I'm your friend

Since Husayn started playschool, he constantly talks about his friends. Well only his BOY friends actually...

This is a video of him after I asked him again what he'd been telling me before. So, it's really not the full version but it does have the part that I think is kind of funny. After he convinced me about the whole thing, his so-called one and only Girl friend concept, with a guilty-look on his face he said...

Don't worry Mummy, Nadeen is only my girl friend but I LOVE YOU still, Mummy.

I was in the car listening to the radio but at the same time listening to him but maybe not a 100% so, to get my full attention he purposedly said that . And it worked.  He is just one funny little fella. Full of surprises but don't be duped by his charming personality and all-round cuteness, he does have his own horrirfic moments. Hmmm... I suppose, you won't believe me until you see it for yourself...

I'll prove it to you if I can catch one of his moments on video one day. Of course, I'm not denying that my kids are such good kids but at the same time, they're no angels either. Ahaks! They certainly can make my blood go upstairs jugak woooooo!!!

The kid in the video is not actually Husayn but it should give you a good idea. The Mummy in the video is my hero...

Bending a bamboo while it's still a shoot

Have you heard of that proverb? Or in Malay, kalau melentur buluh biarlah dari rebungnya.

Aha... With that in mind, I constantly try to teach my kids to do everything themselves from a very young age. And I mean very young. As an example, here's Hisham preparing to take a shower. Well, sort of.

Hahahah...Please don't report me to the authorities! Matilah I... Hehehe...

Happy face

Well to tell you the truth, I just found it funny that every time I want to give him a bath, he will go straight to the toilet and get his tub and put it under the shower himself. He has clearly been observing what I've been doing all this while. The good thing is he's just so happy to do it by himself.

Hey, I'm not that bad. My 7 year old daughter does take a shower and gets ready by herself, every day. And I just have to convince (or let's say fight) her every time I want to comb her long hair.

How to write my name?

Yesterday Husayn asked me again on how to write his name. He wanted to send a letter to his girl friend, you know who...

In the end, this was the result

Contest Bersama si Kecil

 This is another contest, a picture of you and your little one by Gayahspears ...  pergh... style nama tu.. heheh

 

how about this my sister with my kids

err but I just realised the rules is wajib gambar anda!! ok so as I am the one who always take the pictures so this is the best I have or the best I can find today

would like to tag

Rina again

Topsy Turvy Mummy

Ica

Good Luck !!

Aksi Ceria Si Manja - giveaway

This is about Aksi Ceria siManja by Syamila

Ok and my Ceria photo 

  ceria tak muka dia

Name: Hisham

Age: 16 months

Nadia Giveaway

I think I want to start join in any contests and give aways from other bloggers from now on, just for fun. Manalah tahu... rezeki.. Why not? If I'm lucky, I could win something but if not, you can still meet new friends in the cyber world.

OK, the first one's from this blog.

Macam kaler keta I lah heheh

And I would like to tag... 

Rina

Ermayum

Unaizah

Good Luck Everyone!!

Look, it's a bike. It's a stroller. No, it's a Taga!

Hi all... how are you today?... Hehehe... while blogwalking earlier today, I came across this guy's blog and on one of his many entries, I saw this cool thing. I now would like to have it for myself. Ahaks...

Isn't it a great new invention? I've aways thought of this kind of thing (OK, maybe not exactly like this) and now it has become reality. You can go here to check the price or if you want to buy online.. errr how I wish!

Just Imagine yourself on this thing with your kids... hehehe

My husband dearie:  Yang u nak belikan tuk I ke? Hehehe.. I'm just trying my luck. That KitchenAid stand mixer is still numero uno on my list.

Ameera and Her Ramadhan Reward

As I've mentioned not too long ago, my 7 year old daughter had been fasting almost the whole month of Ramadhan, Alhamdulillah. Well, 28 days to be exact. The fasting here this time of the yearwas quite long - from Fajr/Subuh at around 4 in the moring until Maghrib which doesn't come around until 9 at night. As her Mummy, I am quite proud of my daughter.

So, as a reward for her commitment to Ramadhan, I bought her this...

Yeah, right! I wish I could have that for myself. Sadly, this is plain old Mummy Nana you know, not some super-rich Mummy from My Super Sweet 16 or something like that. Hehehe...

Anyway, back in the real world, I promised her a Euro per full day of fasting but I was sooo kind to give her a whopping €30 instead of a mere €28 (kecoh...€2 extra and I make such a big deal of it!). As she's a little older now, this time, I let her choose for herself what she wants to spend her money on - up to a limit, of course. As she had received some extra funds from all the duit raya she collected (thank you to all the kind Uncles and Aunties)  I told her she could spend up to €50 and save the rest.

So, this is what Ameera eventually got for herself...

