the speakers were eloquent and their elucidation on the matter discussed were clear, concise and thought provoking. The talk reminded me of the things that I am already aware of and also the things that I do not know. It was good.

The food was excellent as well. Varieties of dishes were prepared and they were simply delicious.

There was also less interference from the children during the talk as they were well entertained by Ustazah Hamidah and her advocates. Though the children were assigned into groups, each child was asked to design a greeting card, as an act of welcoming the holy and blessed month of Ramadhan. Guess how many cards I received? Mind you, the cards (iman's, ihsan's and farah's) were all for me, none was for ailong...kesian! Farah made three, Ihsan created two and Iman's designed one big black card. Ahlan ya Ramadhan!

p.s. My buddy, Nadia and the rest of the clan came to visit. It was good to see them again.

How time flies

When we first arrived here, Farah was only 14 months old. Iman was five and ihsan was three. Farah could barely walk without clinging to chairs, tables or shelves in our run-down rented house in Leicester. Last 17 July, she celebrated her 6th birthday. This year Iman is ten while Ihsan is eight. How time flies! They grow up so quickly. It's like one minute they are infants, the next they are already that difficult teenagers. And before you know it, they are off to a college or university. Fateehah is now 14 months old. Last year during this time, she was only a tiny baby. Now, she is walking about in the house while trying to communicate with her siblings using her baby language. Googogagaa...well she can say "ummi, abah, tatak (kakak referring to Farah) anah (angah- ihsan) and awong (along -iman), hello, tejuk (sejuk) and dirty".

Sabar je lah

The kids are fighting again. As usual, they bicker over small things e.g. whose turn was it to play on the computer. Iman always dominates the computer while Ihsan usually lets him does so (unwillingly of course!). But once in a while Ihsan whines to use it, but his requests always fall on deaf ears. The disappointment and dissatisfaction of not being able to use the computer always lead to a fight between the boys. Normally, Ihsan will end up crying while Iman put on his tough look and sit quietly somewhere, mostly at his favourite corner, a small space between the tv rack and the sofa. This special place has also become the bone of contention between them because whoever gets to sit there, has a full view of the tv. Farah tends to stay away from the boys and chooses to watch girly cartoons instead (e.g. bratz or barbie etc). But when the boys are bored with the computer, or told to switch it off they grab the tv remote and change the channel. Farah will immediatley start wailing! Now, everybody is angry at everybody.

They keep their distance, Ihsan will tend to his borrowed hamster and Iman will sit at the corner. Farah will continue whining until she gets hold of the remote again. Nobody is talking to anybody except for Farah who is still crying.They are driving me mad! But sure enough, after five minutes of dead silence, iman and ihsan are best pals again. Fateehah cool ajer. Her siblings constant bickering does not seem to have affected her at all. The world is her playground...