Woodward’s Baby Infrared Thermometer Dies at Age 4

In the news today..

Hulu Kelang Friday 20 November 2009; The Woodward’s baby infrared thermometer, the thermometer which was reputedly one of the most important members in the ZombieDaddy household, died on the dressing table of a noisy little house in Lembah Keramat on Thursday. The cause of death has yet to be determined, but sources close to the family suspect it was exhaustion with a high probability of physical abuse. The Woodward’s thermometer was less than four years old.

The Woodward’s thermometer spent much of its life trying to convey the truth to everyone that asked of it. It not only gave honest accurate temperature readings from the ear, it also can be used on the forehead and other parts of the body. "It never complained," said ZombieDaddy. "Supermama, Nuha, the Twins, it took the temperature of them all. It even took the temperature of the table, the floor and whatever else Nuha and the Twins pointed it at."

The Woodward’s thermometer was welcomed into the home when the family’s firstborn was about a year old. As a result, the thermometer was also made to double up as a toy for the toddler. A few months after being unpacked, the signs of tension began to show: The stand that came with the packaging was misplaced and never found. Looking back on it now, said a source close to the family, it was clearly a sign that the thermometer won’t survive for long.

The beginning of the end for the thermometer came when the Twins were born about a year ago. It was used almost on a daily basis. When the parents detected a warmer than usual feel on the Twins, the thermometer was employed and made to work every half an hour. As a result, the Twins grew fond of the thermometer and identified it as their favourite toy. They played with it, hugged it, kissed it and maybe gave it little bites with their newfound teeth. 

You can’t see much here but the thermo is practically covered with bite marks and drool

Despite its often drool coated condition, the thermometer never failed to keep on churning one accurate reading after another. Day in and day out the thermometer took the temperatures of the family, the wall, the floor and all the furniture in the house. "It was a hard life, and a thankless one," recalls a grandparent. "But without that little guy taking accurate temperatures everytime it was needed, I’m sure the parents would have had several panic attacks and won’t be alive today." The grandparent then offered to show this reporter the 359 pictures of the twins and their big sister that she keeps in her purse. There were no pictures of the Woodward’s thermometer though.

The end for the thermometer came last week when the Twins feeling much healthier, played a game of “I can knock it on the wall harder than you can” with it. While being made into an imaginary hammer, the thermometer gave out and unusually long beep. ZombieDaddy, in the room at the time immediately knew something was wrong. “There was an eerily long beep then it went blank. The poor thing just blacked out”. When asked about the last days of the thermometer, ZombieDaddy replied, “Towards the end, the thermometer took forever to read temperatures and most of the times it would give out ridiculous readings. But it was a good thermometer, a brave thermometer that survived years of abuse by the hands of three happy young girls”.

Raisa taking the temperature of her cheek

Raina wondering why there’s no beeping sound coming from the ‘hammer’ anymore

A memorial service will be held for the thermometer sometime next week to bid final farewell to the loyal and obedient worker. The family informs that, in lieu of flowers, they are accepting donations for a replacement infrared thermometer.

ZombieDaddy was heard saying "Life must go on”. There was also some garbled noise in the background that after being digitally analysed in the computer can be interpreted to be “Abah, are we getting a new hammer that beeps?”

Life Behind (Hospital) Bars

I’m not talking about jails or correctional facilities or anything of that kind. I’m talking about hospital stays that to me seemed similar to a jail sentence or life behind bars. One that involves having to care for sick kids, actually more like having to care for two sick infants at any one time at the hospital. With constant crying, whining, coughing, purging and vomiting from two infants coupled with endless nurse visits, nebulizer treatments and medication time, make your life a living hell. You have to rush through your showers and meals when both babies are sleeping, but they never sleep for long at the hospital. And when they don’t sleep, you definitely can’t sleep too.

One thing about these hospital stays is that your mood tends to change for the worse just after one night. Take Supermama for instance. Normally if i’m going out or if i have to go somewhere, she would say “Drive safely Sayang”. But at the hospital whenever I had to go out to run some errands, the last words i heard before i closed the room door was more or less “You’d better be back here as soon as you can in 20 minutes!” and she meant every word she said.

