The Quarterly Blogger

Perhaps this space should be renamed as such, judging by the intervals of my posts. I do have things to say, funny antics and pictures of the kids to share. Between work, my workplace’s Internet filter *cough Big Brother cough* and the home situation, I have neither the time nor the energy to put down what I want to say and actually upload it..

We’ve had a few maids since before Adan was born and as of Ramadhan, we have decided to send the kids to a nursery. Yes, the nursery fees are the same as what we were paying the maid before but in terms of headaches & ‘sakit ati’ it is definitely a whole lot less.

There are teething problems, of course. The kids cried buckets until their voices were hoarse when I picked them up in the evening. Adan came home with scratches on his face & back. They seem to be okay now, Ala more so than Adan. He still merengek in the morning when we drop them off. Ala is cool as long as we perform her ‘routine’ – which is an elaborate choreography of salams, hugs with pats on the back, kisses (her left cheek, her right cheek, our left cheek, our right cheek) and goodbye waves right up until we are out of her sight. I guess to the other parents it’s a bit much as they are more businesslike – march up to the door, drop off kid & nursery bag, salam & kiss on head then off to work.

Ala is apparently Miss Popularity there, especially with the bigger kids. She makes a point to salam them & the caregivers before leaving. Even a few of the mums know her which is a bit amazing.. Adan is our Pak Lebai. He will search for his small songkok which we bought for Raya, then get one of us to bentang his small sejadah (which sis-in-law bought for them) and then proceed to go through the motions of solat. Complete with mulut kumat-kamit & all..! Ala can pretty much recite some zikirs & doa makan (with pelat) which sounds like this “Allah umma ba-bariktana fima lojaktana akina ajabanna.. Amin” followed by a booming “AMIN!!!!” from the lil Pak Lebai. Better than tv, I tell ya…

I can now have a ‘proper’ conversation with Ala where she communicates in whole sentences. She even sounds like a mak nenek sometimes, once exclaiming “Hai, atok ni..!” when my dad couldn’t quite get what she was trying to say. She stutters quite a bit, though we’re not sure if it’s on purpose. Can’t stand her brother half the time & shows it with physical violence (pinches, shoves etc). The other half, she is Adan’s spokesperson - translating his attempts at speaking & standing up for her lil brother. (“Mummy, jangan la marah Dan-dan tu.. Dan-dan main-main aje la”).

Adan is a cheeky, active lil boy. He’s practically giddy with happiness when Ala deigns to play with him. Unfortunately, he has also learned to fight back which means there’s a lot of hair-pulling and smacking when they play. He loves water so much that he often refuses to come out of the bathroom voluntarily after showers. In fact, he’d find any excuse (or trick!) to bathe again – usually by claiming “Memeh! Yak! Bok! ”. Adan usually wakes up with a smile, immediately checks if his big sister is awake (most of the time no, this anak dara of mine is a late riser) before announcing “Memeh, Yaya bom-bom”. And finally, he’s a completely shameless copycat. Every single thing Ala does or say, he will copy. What makes us howl with laughter is that in the middle of copying her, he will keep an eye out for cues on what to do next…!

As much as we laugh, it makes me feel slightly melancholic afterwards.. Our babies are growing up.