Looking at the developments of my baby, I can see that at 6 months, Izzul has no intention or even show any effort to crawl. Once on a mattress, all he does is flips over. And over and over until he reach the cool floor.
It's ok. It's better in a way because Izzul has the habit to put anything and everything in his mouth. So when he is on his walker, his selection of things are quite limited.
So what's the latest development besides rolling and rolling?
He's able to sit up and balance. Even better, he plays with his toys in his hands showing that he is confident of sitting up by himself. However, he is too brave at times and loses his balance falling sideways or to the back. But of course preventive measures, we always sits him up in his crib or on mattress.
Izzul also talks a lot now. Gibberish mostly. But it's ok, it's cute anyhow.
Oh and I just found out today that he's not scared of the vacuum. In fact, he will tailgate my mum on his walker and flail his hands wildly in the air. I wish I can get that excited when it comes to vacuuming.

I am so tired but I have no idea from what. I just am. Maybe I have not been working out enough. No, to put it honestly, I have not been working out. Coffee didn't work as well as it did when I was in Uni. Then, coffee was like 'ice'. I could go days without rice but not coffee.
However, Izzul needs no working out, no coffee, yet he is like high on sugar all the time... especially at night. He is only 6 months plus and I am complaining about him being so hyper-active. I can't imagine when he starts to walk. Of course, I am grateful that he is active and healthy but really, I feel my energy being drained. Furthermore, I am only working half day yet I feel my entire body is limp.
Izzul is finally asleep. Phew...! See there, he has his father's t-shirt as a blankie. My mum said that in order to prevent Izzul falling sick from missing his daddy, she wants me to bring a "masam" shirt of his dad's.

Anyway, my day did start out well. WHy? Because somebody guessed I was younger than I really am. We girls are a sucker for praises aren't we? Hahah. Nah, he was sincere and I guess he was comparing me to his fellow nationals.
We met during invigilation at a secondary school earlier today and we got on talking and he was surprised when I said I was working elsewhere for 3 years. He thought that I was an 'A' Level graduate. I didn't realise I looked THAT young... haha... I think I covered the lines well today. The power of compact powder.
Before you all get the wrong idea... you too dear, this guy is bald and reaching his 40s soon. Not my type, I like floppy hair or at least, there's hair..and age matters. He's a tamil teacher all the way from India but has been teaching here the last 12 years. But nonetheless, a great guy. We may have nothing in common but we clicked almost right away. He's warm, casual and great sense of humour. How I wish he was posted to my school. I probably won't meet him again but I do wish him the best.

Nation call

The last time my hubby went for reservist I was around 6 months pregnant with Izzul. Now, Izzul is 6 months old and Ez is away again for 3 weeks. I thought the void I felt then will be less with a baby around. Not true. In fact, I feel his absence even more. Maybe because I am more used to have him around me. Or maybe because I miss watching him play or read bedtime stories to Izzul. Believe it or not, he is more expressive than I am when reading to Izzul. He has the capability to create the atmosphere and capture Izzul's attention almost immediately. No, I don't believe that it is because he is the father figure and that Izzul is scared of him. On the contrary, I believe I am the stern one.
My mom said that Izzul is feeling his father's absence. Although he is as playful as he had always been on any other day, i think he is aware that he has not seen much of his father. There's something in his facial expression.. almost like expressing a little sadness.
These days he is also rather clingy to me. He doesn't want to sleep in his crib. Rather to sleep with me on the floor. So there we are cuddled on the mattress spread out on the floor. I hope he won't catch a cold. He just recovered from one.

