Alif Says....

Me (to DH): Alif is a such a smart talker. Can never win with him if you try to argue.

Alif (menyampuk from behind):  I am? Do you want to know why?  That's because I use my brain! See.. 2 plus 1 is 4

DH and I:  what??? then  *laugh*

Alif:  eh .. 3!

A few minutes later...after the laugh has subsided

Me: Why do you say 4?

Alif:  Alif silap... eh no!  that was a joke actually!

He tried to cover up his mistake :-)

right after his big shoes run ... don't know what he's trying to express here

Alif in Year 1

Alif in his new school ...

Orientation day:

Excited .. orientation day 

And then.. 1st day of school in Jan....

He's smiling ... before school 

2nd Day ... in school

I'm sad... I wanna go home... 

Umi asked the HEM to help .. didn't work much though ... 

Getting "counselling" by HEM -- don't think he understands much :)

okay...Umi found out how to help him and ask this boy to please be friend with Alif, and make sure to take Alif with him when its time for break.

This is how I found him after school .. with his new friend.  Problem solved..

And on Friday ... before going home, again... another noodles session . 

But this time .. notice there's no more water bottle from home? He learnt to buy drinks from the stalls instead of carrying his water bottle from class coz Aiman didn't do it either...

Astro and Rain

Rain is still affecting Astro's broadcasting ability ... yea, with advance technology and Beyond... it still matters. Though with Beyond, it is not as bad. Anyway, Alif, the 6 yrs old, understands this very much. And this knowledge is the essence of his foundation whenever there is bad reception on the TV .. until one day...

We were driving back and Alif's watching a movie on the portable DVD. It was raining quite heavily. And the scratched cd starts giving the breaking sound and what's not. It wasn't showing well on the portables. And Alif starts saying ... "ala hujan"

Me: "Why hujan (rain)?"

Alif: "Memang la, kalau hujan (of course, if it rains), the pictures will be bad"

Me: "No la, it's not because of the rain, its the CD. It must be scratched coz you didn't keep it properly"

Alif: "No, you're wrong Ummi...if it rains, the pictures always go bad. We just wait. It'll get better."

Me: ???@@# -- whatever

Year 1 - 2011

A new islamic integrasi school was built and has started operation since Jun last year. It was very near to our house, less than 5 minutes drive with smooth crossing over the going to be busy street going out of our housing area. As usual, to enter any Islamic Integrasi school, there'll be entrance exam. We had registered Alif who was born in 2004 for that school and now, he has to take and pass the entrance exam, scheduled on 29 May at 0830hrs.

29 May -- 0800hrs
We, Alif and I, arrived to the school. The letter said, to be there by 8am. And the letter said, there won't be any further notice, we're just to go to the school as stated on the exam card (that was given once you registered). So, I parked in front of the school compound, outside the gate. There were 2 cars already there. There's like no life at all inside the school compound. Didn't look like there's anything going on. Hmm... wait awhile.. Aa... there' s someone coming out from the school compound just as I alighted from the car. He asked what's going on.. and there's more cars coming. By then, there's at least 5 cars in front of the school. I told him about the exam. Then he mentioned that as far he knows, it has been postponed. He's just a canteen guy, went to the school to pick up his catering stuffs. Good thing that he got the sense to straight away contact the headmistress who told him that it is postponed to Jun 19 and that JAIS had already sent letters to inform the new date. She didn't sound friendly at all from the one-sided conversation that I heard -- "suruh diaorang balik". Well, of course, we have to go back , but that kind of tone, I don't like it at all. Maybe it's just the catering guy punya words, I shouldn't judge her from another person's mouth.
Anyway, I left. And I guess the others left as well.

1 June
I finally remember to bring the registration letter to office to enable me to make the call to JAIS to confirm. And to give my peace of mind since I didn't get the letter. But guess what, the number given in the letter - "Penyelia Integrasi" with office phone number turns out to be bogus number. The operator announced "telah ditamatkan perkhidmatan". Cannot be... I dialed again, same reply. Then I called the number given for the school. Both are handphone numbers. The first number brought me straight to voice message. The second number was answered by a lady, who turned out to be the headmistress herself.

