My Lil Caliphs Activties | Parenthood

Ramadhan

By on July 30, 2012

This year’s Ramadhan is a totally new experience for us, as our son harith is also fasting, MasyaAllah. His first day of fasting was on the 2nd Ramadhan. He didnt fast on the 1st day because he had his swimming lesson, furthermore i wanted him to observe us fasting. Once he had observe us, it was easier to explain to him. Alhamdulillah it was easy to relate to him since every now and then we would bring our children to see the food distribution to the homeless in KL. My children have seen people queuing  up for food, they have seen people eating by the pavement, they have seen people who sleep on cardboards by roadside. They have witness all these and are aware that some are less fortunate than others. Thus i relate fasting with the homeless. I told them Allah ask us to fast as a reminder to all of us to bersyukur with what we have. To remember others who are in need and not to be greed.  To know how it feels being hungry, just like the homeless. We will be more appreciative when we know how others feel. I told harith we fast from imsak till maghrib and his quick respond was “yes, just like the homeless, they wait for the lorry to come at night to get their food…tak mati pun kan tunggu sampai malam” With that respond, i was confident he understood the concept of fasting.

I wouldnt want my children to fast and all they get are hunger and thirst without having the understanding of fasting. It defeat the purpose. After all they are only 5 years old, it is not compulsory for them to fast. Since harith has grasp the meaning of fasting, i encourage him to give it a try. I didnt get athirah to fast coz of her lack of understanding the meaning of puasa.

On his first day of fasting, he seems alright alhamdulillah. Initially I plan to make him fast half day but he seems okay and no complain. It was a sunday, so we killed time by going to One Utama at about 3pm. He even insists on wearing his sports shoes so he could run about. We went to Toys R Us coz he wanted to play with the legos. Upon seeing other toys, i told hArith..if he could fast for 5 days, i will get papa to buy you a toy. He was all excited to take up the “challenge” . Honestly i didn’t put any high expectation on it. Anyhow the first day went well, MasyaAllah.

Iftar,first day of fasting

He continued fasting the following days, attending school was not an issue although school serves  morning break and lunch. He told me, he remain in the class with another 2 friends while the rest have their meals. He continued fasting 4 days in a row.  he had no problem playing outside in the evening. Twice the weather were gloomy, he was already out at 3pm. i had to come out with various activities to avoid him from playing football and running about.

Keeping him occupied coz he wanted to play football: Sidewalk chalk, sand pit and batik painting

allowed him to play football only after 6pm

jumping about on the trampoline like any other day

On the 4th day, he had a friend over and when the friend had to leave, he threw tantrum . He wanted to play football outside but i told him it was still early (it was 5pm then) I was afraid he might get thirsty and tired, thus i told him he could play outside after 6pm. Since his friend had to leave, before he could play football with him….maka bermulah lah episode tantrum,he cried and screamed saying i broke my promise. After all the screaming and crying he felt asleep at about 630pm. As we woke him up for iftar, he got cranky and moody. Thus i decided to give him a break, not to fast the next day.

To my surprise, he woke up the next day asking me “why mommy tak wake me up to eat? (sahur)” Told him to take a day rest and continue fasting the following day, so he did. Friday is his most fav day at school coz they have cooking session and Show&Tell. I totally forgotten about the cooking session or should i say, i assume they dont have it during the month of Ramadhan. But i was wrong. He did have his cooking session, in fact they did one of his fav food; garlic bread. When I fetched him,I asked, are you still fasting? And he said “yes, teacher suruh bawak balik makan” SubhanAllah. a 5 year old boy, who had prepared food but yet he could keep himself from eating.

