Iman's First Trip to Penang (28 - 30 May)

It took Mummy so long to finish writing up this holiday journal that Mummy could only publish the journal exactly 1 month after the holiday! It's ok... Mummy need to do this and I will do it!

Since I knew that Iman's school was going to close during May school holidays, I would have take leave to take care of Iman in the absence of my mum. Rather than spending my holiday at home, I suggested to Izani that we take Iman to Penang for her first holiday. Luckily we got the hotel booking done by Legend early enough that all was arranged way back in April. Trust Mummy to do all the arrangement for all our holiday trip.

We drove up North by about 9.30 on Sunday 27 May. Nenek and Tok Ayah came along with us coz they were going to Ibu Ya's (Dora - my sister who lives in Bagan Serai) house to see K. Long (my niece) who just underwent an operation. We arrived at Dora's house about the same time Dora arrived back after K. Long being discharged from Apollo Clinic, Taiping.

We had lunch and let Iman played with Haris and Hakim for a while before we made our move to Penang. Iman borrowed a few story books from Nina... Iman is always into books.. We promised we'll give back the book to Nina when we meet up in Nenek's house as they were planning to go down to KL the next night via the KTM train.

It was quite jam on the bridge to Penang Island. At first I suggested to Izani to take the ferry, just to let Iman get the experience of the ferry. Izani vetoed that we crossed over using the bridge to ensure that the hotel won't give away our room coz it was already about 4 pm by then. The bridge it was then!

We reached Cophthorne Orchid Hotel almost by 5 pm. There were a lot of people still checking in at the same time as us. It took quite awhile for the hotel to give us our room coz we were asking them for a room with King size bed and facing the beach.

We were given room 1510. I thot it was on 15th floor but when I looked down from the balcony it didn't seem to be too high up?! I thot there was something wrong with my depth perception. Anyway, I thot I would deal with that after the holiday.

Iman was so excited when they brought for her the cot. Iman is such an independent girl and she just wants to have her own sleeping area wherever we go. Started to do her Barney jigsaw puzzle that we brought along to keep her occupied with a familiar toy. And of course we fixed the DVD player for her in the cot so that it would feel familiar like at home.

When we went down to the beach, we realised that the lobby was on 8th floor and the swimmming pool was on 7th floor and we had to take the lift down to get to the beach! There were another block of 6 floors of hotel rooms below the swimming pool! No wonder our room was labelled as on 15th floor.

On the first nite in Penang we were too tired to drive out for dinner. We found out from the hotel staff that there was a food court just across the street of the hotel. So that nite we just go across the street! I had nasi ayam while Ayah had tomyam and telur dadar with rice. Iman shared the chicken with Mummy and telur dadar with Ayah. After dinner we went to Guardian coz Mummy had sore eyes! Thank God after putting the Eye Mo I bought, the next day Mummy's eye was ok and the holiday was not ruined.

After breakfast we were ready to start playing tourists. Iman sat behind because wanted to 'read' the storybooks she borrowed from Nina (her cousin). We let her sat behind by herself. Then she said 'Iman sakit perut!'. We thot it was because she had the seat-belt on. When I realised that she was actually not even wearing the seat-belt, I started to get worried why she said she had stomachache. I asked her to come and sit with me in front. She crawled over to sit with me. In just a few seconds sitting on my lap, she vomitted! I had nothing in my hands to hold the vomit that I had to just use my hands! So both Iman and I ended up with vomit on our clothes! Ayah drove into a deserted street to find a place where we could stop to clean up a bit. We took spare water in the boot to wash off some of the vomit, then drive back to the hotel to clean up and change our clothes. We wasted almost an hour of 'tourist time' because we had to go back to the hotel. Lesson learnt, must always have clothes in the car for this kind of incident!

