The lil’ dude and his family…

So, the lil’ gadget boy has finally turned ONE! How fast does time fly, ey? Tsk. It was a small affair at Bianco but everyone had loads of fun! :) It has been 3 weeks in a row that I’m at Bianco and this weekend we’ll be there again for another birthday party and Irwan is amused that the people there know me by my first name. Hahahahahaha!

Anyways, Aaron and the kids dropped by on Sunday and they all had some fun time in the pool. And after that I had the yummiest fried chicken at BBQ Chicken as the chicken there are fried in olive oil! Yummy! And now I am craving for moreeeee..! :P

Knows:

• How to spell his full name
• How to spell my full name
• How to spell Irwan’s full name
• How to spell his friend’s name
• How to get to my parents’ home from his school

Memorizes:

• My handphone number
• Irwan’s handphone number
• My car plate number
• Irwan’s car plate number
• My parents’ car plate numbers
• My inlaws’ car plate numbers
• Our home address

He’s been such a joy to us since April 2006 - albeit some dr-jekyll-and-miss-hyde moments with him - that I cannot imagine life without him. I am not even sure how I am going to cope if and when #2 or #3 comes along. Can I love his adik(s) as much as I love him? Can I give his adik(s) the same attention I have been giving him? Can I be fair to all my children? And if I feel that I can’t - should we still proceed to get pregnant? Dilemma dilemma.. Or should we just eff it and just do it? Pft.

We tagged Irwan (yet again!) for the BMW Peformance Day and this time around it was held in Kuching. I prefer Kuching to KK as it is somewhat cleaner and more organised than KK; although their taxis are just as cekik darah  but most of the time we had the rented Harrier + one of the event peeps to drive us around to get the Sarawak kek lapis and ikan terubuk masin. :)

On Saturday night, we went for dinner with another couple and had lala, steamed kerapu, empat ekor lobsters, prawns, fried rice and vegetable and the damage was only RM147.90!!!! Imagine.. we had FOUR lobsters and the price was that. Damn! Must go Kuching again. Haha! So if any of you guys are going to Kuching, do visit Top Spot Seafood Centre. ;)

We stayed at Four Points by Sheraton and the room and bed and pool and food were just amazing! Too bad it was only for the weekend. Ah well, next timelah kot? :P

And oh, I brought along my new toy to play with - the Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS lens. I’m officially b.r.o.k.e. And then there’s the diving course I’m taking up. And the trip at the end of the year! Eeeeppp.. no new baju raya for me this year! :P 

Saturday afternoon was a full session of makan-makan with Ira (and Mia) and Hetty (and Yazid). First we had steamboat at Ikano and afterwards proceeded to shop a lil’ bit at The Curve. Irfan fell asleep almost immediately in his stroller for three hours after lunch so I was rather free to do whatever I please. Bumped into some familiar faces there and got Irfan some baju raya (yeah, damn malas to shop during Ramadhan when it’s packed everywhere!) and then the pregnant lady wanted to have dessert. So off we went to Ikea for some cheesecake, daim cake and I-don’t-know-what-else she stuffed on her plate. And by she, I meant the pregnant lady who seems to be forever hungry. Heh. Jangan marah eh, Ira? ;)

We left Ikea about 6-ish and when I took Irfan out from the stroller, he got up. Else I think he might have still been asleep. We sent Ira and Mia back to their place and Irfan and I went home to rest for a little bit and wait for Irwan who went hiking kat Gunung Nuang for practice since he’s going up Mount Kinabalu next weekend before getting ready to meet the Huans for dinner at Lala Chong.

We were a bit late because I had to clean up some of Irwan’s injuries but it was good also that we were late because it gave Rachel the chance to nap a half hour longer. Sorry guys for being late! Anyhow, since everyone was starving I ordered salted egg crabs, steamed fish, steamed prawns with egg white, Siong Tong Lala, fried french beans with garlic and some fried rice for the kids (and adults). I fed Iran first before attacking the food and after he has finished 2 1/2 bowls of fried rice with some crabs and loads of the crunchy beans, I had to peel the crabs for Irwan pulak since he injured his right hand with some duri. By the end of it all, we were so full that it was hard for us to move. Haha!

