Wedding Bliss.

Ahhhh..school break has started... the roads are clear .... and here come the wedding invitations..

have got quite a few this month.... attended one last saturday night. the bride is a colleague of mine from work and twas the groom's side we went to cos i couldnt make it to hers in JB. apparently both bride and groom are the first in the family..all the best to them..being the sulongs in their family... usually sulong people are quite stubborn but make good leaders... ...ahem2 to papaphoop.

anyways, the wedding was quite nicely done..organizer or rather wedding planner was Kuzie Catering. so we had this brochure on our table showing off the wedding likes of Siti NUrhaliza, Raja Azura and Ning Baizura all done by this company. but i must say that it really was properly orchestrated except for the MC who fumbled with the bride and groom's names. .. hmm what can i say..the theme that night was turquoise. even the syrup was a nice blue green color with a laichee tang to it. nice.... upon waiting for my friend and her hubby to walk down the aisle, we were entertained by Jaafar Onn and Rohana Jalil....and Maya (remember..? Maya.. no?k, whatever... :# they sang fine tunes especially maya...that lady sure's got a throat to sing...not bad at all. but the songs were all malay songs ...oldies...lagu2 kawin..Saloma ones ada... cudnt really appreciate sorry girl.

But one thing about going to weddings is that even if you dont like the weather (if it's done at home on a hot scorching afternoon) or the entertainment given (loudspeakers blaring like crazy..)...but if the food is good, you really have nothing to complaint about.... (not that i want to complaint la)... so Kuzie Catering is REALLY GOOD, you guys. semua sedap. so i was really happy with that albeit one earlier incident which caught me and papa phoop by surprise....which i malas nak talk about it here... dont want to give it anymore energy...so it was all gooood.....!

so there i was enjoying good food and company...and we waited till the end! really..we rarely wait but kawan kan, so why not? so tgh2 duduk2 tu teringat la my wedding on my hubby's side...SIGH! it was really magnificent...well it was to me really. cos it was carefully planned by my mominlaw right from the color, red-white theme, the pelamin...to the wedding gown and etc...loved the makeup too!!

simply a wedding to remember....we had a combined wedding..together with papa's brother and his wifey, Nadiah.... oh yes ! we had the evergreen singer Jay Jay who belted out his famous 'Belaian Jiwa' and 'Rindu Bayangan' songs.. LURVE IT!..
JJ is apparently my mominlaw's sedara but dunno sedara dekat or jauh...(maybe my facts are wrong here ) but the news was that he'd agreed to sing for us for sedara sake and that he appreciates my mominlaw a lottt! lovely!.... too bad didnt get to videotape the whole affair...but there are no accidents....

hmmm...thinking of how Dina's wedding would be like...

it would spell

'S-P-E-C-T-A-C-U-L-A-R'!!
:D

:: one for the album ::

....humming the song by Cliff Richard ...'When the Girl in Your Arms is the Girl in Your Heart'.... song played during the cake cutting ceremony....... feeling romantic now...

Oh ye... HAPPY ENGAGEMENT ANNIVERSARY, DALING!!!

A trip down breastfeeding memory lane...

last sunday we went back to my parents' house as usual. Auntie Fida had to go do some major spring cleaning of her long-left office at upm. apparently her office had a leakage from the thunderstorms lately and her office got infested by MOLD!.. yup!.. all her academic books and stuff onthe bookshelf got engulfed by mold and fungus-like matter that teh whole room had fungus dust in the air. she had left her office for quite some time since she opted for maternity leave before the birth of Fifie... hence the catastrophe. MORAL of the STORY :: do check your stuff at the office ifyouplan to have a long maternity break yah.

