Going GREEN Part 2: Teaching the kids to appreciate nature

We wanted to do this for a long time, but we couldn't find the right time to do so (yeah right)... Finally, we decided to bring the kids to Putrajaya's Wetlands... just so they could be closer to nature. Actually we realized how deprived they were of exposure to nature during my workplace's Family Day to Agrotek a few months ago.. there was a river there and the water was crystal clear, but Iman asked, "umi, why is the water so dirty???"... i was puzzled at first, then i realized what he meant- he has never seen a river before, so he was surprised to see the sand underneath the water!!! all this while we have brought the kids off on holidays to hotels where they often played in the swimming pool (no sand in the pool!) or our weekends were spent at some shopping mall somewhere...  this is really sad. We have been teaching our kids to become materialistic without us noticing it...

So today finally, we brought them closer to nature, hoping that they will grow to appreciate the simple things life can offer... (shopping mall trips are for umi n baba only.. hehehehe).. and they had a lot of fun...

isyraf n iman's controlled pose

had to make sure the lil one didnt jump into the lake!

baba n d boys

ultramom n ultramen tiga

umi as snapped by isyraf

not bad.. by iman

and another one, by iman!

at last.. his precious smile on camera!

opah joined us towards the end

tokwan too...

being an ultra mom- trying really hard today *sniff-sniff*

i'm feeling really under the weather today.. and the past few days. i haven't had a cough & runny nose this bad since.. i can't remember when. it was a long time ago.

i'm supposed to be resting in bed today, having eaten my meds.. but i had to get up & be an ULTRAMOM for the kids today. well, isyraf has his final soccer tournament in UKM today.. he's been training every weekend for the past 6 months or so. and suddenly, their kindergarten suddenly announced that there was going to be a Mother's Day celebration @ school today too! so we had to split the task- Umi will take iman to school for mother's day and Baba will take isyraf to his soccer tournament (sorry kids.. cant be at both places at the same time..)

so umi had to fight the myalgia (body ache) to see iman's performance @ school.. it was well worth it, of course.. he couldn't stop smiling. i guess he's feeling really happy that umi is finally paying full attention to him today.. poor thing.. anyway, we went home at around 11 am with a handful of goodies (thanks teachers!)

at  home i kept on wondering how isyraf was doing at the field. so i decided to give baba a call. when i did, all i heard was his panicky voice saying "isyraf jatuh.. darah penuh.. nanti saya call balik".. omg... really tried to contain my feelings that time and my mind was racing with all the questions i could ask... then he called back saying that he's on his way to pick me up at home & we'll both bring him to hospital (still didn't know what's going on.. only glad that baba said he was conscious!). so they got home, and there was my little boy crying while holding his chin with a gauze full of blood. i had a look.. and it was a cut... ala... need a few stitches and he'll be ok... what a relief!!!

so we did just that at the nearest hospital.. he needed 4 stitches on the chin- he was such a brave boy (umi is very proud of u isyraf!).. and headed home relieved & exhausted...

boys... what can i say.. u guys really push me to my limits.. but i dont care as long as u guys are ok..

being an ultra mom- taking the kids to the park on a post-call day *yawn*

i had a terrible, terrible oncall night on friday. on my feet most of the time, taking care of an unwanted 2.4kg baby. it's really sad that the mother is an ignorant, irresposible teenager and her baby had to be this sick, with nobody to love him apart from his doctors and nurses (this is the sad part of the job..). went to bed at 3am (yes, i mean i went to bed, but never slept as the phone didnt stop ringing till 6 am- wake up time).

the next morning, a saturday morning, was up n about from 6am- worked till around 10.30am and finally went home to the loving arms of wonderful hubby n children... and slept till the afternoon, of course!

woke up at around 4pm, feeling as guilty as ever (always feel this way on a postcall day, especially when it's a weekend)... NEED TO TAKE THE KIDS OUT SINCE THEY HAVEN'T SEEN MOMMY FOR >24 HOURS... that was the only statement in my head & the only thing that kept me going till night.

So we brought them to Taman Tasik Cempaka.. which is only a few minutes' drive from home (and near McDonalds too.. yippeee!!!).

Nothing can beat the feeling- seeing the kids have a great time playing at the play area and flying kites (which most of the time was on the ground anyway!).. nevermind.. as long as they're all smilessss...

we ended the day with a trip to McD's drive thru... of course!

