Dilemma

My eldest daughter Nuraina has been piling on so much weight for the past few months.

You know,she started off being such a skinny baby as she was close to be underweight we have been giving her a lot of multivitamins and minerals to make her go strong, chubby and healthy.  As she hit six months, we fed her appeton for babies on a daily basis, once she turned one we began to give her Scotts Emulsions and vitamin C and when she was down with fever she had lost so much weight making her look so skinny and fragile that we changed her milk into Weight Gain for 2 months. When she was in Year One she started to grow nice and proportionate and we were satisfied with her development.

There was this one day an acquittance commented that her son is the smallest in class and that she is worried, as he is a boy and he may get bullied when he goes to school later so I told her that I used to worry about my daughter's growth and I have been giving her loads of supplements and multivitamins to promote her growth.  She then commented she had a friend who used to be so small that she had been taking lots of supplements and now she has weight issues.  She said the after effect of the supplements takes many years later to get the results.  I didn't think much about it and just pushed the thought aside.

But NOW.....

I see her point, my daughter Nuraina has begun to show interest in food and she eats all the time. She enjoys eating, sometimes after taking lunch she will munch on biscuits and her stomach looks so round and protruded.  From a scrawny baby into a chubby girl, we now have problems finding clothes for her.  When she was younger she used to wear one size smaller than her age, now she wears 2 size bigger than her age.  She is 11 but she wears 13-14 clothes.  Just the other day, we bought a pair of baju kurung the largest in the kids section size 13 - 14, I was confident it could fit her because it looked big, sadly, she can't even bring the sarung to her waist, it got stuck at her thunder thighs and even the baju kurung we had problems to bring her hand out of the sleeves.

I am worried, I want her to not eating much but sometimes when I cook she will be the first I call to eat because it's nice looking at her enjoying the food I cooked as I felt all the efforts I have put in to prepare the meals have not gone to waste compared to her younger siblings who are basically needed to be forced to eat for every meal.  She even commented 'You want me to be kurus, but you also make me eat'.  Yalah tu Aina but most of the times I stop you from eating and indulging in cookies and other things kan?

This where the dilemma lies as I often stock up food in the house like biscuits, chocolate, ice-creams, fruits, wedges, nuggets and other tidbits to encourage the younger ones to eat as they are not rice-people.  The problem is that Kakak Aina will wallop what they are eating too.  On top of that when they could not finish the drinks or the food they consumed Kakak Aina will be summoned as not to let the food go to waste.  So how?

I hope this is just a phase and she will not continue to balloon up as the years go by.

One Malaysia- One Whole Day Affair

Yesterday afternoon, my two elder children were offered to do a promo for Astro TV on One Malaysia. Aina was ecstatic, Nabil wasn't because he was more looking forward to attend his football practice tomorrow. Thinking that he will still make it for the practice we persuaded him to take the job. It was pretty a last minute thing as the shooting is to be done today and we have to be there at 9.00 am.

As last night, I attended the Form 5 Graduation Dinner in KGNS which ended around 11.00 pm and as I was knackered after that thus I did not get the chance to check my e-mail for the script that the children need to memorize. So I only managed to get them to read the script this morning at around 8.00 am and Aina being excited for the job succeeded in memorizing the whole lines in mere 10 minutes whereas Nabil could not be bothered to learn it by heart. Which pissed me off but I did not want to spoil his mood so I actually let him be. So the script goes like this:-

It doesn't matter,
How we look,
How we speak,
What colour we are.

We all laugh
We all cry,
We all take pride,

In our home,
In our future,
In our country,
We are...one,
One Malaysia.

We were told to bring 3 different colours of clothes; white, red and one casual wear.
We reached ASTRO at around 9.20 am, we actually got lost (ni semua punca because some husbands who just refused to listen to the wives) I taulah I buta jalan but I've called to ask the way tapi some husbands believe diaorang lagi pandai than the wives kan! Opppss...out of the topic, that part nanti kita cerita lain ok? ahak ahak.

