Selamat Pengantin Baru!

Selamat Pengantin Baru Aidawati & Syakirin.

Aidawati ni fondly known as Mokkucu amongst anak-anak sedara. She's the youngest in the family. Kisah cinta dia dengan Syakirin ni on-off. So bila family Syakirin datang to officialise the knot, semua orang tarik nafas lega. A year later, after persiapan yang agak gilang-gemilang (standard ku kira gilang-gemilang lah sbb wedding saya memang sangat-sangat low-key). Cat rumah semula, tukar atap rumah, tukar siling. Tu kira pre-preparation saja you ols.

Majlis nikah dibuat sebelah malam. Sabtu 30 May 2009, lepas Isyak. Mokkucu berdandan sakan (dia memang suka melawa anyway). Pakai dress labuh putih sedondon pengantin lelaki. Rombongan lelaki tiba agak lewat. Janjinya lepas Maghrib. Tok Kadi yang datang awal sama kena tunggu. Dek dah masuk Isyak, maka Tok Kadi sembahyang dulu. Tengah-tengah Tok Kadi sembahyangt Isyak, tengok ada orang suluh torch-light tepat kat muka Tok Kadi. Wahh... anak sapa beriman ni. Dah tentu Muhammad Iman. Isk.

part of buffet line-up for dinner after akad nikah

Esoknya Ahad 31 Mei 2009, sebelah pagi, mak saya buat Majlis Marhaban & Berzanji. Berhajat sangat nak buat cukur jambul cucu bongsunya, Adam. Budak setahun mana nak diam. Mula-mula dia ok. Lepas 2 orang, dia tekup kepala dengan tangan. Paling ngeri masa ada nenek tua ni nak potong, tangan dia ketar-ketar you. Hasilnya, rambut anakku yang comel itu telah gonjeng. Sib baik curls nya tak affected sangat.

Adam, sedang dalam acara memotong jambulnya

Sebelah tengahari rombongan lelaki datang sekali lagi untuk majlis bersanding dan makan beradap. Waktu tengahari, tengah panas, paling ramai tetamu datang. Kawan-kawan Mokkucu dari sekolah rendah dan menengah. Kawan-kawan pejabat waktu Mokkucu kerja dengan Prudential dan kawan-kawan ofis Mokkucu di Mahkamah Temerloh. Tak masuk lagi rakan-rakan MLM Elken Abang Long saya. Sedara mara terdekat saja pun dah boleh penuh rumah sebenarnya! Budak2 fotografer yang datang dengan fesyen rambut afro dengan pesen ala Ariel Peterpan, habis lencun tak tinggal gaya apa lagi dah. Kena pulak siap terbaring-baring nak dapatkan angle yang sesuai.

Rombongan tetamu terakhir adalah kawan-kawan Kak Long saya. 4 buah kereta rakan-rakan Elken. Yang ini dijamu di atas rumah sebab pihak katering dah bungkus dan balik by then.

Apa pendapat bapa pengantin perempuan? Ibaratnya kalau dulu ada beban 10kg, mungkin sekarang tinggal 3kg saja. Sebahagian tanggungjawab dah dilepaskan kepada si suami.

Spa Anyone?

Last weekend balik kampung. Sebenarnya my dad was worried sick about Mokkucu's coming wedding this end of May. Last wedding was mine, which took place about 9 years ago. And this is going to be the first time we call caterer and do buffet spread. Kakak still had 2 more papers to sit and Tebby just got back from KK but we went back home nevertheless.

The kids had so much fun. Bayangkan lah budak-budak yang biasa di KL, keluasan tanah 22x70 je. So bila balik kampung dengan laman yang luas,.. they went beserk ransacking everything. Ayam-ayam hampir mati kekenyangan. Pokok bunga kena libas. Jagung kering Atok tinggal sikit. Air tempayan depa buat spa. Bukan satu tempayan tawww... tapi TIGA!!

2 kanak-kanak sedang ber-spa



Adam dengan senyum simpul. Tak sedar orang tengah ber-spa

excuse me, may i join the party?

Last I know, Wan dah terbalikkan semua tempayan tu :P

Brightest Star in Constellation

It is named after the brightest star in constellation.

Not neccesarily bright, but it sure is big. Toyota Alphard that is. Remember my 'mengidam' post? After hesitating between Estima and Alphard (and with me and the kids voted for the latter), Tebby placed an order on 14th April, his birthday. It finally registered with JPJ and safely home on 11th May 2009 (which, coincidently Adam's 1st birthday) bearing the plate number that equals my birthdate and our wedding anniversary date. The plate number is no coincidence. I specifically told the salesman 'Saya tak kisah lah macamana awak nak buat. But i want this number'.

