Handling Holland.. (and now aidan too!)

Saying goodbye to our JB home…

http://aidantje.blogspot.com/

To all who has been there, thank you so much for the fond memories. (yoyo mainly, i will always remember that corner)

I’ve been writing in here sine april 2005, since both hardy and i were dating. hardy has his blog as well but lately hardly writes these days. now, we both have decided to merge our blogs, and move it to blogger where we both can write and all can comment.

I am a little bit sad, as i’ve started writing in here first and now shifting (imagine how sad i was leaving home, and moving here!) but i do hope you people who have been reading, commenting, and those silent readers will now follow, continue reading our new blog.

It will still be the same, me writing on my arty crafty, whats cooking in our kitchen, my likes, my life here, away from home, my son’s mischiefs, PLUS hardy’s writings on his stuff, some reviews, the places he has visited, daily life and of course, how we’re bringing up our son Aidan.

So, go on… add this link to your favourites!

http://aidantje.blogspot.com/

We’ll see you there!

(p.s: continuation on our UK trip and our shopping there!)

I was quiet the whole drive to Dusseldorf airport. first time travelling with a baby, i wasnt quite sure of our timing. i kept asking hardy if we were ok, are we late, are we safe, good, or could have done better. we arrived at the airport with a very calm baby, 2 luggages, hardy’s computer bag and a baby bag. we will definitely have to improve on our timing, slightly. but all in all, we did fairly ok.

Yes, it was stupid of me to worry over aidan’s first plane ride. i worry over nothing! he was very well, very calm, smiled, giggled and then slept the second half of the flight. i fed him the first half just before we boarded the plane, and right after take off, i fed him the remaining milk.

And zoom! we go, on aero the plane on Lufthansa flight LH4936 to Birmingham!!

He was occupied with the toys given to him by the steward. and after a few gigggling sessions with his dad (mom too nervous to share a giggle), he dozed off!!

He was quiet all the way in the car to kakak’s house. and the first thing on my mind was to see fifi’s bump! and for the very first time, fifi’s tummy’s bigger than mine! (ok.. so she’s pregnant..)

Yes aidan did like kakak’s house. he was curious at first but settled in the second day.

The stroller was intact, and everything went well. I HAVE GOT TO STOP WORRYING!!!

Oh, by the way, to the guys out there who might be reading this, we saw this signboard on the way to Dusseldorf Airport! read the one that goes to the right…  hehehhehe

HOME

We got back home from the UK two sundays ago. (will write more on our trip).

I was down, REALLY down with a terrible, bad flu and in total have consumed probably more than 40 paracetamols, a handful of vitamin c’s, 2 boxes of tissues during the period of 10 days that i was down. it was horribly misserable! and i had to settle aidan the first few days we got home. tough. extremely tough. i’ve realised i had no one to take care of aidan when i’m sick. its not that i can ask my mum, mum in law, a nanny, a maid, to take care of him while i get the much needed rest. i suppose one has got to face this sort of thing in order to face some even more bigger challenges. the worrying bit is i didnt want him to get all my virus!

Unfortunately, he did. aidan is now caughing, and having runny nose. 2 days ago, he had a slight tempreature. it breaks my heart to see him caugh and unwell. nothing serious, but still…. me being the worrier, i worried. but as hardy said, its good for his immune system, it’ll make him stronger and he’ll fight it off!

Hardy couldnt take leave coz he was on his travelling period. thankfully, he was away travelling just during the day, so he was at home in the evenings. he didnt quite suffer what i suffered but still he was down with a bad throat and nose too. i must say, it helps when one is down, the other one stayed strong. he did just that and practically did everything from changing aidan, fed him, and cooked me chicken soup.

I’m now feeling much better, my tastebuds are back, my nose now can smell my husband and my son, my joints are no longer aching, my head is no longer spinning…

I hope aidan will get better soon.

