Amira and storybooks

She thought all bookstores are like MPH or Borders where she can take a book and sit anywhere.

Her current fav:

With all the silly sounds made by the animals and frequent chants of "Can't catch me!" it caught her heart. A current must-read everyday book for her! 

She also loves this!

Warning! Its quite tiring reading out loud this book! A LOT of repetitions and quite loooong! But I think thats why it is appealing to most kids. She is able to retell the story but of course in her own version.

Its quite fascinating at what children can remember don't you think.

Amira oh Amira

Just for your reference if this blog survives till you are older..

1. Yesterday u slathered Abah's hp with powder and baby oil. And I mean like quarter bottle of each! (Nasib baik bukan hp mahal!) The hp still surviving tho the screen is full of oil!

2. You poke adik's thigh with a pencil...luckily it wasnt sharp...

3. You squeezed 3/4 of the newly-bought toothpaste in the toilet...then lathered on your feet and made footprints on the mat..

To be continued..

4. You 'tonyoh2' kepala adik....tsk tsk ksian Umaira.

5. You covered your hands and legs with markers..

To be continued..

: : Us : :

Finally! A picture of us!

Abah Balqis, Mama Balqis, Amira Balqis and Umaira Balqis



Credit to INTAN. Thanks! :)



Yaya tutin

translation = Amira cooking.. even Abah did not understand what she said..lol



~ caught in the act! ~

Been thinking of getting her a kitchen set. Chanced upon this spree, its a food stall!  Can we get her one Abah?



~ Instilling entrepreneurship ~ 

Role Play and children:

Children are naturally drawn to role play—the magical art of imitation and make believe.
But role play is more than fun...it's a key component of learning. According to child development experts, role play helps children acquire all kinds of skills and knowledge, encouraging them to:

- Explore imagination

- Think in the abstract

- Acquire language skills

- Build social skills

- Problem solve

- Understand someone else's perspective

- Learn essential life skills from adults

- Discover leadership skills

- Safely explore the world beyond

- Acquire confidence and a sense of self

If that isn't amazing enough, consider this: because role play engages emotion, cognition, language, and sensory motor skills, scientists theorize it actually creates synaptic connections between parts of the brain. And the more synapses, the greater a child's intelligence!
There are different types of role play, and they help serve different purposes. Encourage them all...and nurture your child's natural gifts, insyaAllah!

source

Open House at Mum's

Some pics taken during the open house:



~ Forever Posies ~




By Mum - Lontong, Briyani, Soto




This cutesy lil boy is my ex-colleague's son. Her hubby's Morroccan. Lil Ayman is just so super friendly and CUTE! 

No he's not sleeping. They were truly the entertainers of the day. lol!

xxxxxx

 

Passport for the lil one

Next 17th we will be going off to Kuantan and Terengganu, insyaAllah. So had to apply passport for lil Umaira. Went down to ICA just now to get her picture taken. Check this out,

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Then we decided to take kakak's picture as well.

It actually took us abt half an hour to wake lil Umaira up! Her eyes need to be opened for the picture.

Despite all the shaking and Amira's shouting, she was still soundly asleep! So like Mama (tido mati..heh)

Tandem nursing Umaira & Amira

Alhamdulillah...its been a week now and Allah has eased me in my breastfeeding journey, Bf-ing on demand and not scheduled.

In fact, I am currently doing tandem nursing for both doters. That is concurrently nursing both of them.

There are of course, 'well meaning advices' from around saying that Umaira might not be getting enough, so Amira has to stop or I have to supplement Umaira with formula. Well, thank you all for the concerns. But I know and truly believe that Allah's creations are wonderful. The breast can adapt to the demands being placed upon it. If you are nursing for 2, it will produce enough if not more to meet the demand, subhanallah.

Even when Rasulullah was an infant, he was being nursed by HalimatusSa'diah, who was also nursing her own baby, not to mention those having twins,triplets and so on. So I don't understand why nursing more than one seems foreign and weird to some of us nowadays.*maybe coz Amira is already a toddler?*

There are actually several reasons why I decided upon tandem nursing:
- I would not want Amira to feel left out upon arrival of a new sister.
- I would like to give Amira the freedom to decide when to wean off completely.
- I do not have the heart to stop Amira from BF-ing.
- I read that it promotes bonding between the two siblings.

