A Holiday is not a holiday without a maid

Recently, we went for a holiday in JB. Since hubby had work to do there and we haven't gone anywhere this school holiday, I decided to seize the opportunity to bring along the whole brood to join him as the timing was perfect. Hubby has to go on Thursday my SPM invigilation ends on Wednesday so what a better way to plan for a holiday.

As this is the school holiday, we only had to settle for a one room family suite. Since it was a one room family suite, I decided not to bring the maid, I believe I could manage. How bad can it be as these 5 kids will be confined to a hotel room? My my was I wrong! My hectic day began with packing the things for the holiday itself. No doubt it was for a 4 day 3 night stay but packing for these young kids is a real chore as you have to think of everything. Day wear, night wear (just in case we decided to go out at night) pyjamas, swimming suits ( the most important items for any holiday, failure to bring these will result in experiencing 9.0 richter scale earthquake), undies, diapers, toothbrushes, toothpaste and not only that I had milk powder to pack for my no 3 Khairina who is 5 and Dhaniyah my no 4 who is 2 years old, baby Hilman (8 months) is fully breastfed so his is settled but I had to bring along his frozen porridges (he only eats homemade food as he is allergic to a lot of stuff), not forgetting hot water thermos and other munchies too.

So we ended up with one large trolley bag for the kids attire alone, (there is no such thing as overpacking with 4 kids and a baby) one basket for food, thermos and milk powder, stroller,the kids shoebag yours truly and hubby only shared a luggage..

We started our journey at around 9 am in hubby's MPV after a hearty breakfast. Everything went pretty well until an hour later when the million dollar question of 'Are we there yet?' kept popping out from their mouth  every 15 minutes. On top of that there were constant arguments going on at the back seats enough to drive the two of us nuts and... we had to stop twice as the kids needed to visit the loo (despite the fact that they had answered their nature calls before we left).

We arrived JB at around 1 and hubby thought we should first eat lunch before checking in into the hotel. We chose a mamak restaurant situated beside the hotel, by this time Hilman was already asleep so we had to bring down the stroller to put him in. Yours truly, hubby and Nabil chose nasi campur, Kakak Aina as usual maggi soup my two picky eaters Khairina and Dhaniyah had roti bakar (for lunch). While we were enjoying our food, it poured. While waiting for the rain to stop the kids entertained themselves with the game of their own. Making lots of noise as they were running and laughing, by this time Hilman was awake and the situation became chaotic as ibu and abah went 'enough', 'stop it', 'sit down' and gave them our killer glare. We got attention from other clients too, they were either amused, pity or just disgust.

The room that we got was quite spacious and nice. It had a kitchen, dining table, fridge and a microwave oven, there was a living room with a tv, the room had 2 double bed and a tv too. As the room had a view of the swimming pool, the kids kept questioning on when they could go for a swim. As hubby needed to go for work, I told the kids to watch the tv first while i feed Hilman. Before he left, Dhaniyah decided to pee in her pants and as I was busy with Hilman, hubby had no choice but to clean Dhaniyah up before leaving for work.

Then, here I was with 5 kids in the hotel room and after about an hour, the nice looking room had turned into a capsized ship as they were jumping up and down the two double beds like monkeys, later the children got fed up of playing in the room and watching tv and kept pestering to go to the pool, I told them to wait for abah to return and furthermore it was still raining. I called hubby and he said he is busy with work and it might finish at around 5. At around 4.30 the children got bored and made more noise to go to the pool, I called hubby and he said that it is unlikely to finish, while I was on the phone Dhaniyah decided to pee in her pants (again!). This drove me crazy so after cleaning the carpet and her up, I told the kids to change into their swimming suits as ibu is taking them swimming.

All of us dived into the pool even baby Hilman. We had so much fun as it was only us in the pool because it was still drizzling. We only spent half an hour in the pool. When we came back to our room, we couldn't get in as my cardkey could not be read. I had to call the front desk for help. There we were locked outside of our room cold, hungry and wet for about 10 minutes before the new set of card was given to us.

Once inside, I had to bathe Hilman, put on his PJ and nurse him. In between that Khairina and Dhaniyah took turns to do their businesses and I had to wash them. While I was nursing Hilman the kids jumped into the tub and had another swimming session there. I told them 15 minutes only but they couldn't care less as they knew I was tied down (more of lying down). After Hilman was asleep I made them get out of the tub and told them to put their PJs on. Dhaniyah then decided to play tag with me when I was about to put on her pyjamas. As ibu's patience was wearing thin she kena cubitlah, she then cried aloud and as not to awake Hilman up, ibu had no choice but to calm her down.

Later the two younger girls were asking for their milk while the elder two complaining that they were hungry. I told them to eat the biscuits that we brought. While I was mixing the milk for Khairina and Dhaniyah I thought to myself the first day is not over yet and I am already aching all over. I have 3 more days to go... am I able to survive all these for the next 3 more days? I barely survived. I almost suffered from a hay fever on the fourth day. I came back tired, with a backache. footache and headache. But the kids had fun and that's what matters. I'm happy when the kids are happy but i need another holiday, come to think of it a visit to a spa would be better. ahak ahak.