Anyway, that is beside the point i was going to make. SO since Fida had to go to her office for a quick cleaning job, she couldnt bring along Fifie of course. so she kinda entrusted me to give some of my milk to fifie in case she got cranky or hungry. and yes, later on, fifie woke up and cried for a while. Gemma took care of her but her crying persisted. So i had to save the day lah.,
me mom punyalah kecoh jgn bagi byk sgt of my breastmilk to fifie since Fida hasnt completed her pantang of 40 days. but i told her i didnt eat anything controversial for the past few days and that day so i think it would be ok. ...besides, with fifie crying, we had to do do somthing to make it stop.

so there i was , breastfeeding fifie and SUDDENLY i experienced a major flashback of how it felt like when Dina was that small. the weight of it all suddenly came upon me...of how tiring it was back then...the endless on and off feedings ....the worry of taking Dina outside of the house to go shopping...or to bring her to people's house... that she would cry and demand to be put to sleep by 9pm but resisting as well... the times i had to go for my office's trainings or workshop outside of KL ie. Kota Bharu, JB, Cherating etc, with Dina and Paphoop in tow (did not have a maid then)....

PHEWWWW!!!! Some flashback, huh!
(God bless you, papa .... for your wonderful patience, support and understanding throughout the 11 month or so of Dina and mama... Love you to bits, sayang!)

Anyway, for a trip down memory lane, here are some pics of Dina in her months of glory... :))

1 month2 months 3 months

4 months 5 months 6 months 7 months 8 months

9 months 10 months
11 months 12 months

Alhamdulillah, with full breastfeeding thoughout Dina's first year, i can say that Dina did not contract any major illnesses or fall sick that much... :))

So, my flashback just now also made me think of the time to conceive a second one which i think should not be that soon yet ....to be fair to dina. but nursing fifie feels so endearing and i really miss those moments when dina was still helpless and only dependent on my milk... it feels soooo (SIGH!)...melancholic...hm...bestt...... best sangat..(sigh...). think breastfeeding moms can relate to this feeling...
i dont think i'll ever get over the feeling... dina still drinks from me tho ... which i love cos it's when she gazes at me with those cute loving eyes of hers while drinking...it really creates a strong bond between mom and the child... and i quite agree with this lady, who, upon her baby's adoption to bottle, said :

I tried to control it, because my husband's face was lit up with pride and affection at this "milestone". But I had an overwhelming feeling of possessiveness, and all at once I didn't want that break from feeding anymore. I had not realized until that moment that despite all the frustrations of lost sleep and sore nipples, the breastfeeding bond was stronger that anything I had anticipated. It hurt my heart to see that I was not the only person that could feed my baby anymore. I wanted to forget sleep and just take Steven back into my arms to nurse as long as he wanted to.

ahh...you cant explain it..really...you just cant explain it.. for this, i'll definitely breastfeed all my kids.

ON HER FEET, FINALLY!

HOOORAAAYYYY!!!

Dina has finally did it!. She has totally learned to balance herself and stand on her own!. Dina clever girl!!

A definite check on Dina's milestone chart y'all.... sigh.. finally.... to tell you the truth, my maid has been training her to stand up and also walk. so on an excursion recently to Genting Higlands for a workshop, and as i went back to my hotel room, Nor happily reported to me that Dina has managed to stand up, unassisted. WOOOHOOO..... *happy happy mama*....

Hmm...So it looks like Dina will talk and walk at the same time kot.... she is now saying multiple words like 'nak main', which took papa by surprise. heheh..cute!

anyway, a trip to the paedatriacian found that Dina is on the lighter side .. she'd only gained 1 kg since her last visit which was 2 months ago i think.... she now weighs 7.9 kg. and is on the lower precentile. her height showed more growth it seems. head circumference is the same.

Doc asked how much milk and food was dina taking , to which i replied, 4 times a day of porridge and 3 times a day of 4 oz milk.

So Doc, what should i do to make her gain more weight?
Ahaaa...Doc said.. 'No need. She is taking enough amount of food and milk. Dina is the type with high metabolic rate. So she cannot easily gain weight'.

Waaaww!... like papa lah , papa said.
GOOD NEWS then...Dina boleh jadi supermodel ! Look out, world!!!

Bouncing Castle!

Dina: OK boys, our meeting today will be on the new toy that Auntie Neer has bought for you, Yeyen...your papa is inflating it at the moment.. Give him a hand! YAYYY!!!

Emmil: Eeehhhh....cant wait to see meh..

Yeyen: Ooo-oo-oohhh... it ss-s-sounds ss-scaryyy kakaakkk....