Don't ask me about the technical aspects of it. It's a 2.4 auto transmission. It's a 7-seater, with 2 vacuum-side doors. Comfy leg-room. Many-many compartments for the botol air, susu kotak and whatnots. And it speaks Japanese too.

So, come meet Alphard..

This is taken from wiki - Alphard is an orange giant star. The name Alphard is from the Arabic الفرد (Al Fard), "the solitary one."

Goodbye Optra

Optra, back in 2005

We used to call this car, Iman's car. Reason being, sehari lepas bersalinkan Iman di APSH, En Tebby telah meng-order sebuah kereta Chevrolet Optra di showroom depan nun. Showroom tu dah takde dah, dah ganti dengan showroom Suzuki. So does our Optra, it doesn't exist in our family anymore.

Nak dijadikan cerita lagi, after almost 5 years bersama kami, of course ada jugak si Optra ni mengalami kecederaan-kecederaan kecil. First accident masa Iman umur sebulan. Dia menangis non stop. We rushed to APSH and en-route, a motorbike hit us from behind, habis pecah lampu belakang. Of courselah itu pakcik motor kata kami salah kan. But we were almost static in a heavy traffic. And we were in front, not at the back of you. Second accident masa balik kampung ke Terengganu untuk raya. Masa tu Iman tak sihat. Demam, selsema, batuk berpanjangan. On the way balik, satu bapak ayam dengan ganasnya terbang di tengah-tengah jalan. Langsung kami langgar, breaking the front grill. Third masa balik dari taska. Iman demam panas. Nak keluar simpang tu, ntah macamana silapnya, bergesel dengan kereta lain. Calar balar sebelah belakang. Iman lah jugak orang yang paling kerap muntah dalam Optra ni. So, how can we not say it was Iman's car kan.

Saya pulak ada satu masalah. I always make emotional relationship to things I own. Like the breatspump, sometimes shoes, the kids' first toys and whatnots. Optra included. In fact the time it was taken away, it was an emotional separation (Tebby said it was just a car.. mennn...), Kakak must have gotten it from me. She cried for hours.

Optra in 2009 - SOLD

So, now you know what we were expecting kan.

Happy 1st Birthday Adam

Cepatnya masa berlalu. Adam turns 1 today!

(lihat atas, dia juga sudah upgrade susunya dari 0-12 bulan kepada 1 tahun dan ke atas)

Sebelum menyedari kewujudan Adam, we always thought we were not ready for more babies. Nevertheless when the UPT was +ve, we were overwhelmed with joy. Read here. Allah tested us the first time when we did not see him during check-up. We panicked. We thought we were not ready for another baby and yet when something was amiss, we were devastated. Read how worried we were here and how relieved we were when Dr Ashar confirmed Adam was there, here.

Adam was my gravida 3. Being pregnant with him was not a smooth one. I had morning sickness for 4 months straight. I lost few kg. I hated plain water. The smell of furniture made me vomit. It was fasting month that the first few weeks took place. Even when I fast during the day, nothing really entice me into eating. Nak raya pun takde mood. You can read here, here, here, here and here. Actually there's more on this, but lets not go there. Click on label 'gravida 3' for more telltale. Morning sickness was my 2nd test and I had UTI, for the 3rd one. Read here, how bad it was, I could barely stand!

Long story short, in 5th month, I was recovering. Appetite, health as well as mood for shopping. And weight. I has a series of shopping spree. Most of the things during Iman and Kakak were given away so I had very good excuse to shop. Read and photos here.

Tebby was the one who decided the baby's name was going to be Muhammad Adam. We were toying with, among others, Muhammad Soleh, Muhammad Abdullah, Muhammad Yusof. Adam means 'example'. May he be one to others, insyaAllah.

Adam, was born at 3.22am, 11th May 2008. We celebrated Mother's Day that day but he took the limelight he he. He was a big round 3.74kg baby boy. Have a peek here, on his first photo session. Nevertheless, his blood circulation was bad, heartbeat was low and he was all pale and white. He ended up in NICU. Read my entry on June 1, 2009 for full story. We only went back home after the 6th day.

There's so much to tell but there's a better way doing it. Pse search under label 'Adam' for more stories. And loads of photos of Adam during his 1st year.

So, today we brought 3 big boxes of cupcakes ordered from Yati. Adam celebrate dengan kawan-kawan di taska okay. HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY Adam Sayang.