So, I asked to confirm that the exam was indeed postponed and to confirm on the new date. I told her I went to the school last Saturday only to find out that there's no exam.
Her answers was -- (in Malay) - "We had send letter to all about the new date".
Well, I said, I didn't get the letter.
Then she said, "Was the address you give correct or not? We had sent to all 250 candidates already". Her tone was like annoyed, irritated. She then gave the school number and telling that this the the Gurubesar's number.
Like I shouldn't be calling the Gurubesar ke?
So then, I was, short of being a little bit rude, which later I mildly regret it (actually, kind of not) ... I said, "Puan Gurubesar, saya TIDAK terima surat, sebab tu saya pergi sekolah last Saturday. Of course, saya bagi alamat betul. Sekarang nak confirm je, tarikh baru."

Oh well... when the letter send was not received, was it always the fault of the person who give the address? There's many reason it could get lost on the way and if the address was written wrongly, it could also be the person who re-wrote the address on the envelope make a mistake. I had instances where my neighbor's letter down the road had gotten into my mailbox.

She could have just apologize first that the postponement caused this trouble to the parents, and give confirm the new date, instead of first trying to put the blame back on the parent! In the first place, she should have expected that some letters may get lost, arrived late and so many other possibilities that the intendees may not received it - then, the school could have taken the initiatives to put a notice on the gate to inform the change of plan. But no, nothing of that happen. I was already biased on my perception of the school when I visited it last year for Ahmad to transfer there. With this, it added on to the not-so-good perception. But because it was so near, and so convenient to send Alif there, I'll give it another chance la.....maybe it'll improve ...hmm...

The Darndest Thing Again

Where do kids learnt all the phrases that they utter? Family? TV? Friends? Teachers? Maybe, and maybe books. My not-reading-yet going-to-be-6 year old son, Alif said this to me just now...

"Mummy, when you're older and your husband die and you're old too and cannot move anymore, can you give all your money to me?"

What triggered this comment?

He was watching transformer toys demo in youtube and loves the toys sooo much and keep on bugging me to watch to so that I'll be convinced that they are good toys and get them for him...so, I said, that needs lots of money which you haven't earned yet...yes, that triggers his comment after much sighing and whining on how good the big transformer toys are, especially Optimus Prime.

Where did he learn this, I ask....and his famously consistent answer was ... "I think it all by myself!"

Kembali Senyum

Phew...many moons has passed. My head has been itchy with so many topics to write and share but my hands are a bit slow to respond...thus, the long silence. Alas, here I am, back to this blog....

While driving back home today, I had song collections played on the CD player. Alif requested for the song "Kembali Senyum" by Izwan Pilus, adapted from a popular song from korean drama Full House. That's one of his favourite, he said. And he continue to sing along in his own way:) I asked:

"This is a love song... so, who do you love?"

"I just like the song, mummy", he said, avoiding the subject.

Ok, I didn't push for it and sang with him...

Then he said.."Can you keep it down, I'm trying to to listen!"

Wow...this kid! So, I asked, "why, Ummi nyanyi tak sedap ke.."

After a short pause he said..."uhuh..."

I say.....ala, memang nyanyi tak sedap pun , saja memancing, maybe he'll be back to his sweet talking but didn't mean it:)

Well...this is Alif's rendition of Kembali Senyum while on the plane ride to Seoul last year...he hummed the song while having it played on abah's device.

He Did it Again

Alif did it again.. actually a couple of times caught. But this time, mummy couldn't resist taking his pictures while sleeping on a chair in the middle of a game at mummy's personal laptop. Bad mummy... instead of picking him up right away, let him be in that bad ergonomic position for awhile longer to allow her to snap pictures!:-)

Once wasn't good enough... need to turn him so that can get better picture of the facial expression:-)

...all by Myself

Umi: Let's mandi
Alif: No
Umi: Jom la... Umi mandikan
Alif: a -a -- NOT A CHANCE!
Umi: ??? (ni mana dapat ni?)