My one-week experience on tandem nursing:

- Actually I find that Amira is actually more excited to be nursed than Umaira. I thought she wouldn't like the taste of the milk (she doesn't drink milk) but it turned out that she LOVE it.

- Of course I do feel uncomfortable at times when Amira wants to nurse at the same time as her sister. I mean just imagine I had to hold baby in one hand and a toddler in the other. Sometimes I let her be, and some other times I will ask her to wait till I put the baby to sleep first.

- If they nurse together, I usually will take a sitting position on the bed.

- It really helps when I feel BM is a lot. I would just ask Amira if she wants to be nursed and she would gladly obliged. -I am really lazy to pump,heh-

- It helps prevent engorgement, alhamdulillah.

I am thankful that I am given the opportunity to be able to give the best for my daughters insyaAllah. For those out there struggling in their BF-ing journey, persevere and believe that no matter how hard it is, no matter what others tell you (even doctors, always get a second opinion) and no matter how painful it is, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT IN GIVING THE BEST FOR YOUR PRECIOUS ONES AND FIND COMFORT IN IT. ALL THE BEST.

Splurged!

Two days before I went in for delivery, we shopped for Amira's and Umaira's Raya dress. I already knew where I wanted to get it from, but we still did a little look around. We went to Tampines One, but no dresses caught my eyes, though a lot of other things did.*refrain,refrained*

So we made our way to the shop at Tampines Mall that truly caught my heart the first time I saw it - not to mention pained my heart as the dresses are EXPENSIVE!

It was lovely! Everything there were! We managed to get the two matching dresses, though I think Umaira's going to be a little big.

~ "bloomB" , I ♥ ~

 While I was 'fickling' over which to choose,

~ Cheeky ~

Definitely couldn't sit still!

Lil Mami Jarum....u better dun be!

 After paying for the dresses, I mistakenly took a look at the display window....and something truly caught my eyes! Juz gotta have it for Amira!

~ Loveliness ~

~ Cinderella? ~

~ Posy, posy ~

Damages: S$151.60...

The newest addition...

Alhamdulillah, we are blessed in this special month with a newest addition to our family.

Umaira Balqis bte Mohammad Razman

28/8/10 3.48kg

11:44am

Parkway East Hospital, Singapore

Once again, I was eased by His will during the delivery - subhanallah, thank you O Allah! If the first time my labour period was only for 3 hours, but this time it was half of that! I truly salute those who endured long labours, for I feel that though it was a short time, but it was the most agonizing moments in my life. But then again, it was well worth the pain!

Just like the first, I was induced. This time it was Abah's and my choice - we can still choose to wait till another week - and turned out that it was the best one made. Reason is baby had already pooped inside, found out when Dr. Aziz burst my water bag. Wait a little longer and I will have to undergo c-sect *shudder*.

At that time I was only 2-3cm dilated, so there's another 7cm to go. For some it can take up to an hour or more to dilate a cm. I had about 5-6 major excruciating contractions before feeling the urge to push. But I had to refrain as Dr. Aziz was not around yet for he did not expect it to be so soon. It was HARD trying not to push. At last after 3 times contractions, he came. Umaira was out on the 2nd push. It felt like I was in a marathon with the people around cheering me on and that helped a lot. I am thankful that Abah was with me all the time too. Though at some moments I was annoyed, like when he asked "Mama ok tak?" when I was in the middle of a contraction! *I know u meant well..:)*

All in all, I am glad thats over and went well. Now enduring confinement. Bigger responsibility and bigger test of patience awaits.

And how is Amira Balqis -big sis-  taking this new change....hmm...not quite well for now. She had fever the first few days, now showing a lot more tantrums, mood swings and so on. Pray that its just short phase, amin. But when in good mood, she did show love to lil sis, and fondly called her Umaiyyah Batis..:)

Parents' nightmare: Tantrums!

Sample pic

Imagine this.

Your toddler wants to have something that YOU do not think he/she should at that time or ever. You had already said NO a dozen times or so. Threatened to leave but never really did. Then he/she started to throw their body on the floor and screamed at the top of their lungs! You couldn't even pick them up as they are kicking and struggling. All the time, people around you are looking and judging. The shopowner/salesmen are getting agitated as you are scaring customers away.

What would you do? So far I only see 2 options:

1. Relent and give in to the child so that he would stop his tantrums, and stop the people around you from staring and giving you the 'what-kind-of-parent-are-you look'.

