Rayyan's Report Card Day

The day was supposed to be 2 Saturdays ago, but since we had an emergency, we postponed it to 1pm just now. Basically we just meet the class teacher, and look at Rayyan's books that are kept in his class to see how he progressed through the 1st Term. There is an actual report card that records his progress in his academics, emotions, etc as marked by the class teacher.

Masa kitorang (me & Ja) sampai, the class teacher was not around.. had an urgent matter that she needed to settle. So we went to see the Center Manager a.k.a the Principal. Chatted with Teacher Iman for about close to an hour. So far so good. Instructed the teacher to review Rayyan's reading program 'coz I'm not satisfied the reading teacher kept on asking Rayyan to read only 1 page of the Peter and Jane book each day when he is ablet o read the whole book already. (He is now at 2a of the P&J book).

Teacher Iman spontaneously took out the 2b book and asked Rayyan to read all the keywords at the back of the 2b book. Rayyan can read 90% of those. Which prompted the teacher to change Rayyan's reading program by starting him with 3a once the school reopens for the 2nd Term on 15th June. According to Teacher Iman, they too have been instructed by the HQ to assess each student's reading program to provide challenge to them, instead of asking them to read the words they already know.

When we were about to balik, Teacher Nida (the class teacher) arrived. So we went in again and chatted with her for about 15-20 minutes.

So conclusionnya, I am personally happy that my objectives of sending Rayyan to Genius Aulad are met and am happy that Rayyan adapts well to the schooling environment as he participates actively in class, being the first to answer questions in class, etc.

One thing though.... he needs to improve on his writing.. still tak cantik... but there are still 5 year olds in his class who could not write... hmm... kesian la pulak kat budak tu...

Rayhana Got the Chicken Pox!!

One of my biggest worries became reality... Rayhana got the chicken pox before getting her chicken pox jab that is due in another 5 months. She got it last Monday. How?

Here's the story...

We had to go back to Kota Bharu last Saturday (16/5/09) after receiving news that Ja's brother had to undergo a brain operation to remove blood clot after being unconscious while eating at KB Hospital while visiting his sister inlaw.

The hospital at KB could not do the operation and he had to be transfered to HUSM in Kubang Kerian which is just about 15-20 mins drive away. However, the wait for the ambulance took 10 hours. Once arrived at HUSM, the doctors there had to operate right away and one of the doctors there told me that when they received him, it was a bit late. (Salah siapa?? Is it too difficult to find 1 ambulance in Kelantan that it had to take 10 hours to transport an emergency case to another hospital that is just 15-20 mins away?)

Anyways, the operation had to be done at 2am on Saturday.

We reached KB at 6.30pm and couldn't see him at ICU 'coz visiting hours was from 5-7pm. So we went to see him the next day, Sunday.

We had to bring the kids along to the hospital 'coz I don't really trust the maid to be with both kids at home in KB since the maid has never been to the kampung before. Moreover, we were supposed to pick up Ja's brother at the airport in the afternoon, who had flown all the way from Bahrain. So we went to HUSM for the 1pm-2pm visiting hour slot and then planned to come again for the 5pm slot after we pick up Ja's brother from the airport.

The second trip to HUSM at around 6pm was the one I think caused Rayhana to get the pox. It was raining heavily, even the parking area was flooded up to my ankle. While waiting at the corridor of the ICU, we had to take cover.. everyone rushed to take cover... Rayhana got the "tempias" of the rain on several occasions...

Once we got back from the hospital, she started having a slight fever. The evening, her fever got to 38+C and we started seeing spots on her thigh and face. Went to Hospital Pakar Perdana emergency in KB (KPJ hospital) and the doctor could not confirm that it was chicken pox, so he just gave her the ubat buntut for the fever and advised us to come again the next day if more spots came out.

The next day, more spots came out. I insisted that we see a proper paed at the Perdana Hospital. Met the cool paed Dr Mazidah or something... very friendly, even better than most paeds at D'sara Specialist. She confirmed that it was chicken pox, and gave Rayhana antiviral medicine Zovirax (I think) to take 5 times a day, zovirax cream, and the Calamine lotion (which I later found out from D'sara Specialist that they - Dr Azizi & gang had banned this lotion to be used on kids with chicken pox).

How was Rayhana's condition? Look at these photos...

Spots on he arms, legs, chin, around the mouth, a little bit behind the neck, etc. By the third day, her fever was gone, and even more spots came out.

