Iklan LRT Putra

Balik kerja semalam, aku naik putra lrt dari Masjid Jamek. Macam biasa, kena berdirilah. Lagipun Masjid Jamek to Setiawangsa tak lama, 15 minit sampailer. The train wasn't so pack petang semalam, so legalah sikit. Kalau tak tu, sesak nafas aku berhimpit himpit dalam lrt. Tambah pulak, bila dah petang petang tu, macam macam bau ada...Pagi oklah kan. Semua harum semerbak, tapi petang, bau pun sudah tukar daaaa...

Anyway, bila train stop kat Kg Baru tak silap aku or KLCC, this one pregnant lady pun naik. I noticed those yang duduk tu tetiba pegang hp and busy sms-ing. Tak angkat muka pun. Cuma ada one chinese lady ni aje yang bangun and offered her seat to the pregnant lady. The rest tu, malay ladies, sowey! Buat dono ajer.

Teringat plak aku kat iklan tv yang ada Adlin Aman Ramli tu. Dulu kerap gak keluar iklan tu, but now ni macam tak de dah. What happened? The situation dalam lrt semalam lebih kuranglah macam dalam iklan tu. Kemana pergi nya sopan santun, budi bahasa masyarakat Malaysia....A so-called "Masyarakat Prihatin dan Penyayang"...

My sister pun pernah jugak cerita, when she was pregnant and took the komuter/lrt everyday to her office kat Pos Malaysia, never once pun orang offer her to sit. Until her very last journey to work before delivery, dia kata tak pernah lah lagi merasa orang offer duduk kalau naik komuter/lrt. Aiyo...

Myself pun pernah gak travel in public transport masa pregnant dulu. Guess I was lucky sebab biasanya ada orang offer seat. Even masa naik bus pun dapatlah jugak duduk. I guess masa tu I was way too big already. Terhoyong-hayang aje jalan...

Oh yeah ! I have a new nephew now, delivered earlier this week. Cucu lelaki pertama on my parents' side and my sister's parents-in-laws' side. Hubby said, seronok ni...Bolehlah abang mem"beckham"kan dia...Ceh ! Suka-suka aje nak mem"beckham"kan anak orang. Mentang-mentanglah belum ada boy in our family lagi...

Kakak and Adik

Been busy the last weekend. Sabtu, spent the day berkemas rumah dan masak. Ceh ! Macam ler beso sangat rumah aku tu. Cuma middle-cost apartment aje. Tapi disebabkan kadar keaktifan adik yang semakin menjadi-jadi sejak dua menjak ni, tak berenti berkemas dibuatnya. Nak kemaskan bilik and hall tu amik masa gak, tapi dalam sekelip mata aje, dah bersepah balik dengan mainan sampai nak masuk bilik pun kena pijak hati-hati sebab mainan berterabur depan pintu bilik. And yes, thanks to adik ! Hehehhehe....

Sejak dah boleh duduk sendiri ni, aktiviti "berkemas" adik memang at a very high rate. Pantang leka aje kejap, tengok tengok dia dah ada kat dapur. Tengah tarik keluar periuk dan kain lap sambil tersengih sengih.

Memang penat ! But it was nothing compared to the happiness I felt bila tengok adik dah makin stabil duduknya. So her progress is getting better. Hopefully before she turns 2, she will be able to walk. All the exercises yang cikgu-cikgu kat Kiwanis tu tunjuk kena buat selalu, berurut pun bawak jugak. So that otot-otot dia tak keras. Sementara kecik lagi ni, otot otot tu still lembut lagi.

Kakak pulak, she's much better since attending pre-school ni. Kuranglah sikit nakalnyer. Riuh mulutnya la makin bertambah. Macam-macam dia picked up from school. She can make short and simple sentences in English now. Dengan atuk nenek dia pun dia bantai speaking London. Kekadang tu merapu aje bunyinya. Berangan ler tuh. Biarkan....biarkan...

Cuma kekadang tu kesian tengok dia terpaksa bangun awal. Her school van will pick her up at 7.30 am. So by 7 am mesti dah sampai rumah nenek dia for her to get ready. She's the first person van amik and the last person van hantar. By the time dia sampai rumah nenek dia, almost 1.30 pm dah. Salin baju, hisap susu, terus belayar. Confirm !!!

Pernah sekali dia cakap, kat school kakak semua orang balik mommy ngan daddy dia amik, kakak sorang aje naik van (read : which is not true....Sebenarnya dia nak naik bus, bukan van). Sedih plak dengar. If only I have the privillage to send and pick her up from school. How I wish !!!