2. Stay firm on your foot and just let him finish his tantrums. Just let others think what they want, its your child and its your way of disciplining them.

For me I would go for the latter. Why? Just simply because I do not want them to think that they could get away with anything just by throwing their body around. And I simply do not care of what others might think of my approach, as those who're judging either do not have a child or they are the lucky ones who get the well-behaved children at all time.

I believe that tantrums and toddlers are inseparable. It shows their determination and I do not think that's bad. Its just that they are still clueless on how to behave and be patient, so that is our responsibility as parents to guide them. Not to confuse them further, by taking the wrong simpler decision -in my opinion- to just give in.

Of course sometimes when I see other children throwing tantrums I wld silently say that "Alhamdulillah that's not my child" heh, but SURELY I know that some other day that wld be my doter and I just have to face it too, just like yesterday. I think that was the worst tantrums ever being thrown by Amira. She was really determined to have that thing, screamed, kicked, struggled, for about 15 mins I think, and finally cried to sleep. When awoke, she was still talking about having that thing. So Abah, you think we should get one for her?

She wanted this BADLY!

Amira and cats

She absolutely LOVES and ADORES them! Just give her any cats, white, brown, grey or even black she can just shower them with cuddles and kisses! *well I had to scream whenever she tried to kiss the strays*

Actually we did try to adopt a kitten, cute lil playful grey kitten given by Abah's friend. We survived for 3 days with it. Nooo, the kitten did not die, Abah asked his colleague to take care of it first as we will be journeying a lot. (pssst intan if you read this, I give you the permission to take care of it forever..shhh dun tell razman..heh)

She was practically smothering the poor lil kitten

For me, I don't mind cats. But taking care of them, hmm, that's a totally different situation. I simply have no idea on how to take care of pets. Plus I read that cats are not perfectly suitable to have around when you are pregnant, it makes me even more conscious of them. It worries me crazy that they will poop or pee around the house or worse somewhere I wouldn't notice! *shudder!*

So baby, can we not have to take care of it? I am sure that every now and then there will be cats coming to visit you. They always do.

Posted below is a funny video taken when she was about 14 mths. The stray cat and her warmed up right away.

Artsy Crafty

From WP 7/8/2010


A little peek into Amira's passion for arts.
Her very first trial on water painting with Abah:


Abah bought her a set of water paint on her 2nd birthday and she definitely love it! Some of her collections:


First guided drawing. She drew the horizontal and vertical lines in the tortoise on her own guided by my pencil-tracing lines. I simply told her to draw a straight line from the  green dot to the red dot I marked. Colouring was done by her.


Practice of drawing curves (inside the butterfly). Alike the lines above she traced my pencil lines from green dots to red dots. The horizontal short lines were also drawn by her.


This is the latest drawing and I must say I am quite proud of her as she managed it on her own, from the petals, stalk and leaf. Instruction were given once, to follow my pencil lines and green dots to red to dots.


Last but not least, her first trial on collage with different shapes.

Still BF-ing..

From WP 6/8/2010


Amira has been on exclusive (no formula) BF since I stopped working at ard 6 mths old. Up till now. Yes! even now!

But actually for abt 4 mths back, there is no milk. She just need it to get to sleep, though its possible for her to sleep without it. I guess she just like the feeling of closeness and familiarity. I let her be coz I am thinking of tandem nursing my coming soon and Amira. It is said that it can promote bonding between the two. I wouldn't want her to feel left out just because someone new is coming along. I want her to believe in me and be assured that she is not being replaced or anything. I am quite worried as how she will feel towards her younger sibling, tho she had been practising a lot of baby caring with her teddies for the past few months and seems loving enough, insyaAllah -2 of the teddies were put on diapers, heheh.

After a year plus of exclusive BF, turns out that she does not want to drink any other milk! We have tried various brands, flavours, Karihome, fresh milk - all were rejected. I think she takes after me as I dont drink milk either. Cant even stand the smell of it! But thankfully she loves cheese, the orange-flavoured calciyum drink, milo and I am also trying to find other alternatives that can be a substitute for her source of calcium needs *worried*.

I also intend to give exclusive BF to my coming soon, insyaAllah. May Allah ease it for us.

