Secret Saturdays

This week was more like a fever week. While Kaklong and Amir were down with fever during last weekend, Umar again caught flu. He was in bad mood. For that, he deserved to be away from school. Only attended a day. Ayah was not willing to put anymore pressure on him. Despite his flu, he was so happy everyday that he get to stay home. All those learnings from school started coming out from his vocal. Mostly doa, short ayat from surah and some kindergarten songs.

Come weekend, a Larian Integrasi at school. Kaklong and Amir decided to ditch hari raya replacement school day for their religious class and run instead. Nothing got to do with any of ayah's influence on running ok. They just wanted to be around friends at school on non-academic day. Both of them participated. Amir covered a 1km route while Kaklong did the 2.5km. Distance depending on on their age by class. Ayah took part as well, in the open (parent-teachers) category. And ayah won third place! Everyone was happy. Took home a bronze medal and box of six beatiful ceramic bowls.

Later in the afternoon, Kaklong signed up for her swimming class at a house nearby. She's learning the front crawl this time. For future trikidz events. So far so good. Good thing was, she has some of her school friends attending as well. That's encouraging.

In the evening, ayah attended the Putrajaya Night Marathon 2010. Left home with uncle Det and uncle Nizam. We did the half marathon. It was a warm and humid race. Ayah was not performing well maybe due to the earlier morning race and probably the climate. Lots of casualties which also includes uncle Det. He was down with hyperventilation during the race. Fortunately we car-pooled to the race. We sent him home later that night.

Sunday, ayah was in charge at home while ibu went to the library. An hour of academic drill was rewarded with an hour of rest or play. That was the scheme. It seemed everyone enjoyed it despite some request to lengthen the recess period. Ayah obliged. Janji happy.

Downtown on rails

There's nothing better than to finish up a great & worthy run with huge smiles from btho kids as ayah entered the house gate as early as 9.00am. The were joyful. I was only running a 10k lap around the neighbourhood, which eventually joined by a surprising turn out from orang2 kampung.

Ayah was still pumped with adrenalines, so we arranged for a small and short family trip downtown...by LRT. It was Umar's first experience and rare for the rest. Though Kaklong was a bit weak from her fever, she couraged herself for the priceless adventure with us. Besides, we anticipated since it's still early and also Thaipusam, crowd would be manageable. Actually, the main reason was that ayah wanted to visit Sogo for running stuff and this should be a great opportunity for two kills with one stone eh?

We boarded at Sungai Besi and reached Sogo half an hour later. Typically Amir will start asking how long the trip will take and when are we arriving. Umar asked millions of questions about anything.

We made a quick round of Sogo which ended up without anything to buy...good news for ayah. Since we missed heavy breakfast, everybody jumped into Restoran Insaf for a feast of Nasi Bryani. Delicious.

The walk back to the LRT station was enjoyful for us passing by the new CIMB building with cool wind and nice newly carved sidewalks. We reached Sungai Besi just in time before the day starts melting and rushed back home to hibernate.

Umar

"Umar, kalau orang suka tipu dia akan masuk api apa?"

"Dia akan masuk api melaka!" jawab Umar dengan confident. Hehe.

4th Week

Wow! Almost coming to end of week 4 and so far btho is surviving quite well. Alhamdullillah. Except for some minor hiccups here and there...well, perhaps it's normal la with batuk selsema. Yes, surprisingly Umar suddenly repeated down with a fever after one week recovery. Sabtu malam ok, alih-alih Sunday morning badan panas. Had to excuse himself for three days from school. So happy he was. Hahaha!

"Umar cuti lama ye?"

The fourth day, the same strategy ayah used. Caught him in the middle of his early morning Club Penguin game on PC. Reluctantly he left the game, changed clothes and obeyed what ayah said. Eventually he was chatting about other topics while both of us on our way to the school. No more complaints. Good.

But today, Amir pulak yang suddenly demam. Definitely he got the bug. Perhaps he was also a bit dehydrated from yesterday's evening run at school. Weather was too hot. Takpe, rileks puas-puas cause it's approaching weekend.

Kaklong came back with an advertisement for a swimming class. Ayah called the person and got to know the school is putting up a swimming team. That's good news. But some other decisions might need consideration. Perhaps it's either swimming class or maths tuition. Which one? Or can take both? We'll think it over the weekend.

3rd Week

Coming into the third week. Monday Umar escaped since he still down with slight fever from the weekend. Running nose & coughing never subside. Ayah took the opportunity to stay home as well. Saja nak rehat kaki & malas-malas after Sunday's 30km event. Most of the time spent upstairs in the room surfing the net. Went out for lunch with Uncle Det, then came back home for more rest.

Kaklong and Amir are doing fine. Amir just got his timetable...finally. I can't bare the heavy load he carries everyday without knowing what to bring to school. Now Amir get to learn how to pack up his bag for religious school & primary. He's doing fine so far.

