Daily morning walks

Our daily morning would usually be walking Ilyasak to his kindy and Balqis and I will move on to a nearby playground, the field or to the supermarket for some grocery shopping on items which I forgot the day before. Both Balqis and I will enjoy the cool morning breeze sitting down on a bench observing people with their morning rush. Also immersing in nature, studying the different types of leaves, fruits and flowers when she picks it up for closer observation. Looking at snails plodding by which we will do when Ilyasak is early and has some time to join us for the walks before school starts.
I really love such activities with my kids and hope to be able to do it in years to come.

My kind boy

Just a few nights ago when all three of us (balqis, ilyasak and I) were getting ready for bed, Ilyasak asked me: " umi do you need me to take the eyedrop for you?" I went, "Awww you are so sweet." How can such sugar coated words not melt a mother's heart. The answer to his question was a "yes" of course. He even waited for me to finish the eye drops and took the empty vial to the trash can. This is my boy, he can just be so caring when you least expected. He has been taking the eye drops for me ever since then every single night. Lets hope this simple act of kindness is here to stay.

Ilyasak turns 5

This is a recent photograph of him-taken for his passport.

Ilyasak turned 5 yesterday. He woke up in the morning asking whether it was the 3rd of August and that he'd turned 5 already. He asked the hubs to check his height and even asked him to lug out the weighing machine to have his weight taken-to check if there was an increase in his weight now that he is 5 years old. We felt tickled at the way these young children are thinking. To them turning a year older equals to weight gained ha!ha! He had been on the constant check recently especially after we told him that he needs to gain another 2 kg before his next visit to the dietician.

We didnt have a fancy celebration, just a simple cake cutting at my mom's yesterday. He got his 'balloon' cake though. The cake was not much to be harped about as the decoration on the cake turned out to be just a piecce of plastic sheet simply plonked on the cake. We had to removed the plastic just to cut the cake. Upon removal of the plastic decoration, the cake looked nothing more like just an ordinary little cake. Well, at least he got the cake he wants and he had been wanting this particular cake since last year. For the record, he only ate a tiny piece from hs birthday cake unike other kids who would jump to request for the second or even the third helping.

We plan to take him out today as the hubs managed to get leave so not really sure where we will head to since its the fasting month- kind of drained out if we do too much physical activiy and Balqis is coughing really badly too.

Happy Birthday Ilyasak! Umi, Abi and Balqis love you dearly.

Ice cool Ice-cream

One of those rare after lunch snacks that they had. I promised that they could share an ice-cream if they finish their lunch promptly and they did. Ilyasak asked for this yummy reward almost immediately after he placed his plates in the sink. There was not a chance that I could pretend to forget to give them the reward.

They were practically pulling the ice-cream from each other. I had to be there to ensure that they took turns to lick the ice-cream. It was such a cute sight. The ice-cream was gone in under 10 minutes.

Balqis waiting for her turn to lick the ice-cream.

Putting on my own clothes

She has been trying to be independent these days. You would find her insisting on feeding herself. Yeah! more work for me as there will be more mess to be cleaned up. These are one of those other things which she has been insisting on doing it herself-putting on her panties or pants.
She is learning to put on her own clothes but of course mummy needs to give some kind of aid. Like for example, I need to help pull up her pants as it will get tangled somewhere along her thighs. Haha!!

A visit to the dietetics clinic

Our Ilyasak was made to see the dietician yesterday. Well, technically I am the one who needs to see the dietician so that we can find ways on how to solve his food refusal bug as well as his excessive time taken to complete one meal. He usually takes 45 minutes to an hour on average to complete a meal and much longer exceeding the one hour mark on the 'not so very good' days which at the same time will drive us (hubs and I) to the wall.

After the first consultation, I was taken aback when I was told by the dietician that I actually fed him more than he is able to take. I was adviced to cut down on his portions for every meal and to add a small supper before bedtime. I am to give Ilyasak the liberty of deciding his meal portion and he is to finish it within 30 minutes but of course we have to work down the time gradually-from his usual one hour to ultimately 30 minutes. I am also to offer more high energy food to him to support his active schedule. I found it weird too that I am encourage to fry his rice in garlic and oil if he is only to have soke soupy dish for the day just so to make up for the energy boost which is apparently very low in soups. I guess I was kind of carried away with the overly conscious 'me' to want to prepare healthy low fat food for the family and forgetting te fact that kids need their fair share of fat and oily food as part of their regime of growing up unlike us.

I was also made aware that the margarine with the healty pyramid symbol on it is way better than my choice of unsalted butter. The trans fat (bad fat) content in those specific margarine is way very low or in fact negligible. I was tempted to discard my tub of Lurpak unsalted butter but dismiss the thought knowing that the hubs will probably murder me with his 'verbal diarrhoea' haha!

Oh ya! I was terribly worried too when the dietician informed me that Ilyasak was underweight. He is at his 89th instead of the 100th percentile. His weight is about 16.f kg when he is suppose to be about 18.5 kg. Thank god his height is normal and his weight did not retards his height.

We are to slowly trained Ilyasak to feed himself instead of us feeding him. We tried today at breakfast and it almost drive me mad as he is eats very slowly and chatted far too much haha!!. I gave up and actually and fed him about 4 spoonfuls (I know I am not suppose to!)Well! that's our Ilyasak and I just have to work on it no matter how tough it gets.

Well I have to reorganise my thoughts and choices on the kinds of meal which I prepare for the family especially for Ilyasak and Balqis.

Fever bug

Ilyasak was attacked by another round of the fever bug. He had recently recovered from the same bug about 3 weeks ago and he was down again last Wednesday. His fever seems to be on the high once the virus sits in. His temperature was a scary 39 which hits 40 at certain times of the day. Often forcing us to give him an ice bath. Thankfully the hubby was on sick child care leave. I would not have imagine handling both kids on my own. Giving him cups of yoghurt also did not seem to help. To make matters worse, Ilyasak was such a lousy eater when he is sick. He was not a great eatet to start of with and it became worse when he is sick. We were so desperate to get some kind of food in hs body, that we even resorted to offering him a Long John's meal. Strange as one might find it, he resisted to even such a meal!
Lucky for us, he recovered after 2 days which was much shorter than the previous one whoch lasted a whole entire week. Looking after a sick child is never an easy task. we were thankful that we survived. All thanks to the one above for helping us as, after all, he would not give us a challenge that is not within our means. It only made us parents much stronger after we brave the tide.