People, especially men, may think that BF is an easy natural work - yeah it is work as it needs effort and determination to do it - but it really is not the case for most of us. That is why knowledge and support are very IMPORTANT! If you would like to know more, get support or addressing any issues on BF there is this group on FB -put together by my school seniors, thumbs up!- that you can join:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=579672887

Just for those who are still clueless:
BF = Breast feeding
FB = Face book
Somehow I find that funny..lol.

where did my lil princess go?

From WP 1/8/2010


Isn't it frightening when you realised how super fast time really flies.

Although I watch Amira's growth and progress everyday with my own eyes, it still amazes me the speed that she is growing. Especially when you looked through the old and new pics.

 

My baby is no longer the innocent, little-haired lil princess anymore. She is GROWING. Now not so innocent, with her already-reaching-the-shoulders curly hair. She now knows what she wants and demands it, she has a firm mind of her own, and she is beginning to show her acts of independency. All of which never fail to throw both Abah and Mama in dilemma most of the times.

Now she would want to do most of her things by herself - bathing, putting on clothes, making her milo and such. Well, isn't that supposed to be good? Maybe.. but the problem is she would not want ANY HELP at all! Like when we were supposed to be getting in the car, she would want to get in by herself - we cannot even give her a tiny push or offer a hand -, she would want to close the door - dont even try to touch the door! - else she will scream and would want to do it all over again even if it means she had to get down again from the car just to get in ALL BY HERSELF! Amira, amira...

I do wonder if its just amira or all/most of the the 2 yrs old are behaving that way? Hmm...
But I guess no matter what, your children will always be princes and princesses in your hearts. They are just to dear that I believe any parents would do just anything for them. I would, insyaAllah. I love you baby.
Always will.

Stubbornness - just a phase or character?

From WP 22/7/2010

~ Wldn't want to let go of her newly bought minnie bottle ~

Amira woke up very early today. At 8am - usually 10am coz she slept quite late. I guess she wanted to send of her Abah to work. It is ever so unpredictable with her. In everything. She can be cuddling, kissing, sayang2 you and the next minute it can be "NO FRIEND YOU!" - her favourite angry phrase not only to human beings(especially Abah, pity Abah) but to her toys or books too -hah-.

It could be over something VERY little, like for instance when she throws a ball to the front and turns out it goes to another direction, that can make her angry and what pisses me off more is that she will throw things around! Is it just a phase or  is it a character of hers - short-tempered.

I remembered an incident when she got angry over her toy block just because she couldnt stack one of them. She started throwing every pieces everywhere! I just let her be, and when she's done, I calmly -it took GREAT effort to stay calm that time- told her that she was not supposed to do that, she should do her work slowly and try again if she couldnt do it the first time. After that I told her that I would have to ignore her UNTIL she clean up all the mess. I didn't know what got into her that day, but she stubbornly refused to clean up! Instead she asked me to do it. NO WAY! 

So I went about doing my housework, she did come to me and said sorry, but still wouldn't pick up her blocks! When I asked her to clean again, she started to throw tantrums and cried screamed. I was determined NOT to give in no matter what. So I just let her be, and it lasted for about 45mins I think.
After she was calmed and again she was sorry, I told her to clean up again and told her if she did then I will play with her.  But still, she was also determined not to! It lasted for about 1 and half hour, but in the end, SHE relented and started to clean up. Upon seeing that, I helped her and explained that her behaviour was unacceptable.

It seems harsh maybe that I did not want to give in to her and clean up for her. But in my opinion, I believe that this is the time we should teach them about discipline, that we MEAN our every words, that we are the parents and they must OBEY US. Like everything else, once it becomes a habit it will be much easier. If I say she must clean up, then she has to do it!

I am adapting this 'I must WIN' tactic from a mummy in teachingourown. I agree that at this time we should instill in them the need to obey us as parents as I guess it will be more difficult if you only want to start disciplining them at a later stage. I also believe that every parents have the power in moulding their own children, so how they turn out in future depends largely on how they were brought up and what was nurtured in them earlier. There is no way you can blame other people or situation - like peer pressure or media or such - on your responsibility.

O you who believe! Protect yourselves and your families from Hell fire, At-Tahrim:6

I am also practising the zikr Ya Latif everytime she seems to be stubborn and insyaAllah everynight when she's asleep. May she become a Solehah child and may Allah give whats best for her Dunya wa Akhirah. O Allah do show us the best way in raising and nurturing our children to your path. Amin.
Mama and Abah love you!