10 minutes later

Alif: Umi, tolong buka
he was wearing long sleeve t-pajama, he's sweaty so, a bit difficult to pull it up on his own.

Umi: Alif nak mandi? Waa... bagusnya. Mandi ngan Abah ke?
Alif: nop - I'm going to bath, all by myself!

"I can do it all by myself!"
"I think about it all by myself!"
"I did it all by myself!"

Those are Alif's favourite phrases if you ask where he learn some of the things he does...

Kerana Pizza

I baked pizza 2 nights ago. Kids and Abah love it. So, I try as much as I can to make it at least once in 2 weeks or weekly, if I feel extra rajin. When pizza is done, the first person to appear in the kitchen to appreciate it was normally Muhammad Alif Safwan (going to be 5 soon). He wanted to eat the pizza right away.
I told him "wait, pizza is hot".
Then he said, "aa....I want to eat it, now, right now!"
Me: "Careful, this is hot. Let's go in front. When its cooled down, you can eat it".

After that, I went straight to the living room, didn't check if he followed me or not. I heard him in the living room later on playing with Ahmad, the next thing I know he started crying. At first, we thought it was a fight with Abang Ahmad. He wouldn't show or tell us what's wrong, just keep on crying.
Abah: "Alif langgar meja?"
Alif: "Tak...saakit"
He curled up and hide his arm. After much coaxing, we manage to see his arm - it looks a bit red with some pinch mark in the middle. Didn't occur to us that it was a burn mark. We thought it was a scratch or something. To coax him to quiet down, I then gave him a piece of pizza. Quiet for a short while, then he continues crying. Then, I guess something was wrong. He wouldn't be crying continously if its just a pinch. I started to put two and two together, holding him on my lap, I ask
" Alif kena pizza?"
Alif: "hu hu...ha!"
Me: "Alif pegang bekas dia ke?"
Alif: continue crying, cannot talk.
Quickly I rushed him to the sink to cool it down. Luckily it hasn't really blistered yet. Azlin make some ice water and bring him to the guest room and coax him to allow us to soak his hand inside the ice water container to numb/cool the pain. After sometime, it worked and he started to laugh and talk again. This ice bath really work to numb the pain but it didn't last long. We tried tooth paste, didn't work. In the end, I had to run the ice water on his hand until he fall asleep that night.

The next day, he woke up smiling and said it didn't hurt anymore.."dah hitam!". There look like scratch thing becomes a long black line and didn't hurt anymore.

TV or Book Influence?

Alif has been counting down his birthday for the past few weeks. The understanding on birthday concept must have spurred from the birthdays celebration at his Taska. However, he wanted to have "mummy" and "daddy" (that's what he called us whenever his mood to speak in English comes in - Umi now becomes mummy) around for his birthday celebration so , it must be done at home:-)

This morning, Azlin asked him what he wants for his birthday. And he answered, "I want a dog!"
I laughed out loud. Alif who is scared to hold a cat due to an incidence of being scratched (he called it - "cat garu Alif") now wants a dog for his birthday! I wonder where this one comes from? Hmm...cannot be Thomas or Handy Manny, it could be the Clifford cartoon on TV or book that we read to him. I must say, need to be more careful with story selection or maybe this is good time to explain to him about the dog thing...

When My 4.5 yrs old Boy Went Missing...

It was supposed to be a good outing day...Alif was the only child at home. Anis and Ahmad went for their leadership camp in Banting and Aina had some extra class and couldn't come back for outing. Alif hadn't been out of the house all the days that I went to JB for work - so, he cut school again coz Azlin was not sure of his schedule to be able to pick himup on time from school.

So, we went out for breakfast at Kopitiam near our house ... then to Giant to buy some rations for Aina. After we're done shopping, while paying at the cashier, Alif took the chance to play with the kiddie rides. We let him play for awhile and while waiting, I went to look at some products near the newstand. The next thing I know he's no longer there and so was our shopping cart, so, Azlin must have been successfull persuading him to go back. I thought that they must have been back to the car, so, I walked straight to the car, the same route we went in. When I couldn't find them at the car, I called Azlin, and he informed me that they're at playground - very brief and precise, just a 3 sentence conversation and I walked back into the store.

