UKS Charity Activity 25TH AUG 2008

This is the first time i joined the Ummiku Sayang (UkS) charity group for their mission,
the location was the Kajang Hospital ( so, that explains my participation, dekat dengan rumah lah!). The targeted group was the Pediatric Ward of the said hospital. It was great fun to see such a crowd, but of course those kids turned-up with all the bandages, IV lines, arm sling, etc. At first, they looked a bit uncomfortable, what with the 'costumes' and maybe the fact that they are not well ( we were in the ward, remember?!). The moment they got the gift packs, the printed paper merdeka-themed cap, and of course, the big beautiful cake of the same theme, they started smiling and being bubbly again. I managed to capture a few smiles, not only from our little patients, but from the parents as well ( oh, some with the whole family in tow!).

There was also a story telling session (Read Aloud), by Mdm Nita with her 2 beautiful daughters on stage, giving the children an excitement of 'A Walk in the Jungle' and 'Nasi Lemak Ibu'. Hmm...this RA session made me wonder, when will I do mine? My audience is usually my 3 boys, of whom I can act silly with, or put up some hillarious actions ( diaorg gelak, apaaa..). But infront of other kids? Other kids, and THEIR PARENTS? Oh..no no..NO! I think the first thing those parents would do, is to ban their kids from further watching this 'over-acting auntie', next is to cautious their kids from befriending my 3 musketeers, and ..OK! I KNOW I'M EXAGGERATING! I KNOW, I KNOW!! STOP!! back to what i wanted to write, people.

The UkS children were kind enough to hand out a big Get Well Soon card for our little darlings. I am no stranger to wards, nut gov3rm3nt hospital wards? Taking care of sick kids in the hospital wards like I have seen last Saturday, is something else. When I say , that my children checked-in and checked-out from hospitals, i have already made that sound like spending a few nights and days in a good hotel. In fact Umar thought that if not for the IV lines and the process to insert the IV lines, it was a good hotel, no doubt! What with a dedicated doctors, and kind nurses who always check on you.."fever?, no fever?, here's your lunch!, here's your medicine', ooh..no wonder he thinks of hospital wards so positively!

As much as I want to say to the mothers I met that :" I understand how you feel", or 'I've been through this', or "Anak saya pun baru keluar hospital Isnin lepas", I can't. I just can't.

While I always had a spacious room only for my son and me, with a bathroom, mirror, cupboard/wardrobe, a sofa, a chair, a cable TV , lights here and there, newspaper, air-conditioned room, sometimes request for a baby cot, so that I could sleepmon the bed, or ask for another bed if the need arises, good food for the mother and son, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

The mothers or whoever were taking care of the children in the ward, do not have all this.

I'm not sure of those in first class wards, though? Any such thing as first class wards?

They can't just sleep in private, the children who obviously need lots of rests may not have the proper nap they needed, what with the neighbours crying out loud, they are oblivious to the passers-by, etc,etc,etc. It would have been a good lesson for Umar, too! Plus, it was his 4th birthday on that Saturday, 25th Aug. But I didn't bring him along. Maybe I should, the next time I join this kind of activity.

All in all, i would say that it was a success and I'm glad that I made the effort to be there. Bravos to UkS members who were there, (physically or in spirit), who made great effort to give the children of the Kajang Hospital's Pediatric Ward, a day to remember. Clap, clap, clap..

For more picture of the events, please go to my flickr. Wait, not yet uploaded, soon, InsyaAllah..

Oh yes, Umar was warded again, on the 17th Aug, this time of asthma. He was breathing very heavily started Thursday evening, and I heard a funny sound everytime he exhaled. I brought him to Az-zahrah medical centre, Bangi at 12.00am, and he was giving the gas once and some medication. I plan to bring him to GMC, since they have his records of croup, bronchiolitis, etc, but early Friday morning he had difficulty in breathing, even telling me that "Ibu, Umar penat". He looked vey pale when we were in the car, and looking at my watch , it was 7am on Friday, knowing the traffic, I was just scared that we might not make it on time, since he looked very pale and breathing very slowly, as if he was so tired of taking deep breaths. So, I made my move to Az-Zahrah, about 20 minutes from the house, and he was admitted. We spent 2 nights in the hospital, and since it was near, we took a home leave on Saturday morning to see the 2 little brothers. They were at home with Bibik. My DH was always at the other end of the telephone line, and knowing that i can always call him, however,whenever I wanted to, helped a lot too!

Last Sunday, we had a makan-makan for Umar's birthday. Oh, did I tell you about the Creative Music & Movement class i attended last weeks, with teacher Farra? OOhhoo.. I had a good time. I was the only mother/non-teacher in the class, out of 12 participants. The rests are pricipals/teachers from various kindergarten & enrichment centers. Alamak, berderau darah belajar dengan cikgu-cikgu nih! heheh..

