My huffs and puffs!

My dear daughter is such a loving soul. Today, she threw me a flying kiss when I left her at her daycare. How that melts my heart! Oh yeah, she did tell me to go before that. How she loves school!!!

By the time the school ended, she was very happy, smiling from ear to ear to see me. At some other days when it was her dad who fetched her, the first thing she would do once home was to search for her mommy while shouting "MOMMYYYY…MOMMYYY" and of course came with it, plenty of hugs and kisses!

‘Please’ and ‘thank you’ are definitely her magic words. "More rice pleaseee" or "Can I have juice pleaseeee"… oohhh… Like tonight, I covered her with a blanket while she watched her show (i.e Dora of course), the word "Thank you" came out easily from her. And then I passed her ball, the same word came out again. What an angel.

When it was bedtime, she just had to throw her arms around my neck. Every time without fail. It’s the feeling to have her mom next to her. The love. The sense of security. How being near her mommy makes her feel safe. Same thing when the day is bright and she had just opened her eyes. But this time, it’s either her water or her MOMMY. :-p

I love my daughter with all my heart that I don’t really bother the fact that I have to stay home and be with her. I don’t want to miss a thing about my child growing up. I definitely want to make sure that she’s growing up well and healthy. Safe and protected.

May Allah bless Ain Jasmine forever.

Jangan mare but I just got my dosage of Anne of green gables this year. How that makes me a happy camper! But am not done yet, still need to watch the sequel and this time I’m going to watch the continuing story too. It’s about Anne’s marriage and life afterwards. Reviews said it’s pretty disappointing as it’s not what the avid Anne’s fans are hoping for and they’ve diverted a lot from the original novel and there were a lot of missing scenes. I’m just going to cross my fingers and just watch it anyway this time. My siblings must be sick to hear me babling about Anne. Heheh… Some more to bable still, ohhhhh…when can I go to Prince Edward Island? Not that it’s really that far from here. Canada is just in the neighbourhood.  We’ve been to Toronto and Niagara Falls, next has to be PEI. I’ve mentioned about it to hubby as a must place to go before we go back to Malaysia for good, which is by the way, still no where in the future. Talking about trips, we’re thinking of visiting St.Louis after raya, besides sightseeing, I’ll manage to pay Wan and her new baby a visit! Sooo..Wan..if you’re reading this. Tapi tak janji, tengok jugak how’s the weather and if it’s going to clash with our schedule. And eerrrr, there’s Florida too, I really wanna go down south, hey, it’s my hometown what, but not Florida laaa. So yes, there’s Florida in the plan too. Lets see, which one will it be…

And it’s not an update if I don’t update about Ain! Her verbal and social skill is expanding… Now, its ‘where is it?’, ‘there you go!, sorry, moooorreeeee!, ‘let me see’, and a lot more to mention.  Once, we went to a western buffet lunch, and there were 2 mat salleh girls around the age 8-10. Ain without hesitation approached them when they were on their way to the food island and said ‘Hi’, which she repeated few times…So they just replied her every time. Layan je la kan, budak 2 tahun je apa. That should be enough for me to blog about I suppose. And she has been sick this past few days, am taking her to the emergency after this. Semoga Allah sembuhkan anak mommy cepat ye….

Good news! I won’t have any say in any verdict. Pheww… I came out with 2 legit excuses and the court granted my appeal. Tq. Here in US, Americans are responsible to serve as a juror if they are called and failure to do so will result in fine and imprisonment unless they can come out with reasonable excuses.

And about Ain, she’s been going "OTCHAY, OTCHAY"(OK) lately which actually means yes! What happened to her usual "OWITE" which has to go 3 times (OWITE, OWITE, OWIIIIITTTEEE) every time?!! And oh her favourite colour now are "YEYYOOO" and "PURPE"! I think purple just because she lovesss Barney! Yellow? No idea! Maybe because it’s one fun bright colour!

Haven’t been blogging for quite a while, apparently for no other reason but LAZY!!! So many things/events have actually taken place since my last update. The best of all was our visit to Canada!!! I was blown away by our 2 nights stay in Toronto and a stroll along Niagara Falls. Relieved that we have finally made it there! The weekends have also been well spent lately.

Our bright MISS INDEPENDENT i.e Ain turned 2 on the last June 30th. The occasion was well celebrated by the 3 of us at home. I made little vanilla cupcakes and decorated them in a swift. Didn’t give much thought on how to do it, I just do it! At 5 am! For hmmm.. 1 hour?!!! Unlike last year, we didn’t organise any party as I am soooo lazy to cook! Maybe we’ll do it later as I think we should organise something before the summer is over. On her milestone update, it has vastly, tremendously expanded 2 months before her birthday. Her vocab and verbal skill is fast growing and she imitates a lot. Her favourites so far are NOOOO, OWITE(all right, if she’s up to anything), TENTIU(tq, she knows it’s like a compliment), OOHHH NOOOO(if anything goes wrong), of course OO OOHH too and she can also call MOMMY!!! beauuutifully now. She repeats almost every word that I emphasized to her and oh she can even answer "WHAT IS YOUR NAME? = AIN!!!". I’m now teaching her to reply I LOVE YOU = I LOVE YOU TOO!. So far, she’s been singing Barney’s i love you, you love me song whenever we hugged. And she’s a lover for nursery rhymes, just simply sing anything, she can always catch up with you. Ain is also an avid counter? She loves, loves to count! Think she can count up to 12, but we normally count up to 10 with her and she has been counting her fingers and toes nowadays! I just have to ask her "HOW MANY DO YOU HAVE?" everytime she’s holding something, like her toys, and she’ll start counting! She can even recite her ABC up to Z clearly and even recognise the alphabet. Hmmm..I wonder if I can teach her to spell now? Well, she can spell her name all right.Her favourite foods, ATIM(ice cream) and BEGGHY(strawberry)! I’m soooo soooo proud of her. One manja girl ni!

