The lil’ dude and his family…

Last weekend was pretty much hectic for all of us. Irwan had to clock crazy hours on Thursday until the wee hours of the morning on Friday, and then went for the BMW Practice at Sepang on Friday evening and I had to bring Irfan to SJMC that Friday night as his runny nose wasn’t getting any better. On the same night, I also had to pack for all of us as we were going away on Saturday to Genting and PD.

On Saturday morning, Irwan had to go to the Shah Alam circuit first for his annual Australian Alumni Go-Kart Race. And since 2005, Monash has been winning the race and so it wasn’t a surprise that this year Irwan and his team won again. Yay! Immediately after he finished his race, we left for Genting. Traffic was ok and so was the weather. Irwan was already late for his registration and so I dropped him off at the entrance of the theme park and proceeded to park. I think the parking angel was with me because I immediately got a parking spot the moment I entered the carpark. Heh.

When we got to the go-kart area, the place was packed with Fly FM crews, BHP booths and many more. The race kicked off at about 1.15pm and 90 contestants had their go - 3 persons at one go - and had their time clocked too. After Irwan was done, we proceeded to let Irfan have his fun - the bumper car being his favourite! :P

Not more than 15 minutes later, it poured. H.e.a.v.i.l.y. And we were stuck. But thank goodness we were stuck indoor and not under ‘em tents. When the rain started to slow down, we made our way back to the entrance to have lunch at Marrybrown as Irwan was given some vouchers for makan.

Out of the 90 contestants, only 30 will be chosen for the final round and since it rained not once, but twice that day, the whole event got delayed! By the time the names were announced, it was already 7pm! And we were suppose to be headed to PD already by this time. So yes, Irwan’s name was one of those 30 names that were announced and he had to run back to the car to get his helmet as now they allow the contestants to wear their own helmets pulak. I didn’t understand why they didn’t allow them to wear it at the start though. Oh well.

So yeah, there we were - Irfan and I - cheering for Irwan who sengaja wanted to go last so that everyone else would dry the track for him and I guess it was a good move too because although he said that his kart was really really slow, he managed to get 3rd place and walked away with RM 10,000!! Wheeeeee….!!

When everything was settled, we quickly made our way to the car and left for PD. Irfan slept the moment we hit the road as he only managed to nap for about 1.5 hours earlier on. Anyway, by the time we got to the hotel, it was almost midnight and I was just oh-so-tired! Wanted to sleep in the next morning but since our room was facing the pool and there were some other companies having their family day and what not, the noise was just unbearable and so Irfan and I decided to tag Irwan for breakfast before he has to leave us to attend his team building thingiemajigie.

After breakfast, Irfan and I went to the pool to have some fun. As he was still Mr.Sniffles, I didn’t allow him to rendam for long in the pool - 30 minutes tops. As usual, after swimming he’d be starving. So we made our way to PD town and had some Hainanese chicken rice. He finished the whole plate along with my fish ball soup too! And waddaya know? He was doing his big project while I was finishing up. Aiyah! How to sit in the carlah like that? In the end, I had to make him stand at the back seat and drive real slow back to the hotel. :P

We met Irwan back for lunch and it was during this time that I got annoyed with one of his colleagues - he was the acting Head of IT before Irwan joined Khazanah and took over the position as Head of IT. So anyway, this guy is having his wedding sometime this month. He has passed the invitation to Irwan a few weeks ago and Irwan told me that no kids are allowed at the wedding. Finelah, no worries. If noone can jaga Irfan that night, Irwan will just have to go without melah. No hal. So, while having lunch, Irfan was just walking around the room, checking things out and all that but did not disturb anyone. That’s just him. And I’d think it’s perfectly normal anyway for a 3 year old to be inquisitive and all that. But no, not to this guy. He was seated next to me, by the way and said this “You do know that your son will not be allowed to be at my wedding, right?” I answered “Yes, I’m aware that kids are not allowed to attend your wedding.” His reply to that “Yeah, it’s because your son is too notorious.” Notorious? Notorious? Really? Has he even seen how “notorious kids” behave??? For heaven’s sake, all my son did was to walk around and play with his cars on the chair while everyone else was having lunch - what’s the effing problem? He’s had his lunch anyway, so what? Does he expect kids to sit on the chair without moving a muscle? If he does, then good lucklah! I know that Irfan isn’t perfect. But he’s definitely NOT notorious! Gah! So annoyed I was that I tak selera to continue my lunch. And when I told Irwan about what the guy has said, Irwan’s reply was that to just ignore him because he’s just the sarcastic type and more often than not his choice of words are always out of context. What-ever! :P Thank god he was already done with his lunch and left a few minutes later. Else, I wouldn’t know what I’d have said to him. Eeeeee..!

