Ramadan Birthday

The first half of this post was first published as a status update at my Facebook account on 13 July.

I woke up this morning suddenly realising that it's the 4th day of Ramadan and the little girl was born on this day 2 years ago. Her birthday won't be till next month on the Gregorian calender but I'll always remember her birth once Ramadan comes by.

The pain had started at 4.30am on that day but I did not tell hubby. In fact I let him go to work without telling him about it. I stayed home alone, called my mom and my sister, read the Quran, and only reached the hospital 12 hours after labour pains started. Well, I had a plan, but of course it was His Plan all along.  The little girl was born 3 hours later, shortly after Maghrib, or what is known as the time to break fast. Hence, my journey into motherhood started which has changed me forever.

But today, there won't be any celebration with hubby as he won't be home till late tonight. In fact, he hasn't been home the whole week as he's been serving the nation the past two weeks, with another ten days to go. But I shall not mar this happy post with that misery.

The little girl has a playdate with her little friend today. When we planned it, I didn't even realise it would fall on her Ramadan birthday, but of course, it was His Plan all along. And just earlier this week, she said, "I love you, mummy. I love you, papa." Then later, "I love, Umar." It's apt then that she'll be spending her Ramadan birthday with him.

When we reached Za's house, she was busy making magnetic fishing rods and numbered foam fish with magnets attached. The little ones waited patiently till they were done, swinging the fishing rods here and there, then fished together, even if just for a short while.

Fishing together

Then they took turns with the animal headgear which Za has - giraffe, panda and lion - and they did almost everything with those animals on their heads, including jumping on the trampoline. And because Umar was wearing a pair of socks, the little girl wanted to wear socks too and Za kindly gave a pair of Umar's socks for her to put on. 

Loving the lion headgear

Sha and Sofie managed to drop by for a while before going off for iftar and the three kids didn't waste time running and jumping around together. Za then entertained us with her strumming of the ukelele and of course, the little girl wanted to play the ukelele too. Za has an extra set, which I think is for Umar, and so the little girl tried her hands on the ukelele, strumming and strumming to no avail, but that didn't stop her from trying.

Rocking it out with a ukelele

I'm glad that the little one had a playdate with her friends to celebrate her Ramadan birthday. Never mind that there was no birthday song or birthday cake for the little girl. The time with her close friends and favourite aunts was enough for her and made it really special for me. May these friendships, for both the kids and the mummies, last till Jannah. Ameen.

The three BFFs

Bugs Reading Corner

We are now one week into the blessed month of Ramadan and have moved on to a new theme for Ramadan and Eid. Here I'm sharing our monthly theme that has just ended and we enjoyed it so much that I felt a tinge of sadness as I was keeping away the books, bugs and other materials. But then when the little girl woke up and saw the new set-up at her reading corner, she said, "Nice!" and started to choose a book for me to read. Thanks for making it all worth while, dear!

Without much ado, here are pictures of our reading corner as well as our activity corner. I've decided to add an activity corner to our theme so that the little girl can go to it to play independently when I need some time to get ready.

Our bugs reading corner

Our reading corner was made up of fiction and non-fiction bugs-related books, bugs toob, chunky bugs puzzle, and wind-up bugs. I'm super grateful that Za had lent half the books to me, along with the bugs toob and wind-up toys as she had used them for her own bugs theme. 

 Our bugs activity corner

At our activity corner, we had mega bugs from Mustaffa Centre, magnetic bugs puzzle, glow-in-the-dark bugs toob, magnetic beetles from Science Centre, wooden bugs and flower lacing beads, magnifying glass and jumbo tweezers, and a magnet.

And now to the activities that we did and there were lots! They were mostly spur-of-the-moment kind as I usually try to avoid too much planning in advance so as not to create unnecessary stress (and work!) on my part. We did lots of reading and the usual such as reenacting the books with toobs and playing with her bugs puzzles. Truly, there is nothing she enjoys more than books and puzzles.