The moment I saw Azlin, he was already kind of panicky, and just mouthed Alif...I turn around and started looking. Running up and down and still couldn't find him. We went out to the exit doors - of course, different doors, we split - a couple of times to make sure that he didn't go out. I keep on praying to Allah - please let us find our child. Don't let him go missing on us. How could he have gone missing, with just split seconds - while Azlin was answering my call with only few words muttered? In the end, I went back to the middle exit and asked the workers who were there to look out for Alif - small boy with short hair and wearing yellow shirt with short. Just after I had finished describing him, the girl pointed out Alif , "tu tu kak!". He was walking briskly, which was not usual of him, he's usually like to run, and seems to be talking to himself or maybe singing? And after I shouted his name, he turned around and walked coolly towards me before I hugged him and scold him and asked him where did he go all at once. We stayed there, hugging each other, for few more minutes while I called Azlin to let him know that I've found Alif. Alif was very calm. He didn't cry at all - it was mummy who about to cry.

When we're back in the car, we had reflected the situation back. Alif was trying to get his turn at the playground and Azlin sat/stand watching him at near dunkin donut. Then he took my call, the moment he put back the phone on his belt, he couldn't see Alif and he looked at all the children at the playground before he realized that Alif is no longer there. That was the time he start panicking and look for Alif outside the playground and met me when I was just about to reach there....

Lesson learnt:
1) Never stay too far away from the child when they're playing - it's important for the child to know where you are, just as important that you keep an eagle eye on his whereabout. This happen coz Alif couldn't see his Abah, and he said he went to look for Abah and for the car. Luckily he didn't think well enough to go look at where we parked the car, otherwise, it would have been worse. I thought of that too...
2) Need to reiterate every time we're going to the public to make sure the kids remember that they're to stay put at where they're supposed to be and not go around outside the compound to look for us - in case they can't see us -- but could a 4 yrs old understand and remember this?
3) I thought of puting on bracelet or necklace with our numbers on Alif - if we are to go out again. Dont know if this is good idea or not - but Alif disagree. He just smiled and shake his head and said those are for girls only!

I pray that this will never happen again. Alif is maybe forbidden to follow us to Giant Sec 13, Shah Alam until he is bigger ... much bigger - or maybe we just dont go there anymore is we have Alif with us - too much distraction!

Well I'll Be Darn!

On the walk to Kamdar Kelang to get Ahmad's school stuffs, we saw birds high up in the sky. Then Alif asked a question....
"Mummy, why do birds fly south in the winter?".
I explained to him, because they want to get away from the cold winter.
Then he said, "That's not it!"
"Where do you hear this question from?", I asked back.
"Tigger of course!"
Now, what could this tiger taught my son now? Then, he repeated the question, to which I did not answer fast enough for him, so, he gave me the answer,
"Because it's too far to walk!" and then he laughed.

Well, I'll be darn!...:-)

Sooo many things happened today

Warning...this could be a long one - as the title indicate - sooo many things hapened....so, so many stories in one:-)

Yesterday was a very tiring day for me, after spending most of the day at our office in KLCC conducting Office Ergonomics Review sessions followed by on-site consultation and then meeting with the line managers, I rushed home thinking that I had to take Anis to her friend's birthday at Sunway but then on second thought - naayy..i dont want to go through the terrible traffic through Subang Jaya to get to Sunway, so I went to the gym for line dancing (and upset Anis) and did a real fast workout...so, I was really tired last night when I finally get to bed. Didn't woke up until Azlin woke me up, ready to go to KL for his PMP exam. Sedih jugak...thought I want to prepare him at least his vitamins and protein drink so that at least he didnt go out on empty stomach for his big exam.