He took a day off again on the 8th of Ramadhan since it was a saturday, he has his swimming lesson. And as of today, he has fast for 6 days, masyaAllah. We kept to our promise and bought him a new toy 🙂 . Today was a tough day for him, he didnt eat much during sahur, refused to eat rice and had only a slice of pizza. and since it was a weekend, the day felt longer. Had to come out with various activities to keep him occupied. At 7pm, he looked very tired and wanted to break his fast, told him to hang on a lil bit more. He was also tired coz he woke up for sahur at 5am and didnt sleep in after eating. he was up the whole day without any nap. Managed to make him hang on till maghrib, he had his meal and straight away get to bed.

Tomorrow is monday, he has PE at school. I plan not to wake him up for sahur. ( I totally forgotten about this last week) Let him enjoy his PE with unlimited energy, after all he is only 5 years, he is supposed to play all day long, isnt he? 🙂

 

** photos were all taken using the phone camera

 

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I am back! :)

By on July 23, 2012

It has been a looonggg silence. My blog was badly effected by a malware and didnt manage to get it done until recently. Lots of things happen, kids are growing much faster than i knew. Uwais is no longer a baby, hArith and athirAh with their very own character. And sadly, uZair is still not talking yet. He just turned 4 few days back. Still attending his speech therapy and occupational therapy on weekly basis

Not too sure where to start since I have not been writing for months. Main highlight was our trip to Disneyland, LA and had our TRIPLE CELEBRATION 2012 early this month. Unfortunately the SD card for our US trip got kaput so we aint have any photo except for those from my phone.

Meanwhile, a lil picture updates of my lil ones. Alhamdulillah they are growing well and keeping me busy all the time, masyaAllah.

This was our mini science project during the school holiday. We did volcano eruption 🙂

Here are the things that you need to do the “volcano”;

Mineral bottle (u will need to cut the upper part)
Lotsa newspaper
glue starch ( i just mix flour and water, with pinch of salt)

 

tape the newspaper for the first few based then start using the glue starch to add on the papers

Oh before u start on this project, do inform your kids that it will take over night for it to dry. Or else they will keep on pestering you, “dah blum?” “dah blum?”

Someone is eager to see the eruption, checking on it every other hour

Yayy, finally 🙂

Next is to paint it. We only had red water color left though. But enough to make the kids happy

 

 

We googled for the eruption’s “recipe”. They are various recipe. It was nice to try different recipe to enbale to kids to see different variables caused different reaction.

 

Didnt take much photo of the eruptions since my hands were wet to hold the camera

Oh, while we were doing this, the postman came with a parcel. As i was attending to him, heard harith screaming…ran back to them to see, athirAh had poured the whole bottle of viniger as she wanted a bigger eruption… and everything spilt on the floor,

 

We then had a good time playing water, scrubbing the floor before the stain wont go off. And the day ends with a dip in the “pool”

 

 

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Uwais is 1 year old

By on February 20, 2012

Yes, how time flew by. Uwais turned 1 year old on 24th January. It really feels quick with him, maybe because his progress was rather rapid, alhamdulillah. He started crawling at 5 months plus. and walking when he was 10 1/2 months (We didnt put him on walker) He didnt really have the tah-tih-tah-tih (jalan jatuh2)  moments. He mastered his standing, and when he decide to walk it was straight away  5, 6 steps. and next day it became almost 10 steps and next thing we knew he was all over the house already. His first step wasnt just 1 – 2 steps. Terus 5 steps. Alhamdulillah. Crawl cepat, jalan pun cepat…im making dua’ cakap pun cepat, no delay speech like uzair, insyaAllah.

Anyway, we decided to go out for birthday lunch. Went to Marmalade since thats among the few places that has children play section. I managed to make an impromptu bday flags to be placed at uWais’ highchair.

but unfortunately bday boy fell asleep in the car and that spoiled his mood…trus moody xnk dok kt highchair

and syauqi suggested to make the “I am 1” sign for him

awake n confused

alhamdulillah this boy eats almost everything. in fact we have a prob with that sometimes coz he wants watever we are eating. Loves to eat on his own.

