Dhoom2

I have been trying to take take time out to watch some movies with hubby. We watched Casino Royale over the weekend. I really like this Bond. So Sean Conory like. Machoism Personified. He was oozing with it. Yum!

I loved Dhoom and cant wait to watch Dhoom2. Its playing , so for those who are looking for weekend entertainment. Go catch it. I am going with hubby on Sunday.

Incentive for guys : Aiswariya Rai in bikini ( hope they don't chop off the scenes)

Incentive for ladies : Abhishek Bachan (he is yummy in anything that he wears)

cant wait!

The tickets are here

I just got them and its finally sinking in that I will be leaving my kids behind for 3 days, 2 nights. I am off to Langkawi for work next Friday.

The freezer is stoked up with enough milk for Inarah.
I have purchased what I need to to bring back the milk that I will express in Lankawi.
I have been mentioning it again and again to Alysha so that she gets used to it and so I get used to the idea too.
I have asked for help from my brother and sister in law to take Alysha out so that she is not couped up at home when I am away. She will also possibly stay over at their place for a night.
Hubby is supposed to be free of appointments on the 3 days (most importantly in the monrong and nights).

What else?

Alysha's bithday is on Wednesday, the 29th and I have taken leave the day before (afternoon) and the day before (morning- have a meeting in the afternnon that I cant cancel).
I am also off on Thurday so that I can spend some time with them.

What else?

I have never left Inarah alone without me at night before. With ALysha I was away once only after she turned 2. Anyone who have left their 4 year old and 10 month old for a trip somewhere before, please let me have your suggestions. What can I do to make this easier for them and I think more so for me?. I am already in tears thinking about being away from them.

School Holidays

Every working mom I have spoken to is cracking her head about school holdidays and how to keep their children occupied. Well, I think if you have a 8 year and above kid, maybe its not so bad. The kid might be able to entartain herself quite abit. I am guessing here. Will only know when Alysha turns 8. But when you have a 4 year old child at home with a 10 month old baby. The baby becomes the only entertainment for the child and that can be difficult and possibly dangerous if you dont keep an eye on the baby all the time.


My plans for the holidays :

1. Barbie live show @ 1Utama (I dont know how Alysha talked me into it but I am going on a saturday afternoon, Oh God! save me)
2. Mines Wonderland probably early December (With Sri & Gitanjali). This was supposed to be her birthday treat but might have to push it to early December. She has been waiting to play with snow and is all geared up to go with her winter clothing which I have to borrow from somewhere.
3. Megakidz@ Midvalley - probably on her birthday
4. Day trip at some beach in Sepang, yay! This is for me as well (with Sri & Gitanjali)
5. I want to go to Penang again
6. Then there will be Christmas and putting up the Christmas tree, shopping mall christmas decorations, christmas shopping, Santa clause, Santarinas, etc, etc


The other usual stuff that will keep her occupied would be the usual
1. Swimming at my moms condo pool, at least 2 x a week after work (she loves swimming)
2. The park on Sunday mornings
3. Craft, painting, play dough, some new Barbie cds

So what else ? Ideas please.

A House for Hermit Crab

I know, I know. This blog is fast becoming a book review blog for pre schoolers but what to do, I love these books and so does Alysha and I just want to share how wonderful they are.

This is another one of Alysha's favorite. Its by Eric Carle.

Time to move," said Hermit Crab one day. "I've grown too big for this little shell." Alysha usually reads this line, then I have to continue.

Its a book for children who dread change--whether the new shell is a new home, a new school, or a new experience. In the story Hermit Crab looks out for a newer, bigger shell, but it seems very " plain" Then he meets some beautiful, swaying sea anemones, he asks if one of them will come to decorate his home and one agrees. In time a colorful starfish, some corals, a snail, sea urchins and lantern fish all decide to live in his home, each one helpful in their own special way.

An then, suddenly after a year (yes, it also teaches the child, the months in a year) he finds he's outgrown his shell yet again. Instead of being sad, he spots a newer, bigger shell and cant wait to start decorating it and making it his new home.

But before he leaves he comes across a smaller Hermit crab looking for a home and gets him to promise to look after his home and friends.

Alysha knows all the sea creatures in the book well and this is the first time she is introduced to the Hermit Crab.

An absolutely lovely book!

Inarah's favorite book

This is Inarah's favorite book. I kow it by heart because it was also Alysha's first and favorite book.

In this bedtime book, a baby sails a sea of sleep--rumpled sheets--in an infant-sized boat in front of an Easter-egg purple starred sky.