Btw, lain orang sambut birthday, lain orang dapat barang. Apakah? Tungguuuu.....

Backyard Monsters & Dinosaurs Are Back!!

3 weeks back, Kakak told us about an exhibition of dinosour-something in MidValley. We were like, well, hemmm, she was hinting us to go. Dia memang minat sangatlah haiwan-haiwan prehistoric ni. The next day she came back with a form. Her school was organising a trip to the exhibition. So, it would be RM25.00 per student for the entrance fee, bus fare and whatnots.

I ding-dong-ed with the idea. Even when I haven't decided whether or not she could go, I told her repeated to stay in group, do not wander away. If she gets lost then scream her lungs out. Thing like that. Ya kawan-kawan, I am pathethic as well as paranoid.

We were thinking it would be nice if Iman could come along. To let him expose to things he's not fimiliar with. Sudahnya, we organised our little family trip to MidValley last weekend.

So, let me do my tale-telling using photo (photo-tale, huh?)

Kami sampai MidValley around 10.00am something. Since I had light breakfast, I decided that everyone should stop and get something like fries or nuggets. Kakak was devastated. I was pretty much delaying her encounter with dinosours. It turned out that it was still time for McD Breakfast. A muffin burger with hash brown then. The girl, who was so angry with me, ate the whole muffin burger herself! The rest of us fed on 2 tiny hash browns.

Tickets were RM12 for adult and RM8 for children. Children under 4 admit for free. Kakak was excited. Iman pun,... until we went in. He went beserk and frightened like h***. Last-last abahnya kena dukung. He's 5 and he weights 20kg ye kawan-kawan. (I mean Iman). We made many rounds (We paid like berpuluh-puluh ringgit and the place was small ye kawan-kawan. So round banyak kali sikit he he)

The exhibition was divided into 2, prehistoric animals and backyard monsters. Yang backyard monsters tu actually things like ants, praying mantis, spider. Cuma the exhibits were resized into gigantic models. There was this spider model which was connected to somekind of toggle. You can actually push and pull the toggle, back and forth, left to right. But, whichever direction we took, it just went up and down, up and down.

They have this simulation model of kaki belalang, kepak rama-rama and a few other things. My kids memang suka sangat mengerjakan benda-benda gini. They also have exhibits of beautiful butterflies. They also show lifecycle of butterfly, from the larvae stage, sampai jadi ulat and finally butterfly. Kakak has learnt that in school so, imagine how excited she was to see that behind glass.

Now, the dinosour part. There were about 6-7 exhibits (excluding the eggs and baby dino). Only one aquatic animal, the rest seme hak duduk atas darat. Seme tu seemed fimiliar but there was one that reminded me of ultraman sedang fire raksasa.

Finally, after almost an hour, we came out from the hall. Not satisfied yet, the kids heret me to 'Pets Wonderland', just opposite MVEC. Kakak begged for fish-pet. Not yet I said. Iman urged me to the dog section, so we went. Kakak saw Prairie Dog. Dia sangatlah gembira sebab sebelum ni dia ada baca dalam buku, so bila jumpa face-to-face gitu,.. cam ultimate experience lah. Iman said, those were not dogs, those were mouse. Then they fought over dog or mouse. Both were right. Prairie Dog is the name and they came from the rodent family.

So, where's Tebby and Adam in our Pets Wonderland encounter? We suspect Adam is allergic to some kind of animals. We went to zoo twice and both times, he got sakit mata. Bertaik-taik dan merah-merah. So no more zoo or Pets Wonderland and things as such. He went with En Tebby membeli komik at the other side of MidValley. I was left with chasing Iman around (He somehow dapat balik kadar keaktifan lama dia tu. He has toned down a bit these few months but lately he got all excited and back to running and jumping around)

No photos at Pets Wonderland. No cameras allowed ye.

After Pets Wonderland, we splitted way again. Me and Iman went to Toy'R'Us(Yep people, I always end up with Iman, I am his ultimate idol at the moment), Tebby took Kakak and Adam along with him to MPH. Kakak got herself some pencils, glue, scissors and notebooks. Iman got me to pay for his Star Scream transformer. I got Kakak a rabbit from My Littlest Pet Shop and a small Tonka car for Adam.