Books and puzzles

Making books come alive 

Removing puzzle pieces with a magnet

 Putting back the puzzle pieces

 Playing with the chunky puzzle

Spider meets farm animals at her reading corner

Islamic knowledge

From the book Quran Stories for Kids, we read the story of Prophet Sulaiman who had heard the army of ants as they were escaping. One of the ants had warned the rest to get into their homes so that they would not be trampled on by mistake by Prophet Sulaiman and his army. But the Prophet was gifted to understand the languages of the animals and so he had heard the ants.

And from the book 10 Kisah Haiwan Dalam Al-Quran (in Malay), we read the story of the termites who had eaten the wooden staff that was supporting the body of Prophet Sulaiman. The termites, not knowing that he had passed on, came to greet him, as he could communicate with animals. But after several attempts, and not getting a reply, the termites got hungry and started eating the staff. After days of eating, the staff gave way and the body of Prophet Sulaiman slumped to the ground. Only then that the Jinn knew that he had passed on as they were working tirelessly.

Reading the story of the ants

Messy play

Then there were the messy play in the bathroom as this mummy hates cleaning up mess. The little girl had not played with the water beads for quite some time as she used to squish them to smithereens and I hated the cleaning up after that. But she surprised me by not squishing them now. Instead she enjoyed scooping and pouring the water beads into containers. She is also very fond of playing with her new cooking set and is crazy over ice now. So I put those together for some ice play in the bathroom before her bath. 

Scooping and pouring water beads and bugs at the water table 

Cooking ice and bugs 

Basic Science concepts

We got to do some play related to magnetism, heat and light too. The concept of heat (melting) was covered with the melting ice and the little girl discovered about magnetic push and pull as she played with the magnet and magnetic beetles. We talked about light and shadow as we played with the torchlight and glow-in-the-dark bugs.

Playing with frozen bugs

Light play with glow-in-the-dark bugs 

Playing with magnet and magnetic beetles

Basic Scientific skills

I wanted her to acquire some skills too, such as classifying and observing. On the light panel, we grouped the bugs into transparent containers as some of them come in twos or threes. She wasn't really keen on it, but it was a start. She was more keen on observing what she called "big bugs" with the magnifying glass so we talked about the body parts of insects and that insects have six legs.

Grouping bugs on the light panel 

Observing parts of bugs with a magnifying glass

Art & craft

Colouring pages are a staple in our house now as the little girl enjoys colouring and painting them. You can read up and see more pictures of her works here. After the usual painting or colouring, solely done by her, I cut up the pictures, paste them on coloured papers and we decorate them together to make them display-ready. She is happy to see the final products and I think it spurs her on to do more art.

We made some bugs with pipe cleaners too though that activity was more mummy-centred. But the bugs delighted her and so I obliged, though I do try as much as possible to keep the activities child-centred.

Paint with craft punch maple leaves

Paint with stickers

Chalk with self-adhesive foam flowers

Chalk with self-adhesive foam butterflies and paper cut-outs

Making bugs with pipe cleaners

Fine motor skills

The little girl has been very interested in my scissors since she sees me cutting her art work all the time before pasting them onto coloured papers. So as not to have a perpetual tug-of-war with her when it comes to the scissors, I bought a set of child-safe scissors for her.  I thought it would be easy for her but it took a bit of practice before she could coordinate her fingers and cut independently. Even then, I would have to hold the paper for her as it has to be perpendicular to the scissors before the plastic blades can cut it. 

And the jumbo tweezers, which came as a set with the magnifying glass, was a hit with her too. She used them to pick up the bugs after some practice too as the tweezers were quite hard for her little fingers to manipulate.

Cutting with the straight and zigzag scissors

Picking up bugs with the jumbo tweezers

Busy book

Then on lazy nights, she busied herself with the activities at her busy book which was hand-made by a fellow mummy friend.

Lacing through numbers loops

Zipping and counting ladybugs

Phew! Didn't I say we did a lot of activities? Well, we went bug-eyed for a month and now we've moved on to our new theme for Ramadan. May you have a blessed month with your family!

Art in Progress

Recently, I discovered that the little girl loves to colour and paint and of course that was such a lovely surprise. We had started with fingerpainting when she was younger but then came a point when she had grown icky of paint. She would touch it for a while, then she would keep asking me to wash off the paint. I had heard of children who loved to paint when they were younger then outgrew it and I was sad if she was one of them.

