Nearly 7 months after the first blogpost announcing Sufia's arrival which makes us a family of 4, Alhamdulillah, here I am blogging again!

I've been trying out a few other platforms, but I got so confused by all of them, esp wordpress - how on earth do you attach the pictures onto the post?! The urge to blog is always here, especially with Sufia getting a bit bigger, there's so much to document, and Hyder and his school adventures which are always so intriguing to hear, haha. Just last week his bestfriends were Thoriq and Harris, but this week it's Danish. I suspect it's because Danish just celebrated his birthday and he got a great goodie bag. Haha.

So what has been happening these past 7 months? A LOT! Just to sum it up, I gave birth, by caesarean again, based on gynae's advice. This 2nd pregnancy had me worried like 90% of the time, that I didn't want to share the good news with anyone at all. I dunno why it was like that.

Before going to EastShore to deliver, I asked Husband to go Maqam Habib Nuh, nak tawassul kejap. We were actually abit late, delivery time was at 1pm, and we had to register at 10am, but it was 930am and we still have not reached Maqam, haha. Turns out it was ok to reach a bit later, there was lots of sitting around. Husband was with me in the op theatre this time round, and it felt a bit more not-scary, haha.

Alhamdulillah Sufia was born a healthy baby at 3.08kg, and to date, she has been a very happy cheerful, super smiley baby.

Hyder is now 4years plus, he's in K1, and being a really helpful big brother. Prefers us to call him Abang now. When Sufia just arrived, he had trouble adjusting to being the older sibling now, and would ask me to stop breastfeeding, or stop attending to Sufia, and just entertain him nonstop. Now he's more aware, although at night if I have to put Sufia to sleep, he will ask Baba to hug him to sleep. He's SO super manja with his parents, and he manjakan Sufia alot also, always kissing and hugging his sister. Alhamdulillah :)

In end March this year we went to Jeju & Seoul, thanks a contest Husband won. The whole trip was sponsored by Shell & UOB & Lightfoot Travel. It's actually only for 2 adults, so we top up about USD660 for bigger hotel rooms, and bigger car, so that we will travel abit more comfortably. The kids' airfare was fully sponsored by Lightfoot Travel - they paid due to a slight miscommunication btwn them and Shell. Rezeki dari Allah!

Everyone warned us not to bring Sufia, because she would only be about 2.5 months then, but we felt we wouldn't have so much fun without her. Yes she wouldn't know anything, she would be asleep most of the time, and thanks to everyone's warning, we were so worried whether she could tahan the cold etc.

Alhamdulillah she did, except for a mild case of winter rashes on her cheeks (the only exposed part of her body, haha) when we reached SG. She was still on full b/feeding then, and I reached a personal achievement by b/feeding on top of Namsan Hill (N Seoul Tower) in the open, in winter! It was SO damn cold but hey we did it! Alhamdulillah!



We travelled by Asiana, totally the best airline I've ever been on. The food was not great, but the aircrew were SO nice and helpful. Especially since we had 2 kids, helpful aircrew were a blessing, seriously.

We stayed at Lotte Hotel at Jeju, and IP Boutique at Itaewon, Seoul. We had a Toyota minivan and a driver the whole time in Jeju and for a day in Seoul. On our 2nd day in Seoul, we actually opted out early from a day tour (that was included in our prize) and went around on our own, using the subway, taxi and such. That kind of travelling is much more satisfying kan?! It was amazing seeing how they lived, walking through the streets etc.

However if you are going out of Itaewon, I think it's best to bring some food in your bag or something.. esp if you have kids! Luckily we packed some food for Hyder everywhere we go, it was just SO hard to find halal food around Seoul - there was only 1 halal kebab shop in Namdaemun, and no halal shops on Dongdaemun and Myeongdong! AT ALL! Don't even mention the area around Lotte World! We survived on just bread that we bought from a halal bakery at Itaewon the day before!



We extended our trip by a day and moved to Lotte World Hotel. Lotte Hotel at Jeju impressed us so much that when we extended our trip we opted for Lotte again, haha. Sadly service standard wasn't the same as Jeju. We spent the extended day at Lotte World themepark, Hyder had so much fun and it was totally worth it :)

To this day it still feels so surreal, having a whole trip totally sponsored. If we didn't upgrade our car and hotel room, then we wouldn't have spent even a single cent except for own shopping... it's so awesome, and it's truly a gift from Allah.

The week after we came back, my parents said they wanna go to Gold Coast, and asked us along. We wanted to decline, because afterall we just got back from Seoul, it was tiring travelling with 2 kids. But they insisted, so we said ok!

Travelled by Emirates, stayed at Breakers North Apartment at Surfers' Paradise. Trip consisted of my parents, my 2 sisters, my cousins Abg Aim & Pag, and their 3 kids, another cousin Dayah, and us. It was SO kecoh, but SO fun! We went in June, and it was winter when we were there, but it wasn't as cold as Seoul, just sweaters were enough for the kids, so we definitely travelled a bit lighter, haha. In Seoul Hyder had to wear longjohns, tshirt, sweater AND a jacket. It was about 1deg at night and 7deg at noon in Seoul. At Gold Coast it was around 9deg at night and 16deg at noon.



We went to all the themeparks, even Wet n' Wild, yes in winter! Hahah! Dreamworld is the best themepark EVERRRRR, I took some rides and I think I nearly died on the Tower of Terror II. That was definitely one of the highlights of the trip, when we were shooting upwards I couldn't stop screaming, and when we were going down, I couldn't even scream - it was really just this vacuum of feeling nothing and everything - I was THAT scared. Hahah.

Sufia took only one ride the whole trip, the carousel at Movieworld, and she had this HUGE grin on her face, that we took it again, only to end up super mabok coz that thing just go round and round and round, haha.

Hyder took quite a number of rides, quite daring lah that boy. He even took the rollercoaster with Baba at Movieworld, I was really impressed! After the ride I asked him if it was fun, he said in this in-awe voice "yes it was fun, but sikit fun only." Hahah.



The beach at GoldCoast was SO perfect, Masha'Allah. Every morning when I see the view from our apartment balcony, it just takes my breath away. It was SO amazing, SO perfect!

On our last day there, we played at the beach, Hyder built sandcastles, and then he, together with Baba and Sufia, went swimming at the apartment pool. In winter! (but the water was kindof heated, so not that bad lah.)

The trip back to SG was horrendous, alot alot alot of turbulence, and it didn't help that Sufia did a poo, and she's the sort that cannot have poo in her diapers, she will cry LIKE MAD, so Baba just ignored the aircrew and changed her in the toilet, so the other passengers would stop giving us dirty stares. The aircrew were also so rude, and super not helpful. They saw me struggling with a crying squirming Sufia, and I told them can you clear my tray first please, because I need the space to hold her, and they were like "oh no ma'am it's not clearing time yet." When I explained I need the space, he repeated the same thing! And yet he was just standing near the galley doing nothing! GRRRR.

However the desserts on the flight home was quite nice, heh heh.

So that's the update for the 2 extremely fun trips we had so far this year. In Dec Insha'Allah we are going to KL to support Haliza during her bowling tournament, but other than that, no more trips I think. I'm already itching for another holiday though, haha.

I will update more as and when. It actually feels theurapatic to blog, haha.

Am on halfday today, going to bring the kids out!