What a holiday!

I am back after a long… holiday. Well, I always take an extended holiday at end of year with my family. I haven’t been updating. I like to wish Happy New Year to everybody.

During the holiday we brought the children to Hong Kong and stayed for 10 days. Why Hong Kong? Well it started with me promising Fatini months ago to take her there after some of her friends came back from Hong Kong Disneyland. Since then, week after week she will follow up with my promise.

At 10 days we had enough time to visit Disneyland for two days and Ocean Park for 2 days. Other days were spent touring around the city on double decker bus, lingering around the famous Victoria Harbour at sea as well as at the port by day and by night.

There were also sufficient time to rest in between days so that the kids were not exhausted from too much activities.

This was my first time in Hong Kong and for me it was a pleasant surprise even though everything was so expensive. My advice will be to bring lots of cash and credit cards when visiting. Change your cash at the airport or money exchanger as hotels and banks do not accept RM for exchange. Banks may charge additional fees.

The cities were clean and the public transports were reliable. Bus was cheapest and MRT for four people was expensive. Taxi’s cost is as expected and we had used taxi for the first few days before we knew our way and started to take the bus. The kids wanted to ride on the bus anyway.

People seemed very busy and the street sides were as busy as Oxford Street in London during sales seasons. Hong Kong people are stylish and well dressed for most of them.

As for the kids, they had a good time and bought lots of toys. It’s very difficult to say no as toys were everywhere especially at the theme parks. I told Fatini there will be no new toys until next December!

Some pictures for memories.

Performance of the year

Last Sunday, as per previous years, Fatini and Emir’s school had their annual concert. I can only say that I’m proud of my children’s show of confidence as I am sure other parents there did too of their children that evening. I enjoyed the concert tremendously.

Picture showed some of the shows.

Chinese song and dance.

Cowboy dance.

Dancing with Castanets.

South American dance, forgot what it's called.

So Long, Farewell... from sounds of music

Fatini emceed the final curtain

And the ever supporting cousins Nabilah, Hakeem and kak Deea... and the mummy offcourse

The little warrior in action

Last Sunday, Fatini was scheduled to take the exam for the taekwondo grading. She has only started a dfew months. I realised that Fatini has many hidden talents which she didn't show to me. I meant, I never expected anything from her, I just wanted her to have a good time. However watching her perform the taekwondo, I can see how dedicated she is towards anything that she did and how responsible she is. She just filled me with admiration for her. I'm so proud of you sayang.

Happy Birthday Emir

On 5^th December 2009, Emir was finally 4 years old. I had his birthday party done 2 weeks plus earlier because of expected busy times during this time which is absolutely true.

Emir, you are a joy to my life. You have become so handsome and grown so tall. You are also very smart, capable and compassionate. Your mind sometimes surprises me with its brilliance and sharpness I didn’t know you possess for such a small person your age. You are also very responsible and very caring. You have a sense of fairness and always try to be fair to your love ones.

At four years old, you can talk very well now and sometimes non stop. You are not afraid to speak up and will voice out your mind to people. I love listening to you and your refreshing accent.

You want to sleep only with me by your side. When you were very little, which was just a couple of years ago, you didn’t want me out of your sight! However, I notice now, you have become so much more independent and it’s okay when mummy leave you to go somewhere else for a while. Even though it is more convenient to me now, in my heart I felt a twinge of sadness that you don’t depend too much on me anymore. When I wanted to go out and I told you to stay home and you said “ok mommy” with your ever beautiful accent, instead of crying, it pulled that sadness string in my heart.

You also liked to praise me, saying I’m pretty, and you know what, coming from you, it means a whole lot to me!

Emir, do you know that mummy really love to smell your smell, have you sit on my lap and have you snuggled closed to me. When you hit your sister during one of your naughty episodes and I warned you to give your sister away, you said “ No, I don’t want that!”

My heart swells with pride to watch you feeling secure and your confidence growing day after day.

And I hope to persevere that feeling of security and protect you from any harm.

I have thousands of words to say but it’s impossible for me to pen them down here.

All I can tell is I love you so much and you have been the greatest joy to me. I pray you turn out to be a good responsible person and that you be successful in your life.

Qurban

Last Sunday was one hot day in the farm at Meru. I joined my husband’s group of friends in making Qurban, slaughtering of 2 cows and 2 sheeps. The men were working on the animals. I couldn’t watch though and didn’t let the children see the actual slaughtering for fearing of misunderstanding as they are still very young.

Emir remarked that the men were wicked men! But fortunately the kids didn’t give much attention to the activities as they busied themselves with more interesting past time with the horses and goats on the farm. The women helped with the onions, tomatoes and carrots. Easy job for us.

The meat was distributed to the poor people round the village, a shelter for girls, and the Rohingya refugees. We did cooked some meats for a late lunch which was served garden tuscan styled under the trees. Very nice indeed. Everybody had a great time even though the weather was quite hot and sweaty. I didn’t take picture, but I did record some scenes on my camcorder. This one picture was snapped by Emir.

Emir

Emir’s receiving his year end graduation from the Edudrama class. It’s end of year cum Christmas celebration. The class will be closed and continue after new year. The kids have been enjoying the classes and I have no reason not to continue. As long as they are happy. One thing is Saturday morning will never be a free time for me. However, I am enjoying every moment of the busy"ness" of being a mom to almost school going kids.

I am proud of Emir. He has been progressing very well. His "pelat" ness is almost gone even though I feel his speech has accent of baby talk which I love so much. It makes him very endearing. However he's growing very fast in terms of physique (he's tall) as well as mental capabilities. His cheekiness and boyish naughtiness have been on the increasing trend as well and I'm trying to curb it and have been lecturing him. He's been a good boy 99% of the time. I'm so proud of him. I love you Mir.

At Nabilah's party

End of year has always been busy times of the year. For me, it’s filled with birthday parties, school graduations and holiday plans. Last Saturday was the kids’ cousin, Nabilah’s birthday party at their home. We spent the whole afternoon there. There was a magician show and see the children’s face. They were really fascinated with the show. I think I will hire the magician next time around.