Bought a cupcake for him but he refused to sit in the highchair once he was done with his linguine.

of coz it was the brother n sister that were excited to blow the candle,

and bday boy continues to cling to the dad,

oh yes, this boy is super clingy too. if kuar mmg melekat to us, takut org. padahal he is always out in social setting. we go to malls 2 – 3 times in a week. even at home he hangs on to me most of the time. Is it because Im a stay-at-home-mom, that’s why he always clings to me and refused to go to other people? he is now 8.5kg…getting a lil tiring to carry him all the time. my stamina now is terrible, terrible. Tried doing some jogging on the treadmill, wasnt a good idea, my inflammation of bone decided to come back. how do i keep myself fit if i cant do any form of exercise. helppp.

Uwais been attending infant swimming lesson since mid january. Attended 5 sessions already and we can submerge him for about 5 seconds now. Unfortunately wont be able to continue the lesson next month coz they have move to another place which will no longer be convenient for me to bring him. Trying to schedule for a new group swimming lesson. Any babies out there would love to join? I think if i can get 4 babies, we can try schedule a new group for them.

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Random Babbles

By on December 26, 2011

School holiday is testing my limit, kids’ sleeping hours are haywire. Harith n Uwais are morning person, regardless how late they sleep, b4 8am they will be up dh tepacak bangun leaving me no chance of sleeping in. Uwais is only 10 months but is taking less nap now since the other 3 are home, he finds it more interesting to be up to play with them. Yesterday uwais slept 5 mins to midnite, he only had nap twice during the day in which total hours slept not even close to 2 hours. Uzair as usual sleeps late and he will sleep in. Due to various sleeping pattern of the kids’, i ended up sleeping late but waking up early. Putting all 4 to sleep is a different battle everyday. At times i wonder does syauQi ever wonder how do i managed the 4 kids alone when he is away.

As i mention in previous entry, uzair likes the crashing game, now he crashes on me all the time. he is 14 kg and i’m 43kg…that’s about 1/3 of my weight crashing on me. I used to sleep before him and let him fall asleep by himself but due to these crashing seeking thingy, he tend to jump on me every now and then when i am asleep. Thus alternatively, i cant sleep but belek2 die instead, rub oil on his body and such. Asal nampak i pegang botol baby oil, wahh laju je die pasrah kan diri baring hulur kaki suruh sapu2. lepas kaki hulur tangan lak, pastu selak baju pastu hulur kaki balik….

I really need to increase my patience n tolerance level, besides getting crash onto, uwais is teething…i get bites every now n then. And he has this habit of one hand thumb sucking and the other hand grasp on my hair..ended up getting my hair pulled every now and then. Oh have i mentioned here? Uwais has started walking! He started walking a week after he turned 10 months, Subhanallah. We are rather surprised to see him walking that soon, in fact he is already busy kicking balls. He started crawling pun cepat, when he was 5 months plus. Lets hope he starts talking fast too..hihi Or at least no a delayed speech issue, insyaAllah.

No, uzair is still not talking and has his tantrums every now n then. BUT when he is without tantrums he is much of a cheerful boy. He laughs and giggles more when he is not in his tantrums. Do the crashing game with him, he will be one happy cheerful boy! It need lots of energy to play with him, he likes adventure seeking kind of play.

uZair in a cheerful mode

hArith is attending holiday programme 12 days Swimming Crash Course. Initially we enrolled athirAh too but she refused to corporate. She wanted to be in the small pool je taknk masuk the big pool. For their age, they not able to swim yet after the 12 days but they teach survival skill, i.e floating and kangaroo hope in the water. Tomorrow will be their last day. I plan to pinjam my SIL underwater camera to take few shots of them in the water. Meanwhile here are few shots i took with my phone

“Blow bubbles with your nose, not your mouth”

starfish float, he can float but not confident to do it at the big pool

kat big pool, kept telling the coach “dont let me go”