We had to change our plan to go to Botanical Garden that day and decided to go towards Ferringhi instead. Iman was already tired due to the vomitting that she just slept during our drive to Ferringhi. We went to see the dam and then drove towards the orchards area. Ayah suggested that we stop to eat durian at one of those hawkers by the roadside. Ayah then decided to indulge by selecting the RM45 per fruit Durian King! It was really good! Very thick and sweet that when we had our second fruit which was at RM20 per kg, it was totally not comparable to the first fruit! It was a nice and expensive durian experience! Luckily Iman has recovered by then, so she managed to taste the Durian King too.

On the way back of eating durian, we stopped at the Butterfly Farm. It was our first time to any Butterfly Farm. We had never been to the one in KL! For Iman's sake we thought we should visit this Butterfly Farm. There were many butterflies! According to my sis, Dora who has visited both Butterfly Farms, the one in Penang has more butterflies. So I guess we made the right decision to visit this Butterfly Farm. There were also many other animals being exhibited such as iguana, monitor lizard, turtles and some species of crocodile, scorpions that flouresce under UV light, spiders, dead stuffed cockroaches - that I showed Iman particularly because she is scared of cockroach! We had quite a nice time there! I managed to captures quite a number of photos. I'm glad I have a 2 GB memory stick that I can take as many pictures as I like!

By then we were tired and hungry. Ayah who has been talking about wanting to eat nasi kandar, decided to stop at Khaleel Nasi Kandar restaurant at Feringghi and 'tapau' 2 bungkus of nasi kandar for both Mummy and Ayah. Iman has fallen asleep at that time, that's why we had to pack the nasi kandar to be eaten in the hotel room.

After lunch and a short interrupted nap for Ayah and Mummy (Iman, upon arriving in the room had became active and alert and kept on disturbing Mummy and Ayah napping) we went to walk on the beach for a while.

Then we went to Ferringhi again to find dinner. On the way back the night markets were in operation by then. Ayah suggested that we stop by to look for The Incredibles CD or DVD to replace Iman's broken The Incredible CD. They didn't have The Incredibles CD but they had Shrek 3 DVD! Shrek 3 has not even shown in Malaysian cinemas yet at that time. Ayah asked Mummy whether we should buy the Shrek 3 DVD so Mummy said Yes! We went back to the hotel. Iman was looking forward to watch the DVD. Unfortunately we forgot to bring the remote control for Iman's portable DVD Player, so we can't operate the DVD Player! Iman was so disappointed but luckily she didn't throw tantrum. She just went to bed without insisting to watch the DVD.

29th May was Mummy's birthday. Ayah gave a card without a present. He said present later, eh? He always has the same problem every year. He doesn't know what to give Mummy as present. Iman sang Happy Birthday to Mummy which meant so much!

Suddenly Ayah remembered that he brought the notebook, so maybe we could try playing the DVD on the notebook. It worked! Iman could watch Shrek 3 on Ayah's DVD! Thank God!

After we finished watching Shrek 3 only we left the hotel to play tourist again. First stop for the day was Botanical Garden. We wanted to show Iman the famous monkeys! Stop for a drink first outside the garden. Met the Pakistani group that Izani knows who came down for a wedding in KL. Walked into the garden but the was no signs of any monkeys. It was very humid in the garden. We were getting tired walking and didn't want to go any deeper into the garden. So we decided to walk out. There so many interesting trees! I took many photos of those weird looking trees. Then suddenly there they were, the monkeys! Somehow they have moved out towards the entrance gate of the garden. No wonder we didn't find them earlier when we were all the way inside the garden. When Iman saw 3 monkeys, she said 'tu Mummy monkey, tu Ayah monkey and tu Iman monkey'. She would always equate anything that are 3 as us! The 3 in the family! Ha ha ha.

Next stop was Penang Hill, the tourist site we had to cancel the day before. Mummy's last trip to Penang Hill was when I was 12! That's really was a long time ago, isn't it? There didn't seem to be too many people around but when we went in to buy the tickets to go up on the cable car, we saw the signage saying they were at that time (it was 12 noon!) selling tickets for 2:30 pm cable car rides! It would be a 2.5 hr wait before we can board the cable car. Too long to waste the time. So we decided not to go up during this trip. Maybe next time when Iman is older. Mummy just took some photos of Iman and Ayah and the cable car.