Why "Tales from Two Cities"?

Lama gak aku dok pikir pikir apa ler nama aku nak kasi kat blog aku ni. Fellow blogger, JBMari, suruh gak aku come up with a name. Pikir punya pikir, aku pilih "Tales from Two Cities" sebab aku dok KL and my fellow blogger dok kat JB. So kiranya this blog will tell about life in two different citieslah, walaupun takdelah beza mana sangat. Just to update each other on our life and familes. So, we were supposed to take turns to update the blog though up till now, janji dia belum ditunaikan lagi...hehehehe....Kes ngungkit nih!

JB is my hometown now. I came to KL back in 2000 coz I got a job offer. KL is no stranger to me as when we moved to JB several years ago, we would regard KL as our hometown. Ayah was born in KL and all of his siblings are in KL. But now dah terbaliklah pulak kan.

How I met JBMari? heheheh...I was working part time as a IT trainer in a training company when we met. He was a senior trainer there. Jahat tau ! Suka buli junior trainer...Hehehheh...Takdelah jahat mana pun. Suka ngusik ajer. But he was helpful when it comes to work. Memandangkan aku ni tak pernah mengajar, maka terkial kial ler jugak first few times tu. JBMari ler tolong aku...bagi tips ker, bagi aku relaks ke...heheheh...

I still remember ada satu kali tu aku kena bagi training kat staff sebuah bank. Tulah first time aku kena ajar kelas yang ramai sangat. Kiranya kelas tu penuhlah. Aku ingat lagi masa tu I was supposed to teach them Excel beginner level. Kelas tu jadi kelam kabut, hingar bingar, I lost control of the class. Memasing macam buat keja sendiri, borak borak. Yang aku ni macam cakap sorang sorang kat depan. Rasa macam kelas tadika, macam kat pasar pun ada gak.

Frustrated, I walked out of the room to take a break. Rasa nak nangis pun ada weh ! Nasib baik ler JBMari came to the rescue, bagi a few tips. Feeling calmer, I walked in again, then things slowly became steady. They started to pay attention to what I was trying to say, buat the exercises, etc..Nasib baik ler kelas tu 2 days only. The next day tu much better and I got quite a good feedback from the attendees. Rasa macam serik aje ajar kelas ramai ramai. Rasanya kalau ada lagi seramai tu, nak ajer suruh JBMari take over. Hehehehhe...Anyway, I owe you one. Thanks a lot, bro ! But you still owe me a few entries here tau !!!

Give them a chance...

Hubby told me he had a chat with the Kiwanis librarian during adik's last visit to the centre. Kiwanis actually organized some kind of fund-raising activity at Taman Tasik Titiwangsa last December. We weren't able to attend it coz we were out of town. Anyway, since the event was held at an open park, weekend pulak tu, so there was quite a big crowd.

But the thing that strikes me was, according to the librarian, there were some people at the park that somehow perceived these Down Syndrome kids like an "alien" and they must keep their distance. Some parents didn't allow their kids to approach these special kids, as if these Down Syndrome kids have some sort of contagious disease. What a hurtful remarks and gestures!

Imagine how the parents of the special kids must have felt when they heard or saw these incidents. But most importantly, imagine how these special kids felt? They are way too young to understand why they are not allowed to make friends with other normal kids. They are just kids! They did nothing wrong. They didn't ask to be born as a Down Syndrome kids. Down Syndrome is not contagious, for goodness sake! Please don't discriminate these special kids. Give them a chance to lead a normal and happy life.

I remember the first few months after adik was born. Almost everytime when someone asked me about her, I would choked and sometimes I broke down and cried.Then we met other parents and kids at the Kiwanis. It certainly changed me and how I managed my emotions on this matter.

We are proud of adik and we love her, unconditionally, no matter what.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Kakak has a Barney's storybook entitled "What do you want to be when you grow up?". We bought the book for her 3rd birthday. Selalu suruh mommy bacakan dia buku tu. Lagipun, buku tu boleh tekan here and there, then Barney will say something. One of the occupation in the book yang dia suka sangat nak sebut is fire fighter. So now ni, she recognizes fire fighter and fire engines whenever she saw one. Excited giler !

