Raising Daughter

Do you have a goal for your kids? Sometimes I look at my kids and wonder, is it enough to feed and clothe them. Is it enough to expect they will learn something by looking at us?

I admit the first years of their lives is extremely tiring. Any plans you had about anything can be thrown out the window because you can barely think most of the time. I fought hard to work past the maternal fog in the beginning and it slowly cleared without me noticing it.

Now I'm back to 100% in terms of brain power, I'm pretty sure. Then I realized that I've been on autopilot for so long that I barely planned anything for my kids, which pretty much deviated from my original parenthood dreams.

The time is now to change though.

Milestones & Parenting the Danish Way

Naila is having a 2 week holiday so naturally I've got my hands full. It's a blessing that she now knows how to play independently but at the same time, she still needs my company after 1 hour playing alone.. Ibrahim naps 2-3 times a day. 

This week it seems both had a milestone jump.. Naila suddenly started looking at her Lego Duplo in a new light. If she was building 4-5 block structures before, now she's suddenly interested in building mega structures.. finishing all the lego blocks in one go! 

One day she just came to me and said "Mommy! I need to show you something!!" 

So I went to her room.. low and behold... a behemoth structure by her previous standards. I felt so proud of her for figuring it out by herself! 

We played lego soo many times together. I tried showing her many ways to assemble the lego but she couldn't care less. Then she went on to discover stuff by herself! 

Major mind shift on my part.. 

Then I found out about Danish parenting.. which means that you don't have to actively play with your kids all the time. You can just let them learn to play by themselves sometimes. 

One more thing that Naila started doing is to scribble zig zags. It might not sound like much. I was even getting worried that she doesn't seem to have any drawing skills or even remotely interested in writing.  

If forced to draw, she'd be doing circles over and over again. She'll say its Olaf or something. I'm expecting her to draw like a stick man or something by now... but nope. So I'm pretty happy that she suddenly enjoys writing zig zags in the notebook.. And they're pretty nice zig zags too. 

Ibrahim on the hand started playing imitation games last week. He'd nod and shake his head. He would move his fingers when we sing twinkle-twinkle little star. Honestly, he's at such a fun age.

Giggly and funny. He'll be 11 months soon. Ahhh time flies by! 

Moving

It’s May, and guess where I’m writing this. In the new apartment.

So we decided to move again sometime in April. It’s a BIG RUSH, but we had to do it…considering a new baby is coming in July. The decision is actually sort of like a family restructuring. Lots of companies are restructuring.. my businesses are too and we personally needed to restructure our finances to brace the current economy.

I feel really sad about leaving our comfortable nest but when things get tough, the tough has to get going.. I don’t feel like it but that’s what they say anyway.

The move was a brutal 5 days. We had so many furniture to shift around because of the size constraint.. We moved into an apartment almost half the size of our current apartment! It used to be 1450 sqft of running space and now we’re one room less.

I decided to sacrifice my beautiful office. *CRY* Hopefully the pressure of working in a tight space makes me work harder.

One month before moving I started googling tips about small apartment décor, organizing tips and zen living.

I got rid of some of my clothes & hubs.

I got rid of things I kept from our wedding and school days.

I wept and tore and said goodbye to my printed memories. We gave away a bunch of stuff at the FREEMARKET. We stored sooOoo much junk. The big space we had just swallowed up a lot of stuff, it didn’t look like we had any.

Before moving, hubs actually said,

I said, “did you forget the last time we moved?”

Yes, he forgot. Because when it came for time to move, we had to hire the lorry for TWO days. Imagine TWO days. One day just to get rid of things. The other day to move to the apartment. We even borrowed his dad’s pickup truck to move loose items ourselves.

I wasn’t supposed to carry heavy stuff but caught myself arranging racks and drawers. Carrying many many boxes, baskets, plastics. Carrying Naila & the cat. Carrying carpets. Okay you name it, I did it.

And now, on to DAY 5. This is what we’ve got.

The Active Life of a Toddler

 

What happens if I mix blue and red and brown?

I thought I’d share what me & Naila are up to during the week. Now that I think about it, we actually do the same thing every week! We love to paint. At least I know I do. Naila loves to mix paint until it turns into the color of mud.