The crash course swimming lesson is at Glenmarie Golf Club 4 times a week (weekday). yup mmg mcm cari pasal namenye,have to redah jam every petang for the swimming lesson (5-6pm) But im not complaining, dok rumah with them pun just as tiring. I would love if hArith continues the swimming lesson, once a week (weekend). Currently he is at Nemo 1 level, so if smbung monthly he can masuk level Nemo 2. Syauqi doesnt seem to agree with me, he said tak baloi spend hours on the road to bawak sorang je. Well, dah age anak lain2, different anak lain needs lah kan? His exact ayat was “i want you home” im not too sure does that mean he wants me home because he wants to spend more time with me or because he wants me home as in dont-leave-me-to-handle-the-other-3 kids…hahaha. Welcome to my world syauqi 😛 2 – 3 jam jer im leaving the kids with you … it is a nice break for me 😛 (even though it means stuck in the traffic jam)

It is no doubt tiring dealing with the kids, hope besar nanti pandai lah they take care of us, parents pulak. Regardless how tiring the days are…seeing moments like this,how well they bond together…will never fail to put a smile on my face,

and sweep away all the kepenatan, (but that doesnt mean i dont grumble on how tired it is…hahaha)

Precious

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On Delay Speech , Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Developmental Paeds

By on December 17, 2011

Been wanting to share with all of you the experience im going through with my son uZAir. But each time i decide to sit down, i ended up lost of words on how to compose it. May i warn u, this will be a very “wordy” entry. will try to put photos (irrelevant) in between so u wont feel like as though u are reading a thesis…haha

Uzair is already 3 years and 4 months but has not started talking. I mention about his and our frustration in this entry. Anyway, each time i raise the issue of uzair’s delay in speech, i kept getting assurance from others ” biasa lah tu, some ppl start talking later” “ala, nanti once dah cakap, sure ckp tak benti” ” X and Y start cakap when he was 4, dont worry” . but my maternal instinct told me the other way. I was worried sick but kept it to myself n make lots of dua’ to Allah.

Beside delay in speech, he doesnt really mix with others. He likes to take two things and start knocking it together, it can go on for hours.  I was worried of autism back then but alhamdulillah he has eye contact whenever we interact with him. but i wouldnt want to be too confident and rule it out by myself without professional help. Thus i made an appointment to see developmental pediatrician. It was back in June when i called up for appointment, unfortunately there isnt much developmental pediatrician here in Malaysia, the only slot we manage to get was end october. So for those who suspect your kid with anydevelopmental issues, i suggest you call in for appointment, and if along the way, u manage to tackle the issue, u can always call to cancel the appointment. Doctor Rajini is from Sunway Medical but she is at the Baby Beyond Clinic in Bangsar Village II every monday. We got our appointment in Bangsar Village 2.

Besides the speech delay,we didnt realise other issues that should have been a concernbecause our elder 2 were premature, so we couldnt compare their development progress. now that we have uWais, we can see things that uzair didnt do when he was younger. He was lack in imitation. If we sing and do action and all, he didnt imitate  much (tapi if programme Wiggles tu, reti pulak nk imitate). he wasnt interested in toys (not much curiosity), you can bring him into Toys R Us, he will just look and show no interest at all in any of the toys. The toys we have at home pun tak hairan. Uwais yg baru 10 bulan ni pun dah reti nk main toys n rampas toys dari elder 2.