Anyway, Sometimes I would ask her what is her ambition? Dah besar nanti, kakak nak jadi apa? Saja ler nak borak borak dengan dia. Dengan confidentnya dia cakap, Kakak nak jadi katak! Siap melompat in front of me, making her webek sounds dan tersengih sengih. Out of many things, nak jadi katak? Huh...ok..Then some other time, dia akan cakap dia nak jadi ular, then she will start hissing. Ada masa nak jadi tikus...Oh my god ! Takde ke benda lain nak jadi.

Then masa filem Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam tengah top, together with the song Pulangkan, she told me she wants to be a pontianak!!!But then, slowly dia tukar jawapan dia. Sometimes, she would say, dah besar nak bawak kapal terbanglah, nak jadi teacherlah, etc...Oklah tu kakak....Ada improvement...:D.

Adik's progress

Adik had her first playgroup session at Kiwanis for year 2006 today. Her first one-to-one session was last week. Gosh ! She was cranky and moody. Didn't want to move around despite being coaxed by her teacher, mommy and daddy. Dia buat derk aje...even though dah letak banyak mainan kat depan dia. Tak nak move forward pun, pandang cikgu pastu looked around the classroom then letak kepala dia. Guess she was still in the holiday mood, almost 2 bulan sekolah cuti...Tetiba nak start semula. Kita yang kerja ni pun ada holiday mood kan....:)

Anyway, today she's in a better mood. Even though she still showed less interest to the toys, at least bergerak ler jugak ke sana ke mari. Sibuk dok tengok kawan kawan dia in the playgroup tu. Nyanyi-nyanyi....sengih kemain lagi bila nyanyi. Then massage time, exercise, lunch break, nyanyi lagi then said goodbye. Next time
punya playgroup ada play in the pool pulak. So kena bawak extra clothing....After class, on the way to mommy's office, mata dah kuyu. Ni sah sah kejap lagi lelap dalam car seat dia. Letih sangat ler tu...

In all, she's making a great progress so far. Walaupun belum merangkak or duduk sendiri, she can crawled at a very fast pace now. Kat rumah, sudah explore sampai ke dapur and bilik mainan. Habis tudung periuk dia keluarkan, kain lap tangan berterabur dia baling. Bilik mainan lagilah pulak, dia terbalikkan small sized kotak mainan, baling apa yang dia dapat pegang from the boxes. At times, hall tu penuh dengan toys, nak berpijak pun susah. Tulah hasil kerjasama kakak and adik.

Another thing, sekarang ni adik dah pandai berebut toys dengan kakak. She will crawl all the way bila nampak something yang menarik pada kakak, then amik aje dari kakak. Maka bermulalah adegan tarik menarik between these little girls...Mommy and daddy just watched from far, kelakar pulak tengok dua beradik tu main sesama...:D

Precious Gift...

Been wanting to blog about my youngest little princess but don't know where to start. Hmm...lets see now.

Born Friday, October 2004 on the first day of Ramadhan, she's such a precious little baby. A very special. It was a smooth delivery, I would say. When the contraction started, I was at the site office, handling some problems on the user side. Initially, I thought it would just go a away after a while. But when the pain intensified around noon, I called up hubby. Told him, sakit perutlah...nak balik..He said ok but tak lama lepas tu call back and asked me, "sakit perut nak buang air besar ke?" Huh ??? Aiyo sayang....Kalau sakit perut nak buang air besar, buat per nak call you. Ni sakit nak beranak lah wei...

So he picked me up and we headed home first pasal barang nak bawak ke hospital pun aku tak pack lagi. Serius tak prepare apa...Naik tangga rumah pun kejap kejap stop bila contraction jadi, then sambung lagi jalan dan packing. By the time we reached the hospital, my gynae told me, the opening was already 6 cm. So off I went to the labour room. Around half and hour dalam labour room, selamat dah bersalin....heheheheh...lega giler beb ! While waiting for the gynae to finish up with me, I chatted with hubby. telling him how tired and relieved I was, and also, we haven't figured out the baby's name. My gynae pun tergelak dengar...:)

Things went fine that day. I was happy and tired. Can't wait to be discharged with my baby. Then came Saturday morning. I was getting ready to go home when hubby approached me.

"Duduklah kejap. I got something to tell you. It's about our baby. She's special. "
"Hmmm...ok..." Me still blur blur. What is he trying to tell me?
"What I'm saying is..she's a special baby, Down Syndrome baby...."

I was speechless...Macam tak percaya ajer...She looks so perfect to me. Just like her eldest sister. No difference...I was confused. I looked around me, mak and ayah senyap ajer, the rest pun macam tu jugak...For a second, it felt like the world has stopped. I broke down the moment hubby hugged me. We cried....