Look at me go!

This next activity is Naila’s favorite since she was a few months old. It never gets old for her. On the other hand, every time I find her like this, surrounded by a cloud of tissue, I feel a tear coming on. Do you know how much tissue has been turned into unusable shreds?

If only you knew.

I guess some people never learn to keep things out of a toddler’s grasp (rolls eye at hubs).

Oo oohh mommy is here to take me out of the pool. Better pretend to be busy.

One of the perks of living in an apartment is that you have a swimming pool an elevator ride away! We make it a point to go swimming at least once a week. I do my halfhearted ‘laps’.. meanwhile… Naila cheers me on and try hard not to succumb to the temptations of drinking the pool water!

I want ice-creammm!

The park is a perfect place to let Naila burn away her excess energy. She runs around the park. By the time we get to the car, she’ll be all drowsy. Doesn’t take long for her to doze off into dreamland.

*flips page*

We read one or two books before bedtime and a few more during the day. She’s got her favorite books that she chooses to read over and over again. She’s stopped tearing books to my relief! That’s Naila’s typical weekly activities. On some days that I’m extra pumped up, we’ll do mega projects like cooking together or doing artworks from felt and stuff!

Have a good week ahead everybody <3

Cat & Baby

Hi there, I’m just chillin’ with my homie!

Now that Naila is almost two, we’ve kinda got the hang of balancing the cat and baby living situation. Last week I came across so many adverts for cats, namely, people letting go of their cats. The reason? Because their wife was pregnant. Naturally I was shocked! I started complaining to hubs about it.

Apparently people think that just because they’re about to have a baby, they have to get rid of their pet cat? Didn’t they think about it before they got the cat? It got me thinking about how many people simply abandon their cats for this reason. It’s inhumane.

There are plenty of ways to accommodate both baby and cat. I’m talking about normal living arrangements. This isn’t for the special cases---babies are allergic to cats and stuff. 

Favorite sleeping position.

What did I do different when I got pregnant? I stopped cleaning Chanel’s litter box. The cleaning duty was taken over by hubs, shameless to say, until now! I think number one reason people got rid of their cats are because of toxoplasmosis virus.

That’s what people are most scared about. But if you clean the litter box yourselves, just make sure to wash your hands properly. Indoor cats rarely have the virus anyway. If you have an outdoor cat, then you better keep extra clean. Did you know that toxoplasmosis can be spread by eating uncooked meat too?

Some people just oversimplify the problem by blaming cats!

 

Really what did I do wrong?

Second reason why people get rid of their cats is because of their fear of their baby getting asthma or allergic to the cat. Again, back to what I was saying earlier. Cats aren’t a 2-3 year commitment. They are life-long. My grandma’s cat lived for 17 years so it’s not supposed to be spur of the moment decision to have a cat. Getting rid of the cat for some reason such as a baby is coming is so selfish and very poorly thought out!

That said, when a baby arrives, do make extra effort to reduce the fur shedding by vacuuming everyday or by confining the cat to a space of its own, until you figure out living arrangements. Keep the litter box away from the baby, obviously.

Let your cat see the changes that are about to happen—the crib, the new bedding, stroller whatnot. When the baby arrives, let them smell the baby’s clothing. Introduce them gently to the baby because they actually feel alarmed by the new presence.

If you think that it’s hard work, well, remember that you want both in your life. Believe me, when they get along well, everything is bliss. You’ve got the cat at one corner, the baby in another corner.

When Naila grew into a toddler, Chanel unfortunately turned into her favorite thing to bully. How do I manage it? That’s another story to tell.

 

Toink toink!

One Year Old Baby

Naila is ONE! Alhamdulillah.

Don’t worry, she’s fine.

April Recap In Pictures

 

Life is crazy. My hands are full juggling everything. I think I grew another hand just to accommodate! Alhamdulillah my life is full, blessed. Sometimes I fear I let everything slip by. One month is seriously so so short.

But.. we managed to sneak in a short weekend getaway to Cameron Highlands! We’ve been here three times in two years so that’s saying something. When we arrived it was cool and raining. Major love. It’s our first getaway as a family and Naila was sooo easy to travel with.

