Little Man No More

Hello again fellow silent readers of this dusty blog. How are you doing? It's school holiday again! The past years it was not much of a difference for me since non of my kids went to school (yet) but this year my little man is in kindergarten. Some would say sending a 4 year old to kindergarten is quite early. Pshhh.. Please. I have a friend who sent her daughter to school at the age of TWO. Okay?

Speaking of school holiday and sending your kids to do stuff early.... My husband and I have decided to circumcised our little man this year. At the age of four. Saayyy whaaatttt?? Chill there fellow overprotective and easily paranoid parents. *coff coff* For your information, it is very common outside of Malaysia to circumcise their boys at an early age. In fact it is highly encouraged to do it when they were still babies. First and foremost, they recover faster with lower percentage of complications (you can check wikipedia entry for this). Another reason is they don't really move that much and doesn't tend to scratch when itching. Though you need to really take care of their hygiene and change their diaper very very often.

Aaaaanyways, let me share you a little experience of ours circumcising our little man. We decided to circumcised Shareese along with his other four cousins. They were born not far apart with Adam being the eldest at age 6, Huzaifah at age 5 and Umar, Haziq and Shareese being the youngest at age 4. Urhm, technically Umar is still 3 years old but he'll turn 4 in 9th December, which is soon enough. My sister in law arranged everything and we just tag along. From our information, my sister in law said that there aren't many clinics in Shah Alam who circumcise kids at an early age (not sure why, maybe they are not really familiar with it I guess) and we ended up with a doctor from Klinik Ajwa, Section 7. The doctor (I didn't get his name) is very experienced with circumcising boys of various ages. The earliest he did was a baby born within 24 hours. He also encouraged a lot of parents to do it young and he kept on mentioning stuff like in Arabic countries they do it within 24 hours of birth and some hospitals doesn't even let their babies discharged if they are not circumcised. How true is this, I am not so sure... Very talkative doctor.

Shareese, Aliah (not part of the sunat process ye), Adam and Umar

We were set for an appointment on 24th November 2014 at 9.30am sharp. We arrived at 9.15am and there were a few other kids (primary school children) before our turn. The little kids are all hyped about this "sunat" thing and we dressed them up in kain pelikat. LOL! I am not sure if they knew what circumcision (sunat/khatan/khitan) is or not but we tried our best to explain it to Shareese a few weeks before the actual day. At first he thought it was "cutting off the meat". O_O;; Eh..wan die ah? Then we explained that it is to cut the foreskin. I am not sure how but it ended up him understanding that sunat is a trip to the doc for some regular check up and will be given some "ubat sunat" (circumcised medicine) afterwards. (.-.) Ohkays... cincai la. You happy and tak takut, mama pun happy jugak lah!

When our turn comes, we decided to give Shareese the first turn because if he sees all his other cousins wailing and crying, it's gonna be hard to persuade him. All his other cousins have other siblings to rely upon while Shareese is off solo, so.... first turn lah! So off we go into the consultation room and we lie him down on the inspection bed. We went for the laser method. But..it's not really using laser. They use a very heated up metal to have a clean cut. The real laser method (I am imagining all lightsaber thingy) can cost up to RM500 if I am not mistaken because that's what my youngest brother went for last time back in early 2000.

First, the doctor injects Shareese's scrotum with general anesthesia and let it start to work it's wonders within 2-3 minutes. Hooo boy... This is when my son screams the most. Top of his lungs. There were some drops of blood from the injection but it was very minimum. After the anesthesia is checked to work, the doctor took two forceps and pinch the edge of his foreskin to open it up. Enghhh!! Okay. It does look painful and the doctor need to do it a few times before he could get the skin away from the head. After a few attempts, it is time to CUT IT!! DUN DUN DUNNN!!!! *Pssshhhhhh!!!* Yeah that's how the sound is when the metal touches the skin. The room started to smell like barbecue....... u_u I feel bad saying this but it does smell like it! After cutting off the foreskin, the doctor stitched the edge of the skin and then voila! All done. NEXT!

Little Man a few hours after the procedure.
Letih kau.. Tido terus.

Did Shareese cry?

OFCOURSE LA!

And he keep on saying sakit sakit sakit... ;_; I wanna cry with him too. Poor baby... But it's for his own good. So I toughen up and tell him "Tak sakit lah Shareese!!" Luckily he only cries and whines during the first two days and after that he seems much better. Some notes for dear parents out there, do expect some little pus coming out from the cut, but please please please make sure you clean it thoroughly to avoid infection. Don't forget to apply the antibacterial cream and don't let your kids scratch it. Pantang time sunat? Urhm.. we don't really follow it. o_o So far nothing really bad happens.