Finger, foot and sponge painting

Then one day, we went to Za's place for a playdate. One of the things that the kids did was to paint with brushes. It was then that I had an epiphany that if I were to buy brushes for her, then the little girl could still paint without having to touch the paint. Why didn't I think of that earlier?? Duh!

Art corner at Za's house

And so I bought those jumbo brushes from Melissa & Doug (You can get them with free shipping) and the rest, as they say, was history. The first time she painted with brushes, she went on and on and asked for more paint. After a while, she wanted to hold the paint and so she held the paint in a plastic container with one hand and painted with the other. She looked like a little artist! Sorry, this mummy gets excited quite easily. And of course, my choice of canvas was the bathroom wall so that I could wash off the mess easily.

Painting with brushes for the first time

But after a few weeks, I felt that all that art should not go to waste and I felt like keeping her masterpieces. It felt harder and harder to wash off her artwork on the bathroom walls and so I decided to print colouring pages for her. She could paint them, or colour them with crayons, and then I could keep them.

 Coloured with crayons (Done by her except for the sealion's ball)

Coloured with chalk (I smeared the chalk for the butterfly after she had coloured it to even out the colour)

"Bloodied" bugs as her choice of paint for the day was mostly red, with a little bit of green

Those are the raw pieces that were coloured and painted by her. I thought we could do some craft on those pieces before displaying them and so out came my white glue, craft punches, coloured papers, and whatever else that were in my craft box. And here's the outcome after I had cut and pasted them onto coloured papers, and decorated the pieces with the little girl.

Paint with craft punch flowers

Paint with self-adhesive foam sailing boats

Crayon with craft punch stars and pipe cleaner for the snail (Our version of The Snail and The Whale)

Paint with craft punch maple leaves

Paint with stickers

Chalk with self-adhesive foam flowers 

Chalk with self-adhesive foam butterflies and paper cut-outs 

Those are the finished products so far from our Marine and Bugs themes. I have a few more pieces that are waiting to be decorated but I shall keep them for lazy stay-in days with the little girl. 

Wild Animals Party

Exactly a week ago, we were invited to a playdate by Za to celebrate her son's 2nd birthday. We had initally planned to go to the Mega Bugs exhibition on that day together with Sha but her son fell ill and she didn't want to take him out. So we postponed the trip to two days later and I suggested that I could bring the little girl to her place for a playdate. You know, just a simple playdate for the two of them to play together. I really wasn't expecting anything at all.

Little did I know that Za went ahead to plan a themed playdate, complete with helium balloons, play areas and a birthday cake! And she did that with very little time as she had to be at work that morning. Aren't mummies so amazing?

When we arrived, the look on the birthday boy's face was priceless. He wasn't jumping up and down or anything, but he had a huge grin on his face which said it all - he was over the moon. After all, the two BFFs had not met for three weeks and during that time, he had gone to Turkey for a holiday, fallen sick and "called" his BFFs countless times with the hotel room phone. It didn't even matter that we had brought birthday gifts for him. All he wanted to do was to play together.

Play areas for the Wild Animals themed party

The helium balloons were definitely the main attraction

A pretty set-up with animals and coloured counters on the light panel

Finger-printing and animal-stamping

Playing with coloured soapy water at the water table

Scooping water and fishing out the animals

The little girl was ecstatic that she got to play with one of her little BFFs. Not only that, she got to sing a birthday song and blow (tried to anyway) candles too! She has so many cousins and has attended so many of their birthday parties that she's just crazy over the birthday song. Some days, I have to sing the birthday song for the elephant, sea lion, otter, dog and every other animal she can think of. Sounds simple but it's definitely not easy after the tenth song.

Of course I caught the whole thing with the birthday cake in my phone and she has been watching the video again and again till she has memorised the part where I said, "Sampai besok ah!" It's hilarious when she says it because I don't think she knows what it means. Inshaa Allah when her turn comes in a month's time, I'm sure she'll be over the moon.

You can read more about the unintended birthday celebration here. If you notice that the pictures look familiar, that's because I got the pictures from Za, with her permission, of course.