We decided that we should go for lunch before the working people start to go out for their lunch. Izani was all set for another round of nasi kandar! So we drove to KOMTAR to search for a Nasi Kandar restaurant. We found a small stall (Kasseem) walking distance away from KOMTAR, so we parked in KOMTAR and walked over. It was good nasi kandar! Better than the one we had the previous day. Izani suggested that we 'tapau' one pack of nasi kandar for tea but by that time there a really long queue of people ordering their lunch. So we had to sctrach off the nasi kandar for tea from our plan. After a good heavy lunch like that a nice nap was in order. We drove back to the hotel for our rest and nap.

That evening after the nap and rest we decided to just walk down the hilll from the hotel to the Toy Museum. The museum has a huge collections of toys! All sorts of toys! We enjoyed ourselves looking at those collection. Iman personal favourites, The Incredibles and Shreks with his friends, are there too! She was so excited and happy to see them! It was a good decision to go visit this Toy Museum.

Then we drove out to Ferringhi again... this time in search a good Laksa Penang. We saw a small stall in front of Rasa Sayang Resort with a signage Laksa and Nasi Ayam! So we decided to stop. Good decision again... the Laksa was good. Very thick gravy and nice! Even Iman ate the laksa! I was actually quite surprised because it was hot but somehow she could tolerate it. We ordered nasi Ayam so that Iman could eat that but as usually Mummy ended up finishing the Nasi Ayam too. The Nasi Ayam was good too... we wouldn't minding recommending the stall!

After the feast, we went to Miami Bay (can u believe it that there is Miami Bay in Penang?!) to take photos of the nice houses facing the beach. There was also a Miami Beach Baywatch Tower there!

That last nite in Penang, since we were still quite full from the feast of Laksa Penang and Nasi Ayam that we had for tea, we decided to just order room service while Mummy started to pack up our things. Ayah had a 2 pm meeting on Wednesday, 30th May, so we decided to leave latest by 7:30 a.m. the next day. Mummy had to do the packing up fast so that Ayah could send most of them to the car. That way the next morning we would not have too much to carry with us when we check out.

Keeping to our plan, we actually left the hotel by 7:15 a.m. on 30th May. Iman was still sleeping when we just scooped her out of bed into the car-seat. Iman continued to sleep till we stopped at the R&R (we always couldn't remember the name of this R&R) where we bought the Tanjung Malim Pau!

Reached home by about 11:00 a.m. So Ayah had enough time to take a short nap before preparing to go for the meeting. That's the end of our holiday!

I hope Iman had a nice time there. Iman, you probably can't remember it that's why Mummy wrote this journal so that you can read them when you are old enough to read and understand what I wrote.

2.5 today!

Today, 27th June 2007, Iman is 2 years and 6 months old! My princess is growing up so fast.

Accomplishment:

• able to recite surah Al-Ikhlas
• able to recite surah Al-Fatihah with assistants
• able to read and identify A B C till Z
• able to read and identify Alif, Ba, Ta till Ya
• able to complete the 15 pieces jigsaw puzzle for age 3-5 within less than 10 minutes.
• able to complete the 30 pieces jigsaw puzzle within 10 - 15 minutes.
• knows all the names of the Disney's princesses - which Ayah doesn't like much! He prefers Iman to know all the names of the prophets! Laterlah kan, Iman...
  

Playing girlie game with Mummy

Today, Iman is left with Mummy coz Ayah went for his Zikir session. We went to the bedroom to play some puzzles. After completing Snow White's puzzle, Ariel's puzzle and Barney's puzzle a few times Iman started to get restless.

She took my hair brush and started to brush my hair. This is thw first time Iman actually brushed my hair! She then took the lip gloss and put it on my lips.