Life in the hospital was also not easy. The room was cramped particularly when all five of us were in it. Sometimes you have to make do with whatever space you have left. Even the twins noticed this and tried to adapt to it. When Raisa was being fussy and wanted most of the cot bed to herself, Raina did not complain. She adapted to it and made use of the space left to her. Just look at the pic below.

But there were also moments of peace. These moments are like diamonds, very much sought after but very seldom you can afford them. When both Raina and Raisa were sleeping, Supermama and me danced our dance of joy albeit quietly because that means we can have our meals, take showers and do some reading. But like all good things, they are always short-lived. You can’t even get through page one of the newspaper before the nurse would come in with the big noisy nebulizer machine and ruined everything.

The best moments were of course when the sick ones you were looking after, got healthier and started to be themselves again. It made the week of hell appeared like a forgotten past and you cant wait for tomorrow to come. Moments like these made your days cooped up in the hospital seemed worthwhile.

Kids, Exam Week and Underwear

It was exam week at Nuha's kindie last week. If i heard correctly, she had english paper, bahasa melayu paper, math, science, arabic, and iqra'. I would have pooped in my shorts if i had to go through all that when I was 5. But I suppose time has changed, kids don’t poop in their shorts anymore nowadays. Before Nuha started playschool last year, i never thought kindie and exam can be mentioned in the same sentence. My own kindie years were a blurry blob that i can't seem to recall. And i dont think we had exams back then like what Nuha and her friends had last week. When I was 5, it was considered a big achievement if I could put on my underwear correctly, not inside out.

Anyways, i'm not here to argue about the existing education system or how every kindie is trying very hard to extract the einstein out of every 5 and 6 year old kid out there.

I'm here to tell you how our Nuha is coping with preschool life. It happened, i asked her the other day what she thought about the exam. She said it was very easy and she could complete all the given tasks without any problem. I asked if she's sure because she missed a week of school right before the exam (she was staying at the hospital with us and the twins). I asked her if she could understand all the questions. She answered with a straight "yes".

Nuha: "Nuha just right right right. Very easy".

Abah: "Eh! What do you mean right right?".

Nuha: "Mama said read three times. Nuha read three times. Nuha know it is right answer."

Abah: “Oh Teacher June showed you the answer ye?”

Nuha: “No Abah. Nuha tau sendiri”

I admire my daughter’s confidence. I don’t know yet if right means right or right means “I’m sorry Encik Zombiedaddy, we cant let your daughter go into the next class because she drew apples instead of writing the correct answers for all of the questions”. I’m not too worried though. I’m happy enough that she’s enjoying her time at the kindie. She can almost read by herself already. She can draw beautiful giraffes and horses, and cats that look like they had some nasty dinner the night before and needs to go to the toilet very very urgently. I’m also very sure that she’s much cleverer than her father was when he was 5. But just in case..

Abah: “Nuha come here please”

Abah: “I want to see your underwear”

Nuha: “Why Abah?”

Abah: “I want to see if you put it on terbalik or not”

The Napalms Strike Again

i know not too long ago i wrote about metaphorical napalm bombs that turned our quiet family life upside down, and when the dust settled down, how i hoped that the air would stay clear for a long long time. However, in our case, hope and reality seem to be two very different animals. And reality just happened to rear its ugly head, shown us its humongous fangs and bit us hard in the bum. Ouch!

What i'm trying to say is that the air only stayed clear for a short while before the napalms struck again. Remember I wrote about our replacement maid that was suppose to arrive by late august. She did arrive as promised and she was a good worker and the kids seemed to warm up to her too. We actually thought she was the one. But reality had a different view. Before we can say "hey let's go catch a movie while bibik looks after the kids", she's already on a plane back to surabaya. You might be asking why is our perfect bibik gone so soon. Yeah it sounds surreal i know, but she failed her bloody medical test here. She passed with flying colour there but when Fomema did it again here, she kantoi to the max. What the freakin hell i thought. Please please please let her stay i pleaded. No no no they answered. Come on lah! I begged. Dei, no means no lah! They rebuff. What else could we do? off we sent her home on the jet plane never to be seen again. It was a sad day for me and supermama. It was sadder than watching that "Million Dollar Baby" movie. And let me tell you, that movie can really make macho men shed manly tears.