Next destination - makannnn!! The nearest was Madam Kwan. So we went. Iman has got something for him to be occupied doing. That time, he managed to do Star Scream from robot-mode to jet-mode and vice versa. He proudly told me 'Iman buat'. Owww.... Adam, nowadays has been giving us hard times dining out. He climbed out of the baby chair. Refused toys and all. Sejak-sejak pandai berjalan ni kan, apa kelas duduk aje kan. So, back to our normal routine sebelum ni, we took turn to eat. We took turn bringing Adam outside to play in front of Toys'R'Us where they put many Little Tikes toys to climb on, slide on, swing and what nots. Adam teramatlah gembira sampaikan Ummi rasa nak beli benda tu seketul! Seeing him toddling, bobbling away as he went, a lady 'tegur' us. How old is she, can walk already? Aiyork, this is a he, not she.

Nevertheless we went back satisfied.

We had a good weekend. Not only there's an added one day but we managed to utilise the 3 days with activities.

We did not go out on Friday since Tebby is always uncomfortable for outing or travelling on Friday because of Friday prayers. I know we should not make the situation difficult but that's his stand, so layan. Tapi pagi-pagi lagi he went to do marketing Pasar Sungei Besi. Pegi mereket, as oldfolks say. I just gave him the list of things I need. Based on his menu anyway. I whipped up Masak Lemak Ketam or rather Masak Lemak Seafood because I added some 'lala' into it. I actually prepared all the basics. Then I went sidai kain and ask Tebby to wait it up so the santan 'tak pecah'. I don't know what he has done but when I'm done with the laundry, siap lah masak lemak ketam yang sangat lazat. Iman mengerjakan 'lala'. Siput, he said. Adam dok tergantung tepi meja mintak sikit. A big no no. Not only he's not 1 yet, he's also allergy to many things.

Saturday is the day Kakak was waiting for. There's an exhibition 'Dinosour & Backyard Monster' in MidValley. We came a little later than 10a.m, singgah McD kejap for snacks (tho we've had breakfast at home sebenarnya!). It turned out that there was not so many dinosour pun. Iman had a scare of his life. After 20 minutes or so, barulah dia okay and got the interest to look around. Kakak went 2 or 3 rounds.

Jom Masak

Selamat Hari Buruh kepada semua yang bekerja. Anak-anak saya pun bercuti jugak walaupun belum bekerja sebab cikgu-cikgi semua bercuti juga.

Kami tak ke mana-mana pun. En Tebby, kalau hari Jumaat, dia seboleh-bolehnya mengelak dari outing atau travelling. So, we stayed home. Pagi-pagi lagi dia dah ke Pasar Sungei Besi. Buat marketing.. orang tua-tua kata 'pegi mereket'. Saya cuma bagi list barang (based on his menu anyway). Sebetulnya semenjak dua menjak ni dapur kami jarang berasap. Dek sibuk di ofis, selalu balik lambat, sampai rumah badan dah penat, makanya tak masak. Untuk anak-anak cukup simple, nasi putih sama telur goreng/ikan goreng. Kalau buat lauk lain, tak mau makan. Iman lagilah... nacik teyo gureng kisyap katanya. Kalau tidak, sanggup tak makan! Kalau nasi lah. Kalau ada mi sup atau mi goreng, dia suka jugak. Tapi kalau nasi, harus ada telur dengan kicap.

Anyway.

Seperti permintaan En Tebby, saya buat Ketam Masak Lemak. Sebetulnya Masak Lemak Seafood. Selain ketam, En Tebby juga beli sepeket 'lala'. Masih segar. Masa saya basuh, still ada suara2 'lala'. Mungkin mintak tolong. Masih hidup! Let's not dwell on that, shall we.

Bercakap pasal ketam ni, saya memang tak reti nak pilih. Tak tau nak cari yang isi banyak. Semua ni Tebby yang buat. Masak lemak pun, sebenarnya dalam setahun dua kebelakangan ni aje yang menjadi. Bahannya cukup simple. Saya tengok MIL kalau masak, senang aje. Hatta kalau santan masih keras pun, okay aje dia masak. Tak payah tunggu thaw pun. Kalau mak saya, cukup cerewet. Santan beku tak main lah. Jauh sekali santan kotak. Kalau boleh, time nak masak tu, baru belah kelapa! Saya pulak ambik pendekatan yang praktikal saja.

Selepas ditenggekkan atas api sederhana, selepas Tebby modify rasa-rasanya (dia ni, kalau saya memasak, memang he'd hover around, cam ala-ala Ramsay Gordon supervise anak-buahnya), makanya.. inilah hasilnya....

Masak Lemak Seafood

Selepas agak2 bahan kisar dah 1/2 masak, masukkan ketam ye puan-puan..


Iman, savoring 'syiput'