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.

Journal

After searching high and low, I finally found the journal that I started when Aina first went to school. It housed so many funny and beautiful memories of Aina in school, complete with pictures. Know how I found it?
Well, after coming back from Alor Setar, I got the urged to clean a little portion of the kitchen and throw away all unwanted papers in the basket on top of drawers at the location where supposedly a hand-washing sink should be. We didn't get around to buying a practical but nice and cheap wash-basin@sink since the last 2.5 years that we had stayed in that house.
Anyway, the journal lies in that basket on top of the drawers together with all the other papers and letters and junks that were just stashed away inside that basket, either by myself or my in-house assisstant, whenever we need to clear the dining tables when we had guests at home:-)

History repeats itself as I was going through the journal. There were stories and stories of Aina, none of Anis and a little half finished of Ahmad. I guess, first child has the most memorable things to write plus you'd get busier when it comes to second, third and so on. I should have written about Alif's first day in school as well - that was memorable episode. Actually all the children's first day in school is a nostalgic time, either for parents or the child itself. We parents need to be fairer in keep-sake stories or memories of the children , otherwise the other children will think that we are biased towards one child only. That's what Anis has told me - point blank! "Umi asyik ada cerita pasal kakak Aina je, Anis punya takde!" and then Ahmad will go on "Asyik Alif je, Alif je, Ahmad takde!". A change is needed here...need to show impartial to all children, but when will I get the time to write all 4 in one night? Well - I guess I need to sacrifice my Sudoku, word twist and make sure whenever I write about the children, all 4 of them would be inside in one stories...can I really do this?

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")