So, there we were, no maid again, but still stuck with a preschooler and two babies to care for. We couldn't let our mothers babysit the kids even if they wanted to do it. It wouldn't be fair on them. In fact it would be called cruelty to grandmothers if we let that happen. One year old twins are not meant to be looked after by the grandmothers by themselves. It's like unleashing double-hell-tsunami on an old lady with a tiny umbrella expecting only a drizzle. After much thought and with heavy hearts we decided to put the twins at a nursery that we found to be acceptable. Kakak Nuha would go to her kindie and stay at supermama's office in the afternoon. Mind you, this would the first time for us sending any of our kids to a nursery, so it was understandable that we were feeling heebie-jeebies over the whole thing.

We looked at quite a few places and finally picked this one nursery in ukay perdana. The place was decent enough that we hoped the twins will be okay. But again, reality had a different view in mind. The first day they were crying almost the whole day. The second day they came home with runny noses. The third day they started coughing. The fourth day we had to take them to the paed for nebulizer treatment. The fifth day, into the hospital they went for 7 days this time around. Our first foray into the nursery realm was quite nerve-wrecking and didn't turn out so well for the twins. It was hell time at the hospital too with coughing, nebulizer every 3 hour, chest physio, purging, IV drip and nasty foul-tasting smecta. Alhamdulillah the twins got better. It was good to be home after a week at the hospital. So, it was with a heavier heart that we had to send them again to the nursery last week. We felt so guilty but we had to do it. We prayed, we hoped with all our hearts that the twins won’t fall sick again. Alhamdulillah they went through the week much better than expected. They were crying less and less. They have found back their lost appetites. They were not coughing anymore and no runny noses too. Raina and Raisa ara back! Now they fight over who gets more share of the food again, they fight over who has more bubbles in the bathtub again, they even poke each other’s eyes while they’re sleeping again. Ahh such joy! It’s good to be back..

Raina and Raisa before the got coughy and snotty

Raisa on the nebulizer

Raina on the nebulizer

  

Notice the freelodger in pink tshirt

Better than synchronised swimming

Hello! Hello, is this the Sychronised Swaying Academy? I'd like to enrol my daughters in one of your advance classes please. What do you mean this is not the swaying academy? What does this academy do then? What? Synchronised what? You sure or not it's swimming not swaying? I want to talk to the principal please. Oh you are the principal. How come you've never heard of synchronised swaying before? No, no it has nothing to do with swimming or even water. It's actually very close to wiggling, only that the bums part dont move as much. Are you sure you've never heard of it? It takes a lot of skills to perform and not many can actually do this swaying thing. And my kids are really good you know. So can I enrol them in your school or not? Oh you dont have special trainers for this thing eh. And you dont really know what swaying is. I can send you a video if you want. What! You dont accept videos and you're not interested in swaying. You're going to miss out big time man!. Let me tell you, this is the next big thing. Before you know it, it'll be the main event in the Olympics and the World Games. This is definitely better than synchronised swimming I'm telling you! Hello! Hello! Helllooo!

A picture of double happiness

This morning after sahur, when we entered the room where Raina and Raisa were sleeping, we were presented with a picture perfect view.

Imagine looking at your baby sleeping. Everything so quiet. Her face angelic. Her closed eyes hide unbridled love for you. Her breathing, soft like a whisper. She's your miracle, a priceless gift bestowed on you that you say "Syukur Alhamdulillah" in every prayer. She's your joy, your happiness, the reason for your being. The one that melts your heart with every uttered word. The treasure that you promised to cherish and protect with every breath that you have. And she's sleeping, at peace with everything around her.

Now, times that by two. That's how we felt.

Eyes Wide Shut

Me and Supermama have not missed sahur so far this Ramadhan. And since last week we have been joined for Sahur by Nuha our 5 year old. Every night before she goes to bed she would remind us to wake her up in time for Sahur because she wants to fast tomorrow. I know it sounds so sweet. Yes I agree it does sound sweet when she said that at bedtime but come sahur time it doesn’t always look pretty anymore.. eyes wide shut, limped legs, angry half-awaked brain, grumpy to the max.