I hope when I'm old and grey and couldn't comb my own hair anymore, Iman would still wants to do that for me.

Iman's First Trip to Movie Cinema

16 June 2007 - Iman went to see Shrek 3 @ MBO Ampang Galaxy. Her first movie watched at a cinema! Iman successfully completed the whole movie with good behaviour too! Bravo Iman! You are such a great kid! Mummy and Ayah are so proud of you, darling! This is the beginning of more movie trips for the three of us.

Iman was first sitting in her own seat at the begining of the movie. But as the teather started to feel colder Ayah decided to put Iman on his lap so that Iman won't feel so cold. When Iman was scared during the scene of Shrek's nightmare - the dream of many Shrek babies, Ayah helped to close Iman's face till the scene was over.

It was Iman's first time at the movie and it was also Aisyah's (Iman's cousin - almost 19 yr old) first time! Aisyah came down to our house for the weekend from her Tahfiz College in Kuala Kubu Baru. So we brought her along with us to watch the movie. We only knew that it was her first time as we were driving to the parking.

How did the 'going to movie' idea got started? Skali, the company where Mummy is working for, organized a movie session for everybody in the company to watch Shrek 3.Shrek has been one of Iman's favourite movies since she started to watch VCDs and DVDs. So, Mummy made sure Mummy booked places for 3 of us to go watch the movie at the cinema.

For weeks before the Kaki Wayang session, I was worried that Iman would not be able to behave herself in the cinema especially when they turn off the lights. I was telling myself that I must be ready and willing to leave if Iman cries.

When we were in Penang during the last school holidays, while searching for CD of 'The Incredibles' to replace her broken CD, Izani was offered CD of Shrek 3! That was before Shrek 3 came to Malaysian cinemas. I told Izani to just buy it coz Iman likes Shrek. We didn't think the CD would be clear but it is! So Iman had watched Shrek 3 long before it was at the M'sian cinemas!

Reminiscing my pregnancy

Today as I was watching 'Pregnancy for Dummies' on Channel 77, a lot of the feelings I had felt during my pregnancy was being discussed. Wished they had this kind of program when I was pregnant and needed to all those.

Anyway, when I saw the ultrasound scene, I recalled feeling so excited to see my Iman for the first time as a tiny blob in my uterus.

I also remember how excited I was to feel her first kick in my tummy. How happy I was to feel every moves she made. How I missed Iman and felt lost the nite after I had delivered Iman and couldn't feel her move inside me. All those feelings are such nice feelings and so magical! I suddenly felt I missed being pregnant.

I can still remember how enegetic I was during my first trimester. I could carry out my job like I was not pregnant at all. But by the end of the day I just wanted to sleep! Not tired but more of sleepiness.

The sad thing I could remember was having to spent my weekdays being pregnant all the way down in JB without Izani. I was only pampered during the weekend when I came back to KL. The weekend was usually hectic because that was when I had to go for my checkups.

However nice it was to be pregnant, it could never superseed the feeling of hearing Iman called me for the first time, her first steps and lately all her comments and conversations we shared especially during my drive with her. I'd rather have her than being pregnant!

Iman and Her Puzzles

We got a free Barney Jigsaw Puzzle when we bought a Barney CD from Speedy for Iman . I didn't allow Iman to open the package of the jigsaw puzzle until she was almost 2! It was a 30-pieces jigsaw puzzle with picture of Barney, BJ and Baby Bop. At the beginning Iman was just looking at me doing the puzzle and she enjoyed the final result when she get to see the whole picture.

After she started school, she has been doing some simple puzzle in school that when she was at home she wanted to the Barney puzzle with Mummy's or Ayah's help. She will always wanted us to help her when she did the puzzle. The amazing this is that she can place a piece of the puzzle where it should be eventhough the neighbouring pieces were not placed there yet. Somehow her memory is good enough to remember where each pieces should be even by itself! After a few times, she could do the puzzle by herself but she still wanted us to be around when she did it. She liked it when we clapped our hands to cheer her as she finished the puzzle. She would be so happy!! I was happy too to how easy it was to make her happy.

