Idlan and his trial exam

The blog has been left dormant for quite some time. And now i took the attempt to screenshot my IG post so that i can at least hv an archive for this one of the many important events in his life :)

Sharing from today's tafsir class

First i thought i wanna jot down the notes in my diary, but hp was way much easier since i can always open n refer n share with my dear friends. Harap hp tahan lama n x corrupt :p

Sharing from today's tafsir class by Ustaz Abdullah Yassin:

Umur manusia ada 2 peringkat:
1. Dr lahir hingga mati
2. Dr mati hingga hari kiamat
# refer surah Yassin ayat 12

Lima peringkat alam bagi manusia:
Alam roh - rahim- dunia- barzakh/kubur - akhirat

Masa dlm peringkat kubur, kita masih boleh menambah pahala melalui 3 cara:
Amal jariah, doa dr anak yg soleh dan ilmu yg bermanfaat. Setelah di akhirat kelak, dah x boleh tambah pahala sbb tu hari pembalasan.

'Panjang umur' ertinya hidup diberkati Allah & mendpt anak yg soleh.
Siapa nk pjg umur dan murah rezeki, buatlah ihsan kpd ibu bapa.

Ibu bapa dpt pahala dr doa anak cucu mereka yg soleh. Maknanya doa dr anak soleh bukan dpt kpd ibu bapa je, tp pada atuk nenek moyang dan keturunannya. Jadi kalau dah takde anak, cth anak dh meninggal, didiklah cucu supaya jd soleh.
#refer surah Yassin ayat 12

Red velvet for his 14-mo birthday

The strawberries are originally intended for a victoria sandwich cake, but majority wins. So red velvet it is then!

Hepi 14 months old Irfan sayang!!! Mama, abah dan abang2 sayangggg sgt kat Irfan.

Anyway we're going to a clinic this morning. It seems that his lip is a lil bit swollen from the previous operation procedure though he doesnt seems to be irritated by it. Harap x serius la huhu

Tongue lip adhesion..and the reversal procedure

Irfan has underwent a tongue lip adhesion procedure when he was at 5 months old (1 June 2015). It is a procedure to open the airway by temporarily sewing the tongue to the bottom lip in infants. In mild to moderate cases, a tongue-lip adhesion is a successful way to keep the tongue from falling back and blocking the airway. In his case, the surgeon decided that he must undergo the procedure since the 1st operation, which is supraglottoplasty that took place on 31 March 2015 due to his laryngomalacia did not manage to resolve his breathing issue. 

Now that his larynx has strengthen and he no longer has stridor and retractions when breathing, it is just about the time to release his tongue lip adhesion. Furthermore he already has 4 teeth on the upper gum and 'some' teeth on the lower part, which means his tongue needs to be detached from the lip so that he doesn't bite his own tongue. 

The release of his tongue lip adhesion took place on last Monday, 21st March 2016. He went to OT in the morning, under full GA. It was his 3rd operation, and this time around i was the one that hold and accompanied him all the way to the OT room. The procedure was a success, despite him being cranky on the first 24 hrs post-op due to no fluid was allowed for several hours, and the fact that he can only take plain water or milk via a NG tube in the evening. He screamed his lungs out upon seeing his bottle, and the feeding process via his NG tube was really challenging. No solid was allowed at least for 48 hours, so that adds on to his crankiness. 

Lucky it was just an overnight stay, he got discharged on the very next evening, that after me having a hard time trying to persuade and convince his surgeon that Irfan is ok and fit to be discharged. Of course his lip and tongue are still a little bit swollen with stitches, and we got home with 2 different types of antibiotics.

Irfan is really a new baby now. To our eyes and his brothers, he looks like a different baby altogether. Whenever he smiles, the 4 white teeth (which is previously hidden by his tongue) at the bottom gum is now visible. He bites hubby a lot on his 1st day at home after discharged, probably 'lepas geram', feeling curious and just figured the fact that 'oh so now i have something that makes chewing and biting more interesting!'. I am happy to see him able to bite his biscuits easily. I feel more encouraged to look up for new recipes and introduces more textures into his solids, without worrying him get chokes and vomits.

Most importantly, I am grateful for Allah has made it easier for him to live his life as days pass by. Any person that see him today would never thought how rough his life has been before. How he had struggled for air just to breath, how miserable his early days  for not being able to sleep even for more than 10 minutes, how he continuously wanted to breastfeed because the calories he were getting burned quickly and used up a lot for breathing only, how he had spent 3 mths in the hospital after his 1st op and got series of infection, how he was put on a CPAP o2 machine to aid in his breathing, how myself and the nurses need to do suctions at least 3x a day to take out the unexplainable lots of secretions from his body, how he was put on an NG tube for feeding all the time and not being able to take anything orally, how he was put under several physiotherapist to massage his whole body due to being bed-ridden for too long, and how miserable my life has been for being away from hubby and my other 3 growing kids, looking pale and down almost all the time since the doctors were unable to give answers and hope on when Irfan is going to recover. Those uncertainties are painful to swallow, almost unimaginable to digest, which sometimes i even hope to temporarily 'pengsan' and shut down my body so that i don't have to remember all the pain.

To all my friends who are being tested, do not give up, gather your strength and always have faith in Him. Everything is coming from Him, and only to Him we return and ask. May Allah eases our ways in striving for barakah in this world and Hereafter.

Thank you all for your endless prayers, for the love and support showered to us, i can never repay your kindness and i always hope Allah will give you something in return for your kindheartedness. Amin.

Love,
-mama Irfan Faris-

Tanam sendiri - celery dan ubi keledek!

Bismillah dan selawat byk2..dgn harapan menjadi. Kalau jadi mmg lompat bintang la saya!! Hehe

Steps google je..looks easy peasy but me and gardening do not hv a good chemistry based on history. So lets not put so much hope shall we?