Abah: Nuha nak sahur tak?
Nuha: {nodding.. eyes closed}
Abah: If you want to sahur then you have to get up now. We have to hurry.
Nuha: {no answer.. eyes closed}
Abah: Ok you go back to sleep. Tak payah sahur.
Nuha: Abaaaaaaaah!!! {at the top of her lungs}

Nuha inherits this trait from me, which I’m not proud to admit. We may be awake during sahur but our taste buds are still sleeping like a log. Nothing looks delicious to us at this hour. When Supermama asked Nuha what she wanted to have with her rice, she just grunted “egg”. When Supermama suggested that she has chicken instead, she just grunted “egg” again and gave Supermama the evil-eye look. The evil-eyes are just the start. “Kenapa egg Nuha ni tak potong?” “Mana air Nuha?” “Kenapa Mama duduk jauh sangat?” All these would last for like five to ten minutes before sahur can be eaten in peace. We would expect her to run back to bed as soon as she has finished eating judging by her grumpy mood and half-closed eyes.

Finally, sahur is done. As we were walking back to the room, to the waiting bed, Nuha turned and asked “Nuha nak tengok cartoon boleh tak Abah?” Chirpy like a mother hen in the morning, when not 20 minutes back she was giving everyone the evil eye.

Nuha being grumpy during sahur

Nuha giving Supermama the evil-eye look

A Month of Chaos

It has been one hectic month for all of us, the twins included. some things happened as planned while other events seemed to drop like napalm bombs and made our lives go helter skelter all of a sudden. We were like mice trapped in the pesticide corner of the supermarket... rushing to find a way out while trying not to get asphyxiated in the process. A mouse in this situation only thinks about survival and wouldnt normally care so much about his blog or the blogging world in general. In fact, blogging was very far from his mind eventhough mrs.mouse despite her career-impeding predicaments (she's also trapped remember) did ask a few times when the next blog entry was going to be updated. Well, now that the air is clearer and easier to breathe, maybe a new blog entry is just the dose needed to let the world know that the family of mouses survived quite intact afterall.
The napalm bombs that i mentioned came in different forms. First, our maid decided to quit and become a dangdut singer in Johor. I maybe exagerating the dangdut part but the quitting part was real. i have to admit that we depended on the maid to look after the twins during the day. To make matters worse, the supposed replacement maid would only arrive towards end of august. We tried to find temporary ones to fill the gap but all our attempts never seemed to work out. The twins are not that difficult to look after, they just needed someone to "buai" them to sleep and to stop them from yanking the whiskers off Bee our fat cat. Whenever these temps decided not to show up, we had to take leave from work. So some days, the twins would have their Abah at home but most days they would see Supermama. Well, Supermama had to stay off work more because Zombiedaddy had to go outstations and also had meetings to attend. Thank God her boss was also a mother and could understand our predicament.
The second napalm came when the twins had to be admitted to the hospital for acute bronchiolitis. This is the second time they had a spell at the hospital. The first was when they were 3 months old caused by the same RSV virus. This time they spent a week at Tawakal Hospital. Supermama had to take leave again to look after Raina and Raisa. Nuha the kakak didnt want to stay behind so we bundled her along to the hospital. Even Zombiedaddy had to spend the nights at the hospital because Supermama wanted to sleep and someone had to take over the night shift. The twins even had to celebrate their birthdays at the hospital.. With nebulizers instead of cakes and prezzies. Kesian! I'm sure there'll be an entry about our little exhausting hospital adventure.
Despite the overall chaos that dictated our lives for the last 30 over days, there were also some bright memorable spots that also took place. First, we had visitors from Perth coming back for a short break. The girls were over the moon to see and play with their cousins. It was really great to see my nieces had grown to become beautiful, polite and charming girls while their mother stayed slim and pretty (no, i wasn't bribed with any heavenly chocolate crowned Arnotts biscuit to come out with
that statement). Ok Ok maybe I should have said 'nice' and not use the word 'slim' at all hehehe. Oh there will also be an entry on this later. Anyways, the only sad thing about the Aussie's visit was that we couldnt spend more time with them except the weekends due to the napalm bombs i mentioned earlier. We really hope to make up for it when they're here again in December.
Ok, so that has more or less summed up our cluttered month that explains the drought in this blog. Hopefully the air will stay clear so that I can continue updating the philosophical outlook on life by a preschooler and twin infants, or in other words the funny things that Nuha, Raina and Raisa do on a daily basis.
Oh, to those of you who are reading this... Thank you for stopping by.