Anyway, I forced Alif to go to Taska today. He's been missing for almost 3 weeks already, at least get him to do his computer lessons which we had paid for nothing in November (since he went for only few days:(. Last night he said, ok, just carry him to the car. So, that's what I did this morning but as soon as he woke up, he started with "tak nak pergi sekolah" - I dont want to go school. He started crying and tried to open the car door - thank Allah for child lock! I normally restrain him in his car seat but today I drove Azlin's car to work, so, there's no car seat in his precious sporty car. Oh well, he cried all the way to school, sobbing and screaming. He cried until he throw up some whitish bile on the middle portion of the seat. Luckily he hadn't taken any milk yet in the morning, so, there's not much stuffs coming out. I tried to pacify him with few bribes -- like stopping to get vitagen, or junk food twisties but to no avail. Then I suggest that we could go to Aidiin's house and watch his Thomas collection coz he got a lot. Doesn't seem to work, coz he kept on crying till we reach school - that was a whole half an hour drive to the Taska. Finally, just before we reach school, at the traffic light, I put him on my lap and hold him close while driving - that kind of calm him down but he started again when I passed him on to the teacher!

So, I reached work a little bit late than usual. Oh - I am on NST Word Hunt for this next 2 weeks - just for fun. Starting last Monday, I started buying NST (got free on Monday from Colmar@Bukit Tinggi:-) then continue purchasing it at the convenient shop near the office. Today, I went 3 times from 8:30am to 9:30am and 12pm, and the shop owner still say "tak sampai lagi". What! At 12pm, newspaper still didnt arrive? Then Azlin called and said that he passed the exam. So he's now a PMP (project Management professional?) - that's the beauty of prometric exam, you know your results right away. I had to wait one agonizing month to know if I had passed my professional exam last time. We plan to go for lunch together but then he got stuck in the traffic jam at Sultan Ismail, so we had to scrap that date. I thot tonight I don't have to cook dinner since he'll be home early- well that wish got strucked out as he later he told me that he had to go back to work, the big boss who were supposed to visit tomorrow, decided to come in today and he had to do some presentation. Oh well...

Then, on the way home, after picking Alif, who is now happy and said school was great, I stopped at Subang Parade. Need to fulfill my promise to get him the Percy that he wants. He spend some time at Toys R Us to go through all the Thomas collection available. And kept on getting distracted by all the hot wheels and transformers and radio car near Thomas and almost wanted to get hot wheels (again) but after chanting "let me think think think" with a pointing finger underneath his side chin, he decided to get Gordon instead and said next time, we'll get Percy! He was one happy kid at that time. Chanting rapidly about going to school again tomorrow and every day. When I asked him at the school's door in front of the teacher just now whether he wants to go to school tomorrow or not, he just shake his head although he had just said that school was fun that day. After he got his "bribe" everything is nice and he's willing to go to school. We'll see tomorrow - its always nice today but wait till morning when he wake up and realise that he's going to school - he will have lots of excuse of not going. We stopped at Secret Recipe to get the White Chocolate Macademia cake slice for Azlin to celebrate his accomplishment today. I got the guy to write "Congratulations" on that slice:-)

Well, on the way back, while chatting away about Thomas and Gordon and their songs, he opened up another story. "Aidiin Abah tak kasi datang rumah dia. Sebab Aidiin Abah nanti marah" - now where this one come from. I guess he was paying attention to all the things that I said to him this morning amidst his cries. But he couldn't tell me what brought up this conversation with Aidiin and what he told Aidiin specifically - only remember what Aidiin told him. Kids!