Sunday was full of surprise parties - baby shower for Ira and birthday dinner for Aaron. Ted, Hetty and I have planned for the shower many many moons ago. Ira’s been hinting like forever that she wants an owl themed shower so I did all the necessary plannings. :) Hetty and I arrived slightly earlier than everyone else at Bianco to ensure that everything was in order and the moment Ira stepped in to Bianco, she was too stumped to say anything and almost cried too me thinks. Heh. Anyway, food was good and we had great company and the games were fun too so yeah, I think at the end of it all, everyone was very very happy. :)

The dinner for Aaron was held at Gaucho Grill @ Chulan Square and the steaks are just oh-so-good! But the surprise tak jadilah because they arrived before the guests did and when Aaron saw 5 empty seats he had to ask Emily what was going on. Aiyah! Sorry dude! Hope you had a great time with us, though? And tunggu aaaa… your present is on its way! ;)

And now, I’m still trying to catch my breath but we’ll be in Kuching pulak this weekend! Looking forward to that trip. ;)

but it was fun! :)

We watched Transformers on Friday night and Irfan behaved rather well and sat through 85% of the movie. By midnight, he couldn’t keep his eyes opened so he slept in my arms as the arm rest couldn’t be lifted for him to lie down on his seat. Ah well, janji he’s comfortable. Heh. Anyhow, Irwan was drooling over you-know-who but I have to admit, I think she’s waaaayyy hotter in the previous movie. Even the fighting scenes were much better in the previous movie. But the movie isn’t as bad as what the critics wrotelah. And Irfan loved the Camaro (Bumblebee) and the Corvette (Sideswipe).

The next morning, Irwan and Irfan were at the pool from 10 a.m til past noon! I think if we didn’t have a lunch date with the inlaws, Irfan would have probably stayed longer in the pool. He is soooooo hitam legam I tell you! Ish. Anyway, after the two boys had a quick shower, we left for Bangsar Village and had lunch at Basil. Good stuff I must say! After some shopping, we headed home to put Irfan down for a nap because we’ve got dinner with some friends later that night.

Irfan slept past 8 p.m (from about 4.30 p.m) and we had to apologize to our hosts for our delay. Irfan finished off a whole plate of rice, fish curry and omelette as well as two servings of ice-cream and when he was done, he plonked himself on the sofa and watched Bolt while the adults chatted. Chat punya chat, didn’t realise that it was almost midnight until Irfan said that he wants to go home and sleep. Haha. 

The next day, we went out with my parents for lunch and went to check out some houses for my brother. While driving, Irfan sat on the floor at the back of the Cygnus and when I asked my mom to check on him (since Irwan was napping while I was driving), the lil’ fella was already asleep! So Irwan picked him up and when we arrived at my parents’, we moved him into my car and he was still asleep. Even after arriving at Prince Court and putting him in the stroller he still slept. After we were done at the hospital, we transferred him back into the car and he still had his eyes closed. We then went to Pavilion for a bit because I needed to get some stuff and he was still snoring away! By the time we got home, it was close to 6 p.m and after 3 hours odd of nap, Irfan finally got up!

And we’re looking at another eventful weekend in a few days’ time and next weekend we’ll be off to Kuching! ;) 

p/s: Pictures #14 & #16 of Irwan were taken by Irfan with my 5D.

Last weekend was pretty much hectic for all of us. Irwan had to clock crazy hours on Thursday until the wee hours of the morning on Friday, and then went for the BMW Practice at Sepang on Friday evening and I had to bring Irfan to SJMC that Friday night as his runny nose wasn’t getting any better. On the same night, I also had to pack for all of us as we were going away on Saturday to Genting and PD.

On Saturday morning, Irwan had to go to the Shah Alam circuit first for his annual Australian Alumni Go-Kart Race. And since 2005, Monash has been winning the race and so it wasn’t a surprise that this year Irwan and his team won again. Yay! Immediately after he finished his race, we left for Genting. Traffic was ok and so was the weather. Irwan was already late for his registration and so I dropped him off at the entrance of the theme park and proceeded to park. I think the parking angel was with me because I immediately got a parking spot the moment I entered the carpark. Heh.