And how was Rayhana taking it? Look...


Macam takde benda jer.... she is being her usual self till now. Now all the spots have dried up, some peeled on their own... Orang kat kampung semua amazed at how she was taking it... tak nangis (only this one night when it was REALLY bahang that she cried... even we ourselves would have cried because of the heat)

Ja's brother passed away around midnight last Tuesday (malam Selasa). After the 3 night kenduri tahlil, we went home on Friday.

Business for Preschoolers

When I checked Rayyan's school bag just now, the teacher posted some notes on school holiday activities in Rayyan's yellow book (the coomunication book between parents and teachers). School holiday will start on 30.5.09 and ends on 14.06.09. Genius Aulad follows the Ministry of Education school calendar.

This is the note:


It's RM50 for the whole 8 hour experience over 4 days. Interesting that the school created this sort of activities for 4-6 year old kids... although it's a creative way to suck out more money from the parents as well.. hahaha but RM50 for this is not too bad... actually I wanna go to the cookie factory as well... but it's off limits to parents.. it's a school trip. This is their 2nd trip after the animal farm visit.

Then I go through Rayyan's books to see if he has any homework to do and I saw his Iqra' book. It seems that Rayyan can read this whole thing.... receiving smiley faces at the end of the pages (the teachers got tired of giving stars already) hehe..



some how I just laughed looking at this... (I know it's bad.. but it made me laugh)...

Cameron Highlands Trip Updated

Ok.. now I can story about this Cameron trip...

Alkisahnya, atok and nenek Rayyan & Rayhana ni bersama-sama dengan bakal mertua auntie si Rayyan & Rayhana ni nak plan pergi holiday kat memana la... tambahan pulak bakal adik ipar auntie Rayyan & Rayhana ni baru habis SPM, so nak pergi holiday la 2 big families ni... memandangkan salah satu favorite destination choice to go for a holiday was Cameron Highlands, so I was in charged to book 2 units of the 3-bedroom apartment under RCI, which was the Greenhill Resort at Tanah Rata. They had a special promotion for RCI members (my mom is an RCI member through Tanco). The rate was something like RM500 for two units of the 3-bedroom apartment for the whole week! Gilababs murah! Sampai babs pun tak gila macam tu! :)

RCI gave us 3 tentative weeks where they still have vacancy for 2 units. So I gave the dates to both heads of the families to choose which one suits them. They decided on one date.

Last minute, Rayyan & Rayhana punya auntie punya bakal mertua and their whole family tiba2 cannot make it. Ada important business meeting that the head of that family had to attend to. So diorang semua tak jadi pergi except Rayyan & Rayhana punya bakal uncle.

So off we went in two cars. I brought mine, where me, Ja, Rayhana and Rani the maid were in it. Rayyan as usual would go with his Atok & Nenek, his auntie, and his bakal uncle in another car.

We went all the way to Simpang Pulai and came down to Tanah Rata from the north. The roads were not as winding but lama gila nak sampai.. close to 4 hours.

At last sampaila kat Greenhill Resort, Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands... nak dijadikan cerita, there were no units at the ground floor, or the first floor so we had to take the 2nd floor units. Kesianla Atok & Nenek Rayyan & Rayhana tu... since we have one extra unit, me, Ja, Rayyan, Rayhana and Rayyan & Rayhana's bakal uncle took one unit, and Atok, Nenek, bibik and Felishia took up the next unit. We've been to Green Hill Resort before when we had a company trip for all the staff and their family.. we paid dirt cheap macam ni jugak.. at that time we took 3 units... but not as cheap as this time.. mana nak dapat RM500 for 2 units for the whole week?? That's the cheapest dirt you can ever find! hehehe


We arrived around 3 pm like that. Lepas makan, we wanted to go out see whatever we wanna do. First up, strawberries!! Masa on the way, since we were coming from the north, we drove pass all of Cameron Highlands' attractions. We noticed some cool strawberry farms.. we didn't wanna go to the Kasimanis or whatever farm yang glamer2 sangat tu.. overrated. So we went to this HUGE farm... kalau nak masuk kena bayar sorang RM20, pastu isi strawberry sampai setengah kilo. Kalau tak nak beli setengah kilo sorang takleh masuk.

So all of us went in la.. bayarla dalam ntah berapa ringgit ntah for everyone kat Indons yang jaga counter tu.... Banglas yang jaga dalam farm tu pulak suruh kitorang jalan sampai hujung dunia baru boleh petik.. macam2 la diorang cakap.. yang dekat2 tu semua baru letak ubatla, rumput baru kena racun la etc...


