Fahira : My Grandpa's Ducks

It was a happy trip we had a couple of weeks ago when we went to my father's place on the third day of Idul Fitri : Moslem's Holy Day. We gathered together with all of my siblings and spent the night barbecuing there.

It is a seldom thing for my siblings and I to gather as a whole, because the four of us live in four different cities and have difficulties to match our off days.

My father retired about 11 years ago, and 2 years after my mother passed away, he remarried and live with my step mother for the previous 3 years. Both of them loves gardening so they spent their everyday lives planting edible food and flowers.

My father said a few months ago, that he would love to add something more entertaining for him to play with and to make his grandchildren happy when they visit so he add : ducks. And yes, Fahira and her cousins are happy. And so are we.

Fatimah : My everyday trip to school

When I think about it over and over, I wonder, how can time run so fast. My Fatimah is in kindergarten now. And I feel like there are a lot of things I miss about her being my little baby.

My mostly feeling about her is guilt. I always feel guilty to her. She is 2 years old when Farisha is born, and I always feel like I don't give her enough love and care she deserves. I must help myself to be calming down.

But. Thankfully. She is a happy girl. And mostly having the attitude of 'nothing even matter'. Hahaha. She is in kindergarten now, and having more friends make her even happier everyday.

Everyday, me and Farisha walk her to school. After breakfast, morning bath, put on her uniform and pack her lunch, the three of us will walk together to her school. The trip is not too far, it is reachable on foot. But still, walking with 2 little girls is quite a sport. I must keep my eyes on them all the time because we walk in the side of a busy street especially in the morning when people are rushing to school or work etc.

Sometimes, we take another way to reach her school. This path got more bushes and not in the side of busy streets. It is shadier, so I love to go this way when the day is hot, but on rainy days, it has paddles and muddy so we seldom take this way. Another thing about this path is it is in the side of a railway, so when the train is passing by, the trip is more enjoyable by my children. 

Farisha : Buttonning clothes

Farisha is 3 years and a half now. I'm happy that she grows up well and is an active child. She recently is able to button her own clothes, and by gaining a new abiluty, she keeps on doing it all over again the whole day.

Another thing that she loves doing is play with bicycle, as she has Fatimah's old bike to be hers now, she loves going outside and playing bike with her sisters. And if it's too hot to play outside, she will play it around the house.

Inheriting Bikes

New bicycles are quite expensive to us. And having three daughters who love to put their feet on pedals means two things : buy used bikes or repair the elder's ones. We chose the second option.

The first thing we examine is the chain. My husband tried to fix the three bicyles by himself but then he thought that it's just better to take them to the bike workshop. --grin--

When he came back home, the three bikes are all done. I see some new bicycle assist wheels, new chains and bicycle rattles. He said it's all cost Rp. 250,000. And that's ok to make his daughters smile.

So then, there they are with their bikes from time to time.

Restocking The Fridge

The Idul Fitri celebration is almost over. It is a Holy day for Muslims to celebrate the new spirit after fasting daily for the whole previous month. In Idul Fitri day we ask forgiveness from people around us, to clean our mistakes to others and let us sincerely forgive people as well. As celebration day it is, food is prepared. We welcome guests and we come to our families' home too, where they also provide food. This will happen for about a week. In my country, where Muslims are the majority, it's hard to find a food store that opens that day because most people are in holiday. So I filled the fridge with food a few days before. And now, it's time to restocking again.

The pictures above are about the reducing stocks of eggs, some instant noodles for emergency meals, a plate of leftover fish, a little spinach and some snacks. A lot of nearby food stores are not open yet, so I must go to the traditional market to buy food.

These are what I bought : Some fish, carrots, Indonesian spices : shallots, ginger, chillies. I found cheap limes, the sweet ones, and cheap carrots. So I bought a lot of them to be made juices later.

And yeah. I also have these mangoes given by my auntie when we visit her at home on the holy day. Slurp, home grown fruit must be delicious.

Farisha : Play Outside

Farisha loves to play outside, but we don't have any backyard for her to play freely. Luckily, we live in a neighborhood that has friends to play with my children.

They play in the path between our homes, and we just have to watch and warn our children about the motorcycles or cars that pass by, although it's not often, because this path is cul de sac, so the vehicles passing usually belong to our neighbours and they run slowly.

Our children usually play with their bicycles, scooters or play hide and seek, running etc. Sometimes, they had quarrels among them, but usually, they will forget it in 5 minutes and play again.

I let my 2,5 years old Farisha play outside with her sisters and friends after her sister come home from school and have the afternoon bath. The plus side : when they play by themselves, they will learn to socialize and I can have my me time (which usually spend by cleaning the house. :-( )

Fatimah : I Love My Father

My husband loves to play with our daughters and that makes them love him a lot, mostly for his patience to listen to their stories. Although it is me who spend more time with them daily at home, my husband tends to know everything about Fahira's school, Fatimah's wound or the funny thing Farisha did at home, because he loves to listen to them, and gain trust from them to tell him everything.

The Father and baby Fatimah

Specially for the strong-minded Fatimah. Arguing in a high-pitch voice with her will not resulting anything good. But with her father's calm tone, sometimes the voice that showed a controlled anger, will usually do better result. I really hope the good relationship among my husband and children will last until forever.

Fahira : Planting My Own Jasmine

Fahira loves to pick our neighbour's jasmine and put it on her hair. The owner of the jasmine lets her does that daily in the evening when the children in the neighbourhood play together near her home.