AWAY

Hardy left for normandy, france this morning. he was excited to witness the so called ‘elephant’, i could tell. and especially when you can witness this view from the hotel, who wouldnt be!

I had maggi for dinner, while watching the aussie soap home and away. everything was wrong with my maggi, it didnt taste good even when my tastebuds are working. hate having dinner all by myself..

My now fully fuctional nose will just smell aidan for tonight!

Cant wait for tomorrow when he comes home..

Tomorrow, the 3 of us will be on an aeroplane. its going to be aidan’s first time on "Aero the Plane", very exciting!

I’ve started packing and setting things aside since late last week. i’d say 60% of our stuff belongs to the one who’s the smallest among us 3!

But to tell you honestly, part of me’s rather nervous. i’m not quite sure on how aidan would react. we will be staying at my sister’s new house. again, its going to be his first time sleeping away from his home, not in his cot.

Will he cry a lot?

Can he handle the aeroplane pressure?

Will he be comfortable?

Can he sleep at kakak’s house?

Will he like it?

I suppose he’s got to learn and encounter new things. and there’s always a first time for everything.

After a long consideration, consulting and comparing notes with other mommys in their blogs, learning from ez and adam’s experience, we decided not to bring our quinny stroller. we’re scared it might get stolen, or something would happen to it. we got a new travelling stroller for aidan, something a little bit less expensive, and ready to go lasak! all we need now is a cover for it, just incase it rains.

And to get him used to this, we went for a trial run. i’ve been putting him on it since monday. and we went for a stroll - in the house! as you can see in this picture, our house is still empty, and as hardy would describe our ground floor, its like "a bowling alley". with the weather being unsettled and not on our side these days, we’re thankful the house is still kosong! at least we can try it - in the house!

There are so many people we’d want to visit, k.na and nigel, abbey and lee, dayat… but we’ve got little time for this visit. will surely look forward to meeting all of you (with your newborns) this summer! (opps, except for dayat, no newborn. not yet, one day i’m sure!)

I’m still nervous, but one thing’s for sure, I AM EXTREMELY excited!

Cant wait to see kakak (and her tummy), redza, ez, adam and family! and of course… to SHOP (on behalf of aidan).

We were humbled when our good friends Noreen and D invited us to witness their akad nikah two sundays ago. i had so many ideas and so many things that i wanted to do for their special day but much time were taken by my precious son. i had to settle for something realistic insted and left all the ideas, still in my head.

Inteded to bake my so called ‘popular after first attempt baked cheesecake’ but somehow, shamefully, it didnt turn out well (no point putting the picture here, memalukan!). quickly came up with some chocolate cupcakes and since noreen’s mum loves anything apple-ish, i baked some apple muffins as well.

Finished all the baking and cooking and cleaning at midnight. wrapped their wedding present, prepared some munchies for our 2 hour journey to den haag, got ready aidan’s bag, and an hour later, were off to bed, with me smelling like a confused cake of cocoa, cheese, apple and mee hoon sup! didnt want to arrange the flowers that night so i left it for the morning.

A day before, i managed to get some white ranunculus and green mums and added some soft touches with this tiny little ones which i dont know its name. put them in glasses, tied some green and yellow strings around the glasses, and there you have it, an instant flower deco to add to noreen’s grandma garden of roses in her apartment.

As people are celebrating Carnival here (refer to previous, last year’s post), dressed up in all sorts of costumes, we got ready, wearing our baju kurung and baju melayu instead! sadly aidan does not have his 1st baju melayu yet so i put on something comfy for him. Stuffed the back of the car with all the stuff, plus the ever so pupular and precious limburgese vlaai and off we were, to the rumah pengantin.

It was our first time meeting noreen’s family who flew all the way from kl. they are such warm people, very friendly, very welcoming, very funny too! funny how small the world is, almost scarry! i was scared that aidan might create a scene and so i told him the day before and before we left that he needed to behave himself. "kita nak gi rumah orang, tante noreen’s getting married, so you need to behave, kena pandai bawak diri tau!" just like my mum always say to us when we were young- "pergi rumah orang kena bawak diri!" i’m now passing it down to my son.