When we got to the go-kart area, the place was packed with Fly FM crews, BHP booths and many more. The race kicked off at about 1.15pm and 90 contestants had their go - 3 persons at one go - and had their time clocked too. After Irwan was done, we proceeded to let Irfan have his fun - the bumper car being his favourite! :P

Not more than 15 minutes later, it poured. H.e.a.v.i.l.y. And we were stuck. But thank goodness we were stuck indoor and not under ‘em tents. When the rain started to slow down, we made our way back to the entrance to have lunch at Marrybrown as Irwan was given some vouchers for makan.

Out of the 90 contestants, only 30 will be chosen for the final round and since it rained not once, but twice that day, the whole event got delayed! By the time the names were announced, it was already 7pm! And we were suppose to be headed to PD already by this time. So yes, Irwan’s name was one of those 30 names that were announced and he had to run back to the car to get his helmet as now they allow the contestants to wear their own helmets pulak. I didn’t understand why they didn’t allow them to wear it at the start though. Oh well.

So yeah, there we were - Irfan and I - cheering for Irwan who sengaja wanted to go last so that everyone else would dry the track for him and I guess it was a good move too because although he said that his kart was really really slow, he managed to get 3rd place and walked away with RM 10,000!! Wheeeeee….!!

When everything was settled, we quickly made our way to the car and left for PD. Irfan slept the moment we hit the road as he only managed to nap for about 1.5 hours earlier on. Anyway, by the time we got to the hotel, it was almost midnight and I was just oh-so-tired! Wanted to sleep in the next morning but since our room was facing the pool and there were some other companies having their family day and what not, the noise was just unbearable and so Irfan and I decided to tag Irwan for breakfast before he has to leave us to attend his team building thingiemajigie.

After breakfast, Irfan and I went to the pool to have some fun. As he was still Mr.Sniffles, I didn’t allow him to rendam for long in the pool - 30 minutes tops. As usual, after swimming he’d be starving. So we made our way to PD town and had some Hainanese chicken rice. He finished the whole plate along with my fish ball soup too! And waddaya know? He was doing his big project while I was finishing up. Aiyah! How to sit in the carlah like that? In the end, I had to make him stand at the back seat and drive real slow back to the hotel. :P

We met Irwan back for lunch and it was during this time that I got annoyed with one of his colleagues - he was the acting Head of IT before Irwan joined Khazanah and took over the position as Head of IT. So anyway, this guy is having his wedding sometime this month. He has passed the invitation to Irwan a few weeks ago and Irwan told me that no kids are allowed at the wedding. Finelah, no worries. If noone can jaga Irfan that night, Irwan will just have to go without melah. No hal. So, while having lunch, Irfan was just walking around the room, checking things out and all that but did not disturb anyone. That’s just him. And I’d think it’s perfectly normal anyway for a 3 year old to be inquisitive and all that. But no, not to this guy. He was seated next to me, by the way and said this “You do know that your son will not be allowed to be at my wedding, right?” I answered “Yes, I’m aware that kids are not allowed to attend your wedding.” His reply to that “Yeah, it’s because your son is too notorious.” Notorious? Notorious? Really? Has he even seen how “notorious kids” behave??? For heaven’s sake, all my son did was to walk around and play with his cars on the chair while everyone else was having lunch - what’s the effing problem? He’s had his lunch anyway, so what? Does he expect kids to sit on the chair without moving a muscle? If he does, then good lucklah! I know that Irfan isn’t perfect. But he’s definitely NOT notorious! Gah! So annoyed I was that I tak selera to continue my lunch. And when I told Irwan about what the guy has said, Irwan’s reply was that to just ignore him because he’s just the sarcastic type and more often than not his choice of words are always out of context. What-ever! :P Thank god he was already done with his lunch and left a few minutes later. Else, I wouldn’t know what I’d have said to him. Eeeeee..!

So after lunch, Irwan had to return back for his team building stuff and I was having a hard time keeping my eyes opened. I told Irfan to play quietly with his cars while I took a nap and an hour later I woke up and the first thing I saw was him sleeping with his head on the edge of the bed while standing! Haha. He’s even packed all his cars nicely and put them in the pouch that Ira made for his birthday. I then put him on the bed nicely and packed all our stuff and waited for Irwan to be done. After checking out, we transferred Irfan to his carseat and he was still asleep. When we got home we took him out from his carseat and he was still asleep. The maid was vacuuming the living hall (where he was asleep) and he still did not wake up. Finally at about 8.30pm or so, he woke up and had some dinner and went back to sleep again. :) Penat sangatlah tu!