This is how it goes :

Baby's boats a silver moon, sailing in the sky, sailing over a sea of sleep till the starts flat by, Sail baby sail, out upon the sea, only dont forget to sail back again to me. Baby's fishing for a dream fishing near and far, her line a silver moonbeam is her bait a silver star. Sail baby sail out upon the sea only don't foreget to sail back again to me.

Apparently its is poetry that has been repeated through generations of parents and babies.

I will usually place this book and "Goodnight Moon" both the books somewhere around her in bed and just have to say " Baby's boat is a silver moon sailing in the sky" and she will start looking around for the book, she will pick it up and start flipping the pages.

I guess its never too early to have a favorite book.

It's Time for School, Stinky Face

Alysha has been picking this book out to read for the past 3 nights. This is another one of Lisa Mc Court's book. I love her "I love you, Stinky Face" and Alysha knows it by heart.

Its about this imaginative little boy who is not at all sure about going to school, and he has a whole bunch of questions for his mom. What if the school bus gets a flat tire? What if he gets lost and ends up in the principle's office? What is the door to the class gets stuck with glue? And what if all the desks start flying around the classroom?

His mother responses with real cool imaginative solutions which are so funny. Alysha loves the part about the door getting stuck and how his mom gets him a pogo stick and he "Boings" right into the class.

It ends with how his teacher forgets how to tell a story and the boy needs to tell a story and his mama says " I know you will do just fine, stinky face".

Its an okay book as far as I am concerned but maybe Alysha likes it quite abit. I suppose because it reminds her of school and funny things that can actually happen in school but I suppose she too knows it the probability isnt much. But she feels that she might need to tell a story in school one day ( maybe she has been asked before) and she knows she will be able to. She told me so!

Since we are on story and story books. Alysha is known in school and in religious class for not being able to wait to know what happens in a story, i.e how the story ends. I suppose any other person would too. Ms Lily once told me that she told a story from the book. The tin soldier or something? and since it was time to go back she said she would continue the story tomorrow. But thats surely not an option for Alysha and she told the teacehr she needs to know what happens and so the teacher lent her the book and I had to read the rest of the story for her at home the very same day.

Same thing happened in religious class where her teacher had to finish the story about "The Prophert Muhamed and the unkind women" after class because she just had to know how it ended. My curious little baby!

Well, dont they say "a curious mind is an intellegent mind" or something along those lines.

CDH and support group in Malaysia

Firstly, some promising new research being done with amniotic stem cells. This research could mean big improvements in treating congenital heart valve defects in newborns. Got this from Sophia's dad. Thanks Michael.

Here is a link to an article in the Washington Post.

And here is a link to the Associated Press coverage from the meeting.

One thing that I feel really sad about is that here in Malaysia we lack support group for CDH families. I have to fall back on support groups that are in other parts of the world. They are great but sometimes I wish there was something closer to home. Parents I could meet to share experiences to to just listen to when one needs to talk. I would love to meet the brave little children with CDH who have gone through surgery or who are about to go through surgery.

For now, I wouldnt even know where to start if I wanted some contacts in Malaysia except for the one or two that I already know through friends. I guess the only place to meet them here is at the hospital when they visit their cardiologist.

I am never too busy for you, baby

Alysha's birthday falls on 29 Nov which is during the school holidays. She has been asking me for months when will she be cutting her cake in school like all her friends. So I decided to celebrate her birthday on the last day of school, which is tomorrow. There will be a party in school anyway and childern will be in their part dresses so it will be really nice.

I prepared all the party packs and odered her cake. This amazing strawberry cream cake that I discovered in Maju Junction, yum. I got gifts for all her teachers.

There is this shop in Mid Valley called Hinode. Its just amazing. I wanted to buy the whole shop. Everything is RM5 and the things they sell is very different from the other RM5 shops, which I dont really like. But this was great. Got a Barbie bag and a glitter paint set for Aysha all for RM5. And lovely gifts for her teachers also at RM5. Go check it out!

Last night, when I was putting her to bed, she said :
"mama, do you have a lot of work on the day i will be celebrating my birthday in school?"
I sort of knew what she was getting at, so I said "No, why?"
"Can you and papa come to school and cut my cake with me?"

I had not planned to be there actually and I dont know if they allow parents to be there. Its usually just the kids. I had planned to just drop of the cake and the party packs and let the teacher take care of the rest.

So I said " I dont think I can come, its only your friends who are invited.
"No, some of my friend's mama and papa come for the party"
"Okay, lets check with Ms. Lily, if it is okay for us to come, mama and papa will love to be there"

I was very sad after that. My poor baby actually thought that I would not be part of the party because I had to work.