Dah lepas petik semua jalanla keluar balik.. we got lots of strawberries.. cenonet je sume... some were sweet, most were not. So pastu balikla apartment balik.. that's the agenda for the day...

Besoknya pulak we have set ourselves to go to BOH at Sg Palas. The last time I went there was like 7 years ago... how things have changed.. it's a really cool place with the viewpoint siap boleh minum2 teh while eating scones, etc... cool.. dulu takde...

One thing yang sama... jalan nak sampai kat BOH Sg Palas estet tu... nauzubillah! We were stuck close to 1 hour sebab kereta tak boleh bergerak at 3-5 spots on that narrow and winding road leading to that place. Reason? 2 way traffic nak lalu jalan sejengkal tu... dengan basnya lorinya.. GILA!!! They should have only way traffic alternately every 15 or 30 minutes...

Dah sampai kat parking area tu kena jalan kaki pulak about 200m naik atas... it was cool walking kat situ.. breezy and not hot! Dalam tengah jalan-jalan tu adala pulak minah kampung sorang ni nak suruh ambik gambar dia... hahahaha...

Dah sampai atas, we went straight to the factory first... it was Rayyan's first time.. so he was somewhat excited... 'coz before this I already brought him to the Beryl's chocolate factory in Seri Kembangan...

Lepas keluar the factory we went straight to BOH's visitors' center... they really made this place nice.. dulu takde... I wish I had more time alone sipping tea duduk kat anjung tu... nice....


We had scones, sandwiched, etc.. Rayyan had his usual mushroom soup... but they are all OVERPRICED!! Macam makan kat Europe la pulak...


While the rest were still eating I brought Rayyan down to the tea trees... showed him the tea leaves and got him pluck some leaves to give to his teachers... Gambar bunga kat bawah tu is bunga pokok teh... I never knew pokok teh ada bunga... hehehe


Lepas gi BOH ni we went to my mom;s favorite strawberry farm... Rajoo's Strawberry Farm. The last we came Mr Rajoo himself gave my mom 3 long bags (like you see in the 2nd set of pictures above) of strawberry plants and we brought them home! This time the Rajoo couple still remembered my mom, but this time bawak cucu-cucu and menantu and bakal menantu pulak... hehehe

The Rajoos are honest and murah sangat rezeki diorang... tak berkira sangat... when we came, they provide us with lots of strawberries.... tabur icing sugar, letak whipped cream, etc... suruh semuorang yang datang kat tempat dia tu makan... of course we got extra.. hehe...

We only stayed in Cameron for 3 days/ 2 nights, although the rate we paid was for the whole week. But RM500 for 2 nights for 2 units of 3-bedroom apartment in Cameron Highlands is still cheap.

On the way back, we followed the fastest way down... through Tapah... nak sampai Tapah tu yang seksa.. jalan berpusing-pusing... sampai driver pun macam nak muntah... tapi control macholaa.. but the maid muntah 2 kali... majikan dia pun paksa berenti kereta sampai 2 kali.. sebab dia pun nak muntah... hehe...

So when are we going to Cameron Highlands again? Hmm.... definitely not within these 5 years kot... hahaha

Cerita lama: Rayyan Cabut Gigi

Ok.. since I have all these photos with me now at the office, I'm starting a series of cerita-cerita lama yang tak sempat nak diblogkan sebelum ni...

We'll start with Rayyan's first molar extraction.

Babak Satu

Di zaman dahulu kala, adala sorang budak nama Rayyan ni dia komplen sakit gigi. Mak bapak dia yang tak perasan gigi budak tu tetiba terkejut bila mendapati gigi Rayyan dah berlubang sebesar-besarnya.

Pergilah mereka anak-beranak ke "Kedai Senyum". Tabib di Kedai Senyum itu pun mengimbaslah gigi Rayyan dengan teknologi canggih sampai nampak gambar tulang geraham Rayyan itu. Atas nasihat tabib tersebut, gigi itu hanya perlu ditampal. Tetapi perlu dikorek sedalam-dalamnya lagi supaya tampalan itu melekat dengan baik.

