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.

Home Schooling

Nuaim throws tantrums when things don't go his way. And the only way to deal with it is to explain a complex situation with all the really minute details. Which he completely understands.

Episode 1:

Some time ago, his uncle bought him two Lego Creator sets from Sydney. He loves these Creators - Hubby had purchased three previously - as each set has an instruction booklet that shows you how to build three different items using the same pieces. The booklet from the Sydney pack also showed the other available Creator models, one of which Nuaim took a fancy to. He started asking why his uncle didn't buy him that particular set, so to cut it short I told him they had run out in Sydney. Being Nuaim, he wouldn't drop the subject, so he kept pestering me about it till I promised to buy it at Toys'R'Us. Alas, Malaysia does not seem to have a market for Lego Creator.

"Why don't they sell here?" he asked.

"No one wants to buy them." I answered.

"I do. Why don't other boys buy them?"

"Because other boys aren't clever enough." I was hoping this compliment would make him feel better. It backfired.

"No! I want other boys to be clever enough to build them!!"

"Well, they're too expensive to make in Malaysia."

"Why are they too expensive?"

"The factory is too expensive to build here."

"I want Lego to build a factory in Malaysia!"

"Nuaim, do you know what it takes to build a factory?"

"No. How do you build a factory?"

Then I launched into a full description of a Project implementation framework that would put SKG19 TP's to shame, complete with basic design, long lead item procurement, installation, pre-commissioning inspection, performance test runs and delayed start-ups.

By the end of it, Nuaim looked pensive.

"So you see why they can't build the factory here?"

"Yeah, it's really difficult."


Episode 2:

We were watching Animal Planet on ASTRO today. As usual, the signal started breaking up with the slightest sign of bad weather. Nuaim began asking me to clean the VCD, not realising that the two were totally unrelated.

"It's not from a VCD, Nuaim. ASTRO is from the sky."

"Why is it shaking?"

"The wind is making it shake."

"Turn off the fan!"

"No, dear. It's not the fan, it's the wind in the sky."

"Close the windows! Don't let the wind come in."

"No, no. It's shaky from outside, not inside the house."

Nuaim still didn't look convinced. So I had to go all technical again.

Armed with a piece of paper and a pen, I described how microwave signals travelled from the main ASTRO broadcasting station to our receiver dish on the roof, down a cable to the ASTRO decoder and finally into the TV set in the family hall. Professor Charles Turner would be so proud of me.

Nuaim really appreciated this piece of information, then looked at my sketch thoughtfully.

"Where's the staircase?"

ARRGHHH!!!

Happy Birthday to Nuaim...

...and to me, too.

Granted, this entry is a day late.

Yesterday I turned 32. I wish I was still 22. Physically I feel like 52, I think like 42, and depending how my day goes I behave anywhere between 12 and 62.

Anyway, as Nuaim rightly pointed out to his Cik Ain, it was His Birthday, not mine. He had been bugging me for toys since Thursday night, but I told him to wait till it was his birthday on Saturday for me to get them.

So the first thing he said to me in the morning was not 'Happy Birthday Ummi, I love you' but, "Pagi ni dah Sabtu, kan? Jom kita pergi beli train! (This morning is Saturday, right? Let's go buy a train!)"

We went to Toys R Us, where there's a large selection of 'Thomas and Friends'. Since Nuaim already has a few Thomases, the plan was to get some 'Friends', but Nuaim preferred some other generic-looking modern trains instead. I decided to buy a Friend (Ben, specifically) for Nu'man so he'd have something to play with, and decided to wrap the toys as presents.

When we got home, Nu'man was asleep. Nuaim proceeded to open his present (which consisted of three trains, a station and a tunnel) and play with them immediately. He seemed quite happy for about an hour, when the novelty wore off and he decided that Nu'man (who was still asleep) should 'share' Ben with him. Besides, the tracks that came with the station and tunnel were not long enough for Nuaim's three-carriage train, and Ben came with four pieces. Fortunately the tracks all fitted together, (coming from the same manufacturer, so from today I'm sticking to the same brand for trains) so when Nu'man finally woke up there was no fighting over the tracks. The only contention was who got to play with Ben.