The babysitter and old wives tale

I'm sure you know what this is, it is a baby's thigh. This one belongs to Bea3, and upon meeting the baby the first time, the babysitter announced that, finally the next baby will be a boy.

See the line, one line means next baby is a boy, two lines a girl. I may get it the other way around, but I don't trust it so I don't really take note. I have not come across more than two lines yet.

The thing is, she has been observing this from Bea1. And so far, her "prediction" is just right. Of course she said she does not believe it, "Kata orang tua-tua", that's what she said. But whenever she 'got' it right, I can tell there is a kind of satisfaction on her face.

That is only of the old wives tales that she has been sharing with me.

The other one is, the lump or nodule (I don't have any idea what it is called) in the umbilical cord. Malays follow certain ritual on the placenta and umbilical cord, we normally bury them. She is the one who did the cleaning, for both Bea2 and Bea3 before hubby buried them. From the last one, she again announced that looking at the lumps, I will have many kids. I was like "Uh...how many?", she said she was not sure but quite a number.

Last week, before I did the test, I told her that I had the feeling that I might be at it again. She said, she had been observing Bea3 attempting to do a summersault. She said "Nak intai adik ya....". I was like "Ohhh...please!!!".

When I related the result a few hours after that, she gave me "See, i told you" look.

Both Bea1 and Bea2 has not been feeling well since Saturday. They'd been vomiting for something that I'm not sure yet. Bea2 is ok now, and Bea1 is getting better.
This morning, when I mentioned about this to her, she asked if I got any signs of morning sickness yet. When I said no, she said sometimes the sympton can be passed to other kids and the husband too.

Well I heard about husbands getting it, but not the kids. I don't trust it unless some scientific proves have been found.

At home the night after finding out about the new pregnancy, as always I tried to get a little more excitement from hubby. He was like emotionless, thinking he might be in denial, I showed him the pregnancy stick. He assured me he was ok with it and accepting but I was not satisfied.

Of course I'm not keen having my kids gets the 'sickness', but now, despite getting the above treatment, it can be interesting having hubby running to the toilet at the smell of food, haha imagine that, that would be great...hopefully it helps in getting a few kilos off him. But wait, I'm not keen having a husband with mood swings. That reminds me of Arni Schwar....(can never get the spelling right!) in that movie, but I can't recall the title.

Anyway, I digress.

You may think the babysitter is old-fashioned. She is not really. We have a very good relationship, she complies a lot to my style. But I do compromise a bit here and there.

When I get worried if any of the kids get sick, she would come out with some other signs. At the beginning of a new month for a baby, she said there is always a change/new development, and that can be shown by a little increase in body temperature, some tantrums etc. Sometimes it is comforting, but of course we don't push anything to that, a sick baby must go to the doctor.

That's all I can think off now, I have many, will share them here if I remember and have the time.

Thanks for reading;)

A bad year to get pregnant? Maybe not....

I may sound serious amidst being a little jovious while writing this. The plan was to have a baby in October so that Bea3 would not feel so much that she was actually a 'surprise' baby while Bea1 and Bea2 all January babies. Anyway, it was only my naughty plan, nothing to do with hubby;).

On thursday last week, I received a pleasant surprise that my application for a research grant under the RMK9 has been approved.

Yippeee...my very first big project.

I see more dirty cavings to be done, more crazy stunts with the guys from the Malaysian Nature Society Cave Group, more labworks and oppurtunity to travel...and I won't go over and over about me being crazy with my work here.

And the last few days, I'd been thinking "So, next year may not be a good year to get pregnant...". A rather mixed feeling there.

But manusia mampu merancang, Tuhan yang menentukan.

CNI Tongkat Ali, Kopi Jantan that hubby gulped many cups to keep him awake during late night works really gave 'us' the side effect.

So, besides the positive result from the MOSTI that I got last week, just now in the office toilet, I received another.

Photo a bit blur as I just borrowed colleague's camera, hands trembling, got no time to figure out to get good image but I'm sure you can see it alright.

I'm fully prepared for this as my milk supply dropped drastically last week. Over the phone just now, I said to him "Tahniah, anda bakal menimang cahayamata ke empat". He said "Alhamdulillah"

Hubby says, we will manage and I trust him. We will work things out together, and I will make sure at the end of 2008, when the project comes to an end, a final report will be submitted.