After being able to do the Barney puzzle by herself, I thought it was time to give her a new challenge. She needs some new puzzles obviously. When I asked her what picture would she like to have for her new puzzle, she has been saying Mickey Mouse!

Last weekend we went to Mid Valley. At first I thot of going to the House of Puzzles shop but when we were in Metrojaya, we saw there were quite a number of puzzles available. When Iman first saw the Mickey and Minnie puzzle, she was excited. Then suddenly she saw Snow White puzzles. She told me she doesn't want Mickey now coz she wanted the Snow White. While looking the other puzzles, Iman saw puzzle of Ariel with Sebastian! She said she wanted Ariel and put back the Snow White puzzle on the shelf. I was amazed and glad that she didn't say she wanted all the puzzles. As far as she is concerned, she can have only one so she need to decide which one she wanted! I thot that was very matured of her (at her age!) to understand the concept of she is told that Mummy will buy her 1 puzzle and only one. If only she knew that if she insisted she one both, Mummy would probably still buy them for her! Thank God I didn't need to! Ha..ha..ha... She gladly chose Ariel finally.

As we were walking towards the cashier counter, Iman saw a Barbie watch. She gave back the puzzle to me and said "Iman tak nak puzzle, Iman nak jam tu!" It was quite funny to see how she will give up one thing to have another and still not insist on having both items! I didn't want to buy the watch because I just bought for her a Snow White watch when we were in Penang, so I told her that I need to pay first for the items. I then put away the watch back on its shelf and just paid for her puzzle. Till today she didn't even ask about the watch but she was very excited to do the puzzles. The ones that we just bought had 3 puzzles with pictures of Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy and Pluto with 48 pieces for each puzzle.

I just don't know how long will she be entertained by the 3 new sets of puzzles.

Iman with short hair

Iman's hair has grown so long and started to get into her mouth. She refused to let me tie them up, so she kept on opening her mouth to get the hair out of it. So, yesterday I decided that she need a hair cut! After discussing with her father who agreed that she should get the hair cut, the two of us - Mummy and Iman went to Keramat Permai to get her hair cut. She was rather excited to cut her hair. She kept on saying she wanted short hair like her best friend Nurin. I told the her stylist that she can cut Iman's hair any way that would be easy for the stylist. When that stylist cut it, it was looking like Nurin's hair cut. Iman was so excited to see her face different with the new short hair! I thot she looks her age now as compared to last time when she had long hair. Somehow she looked more matured with her hair long! I felt so guilty that I kept her hair long and making her looked older than her age!

Pix of Iman with her short hair.

Good bye Teacher Asnah

Yesterday out of the blue l got a call from Iman's teacher, Teacher Asnah! I was quite surprised to get her call.

She told me she has resigned from Young Ambassadors, which means Iman will get a new teacher for her class once the school opens next Mon, 11 June.

I was quite upset to hear the news because Iman has been progressing well under Teacher Asnah's guidance. Iman was getting along well with Teacher Asnah and Teacher Asnah has finally understood Iman's way of learning. Iman always seemed to be dreaming away when in class that mad Teacher Asnah thought she was not listening. But after a few months Teacher Asnah has found out that even when Iman seemed to be dreaming, those info was absorded! Iman surprised Teacher Asnah when she could recite doa makan, surah Al-Ikhlas and surah Al-Fatihah.

I hope the change of teacher will not affect Iman too much. I tried telling Iman that she's not going to have Teacher Asnah teaching her when the school opens, but she didn't seem to understand it. I guess I shouldn't expect Iman to be able to understand. Somehow I still feel that somewhere in her brain she has captured the information, but needs some time to digest it.

I would have to monitor Iman's reaction of the change of teacher. I really hope she is not affected much by the change. For her sake I hope her adapability will kick in that she'll be ok.

