Tuesday, June 06, 2006

what did I do to deserve my kids?

I have been so blessed.. Masya-Allah, Alhamdulillah

I was watching Starting Over while breastfeeding Izani a few days ago when Anis came to me excitedly.
"Bonda, Bonda, come see what I did!" pointing towards the children's bedroom (which they dont sleep in, but has all the 3 kids' stuff in it).
I asked her to wait till izani has finished breastfeeding and she patiently said okay.
When the show was over, I put izani to bed and walked to the children's bedroom, expecting to see a sculpture, or a stack of books (coz Anis loves stacking stuff up), or a completed jugsaw puzzle (the only one we have and therefore the one she always plays with) or maybe a drawing on the computer or something.
To my suprise, she showed me a clean room.
I mean, a really clean room.
There were no clothes on the floor. The towels all neatly hung on the towel rack. The boxes and books neatly stacked on the desk. There wasnt a thing on the carpet of the whole room.
I screamed in delight "Oh thankyou so much, Anis!! That was so nice of you!!"
You should've seen the look of pride on her face when I kissed her.
and for the next few days, that was all I would hear about. How she cleaned the room all by herself.



Yesterday I was bit stressed out coz Izani didnt want to take a nap and all he wanted was someone to hold him all the time. It was Monday and that usually means I have to get dinner ready early coz Taufik had tajweed classes at 7:30pm. Furthermore Tajweed classes means I have to make something and I had wanted to make creme caramel. On top of that, there was a stack of dishes sitting in the sink since morning.
So I was like going back and fourth between the kitchen and the bedroom, doing stuff halfway, having to turn off the stove everytime I had to go see what Izani wants, and finally I brought Izani downstairs and put him in the carseat in the kitchen while I cook.
Izani still wouldnt settle down and the boys came back from playing in the park and Ihsan wanted to learn to rollerblade using his dad's rollerblades, which was of course to big for him and got me all agitated coz I started imagining him falling down and twisting his ankle. and my goreng pisang was burnt black!!
Somehow it got too much that I made the boys go upstairs watch TV and I sat at the kitchen table with Izani over my shoulder and I cried.
The phone rang and I heard Ilham pick up. From the way he talked, I figured he was talking to his dad.
After he put down the phone he came downstairs to the kitchen. The moment he saw me in tears, he stopped in his tracks.
He then proceeded cautiously and said "Um.. Bonda.."
I said "yes..."
He looked kinda nervous when he said "Um.. Bonda.. Ayah said his arabic class is cancelled today, so we can eat whatever you've made"
I said "okay".
Ilham sat down and looked at me quietly for a while.
"Bonda, what's wrong?" he finally asked.
"Nothing," I said, "I'm just tired".
"Oh" he said and twiddled his fingers.
I sniffled a bit and patted Izani who was finally going to sleep.
We sat in silence for a while.
Then suddenly Ilham decided to get up, walk to the sink and wash the dishes.
I put Izani back in the carseat, continued frying goreng pisang, checked on my creme caramel in the oven, then marinated the chicken for dinner.
I gave Ilham a hug and said "Thankyou so much, sayang" when he was done with the dishes.



Ihsan helps with arranging the shoes at our front door, but there's no interesting way to tell that story, so I'll tell another one about him.

We were having dinner and discussing about how everyone's day went. Taufik asked Ihsan what he did for Show and Tell and Ihsan said he showed a picture of Taufik and I when we were in Chicago. (it's a picture of Taufik and I on the shores of Lake Michigan with the Chicago skyline behind us)
Ihsan said
"I said, This is my father and mother.
Mrs. Snieder asked, where were they?
and I said they were in Chicago.
Mrs Snieder asked where is Chicago and I said I dont know
then everybody said where Chicago is (meaning everybody started guessing where Chicago is)
then Mrs Snieder said it is in Americ@.
Then I said my father did not meet Oprah when he was in Chicago
and Mrs Snieder laughed."

We had a good laugh about that.



I should remember this when I'm nagging and screaming at them.

No comments:

Post a Comment