The Children's Progress

Sofiyyah is now 24 days old. It's been 17 days since she was G.I.-Janed, and her hair is now about 5 mm long. She has also developed a triple-chin, and her cheeks look like she is hiding two golfballs in her mouth. And all on breastmilk (except for the first 1 and a half days at hospital)!

Sofiyyah is also a very strong baby. She can already hold her head up, although not while lying on her tummy. Her legs are pretty mean, too. She usually uses them to signal that she wants to go for a walk, by pushing and kicking on the lap of whomever is holding her at the time. I'm pretty sure her aunts and uncle in Damansara will be surprised to see her in 9 days' time.

Nuaim, meanwhile, celebrated his sixth birthday at kindergarten yesterday. As requested, he had a square cake, with white icing and strawberries.

And for his birthday gift, he wants toy dinosaurs - and not just any old dinosaur either. He specifically asked for these:

Tyrannosaurus

Triceratops

Liopleurodon (I had to google to find the right spelling)

Apatosaurus

There were a few others that I cannot remember and can only imagine to spell. He listed out the ones he wanted - spelling them phonetically therefore less accurately - and gave the list to his maternal grandmother. My brother's got the list now, and he's doing some internet-based research to find out what they really look like so they can buy the correct ones. Only Allah knows what kind of tantrum Nuaim will throw if we get them wrong.

As for Nu'man and Aiesyah, they go through each day fighting like cats and dogs one minute then being the best of friends the next. Since they're closest by birth, being only 18 months apart, they share similar tastes and behavioural traits, especially at play. Aiesyah tends to copy her brother, and she's just as likely to play Racing Cars as Nu'man does. The boy, on the other hand, tends to have a go at every toy bought specifically for his sister - including dolls and tea party sets. Just in case anyone's worried, be rest assured that his mannerisms with these toys are definitely unfeminine.

Physically, though, they're as different as chalk and cheese. While Nu'man hardly seems to be growing despite all the food that he eats (he expends all the energy through highly intense physical activities), Aiesyah has visibly grown taller and her face is rounder. She's also very vain about her looks, and sulks very easily whenever she gets ignored or reprimanded. I suppose that goes with being the baby for a long time - in terms of age gap, Aiesyah-Sofiyyah's is the longest at 2 years 7 months. But Aiesyah is also the most helpful and obedient of them all, so far.

My only concern with Aiesyah is that she tends to pick up my Indonesian maid's pronunciation of certain words. First it was 'Cat' pronounced as 'Kek', which I've managed to correct. Right now I'm having some issues with her calling her baby sister Amirah SoPiyah instead of SoFiyyah.