Selamat Hari Raya...Maaf Zahir Batin

Raya has always been an exciting time for me...and this year it will be even more meaningful now with Aydin with us. He got new shoes, new baju melayu, new songkok, new socks and new sinjang for his first raya. We bought him 4 pairs of baju melayu..orange, purple, grey and brown. We all decided to wear orange on the first day...and can assure you that there will be lots and lots of pictures.

On top of that this raya will also be an interesting one as we now have our own place..just last week we spent quite a lot on frames, glass, teapots flowers etc. The only thing we dont have now is the cuculs. There is a technical reason though...no powerpoint near the balcony and too lazy to hang stuff..its ok..maybe next year. Still debating on whether to call for our usual open house this year mainly due to logistic i.e. limited space and seats in the new house..but will see. I think "mamanya" is also quite excited and its quite apparent as her cookies filled almost every space in my snack fridge...but i`m not complaining as the biscuits this year nyum brabis

At the same time it will also be a sad raya as it will be without our beloved nenek laki sungai hancing and nenek lumut and nenek bird...Al-fatihah.

Anyway would like to use this opportunity to ask for forgiveness on any salah silap..salah cakap..maaf zahir batin to all families, friends and readers of this blog.

Selamat Hari Raya.

Happy 27`th Bday Mommy Aydin

"Mommy, We know you love us
You really show that you care.
You let daddy sleep tight
While u were up feeding me at night.
When we need you, you’re always there.
Mommy, We’ll love you always
From our heart, we want to say
We are so glad you are my (baby`s) mommy;
Happy 27th Birthday to the bestest Mommy!"

From Daddy and Aydin...

Whats new...

Whats new...? Well...Our little He-Boy is currently undergoing a rapid development in his motor and problem solving skills..its quite amusing to see how he is so curious to almost anything he sees these days. Last weekend we bought him this so called musical table from the leapfrog baby toys collection..it is basically a piano/roller/singing book/singing shapes/trumpet/door/violin kinda thing.. what it does is ..it makes all sort of music whenever he touches any of the buttons on the table..and hence the name musical table. He so far is loving it and best thing is..this thing can speaks Spanish too...ariba ariba antare..antare..!

He now also knows how to kap kap udang already i.e. opening closing his hands...its so cute when he does that...and shy away if u start imitating him. We finally now have his pictures print and hang around the house. Took us 7 months to get out butts off to the printer and buying frames for his pictures..we finally did it and proud daddy can say all that all his pictures are taken in-house..finally some real fruits from my bulky investment. What else eh..ahh he also makes this whistly kinda noise if u let him play alone by himself...the trick is not tegur it when he does that.

This afternoon the three of us went to interview a potential amah..her CV looks great as she is a muslim, 8 years working experience in Brunei, married and husband working in Seria. Besr of all we can do a trial for 2 days and if we like her we can sent her off back to philippine for a medical check and hopefully we will see her in a month s time. Aydin seemed to be ok around her just now which is good thing. Will see..hope this time it works.!

Till then...cheers!

Aydin-Danial

Updating his blog..

......Today i went for a walk with Mommy and Daddy to Ideal to buy some chicken....i dont know what were they thinking..it was hot and thank god it was windy..i had fun though..we passed by a football pitch with a bunch of Chinese boys playing football..some old joggers smiled at me and i saw a few spring chickens grilled in the oven...cant wait till i am allowed to eat them...

Breastfeeding in Brunei

In Norway 99% of new mums are breastfeeding when they leave hospital, 3-4 months later 90% are still breastfeeding.

The World Health Organisation says Norway supplemented public information with new measures to allow women a year's maternity leave on 80% pay, extensive support to help them succeed at breastfeeding, a total ban on infant formula advertising and allowances for mums once they returned to work to take protected breaks in order to breastfeed. - BBC News

I wish the Brunei Government would do the same. For all the talk talk talk about how important breastfeeding is to the Ministry of Health. I don’t see that much action being implemented. I took Aydin to Ripas and he was hungry to be told there wasn’t any space where I could feed him. Luckily Pijah found their Health Education room empty and shut myself in and fed him. When really the male nurses should have suggested that to me instead of unhelpfully telling me ‘No’. You may be men but if you're a nurse, I expect better professionalism from you.

In the private sector, very few stores make it easy to breast feed while you’re out and about with the baby. Only Hua Ho Mall in Manggis has a dedicated Breastfeeding room. I haven’t let this deter me though. I have publicly breastfed Aydin in Dynasty, Emperor’s Court, Escapade, Tandoor.com, Rangmahal, anywhere is feasible really as long as there is chair and I have a pashmina to drape over me. Mothercare has some brilliant discreet nursing tops but I have improvised with a pashmina to great effect.

I salute that lady I saw breastfeeding in Mothercare, shirt hiked up exposing postnatal belly and baby stuck to her chest, nonchalantly inspecting a stroller in the shop window. More power to you lady!

Workwise I have been lucky that we have a proper Mother’s Room with chair, fridge, sink and sterilizer, converted out of a cleaner’s area. I seriously question whether there are any other employers in Brunei (the government included here) that do as much to facilitate their lactating employees. I know of ladies who take discreet breaks making use of empty offices and meeting rooms to pump and I salute them too. You make do where you can.
Its us, the Mums, who have to make our situations work for us to keep on breastfeeding when the situations around us do not often make it easy. Maybe we should get together and petition everywhere to make the facilities commonplace, instead of a rarity.