She was so excited making and buying her own Hello Kitty stuff toy. To be honest, she doesn't get any pocket money from my husband and I, not even for school as I pack her lunch (I save a lot on this phewww..). So, she doesn't actually have the chance to save on her own to buy the things that she wants. Obviously, this is a very special moment for her as she sort of earned the money herself. Well done darling. Mummy loves you so much.

Tomato Soup & Potato Kuih Keria: Fresh From the Garden

OK what did Mummy Nana cook today with all the produce  from her garden?

Other than the potatoes from my messy garden, I also have a few tomato plants. Before spring came along, I planted a few tomato seeds. It took quite sometime to grow as big as this. But my patience paid off. I now have plenty of red cherry tomatoes. I don't really like to eat them raw so, I made some soup out of them and ate it with garlic bread. It was really good and especially helpful to clear a bit of my sinuses. Eating hot soup is definitely one of the more understated remedies to make one feel a bit better.

I know there are lots of different ways to make a nice tomato soup. But I'm too lazy to log on the internet to find a really good recipe. I just used whatever ingredients I had in the kitchen instead. With utter laziness, this is how I made it:

10 Red Cherry Tomatoes
1 Carrot cut into chunks
3 sticks of Celery cut into chunks
5 Garlic cloves (crushed)
1 Chicken/Vegetable stock cube
1 cup of Water
3 tbsp Olive Oil


Method:
Put in all the ingredients except the olive oil, water and stock cube into a medium-sized casserole dish. Drizzle the olive oil and bake in a pre-heated oven for 20-30 minutes (make sure all the vegetables are cooked and soft). Let it cool down for a little while and blend everything into a smooth puree. Pour the thick puree in a pot and put in the water and the stock cube. Let it boil while rememberng to stir gently and serve while it's still hot with some home made or ready made garlic bread. Mmmm....Yummy.

PS: If you don't have celery or carrots, don't worry. You can use any vegetable that you have in the fridge as long as it's around the same portion. You will be surprised and I bet that it'll still taste as nice.

 
These kuih keria were made using the potatoes from the garden. Not bad really. I just switched the main kuih keria ingredient from sweet potatoes to my own homegrown potatoes and poof! There they were, Potato Kuih Keria.

Abandoned Garden?

Ever since Ramadhan came along up until yesterday, I never had a chance to go out to my back garden and have a closer look to see what was going on with my whole setup. I know, I'm using the fasting month as an excuse but to be honest, I was just too lazy and didn't bother to go out at all, even to water my plants or do anything beneficial with them. I totally abandoned them for quite sometime.

By the time I convinced myself that my patch needed some TLC, it was starting to look like a mini jungle.

While I was in the garden, sorting out all the tangled vegetation in the patch,  I remembered that I had thrown a couple old potatos from my kitchen into the ground, right before Ramadhan. What I didn't know was, it had grown really quickly. As I wanted to clear the patch a little bit, I pulled them out and was utterly surpirsed as to what I found.......

I should have known, the Irish staple food is the good old spud and I suppose, it shouldn't be a surprise that they grow so well here. Or maybe, potatos are just so easy to grow. Come on, give it a try and let me know, OK?

Not bad results really considering that these came from a couple of almost rotten potatos.Oh, and not to forget my cherry tomatoes that I planted from seeds.

So, the next time you feel like throwing away your unused potatos, don't. Bury them in the ground. I definitely won't ever throw away any old potatoes in the kitchen from now on.

Anyway, with my new self-grown ingredients, what do you think Mummy Nana will be cooking today? I'll tell you in my next entry...

Husayn's Two Weeks in Playschool

I heard Ameera walking to my room. She popped her head in the door and asked me

Mummy is it time to wake up yet?

Oh, sugar. It's 7.20 am already. Somehow, my husband and I didn't hear our alarm clocks ring that morning. Luckily for us, no matter what, Ameera always wakes up at 7 sharp every morning. But being the good obedient daughter (I always remind her not to wake up until I call her), she was be a bit confused this time as to why Mummy and Daddy were still in bed. Thanks baby. I know that I can always rely on you, InsyaAllah forever.

In the car waiting for her school bus.

It has been 2 week since Husayn started his own class. In short, his attitude towards school is totally different compared to Ameera's. He was excited alright when talking about it but when we sent him to school, there was always be a bit of drama.

Not as described here. He is such a happy little camper with not a bother in the world when I'm around

The first day was OK. The second day, he was a bit upset but by the third day, he burst into tears when I left him. I just left him alone with his friends and teacher. Being me, I never looked back or felt that bad because I know he'll be alright. Plus, I want my kids to be tough, physically and emotionally. The day after that, he kept saying he that didn't want to go to school and gave all the reasons in the world.