Irwan had to be in KK for the weekend to conduct the BMW Performance Day and since I have not been to KK (yes, very the malu), I thought that I might as well tag along and visit the negeri di bawah bayu. However, we didn’t stay by the beach (wanted to check out Tanjung Aru or Karambunai) because the event was held at the port and so we were put up at one of ‘em hotels in the city.

Irwan and the luggages left first on Friday morning and Irfan and I took the MAS flight in the evening. The fare difference was only about RM100 or so and since it was easier to take the train from KL Sentral to KLIA, I chose to fly with MAS. Traffic was just madness that evening but my brother managed to drop us off at KL Sentral by 6.20pm. Since I had already check-ed in via the web the night before, I just needed to go to the MAS counter at KL Sentral to get the boarding pass endorsed. We were on the KLIA Ekspres (which I got my driver to buy the tickets earlier so that I didn’t need to rush everwhere) by 6.30pm. Phew.

Irfan had a fun time being on the train and when we got to KLIA we still had time to munch some food. I wasn’t sure whether we’d be given food onboard so to be on the safe side, I got Irfan some nuggets from BK. When it was time to board the plane, they’d actually allow those with kids to board in first (unlike AA!!!!) and I was just so glad they did. It gave me time to make sure Irfan was comfortable because it was a 2.5 hours flight and I didn’t know what to expect of Irfan. Haha. But alhamdulillah, he slept after having nasi beriani for dinner.

We arrived in KK at about 10.25pm and Irfan was still asleep. So I carried him out of the plane to meet Irwan and damn.. that kid of mine is so heavy now! I almost broke my back!! We went straight to the hotel and I completely knocked out ’til the next morning. :P

Irwan had to leave early the next morning for the event so Irfan and I had breakfast at the San Francisco Coffee and he actually finished the scrambled eggs, toasted bread and sausages - I think I only had a quarter of the whole plate. After breakfast, I brought him to the waterfront which was across from where we were at because he wanted to see the boats and ships and the whole works. It was just too scorching hot for us to spend too much time there and so I brought him to the malls instead. (Apalah, go KK to shop.. :P)

We had lunch at one of the shops in the mall, and again, Irfan finished off my food. Haha. It was too hot outside and I was too tired anyway, so both of us went back to the hotel and had a l.o.n.g nap. By the time I got up, it was almost 5pm and got us ready to go to the Filipino market. Irwan arrived just before we left, so he followed us to the market. Irfan was asking Irwan to carry him every 5 nanoseconds (and he wasn’t all that whiny with me) and poor Irwan, tired from the day’s event had to submit to his son’s request. After getting some stuff from the pasar, we went to have dinner at the Kampung Nelayan Restaurant and food was just amazing! :)

On Sunday, after breakfast, I brought Irfan to Lok Kawi Wildlife Park. What I didn’t know was that there are no taxis there for you to balik and I ended up paying RM120 for the cab driver to wait for us for 1.5 hours. He said it’s a normal practice. Sheaaaahhh right. I’m surelah kan? Whateverlah, I just wanted Irfan to have his fun time so I just ignored the fact that RM120 is a rip-off!

We saw two orang utans riding on the buggy and I think Irfan was pretty amazed and I had to explain to him what orang utans are. Then we saw some parrots and one of them greeted Irfan and I could see that he was shocked! Haha. So I told Irfan to greet the parrot back and when the parrot asked where we were from, I told Irfan to reply. I think they were conversing for about 5 mins or so and Irfan made me promise to come back to the parrots before we leave so that he can wish them goodbye. :)

While at the Sunbear’s area, one of ‘em bears were circling around the pool and taking a dip in it and Irfan just had to ask me this “Ma, the bear pakai sunblock tak? Nenek says must use sunblock when swimming!” I was laughing my head off and then explained to him that bears do not need to use sunblock. He just okay-ed me but I have no idea if he fully understood. ;)

Irfan was drenched in sweat by the time we were done and since our flight was at 530pm that evening, I thought that it’d be best if we went back to the hotel and let him have his nap (since he woke up rather early that morning). Oh, before that we had lunch nearby and yup, he finished off most of my food too. Haha! I think he loves all the fresh seafood in KK. ;)

It was just me and Irfan going back first and although I needn’t be at the airport early (since I’ve done the web check-in the evening before at the hotel), I just thought that we’d pusing-pusing KKIA. Irfan wanted some mackers and ice-cream and after having our tea, we went past the customs only to be told that our flight was slightly delayed. We were supposed to take-off at 5.30pm and the plane from KL only arrived at 5.20pm. But not too bad, we left KK around 5.50pm or so. And it was a full flight too with loads of kids and babies!