Tetapi Rayyan seorang yang tabah. Ditahannya sakit ngilu semasa tabib berkenaan menggerudi giginya yang sakit itu. Bapak dia pulak yang lebih-lebih, tapi nak berkata-kata dalam bahasa Inggeris dengan tabib itu, tabib itu pun susah nak berkata-kata kerana Rayyan faham segala apa yang dibincangkan. Dia pun senyap tersenyum, tergelak sambil terus menggerudi gigi itu.

Lalu sejurus kemudian, tertampallah gigi itu. Sebelum sahaja pembayaran dibuat, Rayyan mengadu kesakitan yang amat pada gigi yang baru ditampal itu. Setelah berbincang dengan tabib penampal itu, maka diputuskan bahawa tampalan itu terlalu kekal (permanent), jadi ia amat ketat sehinggakan membuat Rayyan terasa amat sakit.

Setelah berbincang dan mendapat persetujuan Rayyan yang amat macho dan tabah itu, maka diputuskan untuk mengorek balik tampalan itu dan digantikan dengan tampalan yang sementara yang tidak terlalu ketat sehingga menyakitkan Rayyan.

Lalu Rayyan pun menjalani penggerudian sessi kedua selang hanya setengah jam dari sessi pertama sebelumnya. Dipendekkan cerita, setelah selesai ditampal, maka Rayyan pun berpuas hati di atas tahap kesakitannya pada masa itu yang kurang sakit berbanding sebelumnya. Lalu mereka anak beranak pun pulanglah ke rumah sambil Rayyan mengerang sedikit-sedikit di dalam kereta.

Babak 2

Hari demi hari, bulan demi bulan berlalu, tiba-tiba terasa sakit lagi gigi Rayyan itu. Rupa-rupanya tampalan yang dilakukan sebelum ini telah tertanggal lebih dari separuh. Dengan persetujuan Rayyan, dibawanya budak itu sekali lagi ke Kedai Senyum untuk dilihat apa lagi yang boleh dibuat ke atas gigi yang satu itu.

Setelah diimbas semula tulang gerahamnya, didapati di bawah gigi itu sudah menunjukkan tanda bernanah. Tabib itu (tabib lain pulak) pun memberi dua pilihan. Terus menampal, atau pun cabut sahaja. Tabib itu mencadangkan agar cabut sahaja kerana keadaan gigi itu sudah mula reput. Kalu ditunggu la-lama lagi susah nanti.

Lalu, sekali lagi dengan persetujuan Rayyan, maka budak kecik itu pun mula melakukan operasi mencabut gigi. Dimulakan dengan proses suntikan. Rayyan mengerang sedikit sambil ditenangkan bapanya. Kemudian dimulakan proses mencabut.

SEKSANYA yang amat kerana kuat benar gigi si Rayyan itu! Bapanya yang melihat pun tak sangka melihat tabib itu sampai perlu bersilat-silat untuk mengeluarkan gigi yang satu itu. hampir segala senjata di atas mejanya digunakan tabib itu. Tidak juga gigi itu ditumpaskan.

Lenguh geraham Rayyan tidak terkata, sehinggakan bapanya juga turut terasa. Tabib jenis apa pulak ni yang sampai kena bersilat-silat untuk mengeluarkan gigi budak 4 tahun setengah ini!

Dipendekkan cerita, setelah hampir 20 minit pertarungan antara tabib dengan gigi Rayyan itu berlangsung, maka akhirnya tertumbang juga gigi itu. Rupa-rupanya, gigi yang disangka bertaring dua, rupa-rupanya bertaring TIGA!!!

Rayyan pula yang tidak biasa giginya berdarah mencurah-curah keluar, tidak berasa selesa dengan keadaan ini lalu mengerang sepanjang setengah jam lebih sambil dia berbaring di atas sofa empuk Kedai Senyum itu sambil menonton ASTRO. Setelah beberapa kali kapas dalam mulutnya ditukar, dia pun bersedia untuk pulang ke rumah.

Sampai sahaja di rumah.. bapanya pun apa lagi, dicapainya kamera, lalu ditangkapkanlah gambar cenderamata dari tabib tadi sepuas-puas hatinya....


Kesian, si Rayyan...

Sekian sahaja cerita Rayyan Cabut Gigi. Selepas ini kita bercerita tentang kisah lain pula.

:)

Michelangelo's Art

Michelangelo painted that on the ceiling of Sistine Chapel, depicting a biblical scene on the creation of Adam where "God" is seen as giving life to "Adam".

