random thoughts of the day

i'm still at work, although my obgyn said he could write me an mc anytime. but seeing that i still have the strength to drive, walk, cook, shop, and do all the other things i can do even before i was pregnant, i decided to take a rain check on the MCs. anyway, staying home would be boring..and at least if i'm doing things that i normally do everyday would take my mind off the wait.

my hubby bought me a nice phone on saturday (after seeing me going through a series of sad-looking and unreliable phones) and it's not even my birthday!!! what a nice surprise..actually, i wasn't looking for a high-tech phone that has all the nifty features like 3G and all that. but amin was really into it so he thought why not get a phone with a 3G feature. so now i spend my time fiddling with my new toy and play with the 2-way camera and all the other buttons. mine is in black..

it takes really nice pictures!! very clear and even has a flash! now i'm just going to have to sign up for the 3G package with my provider and start using that feature. cool eh??

on another note, i'm in the mood to post some pictures. so here goes...


yours truly in the labor room with the baby heart-monitoring thingy strapped to her stomach. (it was boring...had to lie down and stare at the ceiling for 45 minutes, just coz i thought it was possible to induce the baby)



check out nazim in his new jubah his daddy bought from Dubai. it fits him just nicely. a few more months then it'll be to his knees!


this one's with the complete head gear...ahh..our little khalifah..:)

false alarm

turned out that i fell asleep until 9 am this morning (which means, i did not go to the hospital, and which means, it was just a mild contraction). hiyaaa...i really thought i was going to deliver today. anyway, i still went to the hospital, just to see (actually to see if i can induce the baby!!) if the baby is fine. nurse checked me, said i wasn't dilated yet so there is a big chance the doctor will not allow me to induce. heh. fat chance. Yup..so they ran a test on the baby's heart beat and said everything is ok and sent me home! i'll just have to come back when the real contractions kick in. ok lah..so kena laa tunggu..

could this be it?

This is the latest i've stayed up so far. it's 2.20 am and it's probably because of that late night out to Tesco just now. and since it's already waayy past my bedtime, i'm not feeling sleepy anymore, plus, i have a feeling that i am experiencing the early stages of contractions (i think). see, i really can't remember what was it like the last time when i had the contractions. so i'm just guessing that it is what i am having now. i'm timing it as i get it. and now it's been like every 4 minutes, yet not too painful. it's still bearable. so to refresh my memory, i grabbed the book which i've been reading about pregnancy, birth, etc...and it says that the contraction should feel like you are having period cramps, somewhere along the lower side of the abdomen. that sounds like what i'm feeling now. and it says if it is a false contraction, it should go away if i move around and change positions. this pain hasn't gone away even after i've moved and changed positions while lying down. hmmm..so could this be it? my hubby is sound asleep. i don't wanna wake him up just yet. nor do i want to go to sleep...because i can't, in the first place, because i keep getting this tightening feeling around the muscle near my lower abdomen, plus, what if i really fall asleep and when i wake up the baby is already have way out??? (yeah, i know that is impossible AND ridiculous) but i'm just too excited. :) i'll try to get some shut eye though..we'll just see how long it lasts.

anxiously waiting

No people, i have not given birth yet...in case some of you are wondering the reason for my absence in this cyberspace. I wish i had given birth already though. This anxiety is making myself and my husband feel very impatient and restless. He thinks i've been pregnant too long. I think so too. Aaaa...the excitement of waiting for our second child..it's quite different from the first one..Last time, we were pretty patient and didn't mind the wait at all...and when the time finally came, everything feel into the right places. Now, i'm thinking of all the possibilities of how the baby is going to arrive. Will i get a show? Will my water bag break? or Will i get my contractions without having any signs that i am about to go into labor? What if i suddenly get contractions while driving? or in the middle of the night when i'm sound asleep? questions questions questions...let's count how many more days to expected due date (7th March) : 10 more days!!! aaaaaaaaaaaa....could it be this weekend?? :)

my water heater

Our water heater in the bathroom has stopped functioning since before the Chinese New Year. With the long holiday and all, i was patient enough to wait until the shops re-open after the CNY. As soon as most of the shops started operating again, i called the service center to ask if someone could come and have a look at the water heater...but much to my dismay, my calls were either unanswered, answered, but with a fax tone, answered by somebody who only managed to tell me that she was going to ask the technician to make an appointment with me (which i waited ages for that call to come). by then i was getting rather agitated with making phone calls to the service center which were so damn lembap in so many ways. so, being me, curious and all, i climbed (yes...with my big stomach and all) the ladder to see if it was something to do with the wiring/electric socket. i had a hunch that it did. so, i unscrewed the 3-pin plug to see if the wires were well in place....everything looked ok..so i think there was something wrong with the socket on the wall (as the switch could not be turned on or off). so, i thought that was as much as i could do, anything more would require an electrician. so, i looked high and low for the electrician number..and luckily, he was free sometime in the evening...after changing the socket on the wall, my water heater was working again!!! and i only had to pay 8 bucks for it! Had i asked the chinaman from the service center to come, he would have wanted 35 bucks for the same job!!!

and guess what? this morning, the service center called me (a few times, all unanswered) and left a message:

chinaman: Halo Miss Fara...i am calling from Centon water heater. please call me back at 019 XXXXXXXX.

me (to myself): now only you call me ah??? fix already laahh!!! duhh..

Happy V Day

we have not been doing anything special for valentine's day since....ages...partly because well, the roses' prices hike up like crazy on this particular day, and what's the biggie anyway? another reason is my husband tends to forget about it anyway, so over the years, i've gotten used to not making it such a big deal. i think we only exchanged gifts and cards for valentine's during the first two years of our relationship...and then..i think there were other days that seemed even more than valentine's day for us. back in the US, the roses are so cheap, and i remember buying dozens of roses for myself just because i like the colors and the smell and i would dry them up upside down. here..oh...forget about buying roses...

i just have one question in my mind now: when is this baby coming out???? according to schedule, her estimated time of delivery (ETD) is 7th March, which means, i have about 21 more days. my first born arrived a week early. could history repeat itself? if it does, then i have 2 more weeks left. of late, i have caught myself walking really really slowly because sometimes the pain just abruptly comes at the lower right rise of my belly. and i've also gotten the braxton hicks quite frequently nowadays.

ok people, have a nice valentine's dinner ;)

My baby boy is 2 already!

Today is my son nazim's birthday. he was born at 10.43 a.m. on a friday and weighed 2.45 kg. he came out into this world after hours and hours of labor (both for him and for me) looking rather purple and wrinkly. and after mommy couldn't push anymore the doctor thought it would be wise to pull him out with a pair of forceps. 2 years have gone sooo quickly and my little baby boy has grown up and has become amazingly intelligent, masyaAllah. he can understand so many things now, and i can talk to him and he would respond to me accordingly, sometimes even surprising me with new words that i don't even rememeber teaching him.

We had an early celebration at the PJ A&W last saturday and even though we had the place for a very limited time, the party went on very smoothly with little hick ups here and there (you will find out why)...The cake was an amazing display of an airport runaway, complete with cargo trucks, communication tower, small people and of course, a plane.

nazim was excited to see this and wanted to take out the little props the moment he saw the cake. it was a nice moist buttery butter cake with sweet buttercream icing...the lady who did this cake makes the best tasting and best looking cakes!!

so the party started around 3, with the food being served and people started to fill the party room. at this point nazim was still excited to play in the playground just outside of the party room. by 3.20pm, most of the invitees were there and people were just eating and mingling. i wish i had more time to mingle with the friends i've invited but i guess i just had to keep things running smoothly with the food, and nazim and etc. so by 3.45 pm it was time to cut the cake and also the time for the A&W bear to make its appearance. (this is the part where the hick up is about to start).

Nazim was ready for the cutting cake session, when he first caught glimpse of the bear. at first he was pretty excited, but when the bear came closer and shook his hand, he suddenly burst into tears and he became hysterical, clutching on to me like he just saw a ghost. and he didn't want to be seated in front of the cake anymore and just continued screaming with tears falling down his cheeks like rain. so i tried to calm him down by taking him to another room, but it still didn't work...and then his daddy took him out to the playground and...guess who was there? THE BEAR!!! amin tried to tell him that the bear was nice and made nazim shake hands with him..(at this point he had already stop crying but still a bit apprehensive about the bear).

back in the party room, all the kids were still surrounding the cake and when it looks like he is quite ready again, we brought him in...and i guess the room reminded him again about what just happened a few minutes again...which led him to yet another episode of scaredness but this time less, because the bear was not in the same room. so i quickly asked for the candles to be lit up (to distract him from being sad again)....i was the first one to start singing the birthday song (again, a strategy i used to make him forget about the bear and it worked!) he blew the candles with a little help from mommy...the funny part was while we were singing the birthday song, he looked around the room (even turning to the back) to see if the bear was around!!! hahahah..my poor baby, it was supposed to be a happy moment for him and that bear spoiled it for him.

so, the next day, since we still had some more cake left, i put two candles on the leftover cake and had another round of birthday song for him. this time, he knew he was on safe grounds with no hairy-orange-colored-sweater-wearing bear around to shake his hands. and he had the biggest smile on!! and since today is his actual birthday, we might have another round of candle blowing :)

THE MUCH DREADED BEAR
(for more pictures, you can visit aminfara.fotopages.com)

no more little ants

alasss..they are not to be seen crawling across my keyboard and desk anymore!! i have been so annoyed by them that i keep crushing them with my fingers every time i see one passing while typing away on my keyboard. so, today, i brought the extinguisher...hehe..and looks like houston, there are no more little ants running around..ah well, i've been munching on this biskut marie like crazy!!! i just can't stop eating them..there are four rows in a pack, and i've finished two rows in like two days!!! but the thing is, it doesn't make me feel full..so that's why i keep nibbling...and nibbling on them...(just reached out to get another one)...oh no..the crumbs are going to attract those ants again!!!

anyway, since i'm quite free (quite free is an understatement, really free is more like it), i feel like doing a tag. so here is one of the tags that i find quite interesting to do..(ok now i have stop eating the biscuits coz i feel kenyang already).

Four Jobs I Had In My Life (before i graduated):
1. Dining hall at a dorm in college serving food, washing dishes, cleaning up..(hahaha..this job was fun, get to bring back the leftovers..but later i got tired of it and quit)...for another job..at no 2.
2. Librarian / Information Desk person: I didn't quite like the arranging books part..but i didn't mind sitting at the info desk as i get to use the computer and do my homework and check out books for people who want to borrow them.
3. Grader: This was by far the best job ever!!! All i did was grade freshmen/sophomore year students' lab reports for classes which i've taken and get 200 bucks every two weeks!!! aahh..my weekends weren't boring anymore, with more trips to the mall and movies, and buying things that i wanted...and the thing is, i didn't really have to spend that long to mark the reports as they all look a like (read: students tend to copy from their friends)
4. Research Assistant: well, this one...was really for the resume. hehehe..what did i do? hmm..followed the researcher/professor to his research site which was a place full of trees and started collecting the leaves..(yeah...hoo hoo). he would set up his equipment and i would pretend to be interested with what he's doing but really, i was thinking of some better things in life..hahahaha..and then i'd take the leaves to the lab and dry them in the oven and do some calculation to see how much water was in the leaves, etc, etc, etc....didn't stay with that job for a long time...after the semester habis, i cabut man!!

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over:
1. Top Gun
2. Van Wilder
3. Notting Hill
4. Erin Brokovich

Four TV Shows I Love To Watch:

1. Desperate Housewives
2. Nigella Lawson's cook shows
3. Jamie Oliver's cook shows
4. Amazing Race

Places I've Lived (from the earliest to most recent):
1. Lembah Keramat, KL
2. Kota Kinabalu
2. Canberra, Australia
3. PJ
4. Redlands, California
5. Ann Arbor, Michigan
6. Arlington Heights, Illinois
7. New York, New York

8. Kelana Jaya
9. Melaka (until present...i lived like a nomad)

Six Places I've Been on Vacation To:
1. Montego Bay, Jamaica
2. All over Florida until Key West
3. Turkey
4. Europe

5. Australia
6. Canada

Four Places I'd Rather Be In (Right now?):
1. Home
2. LA or NY vacationing with hubby and son
3. London
4. somewhere by the beach

Some of My Favourite Foods:
1. Kari Ketam (actually i love crabs no matter how they are cooked)
2. Bubur gandum or wheat porridge (the sweet type)

3. Assam pedas (my mom's one is the best so far)
4. Ikan Masak Lomak Cili Padi (i'm not from N9 but i just love this dish)
5. Creme brulee
6. Kuew Teow Goreng (from Mdm Kwan's or Penang Village)
7. Sheperd's pie
8. Italian, Thai, Arabic

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
1. Msn as it is my default home page
2. hotmail.com
3. Blogs that i like to nose around in
4. yahoo.com

Ok, i've killed just enough time for me to stick around the office :p. now it's time to head home. ta ta people!!

complicated toys

my husband is enthusiatic when it comes to buying toys for nazim. but sometimes, the toys that he buys are too complicated for him...like the one he bought yesterday. the box says the toy is for ages 3 and up, but of course, no 3 year old child can assemble such a complicated racing track that came in so many different parts!!! even the parent of the 3 year old would have a hard time putting it together. and this was exactly what happened to my husband...there were no clear instructions on how to connect the pieces of race track together, and he only had to depend on the pictures on the box. it took him almost an hour and a half to make it look like the picture on the box, but somehow, the ensemble looked pretty flimsy and he almost gave up...but i decided to help him towards the end...but i found it irritating too, because the parts didn't quite fit nicely. so, i also kinda gave up...we managed to finish 95% of the track, and finally gave up. but before the whole thing crumbled to the floor, we thought taking a picture of it with nazim standing beside it would make it worth the while :) and then, maybe a few days later, we can pack up the little pieces back in the box and next time get a really simple toy without small parts that could go missing and then the whole thing wouldn't work.

On a different note, while both of us were spending the sunday afternoon doing our own things in the house, nazim found his own activity outdoors to occupy himself...much to our surprise..

he took all the shoes on the rack and threw them onto the grass and sprayed them with water...

maybe he thinks mommy's shoes need to be cleaned once in a while...

it's february already?!

wow...feels like i've neglected this blogging scene for quite a while now. it's just that i got carried away with the longgg longg break...and tomorrow, it's back to business. it was a well spent break, with me not doing much, just lazying about and bringing nazim to his Gymboree sessions. oh, did i mention i already have my labor bag ready? yeah, the bag that i'm supposed to bring along with me to the hospital when i go into labor. so what's in that bag? hahahah...(oh no not with the what's in the bag thingy again huh?) anyway, just for the fun of it...here are some things i've put in the bag:

1. a towel

2. maternity pads

3. toiletries

4. under garments

5. a kain batik and a t-shirt

6. newborn diapers

7. newborn change of clothes to go home

8. robe

9. a barut (is that what they call it? the thing we use to wrap around our stomach to give it support?..so that it doesn't jiggle about because the skin of the stomach will be saggy right after birth..)

anyhow, i still have a month to go with this pregnancy..yeah ONE MORE MONTH!!! oh gosh..i feel that i'm quite ready to give birth already..getting a good sleep is impossible without first having to toss and turn, and shift my pillows around and when i finally do fall asleep, it'll be around 1 or 2...my rib cage has been pushed up by the placenta, and sometimes i could feel the center of the rib brushing each other, which is very painful..and getting out of bed is another story! i guess all i can do is just hang on for just a little while....till the baby is ready to come out...and i hope it'll stay there until after nazim's birthday party this saturday!!we've got most of the things ready for nazim's 2nd birthday: party packs, venue, food, cake (ohh he's gonna love his cake!!!)

ok doke then, it's been a longg week..(in a good way), and what a bummer that it's all going to end in just a couple of hours from now. oh well...