So upon reaching there, after all the mumbo jumbo at the security post we were escorted inside. We were taken to the cafeteria for breakfast, the sandwiches and the curry puffs were good. So no complain there. Then we were taken to the dressing room, the kids waited to be made up. Oh by the way, the were 20 other talents involved in this promo, 14 adults and 6 kids.

Nabil after the made up. He requested for rambut Ultraman.

We waited and waited, the children while their time away watching TV, as I was in a hurry burry this morning, I did not bring anything with me so I wasted my whole day today doing nothing besides waiting and waiting and waiting. I should have brought my test papers to mark or a book to read. Regret! regret! Alright so after they have been made up, they were brought to the studio for a rehearsal. So that too took quite some time as they were about 6 people ahead of us. And each person had to do quite a number of takes. As it was already lunch time, we were told to take our lunch first. So the food was good, we had fish curry, sweet sour chicken, fried wantan, mixed veggie and fish fillet, the children truly enjoyed their meal. Both Aina and Nabil went for a second helping. I guess as it was so bl**dy cold in there, it made us get hungry easily.

After lunch, the kids were sent to do some touch-up and then we went back to Studio 3 and there were still 2 people doing their shoot. Once they were done, Nabil was called to the floor, he said his lines and he sounded like a robot, he was later coached by one of the crew members, he was slightly better but he spoke like he was reading one boring book. Nabil was told to take a break and it was Aina's turn, she delivered her lines pretty well and we were all happy. As hubby and I had some errands to do, we left the kids under the care of my cousin who was a part of the production team. Thinking that they will do well as they sounded ok when we told them we had to leave, we then joyfully made our way to the exit.

Thirty minutes later, I received a call from my cousin saying that Aina cried and she did not finish her shoot because she requested for her mother to be around. As we were almost reaching our destination, I told her to give us an hour for us to settle our things and will be right there soon after.

More than an hour later, we saw the kids and we heard them giggling away as they have made friend with Vijay of the Geng Bas Sekolah. By this time, a lot of waiting involved as the second batch of talents arrived for their shoot. So we waited and waited again for their turns. Nabil was the clown of the day as he had to do so many takes, apparently he did not take instruction very well. Luckily enough the crew members were all patient and nice group of people, even the talents were all friendly and managed to put the kids at ease. Nuraina did pretty well this time and she only had to do two takes for both sections.

Aina all set to say her lines

This promo was divided into 3 parts, the first one, individual lines, second one, group photos and the third one each talent takes turn to hold the flag. So we waited and waited for each talent to finish their individual line, we went for tea then we waited to get everybody to do the group thing, we waited until all the groups done, then we went for dinner and we waited and waited again to do the last segment the holding of the flag. We were then finally allowed to go home at around 9.15 pm. And before we left, they were still a few other talents who haven't finish with their individual lines.

Waiting to be divided into groups
Nabil's group shoot

This promo may take less than a minute to be on air, my children may appear on tv for few seconds but it took more than 12 hours of preparation. So that's it children, I will never allow you to choose a career in this entertainment business, the working hours are just too ridiculous. So jangan mimpi nak jadi superstar ok? So the rest of you out there, watch out for this promo which will feature my kids (omigosh! am so proud) sometime next month.

Till then, take care.

P/S- Oh man! I have orchestra practice to attend to tomorrow from 9-12. Sigh! I need rest. Can I not go? (hmm...wishful thinking!)

My weekend

Before I ramble on on my weekend, I hope it's not too late to wish all Muslims out there a 'Happy Ramadhan, moga-moga ibadah kita kali ini lebih diberkati dari sebelumnya'.