InsyaAllah, will post about them later...

art attack..the beginning

demam-demam pun masih berkarya..

What do you make of a pen and a paper!
This is what Umar made!
I should have taken photos of his other creations, like fish from newspapers, stingrays, eumbrella, all from paper/newspaper.
He was doing his own 'work' when he put this on his head and announced "Tutup kepala, salji turn"
(sorry, obviously, he had never seen snow before..hehe)

it's not wong, but err..

Hafiz was soo happy that Ayah came back for him

Terlalu suka

Hafiz spent a memorable 5D4N in GMC, Jln Ampang

We were in the car heading towards Bangi, and had my usual chat with Umar.
He likes to look up in the sky, and when he spots an aeroplane, will make a big fuss about it.I think, the fact that our area is quite near to the Sepang KLIA, we always spot aeroplane flying low and that excites him further more.

Being-the-good-and-modern-mom-I-am, I always talk about the real thing, explaining the real situation, would offer some theories (scientific, mine or ancient greek's ;-)) where possible.

Me: "Umar tau tak, kalau helicopter , dia naik terus ke atas, vertically. kalau aeroplane, kan dia naik slowly, at an angle, baru dia naik tnggi ke atas. Landasan dia panjang" (Me thinks: Faham ke Umar ni!?)

Umar: "Ibu, sebab itulah aeroplane tu ada tayar, helicopter tu kan ada kaki, takde tayar!!

Me: ooooooo...

------------------------------------


Umar knows his ABC just by singing it out loud. I noticed that he recognizes A, O and a few numbers like 0 (hehehe..), 1, 3, 4, and 7, 10. For the rest of the numbers, he decided to just ignore them or trying to change the civilization by giving them other values.

Last night , I was SMS-ing DH, and Umar was lying besides me. He insisted to take a look at what i was typing. Thinking maybe that I should then 'test' his alphabets skills, I pointed out to the 'Exit' menu, and pointed to the letter 'E'.

umar: "B" (hmmmm..)

me: Pointing tu the letter 'x". Apa selepas E ni?

Umar: lepas "E", "F" lah.. (tunjuk terer lah pulak, tak pe Ibu should be v e r y p a t i e n t!!!!)

Me: Pointing to 'x' again. Ni apa?

Umar: Oooh..tu huruf yang untuk tulis salah.. ( get it? that's what he gets when he made a mistake in writing, etc, TANDA PANGKAH X !!)

Me: oh Umar!

why the silence?

take this: I'm writing from the Gleneagles Intan Medical Centre, Jalan Ampang!
My last day was on Friday, the 29th June, and the next day, Saturday, I brought Hafiz for his check-up, and he had been having a cough for quite sometime. The doctor asked him to be warded for further blood and urine test.
He was then diagnosed with pneumonia. hmm..poor baby! DH was of course in Sudan, and 2 days later ( Monday), he arrived in KL for his 5 days emergency leave :-)
Hafiz was discharged on Wednesday, 4th July. The bad thing was, all 3 kids ( and the ibu) were not feeling well, down with fever and flu. We took turn to bring Umar and then Lutfil to the pead.
All of them were then on antibiotics and DH then was due for his course in Singapore on Saturday, 7th July.
Umar then suddenly fell sick on Sunday night, and aftre a visit to his regular pead on Monday, 9th July, still had a very high fever, and I think we didn't sleep at all that night ( Sunday and Monday). Tuesday, 10th July, I brought Umar to another pead in GMC, and he was admitted!
So, I spent my days and nights in hospital wards, for the past 2 weeks, well, almost!

I have just paid the telephone bills i was using ( ye lah, menehjut je kena admitted, charger pun tak bwk, so guna telephone bilik hospital lah) , and we'll be going home tonight after Umar got his antibiotics at 6pm.

I have to go, I promised Umar to buy some sweets, and now he's reminding me about it..

Wish us well!

PS: Abang, appointment for Lutfil has been done for tomorrow morning. Pray that he's going to be ok ( err..I mean, hopefully he's not going to be admitted). Not that i don't like the hospital food... ;-)

i'm looking for this book!

I've been looking for this book. The one I have right now is sooo old, i am looking for the newer version. If nay of u have any info of any of the title below, or if u want to let go yours, please let me know!

This is one of my favourite book, ever!

