Love and skills

When you have the skills and talents, you're able to create wonderful things for others. Some skills which may be latent needs just a spark to make things going. My aunt is one I call creative and innovative at the same time. With her sewing skills, she has recycled cloths she made into clutch bags, purses and many other bags. The only thing is that she's not into online biz. So family members become witnesses of her creative juices and purchase them for personal use or as gifts to others. Oh, what if I help her sell her products... hmm good idea? *grins*

I also envy friends who take time to indulge in artsy stuffs and produce hand-made cards or personalised book covers for others. It's just that I myself love these kind of activities but actualising them needs effort at my present moment. Because I miss designing things during my past time. Past time now is equivalent to reading books or watching DVD with hubby or window shopping with my family...

Likewise, mouth-watering desserts or food for those who enjoy the art of cooking leaves me in full admiration for their skills and not forgetting, the passion to do it and sharing recipes online. They left me with a strong urge, to be eagerly desirous of those tantalising food galore. I aspire to do that, at least, during the weekend breaks when lectures are off.

Hehe but at the moment, nothing from the above beat the skills of my cutie pie who has been working pretty hard and putting a lot of practice and keeps improving...Alhamdulillah. There are moments where he showed his struggles when he first started. Since then, whenever I return home from work, I keep myself updated of his milestones. While playing with him, I remind myself that this is part of building his self-esteem and this should be done through unconditional love. I am sure as mums, we want the best for our child to the point that we demand too much from him and seeks perfection. Every child develops differently. What we can do and remind ourselves is to express praises to Allah in his presence whenever our child develops a new skill. This may be one of the ways of tarbiyyah for him/her to be surrounded by the beauty of Allah and Islam. I simply enjoy spending time with him at this 'cheeky' age. I'm sure dear mummies love it too!

When we build a warm and friendly relationship with our children, we establish the best opportunity for imparting strong moral and spiritual values to them--the key to high self-esteem. --muslimsmothers@blogspot.com

The new term

The first day of work landed me in an 'alhamdulillah' situation. I was expecting more than that. But I admit, there were a few changes, from some admin changes due to the pandemic to the new faces at work. There were also some addition to the department I'm in.

I failed in my attempt of creating a scheduled daily timetable for the whole week as a career woman. It was supposed to be a timetable of my daily routine as a BF-ding mum especially the time at work. I'm glad that with the current session I'm in, I am able to use the time to pump my milk. I even find a good place to pump it as long as no other people need the place. Given the fridge for my milk storage in the pantry, I felt a sense of syukur. Unlike some other mummy friends who need to buy a mini-fridge to store theirs. But like my aunt told me, and agreeing with her that my workplace should have a BFing room for mums who are high on their pumping routine. I mean, the hotbed I'm at is a female domination.

There were some glitches and challenges at the moment while trying to cover my four deferred papers. What I can say is that the challenge has started ever since I enquired about the status of my exams until present time. Alhamdulillah with His Grace, I covered one last Sunday and the other last night. I admit that having to take these papers when my leave has ended brings me back to square one. Whatever it is, I think Allah has His reasons of letting me be in this situation although efforts had been done to take it during my leave. I do not know when my next 2 papers are. Ahead this weekend will the submission of my group assignment which is still in the process of adding information. Not to be missed is the mid-term test of my short sem on Studies of Religion.

I am looking forward to the nuptial knot of my dear Huda this weekend, on which I am sure of is something that she has been waiting for all this time...

Baby gifts

People can really be creative when it comes to gifts. It was last year, if I'm not mistaken. The deejay interviewed two women in the online business. One of them dealt with diaper cakes. I was really oblivious as to what that meant..'What? How can a cake be a diaper? You can't eat a diaper?' I've heard of diaper bags, of course. Much to my curiosity, I googled for diaper cakes just now and wanted to witness the look of a diaper cake. (Who said that internet invites evil? I'm gaining knowledge now. Just an opinion for those who said that internet is bad when I watched Jus! on S.u.ri.a today. Perhaps, they are the ones who are not exposed to the cyberworld, hmm..)

Back to my topic of creativity, I've been wanting to show a picture of this creative juice as a gift to Iman. A gift from my hubby's side. It's the most unique baby gift of all, because of the personal touch it has. Felt so 'sayang' to dismantle after all the hard work. But I love it!

The white and blue roses are actually Iman's clothes! Neat, huh?

Bought the book!

I've purchased the book hubby collected for me @ Bugis on the way home from work (Thanks dear!). Asked for a transfer from the main store because of the location. The one Yati shared with me is the 1st edition. This is the 3rd one with additional info. It's bigger and slightly heavier than the former.

Why the book? Well, random reads from Yati's hooked me on reading further. I felt that I have to own one as a reference in case I forget some facts about BF and I know I have to return the book to her asap. Part of the content includes a sample schedule of a working BF mother and her children. So if she could do it while tending to more than one child, why not me? I would just customize it to my current needs of a working mum later on. It's the info on working mums that made me hunt for the book. Thanks Yati dear for the book (Will return it to you when we meet soon!)

What's up ?

It has been almost 2 months... with all the hoo-haas of childrearing. I've learnt quite a number of things - from advices of others to the books I read...

+ Stocking up milk has so far been endless. I'm just worried that once I resume work, the stock I kept might not be enough. I have to start finding a way to pump at least once at work according to my timetable.

+ The BF book that Yati lent to me was very useful. I thought of buying one for myself.

+ Am still finding the most comfortable method to BF Iman while shopping. I have experienced using the sling or nothing. So far it has been successful but I wasn't that comfortable due to some personal reasons. But I'm not giving up. Just have to keep on practising.

+ Iman had his nails cut! Despite having short nails, he still wear mittens due to the mild red lines he made without it.

+ As of today, the reno work is a week and 1 day. Both me and hubby are still scouting for the necessary things for our house.

Syukur Alhamdulillah

Salaam to all..

Presenting you...

* Hifzul Iman *
- 2nd of March 2009 -
3kg @ KKH

My birth story to come... insyaAllah...

The new member on Planet Earth

After a short weekend date with hubb, we visited a dear girlfriend, whom, after a long waited journey and anticipation, welcomed her new family member yesterday. He has beautiful long eyelashes too, and weighed 3.7kg. Engrossed in her labour story, I forgot to take a shot of the lil angel, but surely the ibu will be updating him in her entry.

To Yati, your prayers of having him in your arms by this week has been fulfilled. Syukur Alhamdulillaah. Hopefully you'll be home soon and have a speedy recovery. Have a good experience of parenting Yati n Rizal!

Kita hanya merancang, tetapi Allah menentukan... That's what I've learnt from her story...