Iman will miss Teacher Asnah and I will forever be grateful to her for what she has taught Iman, but life has to go on. Changes are inavitable in life, so we just have to learn to accept it and live with it.

Iman's Outing Without Her Parents

Iman has been at her grandma's place during the school holidays! It was good for her to be able to play with her cousins (who came down from Bagan Serai) and also who are staying in the same condo area as my mum.

My sister, Da, was on leave on Monday-Tuesday. She brought her kids and my sis, Doya and her kids to Butterfly Park on Monday. So, Iman was left all alone at my mum's place. They were out quite long on Monday. Iman didn't get to see her cousins at all coz by the time I left my mum's house with Iman to go back home at 6:45 p.m., they were not home yet.

When she called me to ask my permission to bring Iman along with her kids and my sister, Doya and her kids to Planetarium Negara on Tuesday, I was rather apprehensive and not sure what will be the best decision. This would be Iman's first time to go for outing without us, the parents. Not to allow her to go will mean that she would be left alone again at my mum's. I was rather worried to let her go with them in case they will be out as long as they did the day before, and Iman was never exposed to that kind of outings. Iman's comfort and her resting time have always been our priority to decide how long will each of the outing be. So, I was really not sure what to do.

Not allowing Iman to go is like announcing to the world that I don't trust my sisters! Oh God! It was difficult, but I decided that everything need to go thru its first time. I decided that Iman needs to experience the outing without her parents. So, I let Iman go with her aunties and cousins! I was quite worried that Izani wouldn't be happy with the idea of Iman going for that trip without us. Luckily her Ayah was ok with my decision. Phew again!! I told Da to call me if she couldn't handle Iman and I would take a cab from the office and meet them there! I must have sounded like a frantic mom!! Anyway, that's the best I could offer if the situation comes to that! Anyway, Da said she would try her best to handle Iman without asking me to rescue them!

I tried not to call my sister too often coz I didn't want her to think that I didn't trust her. But I did call her twice!! Ha...ha...ha... The first time was when they just arrived in Planeterium. Da told me that Iman was ok... she had just finished her milk (which she called Milo due to the colour) and was lying down on Amir's (Da's eldest son who is going to be 9 this year) lap. So far so good... Phew!! I'm just happy to know that Iman is adapting well to the situation without us around.

The slideshows of photos taken during the trip:

Somehow Iman fitted in nicely with Da's kids coz they look alike! Iman was in fact wearing the t-shirt and jeans of Anas (the youngest of Da's kids who didn't go for the trip because he is only 1 year old!), so she looks just like them!

Apparently there were 2 instances only when Iman suddenly cried calling "Mummy!!" out of the blue! Maybe she suddenly missed her Mummy. Well... the thought of her missing me gave me a warm feeling. At least even when she was having fun with her aunties and cousins, she still thought of me, her Mummy!

So, all in all, the trip was good. She seemed to enjoy the outing. I was glad everything went well. Since the aunties can manage Iman, next trips will be even easier for me to let her go with them.

Being grateful

Lately l've been watching a lot of shows on Channel 77 on Astro. They have been showing the Adoption Stories, Abnormal babies and toddlers etc.

On one of the shows there were stories of women who couldn't get pregnant and had to go thru painful and stressful procedures to try to get pregnant.

There were stories of women who had to adopt an embryo to be planted into their womb to get a baby.

There were also stories of women who had to go thru long and painful wait to get their adoption applications to get approved so that they can have a child!

There was a show about a 65 yr-old mum who has to take care of a 21 yr old daughter who has the body size and capability and mannerism of a 3 yr old child!

All these stories made me realised that l had been so lucky to be able to go thru getting pregnant the normal way without having to wait when l finally decided that l was ready to be a mom! I was so lucky Allah gave me a normal, healthy, beautiful and bright child - my Iman!

I hope and pray very hard that Iman will continue to be blessed by Allah and will grow up to be a good, clever, adaptable, and grateful kid! Anak yang Soleh to doakan her Mummy and Ayah when we are no longer in this world.