WLP: the two cousins

Last weekend we went back to my parents house for the holiday. Hanif meet his cousin Umar again. Both of them are bigger than before. They seems to be aware of each other presence.

Hanif 6 months ------ Umar 3 months

It is definitely not an easy task to pose two babies. They have their own mind, not really response well to direction.

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First day at work

The day that I have drag for a long time is finally here. Either I like it or not I am going to work today. The whole morning I kept repeating to myself that I love my job, I love my job and I love my job...


# the morning drive to work was smooth. No heavy traffic
# I was a little bit nervous to start working. Leaving my baby for more than 10 hours was a little scary for me
# I am still getting familiar with office things
# Internet connect at the office wasn't as great as I remember.
# By afternoon I can feel like I have a mild flu and sore throat. I think my room is fill with dust. Six months is a long time to leave office space unattented
# I was trapped in a traffic jam form about 45 minutes on my way back to my baby
# Hanif was so happy and excited to see me. I miss him so much

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me, myself and I

I have been following this blog since early October. I just love the idea and the inspiration I got from this blog. I love the sketches and the challenges they bring every week.

I am glad that today I have the chance to play along with this challenge.. Scrapbooking yourself. I love the idea of documenting my life in a simple and straight forward way.

This is a layout I made , celebrating my role as a new mother to a six month old baby. It’s fun and challenging at the same time.

Credit: Addicted to List kit by Studio Basic designs

day 289–day 295 // embracing change

Change, as long as you are alive, there’s nothing you can do to stop change. Last week was the last week that I am a stay at home mom. This week I will be a working mom instead. The transition is a bit scary when you don’t really know what to expect. Life will never be the same again.

day 289 – this little guy is getting bigger each day. I am glad that he is still happy even though I’ve already sending him to the Nursery

day 290 – My second son is 13 years old already. He is also getting bigger.

day 291- I have started to weaning my baby from swaddling during sleeping time and this was what happened when he was not wrapped

day 292 – During our trip to my hometown for the Eid Adha holiday

day 293 – celebrating 40th birthday of my brother and 13th birthday of my son at my parents’ house.( All the October babies)

day 294 – Introducing soft food to my baby. He seems to like it very much

day 295 – the cousins
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Hanif 6 months update

Six months already! WOW! It felt like it was yesterday I gave birth to this baby boy. Life has been great so far..


Some random things about him so far
* he is already teething but no tooth yet
* he started his first food today. He seems to like it very much
* he has been an expert with rolling all over the place by now
* he still refuse to move forward (creeping)
* he loves playing with fabric especially his blanket
* he is the process of weaning off his swaddle. Some nights he sleeps perfectly well without his swaddle and some nights he can't sleep without it
* he is taking his milk with a syringe

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Loving this moment

It's 'balik kampung' time, it's family time. I am glad that today I am taking a break from driving. Now I have a chance to relax and enjoy the ride



"Wishing all Muslim, Happy Eid Adha". It's all about family, love, devotion and sacrifice..

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WW: so so true

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13 lessons

I did this lessons thing back in 2011 for my eldest son, so today I decided to make a lists of lessons I want for my second son to learn. It’s his birthday and he is thirteen.

Dear Hazwan,

You are 13 years old today. I am so proud of you. You’ve become the boy or the man that I wish you could be and more. I just can’t believe that thirteen years ago today, I was in a labour room waiting for you to be born.

These are the thirteen lessons I wish and hope you will learn and understand.

1. Allah is your saviour. Never forget HIM. Remember Allah always in everything that you do
2. Pray 5 times a day on time and with passion. Do it for Allah and not for me
3. Recite Quran daily even though you don’t understand the meaning. It’s good for your soul
4. Be the best version of yourself. Don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself. Don’t give in to peer pressure.
5. Choose your friends wisely. Good friends will not let you do things that will hurt you
6. Always tell the truth. It's easier and it's good for your health
7. Love and respect your mother.
8. Knowledge is the most powerful thing. Don't stop learning just because it's a school holiday.
9. Apologize . Don't be afraid to say "I'm sorry”
10. Drink milk.You are never too old for milk
11. Be a great student of school and student of life
12. Do things that you love with passion and knowledge. If you are good at it you don’t have to work for the rest of your lives and you might get pay for it
13. I am always here for you. Don't be afraid to tell me anything, even though you might think I do not understand. I am happy to learn about your day

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you Happy thirteen birthday. I love you from the moment I felt you inside of me till the end of time. I only wish the best for you.