Since Irfan had his nap earlier on, he didn’t want to nap after having his nasi tomato but he let me have my nap 30 minutes before arriving at KLIA. My brothers were already at the airport since they were at SIC for the Japan GT earlier on and I was just so t.i.r.e.d that I wanted to sleep on the chairs at the arrival hall.

So that’s how my first trip to KK went. Will probably go again next year (and stay at Karambunai!) since this year’s holiday allocation has been max-ed out with our Europe trip in December. Heh. 

‘Twas Jamie’s first ever birthday party and we were all excited to be a part of the celebration. Thanks dude for having us around! We all had so much fun!! And it was great seeing how terrified Irfan was with the A&W rootbear since he’s never afraid of anything. At least I got to bully him and made him listen to me the next few days after the party. Pft.

Our weekend was crazy packed as we had a wedding to attend that Saturday night. Irfan made everyone turn around and looked at us when he screamed while the Ustaz was reciting the doa. Aiyo. Kasi bikin malu saje! I really didn’t know where to put my face and I guess he was also tired and cranky because the ceremony only started at 9 p.m (when the card states 8 p.m!) and we only got to eat around 9.30 p.m and it was already his bedtime. So after eating what we could, we left the wedding by 10.15 p.m or so and the lil’ dude knocked out the minute we got home. And didn’t get up ’til about 10 a.m! Must be super tiredlah tu!

That night, we had dinner at this place called Restoran Ikan Sungai (damn good food!!) at Desa Melawati and it was suppose to be a Father’s Day treat for my dad from us all because we’ll be in Kota Kinabalu this weekend. But the bill was just ridiculously crazy (just for fishies + udang galah, ok?) that my dad said it’s his treat this time around. Whomever can guess the price, I shall belanja you makan! Hahaha!

Me: Irfan, how do you spell your name?

Irfan: I-R-F-A-N. Adam!

Irfan: A-D-A-M. Irfan!

Me: How do you spell my name?

Irfan: N-A-D-I-A. Mama!

Me: How do you spell your father’s name?

Irfan: I-R-W-A-N. Papa!

Aiyoooooooo….!

Anyhow, after seeing x amount of homes, we have finally decided on one that we just saw over the last weekend. It’s not too big, but it’s not too small either. And what I love about the house is that it has loads of long and tall windows - perfect opportunity for photo ops! ;) I’ll be going over later to view for a second time and if both parties agree on the price, I’d like to think that the (headache) hunt is over. And then comes the headache on the minor details. Ish. More eye-candy shots below:

p/s: These aren’t the photos of the said house. I didn’t snap photos of the house because I didn’t want to intrude the owner’s privacy. However, they do have some resemblance of the house. :) 

Met up with a friend and her family yesterday for lunch yesterday at Bianco we were in for a surprise as Bianco was having their first ever Sunday all-you-can-eat Brunch for RM 25+. The T&C is that you cannot order more than two dishes per round BUT you can order as many round as you can. And if you are so tamak and cannot finish the food that you’ve ordered (more than 150gram of balance), you’d be penalised for RM10 (or so).

It was my second time at Bianco and I know that their aglio olio (with prawns) is to die for so I had like two and a half bowl of that to myself. I also ordered the pizza for myself (and shared it with Zayaan and Irfan) and numerous plates of soft shell crab! The crabs were also Irfan’s favourite and he was just munching and munching and munching away. I think we ordered like 14 plates of them (in 3 rounds of ordering) and when we wanted to order them for the fourth round, we were told that they were already out of crabs and was replacing them with the prawns instead. Can do alsolah.

After we had dessert, I was like this ular sawa that couldn’t even move an inch! I had a tough time keeping my eyes opened too. Haha! Anyhow, Mrika - thanks for your company yesterday and thank you very mush for the paintings. :) Hope Zarif feels better now.