Our 3rd anniversary is right around the corner and we don’t have any plan yet. Hmm…I probably have to commit to jury duty. I’ve faxed an appeal letter, lets see if they are still going to call me. Please don’t.

Hehe…sukanyer hati! Somehow, we managed to drop Ain at her daycare last Saturday evening for a Parent’s Night Out. This time, hubby and I opted to watch Fantastic 4. When the movie was over, we had a couple more hours to kill. So, decided to join the BBQ in Gallup Park since there were still people around and food galore still.

Looks like I’ve to stop calling hubby Mann just because daughter deary is starting to call him so too! Ada ke just now, she sat next to me and I called hubby from the room and then she said Mann, Mann, Mann! Three times lagi. Err..what should I call him eh?…. Ayah kot.

Yes..yes…I only got to watch Music and Lyrics recently. I just wanna state here that I looovee the songs in the movie. An 80’s songs buff I am! Excuse me, only the ones sung by HUgh Grant okay, not that ’steamy and sticky’ Cora! What did Hugh Grant call her again?…eerr… buddhism in a thong something something? I’m crossing my fingers that no such soul would ever exist in this world! Otherwise, CODE RED to the whole planet! And btw, I have always been a fan of Drew Barrymore.

Another year and the Midwest Games are here. This time, it took place at Northern Illinois University, Dekalb and of course, we made our way there as I was involved in a gig with the band, they call themselves ‘Marhaband’. The band was awesome in the first place. After months and hours of training, they cannot be anything less than great! They did a lot of adjustments to instruments and stereo settings that the music and the singing came out perfect. Well, I’m just quoting K.Fezah, our avid audience. I sang….ok I guess, gathered from the audience tumultous responses and post-performance comments. Nak cakap banyak2 nanti kata masuk bakul angkat sendiri pulak laaaa. Baik stop kat sini je. Btw, the performances for the closing night were great. Ain was initially restless and slowly had her eyes fixed to the stage as if they were all new to her. Memang pun.

I initially planned to watch badminton tournament as my cousin, Rusydi, best known as ‘boy’ among our family played for his u, the Univ. of Minnessota, but that somehow didn’t happen as we returned to hotel late after fetching Dina from Chicago the night before. I was the only one awoke, cemana? The last time I saw him was probably more than 2 years ago when he came to our house in Ann Arbor with his friends in conjunction with Gempitafest. He is graduating this year.

We actually left home on Friday, so that we could spend one extra day in Chicago before leaving for DeKalb. That day was spent makan2 and jalan2. It’s important to eat as much as we could, because there are soo many halal restaurants, and there’s KFC and A&W too. Mana lagi nak cari kat US nih? We have to make sure that every time and penny worth every time we pay Chicago a visit. And so, yeah, we had our boosts of beriyani, tandoori, nan, and many more sampai dah tak larat.

Other than that, despite of the darkness on our way to NIU, my wondering eyes could never miss on spotting a premium outlet which we visited on Sunday. Dina was soo happy to find cheap tops and bought a few. I got myself a pair of hush puppies comfy flat shoes and 3 tops from rue 21. We even wore our newly bought tops the very next day.

Ain especially had a lot of fun in the hotel swimming pool. She was soo independent that she wanted to swim by herself if possible. We had bought her a boat which she didn’t like but enjoyed much by the other kids. Kerry was kind enough to let her try Nora’s floaty swimming suit which was more of her thing. Looks like, mommy has to hit ‘Toys’r'us’ again. Ain went on swimmming for the 2 consecutive days we were there, and she is doing well. By the second day, she knew how to relax and float by herself. Go mommy’s girl!

All in all, it has been a fun and great experience. Wish we could go for a holiday again, soon.

Of all the people in Michigan, let alone in Ann Arbor, whyyyyy are they calling me for jury duty la weiiii? Now, what excuse should I give? *thinking*thinking*

I saw it in the BBC. Yes, a crack had been identified in the arctic since 2005 and lately has finally detached, forming a new iceland altogether. How much warnings do we need before we can take any precautions. With all the environmental catastrophic evidences, it is undebatable how global warming is slowly affecting the earth and the homo sapiens. Now. I’m wondering where does the new iceland is heading? Is it going further south to the more highly temperate climate where it would gradually melt and contribute to an increase sea level and furthermore flooding parts of the land? That is something that really going to get me in a panic mode starting from…err..now? Must tell hubby that we should consider a hybrid car soon, although we are not ready to let go of our cars, and the latest hybrid cars are not really that well engineered yet. Hubby said, he’s looking forward into the 3rd generation which he doesn’t really mind investing his money into. And..solar car? Hmm..I think cycling a simple bicycle could even produce equivalent energy, but we’re not talking about half a mile or a few miles of travel for that matter, we’re talking about hours of drive. I think a hybrid is far much deserved for that.

Btw, hubby, I’ve just vacuumed your car today sampai sakit belakang. I even wiped the dashboard and cleaned the corners and holes that other people won’t even think of cleaning. No worries, I’ve rewarded myself for that ;-p.