I had actually planned to drop by at MPH to see if I could get my copy of NST there but I totally forgot until I reached home. After Sutera Maya and maghrib prayer - called up Azlin to get him to stop by at petrol station on the way home to get NST for me but turns out that he has some deliveries and would be coming home very late tonight. So, I decided to go out and get the NST myself at Jln Kristal shops - yea! i still could get the copy at 7-eleven, even at 8pm. Great! I guess, dont hope if it is Star, but NST is still ok, less demand for it. Anyway, I thought of trying out the rental book shop - maybe I could get new Malay novel there for rent, but on second thought, I guess I shouldn't spend time on the book coz I have lots of things to do at home as well, and things wouldn't get done until the book is finished. But, I dropped by at the DVD shop instead and bought myself 5 korean drama series! Ada sale! So, I dont want to miss the chance of getting cheap korean dramas....this would last me for few months:-)

I am now taking a short break - I need to go back to my work and finish at least 3 qtr of the work that I planned to finish at work today, otherwise I'll be very behind schedule in my work coz tomorrow is another long day off office. Up till now, at 10:28pm, Azlin is still not home yet. I hope he do get home before 12 and take the day off that he's supposed to get today (he's supposed to be on leave today but end of spending more hours at work pulak) tomorrow - we got to prepare for our Terengganu trip this weekend and also the ketupat materials for Sunday night when we got home so that there's something special to celebrate Eid Adha on Monday. ....signing off....I just heard Azlin's voice downstairs and the clicking sound of the plates:-)

The Cousins

Alif and the little girls around him....come to think of it, his little cousins are all girls. He's kind of the last boy born in the immediate family from both sides (mine and Azlin's)

Alif(28-5-04) and Balqis(6-6-04) - they're only 9 days apart.

Alif and Balqis now and when they were younger (<1>

And then there's little Aisya - who comes to our house on weekdays.

Cousins - Wan Batrisya Balqis and Wan Qaisara Qistina

oh...there's the neighbor friends - also girls!

Aqilah (3) and Alisa(5) - new and used to be best friend Alif sekejap until he suddenly discover no "girl" friends from school:-)

I can't resist putting this one up - Alif and Alisa when the area was being fogged due to Aedes. He can't hold still and need to jump to create the camera effect:-)

Move It! "I'm Frozing!"

As soon as Azlin was feeling a little bit better today, we went out. Few things need to get - Anis's new glasses (which we had postponed for quite a while) and Ahmad wanted to get a replacement of his Ben10 PS2 games which doesn't work. So, we set ourselves to Carrefour, SJ. The PS2 games settled but Anis couldn't find the frames that she wanted - all plastic, white or transparent color and not too thick that it pokes her face. Oh, it also needs to be round. So much requirement, we've been to at least 5 shops and still couldn't find the one that she wants. Dia ingat macam nak beli baju - can ask for different size. Anyway, we walked to SP from Carrefour and finally find the frame on the 3rd shops.
When we wanted to go back it was raining cats and dogs! When it subsided a little, Azlin made a dash to Carrefour and we all waited in front of SP. It was still raining when he arrived, we had to make a run to get into the car.
Alif, with his 2 little hands on his head, ran and hop to the car. As soon as he arrived, he said,"Quick! Move it! I'm frrooozing!" His pants and shirt was a bit wet and it was a bit cold in the car with the aircond on. Maybe he meant freezing or was it frozen?
Anyway, he was wearing 2 layers of clothing at the time (kids!insist on wearing his favourite home-clothes) - so, I took off his jeans pants and collar shirt. He just smiled and said, "I'm all dry now;-)"

The trail of Alif's ... (dot dot dot)

This is the trail of what happen if you let Alif runs around and become too active. He will start coughing and need to beware when he does that, he will leave behind some presents on the floor. Warning! This could be yucky for some you:P

Trail #1
We stopped at Fella Design at Damansara after dropping Aina Syasya at her school near TTDI. It was a happy occasion for the boys, lots of nice furniture and beds and sofa to hop on. Near where the exclusive marble dining table, Alif stopped for awhile, and the next thing we know, wolla...he had spill it off on the floor. Luckily it was just some gluey sticky reddish clear thing. It went straight to one of his slippers. So he just hopped on with the other slipper (selipar) to Daddy and left behind the one with his bile. Oh well....it wasn't a lot and I do have to carry that piece of thing back, so, I took out the tissue paper from my handbag and wipe off whatever got stuck on his slipper and a little bit on the floor....

