Sa'eed's development

From iVillage:

By the end of month twelve a baby typically:
* May take one to two naps daily (yupp, anywhere between 10 minutes to 2 hours)
* Triples birth weight and is 29 to 32 inches long (tripled his birth weight at 6 months, but haven't checked the latest weight and length)
* Bangs two cubes together (or anything else for that matter)
* Puts objects into containers and then takes them out (loves doing this)
* Voluntarily lets objects go (knows how to give things to me when I say 'Sa'eed...give to ummi please')
* Shakes head "no" (hmm....not really)
* Has fun opening and closing cabinet doors (tak serik even if terkepit)
* Crawls well (yupp)
* "Cruises" furniture (check)
* Walks with adult help (uh-huh)
* Says "ma-ma" and "da-da" (and also tah tah, ba ba)
* "Dances" to music (only to hasbi rabbi)
* Interested in books and may identify some things (more interested to tear them apart)
* May understand some simple commands (hmm....knows to go to the bathroom when he's naked..ok tak?)
* Fearful of strangers (depends...)
* Shares toys but wants them back (likes to share, but sometimes grabs from people)
* May form attachment to an item (not really)
* Pushes away what he doesn't want (rather, he flails his arms)
* Prefers to push, pull and dump items (i don't even know what this means..haha)
* Pulls off hat and socks (doesn't mind the socks)
* Understands use of certain objects (everything is meant to be clanged together)
* Tests parental responses to behavior (sometimes, I guess)
* Extends arm or leg when getting dressed (hmm..almost always crawls away, but stays put after he's already dressed...go figure)
* Identifies self in mirror (he sometimes plays peek-a-boo)

Family matters...for sure..

OK, so last week, when makcik's husband was hospitalized, my sister-in-law and his son came by for 2 days to help maktok take care of Sa'eed. She came despite the fact that she has a piano exam looming by quite closely. Then from Wednesday to Friday, I applied for annual leave. Since Thursday was a public holiday, it was quite ok...

We thought we secured a temporary person beginning Monday of this week. Since I can't take anymore leave until I get my work assessment done, I'll leave it to maktok's expertise to see if the new lady is ok or not. But she didn't show up on Monday (reason: she didn't know what the pay would be like...yeah, lame-O)!!! Not wanting to leave maktok all alone to take care of Sa'eed, again my sister in-law and her son came to the rescue. Then that night we ironed out the details and the new lady was supposed to come on Tuesday. Again, she didn't show up (reason: she was running late and was afraid that we didn't want her)!!! And again my sister-in law saved the day. Then fortunately, I had to judge a competition (which I got a 4GB thumb drive for free...and somebody's jealous...hehe) on Tueday and wasn't going to the office anyways. The competition finished early and my dad picked me up all the way in Shah Alam.

So...Alhamdulillah for family living close by..

And to Kak Sarah and Idraki...THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH. Can't think of any way to repay you guys. Good Luck in your exam ok.

p.s. the lady finally showed up today and maktok said so far so good

Just look at those big round eyessss....

HELP! We need a maid...ASAP

Our makcik's husband fell into a coma 2 weeks ago. So now, we are in dire need of a temporary maid to mainly take care of the little one.

We actually got someone, but due to some lame reasons, she couldn't work for us. So now we are in a lurch. We only need someone temporarily because makcik still wants to work for us.

So...you know anyone? Or if your sister is on a break from college? Yes, we are that desperate.

Photo Shoot

I feel a rumbly in my tummy. I think this picture was taken before he went ahead and lifted his shirt to poke his bellybutton

Sa'eed living up to his name. Sa'eed, btw, means happy in Arabic. Hubby chose it.

Contemplating on the future...

Showing off his teeth.

Ala cutey nye anak ummi

Politicians, please reach out to the people...I'll show you how

He's probably looking at someone's plate of food

Hip hop Sa'eed

Feeling the crunch yet?

Yes dears...I'm talking about the energy crunch.

In this region, Malaysia has the lowest petrol price after Brunei. Coutries with the lowest prices are in the Arab and African region. Although that's the case, Brunei is also contemplating to increase the prices becaus the government is starting to feel the crunch. Currently they are spending around B$500 mil for petrol subsidies. That translates to some RM 1.5 bil-ish (that's only a fraction of what our government spends for petrol subsidies).

But whatever the price of petrol may be, I strongly disagree that it should be cheaper for us. Namely because of environmental reasons. The government should be smarter. It's high time they put Environment high on their priority list. Yes, we are still a carbon sink, but till when will that last?

Renewable Energy efforts are difficult to push in this country for the very reason that fossil fuels are extremely cheapo. This includes electricity, because it comes from gas. At the rate that we are going it is said that we'll become a NET IMPORTER by 2015...yikes. You know what that means? Your good ol' national O&G company will have to buy oil and gas from others and however much that they've been contributing to the government (monetarily) will be greatly reduced. Oh yes, and did you know that Taiwan pays the same for electricity yet it is NOT subsidized? hmmm...what's wrong with the picture here?

Perhaps the government should gradually decrease the subsidies and divert it into beefing up public transportation or education or health care etc. Or perhaps, start a feed-in tariff (similar to Germany). What it means is that, if you buy a solar system for your residential or office, you EARN money for every kwh that you don't get from the grid.

heh...to TNBans out there, better watch out. If solar takes off, you could 1) lose business and 2)forced to pay the feed-in tariff.

Happy 11 months my handsome son

Sa'eed is 11 months today, but I've been saying to people that he'll turn 1 next month ever since the beginning of March, because that's more exciting.

- he likes to make zasss zasss zasss sounds non-stop
- he doesn't like food that's supposed to be served warm served cold instead
- apparently he likes tauhu-fa
- likes to crawl to the kitchen if there's anyone in there
- absolutely loves to watch 'hasbi rabbi' on tv
- knows how to put things in a container
- knows not to crawl off the bed, but doesn't do too well if he's rolling around
- jakun if he sees other kids around his age
- hasn't shown signs that he's about to walk...oh well, kalau boleh jalan pun nak pegi mana kan..eheh

I think that's it for now.

An intro to the (not so) little one

Sa'eed was born on April 14, 2007. He had a bad case of jaundice and the first week was spent in the hospital. Alhamdulillah everything turned out well in the end. Then of course we had some breastfeeding problems. But thanks to sound advice from tons of people, we are still going strong after (almost) 11 months.


Now he's a crawling machine...although a bit weird at times. He sometimes pushes on his right foot to propel forward. Sa'eed already has 4 teeth albeit a bit jongang (crooked). He loves to eat whenever other people are eating...especially his parents. Nasi kosong pun boleh makan dgn penuh berselera :)

He still wakes up a billion times at night to have a dose of his ummi's milk. I wonder when this will cease to hmmm...perhaps once a night? Or am I asking for too much here?

OK...so I've given in

Assalaamua'alaikum everyone....

So I've succumed to the world of blogging...boo-yah. Lets see where this takes us.