First min he cried. i then calmed him down. and before i knew it, he was swept away by noreen’s youngest sister, sese. there goes my boy! both were really comfortable with each other. sese’s great with kids. and later changed shifts with the reliable yaya, noreen’s other sister, noreen’s mum and later her dad!

Unfortunately, the bride was down with food poisoning! what luck! poor noreen. she was in bed most of the day trying to get as much rest as possible before the akad begins.

The akad started after maghrib. both bride and groom looked elegant. D wore a full baju melayu complete with songkok. he looked absolutely gorgeous! sajak dan segak! (D, figure what that means!). the ceremony was done with such simplicity, with such meaningful words shared by the amazing kadi (he trully is), an absolutely beautiful union witness by only a handful of people, such a private affair, extremely modest and yet beautiful and meaningful.

Food was excellent! lekker! heel lekker! pengantin lelaki even duduk bersila atas lantai to have his beryani! he looked really comfortable and at ease with his attire! where’s the pengantin perempuan? well, she had to settle for a couple of toasts… in bed! aww….

I’m glad everything went well, alhamdulillah. i’m glad my son was at his bestest behaviour. he surprised me and i’m so proud of him for not making a squeek during the ceremony (i wouldnt want his voice, or any gas coming out of him to be heard in the video, you see!)

We left for home at 9pm, before we reached the end of noreen’s street, aidan’s already fast asleep. mana taknya, he didnt sleep at all, from 2pm to 9! so i reckon he had a good day too, i’m sure. he too witness his tante noreen and om daniel kawin!

To our good friends, Noreen and Daniel, congratulations guys. i wish you both all the love, all the happiness in the world and may your marriage be blessed and berkekalan hingga ke anak cucu, insyaallah.

Hope you like the present.

With all our love!

As i was preparing dinner, going back and forth to the kitchen and the living room to have a peek at the brit awards showing on telly, i kept on flicking the curtains to see if he’d arrived.

I heard a car pulled off infront of our house, and the sound of the door being slammed. a brief peek by the window, and i saw him walking towards our front door!

After exchanges of hugs and kisses, a scoop on his trip, and hardly 5 mins in the house, he quickly went upstairs to check on aidan, eventhough aidan was asleep. i guess the first thing on each and every father’s mind when they come home is their baby! i grinned from ear to ear

We had our dinner. he then fed aidan, shared a few giggles, a few smiles, exchanged their stories, and showed him what he got for his boy. he had never fail to bring back at least something for me (now, us) from wherever he was. it might be from the simplest thing! like a bottle of ribena (sadly we dont have them here) and i’d jump for joy! this visit i got a couple of gossip magazines (english, mind you its difficult to find one here!) with shilpa on the cover, and a dior lipstick (perhaps he’d rather me wear lipstick than a lipgloss?) and this is what he got for our son..

My husband is home!

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It was such a beautiful morning yesterday. such a contrast to what we had last week! the sun was out and bright and so i decided to take my son out for a stroll, to visit the ducks at our nearby lake.

It took me almost half an hour to get everything ready. wrapping up aidan with warm clothes, putting his socks and shoes (this was a struggle coz he loves to take them out), getting his bottle ready just in case if there’s an emergency cry-out, i then needed to get ready and had to find some snacks and some bread for the ducks. gosh! i reckon this will take longer once he’s up and runnning!

I could tell he was enjoying his stroll, observing the trees, listening to the birds, the cars that went past us, some passer by who stopped to acknowledged us. i then told him that we’re heading for the lake and we’re going to see the ducks. and how important the ducks are to his mama and papa. and how we used to feed them every weekend when he was in my tummy. i think i had probably bore him coz as soon as we arrived at the lake, he was sound asleep! oh well…

And so i fed the ducks…. alone.