Spot the Difference

 

 

Honestly, I couldn’t tell them apart myself for the first 3 months. Had to rely on Supermama’s powerful motherly instinct. Only now can I confidently say that I know for certain which one is Raina and which one is Raisa. Hooray for Zombiedaddy.

Fever

I believe one of the most important thing every parent cannot do without is a digital infrared thermometer.. You know, those little gadget that only takes 2 seconds to read your child's temperature. How else do you know that your child is having a 40degree high fever and needs to be rushed to the hospital or just a low-grade fever that can be remedied with a few doses of paracetamol. Especially now with the swine flu already on our shores, you can never treat a fever lightly. And forget about those older thermometers that need to be put in the mouth or under the armpit and requires a full minute to read the temperature. Don't think the twins can sit still for a minute with the thermometer under their armpits. Imagine this scenario, let's say we manage to sit Raisa still with the thermometer sticking out from under her arm. Before you can say "50 seconds to go", Miss KayPoChee Raina will crawl over from across the room with sudden interest on her sister's new toy. What we would end up in getting after a full minute, is the temperature of the floor with a thermometer covered in saliva and the twins wailing. Definitely not very effective.
Supermama called earlier today to tell me Raisa had a fever.. it was quite high almost touching 39degrees. With Nuha last time we would have panicked but we are much more calm with the twins. With experience comes wisdom i would say. Either that or we are just too tired to go panicky over every cough, sneeze and fever. Supermama gave Raisa a cold bath and a dose of progesic. She's hovering at just below 38degrees right now. She also still has all her appetites so we are not too worried. But at the same time, having fever equates to crankiness.. cranky babies cry and make alot of noises. When one baby cries the other baby cant sleep too. Before you know it, you have two cranky babies. Aahh gotta go, Zombiedaddy on double duty tonight.

How Much Does A Garden Wedding Cost?

Over the last few months I have managed to put aside some cash for rainy days. What i mean by cash is some coins stashed in a can, and what I mean by rainy days is a 42-inch plasma TV. If it's a storm and not just rain, it means there could be a home theatre set thrown into the package as well. If all goes well as planned, by the end of the year at the latest, there's a big chance that you'll see me lounging on the sofa with a remote in my hand, a plate of baklava on the side-table and a big smile on my face enjoying the HD quality picture emanating from my new shiny monster screen TV.

The thing is things seldom go as planned in my neck of the woods. It could be for a lot of different reasons, although most of the time they are caused by the three lovely girls whom I played a big part in bringing into this world. This time though I blame it on the weddings that we were made to go to over the last four weeks. Weddings mean there would be smartly dressed grooms and shiny sequin-covered brides. To a five-year old, these shiny brides look just like beautiful princesses from magical castles far far away. And who wouldn’t want to be a beautiful princess from a magical castle far far away?

On the way back from one of the weddings, Nuha my five-year old angel suddenly said that she’s a princess too and she’s going to have a garden wedding at a hotel. I almost choked on the asam boi that I eat to keep me from dozing on the wheels. Somebody, press the Panic Button please! My five-year old is thinking about her own wedding already.. and a garden wedding that is. I turned around trying to find some quick answer from Supermama who I was sure would be as panicky as I was. But instead there she was, trying to stifle a big laugh when she’s supposed to go berserk and be on panic mode like me. This was definitely not right. I had to do something quickly to clear my eldest daughter’s head from all these wedding ideas.

I managed to compose myself enough and told Nuha in my calmest possible voice that she’s only five and she’s not going to be in any wedding of her own for many many many years. I think I did say the word “many” quite a few times. Nuha immediately answered “I know lah Abah, Nuha cakap je, ni masa Nuha besar nanti lah”. Aaaaah! It was such a relief to hear that from her. I don’t think my heart could take it if she had mentioned a boy’s name instead. I also asked Nuha why a garden wedding and why at a hotel? She said a princess should be surrounded by flowers hence the garden theme. And the hotel is for Mama and Abah to stay comfortably during the occasion. That’s very thoughtful of her though I bet I won’t feel comfortable at all at my own daughter’s wedding. Suddenly the song butterfly kisses comes to mind.