So after lunch, Irwan had to return back for his team building stuff and I was having a hard time keeping my eyes opened. I told Irfan to play quietly with his cars while I took a nap and an hour later I woke up and the first thing I saw was him sleeping with his head on the edge of the bed while standing! Haha. He’s even packed all his cars nicely and put them in the pouch that Ira made for his birthday. I then put him on the bed nicely and packed all our stuff and waited for Irwan to be done. After checking out, we transferred Irfan to his carseat and he was still asleep. When we got home we took him out from his carseat and he was still asleep. The maid was vacuuming the living hall (where he was asleep) and he still did not wake up. Finally at about 8.30pm or so, he woke up and had some dinner and went back to sleep again. :) Penat sangatlah tu!

Irwan had to be in KK for the weekend to conduct the BMW Performance Day and since I have not been to KK (yes, very the malu), I thought that I might as well tag along and visit the negeri di bawah bayu. However, we didn’t stay by the beach (wanted to check out Tanjung Aru or Karambunai) because the event was held at the port and so we were put up at one of ‘em hotels in the city.

Irwan and the luggages left first on Friday morning and Irfan and I took the MAS flight in the evening. The fare difference was only about RM100 or so and since it was easier to take the train from KL Sentral to KLIA, I chose to fly with MAS. Traffic was just madness that evening but my brother managed to drop us off at KL Sentral by 6.20pm. Since I had already check-ed in via the web the night before, I just needed to go to the MAS counter at KL Sentral to get the boarding pass endorsed. We were on the KLIA Ekspres (which I got my driver to buy the tickets earlier so that I didn’t need to rush everwhere) by 6.30pm. Phew.

Irfan had a fun time being on the train and when we got to KLIA we still had time to munch some food. I wasn’t sure whether we’d be given food onboard so to be on the safe side, I got Irfan some nuggets from BK. When it was time to board the plane, they’d actually allow those with kids to board in first (unlike AA!!!!) and I was just so glad they did. It gave me time to make sure Irfan was comfortable because it was a 2.5 hours flight and I didn’t know what to expect of Irfan. Haha. But alhamdulillah, he slept after having nasi beriani for dinner.

We arrived in KK at about 10.25pm and Irfan was still asleep. So I carried him out of the plane to meet Irwan and damn.. that kid of mine is so heavy now! I almost broke my back!! We went straight to the hotel and I completely knocked out ’til the next morning. :P

Irwan had to leave early the next morning for the event so Irfan and I had breakfast at the San Francisco Coffee and he actually finished the scrambled eggs, toasted bread and sausages - I think I only had a quarter of the whole plate. After breakfast, I brought him to the waterfront which was across from where we were at because he wanted to see the boats and ships and the whole works. It was just too scorching hot for us to spend too much time there and so I brought him to the malls instead. (Apalah, go KK to shop.. :P)

We had lunch at one of the shops in the mall, and again, Irfan finished off my food. Haha. It was too hot outside and I was too tired anyway, so both of us went back to the hotel and had a l.o.n.g nap. By the time I got up, it was almost 5pm and got us ready to go to the Filipino market. Irwan arrived just before we left, so he followed us to the market. Irfan was asking Irwan to carry him every 5 nanoseconds (and he wasn’t all that whiny with me) and poor Irwan, tired from the day’s event had to submit to his son’s request. After getting some stuff from the pasar, we went to have dinner at the Kampung Nelayan Restaurant and food was just amazing! :)

On Sunday, after breakfast, I brought Irfan to Lok Kawi Wildlife Park. What I didn’t know was that there are no taxis there for you to balik and I ended up paying RM120 for the cab driver to wait for us for 1.5 hours. He said it’s a normal practice. Sheaaaahhh right. I’m surelah kan? Whateverlah, I just wanted Irfan to have his fun time so I just ignored the fact that RM120 is a rip-off!