Trail #2
We've had a hearty family birthday celebration meal at Chilis last weekend. Azlin's 38th birthday (yes, he's younger than me for 6 months and he loves to mention it- that I'm older than him). Anyway, after the meal and Maghrib prayer at the newly discovered surau in the new wing of OU, we took a walk in the mall. As usual, Alif and Ahmad would run ahead - always chasing something that I can never figure out. Azlin walked ahead to look for the shop. We were actually looking for Ahmad's birthday gift - he wanted some additional games for his gameboy. When we reached a restaurant called "Charms", Alif suddenly stopped. Make a confuse face and suddenly -- voila! A lot of yucky gluey red-white thing came out. Must have been some of the kids cheesy pizza and tostada chips! Plus lots of liquid which could be the 100Plus that he drank. I panicked for awhile. Do not know how to react other than scolding him for running. Then, I slowly took out my spare tissue paper, wipe his mouth and walk away. Left the bile which was in between the restaurant (they had kind of additional tables outside the main shop, next the walkway). On the way back, we took a different path - walk on the opposite side of the restaurant - I can't really see if the stuffs had been cleaned or not but I can see the eyes of the workers on us -we were, I guess kind of noticeable group after that incident. What can I do, I could not really clean those thing with just a small pack of tissue paper! No tools to clean!
What do you do in such situation? Apologize and leave?

Trail#3
When we were in a factory outlet in US sometime in April this year, I think it was Nike shop - Alif peed somewhere in between small wooden chair and display rack - ok, he cannot hold it anymore The moment he said I wanna pee, the whole thing comes out. Nothing much that we can do also except to use his pants to wipe them liquid off and took him to the quite a distance washroom to wash off. The staff there, I think were clueless as to what happen:-) Well, accident do happen sometime....

Swiper, nooo swiping (say it 3 times)

"Wake up, Story time, daddy!"

"Go read with mummy, I want to sleep!"

"Mummy, story time, now!"

Oh, alright. I had to quit Sudoku and entertain him with his request. Nowadays, he can be very demanding - all his request must be fulfilled then and there!

ok, here goes, we started reading. I meant we coz everytime I read, he would want to read on his own, saying "nak baca sirri (=sendiri)".

I continued reading, trying to summarize the small writings, "Then Dora said, if you see Swiper, say, "Swiper, no swiping!". But Alif stopped me there. He said, "Let me read...say swiper, no swiping! swiper, no swiping! swiper, no swiping!", while counting his fingers 3 times. Of course, the book didn't mention anywhere that you have to read 3 times.

So, i asked, "who taught you to read 3 times? Kakak Anis?"

"No, Dora said it 3 times"

OK - if Dora said it, then, it must have been in the TV. Children - I see, I read and I repeat, whatever it is that he see on TV. So, that's how he know the story and memorize some of the words in the story - from the TV! That's the power of TV nowadays:-) Sampai kami nak tengok pun tak boleh because everyone had to watch channel 613 - playhouse disney! No compromise most of the time.

Bahasa Alif... part 2

From upstairs he shouted, "Mummy, make some milk pleaaassseee..". I told him to come down and get his milk, instead he shouted back, "C'mon mummy,I need some milk, please, upstairs". I insisted that he come down instead. In the end, he did go downstairs to pick up his milk instead of his usual, "Alaa..penatlah Alif".

We went beraya at Titi Gajah, Nini's in laws' house. Since they're having tahlil, the guys went first. Ladies went separately,about an hour later. On the way back, Alif asked for his Abah. “Abah naik siapa kereta?” Remember, he thinks in English, so, that’s a direct translation of Abah naik whose car?

For some reason, Alif selalu anti-Aina. Alif refused to acknowledge Aina as her Kakak. He kept saying “I don’t want Aina”. Yesterday, he said, “I have one sister and 2 brothers. My first brother is Bang Mad and my second brother is Kakak Aina”. By doing that, he can still insist that he only has 1 sister, who is Anis.