In the meantime, we have yet another reason to be grateful of having another gift from Allah, Alhamdulillah.

I have not changed the blogger name to mama23beas yet, now I have another one coming;). This will be an August baby, I guess. It does not matter anymore, we pray for a healthy baby.

Ok guys, I want to see those congratulatory comments coming. Pile them on!

We are counting down!

I was looking for a way to explain to my kids (especially the eldest, Bea1) why they could not wear the Raya shoes and bajus ALL the time, when Raya was still about two weeks away. I thought doing counting down was great. I explained that we had so and so number of days before the real day comes.

Bea1 is kind of ok with it, though sometimes she could not resist the temptation when Bea2 was at it.

After Raya, we did again for our recent balik kampung trip.

And now, tomorrow my sister and her kids will be coming over. Bea1 has been delighted, and asked me how many nights she got to sleep before meeting them. That was last week, without much thought, I only agak-agak (was driving) and said "10!". Besides, that's easy by using 10 fingers;). That's what I thought.

And she did the counting, normally during the drive to school, she would say there is so and so number of nights left.

Seeing that she was serious about it, I tried to figure out if the number that I agak-agak was the right one. I was like "Ohhh...shoot, I miss it by one night, it was actually 11".

Well, trying to do a little "cover-up", during weekend (no school), I tried not to mention anything about it, hoping she would lose her track (I know, I know...malu la). A bit silence for a few days, and yesterday she talked about it again and she is well on the track.

I realised now she is actually doing some Math. Well I really don't care if other people kids know algebra at 3 years old, this is my kid, so in order for me to "keep up", she does not have to be that fast.

And today, after school, she was adamant that her cousins are already in the house. I admitted my "mistake" and she asked me why, as if a mother can't possibly make such a mistake. Urgh...*head hung low*

Anyway, she was ok when I explained and explained, and finally said "Just one more night, ok..." with puppy eyes.

So, that's a bit about parenting, mama23beas' style. Errr...nothing to boast about, just sharing;)

Next lesson: People make mistake

chalazion or also known as "ketumbit"

That is how my Bea2's eye for the past er....4 months. I admit I'm guilty of not doing anything about it, except waiting for it to disappear. But that's what people telling me, that thing just go away.

But a mother would try not to let her daughter celebrates Hari Raya like that. I brought her to a GP. I had not even gotten the seat when he annouced that he could not do anything about it. He mentioned a word that I didn't really get, till I googled "cyst eye", the word chalazion appears here

Malay calls it "ketumbit". This joke has been around as long as I can remember that if you are naughty, and likes to peep other people, particularly when people doing business in the loo, you would get one.

Anyway, the doc. advised if I really wanted it gone right away, a minor surgery can be done at any eye specialist clinic or in my case the UMMC.

Off we went to the hospital, only to be advised by a doctor that they would try to avoid doing surgery especially on a small child as it involves general anastesia. I was advised to do warm compress on that area with an application of eye ointment/antibacteria cream. She will consider a surgery in the next appointment in 2 months, if the thing is still there.

So, now you know;).

We were there for only less than 1/2 hour. The good thing is, me and the elder girls got to spend some time at the Ikea after that;).

We were off again

We again had a field/balik kampung trip last weekend.

Day One, Friday

Went out early to beat the traffic. Kids behaved extremely well. Had a long chat with hubby and my sister, who followed us.
Lunch in Gua Musang, while hubby did the Friday prayer.

I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I know Perak more (due to my studies for PhD) than my own backyard. I think I heard about a new road that connects Gua Musang to Dabong (the thin black line in the map), and tried to get hubby to try it. But we were not adventurous that day and took the normal route to Kuala Krai, and turn at the exit to Dabong, to reach Gua Ikan.

A bit saddened by the place, rubbish are everywhere, and it is obvious that it is not maintained at all. Went in with hubby, while sis keeping an eye on the girls.

A little bit of driving and some trekking would brought us here. Stong waterfall, the highest in South East Asia, but I have never been there *malu, malu*.
Next time, of course.

Kids had a good time playing with cousins that night.