These were taken with my first digital camera Sony Cybershot.(at that time, point and shoot camera cost $3000 plus)

This was taken with my Canon SLR camera EOS 300v with ISO 100 fuji film

This was taken using Canon DSLR EOS 400D. Those were the days when Canon came up with affordable digital SLR camera for consumer. The quality is still amazing.

Taken with Canon DSLR EOS 50D.

This is now, thirteen years later, my baby boy is no longer a baby. He is a teenager growing up in a world where internet is the necessity not a luxury, facebook is now become your identity and twitter becomes your text message and iphone (or smartphone) has become not only a phone but your whole life and cyber bully is so scary like giving a gun to your child.

I hope in spite of all the chaos, you will still remember the basic and why we are here. 

Notes: I can believe that 11 years ago today this happened--- The iPod line was announced by Apple on October 23, 2001.  The little gadget that really changed the world!

taking a break, will be back soon

I am definitely in a back to work mode. So many things to take care off before the big day. I will be back soon with many stories to share, including must have apps for your iphone and ipad.

one fine day

I always feel so much better after making a few scrapbook layouts. It really can calm my nerves and took my mind off work. I love my life at the moment and I hate to change my routine especially if I am happy just by looking and cuddling my baby.

I know I should make some changes in my life if I am this unhappy with my work. The truth is I love my job but I hate the current management. I held on this long just because this is all I know, this life. Maybe one day I will have the courage to do something about it. Until that time comes all I have is scrapbook and positive thinking.

the Lorax // Unless

I just got the chance to watch the Lorax movie with my kids tonight. I really really love the movie.

“A 12-year-old boy searches for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl of his dreams. To find it he must discover the story of the Lorax, the grumpy yet charming creature who fights to protect his world.” source imdb

What I like about it?

• the color is amazing
• I would really love to live in a place where the trees are pink, orange and yellow
• sometimes we take for granted the most important thing in the world like trees
• my 6 months old baby can’t take his eyes off the screen
• I am not a fan of the songs in the movie but I like the last song

Booville , gingerscraps and pixelily designs

Pixelily Designs has a new kit in store this weekend, it’s called Booville. It’s cute and scary at the same time and suitable for you Halloween theme party or anything scary.

As for me, I am not in the mood for scary but I think it works well  with my photos.

Have a great and creative weekend

What’s in my shopping bag?

It looks like no matter what I feel or what I do, October is coming to an end and I am going back to work. I know all about positive thinking and be grateful of what you have but somehow I kept associating work with stress.

So one thing I can do that I know will make me feel better is online shopping, specially digital scrapbook shopping. Tonight I get online, browse through my wish lists and I bought these two kits from Scrapflower.

Storyteller October by Just Jaimee

Just the way you are by Rachel B

My plan for these two kits are to make at least 5 layouts this weekend

• positive self talk layout
• 7 random things layout
• 5 things about Hanif layout
• what I want Hanif to learn layout
• my everyday layout

I hope by tomorrow morning I will have the inspiration to scraps and the time to just do it. ( right now Nike’s commercial keep playing in my head… Just do it )

Seven random things about my day

What a day.....some random things that have been lingering in my mind today...


# I can't open my car's door with a remote key. I don't know what is wrong with it. I hate when thay happen
# I am hungry eventhough I just ate my lunch two hours ago
# I am so nervous about going back to work that I just watch Grey's Anatomy back to back. I want to remember why I use to love my job. I want to be thankful that my job is not as stressful as those surgeons at Seatle Grace Hospital
# I miss my baby so much even though it's only 3 o'clock in the evening
# I want to do my cardio workout but I just can't bring myself to get up and just do it
# All I want to do is write in my journal about nothing and rambling about everything
# I need to do some scrapping. I am going insane without any creative outlet. I just have to do it.