But, despite all the drama, every time I picked him up after 3 hours there he was, totally different, with a smile on his face while endlessly talking about what happenrd in school that day. It's clear to me that he enjoyed it very much, as if all the sad feelings in the morning were just a bad dream. The best part to it is, he just couldn't wait to go back the following morning. Oh...but the drama still went on the very next day.

I just hope it won't be like that forever. I know it's just so hard for him to make new friends and that's why he always says

How I wish Nadeen was here in the same school with me...

Errrr... you know that's not going to happen my baby boy. Not any time soon anyway...

His favourite thing to do at school - arts and craft

Fortunately, as Ameera started going back to school this week, he was fine when I dropped him off. No problems and whatsoever.  I think it's most likely because for the past week, he didn't like the idea that he was in school while his siblings stayed at home with Mummy. Ah well, I suppose it's no surprise when he always quietly tells me he's still a baby - Mummy's baby!

Ameera's back in school

It must've been 7 in the morning on a dull and gray Monday. As soon as my alarm went off,  I woke my daughter up. She opened her eyes and jumped straight away out of her bed and shouted

Yay! It's time to go to school!

You can just imagne how excited she was after 2 1/2 months of boring, boring holidays. She just couldn't wait another moment to get ready for her very first day of the school year. As usual, on the first day, I would send her to the school myself so that I'd be able to meet her class teacher and find out whether there were any developments since the school was opened last.

Nothing much to report though. After a short assembly, all the kids walked into their respective classrooms.  Lucky for Ameera because she got a class teacher that she already knew.

Later in the afternoon, I picked her up from school. It had been a while since we last ate out so, we went to McDonald's for lunch.

I could see how messy she was after a day at school and at the same time, I just could't stop her talking about her day in school.

It makes me wonder, are all kids this excited about school? I recall that I needed to be dragged out of bed to go to school or is school over here just so interesting? Hmmm...

Eid Mubarak

Eid Mubarak!!!. How was your Raya? This year I can safely say that we quite well prepared for the big day. The night before, the house was properly cleaned, the floor was vacuumed and mopped by my beloved husband. All the kuih (more kerepek really as I didn't have enough time to bake cookies for ourselves) were in their special Raya containers.

It was quite a refreshing change from our previous Raya preparations where not much was done until the very last couple of hours before Hari Raya itself. In on other words, this time around, we successfully avoided all the kelam kabut of previous Raya mornings.

In the morning itself, I think this was the first time in over 10 years where we had a proper breakfast together before my hubby went to the mosque for Eid prayers. Overall, for many different reasons this Raya actually felt like real Raya. We headed to our friends' houses after prayers and a few of them came over to our house in return. I didn't cook a lot because as usual, we would go to a few other houses to stuff ourselves. By midnight, we were filled with an enormous amount of all the Raya food.

We had planned to go visting some more friends to continue the Raya celebrations the day after. Unfortunately, we were feeling down and got sick. I think it was all related to allergic reactions as too much food had udang kering in them. Not surprisingly, we all had problems with our sinuses. What a terrible day that turned out to be.

Ah well, Raya here feels the same like when we're in Malaysia and it does last for the whole month of Syawal. So, hopefully we still have plenty of time to bermaaf-maafan with friends and continue stuffing ourselves with Raya food.

Anyway how was your Raya, you guys? Had fun? Whatever it is, just take extra care of yourselves and eat wisely. Tomorrow will be normal day again for us here. Ameera starts her first day of school tomorrow morning. Yikes...

Esok HARI RAYA!!!!

Phew, I thought today was going to be Eid. Well, I was hoping it was going to be today but somehow, with the kuih raya mini-business doing well (rezeki raya, I suppose), my timing was slightly off and I still had plenty to do by the end of last night.

Of course, my busy schedule wouldn't be complete if I didn't grab this opportunity to wish Eid Mubarak to everyone who have so kindly spared some of their own time to read my humble blog...

...and...

...from all of us in Dublin, Ireland.

Oh, I'm off to cook my beef rendang while enjoying one of my favourire Raya songs.

He's still A Baby!!

I remembered that it was a month ago when I thought Hisham was 15 months but for some reason, I was confused as it was not until the 25th day of the month.

I think I have it right this time around. Here goes: It has been exactly a month since Hisham's first tooth came out. And until today it's still just a TOOTH. Nothing more. No teeth. Just tooth. As I've mentioned in my previous entry it's just a sedapkan hati tooth so Mummy won't be too worried.

However, apart from that, he is growing steadily. He talks so much, copies what ever other people say and is beginning to get cheekier and naughtier by the day. But, he's still a baby and a funny little fellow.

