The Giving Tree

Ilyasak completed this book in about 4 days. I am extremely proud of him. He read about 2 or 3 pages a day and he will read more for pages with very few words. Of course, I had coax him and give him occasional nudges for him to perservere to complete the book.

Young Parents finalist

I was flipping through the Young Parents magazine September issue thinking of checking out the litte duckboat project which Ilyasak and the hubs sent in. Instead of that, I was surprise by a picture of Balqis in one of the pages. She was selected as one of teh 20 finalist for the cover baby contest 2010. Ilyasak was shocked too and told me excitedly, 'Umi , this is Balqis'

This was really a surprise for us as we did not even think that Balqis could make it to teh top 20 finalist. We even forgot about the contest. For a start, she refused to look at the camera and did not want to smile at all. We don't know of the existence of this particular photo which was taken. Anyhow, we were glad. Alhamdulillah, she still won something even if she did not make it to the top 3. It was already a big achievement for her and we were really happy for her. It will definitely be something for her to remember by when she grows up.

Huggies Babe

A few weeks ago, on the 21st of August we headed down to Downtown east (D marquee). I signed both Ilyasak and Balqis for some kid's race. Ilyasak teamed up with the hubs for the race but Balqis was on her own. We had to wait for quite sometime before each of their race started. Ilyasak was in category E while Balqis in category C.

I was scouting around for the Huggies babes and dudes contest as mentioned in the flyer as it was an on-site registration. I was surprise when I learned that the queue which was developing at that point was indeed the huggies babes and dudes contest. I was hesitant whether to join the queue as it was limited to only first 50 participants and looking at the queue, I had doubts that I could safely be in the first 50. Nevertheless, I went ahead to queue hoping that I was lucky enough to be in the first 50. My sis was there to accompany me in the queue so I wasn't too bored. It took me close to an hour before it was Balqis pictures were taken.

It turned out to be fruitful for us indeed as Balqis was shortlisted as the 10 finalist out of the 50. It felt good to hear the MC announced her name. She was called up on stage later where the audience had to vote for the huggies final babe or dude. The winner, of course the one with the most number of votes. Alhamdullillah, Balqis was crowned the Huggies Babe. She won 4 large packs of Huggies diapers for herself which was a good saving for the hubs.

We were very happy for her. We did not win any of the race although I was pinning my hopes on Ilyasak and the hubs to win some kind of prize. Oh well, most importantly we were there for the fun so it doesn't matter.