Tween

Ever heard of this word? I first heard it a few years ago but never bother about it until I'm faced with one now.

A quick check on the wikipedia gave me this:
Tween is an American neologism and marketing term for preteen. A blend of between and teen, "tween" in this context is generally considered to cover the age range from eight to twelve years.

As you should guess.. yeap, I have two of these. One is just becoming one, and the other is very much one. As days go by, as I find it more difficult to handle these two, I realised that they are no longer babies and they shouldn't be treated like one. I suddenly remembered the TWEEN term and start googling it. It's a gradual development that you don't even noticed since you are with them all the time.

The good thing of a tween is that you can reason with them easier as they have better understanding of things as compared to little children, you can have serious talk with them, they learn to compromise and the best is you can begin to see the results of the early upbringing on them (well if you did it right in the first place). You can even roll your eyes together with him (in understanding) for the fuss the younger ones made.

The not so good thing is they are in the phase of discovering their identity hence they have some kind of mood swing which is very hard for us to decipher. You have to be gentle as not to hamper their development, at the same time you have to be strict as not to let him stray away from you. You have to watch what you are saying when they are around because they are definitely listening and trying to grasp whatever that you are saying even though it has nothing to do with them. This is also the phase where finding the right size or the right fashion for them is the hardest. They are too little for adult size or fashion but too old/big for kids fashion and size. I find this very frustrating. They want to blend in with the older kids (i.e.teenagers) but what's in the market for their age is still reflecting little children's age. The trend is now slowly changing now that some research has been done on the TWEEN market.

Google tween if you want to know more. You will find many interesting articles on it.

How time flies.. they are growing fast.. me getting old even faster!

Of a separation ...

On a sad note.. last 2 weeks I heard a shocking news from a dear dear friend that she was being divorced by her husband of 8 years. They seemed to me the most perfect couple. The reason of the divorce, the most stupidest reason I've ever heard... she's the barrier of his success. Looks like this guy has never heard of the phrase "behind every successful man, there's a woman".. the woman who's supposed to be the pillar of his success. After all, what is the success for if it's not for your woman, for your children. Really I don't get it! To me it's just an excuse to marry another woman.. which is very true in this case.

Marriage is all about loving, sharing, compromising and sacrificing. If you are not willing to have all that, you are in for trouble sooner or later.

Sometimes the reality of life sucks. Then again it depends on how you drive your life through .. it's a journey... not really a destination. The only destination is the afterlife.. life is just a transit to the afterlife.

Of a wedding ...

The "glorious" event that has kept me busy for the past weeks. Wedding of my niece. It was quite an event.. for a few days starting with the akad at home and reception at a banquet hall. I wish the bride and groom a lifetime marriage!

The procession of flower-gals and one little "flower-boy" ... together with some "old" maids-of-honor!

Bestest of friends... flower boy with two favorite flower gals ..

Eight flower-gals and one flower-boy..

I have at least one wedding of a niece or nephew almost every year.. but this is the first time we have the little flower gals. They really enjoyed being part of the important event. Funnily .. Omar somehow got into it the last minute as he insisted holding his favorite cousin's hands the whole time during the rehearsal. So we decided to include him as well. We managed to find the bow-tie at the very last minute to match the theme. Thank God he was VERY well-behaved during the ceremony!