Today is the 9th day and on the 7th day, Shareese has worn his pants like how he used to. He still complaints it hurts but it's all psychological. =_= Rilex je die bergusti berguling dengan paksu die. Sakit pekemendernyerrrr...!!

On day 7, rilek je berseluar sudah.

That's all for our experience on circumsizing our firstborn. If you're interested to have your boys circumsized, here's the contact number for Klinik Ajwa at Section 7.

1. Address: Jalan Kristal K7/K, Seksyen 7, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor

   Phone:03-5510 6258

Heeeeeyyyyyyyyyy~~~~

Heheh.. heh..hehh.....

I knew eventually this blog will be collecting dust. Sokkay. It's not like this is a life commitment die die must do wan. Anways, to start kicking back off again with this "family-life-kids" blog, I have decided to revamp (more like install from dowloaded free template) the looks of this blog. Last time it was autumn themed and I have no idea why the background image went missing all of a sudden. If it wasn't for that, I think I don't even have the urge to install a new theme.

Okay!
Quick recap of the year.

• Shareese just had his little didi circumcised on Monday. He's recovering now. So manja!
• Ariessa just learned to walk at 1 year 4 months old. Pretty late if you ask me.
• She still doesn't really talk properly yet. I think she's mastering the art of caveman communication because all she does is point and grunt. 
• Shareese has just finished his first year of kindergarten at age 4. He knows how to write some numbers and letters. His number 2 and Z is almost the same and sometimes it's flipped. I hope it's not dyslexia. Maybe it's just a phase. *meh* I love how he writes the number 3 though. So cute like the M from McDonald's. But sideways. *w*
• Shareese didn't manage to attend his kindy's concert/graduation day this year due to...circumcission thingy. The timing is soooooooo unfortunate! What kind of school does school performance day ON A DAMN WEEKDAY??? merghh.....!!
• Shariessa (yes, I have brangelinafied my kid's name) are like cats and dogs. Urhm.. or like Tom and Jerry. They can't stand being near each other (they fight!) but when they are apart, they feel incomplete and wants to find each other. Tsundere much? =3=
• We had a nice family trip in Penang last month. First time going out as a small family. We usually just tag along with either our parents. Saving gile on food and accomodation. So, achievement unlocked! Family trip!
• Lately, I am highly addicted to a new hobby of postcard writing and pen-palling. I just want someone to talk to with not much long term commitment. and I love the feeling of receiving letters and packages from overseas in my mailbox instead of just bills and junk mail. ^^
• I started reading A Song of Ice and Fire. Nice~
• . - .   I don't know when but I am starting to get addicted to coffee and tea. Bittersweet mocha is AWESOME!! So far the best mocha I had is at Butter + Beans. Nyam!!
• Crepe cakes are delish!!
• Here's a drawing of Shariessa.

That's all folks. Have a nice day!

I miss drawing... seriously.

Quick 5 minutes sketch at work. T_T

Shit half assed work.

I am losing my mojo...........

Don't go...

Work has really been consuming me lately... Before this, I was so happily drawing and animating but recently my jobscope has changed. I am now in charge of QC work for the animations by our partner studio from China. So most of the time I'd be typing out amendments rather than drawing. I have to scour through so many animation files and check for errors and send instructions on how to improve the shots. I am also checking several episodes all at once and it's kinda driving me NUTS!! My work is getting pretty depressing because the way our partner studio works is not like how we work. They're more used to doing tweening style of animation, whereas we're more keen to do our animation by frame-by-frame drawing. DRAWINGS ok. Not just moving the characters like puppet hamagadshitsssszzzzuuu....

Been trying hard to keep things together before I start to explode. T_T I love my work, but I hate having to become a bitch when it comes to writing amendment lists. Yes.. I have become that person where we used to talk bad about whenever we receive amendments from our client. Ha Ha...

Cravings Satisfied (partly)

So I managed to whip up that salmon sashimi from the recipe I got by majnouna. Bough salmon from Jusco and the soy sauce there. Butchered up some cucumbers and spring onion and whipped it up with sesame seed oil and sesame seeds. and VOILA~~~

It doesn't taste as good as I expected (I didn't get enough soy sauce ;_; ), but it did cure my cravings. Nyammsss!! Sad thing is, I still want more. Maybe end of this month I'll go to the Sushi King RM3 member's day. HUE HUE HUEEEEE!!!!