Also, we finally got help! Bhea is a LIFESAVER. I was getting really overwhelmed with my work, Naila, housework; and so started advertising for an extra pair of hands literally. She’s Naila’s new weekday nanny and my part-time housekeeper!

Yeap we love her!

Mom said Naila has too little toys so I went and get her Joey the jiggling elephant!! And I got her a bumbo seat with tray just in time to start EATING.

Favorite thing to do in April. She started blowing bubbles in March and never stopped since!

We have been working on our apartment since December, and finally we put it up for short rental this month!!

That’s it for now folks! I’ll check in soon. Definitely in May.

Take care xoxo.

5 Months? What?!

Just dropping by for a little update. I decided that I missed blogging suddenly in the middle of ‘Vampire Diaries’ when Elena started burning pages of her diary. Lol.

It’s been overwhelming and new, this motherhood thing. I love it. Before I had Naila, my life was contently busy and me & hubs had a certain routine going for us. However, now it’s a totally new life! I KNEW life was going to change. I didn’t know it was going to change like this!

Anyway, she turned five months on the 22th March. My 5 months old little doll. And cranky has a new name because she’s teething!

Do For A Living

If you see birds chirping and post is not updated means that I’ve gotten quite occupied with work. I’d like to share lots of things but just don’t have the time or rather the ‘reflective-sit quietly by the window-blog for hours’ mood. Plus my laptop is really getting on my nerves, shutting down at random times what not. It’s almost 4 years old and begging to be put out of misery.

Ever since I got out of uni, I never spoke of ‘work’ on the blog and I don’t discuss it much. Simply because it’s quite complicated and I’ve always thought of myself as not working, yet, but rather still looking for the right direction. But of course, I was employed and was really good at it if I may say so myself. Most people have a vague idea of what I do. Some think I sell houses, some think I travel lots for work, some think I run a restaurant.

Suffice to say that I now work from home. Kinda.

And since my husband will be away for 2 months (sobs!), it’s time to get the apartment sorted out.

Can you just look at some of these home offices? Drool.

 

Love the monthly wall calendar and notice boards. And the color!

Pure minimalism.

Love the concept, but must tone down the flowers or the husband will get panicky and scared.

I’ve got tons of stuff. More like the last picture above. So realistically speaking, I’m trying to get things as organized as it can be without actually scrimping on style.

I’ll be working on the apartment until end of December, so hopefully it looks more like a home by then, rather than a nest or a play jungle for Chanel.

On an end note, these DIY stationery holders are so cute. I’m ganna do this for mine, and the makeup brushes!

Till next time.

Technorati Tags: small apartment,home office,decor,interior design

An Afternoon With The Cat

First off, yes, I fooled around with the banner again and this time I hope to keep it for at least till the end of the year.

So when we finally break it to our families that we got ourselves a cat, most reacted with a ‘why suddenly a cat’? When actually, what they were saying is, “a baby should come first, not a cat!”.

Instead of giving the long winded explanation, we have an easy answer to that: we’re family planning for fun and success.



After a few days of getting the double tier cage, I decided to revamp the drab-looking cage. And because we leave her outside on the balcony at night, we originally used a drab-looking plastic sheet to cover the cage.

I was in Tesco when the idea struck. I bought some corrugated plastic board, not even knowing whether it would fit the cage. I was going for the polished Ikea look.

I got back home, punctured holes into the boards and joined it to form a sleek cover. And they fit like a glove!





The cat obviously loves it and tried to tear the whole thing apart.



We also did some interior designing in the cage. We went especially to Ace Hardware to get those rubber mats. Made in Germany, no joke. 2 weeks after rigorous usage (scratching, pee, poo, clawing), I’m happy to confirm that they are still looking good. Well done Germany!





She loves it…



..too much.







She has tried this a thousand times.



On the other side as well.



I’m ending this post with a crazy-eyed Chanel seconds before she makes an epic jump on the sliding door and coming down with awful screeching noises.

Till then!

p/s: I can no longer take the brand Chanel seriously anymore because it has my cat’s name.