Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Final countdown postponed!

Have you ever been in a situation when you feel like you were riding so high and suddenly you just crushed down, free fall! That's what I'm feeling now! Well it's kinda expected but at the same time I was hoping I would continue the ride. Well... I have a choice. But perhaps it was meant to be that way.

I'm rambling like nobody's business. Then again.. it is nobody's business. I AM writing MY own blog anyways!!!

Monday, September 15, 2008

The unfortunate ones

I wrote this last week but never get around to publish it until now. Better late than never!

A three year-old boy fell into a big pot of boiling "gulai" yesterday. 50% of his body was scalded. Even the TV footage was dimmed as to hide the boy's pain (I guess!) This boy was playing alone while the parents were busy preparing dishes to be sold at the Ramadhan bazaar, including the gulai kawah. He was lucky to have survived!

On the same day, another boy lost 4 of his fingers while helping his father with the sugar cane machine to produce the sugar cane juice to be sold.

This is the price these boys have to pay to "help" their parents to earn a living. But how about their own future? What will become of them?

I shuddered thinking of the pain the boys have to go through. How did the parents feel? Guilty? I'm not trying to blame the parents but at least, they have to think in the best interest of their children. They shouldn't expose the children to the high risks of being hurt and eventually affecting the children's future. I guess they have no choice.. but still.. !

And this.. is just the tips of an iceberg. I'm sure there are many more out there having the same fate or worse!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Countdown begins ..

10 more working days and counting...

I really feel like dancing.. yeap.. in the rain.. but of course I hope it will not rain forever. I hope for lots of sun too...

Words cannot describe how I feel. A mixture of happiness, sadness, anxious, nervous.. everything.

InsyaAllah things will be well... in many ways.. in any ways!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

The Fasting Eussuv

Ramadhan is here again. Alhamdulillah. I guess every parent would face a tough time teaching the kids to fast, well at least in the beginning. Same here!

Didn't have so much problem with Irsyad (as usual).. as it comes naturally to him. At 6 years-old he managed 15 days.. could have completed 20days but he got chicken pox on the last week.

Eussuv on the other hand, had only 1 day last year - he was 7 then. This year, I am quite determined that he must at least try - a few days. I did not expect much becos I don't want to force him. But I have reminded him many many times that this year he must be strong and try to fast as many days as he could.

So, this is how it went for the past 3 days:

Day 1: Happily bangun sahur and eat rice, slowly. Kept himself busy with TV, PS2 and computer games during the day.. Mummy kept asking "Eussuv, are u OK?". And he confidently smiled and said "I'm OK!". Fine. The day before the boys have discussed that they wanted to go play football at the playground as usual. I said, we'll see first, surely you'll be too tired to play, it's the first day of fasting!".. Well, I was wrong! Both of them went off to play football! Eussuv was very happy and playful as usual. No complaint at all. I was VERY surprised. By the time they got back from the playground, it was already close to 7pm. I could see Eussuv's tired face. But still no complain. He managed to complete it till the end with no complaint, no whining!! Well done! By 8:30pm, he's already deep asleep.. what a day for him..

Day 2: School day. Sahur with rice, mummy suap.. ! Reached home from school at 6pm. looked at the watch and said .. "lambatnya!! Baru pukul 6???" .. and keep saying that until berbuka. He had 4 different types of cold drinks in front of him (buat sendiri!!) ..and keep stirring it while watching the clock! He completed day 2.

Day 3: Another school day. Looking more energetic. Bought himself cold drinks from a stall near his schook while waiting for the van. Completed day 3. Down by 8:30pm.

So.. it was OK after all. I'm glad I did not force him last year and it seemed to be quite natural to him this year. Perhaps he's a bit babyish.. perhaps his maturity comes later as compared to Abang.

We really should not underestimate our kids. Though I know I should also not compare Irsyad and Eussuv, but when you have a good benchmark to start with, you cannot help but compare. By now, I really understood that they are different and have different paces of development, of which I should be able to know and guide them accordingly.

Not easy being a parent huh!

Merdeka Kids

This is rather a belated entry but I insist to write about it.

The Merdeka Day, recently celebrated by the nation is one of the few events my kids enjoyed. This is what it meant for them:

1. Raising flags.. everywhere they like, in the bedroom, on top of the car, on our gate.. or even have one small flag outside their bags. This year they begged me to buy them one small flag each and one big one for the house. Yup I complied. They waived the small flag alright.. but the big one.. they wrap around their body and do the lion dance!!

2. Sing patriotic song and march in the living room. This will go on for at least 2 weeks, before and after the actual day. Oh yeah.. they love those songs, and they would sing them on top of their voices. This year they learn one new nice song.. Perpaduan Teras Kejayaan.

3. Watch Merdeka Parade and Fireworks.... on TV. I will never bring them to the real one due to the big and "rowdy" crowd. They love to watch the parade as they get to learn about all sorts of accupations according to the uniform, different types of policemen, firemen, soldiers ... and different types of cars they use. They really can learn something from this parade.. of course providing that Mummy watching with them and answer every question they ask.

4. Watch all those patriotic movies screened on TV. They especially love those with the Japanese soldiers. Again I have to explain a lot of things the Japanese did!!

This year they also get to learn about all the Malaysian states from a newspaper pull-out which has details of each state, the flag, the state song, the main town, etc..and so on.

Though I am no history buff able to tell the real history to them.. at least I do try my best telling them about this country, here and there. The most important thing is, it's an educational thingy. And perhaps inject some patriotism in them.. to be loyal to the country. I hope I feed them the right facts though!!!!