Jan 2014

 Jan 05 2014 - Sunday morning in the basement

Jan 07 2014 - Playing in the snow 

Jan 10 2014 - Coloring

Jan 11 2014 - Dinner

Jan 19 2014 - Cheeky

Jan 23 2014 - Puzzles

Jan 25 2014 - Afternoon nap

Jan 27 2014 - Silly and messy

Jan 31 2014 - Art

Jan 31 2014 - Playground 

Winter Walk

Malaysia Trip Part 1

After almost 4 years, we finally made it! We FINALLY went back to Malaysia. The bonus part was Daniel's mom was able to go back with us and that made it so much better. 

It was a quick trip. Two weeks was a really short period of time. But we did manage to see most of our relatives, thanks to my parents. They held a family gathering a day after we went back to my hometown, Alor Setar. And that was awesome, just to be able to meet (almost) everybody. Plus having everybody together at one place was really a time saver as we had quite a busy itinerary. 

July 30th 2013

We had a 4 hour layover in Taipei. I was so glad when we landed. I'm not a fan of flying, especially a super long one. It took us 12 hours to get Taipei from Seattle. The boys did really well. Sarah cried quite a bit on the plane and just wanted to nurse all the time. She did however sleep for a few hours.

Picnic with kids & friends

July 3rd, 2013

My friends and I had been planning to have this picnic for a long time but there was always something going on that we kept postponing it until today. I was glad we made it because it was such a beautiful day out there. 

We decided to go to Scenic Beach State Park in Seabeck. It took us 30 minutes to get there.

 These were some of the views that we saw along the way.

I guess I was busy eating that I didn't even remember to take any pictures of our picnic table so I went to search for old pictures of this place. This one was taken way back in Aug 2010. I still remember it was our first time here and we were fasting in Ramadan. 

 I was eating (again) when I saw this sail boat passing by and quickly grabbed my camera and took a few shots of it.   

It was low tide while we were there. The boys had a great time in the water.

Amazing view of the Olympic mountains.

Sarah loves the water. 

I had to take Sarah out of the water after awhile because she started to shiver a little bit. Her brothers follow suit not long after that. The two ladies in the picture are the only Malay friends that I have in this area. 

Meanwhile Ezzat kept swimming for a long time. The water was just nice but once you get out of it, you could feel pretty cold due to the breeze.

Sarah is easy to warm up to new people. She had a short stranger anxiety moment when she was younger but now she can be pretty friendly.

Finally Ezzat decided that he had enough swimming for the day and Sarah gave him a hug.

My sweet little girl. Thanks Grammy for the swimming suit. Finally she's able to wear it.

Fourth of July and Fireworks

I think this was our first time watching fireworks on first of July. We were planning to watch the one in Poulsbo just because it was only a few minutes away from our house but we found out that the show was already held the night before. We googled our options and luckily there were a few around the area. We decided to go to the one in Kingston.  

The venue was already packed with people when we got there. Luckily there was a small grassy spot that was empty. You can see the boys's heads in the picture. The show started at 10.30pm, way past Sarah's bedtime. She fell asleep in the car on the way and woke up right after we parked the car. She did really well throughout the entire show despite the noise, plus we weren't that close to the fireworks. I should have searched for basic setting to photograph them. Most of the pictures I took were all blurry with no definite shape of the main attraction. The show itself, however, was breathtaking. 

Emir

His left middle finger got caught between his classroom door and the door jamb last Friday. I got a call from his school about it around noon. Actually it was a missed call! They called Daniel but he was already on his way to a gig that was an hour away. Daniel called me and this time I did pick up. My friend Farina happened to be with me and Sarah, having lunch when I got his call. I left Sarah with her, and went straight to the school. When I arrived, there were already four ambulances. Seriously, four? When I entered the school office, the room was packed with paramedics plus the principal, office staffs, and some teachers. One of the office staffs had to go out to get some fresh air because she couldn't stand the blood. I was asked if I would let the paramedics take him to the nearest hospital or I would prefer to drive him there instead. I opted for the second one thinking that it would be easier for us since the navy hospital already has his records etc. So we went to the ER, waited for about 15 minutes before being attended, which felt like eternity at that point of time.

The first thing they did was to lightly clean the wound. At the school, I didn't get to see it since it was covered with thick gauze so I didn't know the extent of the wound. We had to get an-ray done to see if there was any bone fractured.  The finger almost got chopped off and the only thing that kept it together was the skin. Poor guy was pretty tough. He was in pain but hardly shed any tears. He did however whine a bit when they started an IV on him and when they wanted to numb his finger. Since the upper part of his finger bone was fractured, an orthopedic surgeon was called to sew it back together. I had to look away when they did the procedure. Emir didn't seem to mind though.

We were discharged after being at the hospital for four hours. As much as I was worried about Emir, I was also worried about Sarah since she was not used to be left with someone else. But things worked out well in the end. Farina had to go home, so she left Sarah with the other two boys when they got back from school. Her brothers took her in their room, closed the door so she couldn't get out and just played with her until we got back. Daniel came back a few minutes after that. What a day!

PS: We went back to the hospital today for a follow up checkup and the wound is healing really well! Thank god for that! We do have to go back again in 10 days so that they can take off the stitches.

And this little missy here, she can be funny sometimes. She saw her big brother holding up his hand with bandages and all, and she started pretending she was in pain, holding her hand up just like him. So I wrapped her arm with a piece of gauze cloth and she walked around the living room like this.

Her expression is hilarious!

Jalan - jalan

Monday - May 6, 2013

We've been having some nice weather here since last week. It almost feels like summer actually, especially today. It was pretty warm in the low 80s. I just had  this impromptu plan to just go out and enjoy the sun so I  asked my friend Farina if she wanted to come along. I knew I wanted to go to the beach for sure. 

I love this headshot! She looked different though.

The last time she went to a beach was when we were in North Carolina, visiting Daniel's sister and her family. That was also her first. She wasn't too keen back then. This time around I think she had fun. She didn't even mind the cold water. 

I gave Sarah a piece of palm sugar steamed cake that Farina made (a type of Malay sweet snack) and she ate it really slowly, taking a super small bite at a time. That was what she was holding in her right hand in the picture and in many pictures after this one.

Oh that look!

She finally decided that it was more comfortable to just sit in the cold water. I did bring a change of clothes just  in case she gets wet.

Waiting for Auntie Farina to peel some Cutie oranges while holding a new piece of cake. She did finish the first one with Auntie Farina's help.

She got impatient.

Finally.

"Mmmm...I'm not sure if I can finish this"

She was never a big fan of swings until today. She kept looking at this girl next to her who was slightly older, giggling and screaming and I guess it hit her that the swinging thing wasn't that bad after all. When it was time to go, she didn't want to get out of the swing seat and threw a bit of tantrum.