“The whole point of the week is the weekend.” ― Angela Montenegro

“Watch the little things; a small leak will sink a great ship.” - Benjamin Franklin

We shall rise and move on from this. Because we’re positive people. And positive people wouldn’t let - any barriers no matter how high, any temporary setback no matter how hard, any lies no matter how much it hurts - to come between us and success. Step up our game, we shall. Like a phoenix rising from ashes.

"Good memories are like charms. Each is special. You collect them, one by one, until one day you look back and discover they make a long, colorful bracelet.” - James Patterson  

Dear blog,

 

Has it really been more than a month? I made a point to stop paying you a visit during the month of Ramadan because you know I mostly only write lagha stuffs here (tried to limit my tweets as well but wasn't successful of course) and what do I know, suddenly I kinda forgot altogether about your existence. I still love you though, I mean, we've been together for over 9 years! If this ain't love, I don't know what this is. Anyways, a lot have happened, my dear.

From the holy month of Ramadan.
 

To the husband's pre-Ramadan weight loss. Say "Wooot!"

 

 

To the little one's newfound obsession with superheroes. This Batman looks supergay OK, seriously!

 

 

To the best moreh with Ayin's little girl, the ever so cheeky Kasih. The kids had the most fun I think.

To last minute raya shopping.

 

To the night of Syawal eve, when we introduced the little one to bunga api and scared him off.

 

 

To the beautiful first Syawal, when the little one refused to cooperate hence leaving us with no proper family portrait.

 

 

 

 

To being at the airport twice on first Syawal, first to send BIL off for his flight back to London and later at night, for our own flight to Kuala Lumpur, the home of two of my most favourite people in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

To annual trip to Penang, home of good food & beloved relatives.

 

 

To adik-adik's surprise homecoming from Oz.

 

 

To an attempt for family portrait and as you can see, dear blog, no cooperation from the little one.

 

 

To opening our humble home to friends and family.

 

 

 

To another date with Kasih, who looked mighty pretty in the kurung I got her from LizOthman.

 

 

To yet another raya date with Kasih. We really wish we could do this more often, but Kasih is now back in Bintulu and we miss her oh so dearly.

 

 

To a surprise bridal shower my girls and I planned for our dear Dod. Yes I made those cupcake toppers. And yes, I take orders! More on the event later.

 

 

To finding out about the new man of steel, oh my. Oh I think Henry Cavalli would make the perfect Christian Grey, don't you think so, dear blog? It's either him or Ian Somerhalder and no one else will do. Oh yes I've read the 50 Shades trilogy but more on that later (I promise you I'm not a pervert though). Ngeee.

So dear blog, shall I leave you with our new Superman for now? I want to write more but I need to get back to my research here. I'll be back soon, dear blog. Hopefully real soon.

 

Love, your neurotic Marliza Radzi.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY #24

“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.” ― Maya Angelou

Some asked how did I develop Hadi’s interest for books. I don’t know what exactly I did but I sure hope his interest for books will last and is not just a phase. I used to read a lot (back when I have time to spare, sobs!) and hubs still reads a lot, so maybe it’s hereditary? Ngeh. I make sure Hadi has books everywhere he goes. Every time we enter a bookstore, he will get one new, albeit cheap book. If we go into grocery stores that sell candies and books, walau macam mana dia nak candy, I’ll make him take books instead. I buy him colourful, interesting books with stuffs he likes like animals and fruits, I don’t force anything into him. So yeah, itu saja I guess.


Anyways, Hadi turns 21 MONTHS today. Wow 21, that’s a lot of months!

At 21 months, he still mengempeng to tidur and still wakes up at night for milk. I still pump at work although my stocks sangat menyedihkan. I don’t see any sign of him weaning off naturally and I can only pray that he will, eventually. I don’t want to have to go through episodes of crying and wailing forcing him to wean off, please God, no. Frankly, I am so tired.


At 21 months, he still is an energizer bunny, he even moves a lot in his sleep! Hubs watched a documentary on Bruce Lee; his parents dubbed him as ‘The One Who Never Sits Still’, which is why they got fed up of him always getting into trouble and sent him to learn Kung Fu and the rest as they say, is history. Never Sits Still; that is so Hadi! Hence we are now considering enrolling Hadi into martial art class. Who knows, maybe he’d become the next Bruce Lee. Hehehe.


At 21 months, his vocabulary is improving although nothing lah to shout about. Oh, he can make 2-words sentence, nothing fancy, like “Nenek mop mop” each morning when he sees the building cleaner mopping the lobby, or “Uk uk haip!” when he sees noisy dogs (saying Haip, imitating his Nenda) Oh yes, ‘uk uk’ is dog, and ‘uk uk’ is poop as well. Pfftt. ‘Tatak’ is kakak and can also means cicak, depending on the situation. So when he points to the ceiling and screams Tatak!, bukan dia nampak hantu kakak ya, he sees cicak. Boleh bertenang.


At 21 months, he still is a somewhat picky eater. Inspired by the blog Heavilyspiced.blogspot.com I stalked on Friday, on weekends I tried out the blogger’s recipes and they were a hit with my boy! Hadi was never a fan of oat but surprisingly, he did like this one. So I’m sharing the recipe, credit to the blogger, which I tweaked to suit my boy’s taste.

Here’s Hadi having the OAT WITH YOGURT, and here’s the recipe: 3 table spoon of oat, masak sampai kembang. Add 1 table spoon of plain fat free yogurt. Sprinkle some brown sugar. Slice some banana (which Hadi calls ‘Nana’) or any fruits that your kids like.