And they also started their mengaji class this week. That includes Umar as well. So far so good. Since Tuesday until today, ayah guna strategi last minute. I don't bother persuading him early when he wakes up. 20 minutes before 8am, I will hold his hand, asked him to change the clothes, bring his bag & send to school. No chance for him to bargain. The only way. No room for argument. Hopefully he'll get used to it.

Week 2 School

Dah masuk 2nd week hari persekolahan. Kaklong and Amir going steady despite the school van timing hiccups. With more kids that means more time to cover to get them & deliver them. More time travelling. One slight delay will domino effect the rest of passengers, especially arriving at school on time. Hope they will adjust their timing. With the current late daylight, it gets a bit confusing for the kids. 7.00 a.m. used to be bright but not now. Some kids even missed the bus. Double hope they won't increase the bus fare though rumors say so.

Amir pulak been a bit concern with time. He's obsessed with it. Though he has been asking ayah & ibu a lot about time especially when it comes to time of arrival, since lately, he is adopting the skill at school. He's particular about bus arrival, about school bell's ring time, about school end but not about getting his bath & makan time. Hopefully he'll be obsessed with the latter as well. Ayah's Timex pun dah Amir pakai. It suits him as well. Maybe it's about time he get his very own proper "time"instead of those Ben 10 watches.

Kaklong, as always has been a great big sister especially when taking care of Amir at school. With some other spies around the school, which are our fellow neighbours as well, Amir seems secured enough. Kaklong always look for Amir when she got out her class & reported daily at dinner table to ayah & ibu. Keep it up Kaklooooong!

Umar, skipped one day school on Thursday. He was crying so bad. Ayah's bargaining skill went zero. OK takpe. Only one day. Today, no bargaining. Sent Umar early with those cute bargainings along the way inside the car. As ayah was leaving the school, the look at Umar's face, ayah was so touched. Though he has to attend school and I know that it's tough for him because he's 4, but he got a lot of courage to face it. It's no easy thing to confront for a 4 year old kid facing 65 crowded room with strangers. Not easy. Umar got my highest respect for his bravery.

Oh! By the way, just a quick update about our home turning into a cybercafe. We just got a new PC at cheap price. All in the favour of a good friendship among our neighbours. It's brand new but the price was so crazy cheap. An offer we'll go crazy to deny. In order to set up the PC, we need to reorganize our cute little cabin we called home. It's a good opportunity for a clean up as well. Macam biasa, benda baru kena lah arrangement baru. So barang lama kena get rid.

We put back our dining at supposed the original dining area & pushed the sofa towards the front. It's good also since kids & I can say everybody make full use of the dining table for homeworks & stuff. Even the lighting is much better than before plus the fan. Hehe. After work, ayah set up the PC & shazam! A new work tool. By 8.00 p.m. all 2 laptops plus the new PC were already occupied. Like cybercafe. Petville, Facebook, Cartoon Network Games, etc. You name it, everybody has it.

Umar's resistance

It was third day for Yasmin & Amir, second day for Umar. He was in the refusing state. He insisted not to attend school. His stand was strong, negotiation went blunt, unfruitful. He smacked at every threat thrown at him. His answers were absolute. There's no intimidation he can't entertain. Nothing compares to his other siblings. Though Yasmin & Amir got their share of first day school blues, but with some rationales & perhaps a bit of threat, they obeyed. But this is something different.

Umar got the green light to be abscensed on his second day. Not because he was permitted to do so, but ayah & ibu didn't had the time to handle a long session of negotiation process that morning. Perhaps, we needed some time to collect our thoughts & restrategized.

As usual, the hard stuff have to leave it to the guys. The next morning ayah had to put on my mean face & hard stand decision. Whatever it takes, first stage is to seize the suspect whether he has taken his bath or not. Fortunately he took his right after he woke up. That was once step discount. After a quick breakfast & a bit more of question & answer with him, it seemed he was still in the state of denial. Ayah grabbed hold of him, carried him into the car while surviving his cry & shouting. He was so smart that he even wanted to open the other side of the car door for an escape! Wow! I climbed on board and grasped his hand. My second thought told me that perhaps I should've enabled the child lock before & this moment could have been handy. Umar cried for a minute or two before asking for his slippers & bag. All in order. So it seemed that he's still thinking despite the denial & refusals.

After arriving at school, ayah passed the baton to ibu pulak. It's the pujuk stage. I can only handle the bad cop thingy once & couldn't expect me to be the good cop in the same episode. He stopped crying but he was grasping ibu. For a mere 5 minutes, eventually ustazah grabbed hold of him carried him inside. He was crying out so loud that ayah can heard him a block away.

Ibu rang ustazah in the afternoon for some updates. He cried just for a moment. He always wanted ustazah to be next to him all the time & started worrying when ustazah stands up. He wetted the mattress during afternoon nap & cried with guilt & perhaps shame. Ibu fetched him & he told ibu that he wanted to be back at school again. We just hope and pray that the statement stays that way next Monday.