Remember the coins I stashed for rainy days.. Well rainy day no longer means 42-inch plasma TV. Goodbye new shiny monster screen. Goodbye universal remote. Goodbye 1000Watt Home Theatre System. Rainy day now means a garden wedding with lots of flowers in a hotel somewhere that is fit for a princess. Come end of the year, it’ll be just me and a plate of baklava trying to watch some movies on the small 21-inch screen with smudges from the twin’s saliva coated fingers. Hmmm. anyone knows how much does a garden wedding cost?

Nuha loves flowers..

The saliva factories

Happy Daughters’ Day (Part 2)

Last Sunday was Father's Day (at least in 52 of the world's countries). I suppose it's still not too late to wish all fathers a happy father's day although in some small part of the world (my part of the world that is), father's day is a day where daughters instead of the Abah, get all the attention, gifts and cakes... yes, even the cakes. No one's complaining of course, Abah got lots of kisses from his girls for father's day, even a particularly wet one from Raisa. Aahh.. The joy of being a father where kisses and hugs are more precious, more sought after than gold yet freely given and received. Pure bliss!

Anyways, back to father's day... A month ago for mother's day, Nuha came back from school with a self-made card in the shape of a heart. It was huge and red and had lots of tiny pretty things glued on it. It had "i love you mama" painfully scribbled on it with great effort and love by Nuha herself. In short, it was a beautiful card. I had nothing but praise for the kindie and the teachers who used such an ocassion to inculcate creativity, pride and love in the children towards their mothers. Couldn't wait for father's day to arrive to see what sort of card Nuha and friends would make for her Abah and other daddies. If I was the teacher I would ask the kids to make a sportscar cards or maybe cards that are shaped like a plasma tv or a GPS devise for father's day. You know, macho daddies appreciate this kind of macho cards. Heart shaped cards are just too sissy for macho daddies like us.

Fast forward to last friday, Nuha didn't come home from school with a sportscar card or a plasma tv card. Instead, she came back with a bag full of nothing. Wait! What! Let me repeat.. NOTHING! Not even a tiny sissy heart shaped card…

Suddenly felt like getting a blowtorch, a bloody big can of petrol and head down to her kindie for a little bonfire party...

P.s zombiedaddy would like to wish his abah a happy father's day for being a superdad. And to all fathers of little girls out there.. Happy Daughters' Day.. 'Cos we know everyday is happy daughters' day.

The Longest Journey

A couple of weekends ago, the whole family made a trip to Chenor, Pahang and back, via Temerloh and Ijok. Normally we’d use the twins as an excuse not to go on long journeys. But this time, we were all eager to go as it was going to be the wedding of the year (in our family circle) of every niece’s favourite uncle – Uncle Keem aka Andak and Auntie Rose.

The journey started at Maktok’s (Lembah Keramat) then to Nenek’s (Ijok) to pick up Atok and Nenek. Then off to Temerloh to unload our bags at the hotel and continued to Chenor where the nikah ceremony was held. That night we slept in Temerloh and headed back to Chenor in the morning for the reception, and then off to Ijok to drop Atok and Nenek before we’re finally home. It was also by far the longest journey over two day periods that the twins have made. Although they survived pretty much unscathed, there were a few moments during the crying bouts and cranky tantrums-throwing dramas, that I noticed Supermama almost changed into MonsterMama… almost but not quite. But the important thing is that.. we survived. And that was good news because we also had to go to Ipoh last weekend, and later to PD at the end of the month.

This is the twins’ account of the journey as telekinetically conveyed to me (with input from Kakak Nuha too).

Day 1: Maktok’s to Nenek’s (in the van)

Raisa: hey sis you sleeping already?

Raina: almost, Mama aimed the aircond at my face.. Car is bouncing nicely.. cannot resist the urge to sleeeep.

Nuha: Abah, play song number 1 one more time please.

Day 1: Nenek’s

Raina: Hey, it’s atok and nenek feeding us susu, not mama and abah. Do you think I should cry now?

Raisa: Finish the susu first la. If Mama and Abah are still not here by then, we cry our hearts out ok.

Nuha: Bila kita nak pergi hotel nii?

Day 1: Nenek’s to Termerloh

Raisa: Hey sis, did you notice Abah keeps on playing the same song over and over?

Raina: I’m not complaining. Eh how to tell Mama to slow down the aircond a little bit. The draught is too strong it’s making my nostrils a tad bigger lah.

Nuha: Abah, play song number 1 one more time please

Abah: Sabor je lah.