I shall post the updates when the time is due. Till then~

Sayonara!!

Me and my baking mojo

To find a me-time in the kitchen just to bake a cake is not that easy nowadays. But the nawaitu to bake, and the never-ending wish list of cakes have always become my motivation to stay up and do some baking...at least maybe twice a month.

The aftermath, is of course so worth it.

Imagine a warm dark chocolate walnut brownies served with salted caramel sauce, and paired with our favourite Crunch ice-cream, priceless!!

I recently made a half container of salted caramel sauce, hoping that it can lasts for a month. Sedap sgtttt mkn begitu saja pon layan!

So here goes some of my recent bakes, everything revolves around brownies. I of course prefer a red velvet over anything else, but my sweety Ammar has always wanted for dark choc brownies. "Brownies mama yang paling tersedap, indulgence pon tak boleh lawan". He always said that to me. Consistently. So how can you not making a brownie even tho your heart is screaming for a rv? Haha x sampai hati ok!

Day 4: Twizel - Queenstown

It has been 2 mths since i blogged about NZ. Ya ampun sori yer kpd siapa yg ternanti-nanti tuh, mmg malas yg amat nk mengarang. Anak2 tgh ujian, mak pak pun turut serta bz :) So lets continue with Day 4.

Our routes for Day 4:
Twizel - Omarama - Wanaka- Cromwell - Queenstown.
Total distance approx 253km.

List of attractions:

1. Twizel - High Country Salmon
Very interesting! We got to feed the salmon for free, kids siap ulang-alik pegi amik makanan free tu tanpa segan silu :) There is a small cafe adjacent the salmon farm, which sells varieties of fresh salmon to the visitors. Hubby picked a small container of cold smoked salmon, $12. I am not a fan of sushi, this is my 1st time eating raw salmon but surprisingly it tastes delish!! mmg wajib beli kesimpulannya. Even our kids loved them.

2. Lake Ohau
We stopped here on our way to Wanaka. I assume this lake is not so famous, hence very few cars spotted on the highway. We even got to pose right in the center of the highway, tanpa segan silu :p

3. Lindis Pass
One of the most scenic view exists in South Island. Memang cantik sangat, tak dpt digambarkan. Bukit bukau yg berbalam dek pancaran sinar matahari, bunga kuning (rasanye rapeseed) merata-rata atas bukit, dan awan biru yg sangat cantikkk susah nak dpt kat KL! I even wondered why the sky in KL looks so pale dan kurang menyerlah as compared to NZ...maybe sebab pencemaran yg berleluasa kot?

4. Lake Wanaka
We arrived here around 12noon, matahari mmg tegak atas kepala but it was so windy and cool to the extend we decided to just have our packed lunch inside the car rather than sitting on a bench nearby the lake. Rasa nak terbang pon ada masa keluar dari kereta masa tu. Settle lunch, as usual amik gambar tepi lake, kids main baling2 batu. Mata ni puas melilau cari 'that wanaka tree yg glamer tu' tapi tak jumpa!! Tasik tu luas, maybe kena duduk kat spot yg lain baru bole jumpa 'that lonely wanaka tree'.

5. Puzzling World
Tempat wajib singgah di Wanaka, about 2km from Lake Wanaka. We bought the family pass combo deal $61 for entry to both the Illusions Room and Great Maze. Illusion Room tu mmg bole wat org pening pala, Ida Mizie sampai nak termuntah bila masuk dlm tu hehe. Bestla jugak Illusion Room ni, okla something different yg takde kat Mesia. Great Maze mmg hampeh, kami cam biasa tak berjaya nk khatam even 1 route, mmg fail sungguh bab maze nih! Dahla panas giler, carry si Irfan tu lagi, adoi macam nk patah pinggang. Last2 kami decide utk exit ikut Emergency Door hihi. Kids berpecah, sukahati berlari-larian dgn geng2 derang, ada yg berjaya...ada yg main tipu gak cam makpak depa :p Lepas berputus asa tak jumpa jln keluar, kami beramai2 kumpul kat luar tu utk amik group photo. Kebetulan kat sini ramai family yg berkumpul, so apelagi....group photo plsss! Mujur ramai photog professional yg ada dlm group kami :)

ok this is long enough already. I shall continue to blog about Queenstown in the next entry, till then!

Lives life beautiful

And be grateful for all the things that we've been granted each day.

Alhamdulillah allahuakbar.

Good deeds are indeed repaid with good things. It may be small to some but meant a lot to others. Lets do more with less, trying to be better each day, and hope that we can contribute something for the benefit of others, as thats one of the reasons human is created by Allah.

Life's hectic nowadays. Idlan is busy n packed each day, so do us, at least until his big exams are over. Irfan is thriving well, improving his walking skills each day but still talk less. His operation to detach the tongue fr his lower lips was postponed last wk since he had cold n phlegm. Postpone to an unknown date, yet, which is really mind-torturing.

Ammar is showing interest reading newspaper, which is good! Firas being his usual self, hooked up to games, Chinese drama n Running Men, only stop when we warn him.

And hubby, yes that lucky guy of mine who recently won a competition organized by MAGIC just came back fr Palo Alto California for a ten-day training at the Stanford Univ. Probably the ten longest days in my life :(

Bateri kereta kong kt ofis, gas abis, firas left his school uniform, those were amongst the highlights of my days without him back at home haha. We Skyped n Whatsapp call almost each day, thnx to the technology. Me had my doze of San Franc coffee for 5 consecutive days, kasi hilang stress. But anyway he came back home with quite a number of things for me n kids, kes beli jiwa namanya :)

I wish i can write more, but i hv so many pending chores awaiting. Till then peeps, hv a blessed weekend! Insya Allah...