I took him round the big lake, trying to avoid being sniffed by a few dogs and carefully not to step on dog’s poo. by the time we got to the other side, where there isnt much ducks, he then opened his eyes, and probably thought "hey, where are the ducks?"

Mama fed them all, they’re probably full and asleep by now!

We then enjoyed the sunset.

Sorry ya aidan, we’ll go again ok?!

20 mins later, we were joined by hardy. as he greeted us and later asked "mana roti?"

Err… sorry boys, we will definitely feed the ducks again and i’ll save some bread for you guys next time!

My two boys. Lief!

Just finished feeding aidan his supper of 240ml -ish of milk. he seemed to enjoy that rather well followed by a heavy load of pampers and later followed by a few huge bombastic stinking farts. struggled to put him back to sleep as he was probably curious as to why his mama gave him the bottle tonight and not his dad. he probably enjoyed his milk too much not to realize it until he was put to bed.

As i normally look forward to 5pm - 6pm everyday to welcome my husband back from work, today, i look forward to his phonecall, letting me know that he has safely landed. i still sit by the window around that time, only to waive at john, our neighbour and his son back from work. i then fixed myself a quick bite (unlike this one lucky person who gets to eat seafood at some restaurant somewhere in cardiff!) no point cooking when you’re all by yourself. but no seafood and no cooking means i can enjoy my home and away the whole stretch!

Its just 2 of us tonight. and as i will be sleeping smelling his pillow and his tshirt he wore to bed last night, i hope he misses us as much as we miss him.

I got tagged by Adam a month ago but completely forgot all about it till now! what’s "tagged"? well…

Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. its like a blog-chain-mail.

6 things that people (or most people) dont know about me. here goes:

1. i arrange my clothes now by the season. in summer, i arrange them by colours and now its winter, its long sleeves on the left and short sleeves on the right.

2. i dont eat lamb. no matter how nice people say they are or how rugi i am for not eating lamb. altho… there was this time, when i was living together with my sister in oxford for a year, she bought minced lamb instead of minced beef and all the while she told me it it was beef! she tipu-ed me all the way throughout the whole year!

3. i need to wear clean bottoms (let it be pants or skirts), to sit on the bed. especially the part where i’ll be sleeping on. so no dirty jeans or those trousers you’ve worn the whole day on my bed.

4. i dont throw away paper bags (collecting is not actually the word either) so you figure!

5. i can get all sakit perut (tummy ache) listening to some songs which takes me back to a particular era/period/time. one example - sade’s sweetest taboo. weird. i know, but serious, i get sakit perut and put off by some songs.

6. i get all happy and excited when pampers are "3 halen 2 betallen" (3 for the price of 2)!! hey, its a huge saving o-k! and they have this new ‘flex’ with the catterpillar logo on it and nice colours, with cute olifant (elephant), pard (horse), koala! and with the rate of aidan poo poo-ing, we NEED to have loads of them!

okay, so that’s me. according to Adam, i have to tag 6 others. so spill it out guys!

1. hardy (this should get you back to writing blogs!) (still creating another blogger account - to be announced soon!)

2. our bride to be, noreen

3. our cute lil aemir’s mama, sabreena

4. our good friend who now can speak chinese, kyrzul

5. our baker, dayats

6. my new friend, anna

Adam, sorry for the delay! now what do i do?

To compensate my failed attempt to masak ikan 3 rasa last weekend, i cooked nasi ayam hailam (without cheating!) yesterday. it wasnt that difficult, i must say. i really must thank my son for being so considerate, in allowing his mommy to start cook dinner as early as 5pm! how? well, he went to sleep early - that’s how!

And tonight, as we had our leftover nasi ayam, snow came falling down. we hope it wont be as bitterly cold and mad winter like last year, but we sure hope there will be plenty more snow to come!

(will snap more photos if it’s still snowing in the morning and post in here)

It’s 11pm and we’re off to bed.

Welterusten……..

More snow pictures!