In the car, on the way back from beraya (again), the kids who were bored, kept following whatever Alif said. In the end, he picked up from that and start reciting, "Roditubillah hi robbah!", Anis & Ahmad followed him. And then he continued dengan pelat dia "wal Islami mi deena", but his pronunciation was not very clear and the word Islam doesn't come out well, so, the other siblings didn't really follow correctly. Shouting loudly, he said, "I am your teacher! You must follow me, now, read after me, Roditubillah hi robbah!". Pandai dia imitate cikgu dia (which he pronounced as "ciiku")

Now he got a friend for his Thomas!

Last month, Taska Salsabiila had their biennial (betul ka?once in 2 years?) sports day. During that month, something must have snapped Alif off. He refused to go to school. I think in that month, he went maybe about a week - sporadic days. After sports - absent till end of the month. Not even Aidin's birthday can motivate him to go to school.
So, I showed him the pictures that's in Famygirl's scrapbooked. My intention was to show him what he's missing. But, his first words after seeing Aidin's picture was "NOT FAIR!", "He got 2 Thomas, I only have 1". Then he went and disturbed Abah who was asleep. Aiyo..lain yang plan lain pulak yang jadi. Well, to avoid him from continuing disturbing Abah, I made a deal with him. He go to school without fail or cry for many days and I will buy him his second Thomas. Of course he agreed.
I totally forgot about it the whole of last week. But come into new week (this week), I was reminded of my promise by the little Alif. He wants Percy.
Today, we went to Toysrus at Subang Parade after school to get his Percy. But after looking at the choices available, he decided to go with James instead. Selamat 10 bucks! There were no cheaper Percy version - only the special chocholate train edition which costs RM39.90.
Here's Alif, happy with his loot.

Then of course,must show off to Aisya ...who were actually thinking hard whether she could really play with the toys or not:-)

Alaaa...bole la main, Abang Alif tak marah pun. Dia mesti kasi kat Aisya...Alif loves to build then call Aisya to knock it down. He would stack the uno stacko and then Aisya will come with one swoosh and down the stacko go. Finally...she reached out and play with Alif's collection. These are less than half of the hot wheels that he has. Most of the time, he would arranged his hotwheels cars on the sofa and noone is allowed to sit on the whole length of the sofa after that. Ignore,"HEAR" the consequences! It's really loud and can go on non-stop for hours until the person who make him wail come and pacify him.

Bahasa Alif (this will be updated from time to time)

My Alif started to speak English since he was 3. We didnt realised it at first. Suddenly all those phrases like "oh my God", or " I got you!" came out from his cute little mouth. Then only we realised that he had self-learnt English from his morning show with either NickJr or Playhouse Disney. We didn't really speak English at home but ever since he started speaking "cartoon" English, we (myself, Azlin, Anis, Ahmad & Aina) will try to speak as much English as we can with him.
Azlin asked Alif - "do you think in English or in Bahasa Melayu?", his response was "English, of course".
This is the history that I think I should record...

"Mesti basuh Alif tangan, nanti ada kuman kat Alif tangan, kan" - as he was playing with the soap in the bathroom after I instruct him to wash his hand

"Mummy, where's my shoes...dah hilang dah Alif kasut tu..."

"Mummy, daddy - why do grown ups like to where that?" (pointing towards the kain pelikat that guys wear to Masjid) - while walking up the sloppy road to Masjid negeri Selangor. I can't recall what my husband replied to him though.

"In my family, I have daddy, mummy, one sister, MORE sister and one brother, I love my family!". Do you have baby?, "Yes, baby Aisya". mengaku pulak Aisya tu baby dia.

Anis started a story, so, Alif pun nak bercerita, here's his story...."Once upon a time, there is one happy girl, name Syaza. One day...that's the end of the story!". We all laughed and so did he. Then I asked, lagi? "I'm sorry, I can't tell you! it's a secret. It's myyy secret!" Then he laughed.

We went to Subang Parade and at the car park Alif wanted to show off the colors that he knew. "Umi! Eh, Mummy! That's pink and green and black cars!" . You see, when he speak English, it is a must for him to change the way he addressed us. Umi becomes Mummy and Abah becomes Daddy.