Day 1 (Night): Chenor (Nikah Event)

Raisa: Eh how come Andak is sitting over there by himself?

Raina: Look he’s shaking hands with that atok. Maybe it’s time to go back already.

(Suddenly –BOOM – somebody lit a firecracker that sounded more like a bomb)

Raisa: Opocot Budak Gemuk.. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Raina: eh eh why you crying? Why you crying?.. WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!.

Abah & Supermama: Houston. We have a problem!

(A bit later. In the Van)

Raina: Hey sis, how come you are half naked? It’s not mandi time yet.

Raisa: I just vomited on myself and on the carseat. And I’m too cranky Mama didnt want to put on another pants. Good thing Mama brought extra blankie.

Mama: Step on the Gas, Abah!

Day 2: Chenor (Wedding Reception)

Raisa: I’m gonna be a good girl today. No crying. Gonna put on my best smile eventhough i’m sweating like a… like a sweating hot baby.

Raina: Whatever… I’ll stick to being clingy. .

Day 2: Temerloh RnR (on the way back)

Raisa: Holy Stinking Mother of Skunk! Did someone just farted?

Raina: It’s not fart lah. This one got meat inside You like the smell eh? Abaah! My diaper feels funny.. do something now!

Abah: Holy Stinking Mother of Skunk! Call HAZMAT now!

(Later… on the highway, still another 145km to Ijok)

Raina: Mama pick me up.. WAAAAAAAAAA!!! WAAAAAAAAA!!

Raisa: Mama I cant sleep… WAAAAAAAAAA!! WAAAAAAAAA!!

Supermama: (Turning green ala Hulk) Mr McGee... don't make me angry... you wouldn't like me when I'm angry...

Nenek: Sian nye cucu nenek

Atok: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

Nuha: Abah, play song number 1 one more time please

Abah: Think happy thots… Think happy thots

---------------------------------

p.s. We'd like to thank all our siblings and family during this trip and also during the trip to Ipoh (you know who you are) for taking care of our Nuha when we were hapless with the twins. And also for holding the twins long enough for me and Supermama to enjoy the nasi kahwin.

Wordless Wednesday

Hold Me Till I Fall Asleep

Whenever we are sleeping over at Maktok’s or Nenek’s house, we always sleep in the same room, all five of us. At our little apartment, Nuha would be sleeping in her own room with her soft animal friends while the twins would bunk with Abah and Supermama.

The thing is, whenever we are sleeping over at Maktok’s or Nenek’s house, Nuha would insist that Supermama hugs her to sleep. It is very seldom that she would go to sleep on her own. And it’s even rarer that she would ask for her Abah instead of Supermama to comfort or pat her until she falls asleep. I’m not being jealous or anything but sometimes I do wonder why Nuha always chooses Mama over Abah. I don’t think I smell that bad. Well, I do smell but surely not as bad as the ultra horribly stinky ikan pekasam. In fact, I try very hard to shower at least twice every day though I know I can never smell as nice as Supermama. There must be other reasons but they all don’t matter anymore because last night she asked for Abah.

That’s right. She asked for her Abah to hold her until she falls asleep. It was a happy moment for Abah indeed. Nuha actually asked for Abah. It didn’t matter that she actually asked for Mama first but Mama had to clean up after Raisa who had just vomited on her pillow. It didn’t matter that Nuha was actually begging Mama to let Abah handle the vomit instead. It didn’t matter that she was left with only two options: to sleep on her own or to let Abah hold her until she dozed off. What mattered was she chose Abah over her soft animal friends. So there we were, Abah comforting her eldest princess to slumber.

Nuha is the type that would wake up every few hours at night.. sometimes she would even suddenly sit up-right. I suppose she wants to confirm where she is or probably to check if her parents have turned into Sasquatch and Unicorn from Animal Mechanicals as she would like to. But she would only do this for a few seconds and then she would fall right back to sleep as if nothing happened. So, last night she woke up as expected. She sat, opened her eyes and saw Hero Abah by her side, protecting her from naughty bed bugs and monsters (mosquitoes mostly). Then she leaned towards me, probably to say thank you Abah for holding me like I’m the most precious jewel you’ve ever held. Maybe she was a little groggy so things came out a little differently from her mouth... because just as her head touches the pillow she asked me… “..mana MAMA?”

Abah's most precious jewel