The arrival

From WP 18/7/2010

Amira Balqis.


Actually that was not the name me and abah had in mind before you were born. The name had just like popped in my head all of a sudden- thank you Allah -. Abah being sweet abah, just went along with me, and anyway that was such a great name for such a great and wonderful gift from God. *hamdan lillah*

I had to admit that I was very very lucky indeed during my labour with you. Allah had indeed made it easy for me. Thank you all for the prayers made for us.

Just to share it with you, my dear 'yaya' - a nickname she called herself, a story on your birth:

As it was nearing the due date, check ups with the gynae were scheduled weekly. On a particular Monday check up, Dr. Heng dropped us a bombshell! Said something like "Oh, we should deliver the baby tomorrow" in such a oh-so-casual-let's go shopping tomorrow! manner.

I was utterly speechless and shocked! WHAT?! TOMORROW?! Though I know the due date was just round the corner, but getting to the fact and reality that I will be giving birth that soon was really FRIGHTENING! Her reason was, baby in tummy was not growing so she would have to induce me. By that time, I was already dilated by 2cm. That was about a week before edd.

So home I went and to work abah went. Abah being an-overly-anxious abah, started to find out whatever he could on inducing. He was really worried and was half-hearted with that decision, saying he would pefer it to be normal. I would like that too - anything to delay it!

But it so happened that, that night I was down with a high fever! I would usually get a high fever when I had a shock over something. So we called up the 24hrs help service to find out what we should do- a very superb servive indeed! Dr. Heng advised to admit me into the hospital.

It was already past midnight if I'm not wrong, so we took a cab to East Shore. Upon admission, I was given paracatemol and it relieved the fever. As we opted for a two-bedded room, Abah couldnt stay. That was my first time ever sleeping in a hospital! and it was ALONE! At that time, my mind still hadnt register that I will be giving birth later that day. Still being in denial.

Come morning, everything still seems so safe and comfortable. Abah came, had a nice breakfast - one the good things at East Shore- mum (nenek) came along too. But by 10am, a nurse came in and its INDUCE time! After being injected -which still freaks me out, needles poking through your skin into your flesh, OUCH!! I am certainly not born to be a nurse!- I was wheeled, insisted by the nurse though I feel perfectly fine, to the labour room. The chief nurse came in and burst the water bag. That is when the pain started to kick in. It was painful but funny thing is I dont really remember how the pain really felt like if anybody were to ask me now. I guess that's why women do not just stop at one, after a while you no longer remember how the pain felt - but ask any who had just given birth, they will surely say they had enough! But one thing for sure is, the contractions were much much more painful than the delivery itself. I truly salute those women who were really strong in enduring a long labour, especially those insisting on NO to epidurals.

I do remember the nurse asking me to rate the pain out of ten at that moment. I said it was about 6 (if Im not wrong) and she said, well good luck then because it will be long -need to be dilated till 10cm and generally it will take an hour for a cm but usually the time varies - and it will definitely be much more painful. Hmmm, thanks so much for the words of comfort.

They did explain that being relaxed will help to ease the pain a little. There were three options for me to choose from, use the oxygen, a jab in the thigh ( I am not sure of the name) and last but not least Epidural. I was determined NOT to take the last option. I did use the oxygen, after 2 hrs, I asked for the jab, and alhamdulillah few minutes later I was ready for delivery -I felt that I just had the urge to push, involuntarily-. ( I do not think I could hold on to my determination -not taking the epidural- any longer if its going to be another 8 hrs more!) So my labour pain was only about 3 hours total.

By that time, I was feeling kind of, hmmm how do I put it, high? I think thats the effect of the oxygen. I felt really drowsy, and just wanted to close my eyes and sleep. I remembered being confused, like not knowing where I really was. It felt annoying that Abah and everybody around me kept asking to push. The first time I pushed and stop for breath, not good. Next I pushed real hard, until I was literally out of breath (you really have to give a one big push, coz the baby will slip back in if you push and stop), and it felt like the whole content of my tummy slid out. It was quite a relief! (But not so much of a relief when I look down at my tummy which is alike a deflated balloon..sobsob).

And...there you are! A whopping 3.78kg! Managed to fool the doctor eh...not growing, ya right!

There are no words that can justify the feeling I had the moment you were put on me. So innocent, still quite blue and it was so LOVE at first sight.

Just being washed and she's looking up at me!