CRAVINGS!!!

omg.....I have been so swamped with work that I hardly have time for myself. URGH!!! All these work makes me hungry and for a sudden random reason I am craving for salmon sashimi...or sushi...my uncle said it's cheaper to just make it yourself rather than splurge at restaurants so I guess I could give it a try. It's not that hard I think. (HAHA iyolah)

Stumbled upon this on deviantart and it looks quite easy to do! Gonna try it once I got my hands on some salmon fillet. Jusco? Coldstorage? Isetan? Or just go to the wet market and ask? Hmm.. think I'll try Jusco's first and see how. Weehoohaa!

Image belongs to majnouna. You gotta check out her 

"quick food, not fast food" folder. Awesomeness!

High Fever and Measles

So last Sunday we brought Shareese to watch the Despicable Me 2 movie at MBO Space U8. Turns out we managed to get a little "souvenir" from the outing. *sigh* Apparently during the movie, I noticed one mother brought along a sick child with her. Her son was in the stroller and on his skin was some light colored spots. I was not sure what those spots are but it looks like chicken pox. Only that those are spots that are recovering. Not the bulging, filled with liquid spots. I was worried but brushed off the feeling because I thought no mother in their right mind would bring out a child with contagious disease outside. I never have been soooooooooo wrong!!!

The day after his birthday, he was down with high fever for 3 days. After that, POP comes the small rashes. Apparently the malays calls it demam campak keladi? Measles? Not sure.. but it's red and it's making my baby uncomfortable.

Red spots on Shareese

The day the red spots popped up on Shareese's body, is also the day my sweet little 4 month old daughter was down with high fever. Poor baby!!! ; - ;   ...and yeah, a few days after that, she's also down with the measles. T_T  It's really tiring taking care of two sick babies for two weeks straight. My husband was down with the fever too around that time and myself almost got caught with the fever too. Luckily mine wasn't as bad as my babies or kids. Wuu.. such suffocating week. ; - ;

Even with fever, she can still smile :)

We brought them both to see the paed and she confirmed with us that these two has measles. Well actually I am not really sure if it's measles, she mentioned "campak" though. Measles is what ar? hahaha! On the bright side, Doc said that both my babies will develop lifetime immunity from the viral disease. Good thing they got it when they're small coz if they got it when they're in their adulthood, it'll take more time to recover and there'll be a lot more pain and uncomfortableness.

Doc just gave calamine lotion to help ease the itch and also ibuprofen for Shareese, and paracetamol for baby Rissa to help suppress the fever a bit. We also fed both Shareese and Ariessa with coconut drink. It helps to make the spots come out faster and reduce their temperature a bit. We also bathed them in this herbal water (masukkan daun semambu dalam air suam), and it also helps the spots to come out faster.

Right now, both of them have recovered from the fever and the spots on their body is slowly diminishing. Alhamdulillah. ^^
YAY BOLEH KELUAR JALAN-JALAN~~~~ 2 minggu dok rumah je jaga anak. bosan. *__*

Happy 3rd Birthday My Little Buster!

14th July marks Shareese's 3rd birthday. Happy Birthday my little buster!!! My husband and I planned to bring him to the movies for the first time. We had never brought him to the cinema before this because, well, he was too young at that time and he was also very sensitive towards loud noises. He doesn't like the loud sound made with speakers. If we turned on the volume over a certain level, he will panickly asked us to turn it down immediately. *w*;;;
Oh, and did I mention he's scared of the dark too? LOL~ apa punya anak jantan la ni hahahaa.

So anyways, that Sunday afternoon we bought tickets to watch Despicable Me 2 at Space U8's MBO.

Shareese and his lovely minion poster at MBO Space U8.

He loooooooovvvveessssss the minions A LOT and he has been looooooooooping the first Despicable Me movie for countless days on our home theatre. He could almost memorize some of the dialogues already. At first he was really excited to watch the movies. He urged us to go into the cinema faster even before we claimed our tickets hahaha such an excited boy. We thought it'd be one smooth sailing first time movie watching with our little guy, but it wasn't. T__T The minute they turned off the light he repeatedly asked me to make the lights turn back on again.
"Mama! Delap! Nak lampu! Nak lampu! Nak lampu! Mama! Mama! Mama!! Lampu!! Lampu!!"
Yes, he loves repeating himself. <O>
Then the movie trailer starts and the sound was blasting.
"Mama!!! MAMA!!! SLOWWWW!! SLOWWW!!! BISINGGG!!! Mama.. Mama!! MAMA!! MAMAAAAAA!!!!!"
Omg…… if he doesn't shut up and disturbs other people with his constant repetitive requests, we might as well need to ditch the movie watching session and burn our tickets. T__T

Luckily, when he saw the minions during the movie intro, he kinda settles down a bit. "MAMA! BANANA!!" pbfftt! Ok Shareese, yes it is banana. He watches it gleefully, but halfway through the movie he insisted on going back home though. (Yes, my son has short attention span. Like most kids.) But the overall experience of bringing him out for a movie for the first time is not as bad as I expected. Atleast he didn't asked me so much questions during the movie like the kid behind my seat did. Kekekeke… but that's an older kid. Maybe 6 or 7 years old. Curious little bugger.

