Elsa Rashdan

“Mummy !! Where is your car ?” Asked my daughter one night as she peered outside. “Cik Yin pinjam...” Said I. Hearing that her eyes went wide, brows furrowed.

“So how are you going to work tomorrow ?” Comelnya muka…

“Tok hantar….” With that she went quiet.

The next day as usual I got the kids ready and when I ushered them downstairs for breakfast, started my own toilette. As I was about to put my clothes on, I heard her crying from down below. Babah and Umar had already left the house.

The crying got nearer and nearer and soon I saw my little girl, very much distressed, face wet from tears.

“Laaa…. Awatnya ?” She looked relieved when she saw me and quickly threw herself on me.

“I thought you left me …” She wept. “I cannot see your car…”

“Elsa… I told you right, that Cik Yin borrowed my car… Tok is sending us….” I heard an embarassed laugh came from my lap, where she was sobbing not 1 second ago.

“Ohh… ha ha…. I forgot….” She said, big grin on her face.

Entah apa-apa entah minah ni..

Elsa’s hair is rather long now and what a messy girl she is when her hair is in that state. Two days ago she was moving about, hair all over the face, obscuring me from seeing her exquisite face. As she walked past by, I grabbed her and started pushing the masses and masses of hair away.

When done, I was treated to a big grin that was just waiting for me to see.

“I am gorgeous, Mummy !!” She declared, oh so confidently. I agreed but chose to instead say, ‘Oh really ?”

“Yes….” She said. “But don’t worry, you are gorgeous, too…” Leaving me with my mouth hanging open.

Two weeks ago we went to celebrate baby Muhammad’s birthday. When it was time to cut the cake, she went near to inspect the cake. Kamalia’s mom Aunty Zainab offered her a piece. “No thank you,” She said. “I don’t like this cake. I only like chocolate cake….”

I of course tackled my daughter in the car. “Ti…. Next time if you don’t like anything, please give a better excuse. You can say something like you are not hungry. Saying you don’t like what people had made a lot of trouble to make is quite rude….”

She was quiet but looked thoughtful. Akhirnya ini yang keluar dari mulut anak aku, “It’s okay Mummy. Dia tak marah pun…. So tak de apa-apa…..”

Haarrummmppphh !

Botol ! I saw him !

As usual almost everyday I will leave some work for Umar to do. Usually Bahasa Malaysia because his BM is simply atrocious. He doesn’t like to read in BM so I do not know how else to improve his command in that particular language,

Sometimes I would check his work, sometimes I won’t. It depends. I mean I do not make a point to check every day. I did however about 3 days ago, especially since it is exams time and was hugely disappointed to see that he didn’t finish it.

He did a few pages and left a few blank.

When I asked he flustered. It is normal for him to tell me he couldn’t do it but very suspicious when he was grappling for an excuse.

Disappointment turned into rage. I got so angry and I started yelling at him. He blinked his huge eyes at me but it failed to chasten me. Hey, I am not in the wrong here. Anger spent, I went to cool down in the kitchen. Elsa was colouring and not 5 minutes after I sat, she said, “Mummy… Umar buat kerja lah..”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Botol !” She said, nodding her head vigorously. “I saw him!! Saya nampak dia !!”

“Then, if he did his work, why tak habis ?” I challenged.

She grinned. “Saya tak tahulah…..” she said, smiling so broadly that I calmed down immediately. Her cheery mood was infectious.

Tak yah......

Kelmarin Anna complained about Bubu. Dengan mata berkerutnya, dengan suara sedihnya. Apalah Mummy nak buat apart from saying, “Naughty nya Bubu…. Nanti Mummy pok dia !” with enough vehemence to sound convincing.

“Eh ! Tak yah !!” She said, palm and head wagging. “Nanti Cik Yin marah ….”

He he comel…

“Laa… tapi tadi Ana kata Bubu buat Anna….”

“Jangan….. Bubu Cik Yin punya nanti Cik Yin marah…..” She insisted.

“Okeylah… if that is the case, Mummy nak pok Cik Yin sebab bagi Bubu buat Anna…” Said I.