If I'm not mistaken, in Ireland we will be celebrating Eid/Hari Raya this Thursday. Maybe. Mmmmm... I still have plenty to do. My house looks so much like a Tongkang Pecah unlike in Malaysia where I think most people would have started packing or better still, started their balik kampung holidays already. So, drive carefully and a safe journey to you guys out there.

Contest Birthday Khalis

Yeay  the contest is still on..... as I was blogwalking I saw this contest and the closing date was yesterday but lucky me.. it's back on.. saja2 jek try.... thank you ye Whitey Mommy

Baby Khalis- Happy Birthday Baby Boy!!

and this is my son

Muhammad Hisham

15 months

Would like to tag 

Rina

Unaizah

Topsy Turvy Mum

The Last Weekend Before Raya

Pheww.... At last, all the kuih raya orders has been settled. Alhamdulillah... It was such a tiring few days. While I was in the kicthen alone doing all my work, my poor kids had to entertain themselves. A few times every hour or so, each of them would come to me and ask me whether I could play with them, do something for them or help them. But the answer from me was normally...

Sorry kids, Mummy has work to do. I'll be with you in a second, OK?

Up until today, I just didn't have the free time to help them out. Luckily, my daughter was kind enough to look after her brothers. So, as a token of my appreciation, I made her favourite - Oreo Cheeseballs. She was so delighted and couldn't wait to eat them after our break fast today.

Fortunately, this morning, while I was still busy finishing what had to be done, I freed myself to watch my kids perform a short play in their playroom.

OK, that's as much time that I have for now. Need to get the house properly cleaned up before Hari Raya!

So the secret project is.....

Hello everybody! Only one week left to Hari Raya. Everything ready for you guys? Holidays booked? Clothes prepared? And...how about your Kuih Raya?

Jeng..jeng..jeng.. I read in Malaysian paper (online) last week, and I want to be as rich as Nani Rostam by dong what I know best. Apparently, she earns a nett income of RM20k by just selling kuih raya. Hehehe...so this is my not-so-secret project. I've been dreaming to sell my cooking, but honestly, with three kids and no extra help it won't be possible to do it. Plus, I was jus too lazy and couldn't be bothered before this. And, to be honest, I barely make any cookies for Hari Raya anyway. I used to just buy my kuih raya. OK, that's not completely true. I did make one type of kuih raya when I was living in Malaysia but only chocolate chip cookies and thats all. It's not even a proper kuih raya to start off with!

So, this can technically be viewed as my first attempt at baking and selling kuih raya. Phew...after all the effort, fortunately everything came together and more importantly they all tasted quite good. Hehehe...

This time, I am determined. By that, I mean I actually got off my behind and did it. For instance, last week, I was so busy making samples to distribute to my close friends (and potential customers). I did it by myself.

Ok, with help from my kids, Ameera and espceially Husayn who surprisingly, was a very good little helper. He helped arrange the cup cases in the baking tray and Ameera helped by drawing designs on my Nana Carries. My beloved hubby, drove me around to buy all the stuff, looked after my baby boy and of course, contributed the capital for this project of mine. My cousin, Atiqah who was by chance, visiting us over the weeked was forced to roll the cookie dough. Owh.. not to forget my baby Hisham, who was most of the time so understading and patiently waited and just looked curiously at Mummy looking so busy making cookies. Thank you guys I love you all.

Only 5 types of cookies as as start

So, for this coming Raya for the first time ever I'll be making my own kuih raya and more importantly, they'll be on SALE!!

Kuih Raya Samples

Alhamdulillah.... thank you for all the orders that have been coming in to date. As I've mentioned a couple of times already, this is my first time at doing this so, if there are any mistakes or areas I can improve on, please, please, do let me know.

OK, I've taken up enough kuih raya time already. Better start baking...

Woah.. bangga you!!

Husayn's First day of Playschool

It's September. The school holidays are finally over and with that, it means traffic returns to its horrible self, autumn is here and the cold Irish weather will be around the corner. No more lazy morning sleep time and waking up late for me. Sigh....

But the good thing is, the kids are back in school. Yes and this time, for the first time, Husayn will be going to a playschool near where we live. When I registered him last week, he was so excited and couldn't stop talking about it.  A big thank you to the Government for their ECCE scheme which allows children at the age of 3+ to get free classes to prepare themselves before entering real school.

I guess every mom worries that their kids are going to be sad by leaving them in school, but not him. He cried over everything else but not a single tear was shed about going to school. When I left him there, I could see he's eyes were red but when I asked him whether he wanted to follow me back he confidently said No.

I know he'd be alright. I picked him up at 12 after 3 hours at the school. He was so excited and couldn't stop telling me about all the things he did in school. His teacher, Rodica said that he had been very good and got his first stamp (for being a good boy) on his hand. He was so happy and just can't wait for tomorrow to come.

The kids' toilet