"Kita sama-sama sayang dan jaga dia ok....Takde beza antara kakak and adik..."

It didn't take me long to realize what I should do. I vowed that I'll do everything and anything within my capabilities to give her the best. To love her, protect her, anything for her...She's a precious gift from Allah to us. "Kita tak akan sia-siakan dia...". That was our promise...

Kakak super-excited !!!

Today is kakak's first day at school. I didn't have the chance to send her off as I applied leave for the wrong day. Yeah ! You got that right. Thanks to daddy's wrong info. He told me kakak will start her school on Tuesday. So mommy applied lah Tuesday. Monday malam masa read through her orientation day information, baru perasan yang for kids aged 4 and 5, the first week hanya sekolah on Thursday and Friday !!! Dah apply hari lain, rupanya sekolah hari lain. Hish daddy ni ! Bengang mommy tau.

So anyway, last night I prepared everything for her; school bag, tumbler, socks, schoes. She was excited. Early morning before I went to work, I told her to behave herself in school, take her bath, pakai baju sekolah tu, have breakfast....Daddy said he will call me to update on kakak.

I received an sms from daddy while having my breakfast. "Kakak dah masuk. Siap halau abang balik lagi." Hahahaha....Sian daddy kena halau balik. So I guess she's doing great over there. Mommy lega dengar.

Daddy called at about 11.30.
Daddy : "Kakak nangis!"
Mommy : "Huh? What? Kenapa?"
Daddy : "Dia tak mo balik. Campak school bag dia bila abang ajak balik."

Goodness! Daddy said other kids dah melepek kat depan gate sekolah, dah nak balik tapi kakak was protesting nak main lagi. So the teachers brought her in again, sambung main lagi. Cikgu kata this kid terlebih energetic pulak. Cikgu siap pesan, esok amik dia lambat sikit takper, biar dia swimming kat kolam after school sekejap. There you go ! Lepas ni lagilah dia tak mo balik rumah.

Another sms from daddy. "Dah balik rumah but she still mogok and nangis." Wonder what she would tell me bila mommy balik kerja petang karang. Tak sabar nak balik nih!!!

A New Beginning.....

Did nothing much on the New Year's eve and the day itself. I've been having fever since Saturday. Halfway cooking, stop then baring baring kejap, langsung terlelap. It was almost 2.30pm masa terjaga. Cepat-cepat finish up the cooking. Kesian hubby lambat lunch, nasib baik pagi tu breakfast lambat. After dinner, went for last minute shopping for my eldest girls school stuff. This week dia akan start schooling. Dalam demam-demam tu, pergilah jugak. Jalan pun terhoyong hayang ajer. Kakak, as usual, being naughty and stubborn. Running here and there, buat macam rumah sendiri, buat apa dia suka. I chose to carry adik in the carrier even though rasa nak tercabut bahu nih bawa adik yang tembam tu. Lebih rela carry adik daripada terpaksa terkejar sana sini dengan kakak, macam main hide and seek.

Reach home at about 10.30pm, once letak aje adik yang dah terlena sejak dari dalam kereta, mommy pulak terus tak bangun dah, belayar bersama adik. Terjaga pukul 12.15, bangun makan roti sikit, telan ubat demam, sambung tidur. Sunday : Lunch time, went to aunty's house. Ada buat makan-makan and doa selamat sikit. Bukan tolong masak pun, tolong makan ajer. Helped out with the cleaning and washing after that. Yerlah kan...Dah ler tak tolong masak, at least tolong cuci and kemas apa apa yang patut ler kan.

Then off we went to Carrefour pulak. Since dah promise dengan kakak to go there on Sunday. She kept on begging us since lunch time lagi. Please! Please! Please! So, pergilah jugak. Pandai memujuk rayu dia ni!!! But this time, we made her sit in the trolley, no running around. Dah ler Carrefour sesak giler time time macam gini. Wah !!! Aman dunia. Senang hari nak tengok barang, pilih itu ini...hehhehe

Monday and Tuesday, still on leave. Lepak aje kat rumah. Buat apa apa yang patut. Kakak dok hints hints nak ajak jalan -jalan. "Takde apa la nak buat kat rumah ni...". Mommy and daddy buat tak dengar ajer. Lain kali ler pulak kita jalan jalan lagi ok...

So that was our new year holidays. Happy new year everyone!