“Eh ! Tak yah !!” Palm and head wagged again, so very adorable my little Anna.

“Cik Yin Anna punya…… jangan……”

He he he…..

Kelakar lah Anna ni …..

Umar...

I was lying in our darkened room 2 days ago, waiting for my kids to go to sleep before I join my waiting husband to watch the grown-up stuffs on the telly (usually if I managed to not go to dreamland with my babies hand in hand lah).

Our conversation had dwindled, the little people were tossing around waiting for sleep. The silence was marred by Elsa’s coughs though, which came intermittently at first but gained frequency as the night wore on.

I was debating whether to just let it go or start the inevitable war if medicine is mentioned when Umar spoke, “Elsa… please get a drink of water….”

“Ha ?” Was her reply and abang said it again in another language, “Pergi turun bawah minum….”

She was silent but after another cough, she said, “Teman, Um….” Umar sighed but he got up all the same and together they went down.

Mummy waited for them and when she came to, it was Subuh.

“Bangun cepat, kata nak pegi Pasar Tani ?” Said Abah.

The kids scrambled up and at 7.30 off we went to Pasar Tani. In the car, abah told me a story. “Semalam I bagi Elsa makan ubat batuk and they watched the telly with me…. After awhile, Elsa cakap “Umm… jomlah kita tidur sebab esok kita nak pegi pasar tennis”(nama lain bagi pasar tani sebab we can only go after tennis class or when tennis is cancelled…. I think lah…)..”

He he…. Umar sure bengang sebab kena arah left, right and center.

It’s okay… Umar is a good boy….

Playground and kite flying

Umar and Elsa’s 2 weekend on the last day of February was very busy.

Not much happening on Saturday, though. Babah came home late as he had a lunch meeting then for dinner, Mummy expressed desire for any food in Subang Parade because she had a RM 5 voucher from MPH that expired that very day.

Sunday was a novelty. Since ITM’s tennis court aren’t ready yet, the classes had to be cancelled until April. So what do we do, what do we do ?

Mummy instructed Cik Yin to wake up Esya and Anna early. Cik Yin very sceptical as both of them are not early risers but Mummy did not care. Her girls must come with her. At 7.30 am Cik Yin announced that only Esya was raring to go, Anna refused to wake up. Mummy wouldn’t take NO from a 3 year old.

Luckily when she got home (well Tok Mi’s house would always be home), Esya was dressed and Anna baru nak mandi. Quickly bathed her, then off we go to KLCC’s playground !! Yeay !!

Armed with sausage buns (but no drinks !! Yikes !! Lupa.) off we went marching in. The day was beautiful and the kids were excited. We took the long route to the playground from the car park and the babies jumped, ran and skipped all the way, shouting happily.

As the norm when you are given too much choices you just wouldn’t know what to do first so they sampled and checked everything until Mummy and Babah got quite fed up and asked them to play at each set for at least 10 minutes. Can’t blame them really as it rained the night before and most of the slides were wet but luckily there were janitors wiping them dry, but of course they weren’t fast enough for Mummy’s eager children.

Anna takut-takut so Babah had to join in. Don't think he minded... ha ha

We stopped because Ana was thirsty and since Mummy forgot drinks, they quenched their thirst at the very nice water cooler. Umar of course demanded food and therefore Babah took us to A&W. We regret that decision.

First of all, they don’t sell waffles before 11 am. What the … ? Waffles are for breakfast, don’t you know ? Luckily they had pancakes and fortunately Elsa is the nicest girl on earth as she agreed to share with Esya who changed her mind about not eating. Both of them polished off their plate clean. Umar who also ordered pancakes, took a fancy to Mummy’s chicken porridge so Mummy had to share. It was an unfair sharing because Umar ate like 70% of it.

Secondly the service was slooowwww…. Slow to the max. There weren’t many people so Mummy and Babah couldn’t understand their snail pace. It was frustrating. Mummy was eyeing the delicious array of food La Cucuq offered and was tempted to partake their offerings. She succumbed to the cucuq udang’s calling and quaffed them in A&W’s premise.

