Farewell January

Oh my, this blog has certainly accumulated some cobwebs! Sorry peeps, still adjusting to my new role and this whole sleeping early business (cos Ian has to wake up early for kindy) is shifting the entire household's sleeping pattern. Hence zero time to blog! (The only reason why I'm blogging today is because it is a public holiday.)

Speaking about Ian, it has been one FULL month (no ponteng, ok!) but he still doesn't like school! The first thing he says to anyone, in the morning, is "I don't want to go (to) school!" And he keeps chanting the same mantra all throughout the car ride to kindy. *rolls eyes* Bila lah nak adapt nie Ian??? But I guess I should learn to count my blessings because earlier in the month he would cling to my neck, blouse, pants - anything within reach, and wail pitifully. Nowadays it's just merengek with some amount of drama tears (alah setitik dua jer) then he stops immediately after I leave the room.

Once, I was driving him to school, and he exclaimed; "When I say don't want, go back!!!" (Must have been pretty exasperated cos I kept driving even though he said he didn't want to go to school!)

Crying in class. I even tried to 'buy' him by bringing him to 7-11 before school, but I guess the joke's on me cos after he went 'shopping' he said, "Can you take me home now, Mummy?" Ppfffttt

Aiden on the other hand, is loving the whole sleeping early thing. Why? Cos he gets away from mummy-issued homework. By the time he finishes school homework, it's already time for bed. I haven't had the time to properly get him into the studying rhythm, but need to do so soon since he'll be having his exams in March. Just yesterday, he told me that he had to go on stage during perhimpunan. I thought it was because he did well or something. Rupanya the discipline teacher was lecturing the kids about ensuring their hair is short and Aiden was made as an example of rambut panjang. *chuckles* Ok definitely need to get Aiden's hair in check during this long weekend!

Recently, we enrolled the boys into swimming class. Well, a re-enrollment for Aiden but a new one for Ian. Similar like his elder brother, Ian is terrified of water. Zero water confidence! I guess the plan backfired because in his first class, the coach forced Ian to jump into the water (deep pool, mind you). I didn't quite agree with his method but I didn't want to make a scene. He was crying, scared shit-less at that point. Memang kesian. After that class, Ian completely freaked out and refused to go anywhere near the water - we actually had to cancel his enrollment. Until now, even at kindy he refuses to go near the ankle deep swimming pool. *sigh* Anak Air, if you're reading this, please revisit your coaching methods for beginners. Learn to assess each child differently. Some children just cannot be forced to conquer their fear of water in the very first class.

Ian's first (and last) class!

Aiden on the other hand, has conquered his fear and actually won a few medals in a recent swimming competition! Granted, he was placed in the junior category due to his age, but I'm just so happy that he loves the water now. He has certainly come a long way - from refusing to let water wet his hair nor trickle down his face - to this!

Congratulations Aiden, on winning silver and bronze! Super proud of you!!

Enough about the kids! Work wise, I think I'm getting there (I think)! It's definitely a mind shift, having to be less of an individual contributor but more of a leader cum manager. Managing people is not easy. Sometimes, in meetings, I feel like people are expecting me to share words of wisdom or something. Stress! To de-stress, I would then have lunch with my Upstream peeps; the people I grew up with all throughout my initial working life. Work involves a lot of traveling - I think throughout January I was traveling almost every week. Even in the plane I was turning on my laptop to reply to emails. *crazy* Next week I'm traveling again but this time I'm taking the kids too. Ponteng sekolah lah, sekali sekala. Other than traveling, I had to attend a lot of corporate dinners in January too, to the point that I was running out of muslimah-compliant dinner dresses. Thank god Zalia on Zalora ships quite quickly!

Folks in Downstream dress differently too! We seem to loveeeeee our pecten embellished shirts. This picture has garnered so many comments on my Instagram. Go check it out to get the joke! 

Due to traveling and long hours of work, I haven't seen the gang pagar sekolah for eons! From what used to be daily lepak sessions, to sekali seminggu pun susah nak jumpa. But so glad that recently we took the opportunity to have lunch together (just us girls!) to celebrate a baby shower and a double birthday celebration. Of course, yours truly was in charge of the deco and I also offered to make macarons for door gifts (instead of the cake!) I'm sure you've seen some photos on Instagram, but I promise I'll try to pen a specific post just for that event!

The pink and white deco for the day.

Still missing a few more, but so glad we took the time to enjoy our lunch outing!

One with the glowing mummy-to-be. I swear, there was literally a fan blowing into my hair, hence the rambut macam iklan shampoo shot.

Okay, that's all from me peeps - a rundown of January. I'll try to catch up on blog posts soon. (Operative word here, is try!) *chuckles*

Thanks for reading!