So the Saturday that was supposed to be a first day Ramadhan for the Muslims had been a pretty hectic for our family mainly myself, hubby and the two elder kids as they had their Wushu tournament on that day. After the sahur and Subuh prayer Nuraina and Nabil took a short nap as we had to be in the community hall in KBU before 8 for the tournament. Nuraina participated in the Wushudao 1 Individual Pattern competition and Nabil in Primary Students Male Sparring below 22 kg, Nabil is 20.8 kg (kurus kan?)

There was a lot of waiting involved throughout the whole event which irritates me to no end. First we had to wait to get the kids to be registered, then we had to wait for the event to start, we had to wait for the VIP to arrive, basically there was a lot of waiting involved as we were not given a timetable on what event should start first, second so on and so forth. We wasted so much time that day waiting for things to happen.

The hall was filled with so many people. After the registration which I felt like took forever they had a rehearsal for the opening ceremony, the kids did some warming up and some pattern practices, that too took a lot of time, Nuraina event began after the rehearsal and she was in the 7th group to perform. Her pattern performance took less than a minute to execute and we spent hours after that waiting, and we found out she made it to the second round and we waited and waited and waited even after the lunch break only to be told that the second round is to be held the next day, on Sunday. Arrrgghhhh......!!!

So at around 12 ish, it was the opening ceremony where all the participants gathered in the middle of the hall and did their performances. After the speeches, which were all spoken in Mandarin, we had break for lunch.

During the rehearsal

Still doing their routine during the rehearsal

Although the kids were fasting but all the participants were given a pack of chicken rice each. I was pissed when I found out that the rice was 'non-halal'. God!!! Can't they be more sensitive regarding this issue? I know they were not many Muslims taking part in the competition but they were more than 20 Muslim students on the first day, they should be more sensitive and the fact we are all living in Malaysia, so to say a Muslim country. What I cannot understand is, when I asked one of the officers if the food is 'halal,' he did not even know what 'halal' means, omigod! how could there be such ignorant human exist here in Malaysia. And I went to see another officer and she said it is 'halal' and I asked her again 'are you sure?' and she answered 'yes, yes, very sure, it's chicken rice what? It's not pork'. n my heart I went 'God lady 'halal' doesn't mean only pork it means that the animals are slaughtered by the Muslims using the Islamic way'. Haiiyooo.... luckily one officer of a higher rank confirmed that the food is 'non-halal'. Can you imagine if it's not fasting month and my children would already have eaten the food? I'm so so sad that these people are not sensitive enough on this issue.

So after the break, we waited and waited again because Nabil's event will be starting after the secondary school male and female sparring. We waited and waited until it was nearly 5 pm only to be told that he will compete tomorrow morning because his opponent had gone home so he had a walk-over wining. So that was how we wasted our Saturday.

Sunday was almost the same, we were there early in the morning. We waited and waited for the event to start. It was supposed to start with Nabil's sparring but after the draw lot, Nabil got a 'by' and he will straight away go to the final which will start after lunch. Then we waited....and waited...and waited until it was Aina's turn which start nearly around 11 pm. Aina didn't make it through the 3rd round but overall she did fine as she was the only white belt holder made it to that round.

We wanted to go home but was afraid Nabil would miss his chance in competing because nobody could tell us when it will start. So we waited and waited and waited until it was 1.00 pm and I decided to bring Nuraina home as she has her piano class at 4 pm.

Nabil getting ready for sparring. In his mouth is the mouth guard.

So hubby waited with Nabil whilst Aina and myself made our way home. After sending Aina for her piano class, I went to fetch hubby and Nabil bringing the other 3 younger kids along. So it was prize-giving ceremony, Nabil didn't win but he deserved the silver medal as he competed in the final.

Nabil and his medal

Although the children were complaining of hunger and thirst for the 2 days we were there and although I told them they could break fast if they wanted to, they did want and am proud.

P/S- Can you feel my predicament on the many waitings involved on my weekend?
P/S/S- And don't forget to go to the www.orangutanchatters.blogspot.com as this your chance to show your support before the due date at the end of this month. Thank you.