I took her in my arms and said " mama is usually very busy at work but remember you are always more important than nama's work, always. Mama will always be here for you, isyaallah (She knows that it means God willing as I often use this word to tell her that at the end of the day, its all in God's hands)

She smiled and said " you too are my bestest sweetie and I will also always be there for your birthday party"

Although it broke my heart to think that she thought I had my work as my priority, in a way I was glad that she realises that the world does not revolve around her. Mama and papa have got other important things to do, like work.

Those who know me will know that work has never been my priority. My life are my 2 kids and I would give anything to be with them all the time. But I need to work coz I am the breadwinner in the family. I just hope that I am never too busy for times when she really needs me to be with her.

And I will surely be at the party tomorrow, insyaallah!

Now which class?

Choices, choices, choices. Decisions, decisions, decisions. This becomes a major part of life when you ahve kids. They may not be life changing decisions but are non the less important to my child and may determine whether she will be happy or not in school for the next one year at least.

After deciding which school to enroll her into, now is which class for next year. Alysha's current teacher is just great. She is just so sensitive to Alysha's feelings and is very patient about the fact that she still cries once a while when I drop her to school.

For next years (4-5 year olds) I have a choice of 3 classes. One is a Chinese medium class which I have decided not to go for. She will still have mandarin classes in the other 2 classes. This class is more for children who are planning to go to a Chinese medium school. They emphasis as much on writing in Chinese as they do on reading.

The 2 other classes have different teachers.

Class No 1
One is an old timer.. She has been there for like 20 years. She is a little sticky about discipline. I say sit, you sit or else.....She indicated that she has adapted well to todays style of teaching. At the same time I realized that she focused a lot on learning. Learning to read in a very structured way, learning to write - the proper strokes, curves, etc. I know that with her, Alysha will be able to read and write well by the end of next year. But with her, the apples on the trees have to be red or green "because they have to depict reality, the real world".

What would she do if Alysha decides to make them colorful?, which she most likely would. I don’t know, punish her maybe, I am only guessing here. Or she may not like Alysha very much then.
Alysha would make them even more colorful if you insisted that they should be green or red. Yes! that’s my daughter.

Class No 2
In the other class, there is a younger teacher. She came over from another pre school recently after the new principle came in, also from the same school. The end game is the same. At the end of the year, she to aims for her children to be able to read and write but she is not too structured in how she wants to do it. Alternatively you could say,, she is not to sure on how she wants to do it. A little more laid back, this one. May not get upset or push the child if a child decides not to read or write on any particular day. Whereas the other one I know will insist and try harder.

Alysha may not be able to read and as well as she would if she was in class no 1 but she may be halfway there.

Oh! the apples on the tree must also be green or red but if Alysha decides to make them colorful, my guess is she may be cajoled into coloring them read or green. If it still does not work, she may be left to do what she wants.

Now, the deciding factor. Alysha has 4 close friends in the current class. Sonia, Christie, Venesa and Reshmi. She does not like boys! maybe just Sri Ram and Sonia's brother - cant remember his name. Three out of the 4 frinds are going to class no 2.

Should this be the deciding factor? Will she be miserable if none of her friends were in her class? Very likely.

So is it now obvious which class?

The Way I Feel - Book Review

Read this to ALysha last night. After reading "How to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk", I decided to get this book because its suppose to helps kids describe their emotions and understand that feelings are a normal part of life.

It describes various feelings : happy, sad, frustrated, bored, angry, jealous, excited and many more. Its lovely coz Alysha can relate to it. She would say something like : "I feel proud too when I can dress myself" or "I get upset when you dont let me have a lollipop".

When I read the verse below :

I’m frustrated because I can’t do it.It’s hard and I want to cryI don’t know whether to give it upor to give it another try.” She would immediately say that she should give it another try like how she tried and tried and now she can put on her shoes by herself.

It ends with : “Feelings come and feelings go. I never know what they’ll be. Silly or angry, happy or sad—They’re all a part of me!”

Another great book !

Surgery options

We visited one of Suben's uncle last night. This is the first time he met Inarah. She was just great with them. So friendly, of course trying to grab everything in sight including vases, all the little fragile decorative items in the house. But they were so wonderful with her. She loved their dogs and kept wanting to kiss her.

Uncle then started talking about her surgery. In my mind, surgery is still far away but of course the way time is flying by its not. They also had another visitor who was a doctor and is a visiting cardiologist in UH once a week. She was a practitioner in India and is now based here.

All of them were of the opinion that we should explore getting Inarah's surgery done in India. the doctors there are the experts of the experts, their medical equipments are the latest and the best technology wise. And it is much cheaper. Uncle mentioned something about Appolo Hospital and some other , cant remember the name now. The doctors do cases like TOF and TGA on a regular basis compared to over here where the good doctors are limited. And we do know that Malaysia is not the greatest place for the best medical equipment and that is why doctors will wait as long as possible at least till the child is 8-10kgs to do complete repair as they don't have the post op facilities as they do in other western countries.