I did ask the speech therapy (uzair started going for speech therapy since May) at what point i should already be concern and brought him for speech therapy (after realizing we should have seen speech therapy earlier too). According to her, if uzair has imitation, role play and other interaction, then boleh lah if nk tunggu skit lg, coz ni jatuh under category soon-he-will-start-talking, tp since uZair dah takde sume tu, then it means mmg ade issues that need to be address. So my advice, if your anak have these signs i mentioned, or another thing is if he tends to pull himself away from crowd, avoidance and such… it is a concern. Should seek professional help. Get the appointment and while waiting for 3 – 4 months for your slots, if he out grow from the issues, you can cancel the appointment. Coz if u say takpe lets give it another 2 3 bulan camane, ha by then nk buat appointment…jenuh nak menuggu another 4 5 months

Anyway, he is attending speech therapy  at Hartamas. I was given number for speech therapy centre called Speech Help in PJ but they were full and they gave me the lady in Hartamas. Im very happy with her, and best part is, she rent a house and turn it into a centre, thus parking is not an issue. boleh park depan her house. Her fees is RM120 for an hour session. We attend once a week. Since we started with the speech therapy, we can see uzair’s improvement in terms of his interaction. Previously he wouldnt even acknowledge presence of guests in the house. at least now if my aunts datang, he will approach the guest and showed some gesture. And whenever we go to my inlaws die dah reti lah nak “bertepuk tampar” with the others. In fact although i stay with my parents, previously uzair does not has much (almost to nil) interaction with my parents, nama je duduk sebumbung. n now dah boleh miggle around with the other siblings too, harith n athirah gelak, die pun join gelak.

Anyway the developmental pediatrician diagnose uzair as Sensory Processing Disorder. “Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD, formerly known as “sensory integration dysfunction”) is a condition that exists when sensory signals don’t get organized into appropriate responses. Pioneering occupational therapist and neuroscientist A. Jean Ayres, PhD, likened SPD to a neurological “traffic jam” that prevents certain parts of the brain from receiving the information needed to interpret sensory information correctly” . ” We receive and perceive sensory input through sights, sounds, touch, tastes, smells and movements, Difficulty taking in or interpreting this input can lead to devastating consequences” And this explains uzair’s speech delay.

Doctor suggested for Occupational Therapy for uzair. We have started going for the therapy and he loves it. He is getting all the sensory sensation that he needs. The centre is full of padded mat, bean bags in which he can simply crash himself anywhere and fulfill his sensation seeking. Result in occupational therapy questionnaire showed that uzair obtained scores that indicate typical performance on auditory visual processing, vestibular and oral sensory processing BUT definite difference (more than others) on touch and multisensory processing. Some people their touch and multiprocessing is less than others, tu sbb some kids if pegang pasir pun can be painful, they also avoid glue or muds, or can be very sensitive to sound, get irrirates easily with loud sounds. But uzair on the other hand, he is seeking more than others. if nak sapu die, jgn lah sapu lemah lembut, mmg tak feel langsung for him. “One person with SPD may over-respond to sensation and find clothing, physical contact, light, sound, food, or other sensory input to be unbearable. Another might under-respond and show little or no reaction to stimulation, even pain or extreme hot and cold”. Uzair falls in the category under-respond. We were told that uzair becomes frustrated or upset easily due to confusing information from the sensory system. In some cases, the child’s nervous system is not interpreting the input in a helpful way, leading to the child’s sense of disruption with what is going on around him.

So kesimpulannye die bukan lah sesuka hati nak throw tantrum, perhaps thats the reason why my maternal instinct stops me from pinching or spanking him whenever he misbehave. i always believe he throw tantrums because he is frustrated not able deliever to us what he wants…bukan sesuka hati nak tantrums. But of coz my sister thinks the other way round, she thinks im being bias , pilih kasih…kan hanah, kan? 😛 . For now, he also attends Occupational Therapy once a week, it is RM 100 for an hour session. So for the Speech and Occupational Therapy for uzair monthly is RM880… maka dgn itu jgn lah berangan nak gi Johor Premium Outlet :P. Xpe, org kate bumi Allah ni luas, insyaAllah rezeki ade merata2 🙂

Anyway, pics above were during our trip to FRIM waterfall. Look at elder 2, they can be very sweet at times. Harith feeding athirah,

Please help us make lots of dua’ for uzair’s speech and other development progress. Thanks

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