YOGURT PANCAKE: ¾ cup of tepung naik sendiri. ¾ of plain fat free yogurt. Sprinkle some brown sugar. 1 egg. A pinch of salt. I served this pancake with slices of banana and generous dash of Hershey’s chocolate syrup. Tak sempat tanya, Hadi terus angkat jari telunjuk dia, signaling sedaplah tu. Yeah, at 21 months, he still thinks his pointer is his thumb T___T


At 21 months, my boy has a split personality disorder. Pfftt. One minute he is all sweet and angelic, hugging and kissing me, singing sweetly to Barney and reading books melting my heart away, and the next, he can be monstrous and sangat garang, it’s frustrating and annoying! Then I’ll be all geram and kecewa and be all like, ‘where did I go wrong?’ bla bla bla but then he sleeps and looks all angelic and I’ll be feeling guilty and he wakes up and smiles at me and the world makes sense again, then he reads and sings and mengamuk and the cycle repeats itself.

Example of Personality A. No picture proof of monstrous Personality B, Mama is usually too busy taming tantrum to be bothered with anything else when Personality B strikes T___T


At 21 months, he still and will forever be my world. Oh and yes, the annoying dreadful ‘Bila lagi nombor dua?’ question has been flooding in, thank you very much T___T

"The three ingredients of a successful union between two . . . humor, commitment & undying love" - Bill Cosby

NOTA KAKI: As I said on Facebook and Twitter, Lawak Ke Der is awesome and highly recommended! Nabil calls Harith Iskander the main dish of the show; and yeah, what a scrumptious main dish he was! Awesome! 4 more shows left, don't miss your chance of the 3 hours full of pecah perut fun!

"You know the only people who are always sure about the proper way to raise children? Those who’ve never had any.” - Bill Cosby

"Human beings are the only creatures on earth that allow their children to come back home." - Bill Cosby

“Having a place to go - is a home. Having someone to love - is a family. Having both - is a blessing.” - Donna Hedges

I took part in the #mydayinphotos Instagram challenge on Sunday and as evidenced by these Instagram pictures of mine, my weekends are all about family. We do mostly the same stuffs on every weekend; we’re unexciting like that. Haha. But lazy, event-free weekends are just my kind of weekend. Brace yourself, I am about to share anecdotes of it. Ngeh.

Saturday: I woke up at 5 and baked a pirate theme diaper cake (so much fun, this one is!), prepped for breakfast and went back to sleep after solat. Kenit woke me up at almost 9, we cuddled a bit, sing songs on the bed until he got tired of my singing and asked for Barney. But because I couldn’t stand another minute of the purple dinosaur, I gave him BabyTV instead. Charlie & the Numbers, Mice the Builders, Baby Chef etcetera are less annoying.

Then I made spaghetti for our breakfast and steamed potato with cheese for kenit. We had breakfast, watched TV, read some books, and then we got ready for outing with some friends. To Jusco Tebrau we went; had lunch, coffee and cakes with friends, awesome time. Hubs needed new strings for his guitar so off he went to the music store while kenit and I had fun testing out toys at ToysRUs. Boy, kenit really enjoyed himself! Then I got tempted at Dorothy Perkins and succumbed to my weakness. Biasalah, perempuan lemah T___T Tapau-ed dinner and went to MIL’s. Later at midnight, FIL had difficulty breathing and hubs rushed him to the ER and spent the night there until 4 a.m. Alhamdulillah FIL’s all well now.


Sunday: Because hubs got home at 5, after our usual morning snuggle (PIC #1), kenit and I let him sleep in and we went for breakfast at mamak just the two of us. Then we went to the apartment’s playground (PIC #2) and had fun playing slides, climbing up and down, running here and there; boy that was a good time. Good exercise for Mama too, chasing a super hyper toddler is not easy OK! Phewww! Back home, watched TV, read books, coloured Big Bird, Elmo and Cookie Monster (PIC #3) and kenit played (and by play I mean making mess all around the house!) Took his second bath (PIC #4) and this time I let him play (the one in the morning is usually just me spraying water on him mercilessly). Kenit is one big fan of his bath time! An afternoon nap followed (PIC #5), letting Papa and Mama watch Nona in peace. Oh yeah, Papa now watches Nona! No prize for guessing why T___T

Then I made some cucoq and because the weather was nice and windy, we had tea at the balcony and kenit was topless yo! (PIC #6) Sasa tak? Such indecency. Another quick bath and we’re all set for another outing (PIC #7, of kenit waiting for Papa at the Lobby; I just love our nice, tranquil apartment lobby!) Went to Jusco Bukit Indah, hubs had a hair cut while kenit and I wandered around here and there. He bought me shoes and as we all know, cute shoes make women happy (PIC #8). Kah kah. Went to MIL’s and watched AJL 26 while kenit, mabuk mengantuk that he was, melakukan huru hara sana sini (PIC #9) and wouldn’t let we watch in peace. I had to force him into the room, put him to sleep and missed a few performances. But thank goodness for Astro PVR, the recorder is one cool thing, I tell you! AJL was overall OK and Yuna’s Penakut is the Juara Lagu in my heart, yeah. But my favourite bit of the show? Di hujung performance Aliyah, no prize for guessing why ;P

Weekends are just the best lah. And now I miss my boys!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY #21