It's a wrap!

That's it. 2009 almost gone. How quick has it been? Although while we were at it it seemed like forever. It has been a year of a rollercoaster of emotions. January started off with back to work after a not-so-long maternity leave which left me no choice but plough on with work as exams were due in April. Then was a challenging time with Hamzah's terrible transit of eczema (which has almost gone for good too now, Alhamdulillah). Came exam time it was my first ever time away from Hamzah and god how difficult that was. Armed with the b-pump and milk storage bags and coolbags, I managed to stock up as much as I could while being away from my 1st born son while missing him loads. But it was worth it, cannot deny it was good to be away for a bit for a bit of me-time and indulge in retail therapy! And to gloat that I passed the exams too :D Also in the first quarter of the year, a school friend threw a majestic birthday party and was lucky to dance poco-poco as part of entertainment. That was a whole lot of fun, not to mention meeting all the girls and had fantabulous food too.

2009 also welcome more babies especially baby K! Long awaited and she is gorgeous and adorable as a baby girl could be! Loving her pics that her mummy has posted so far on Fb. Came Ramadhan and Hari Raya which was a first for us family of 3 and that was when Hamzah reached the ultimate milestone of walking at the age of 11 months and 9 days. Mummy was so proud :D He also enjoyed his 1st birthday celebrations, not 1, not 2 but 3 parties! How hollywood can u get huh! Later on, H went on holiday with Mama and his Nini's to Malaysia. Babah could not join because he could not get away from the office. Such a workaholic....haha....

Celebrating the new year and the coming weekend in comfort and style this year ie IN BED . Ha! Ha! Work completely tired me out this morning, and H was thinking the same thing as he dozed off far too early at 7pm missing out his dinner! Poor baby. Nevermind. He's been missing his mama badly (according to his babah) when at work and has not been sleeping well. 

Welcoming 2010, may it brings us prosperity, good health and success. Amin!

Good night all!

Hamzah on holiday

Stewardess: Tea or Coffee, sir?

Hamzah: Milk, please!

weekend

50 days or so to the new year. Plans for 2010 are in store. InshaAllah will start off with a quick trip to London in January, then another one in February/ March. Another scheduled working trip to Beijing end of March. This means work, work, work prior to all this. Saving for a family holiday in July/ August to pay a visit to Eiin and Uncle Janin/ Aunty Jackie in Geneva. Let's hope all will fall into place, amin. 

It's been a relaxing sunday. In fact, a chilled out weekend. After friday's oncall, went for a Taurean brekkie on saturday with the parents and lil H. Slept at midday and went for a quick Thann Heritage Massage. Stretch here, stretch there. Bliss. Went out with my 2 boys planned for a Mall visit but lil H nodded off in the car. Instead, the babah singgah YMRM skajap while the mama sneaked a lil nap herself jua hahaha! I think all of us were knackered by the time we reached home at 10pm we all hit the sack straight away.

The hubs had to go to work today. Yes, on a sunday. Nothing new. Pelancaran penanaman pokok sempena 39 tahun Bandar Seri Begawan. Was done near Jame Asr', then paid a visit to other places including UBD. This afternoon, he had to go his boss' house for work and is still there as i type.... :S

A brand new day and a brand new week tomorrow. Have a good week!

ONE

-14 October 2009-

The day when my baby turned ONE. Hamzah woke up extra early and ran around the play room probably knowing it was his birthday :) Had a little mini cupcake blow-out-candle on the day. Then had the real party 2 days later with the family. Mama so loves the cake and thinks it TOPS all the birthday cakes in the whole wide world.

Dear Hamzah,

You are now officially ONE! Syukur Alhamdulillah. It has been an unbelievable experience seeing you grow from a tiny baby to a sociable walking toddler. You've had a pretty rough half year with the eczema but you've come out of it pretty much or so. Things can only get better for you my lil one. On top of the walking, you pretty much can feed yourself, clap and babble when your favourite cartoon songs are on and wave bye-bye and high 5! And what I look forward every morning is a kiss from you everytime you try to wake me up, regardless how early it is! We love u!

Mama and Babah

Syawal 1430H

Approaching the 3rd week of Syawal 1430. Truly a memorable Raya as a family of 3 for the very first time. Dressed Hamzah in traditional cara melayu complete with sinjang and songkok, albeit he would throw his songkok away in a matter of a hundredth of a second! He never liked hats or anything put on his head for that matter, a trait i recognised since he was a few days old...odd!

Visited quite a number of relatives' houses this year but with a downside of Hamzah's routine disrupted. He gets cranky if he is late, or worse, misses his naptime which I as a mother is quite strict about. I, and am sure mothers out there, do agree discipline is important to instill in children no matter how old or young they are. Eventhough Hamzah is still a baby, discipline in sleeptimes and mealtimes is important and I dislike anything that goes in the way of this. At the end of the day, the parents AND the child suffers if this is disrupted.

Hamzah has behaved quite well with visiting this year, but got really cranky at home when there were too many people. I think he may have felt overwhelmed and tired with the attention people have been giving him. And OH YES, on the 3rd day of raya, Hamzah at age 11 months 9 days, started walking on his own!!! Yayyyyy!!! Mama was in tears, the Babah in disbelief and Hamzah very excited. But soon, fear and a bit of sadness overcame coz he's growing up so fast, becoming more independent and is fearless = time to babyproof the house!

Hamzah's become more sociable now too. He gets excited when he sees children his age. Apatah lagi, Ayden jadi mangsa! Kesian Ayden, he was slightly shocked when Hamzah started to come to him all shrieky with his hands up in the air and trying to hug (more like grab Ayden's hair) him. 1st day of Raya they were 'wrestling' each other and ended up in a fight where Hamzah's purple fan got ripped! Haha.....

Ramadhan

I think its time to update. I'm sitting in the flu centre killing time so I might as well. It's the 14th day of Ramadhan. Time flies fast. In 2 weeks will be Raya. Yay! Hamzah's 1st Raya. We got him suited up a week ago and got really excited.We still need to get his songkok. Got his sinjang already. Let's hope he'll walk by Raya time, though I think that is too much to ask. Tsk Tsk! Then again, I have to be extra organised so I dont have to run here and there pre-raya. Not to mention I'll be working on the day of the moon-sighting. Mudahan saja nda nampak anak bulan.

Went away on a R+R weekend getaway. Just the 3 of us. It was good quality time as a family. Surely needed that as had not had a proper break since i got back from Haj 2 years ago. 

On the work front, I've been progressing pretty well. The boss has let me do a few scopes. Still trying to be familiar with the rotators on the scope. Need to be quite dexterous. Had a patient with poor bowel prep yesterday, not a pretty picture, but as long as poo is out of my fingers reach, its fine.

A few excerpts from a few weekends ago.

My son is getting gorgeous each day. Im allowed to be bias because Im his mama. And he loves football and swimming, good for him, a proper sport. Not like golf :P

my hearts! har! har!

Hamzah with Haji Teddy aka Putut!! I think he was disgusted by it rather than adoring it!! hahaha!

Heavenly brownie

Needed a brownie fix badly today.

Called up Syaz of Sasbrownies. Luckily 1 brownie slot left today. Yippeeee!!!

Scrapping scrapper

Finally, finally! Barutah ada masa kan scrapping. Atu pun just because I should and its way overdue. I totally love this picture frame I bought from POTTERY BARN in NYC!! and I bought this in 2006....and only now in 2009 Ive filled it with pictures....and voila....!!!

Hamzah goes swimming!

It was his first swim splash. And where else to start but at Abang Ayden's crib? It was the perfect pool, and excellent company too! Ayden's nana Jackie is still in Brunei so she's kindly offered to teach Hamzah swimming. Yay!! I excitedly bought his swimming trunks from Mothercare last week, and chose an orange Tigger trunk that shows up his stripes when wet. How cool is that!

I think Hamzah knew he was gonna have an exciting afternoon so he only had a quick 30min nap, which was a tad annoying. Then he slept in the car and another 20mins or so in Jangsak. Ayden was impatiently scouting around the house in his blue trunks (cute!!) waiting for Hamzah to wake up. Finally, Ayden couldnt wait any longer and went into the pool with his Nana. Hamzah woke up in a daze and changed him and took him to sit on the pool steps. He sat quietly, maybe thinking this is a huge bathtub with other people in it! Soon, he started splashing around and kicking his legs in the water! He loved it!! Yay!!!

Cannot wait for another swim soon!!

Cousinly love

It is a blurry picture but you can just make out Ayden's show of affection to Hamzah. It's so sweet!!! Awwww.....

Then there's that banter between them...more like baby 'scream-talk'!

Bangun tidur

Woke up fresh from his afternoon nap....and went straight for his teether!

Soon after he rummaged through a pile of books on his cot (I know..I know its like a dump his cot is!) and decided on the Acute Medicine bible.....does that mean anything???

Mama & Son

A quick camera shot before going out for Thai!

Happy-happy

This is a picture of Hamzah i took last night while he was having his pre-tidur feed. Look at his left leg! Bent ala chillaxing style! Belabeh! (Sorry inda ku pandai merotate pix)

This on the other hand is one of the rare happy tummy-time moments!

Welcome babies!

A BIG congratulations to 2nd time parents Picau and Atai on the birth of their 2nd son on the June 21st. Hello baby Md Shafiq Shauqy!

Also, a BIG congratulations to Mummy Dina and Papa Ageh on the birth of their son Md Azad Shawaiz on May 25th!

Our soon-to-come arrivals are baby Hairanie+Chan and the long awaited baby Yuraina+Maming! Also, baby Mai+Pjal! Can't wait for more of Hamzah's friends. Yippeeee!!

Hamzah

He is a social butterfly. He hugs strangers! He is scared of no one. Except when he's left alone. That's separation anxiety for him, a normal development for an 8-month old baby.

When possible, at every opportunity, he only wants his 'Meh'. That's 'Mama' to him. 

He jumps up and down and flaps both his arms when sang to. His favourite song is Hijau Daun's 'Suara dengar kan lah aku....' and 'Pret-Pret-Pret' ala-Babah style. He knows how to wave bye-bye and salam people's hands.

He loves his fruits. He'll keep his mouth wide open eventhough he's had more than enough fruit puree than his Mama can literally take.

He hates tummy time. He would crawl but he absolutely hates it with a vengeance. But he'll sit independently and standing holding on for dear life. His legs are so strong that when he jumps on the jumperoo you would think he is on a trampoline.

He excels at folding. Anything and everything. Our amah is on contract leave, so he helps his mama folding the laundry. Not that its ever perfect!

Our 8-month little angel.

Tired!

Kengalihan lapas kawin Usu Adil nya!

Happy birthday Ayden!

A lovely Sunday to celebrate a happy, handsome, adorable young man.

Happy 1st birthday Ayden Zahari!

Love,

Tua Sueb, Tua Noneh and your cousin Baby Hamzah

xxx

Another hurdle overcomed

9 hours of exams over 2 days was no fun. Had a migraine half way thorugh the 3rd paper I was seeing double and thought I was going to pass out.

2 weeks on and results were out.

I passed! Yesssss!!!

Alhamdulillah. All those late evenings study group, time sacrificed away from Hamzah during the exams in Singapore has PAID OFF! Syukur. I tell people its 'rezeki and doa Hamzah, and doa the hubs and family jua'. Alhamdulillah.

A BIG thank you to bosse Dato for his dedication and time drilling the essentials into our stubborn brains :p

Another big thank you to Naoms for letting us stay in her lovely apartment.

YAYYYYYY!!!!!

Now I need to write a letter to get my pay-rise :D

Ruffled!

Baby Hamzah enjoying a pre-mandi photo shoot :)  Isnt he just the cutest??

The Battle

It started with a small patch of dry red patch on each cheek. I think he was less than a month old then. Mum said it was milk rash. Wiped milk religiously after each feed. It was still there. Later thought it could be heat rash, esp after eating all this post natal food which are supposed to be 'warm' to increase milk supply and to seped up recovery overall. One morning Hamzah felt slightly warm than usual, but his temperature was ok. I panicked. Mum suggested to take him to see the Dr. So off we went. He then said Hamzah has infantile eczema! Danggggg! So who would have thought mild eczema on the cheeks would have gone bad in the next few months????? We took him to JPMC, and the dermatologist in RIPAS, even to a few Ustazs who offered 'air baca-bacai' for him to drink and bathe in. By then Hamzah had extensive eczema, covering his body, arms and patches on his legs. He was a very restless baby. He wouldnt sleep well because he would want to scratch all the time. His excellent weight gain in the 1st 3 months got stunted and gradually dropped off the centile. Stressful it was!!!!!!!!!! There were times I was down in tears but I cant be weak when Im suppose to be the one who's strong. There were at times I was frustrated that I got disappointed with Hamzah everytime he wouidnt sleep well during the night and I regret that because it aint his fault! Mama's sorry love. Sleep deprivation gets the worse of me I have to say.

Hearing stories from friends who have children with eczema made me feel a bit better because I know Im not the only miserable mother out there. They shared their experience and one recommended me to start Hamzah on probiotics which helped her son's eczema. So we did when Hamzah was 5 months old. His once upon a time chronically red face cleared up in a matter of a few days! We were amazed. His arms were still red and thick but we thought it was a good start. The downside was it made him pooh like mad. At one point Hamzah had 13 diaper changes in a day. And that is A LOT. Imagine how much we spent on diapers! Anyhow, Ive decided to give him the Yakult only about 1oz per day rather than 2oz. That should cut down his pooh frequency.

Only recently his eczema had another flare up and it was quite a bad one. Just before that silly me for being an ignorant mother, I excitedly gave him rusk to take for supper. 45 mins later he developed red itchy spots on his face. It was an allergic reaction to wheat! Crap! Had to take him to hospital just to make sure he was ok. ANd he was. BUT now im very cautious with what I give Hamzah. I pray he is not wheat intolerant and not to any other food otherwise it will be tough and unfair on him. Anyhow, with his flare up he was started on Prednisolone (for the 2nd time, the 1st when he was 4 months old) and Flucloxacillin, and regular Piriton. I had to say it didnt settle his eczema this time. Oh, we were also asked to stop all cow milks products too, just in case Hamzah was allergic to cows milk. So he was on Soy milk then. STILL, he was all red. We reverted back to Hypoallergenic milk and restarted his Yakult. Alhamdulillah his skin has cleared up now....for 4 days now...so i pray and hope this is it...I hope this is the light at the end of the tunnel....amin amin!

play gym!

My poor baby with eczema :(

future academia!

Chicken, Moo-Moo and Ee-yore!

1st cousins playdate

my 2 favourite babies; Ayden & Hamzah 

You-tubing!

The Family Unit