Of Traveling and Turning FIVE

People always say one of the worst things about getting married and having children is that you can no longer travel. I disagree...

It is not that you cannot travel, it is just a bit more difficult to do so :p The hassle of packing milk and diapers, the dreaded airplane tantrum (horror to horror) and probably the cost, with all the hassle, I do understand why some parents would just throw their hands in the air and give up.

People always equate traveling as going abroad. So their excuse for not traveling much is the cost. Experiencing new places need not be expensive. I bet there's a lot of places in Malaysia itself that we have yet to discover,right? 

I personally look forward to any day trip during weekends because sometimes I just need a quick change of scenery, to recharge, try out new food, smell new scents so that I can further appreciate this gorgeous place called Earth. I also love the effect of traveling on my children, because every time we visited a new place they'll ask gabijillion questions and learn new things. I  hope they'll build little memories of the fun times they had with mummy and daddy through our "jalan jalan sessions".

So I've come up with a new resolution, to visit more new places or revisit old ones at least once in every quarter and download more pictures in my travel diary. Looking at pictures of our family together and having fun is a great stress reliever, and hopefully something for my children to remember me by when I'm gone one day *inShaAllah*

Today marks the 5th year where our marriage turns 5 years. Alhamdullilah. I pray that Allah protects our marriage always, bestow us with more taqwa and iman so that we'll both be more obedient muslims, improve our bad habits, and make us better husband, wife and parents. 

We're both far from perfect, but I know we're perfect for each other. My only complaint for you is to make  more effort to smile in photos and learn how to aim and shoot while snapping pictures of me. Haha our constant source of argument  :p anyway love you B, May we be together forever till Jannah... *inShaAllah*

Alternative Medicines: My First Try

Sending my children to daycare means one thing: constant sniffles

Now that Ryan is in kindergarten and the twins in the “big kids” room in daycare, means they are more susceptible to germs (though I do know people with kids who stays at home 24/7 but get sick more often than my children :p) . Anyway, I’ve made my peace with this a long time ago. Germs and viruses are everywhere; all we can do is deal with it as positively as possible.

As much as I believe in modern medicine, I do read about the harm prolonged drug use can cause to the liver. We feed the kids honey and Vitamin C daily to improve their immune system. We also try to minimize the use of antibiotics by ensuring that it will only be given to the children if the sickness is caused by bacterial infection and non-viral.

Anyway a few friends of mine have been raving about the benefits of “homeopathy medicines”. So I decided to try it out. The nearest homeopathy clinic is Klinik Radziah in Section 7, Shah Alam. It has been 2 weeks and results have been pretty positive. I’ll give another proper review maybe after using it for 2 months.

Demax : Fever, Prolife: for IQ/Physical activeness, Nasobett: Flu/Runny nose/allergies and Weezoff: Cough and wheezing

Review: after 2 days of eating the meds, the twins runny nose has stop. They still have a bit of coughing but only early morning (when it's really cold).The medicines comes in small tablet form (tictac size), it is really sweet, so it's kinda easy to feed the kids. They call it" ubat gula-gula"

Painturat: This is for "orang tua: like me with back and muscles pains. I find that my joint pains have greatly minimize since eating this pill. You're supposed to take it 3 times a day but me being me is not very discipline with it. Despite of that it works. The first 3 days of eating this I started burping and passing wind (haha) a lot. I guess it helps in getting rid of the "angin" in my body which is causing the pain. Alhamdullilah. We shall see if the effects stays. 

Ok so that's the review on the meds as requested. Will come back in a month or two to report if there's a prolonged positive effect.

Ryan says the darndest things...

Ryan has been going around telling people :-

"Ryan nak pergi sekolah ACS (the primary school for boys in my housing area)"
"Daddy pun pergi ACS school"
"Adik baru Ryan yang boy pun nak pergi ACS school"

HUH???? what adik baru yang boy Ryan???

So I asked him, "kenapa nak adik baru? Iman and Ranya kan ada..."

His answer???
" Mummy one, plus adik two ada three girls. Ryan and daddy ada dua je boy. So if ada baby boy baru nanti ada 3 boys jugak"

"Ohhh adik Iman and Ranya suka gaduh dengan Ryan, adik boy dengar je cakap Ryan nanti sebab dia small"

How exactly do I explain to him that even if Lan and I ever decide to have another baby, he can't exactly choose the gender?? Just imagine his reaction if he gets ANOTHER baby SISTER.... hahaha

P/S: Just in case the message is lost in translation somewhere, I'm NOT pregnant, at least not that I know off or unless Ryan have some 6 sense magical powers to predict the future that I'm not aware about....

The one on spanking....

Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable.

Lately there is a lot of talk about corporal punishment in reaction to the story of the Malaysia couple detained for hitting their child. I'm not going to comment about the couple alleged actions but I would like to share some personal experience in relation to the matter.

I've been caned as a child, shouted at for being naughty, grounded for disobeying my parents, my personal belonging confiscated because I did not do well in school (i.e. walkmans and books) All in all I've experienced it all. To tell you the truth I had it quite easy as compared to some of the horror stories relayed  by friends who was hit with a belt (eekkk), chased around the house with hangers (bite nails) or tied to a tree for cutting school (pee in pants).

You want to know what I have in common with all my friends? we're all functioning adults, who have successful careers, in a functioning relationship, respect our elders and love our parents very very much. I've read in a comment section in a parenting section somewhere, that kids who's punished as a child does not respect their parents and are just fearful and would be emotionally scarred blah blah blah.... I'm happy to report that I'm going to turn 31 and have not exhibited any tendency of becoming a serial killer any time soon :p

I'm talking about light caning when the child does something serious for example a tap in the hand when your 4 year old throw things at their siblings, 14 year olds refusing to solat, a smack at your 16 year old for cutting curfew or if your son is caught smoking etc. Why not? especially if ample warning have been given beforehand. You know that saying "spare the rod and spoil the child?" I mean, I'm not condoning physical abuse and ask you to walloped the kid for no reason. Know your boundaries and NEVER discipline your child when in anger.

The problem with parents nowadays, we're too concern about how our children will perceive us, thus we try to be their friends and not their parents and that is where the problem lies. That is why children nowadays are so indiscipline and lacking manners. All of us wants to be in a relationship of love and trust with our child, we want to be the person they turn to when they're in trouble but that does not mean that we can't reproach and be cross at our child during their "impossible" moments. 

My children can count on me to love them endlessly but if I think they're crossing into the wrong path, they can count on me to set them straight, any way I know how, yes I'm going to sound mean but that it is only because I love them enough and I want them to turn out to be the well mannered soleh/solehah young man/woman they're made to be....