I then decided to grow one in our own land and asked for a little of her jasmine for me to plant at home, the dear old grandmother gave me.

I told Fahira to do the planting, and she was so glad doing that.

Home Sweet Home

Everybody loves clean home. Clutter free home, dust free stuff, easy-to-find personal things ; this is what everybody had in mind when connected with the word 'home'. Or at least, that's what I always see on people's instagram when they post something with the word #home.

That is my dream as well actually. But having 3 creative little girls, I think I must wait a little (years?) bit more to accomplish it. Right now, what I am having is toys everywhere home even there are containers I told them to put them all after playing but they keep on being everywhere. 

But the most eyesore thing we have at home is dirty walls. My daughters write on all the walls. Stressing.

The fasting month and the Idh Holy day are approaching. So we decided to make a change at home, and what I mean is repaint and cleaning the wall.

Being a Parent is no Picnic

To me, being a mother is an adventure from the very beginning. Feeling my babies kicking in my womb, preparing names for them etc is an exciting feeling. But, when they already be in the world, the real adventure had begun.

First, it was quite stressing and happy feeling at the same time. I feel stress whenever my baby cried and I don't know what's wrong, plus I live in my parents in law's home and if I cannot make her calm, I was so afraid of being thought as a bad mother (thought it was just my feeling, it was not happening anyway). But, seeing my baby's funny thing is also a happy feeling, I cannot explain the beauty of being a mother and see our little people unless you are one. It can only be felt by a parent.

There are a lot of feelings of being a parent, but really, it's included less sleep, a lot of tiring job, sadness, angry and pity at the same time. There are a lot of tasks to be completed and everything. Too much of them to be described and I think I'm not in the mood to dramatized it now.

Fahira : Daily Tasks

My first daughter, Fahira, is a third grader. When she was being a first and second grader, she used to be an (forced) early bird, because her school started at 7.15 pm. Due to the lack of classes, the school made the third grader be in the afternoon shift, starting at 12.45-16.30 pm. Fahira then started to wake up late. I let her, because I'm afraid that she will be sleepy in her class.

Until a few days ago, when we had a chat and I told her about the fun things I did with Farisha in the morning. I talked about the beautiful sunshine, and how the day is not so hot and so comfortable to have breakfast outside while watching the birds and greet the neighbors who pass by our home to their schools or work. That makes Fahira would to experience the same thing.as well and told how fun it would be if she could help me clean the house before school etc. I said that I'm not wanting to tell her everything she should do everyday instead, I want her to think of what she wants to do to spend her day, and I told her to decide and set her own itinerary daily and if she write it down probably I could help her reach her goal.

So she did it. She even add a little decoration as a background. So, let's get started, and Bismillah, I hope it works.

Fatimah : Understanding Numbers

My Fatimah is more than 4 years and a half now. She will be five on May. How time flies..

What a 4,5 year old girl should accompish in her milestone? Alhamdulillah, I think she passes all well ; she can dress herself, brushes her own teeth, and sometimes bathes herself when I am busy. She loves coloring and playing with pen and book eventhough what she wrote is unknown. Her older sister goes to school daily at midday and comes back at 5 pm so she used to see her sister preparing her schools things. She loves seeing her sister's coloring pencils, and sometimes, insists to have the same utilities as her sister's. I did buy it, but it keeps on vanishing and she keeps on wanting her sister's thing and it will start the quarrel and fight; That's the art of having more than one child.

Fatimah can speak the numbers from 1 to 20 but will perform mess if she is told to speak further. She will say 20, 32, 17 and anynumber she would like to say. But she cannot write anynumber perfectly.
Though it is not essential to really capable to do that as she is not even in the kindergarden yet, I think as a start, I will step in.

Farisha : Don't pass the breakfast

What should my two year old child eat everyday? It was my question to myself about 7 years ago when I have my first child, she was a picky eater, and often refused what I offered her to eat. Those were stressing days when I had to think a lot to prepare the best and eye-catching meal so she would be interested to try a bit. Or tried to hide a vegetable in a scrambled egg, or inside a rice ball or inside a chicken meat. Sometimes the result worth the effort but sometimes it was left for me to finish what I had made.

But, it was the story of 7 years ago, when she was still the only child of mine. She is almost turns 9 now, and still a picky eater, but now I can use the gesture of making my eyes bigger to force her putting a pinch a veggie on her plate. Hahaha.

When my first girl turned 4, we gave her  a sister, and 2 years later, we presented her another sister. And thank God, the sisters are not picky eaters, in fact, they love vegetables.

Fahira, Fatimah and Farisha are the names of my girls, starting from the eldest. Now, Farisha is two years and a half and she is an early bird.

In my mind, being an early bird is a good thing a person can be, one can see a beautiful morning, enjoy fresh air and start the day with a good feeling. But in the realistic world I am living, having an early bird child means I must play with her while in my mind I'm thinking of the unfinished housework I want to finish before noon.

So, I choose not to be stress and better enjoy the moments I can share with her because time flies so fast, and suddenly she will be so big in a blinking of eyes.

So every morning when both of us awake and everybody in the house still asleep, I prepare her breakfast, because a full stomach would make a child calmer than if she is hungry. Skipping breakfast will result her to mess everything that I've done, simply because she is hungry.

The plus thing about my little girl is that she is not picky eater so I can give her anything I have on hand and then she will have her breakfast outside, while I took care of the plants ; watering, cleaning the yard etc.

Today her simple breakfast is rice and scramble egg with celery and shallots. Served warm.