Seminar at the Grassroots Club - Dato' Dr Fadzilah Kamsah

We had an event"full" weekend. On Saturday, we were down at the Ministry and I have willingly agreed to be tortured for at least the next 4 years of my life. On Sunday, my hubby and I went for Seminar held by our neighbourhood Mosque. The one and half hours spent at the seminar was worthwhile. The speaker was Dato' Dr Fadzilah Kamsah. A renowned motivational speaker and a hilarious one at that too. We didn't even notice the time passing.
I was surprised to see how small he was. He stands at about 1.55m max. But when he is on stage, his persona just fill up the entire room.
The talk was about "Understanding your Spouses/Partners". The target group for this talk was more for the newly married couples but there are quite a number of engaged to be married couples that joined in the session. With the rising divorce rate among Malays in Singapore, the aim of the talk was to provide guidance on how we can keep a marriage going.
Having attended pre-marital course previously, the content discussed was not any different but the delivery and examples given were definitely something close to our hearts.
What I have learnt is to be thankful always. Being thankful to humans indirectly expresses our gratitude towards Allah. Saying thank you especially to your close ones. Husbands to wife and vice-versa. A moment often forgotten - Husbands are to say thank you to their wife after a wonderful time with her.
Besides being thankful, a good practice before going to sleep everyday, is to hug your spouse for at least 10 seconds with love and the husband forgiving the his wife. If her husbands forgot to do so, the wife seeks for his forgiveness. This is because the "syurga seorang isteri itu terletak pada keredhaan suami. Dengan itu, mohon keampunan dan telah difirmankan Allah s.w.t - Seorang wanita, yang cukup puasanya, solatnya dan yg diredhai suaminya - akan dimasukkan ke syurga dari mana2 8 pintu surga yg Allah telah sediakan."
I remembered asking Ez this question - Why do the rich gets richer and healthier and luckier even when they have no faith in Allah.
Dr Fadzilah reaffirm his explanation. It is called "istidraj" - which means Pemberian Tuhan Dlm kebencian.
So he reminded us to be thankful when we face hardship, deterents, tough challenges and even when we fall ill because these serves as reminders. Because only during hardship are we reminded of God. This is real tough. When things are uphill for us, we tend to neglect our roles as His hamba.

Interestingly, he mentioned that it is not healthy staying with the in-laws. Staying on your own will allow you to mature faster and solve issues you face with your spouse by yourselves. It is also an opportunity for you to learn and understand your spouses. No intrusion from any sides.
There will be problems when you gets married because according to him, "Lelaki adalah seperti spesies dua alam" He said this because, a man before he is married and after are 2 different people. While a woman will still be herself. So sometimes, it is difficult when the change is drastic and for the worse, the woman is not able to accept this. So as the saying goes, "Kau hanya mengenal seseorang itu apabila kau sudah tidur bersamanya, makan bersamanya, ...".
Last but not least, he said, a spouse should be the incomplete part of you. According to research, a successful married couple has at least 12 similarities between them... so guys, start searching for them.
I know it is not much. I didn't write down a lot because I was so absorbed when he was talking. I am no expert but the little that I know, I share. Hope it is helpful :)

Izzul went for his 5th month check up last Tuesday. He had a slight fever the day before. I was worrid that the nurse might push his immunisation to another day. Luckily Izzul bounced back the next day showing the nurse he was all well and ready for the needle.
When the needle went in his voluptuous thigh, his expression showed that he was ready to cry any minute. I quickly distracted him singing some ridiculous nursery rhyme. I don't even remember what I sang but I knew that it worked. He changed his mind about crying.
These days I have been quite busy with juggling work, maintaining the house chores ang spending quality time with our parents. But I am lucky in so many ways. Right now, Izzul is still small and I am happy that my transition of changing my career path has allowed me to spend more time with him. However not all contract teacher has the same workload as I do. My sister in law for instance. I have heard her complain of the heavy workload. By the way, both of us will be entering the teacher training course the same time. How coincidental.
But I know that I am not going to get lucky all the time, so I really appreciate the times that I have with Izzul now.
Oh I forgot to mention, Izzul Haq now weighs a healthy 8.2 kg!

Cultivating good reading habits

wHAt? Reading again?!!?




I'm getting sleepy....




Zzzz.....

What it means when he turns 6 mths...

FINALLY! Izzul gets to eat biscuits, fine cereals and lot of other baby foods for babies 6 mths and above.

To be or Not to be...