But I captured these..... depicting the uploading/downloading of wisdom session between 2 siblings while they were asleep.... :)


Dah habis mengupload/mendownload, the cables detached, they continue sleeping... while their subconscious minds work wonders with the newly acquired data, making them a little bit wiser before starting the new day... the sister acquiring the wisdom passed on by the brother, while the brother getting to know more about the sister...

barulah aman dunia adik-beradik...


hehehe...

Rayyan's "bumps" on his scalp and stuff...

For the past few days we noticed some "bumps" as Rayyan calls them, macam bekas gigitan nyamuk on his scalp.. quite a few, like 4-5 sporadically located on his left side of the scalp. Pastu suddenly nak jadi macam pimple pulak. Pastu dah nak macam bernanah... scary jugak...

So yesterday brought him to see Dr Azizi. One look at the "bumps", he immediately said... JUNK FOOD! The ingredients in some of the junk food kids eat may cause allergic reactions such as these bumps on the scalp. Nose bleeding (like what Rayyan had for like 2-3 times last month) pun may occur due to the allergic reactions to the junk ingredients.

Dr Azizi gave an ointment, to be used 3 times a day, plus an antibiotic - Augmentin to clear off the bumps. Hope the ointment & Augmentin works soon. Kesian si Rayyan ni.

Ok ni cerita lain pulak.. pasal Rayyan jugak.. hehe..

Last night, as usual, when we were getting some warm water before going to bed, Rayyan showed me some of the magnetic letters (A, B, C, D, T, O, S, etc..) I bought long ago stuck on the fridge door. So I tested him to see if he has actually been learning from the Phonics VCDs I got in exchange for my RHB credit card points.

The thing with Rayyan is that he loves and enjoys learning. Alhamdulillah! It makes my job easier to teach him stuff. He would voluntarily put on the Phonics CDs one after another and would sit there in front of the TV, on the bed, trying to absorb what is shown, quietly, alone. I think I made the right choice buying those CDs (5 of them altogether). Here's why...

When I moved the magnetic letters around, he can pronounce whatever word that I arranged for him. For example... I arranged these letters.. "S-C-A-T". He would make the sound that each letter makes phonetically, and combine all the sounds to pronounce the word... SCAT! He doesn't need to know what the word means, as long as he can READ! I tested him with BAT, BATS, TAB, STAB, BAD, SAD, DOT, etc.. and he read well! :D ***very proud***

Then I made some bogus words like SBATDX and DOSTC, etc.. hehehe his pronunciation of that words is as good as yours and mine.

At school he just started his first couple of pages of the Peter & Jane level 2A books, but at home he can complete the book already. All 50 pages. I'm trying to get him read level 2B next.

Somehow his Malay reading is still not at par with his English... hehehe.. I'll work on that with him later... it's good now that he has started speaking Malay more!

Rayhana's Updates & Mobile Uploads

Here are some random photos snapped and sent to my e-mail using my trusty RM170 Nokia handphone.. hehe


She is cheekier than ever. She is going to be 7 months old this 8th of May. Here are the updates on her:

1. She LOVES Dibo the Gift Dragon. (what's with this dragon I dunno...)

2. She LOVES Pocoyo.

3. She LOVES Mickey Mouse Club House.

4. She LOVES Tigger and Pooh.

5. She just loves rolling on the bed from one end to the other.

6. She LOVES the Nursery Rhyme VCD I bought for Rayyan... she could be crying her lungs out but once she sees the CD playing... total silence.. dok concentrate tengok the Nursery Rhymes.

7. I've already started to put her in a "walker"... tak larat nak mengendong.. berat! And she loves it! She knows how to use the walker to walk to where she wants. She would run towards the TV when she hears (1), (2), and (3).

8. She hardly sleeps during the day.

9. She's on Similac Eye-Q formula during the day, and Ja-T-I-Ts at night.

10. She is also on a rice-potato-carrot "sludge" diet.

11. She is so PENAKUT! Can't be left alone. If she finds out that she's alone, she'll start to scream.

12. She is afraid of the dark. Even dalam kereta kalau tengah jalan tempat takde lampu, she would be restless.

13. She loves looking at people talking on the phone.

14. She pays attention whenever Rayyan reads his books at night.

15. She knows food when she sees one. So whenever we eat out, she knows what's on the table and starts to stick her tongue in and out until we start giving her something to eat.

16. She sleeps on the big bed with me & Ja, while Rayyan sleeps in his own single bed in the same room.