Before leaving KLCC, Mummy went in search of a pair of blue jeans, required for a gathering next week. Found it and Babah paid for it so yeay !! Ha ha

Abah kena lagi.... Anna nih...

The kids resumed their playing at home where Mummy and Babah gratefully sank their behinds on the very comfy sofa and watched the telly. By 3 pm Anna was asking for her ayah so we sent them home.

Babah stopped for goreng pisang and that was the best decision he ever made as we found kites ! Kites !! Yeay !! We were happy because our last kite might still be inside a drain at the kontinjen polis. As soon as we got home Umar and Elsa started playing with the kites and in the process got the strings tangled. The wind was dismal anyway. Babah then drove us to the park in front of the mosque and the kites flew !! How it flew… it was majestic. Umar and Elsa ran around happily, marveling at their soaring kites.

We wished Anna and Esya were still with us. Babah brought Umar’s football and they played together. Babah asked Umar to take off his shoes. Mummy cautioned Babah that Umar wouldn’t like it very much and was she right. Reminded Mummy of a time when we went to a Jamaican festival in Leicester. It was a nice summer day and we put baby Umar on the grass. He wasn’t happy at it’s ticklish nature and made faces. The same face he made 8 years later in Shah Alam…. Ha ha !!

“It is very tickly lah, Babah…!” He protested, forehead furrowed. Told you, Bah. However since Umar is rather obedient, he did as he was told and soon forgot about the grass and was happy running around with Babah.

Elsa though was happy enough with her kite and had a super-licious time whizzing and zipping around the park with her kite up high.

Lovely.

Hmmm....

I was first made aware of this about a month ago. We were hanging out with Shazmi at KFC sek 13. Umar didn’t want to come but Elsa did.

5 minutes to 11 pm we decided to make a move and I called for Elsa and she promptly abandoned the swings.

“She is very obedient ya ?” Observed Shazmi. “Most kids would whine or ask for more time….” I thought about what he said and found that it is rather true. My children don’t usually put up a fight whenever I asked them to stop from doing something.

Then again 2 weeks after that I went to Kamalia’s house and while Jubei, Ya and myself talked, the kids played upstairs (that is the day I delivered my promised beefy French toasts) and when I hollered for them to come down, they did so immediately.

Sheik and Ya made the same observation Shazmi did. Very obedient children you have, Myra.

Now, was I happy ? Proud ?

This is the reason why Rashdan sighs at my craziness because well… I went crazy obsessing if I am a too strict mom.

Garang ke aku ? Cengei ka ? Why didn’t they make any protest when I cut short their fun ? Selective amnesia, Mummy ?

However…. Whenever I asked them to stop their hour long bath, they always ask for ‘5 more minutes, Mummy’. In fact one of Elsa’s first sentence was that…. So, maybe in order for them to have that extra 5 minutes in the bath, they followed my orders at other times because they didn’t want to push their luck ?

Or they really are thoughtful and obedient…

Ye ke ?

Elsa pun fed up.

I was reading in bed, Elsa was colouring and Umar playing with his cars, one fine day. Suddenly Umar sat up and started talking about an eposide of Avatar that he had seen.

He went on and on and on, describing every little detail and it was getting quiet tedious to hear, even though technically he wasn’t telling it to me. But I could hear it all the same. Anyway, I wasn’t planning to do anything about it but his sister did though.

“Um… my friend already told me that story, Um..” She said and I thought, hmmm…. good excuse. Well done.

Abang ignored her and kept on with his story.

“Um ! I said my friend told me this story already. I know this story !!” She said, harder this time.

Abang didn’t even miss a beat and kept at it like she hadn’t said anything, twice !

“Dah lah, Um. I know the story already…. My friend told me at school !!”

“Takpelah, Ti ! Dengar sajalah. Can’t you just listen to my story ?” Abang finally answered, coupled with a jelingan maut. He paused for a breath then continued on.

Elsa gave an audible and hugely exaggerated sigh and shook her head.

Mummy also shook her head.

Hmmm……