I got THE letter from the Ministry of Education. Didn't expect it to come so fast. I'm still enjoying life as a contract teacher. It's too early to decide now whether I would like to dedicate the next 4 years of my life as a teacher. The senior teachers there believe it is a rewarding career. The younger teachers just felt that the main attraction is the stability. The rewarding part is only on the 12th of each month when the payslips comes in.
SO far what do I think? I think what I think do not matter. Make sense? after all, I have only taught less than 3 months and I'm called in to sign a bond of 4 years.
But then again, what other choices do I have? Back into the industry? Only if I get what I wanted to do - next step after QA engineering, Auditing. After my previous job failed to challenge me to new heights, I quit.
"Takde rezeki." Or Allah has other plans for me.
I have always been a firm believer of fate. Things will have a different take if I am not meant for teaching. We'll wait and see.
In the meantime, I'm just enjoying my working days ends usually by 2pm (Not going to happen often when I become a full pledge teacher)... . How shiok is that?!!!

The mystery of the missing flask, charger and purse.

I'd like to share an article which I stumble upon months back while I was still pregnant with Izzul. So what triggered me to dig back for this article - you're right. To back myself up for my recent series of mysterious loss or misplacement of things. First, it was my charger, then it was Izzul's flask, then the ultimatum, my purse.

Having a baby means losing very vital brain cells. I read, it gets worse after each baby. Luckily, I am not alone. At least 80% of all women say that they become more forgetful during pregnancy, especially during the third trimester and that it continues even after delivery. According to a recent study in Australia expectant mothers probably are more forgetful. Based on their research, pregnancy turns pregnant mothers into 60 year olds, at least when it comes to their memories. They say that women can become impaired for at least a year after giving birth. Researches do not know why this happens.

Here's the link to the article:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/ani/20080207/r_t_ani_hl/thl-pregnancy-does-make-women-more-forge-3b18f0d_1.html

Anyway, even so, I am naturally neglectful. I was praying hard that pregnancy will have an adverse effect on people like me.. but I think not.
I felt so bad that we had to travel all the way back to my in-laws place to get my purse. I have to do something... Should I make myself a checklist? So that each time before I make a way out with the family, I have to make sure everything is in the big duffel bag. Somebody advised me to eat gingko nuts. I don't really fancy the taste. One or two is fine - but a whole bag of it... no way. Previously I took tablet, eat lots of raisins, dates - still, nothing seems to work.
What is worse is that when I start to forget something once - it has a kind of domino effect for the next couple of weeks.

Izzul's First Driving Lesson

Watch out for the red light!

Internation Family Buffet - IFB

How did you spend your labour day holiday? We had a great time shopping as a family. We bought Izzul 2 new toys. It's really adorable. It's really affordable.. I got them for $17.90 at Takashimaya. There were so many toys there that we could not decide what to get for him. Since Izzul will be playing with them, we let him choose. Izzul is very expressive so it is quite easy to tell if he is fascinated with something. We pulled out a toy train - Nothing. He glanced and look at the other toys surrounding him. We pulled out a bouncy penguin and his reaction was adorable - His eyes became large and he started to kick and flap his arms.. like a penguin..heheh.. So we got the penguin and the rabbit.. We got the rabbit because as adults, we were quite amused by it. We are sure Izzul will grow to like it :)
After tired from shopping, we were ready to pounce on the buffet table at International Family BUffet. Have you been there yet? Well, if you ask me, if you have been to Sakura Buffet and Carousel, then this is no different. Sakura has a wider range of food to pick from although IFB has slightly more cold dish to serve. Carousel have a head start from here.Desert? Nothing beats Carousels deserts. Next - service... well, they need to learn A LOT from their competitors. My dad wanted to get tea but he doesn't fancy the flavoured kinds so I was asking the waiter if there were any the original flavoured teas. What did I get? - shake of the head and point at the tea counter. He looks like he is not from around here. SO ok, maybe he didn't understand me. I tried again asking a local looking waitress - even before I could finish my sentence, she said, pointing towards the tea counter," That's all we have." Yeah right. We paid $30 over dollars to get "that's all we have" I was so pissed. It was a simple enquiry and yet it couldn't be addressed well. So Ros, you can strike this one out.

Anyway, my lovely hubby had accidentally deleted all the pics and a video of this day event.. no worries, I will try to get them from my back-up photographer - Mirul! Kiki, when your exams are over, can you send over the pics?