I am now confused. I am wondering whether I should explore this possibility. I know the surgeon in Gleanegles (who was previously from IJN) have done TOF and other complicated surgeries before. I have heard that if I decide to do it at IJN I have to be very careful and selective of the surgeon that will do the surgery and its not easy to get a particular surgeon unless you are in the position to pull some strings. That is why in our minds we know its probably going to be Gleanegles.

Now with the possibility of India,I really don't know. If I do decide that this is a possible option I have to start doing some research. But is it really an option? I am working. Its a new job. I now can get a month or two off from work. If its going to be in India, that may not be enough? What about post surgery follow up? What about complications after surgery if we are already back then. Will I have to fly down again and again? In cases of emergency would it be a problem for the doctors here since the surgery was not done by them?

I really dont know now ? Any ideas?

A Grand Old Tree

A Grand Old Tree by Mary Newell Depalma.

Once there was a grand old tree, whose roots sank deep into the earth and whose arms reached high into the sky. Every spring the grand old tree flowered and bore cherries for the squirrels and birds that made their homes in her leafy branches. And every year, seeds from the tree scattered in the wind, along with many millions of leaves. And lots of baby trees are grow when that happens.

Over the years, she basks in the sun, bathes in the rain, sways in the breeze and dances in the wind until she can sway and dance no more. Soon she becomes very very old. Her branches no longer swayed and danced. Her branches crumble and finally she fells and snow gently covered her. The tree dies. The dead tree continues to provide shelter to for its a house for raccoons and centipedes. But eventually it disintegrates into the soil enriching the soil.

Then they show how the baby trees, "the grand children of the Grand Old Tree grow into strong tall trees and how they then become all that the Grand Old Tree was and how its all a cycle. A cycle of life.

I read this book to Alysha last night. Its truely a great book. She had so many questions about it. This is the first time I read the word "die" from a book. And I paused. She just stared at me and looked a bit sad.

I know she has heard the word die before and I have mentioned how someone had died. I ahve explained to her that it basically means that the person goes back to Allah for good because that's where we all came from. She had once mentioned to me, she does not want to go back. She likes it here.

A smile appeared back on her face when the baby tree grows. She was so happy that it was not the end of the tree. I don't know what else was running on her mind but this is a great book to just introduce the concept of the cycle of life to children. I didn't want to push the discussion too much and just answered all her questions as best as I could. I bet we will continue to have a discussion over it when I read it to her again.

Great book! Loved it.

UNO for kids

All of you who have children above the age of 4 (although on the pack of cards it says 3 and above), you should go and get a pack of UNO for kids. I bought mine a year ago and since they are made of Pooh and Tiger character, Alysha used to just look at them and play with them in her own way.

Last night, she took out the pack from the drawer and I thought maybe she is old enough to play it now following all the rules. And she LOOOOVED it. She couldn't get enough. Of course I had to look at her cards and keep guiding her and explaining the rules again and again. She just didn't want to stop playing until it was way pass bedtime. I think we played around 15 games.

Initially she wanted more and more cards and was upset when she won coz she had no more cards and could not continue playing anymore until the next game. Every time she got a wild card, she would scream and jump with joy. It was just great watching her play and learn.

Great game for kids. I bet we are playing again tonight.

Leaving the kids behind

I have a Company conference to attend in Langkawi from 1-3rd of December. Its a conference that my department is organizing as a secretariat to the organization. Its in Andaman and I have to be away for 3 days and 2 nights.

I just don't know how I am going to do this. Being away from Inarah and Alysha. I am not ready to give up breastfeeding exclusively ( although its very tempting considering the low milk supply) so I have to start stocking up for the trip. I lost all my stock in the freezer when I went to Ipoh for the Deepavali Holidays and so I have to start from zero.

Lost of preparation to do. Buying the cooler bag and the ice brick and ice pack and having the determination to pump every 3-4 hours. Its will be challenging but I am going to do it.

But firstly I have to work hard at bringing my milk supply up and getting enough stock for the trip. I really have to thank MMB for the continuous encouragement and advise. If moms who have to travel overseas for 17 days away from their babies can do it, then so can I.

My only concern is whether Inarah will be okay at night. Will she take the bottle at night? Will she let hubby put her back to sleep? Will she cry and cry and cry? Just the thought of that is breaking my heart into pieces. Hubby assures me that he will be around most of the time so that she does not miss me too much.

Will she continue to breastfeed when I am back? Will she reject my McB? I sure hope not.

I am going to start making all the soups and eating oats and fenugreek and everything else to try and get my supply up.

Wish me luck!