she would purposely find time to prepare, which most of time begins from her free period in the student care, and continues at home.  always checking her back as she draws, to prevent any peeking from the birthday gal/guy.  so, even when she misspelt,  there is no one to tell her so

i must thank the hubster for capturing these cards i received from  my girls.

iqah drew all five of us walking on a bridge.  notice the details – dina in her stroller. . . . that sour-faced fish and the evil laughing shark! arrgh

nana drew me a scene out of the recently watched lion king musical.  see all those animals? now, cast your eyes on the top of the cliff, and you’ll see that its actually drawings of young simba along with scar and the two hyenas.  what an effort!

she revealed yesterday that she has already begun with the card for atiqah’s upcoming birthday.  and she’s going to color it tonight, but nobody may see it yet.

atiqah then announced that she is expecting one from both ayah & mommy too.

the idea is to keep it simple and it has to be strictly a do-it-yourself creation.  i like!  this may be a start to yet another one of our own family tradition

period of travel?  march school holiday (we simply cannot wait for June or December – it will be too torturous a wait. we need them now if we can) 

here comes the tricky part – getaway to where?  it has to be family friendly and exciting or at least relaxing.  and since baby Dina will be an adventurous walking (or learning to walk) toddler by then, destination has to be somewhere with clean spacious accommodation, minimum commuting, minimum exploring, less crowded attractions with no snake of queues, zero language barrier and easy to find makan places.  

and so we had initially settled for langkawi.  it shall be a totally R&R kind of vacation. bliss.

then i got distracted by bali.  not kuta though.  the plan would be to stay in a villa near a private beach, and i got spoilt for choices.  i want us to try their food, expose the girls to bahasa, shop and bargain at their ‘market’, see their sunset, their magnificent sceneries, their cultural dance…..and it sounded more and more like MY holiday – not enough excitement for my girls. you see, when i do the vacation planning, i never think that there will be a second visit, unless its love and you’ll find reason to go or its our neighbouring country where its cost-efficent-family-friendly.  THIS may be our one and only visit.  we MAY enjoy it or otherwise.  but life is short and there are so many other places to see and taste and experience.  so, with that in mind, i thought its wiser if we adjourn this until the girls are slightly older when they can appreciate its nature, or cultural, or shopping, or its lively beach . . . .     

so now it appears that we want some excitement afterall. 

after witnessing how much the girls had enjoyed the rides at USS (twice this year), i thought maybe we should go somewhere with a themepark attraction.  and i remember how much i enjoyed Dreamworld and Movieworld with my sister.  and i thought now is the right age for my girls to experience and enjoy a farmstay – waking up to the sound of a rooster, feeding the animals, milking the cow, collecting chicken eggs for breakfast, sitting under the stars come nightfall.  it sounded like a totally new experience for them and i know they will love and enjoy it.  with excitement, i once again work out a costing spreadsheet and present it to the hubster for his go-ahead.  but he reasoned that it will be unfair to our little baby, since she will be too young to enjoy the rides at the themepark.  though she will look so cute running clumsily alongside the farm animals, she’ll be too young to even sit on a pony.  so once again, i planned too well and this too had to be shelved until Dina is at least 5 years or older …. 

and that’s how we actually arrived to the concluded destination of choice – hong kong, with disneyland as our main attraction for the girls.  with each other as company, we are pretty sure that they will enjoy all the rides and its characters.  we can always visit other disneyland when Dina reach her kakak’s age of fun. Insya’Allah 

i know its against all the ‘have to be’ criteria that we initially set.  everything will be excitingly new, as well as challenging as we will be tagging along a toddler.   and with flights and hotels reservation made, there is no turning back!  i am both nervous and yet excited.  oh my, can you imagine those mousey ears on my girls? so cute!  our first getaway as a family of five!  can’t wait!

now…. we just need to renew our passports! 

my girl is gorgeous isn’t she?

or i am just being a bias mother?

no lah, she IS gorgeous!

often nowadays, when i make any reference to my firstborn, she is always seen as a girl who is mature for her age. an old soul, they called it. maybe its her demeanor , the way she carry herself but boring or fiercely serious she is not. in fact, she is the joker in the family. the one with the loudest laughter, after her dad. but share with her something, anything and she is able to comprehend it with wisdom and seriousness of someone far beyond her age.

her weakness is that she is such a crybaby and her sister likes to push this button.

her most expressive features are her eyes. it lights up when she is excited and happy and bursting with news. when she’s unwell, it goes all sleepy and droopy and it’s the first sign of our house becoming notably quiet. she gets all teary alongside me, while watching a moving film. sulks and wet her pillow silently when her expectations met disappointment. oh how my heart ache thinking how she might cry her heart out with her first relationship heartbreak.

we went bowling on her sister’s birthday last month and i got a sneak peek of teenage her. soaking up the details, and marveling at how fast she’s growing up to be a young teenager.

instead of uploading them, i have been viewing them directly from the camera.  and my fingers love to stop at these, being one of our latest outing with my side of the family. 

and these are not their only jump pose.  Iqah especially is always ready anytime, anywhere.  so she had lots!

since they are quite independent swimmers, they now play and swim in the deep pool, under an adult supervision but of course.  we beamed with pride at how fearlessly and confidently they are in water.  the fruit of our past 9 months of waking up early on saturday mornings (not to mention the money spent!), are totally worth it. 

the hubster spent some time at the shallow water with baby dina, and later joined the girls for some water play at the deep pool.  that’s when those shots were taken. 

on another note, i remember reading somewhere that photography is 50% the camera, 40% the photographer, and 10% photoshop.  judging from the massive collection of recent photographs taken by the hubster, i do concur.  well, between us both that is, images captured by him are always better than mine.

its evidently proven. 

so dishearten am i, than maybe i should just hand in the reign to him and relek one corner.

and i seriously thought the tooth fairy would give her a miss, due to the missing tooth.  but our tooth fairy is a kind one.

a few days passed and she woke up one morning with a grin on her face and a gold coin in her hand!

in my imaginary mind, i imagined the fairy losing her his way finding the correct pillow which bears no tooth.  but the simple fact was, he forgotten to slip the coin under her pillow while she was asleep.  he can’t jolly well put it before her bedtime can’t he? where would be the magic?

and while we are at the topic of tooth fairy, i want to share with you one of nana’s most liked movie – the game plan, starring dwayne johnson.  now, i am not a fan of his, but do you know that he also act in tooth fairy?  i know not about the movie either, but i did saw somewhere a picture of him donning a pink tutu, or was it a blue one with wings and wand?  well either way, i just find it kinda heartwarming picturing our tooth fairy at work.  even when sometimes he’s dressed more as a hulk, than any kind of fairy