Saddest Children Book ..ever!!

Read this book last night and man oh man tears came out from my eyes. Its been a while since something has such an impact on me. The last time i remember being like this was watching f4..meteor garden ahaks..enjoy! A must buy for parents out there..!

A mother held her new baby and very slowly rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she held him, she sang:

I'll love you forever,I'll like you for always,As long as I'm livingmy baby you'll be.
The baby grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was two years old, and he ran all around the house. He pulled all the books off the shelves. He pulled all the food out of the refrigerator and he took his mother's watch and flushed it down the toilet. Sometimes his mother would say, "this kid is driving me CRAZY!"

But at night time, when that two-year-old was quiet, she opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor, looked up over the side of his bed; and if he was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. While she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,I'll like you for always,As long as I'm livingmy baby you'll be.

The little boy grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was nine years old. And he never wanted to come in for dinner, he never wanted to take a bath, and when grandma visited he always said bad words. Sometimes his mother wanted to sell him to the zoo!
But at night time, when he was asleep, the mother quietly opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor and looked up over the side of the bed. If he was really asleep, she picked up that nine-year-old boy and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,I'll like you for always,As long as I'm livingmy baby you'll be.
The boy grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was a teenager. He had strange friends and he wore strange clothes and he listened to strange music. Sometimes the mother felt like she was in a zoo!

But at night time, when that teenager was asleep, the mother opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor and looked up over the side of the bed. If he was really asleep she picked up that great big boy and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. While she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,I'll like you for always,As long as I'm livingmy baby you'll be.

That teenager grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was a grown-up man. He left home and got a house across town. But sometimes on dark nights the mother got into her car and drove across town. If all the lights in her son's house were out, she opened his bedroom window, crawled across the floor, and looked up over the side of his bed. If that great big man was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,I'll like you for always,As long as I'm livingmy baby you'll be.

Well, that mother, she got older. She got older and older and older. One day she called up her son and said, "You'd better come see me because I'm very old and sick." So her son came to see her. When he came in the door she tried to sing the song. She sang:
I'll love you forever,I'll like you for always...

But she couldn't finish because she was too old and sick. The son went to his mother. He picked her up and rocked her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And he sang this song:
I'll love you forever,I'll like you for always,As long as I'm living my Mommy you'll be.

When the son came home that night, he stood for a long time at the top of the stairs. Then he went into the room where his very new baby daughter was sleeping. He picked her up in his arms and very slowly rocked her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while he rocked her he sang:
I'll love you forever,I'll like you for always,As long as I'm livingmy baby you'll be.
(This was sent to me but originally taken from book by Robert Munsch.I recommend his books. See: http://www.robertmunsch.com/ )

7 months

7 months passed by..and here he is growing bigger, thicker, louder and heavier. His hair has grown so much since we shaved his head months back and we noticed that this boy hair is brown..i mean really brown. He must have got it from the mommy side...its quite cute though to see his hair like that..especially if he is out in the sun...macam "ong putih".

His personality is also slowly showing and my aunties noticed few things about him which they seen in me when they took care of me when i was his age. He is definetly persistent and determined if he wants something. I was teasing him yesterday by hanging his favourite toy on the top of the bed headboard and pile all the pillows in front making it almost impossible for him to get it. Amazingly he still try to climb the pillows using mommy`s head as a leverage and after 10 mins of climbing he managed to pluck it off at a cost of a very sweaty head and a very thirsty throat. He was so tired and that he knock himself out almost immediately.

Puting him to sleep now is a battle as he will fight to keep on playing. He has been known to fall limp suddenly in a middle of a game when his energy runs out. This is fine if it happens in the morning or afternoon but if he start doing this at 4:30am after Sahur..mommy not gna get any sleep...daddy have to sleep though...his beauty sleep hehe.

Proud

I can sit daddy

Horay!

Haiya!

I wana crawl now

Pin mommy down

What you lookin at...Grrr

Berlabih,,,i am

This week Aydin officially crawls. He is slowly moving from the ulat crawl to a proper one using his two hands and knees. Boy of boy this will be fun...we are already having some hard times to keep him on the bed..let alone crawling on the floor. Its true what they say...the first few months of their lives parents will be concern on their physical needs..after 7 months focus more will be more on their safety..

Whats up?

Our poor little guy still has the snuffles. It makes him cranky when his nose gets all stuffed up and runny. He's madder still when Daddy and I try to suck the stuff out with the nasal aspirator. Not a popular move...

On the bright side, his appetite is back! Which makes me happy. His milk intake is fairly stable, methinks. On regular days he takes in about 14-18oz. Whenever he's in Lumut, it shoots up to 20 even though the working days is much shorter on Fridays. Must be that the house is a lot warmer than the flat is.

These days, Daddy and I are on our toes watching Aydin pull himself up to standing using whatever support he can. He's just about crawling properly, coordinating his hands and legs to become extremely speedy. You really cant take your eyes off him for a second. Not that you could before anyways, Hehe.
More next time.

While Mommy at work

Mommy Baby

Happy Bday Nenk Beribi

Jalan2

Aydin found a new hobby i.e. prasan he can jalan already, He is way too young for it and he certainly have not develop enough strength to even sit up on his own yet. Anyway have a look at the pictures and you can judge yourself on how iski and prasan he is..hehe