I love bringing my kid to Space U8's MBO because most of the people watching the movies there are parents with kids so even if Shareese DID throw a dramatic appearance during the movie, I think most people there would understand and not judge us. Wuuu.. I'm kinda scared to bring him out for movies where majority of the movie watchers are unmarried people or couples  without kids who thinks parents who brought their babies and kids to movies are jerks. ; - ;
I said this coz I was one of those people. I got pissed off over this parent who brought a wailing baby to an action movie. whut…….  you dumb?
I won't bring mine to action movie. Maybe just go for those family time animation movies which he likes.

So far, success! Great first time experience with Shareese at the movies for the first time. PAPOI!! Here have a cake.

Happy Birthday Shareese!

Happy 4 month old little Rissa

Today marks Ariessa's 4 month old urhm..monthliversary? pbffttt apekah. How time really flies. Her cheeks are getting more and more fluffier these days. Alhamdulillah semakin membesar anak mama ni. YIIIII!!!! GERAMMMMM!!! I know it's not really a good thing to comapre your kids but I can't help but notice that Ariessa's social skills seem to develop much earlier than Shareese.  She can already smile at 2 weeks old, at 2 months old she can already have "conversations" with people and calling them with random AhAHH sounds. At 2.5 months I could hear her first laughter after we tickle her. Shareese started smiling after my confinement period ended and he hardly respond to our tickling and talking. He's quite fast at developing physical features though. Can already sit without support at 2 months. Ariessa seems a bit flimsy. Oh well, girls are more delicate (and talkative) by nature I assume. =)

Shareese is slowly learning to accept that he has a little sister. When Ariessa was first born, he mati-mati don't want to look at her. It feels like if he looks at her, he is acknowledging her existance hahaha. Funny little guy. And he calls her Arasso instead of Ariessa. =_= Smarty pants... Too much of Korean drama infused to him thanx to my mom. Now everytime I see him touching his little sister's head, patting her and kissing her, it melts my heart! Aww... And I really love how he calls his sister now. Isha! Isha punya! Sayang Isha!! Eh~ Mana Isha!! WHEEE COMELLL GILAAA OK!!!!! (lantak la, anak aku. semua pun comel!!)

Dear baby Rissa and abang Shareese, mama hopes both of you will grow up to be a gentle and kind hearted children, and most importantly jadi anak yang soleh dan solehah ye cayang uchuk achyammm~ 

Ariessa at 1 month till 4 months. Cheeks getting slightly thicker. XD

The Fasting Month is coming

My blog is collecting dust again, as usual. Well, it's not like there's physically any dust here and it's not like there's anyone who would look forward to read my ramblings anyway, right?
Hahahha emo pulak kau Che Ton.

The Holy Fasting Month of Ramadhan is coming, erm..tomorrow.. and Ariessa would turn 4 months the day after. Walawehhh how time flies! I am so grateful that I could still manage to fully breastfeed my little Ariessa, regardless of my failure attempts to do so for my eldest son, Shareese the cheeky little boy. I have to say, it's really not easy to continue breastfeeding and being a working mom at the same time. Kudos to all the working mothers who managed to do so for more than 6 months, even up to 2 years of age. How did you guys find the determination and patience to do so, I wonder...

I have been told that during the fasting month, your milk supply would tend to decrease a little bit due to dehydration, I assume. I was being extra paranoid that I wouldn't be able to provide enough supply for Ariessa during that time and I got panicked and find ways to stock up my milk supply so that when the time comes, my breastmilk would still be enough for her and that I wouldnt have to supplement. Alhamdulillah, with frequent pumping for a few days and consuming vitamins and galactagogues (I took alfalfa pills while occasionally taking fennel and fenugreek), I manage to boost up my milk supply. I usually could pump 4oz to 6oz per session, with total amount of 16oz to 20oz a day. Now, the most I could pump at one time is 10oz, and most of the time it would not be less than 5oz. (Unless I forgot to drink enough water) Total amount of milk I could pump in a day increased to 27oz ~ 29oz. Alhamdulillah, rezeki Ariessa.

I really hope I wouldn't have much problem to breastfeed her during the fasting month, insyaaAllah. It feels so good to see her growing big and know that her growth comes from your very own milk. :)

EBM stock as of 9th July 2013. !5 more 5oz bottles at mom's house
and around 8 more at office's freezer. Tumpang peti sejuk orang lain, because i can. :p