The New Book of Lists: The Original Compendium of Curious Information by David Wallechinsky

Best Book Of Lists Ever! by Geoff Tibballs

People's Almanac Presents the Twentieth Century: History with the Boring Bits Left Out/Revised and Updated by David Wallechinsky

The Disinformation Book Of Lists by Russ Kick

The People's Almanac Presents The Books of Lists, No. 2 by Irving Wallace

PS: i tried amazon, but they don't ship to malaysia, at least, for this order! sob sob..

thanks..

makan-makan, and where 2 party next bithday

Thanks to the friends here in equeue for being here, today, in conjunction with the makan-makan agenda. I was thinking of giving a treat to the officemates, and the Ghazal Restaurant's Nasi Beryani (Wangsa Melawati branch) comes to mind! We had their nasi bryani at least 4 times now , I think, and from the cakap-cakap, commnets and complaints, I'd say that that's what we should be having for lunch, today.
So, from 10am, the secretary, and the office boy and myself was out of the office, went to Giant Taman Permata for the paper cups and plates, and fruits, not forgetting the cordial.
Then we headed to the restaurant, and picked up the nasi bryani and the accompanying dishes. We also had a cake, Chocolate Indulgence ( tak bagus untuk kesihatan betullah menu hari ni) from SRcp.

I'm not sure how many of you know that Petrosains does have a Birthday Party Package for those who would like to have an educational big-bang party, dinosaur and hands-on science experiments included. Wooo hooo..sounds fun!

According to a friend, the party used to be at a cost of RM700, and it caters for 20 childrens and 5 adults. This package includes 1 cake, kids meals from Burger King, also meals from BK for the adults, a 45-minute tour in Petrosains, and it is arranged in such a way that the group will be able to see each show they have at their Science Station. At the end of the tour, somewhere at Station 2, meals are provided, and the kids will have great time with all the hands-on experiments...ohh...umar will loves this, but errkk..no, the last time we went there, (that was 2 weeks ago, he IS STILL afraid of the friendly-singing-TRex..oh boy!
I think our Petrosains visit will be an entry by itself. It's one of the place sthat I love as an outing for me and the whole family..tak tau lah kenapa..

*I kalau naik that round-oil-shaped ride yang bawak u back to millions year ago era, mesti I terharu, , jantung berdebar-debar dup-dap and I will feel like crying. It is such an emotional experience. It is mainly because of the voice of the narrator (??ye ke), and the background musics, something that really heighten up my spirit. Out of pride? Dunno. Out of fear? naaahh.. mestilah tidak..

Oh ya, that birthday party package is not available during school holiday (as far as I know).
But, it sounds good and if your kids love celebrating their birthdays outside, and they have always had it in McDonald or TGIF, try Petrosains... for a change..

Umar doesn't understand about birthday celebration yet. He knows birthday cake, or the birthday song, but whose is it, where is it, he doesn't care! bertuah I. So far, his birtday had always mean party packs for his friends at the nursery. And no candies..hehe .We only allow raisins, cookies, wafers, cupcakes, pudding, (no sumi jelly, either..bahaya, and I ngeri!), and yogurt drinks. Like Umar always says:" Tak apaa, manis sikit aje.." (yo lah tu!)

Next party pack for Umar's friends is due in August.

..and come the news..

ladies selling kissra

Thanks to grouchiosa for this article. Should we now be proud that we are about to move to one of the expensive cities in the world? Nope! (Are you kidding!)
I am nervous. I have browsed in the intenet, looking for some info for Sudan and surprisingly, one of the issues the expats are concerned about are the expensive prices of the groceries. Imagine a minimum of RM20 for chicken and RM4 for a kilo of onions (it doesn't help that i use a lot of onions, and garlic in my cooking- konon rasa lebih sedap). Luckily, we have not started our kids with fast food ( yet!). If not, the husband will have to spend RM 76 on a KFC single plate (one piece of chicken, fries and soft drink).

Morine, kalau u duduk sana and Angel is her usual self yang go for fancy restaurants every now and then, habis la you...

With US sanction, and EU , too, soon? It's not helping, at all.
Okay, I'll do this. I will definitely have to go to the internet, look for some local main ingredients that are used in local dishes, look for the recipes, and make sure I know how to prepare them. At least tak lah bengong sangat sampai sana. Plus, with the very s l o w connection we'll have there, ....just hope it won't discourage me frm blogging! :-)

This reminds me of someone was given some flax seed from Sudan, and both the guy and his wife do not know what to do with it. After asking around, he was informed that in Sudan or over Africa, they just spread the seed on their bread or rice*

*me: i thought flax seed are also great for bread making? just like what we have in the hi-fibre gardenia bread yang ada raisins, peaches, apricots etc tu , ye tak?

BTW, DH told me that, over there, only the rich eat rice. ..( sedih la dengar..)

Over and over again, to show how expensive things are there, DH will relate how he bought a Conetto ice-cream for RM11 ! okay, now I'm convinced! Looks like Umar and his siblings will stay inside the house all the time! Only tour to the local dry market ( where they have goats, camels, goat's milk, camel's milk, etc) are allowed, no shopping malls for them! hehehe..

No worries! Umar will love looking at live animals at the market, than he will at the malls!