We saw two orang utans riding on the buggy and I think Irfan was pretty amazed and I had to explain to him what orang utans are. Then we saw some parrots and one of them greeted Irfan and I could see that he was shocked! Haha. So I told Irfan to greet the parrot back and when the parrot asked where we were from, I told Irfan to reply. I think they were conversing for about 5 mins or so and Irfan made me promise to come back to the parrots before we leave so that he can wish them goodbye. :)

While at the Sunbear’s area, one of ‘em bears were circling around the pool and taking a dip in it and Irfan just had to ask me this “Ma, the bear pakai sunblock tak? Nenek says must use sunblock when swimming!” I was laughing my head off and then explained to him that bears do not need to use sunblock. He just okay-ed me but I have no idea if he fully understood. ;)

Irfan was drenched in sweat by the time we were done and since our flight was at 530pm that evening, I thought that it’d be best if we went back to the hotel and let him have his nap (since he woke up rather early that morning). Oh, before that we had lunch nearby and yup, he finished off most of my food too. Haha! I think he loves all the fresh seafood in KK. ;)

It was just me and Irfan going back first and although I needn’t be at the airport early (since I’ve done the web check-in the evening before at the hotel), I just thought that we’d pusing-pusing KKIA. Irfan wanted some mackers and ice-cream and after having our tea, we went past the customs only to be told that our flight was slightly delayed. We were supposed to take-off at 5.30pm and the plane from KL only arrived at 5.20pm. But not too bad, we left KK around 5.50pm or so. And it was a full flight too with loads of kids and babies!

Since Irfan had his nap earlier on, he didn’t want to nap after having his nasi tomato but he let me have my nap 30 minutes before arriving at KLIA. My brothers were already at the airport since they were at SIC for the Japan GT earlier on and I was just so t.i.r.e.d that I wanted to sleep on the chairs at the arrival hall.

So that’s how my first trip to KK went. Will probably go again next year (and stay at Karambunai!) since this year’s holiday allocation has been max-ed out with our Europe trip in December. Heh. 

‘Twas Jamie’s first ever birthday party and we were all excited to be a part of the celebration. Thanks dude for having us around! We all had so much fun!! And it was great seeing how terrified Irfan was with the A&W rootbear since he’s never afraid of anything. At least I got to bully him and made him listen to me the next few days after the party. Pft.

Our weekend was crazy packed as we had a wedding to attend that Saturday night. Irfan made everyone turn around and looked at us when he screamed while the Ustaz was reciting the doa. Aiyo. Kasi bikin malu saje! I really didn’t know where to put my face and I guess he was also tired and cranky because the ceremony only started at 9 p.m (when the card states 8 p.m!) and we only got to eat around 9.30 p.m and it was already his bedtime. So after eating what we could, we left the wedding by 10.15 p.m or so and the lil’ dude knocked out the minute we got home. And didn’t get up ’til about 10 a.m! Must be super tiredlah tu!

That night, we had dinner at this place called Restoran Ikan Sungai (damn good food!!) at Desa Melawati and it was suppose to be a Father’s Day treat for my dad from us all because we’ll be in Kota Kinabalu this weekend. But the bill was just ridiculously crazy (just for fishies + udang galah, ok?) that my dad said it’s his treat this time around. Whomever can guess the price, I shall belanja you makan! Hahaha!

Me: Irfan, how do you spell your name?

Irfan: I-R-F-A-N. Adam!

Irfan: A-D-A-M. Irfan!

Me: How do you spell my name?

Irfan: N-A-D-I-A. Mama!

Me: How do you spell your father’s name?

Irfan: I-R-W-A-N. Papa!

Aiyoooooooo….!

Anyhow, after seeing x amount of homes, we have finally decided on one that we just saw over the last weekend. It’s not too big, but it’s not too small either. And what I love about the house is that it has loads of long and tall windows - perfect opportunity for photo ops! ;) I’ll be going over later to view for a second time and if both parties agree on the price, I’d like to think that the (headache) hunt is over. And then comes the headache on the minor details. Ish. More eye-candy shots below:

p/s: These aren’t the photos of the said house. I didn’t snap photos of the house because I didn’t want to intrude the owner’s privacy. However, they do have some resemblance of the house. :) 

Met up with a friend and her family yesterday for lunch yesterday at Bianco we were in for a surprise as Bianco was having their first ever Sunday all-you-can-eat Brunch for RM 25+. The T&C is that you cannot order more than two dishes per round BUT you can order as many round as you can. And if you are so tamak and cannot finish the food that you’ve ordered (more than 150gram of balance), you’d be penalised for RM10 (or so).

It was my second time at Bianco and I know that their aglio olio (with prawns) is to die for so I had like two and a half bowl of that to myself. I also ordered the pizza for myself (and shared it with Zayaan and Irfan) and numerous plates of soft shell crab! The crabs were also Irfan’s favourite and he was just munching and munching and munching away. I think we ordered like 14 plates of them (in 3 rounds of ordering) and when we wanted to order them for the fourth round, we were told that they were already out of crabs and was replacing them with the prawns instead. Can do alsolah.

After we had dessert, I was like this ular sawa that couldn’t even move an inch! I had a tough time keeping my eyes opened too. Haha! Anyhow, Mrika - thanks for your company yesterday and thank you very mush for the paintings. :) Hope Zarif feels better now.

Irwan turns 31 today, 25th May 2009 and I sort of surprised him with a makan-makan session at our place last Saturday night. He didn’t know what was happening - aside from me telling him not to have any plans that weekend as we are going to “Penang” - but figured it out on Saturday itself as he saw me arranging stuff and even followed me to pick up the food and cupcakes.

The main menu was sushi (got ‘em from Sakae Sushi and they even have party sets) with some KFC and pizzas. I, however, underestimated the food and some of the guests who came later weren’t properly fed. Tsk. So I decided to call McDonald’s and have them delivered some food, but even after 1 hour of ordering, the food still did not arrive!! Argh! I immediately called them to cancel and after 30 minutes I was informed by the guards that delivery has arrived. I told them to send the delivery boy back. Moral of the story: Never EVER ask for delivery from Pizza Hut (my mom had to wait for 2 bleedin’ hours!) or McDonald’s on a weekend! :P

Anyways, happy birthday babe and hope you had fun with your buddies! :)

p/p/s: Sorrylah, not that many pictures. I was busy goss-ing. Haha!

After the trip to the waterfall that weekend, Irfan wanted us to bring him cycling at Lake Garden so off we went. He had fun cycling around the area, watching the ducks + swans at the lake and even had a go at the playground. His first meal that morning (aside from his milk) was unfortunately the twisties he saw displayed at the gerai near the lake and I managed to persuade him to eat some nasi lemak I was having. Twisties + nasi lemak = not a good combo, but apa-apa ajelah. Heh.

After that, we went to Raju’s to meet up with a few friends and the place was insanely packed!! Irfan had roti canai and some banana leaf rice and he thoroughly enjoyed the crispy fried chicken. I know, I know, not very the healthy food I’ve been feeding him but weekends are usually indulge-in-food-days for us. :P

Irwan then wanted to check Naza out (for whatever reasons he had) and off we went to their 222 showroom. Irfan was all excited when he saw ‘em cars and found an unlocked Scooby and refused to get out of the driver’s seat even after coax-ing him to get into a Beemer. Eh? Dah tukar pulak ke? Anyway, I’d love to have one of the Ferraris on display but for now I think the Shell ones will do just fine. Hahahahaha! Kena get rumah dululaaaaaa…

On one of the days during the long weekend, Aaron and family, Danny + Kathey and our family made a trip to Lentang Waterfall off the Karak highway. We left our place at about 8.40 a.m. and traffic wasn’t that bad until we arrived at the Karak toll - that’s where the backlog started - but the journey was smooth after the toll plazas.

It wasn’t difficult finding the place and since it was still quite early - 10-ish a.m. - there weren’t that many people around and we managed to secure a nice spot. We didn’t go all the way up but we didn’t stay at the bottom of the stream (yuck!) either. After taking out the stuff from the car, we ate the nasi lemak that Irwan bought first because everyone was starving. Heh. Afterwards, the boys and girls (sans Nadia and Danny) went into the water and had some splashing fun time.  The water was just too c.o.l.d laaaaaaa and besides, I had more fun playing with Aaron’s 85mm f1.2 and 135mm f2 than being in the water. Haha!

Irfan and Naomi had their share of playing and fighting with each other. One minute they were arguing like couples do and the next minute they were on their best-est behaviour. Irfan also satu hal lah, always like to irritate the h*ll out of Naomi. Sigh.

Aaaaaanyways, the lil’ dude is down with HFMD (again!) but it’s really really really mild. Even milder than the mild one he had when he was 1+ years old. I don’t know where he contracted it from but his principal called me around noon yesterday saying that Irfan complained of being tired and lethargic and his body was quite warm. I brought him to SJMC (or Sime Darby) later in the evening and last night, his temperature shot up to 39 degrees. I inserted the suppository given to me by the paed and he was okay throughout the night.

This morning, while I was changing him, I noticed a spot on his thigh and alarm bells started ringing. I immediately called up SJMC and made an appointment to see his paed. 5 seconds later, I changed my mind because I knew it’d be a l.o.n.g wait at SJMC and called up Prince Court to see a paed there instead. Since it was our first time there, I chose a Dr. Sharmila and she proved to be a good choice I made. :) At the hospital, we detected a few more spots on his palm, but thank god his mouth is clear of ulcers. I remember that the last time he had HFMD, the ulcers were driving him nuts. So for now, he’s off school for one week and hopefully the spots will disappear soon. He’s his normal self - running about and jumping around - so I guess that’s good.

I voiced my concerns to the paed regarding Irfan playing out actions with his cars and even conversing with them or sometimes scold the cars like how I scold the other cars on the road (eep!) and she says that that’s normal - his right brain doing the work - and since school these days are so left brain oriented that I should just let him be. And I should also stop saying “no” to everything that he wants to do (which I think is harmful etc etc) because it’s like snipping the flower off when it wants to grow. Instead, I should work my way around the situation. Sigh. This parenting business is quite tricky, innit? :P

Anyhow, he’s 37 months old already and I taught him to repeat with me the Al-Fatihah the other day and he was doing good. Maybe I should teach him mengaji soon? Alif-ba-ta-…. ;) We’d also like to send him for Mandarin classes, so we’ll see. Don’t want him to feel overwhelmed with all the activities and I’d really want him to enjoy his childhood with lots of playing and learning and playing. Heh.

last weekend and both Mia and Yazid (including Irfan) had all the fun they needed albeit an accident that happened while in the water. Irfan actually turned Yazid 180 degrees (head in water, legs in the air) but thankfully, Irwan was next to them and he immediately turned Yazid back up. I could hear (and am still hearing) Hetty screaming “Yazid! Yazid! Yazid!” and I just wanted to murder my son there and then. The first time something like this happened, it was Aaron’s daughter - Naomi - yang kena. I guess Yazid was a target because he was sitting on the float (same like Naomi) rather than having the arm bands. Irfan wanted to sit on the float too, and kept tugging it and the next thing you know, Yazid’s head was in the water. Hetty and Jazlan, we are terribly sorry about what happened. Irfan got his punishment later on and we do hope that he will never repeat what he did ever again.

After swimming, we all went to Khadijah’s Kitchen to have some delicious lauk kampung for lunch. Ted ordered sambal udang tempoyak, daging salai lemak cili api, tauhu telur, pucuk paku masak lemak and sambal belacan with ulam. Everyone tambah nasi because everything was just so good and I’m definitely bringing my parents and in-laws there. You guys should give it a try too. :)

When lunch was over (about RM 25 per pax - not too steep), we all went our seperate ways and the three of us proceeded to meet an agent to view some houses. Yup, we’re property hunting again and this time, I’m hoping that this next house will be our last move for the next 10 years or so. Heh.