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Expressing milk for beginner

Going back to work after a long maternity leave can be a stressful time especially for a mother who wants to continue breastfeeding the little one.

 

I have been successfully continue the breastfeeding journey with my previous two kids for two years after I went back to work. At that time they were two months old when I have to go back to work. It was definitely challenging and it really takes a lot of planning and effort on my part.

So as a supporter to breastfeeding and attachment parenting , I am here to share with you a few tips I’ve learned and implemented over the years, for those who are willing to go the extra mile to make breastfeeding works, when going back to work;

Express your milk at least three weeks earlier

Expressed milk can be store at least 3 months in a freezer of two door refrigerator. So there is no harm in keeping your milk supply to be use when you start working.

This was my schedule:

I expressed at least one bottle of 4oz milk once a day.
I expressed early in the morning when my baby is still sleeping.
I do it every morning from Monday to Friday.

By the end of three weeks, I have 15 bottles in the freezer.

Always express your milk before nursing your baby

I’ve made a mistake of expressing milk after my baby nurse. You can do this if your goal is to increase your milk supply but never to store. Every time I express milk after my baby nurse I will only get about 1 or 2 oz and this will really make me anxious about milk supply. So I never do that.

I found out that if I express milk before my baby nurse, I will have one bottle full of milk and I still have enough for my baby.

Never ever think that you don’t have enough milk

Thinking positive is half the battle. When I had my first born, I always thought that I don’t have enough milk, my baby didn’t want to nurse and my baby was always hungry. All of that was true just because I believed it.

When I had my second baby, I decided I wanted to breastfeed my baby for two years and there’s no other milk in the market that is as good as my milk. True enough, when I chance my thoughts and my believe, I have enough milk for my baby.

When you are at work, express your milk

How often depends on how old is your baby. For my previous two babies I pumped at least every two to three hours for 10 minutes each just to make sure my body won’t shut down production. And when my baby is getting a little bit older, I pumped at least once every four hours.

Know the basic

When handling express milk you have to know a few basic so that you are confident to giving the next best thing to your baby. Here are a few things you must know by heart.

• Wash your hand before handling the pumping equipment
• Store milk in a smaller bottle (4 oz) to avoid wastage.
• Never keep unfinished milk
• Leave some room at the top of the bottle to allow for expansion when the milk freeze
• Label date and time. You want to use the oldest milk you have in storage first ( first in first out concept)
• Milk place in room temperature can last between 4 to 6 hours
• Milk store in a refrigerator can last up to 3 to 5 days
• Milk store in a freezer withe two doors refrigerator can last between 3 to 4 months
• Milk store in a deep freezer can last up to 6 months

I hope these tips will help you to keep breastfeeding going even when you started going back to work.

Do you continue breastfeeding when you go back to work?
Does your office support breastfeeding mother?
Do you have any problem expressing milk at work?

life unscripted as always

I was a little bit distracted yesterday that I missed yesterday post. I know I should have managed my time better if I know I will be out the whole day. I thought I will have ample time to blog. I will tell you later about why I was so distracted yesterday. For now I would love to share a few photos from my cell phone . I haven’t done that in a really long time. Apparently my baby has take over my cell phone for now.

All of these photos were taken with Hipstamatic app.

what I like about this app

• I can change the film and the lens to get different effect and look
• I can mix and match the lens and the films
• it’s easier to share photos to flickr and instagram

Gyspy Soul

Gyspy Soul is a new kit from Blue Flower Art. This is great to scrap about life in general.

This is my layout using the above kit

I hope this will inspire you to scraps more about little things of your everyday life.

day 282 - day 288 // what a week

I am a little bit nervous that it’s already the third week of October. That means in a week or so I will be going back to work. I have to adjust to a whole new schedule.

day 282 –I love seeing these  two brothers playing and talking. So cute.

day 283 – this is the day my son start taking his PMR exams

day 284 – at night is the only time I have left to play and taking photos of this little boy

day 285 – I just didn’t have the heart to wake him up

day 286 – he loves to play with fabric

day 287 – Hanif with his friend Zara, when she came for a visit last Saturday

day 288 –Another beautiful Sundays with my baby boy

 

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