Day Two, Saturday

The girls were excited, knowing that we were going to the airport to fetch my parents who came back from Makkah. I explained that mama got some work to do first. We headed to Jerteh.

In the car, Bea2 protested saying that she wanted the airport. The only airport that she knew is the KLIA, she recognised that we were taking the wrong 'road'. I'm sure she compared the highway to the KLIA and the Machang-Jerteh road. I got to do a bit of explaining, with the help from Bea1.

We found ourselves later in a palm oil estate, asking people for info etc (I won't go detail about my work here;)). It was a bit surprise, that out of nowhere we found this:

And they even have quarters for the staffs, complete with kids' playground there. It is a cool place, at some foothils, with misty (or was it haze?) lush greenery at the back. But it was Saturday, and it was closed. However, we managed to talk to a staff. He said, if they open, he could use the 4WD vehicle to show us around.
I did what I was supposed to do, and we were out that place in the late afternoon.

Finally reached the airport to meet my parents. That night was spent listening to their story, as usual after their return from Makkah. The difference this time we got to hear about the rain.

Kids were happily playing with cousins again.

Day three, Sunday

More stories during breakfast. I would never get enough from mom. She would tell the same story over and over, but with repetition she would go more and more into detail. So, basically I would hear new things everytime.

She packed dates, food, an abaya, a tudung, a jubah for hubby and more and more dates for us.

Went in Felda Chiku 2, to get as closed as possible to the one limestone hill here (again, no detail about my work here;)), went to the office. Talked to a few staffs there, an arrangement was made for my next trip there.

An uneventful journey except for Bea1 had it enough of being strapped, begged to lie down on the bags, at the back.

Reached home at around 10.30 pm. Everybody except me and Bea2 was a bit feverish, but all are ok now.

Another fieldtrip done, and did I mention that I just love incorporating fun with work;). Now, I should start looking for more recipe for date cakes and date cookies, I guess.

Al Diafah (again) and some other stuffs...

Second trip to Al Diafah
I never thought our next trip to Al Diafah happened so fast, it was last night. I went home to a rose fragrance everywhere. Alarmed, I run to my perfume bottle. It was almost empty. Nope it didn't drop, or terbalik. The cap somehow was spoilt, seriously I have no idea but the o-ring that was supposed to make a seal, was being 'dissolved'. I had an uneasy feeling about it earlier, and yesterday, the perfume just evaporated.

I quickly called hubby saying that I'm going there right away, cooked dinner, fed the kids, fetched hubby and we were there again. I was hoping for a deal, a replacement of something after talking to the boss. She was not there, in Makkah doing umrah. But the staff, without the slightest hesitation handed me another bottle. I told her I prefer to talk to the boss as even with a new one, same thing could happen again. She asked to call next week.

Hubby said, since we were there, why not have tea or something. I had Yagmosh, Mohalabia (a kind of dessert), he had omellete and cheese sandwich with tomato and squid soup. I don't have anything to say but all praise. The ladies toilet is superb.

I'm bringing a girlfriend next week...yippeeee!!

But people must think that we are crazy parents to bring kids like this (see pics) to a restaurants:



While I was busy cooking, they got themselves busy colouring themselves and the little sister green. I never planned to enter the restaurant but the temptation just too strong...hehe. Besides, they started to get cosy with the place and ran around, no more behaving like the first time...*sigh*

Kids say the darnest thing

I've been teaching Bea1 about shapes since she was a baby. One day, she was flipping a book about shape that I bought for Bea3 and asked me to test each other with the things around us.

I pointed to the TV
"Rectangle..." She said. I said "Boleh lah..."

"How about the book?", she yelled "Square...", Ok lagi.

"How about this...?" pointing to a hole, at the back of a chair (where we insert the hand to pull it). A little pause, she said "Oval...". "Boleh la..." I said.

Mama started running out of ideas, but something just came out

"How about papa's tummy..."

Without a moment of pause and hesitation, she confidently yelled "CIRCLE"

Mama LOL sampai pecah perut.

I related that to hubby the first thing when he got home;).


One of the things my kids do in the car...

to kill the boredom, being strapped in carseats, I mean.

Bea2 did a magic and said "Tengok mama, tak jatuh" and mama went "Yea...you DID it!!!"*clap, clap*


That's all for now to release the urge to blog!