Dina: Yes! you will later see.. that it will get bigger and bigger as the air gets pumped in...


Dina: TADA !!!... here it is! THE BOUNCING CASTLE!!
Emmil: Aaaahhh.... twinkle twinkle little starrhh......

Dina: Steady, MEN !!

Emmil: Urrghhh... i -think-i-can-make-it-to-the-top... yah -yahh...
Yeyen: Ooooohhhhh....THHISH ISH SHOFT, like mama's nen-nen!!


Dina: Ok Boys! One for the camera now!

CLICK!


Thank you for the toy, Auntie Neer. We LOVE it!

Maid in Indonesia...

you see , having a maid can be good to an extent and can be not so good too.... so you need to be on guard too. ... We've had Nor, our Indon maid for about 4 months or so now... she is reliable but we have to tell her to do things properly and only then she'll pick up... she does learn fast tho... one thing i'm grateful for is that she cares for Dina as if Dina was her own.. well...so to speak lah.... lesson is not to take advantage of having a maid - that you can just pass everything to her ... Thank God that Dina knows that Nor is just her caretaker...cos the moment Dina sees us when we come back from work, her eyes light up with utmost happiness - as if saying 'There you are, Mama ( or Papa) !! Oh how much i missed YOU!'... and she quickly crawls her way towards us with her arms outstretched ready to be picked up... aah the bliss of it all...

anyways, again on our maid, Nor. ... she does help dina learn to speak ..keep telling her to talk to dina like you normally talk to adults.. cos nor tends to use sounds rather than sentences... she is literate, by all means. she tells me that when she utters to Dina the word 'ayam', dina will reply 'chicken'...and when she says 'kereta', dina will say 'carhh'.... well, at least dina will be bilingual... only that she will acquire Malay/Indon language from Nor (and others), and English from me... ...:P

leaving Dina in Nor's care also has its consequences....

as can be seen here ....

....angkara maid..... oh dear!

Going to 'kebun jambu'.....

hehe...maybe i'm just the typical 'city' girl. ... this meaning i dont dig going to places like my mom's 'kebun' or orchard... well... reason being i dont likegiant mosquitoes zeroing in on me.. large ants or kerengga crawling up my pants or legs.... itchy ulat bulu falling on my hair or the occassional giant centipede snaking through the semak which will get me all terperanjat and make me do a i metre leap up in the sky... and scream 'MMAAAAAKKKKK !!!'.... :P

mom always tell us how she wished that her kids would also have a passion for 'kebun'...ie. go harvesting for seasonal local fruits from the durian, rambutan, cempedak, mangosteen etc trees in sg ramal. well...we did once go and harvested the rambutans.. that was when rambutan price dipped to RM2 per kilo. SO CHEAP till the everybody couldnt be bothered to sell cos they were aplenty eveywhere. soo for fun, we sort of helped mak and abah to clean up the kebun...i dont dare to panjat the rambutan trees for fear of the ulat bulus... but the award for best climber would be mak.... thank her skills she learned during her lasak childhood kampong days with her brothers... but me?... not the person you can hope to enjoy company with if you were to bring me to this sort of place... komplen, komplen, and komplen.... i'd rather sit in the air-conditioned car on the edge of the kebun than sweat it out in a maze full of stings! .... what to do...dah macam tu heheheh.... strawberry and apple pickins in England were much much better...and minus the stings ya.

the story is that now mom wants to instill the love of the fruit-picking and 'kebun-ness' in her grand dot Dina... sigh...she never gives up...saje seronok kan budak tu, my mom says. OK. the jambu air tree at the back of mom's house was in full harvest. .. so off they went for some jambu picking ... lots of jambu to munch on and dipped in kicap with gula.... yummm...my favorite! yela...makan suka , pick maleh... LOL.

<--- Dina enjoying her first pick of the day. Another
milestone for Dina.

"WOW...so many jambus, gemma!"

'Dina good girl today kan Gemma. Help Gemma petik jambu..
mesti dapat upah lebeh nie... hehehe'

More pics of Fifi (Sophie Aleeya)

Here are a few latest pics of Fifi.... so cute!