Kids (and abang..) u guys really rock my world... LOVE U ALL... Muuahhhh!!!

the ever cute & controlling Iman & his kite (yup.. mostly on the ground)

Isyraf's kite actually flew for quite some time...

Izwan (who had a 'leakage' that day.. sorry dear) also had a great time..

Going GREEN Part 1: Cloth diapering the children

hehehe..

if u've read my earlier entries, u would know by now how much i'm in to my kids lately.. dont think it's just the hormones playing with my emotions, it's a whole load of stuff..

one thing that has become a particular interest is cloth diapering (of all things.. hahaha). i'm not sure if u guys have started this for your children but i do see this as an emerging 'trend'.. a good one actually.. so after doing some research, i've decided to cloth diaper the little ones... for the following reasons:

1. it's very cost effective in the long run- i have izwan who's not toilet trained yet and he still has about 1-2 years before he is dry by day/ night. even iman is still occassionally wet at night (he just wont let go of his bottle before bed!).. and i insyaallah, have another one on the way who will be diaper-dependent for another 3-4 years! the problem is my children will not settle for anything less than mamy poko!!! they have very sensitive skin that any 'cheap' diaper will cause recurrent nappy rashes.. so that's about rm80+ per month= rm960- rm1k per year = rm3k for the rest of their growing life with diapers... and that's like for 1 child ok? so cloth diapers cost around rm30+- rm 90+ per pair (depending on the type.. if i have time, i'll blog about this later).. but accumulatively, they would cost around rm700-1000 per investment (one time buy, can use throughout diapering period, and can share among siblings as they're adjustable!).. so that's around rm2k-3k savings per child!! (can use the money for umi's SKII! hehe.. kidding la.. can use for health insurance or education)
2. their bums look so damn cute in those diapers! and they dont leak (well, so far la..)
3. they're easy to take care of... (bibik is very willing to hand wash coz we only have 5 at the moment for trial run... sayyyanggg bibik).. can also load into the washing machine once we have more to fill it up!
4. u can use them as an infant swimming trunk
5. they're environmental friendly- do u know that it takes up to 500 years to decompose a single disposable diaper? what the hell are we thinking man?
6. they're not toxic- i had no idea that disposable diapers contain a lot of toxins that could harm our children.. i'll put up a link so u guys can have a read..

so.. i hope that i have opened some minds from this post. i'm not an expert in cloth diapering yet, as i have just started it myself, but so far i'm a huge fan. i'm still trying out different types to see which my kids and i prefer.. so go go cloth diapers! let's all do something for mother nature yeahoo!
The Real Diaper Association ... creating a cultural shift

izwan's first day of cloth diapering.. he loved it! he's really camera shy so it's sooo difficult to get a nice pose from this fella...

being an ultra mom

i'm sure i'm not the only one in this world who feels like there's too many things to juggle at the same time. work vs family. i want them both but at the moment i feel like there's nothing more important to me than my kids. i love my job and i'm not really where i wanna be with the job yet, but u know what.. i feel like i just cant be bothered anymore. sometimes i wonder whyyy do i always put myself through hardship when there's always an 'easy way out'... i'm in a good profession and by right i can choose an easier way to work and still earn as much (or even more) by doing something different to what i'm doing now. i guess it's just my pride (u see, i feel like people will judge me if i leave what i'm doing now) and my unwillingness to leave my 'comfort zone' that gets me stuck in the same ol' frustrating routine everyday...

being at home, watching my 3 boys play (n fight) gives me the ultimate pleasure as a person. if i could afford it, i'd like to just stay at home and watch them grow in front of my eyes... i feel really frustrated that because of my busy scheadule, i miss the important things in their lives.. concerts, football tournaments.. they even do their homeworks with my maid! i really wanna be more hands-on when it comes to taking care of my kids but i just dont have the energy after a busy day at work. on my days off, i try to spend time with them as much as i could.. but there's just sooo many things to do.. groceries, shopping, and some 'my time' activities..

i wish i have the guts to make a change for the sake of my family. but will it make a difference???

greetings... earthlings

hiyaa all.. i feel a bit old for all this but somehow i still wanna start blogging. i guess when u're so used to writing diaries, stopping makes u feel so suffocated with unnecessary emotions.. at least now i have a place to channel my feelings- my joy, happiness, ups & downs, frustrations with the world etc etc.. so we'll see how it goes, shall we???