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Friday, March 21, 2008

Happy Birthday Ikhwan - our most beloved son!







Although I say I shall try to tally my quotation with my latest blog entry (see right column), this time around, I need to say something far more important, that has nothing to do with the quotation I already created, which is based on the TV series Damages (btw, Damages is very cleverly written, don't you think?).

Actually, I wanted to post a short story about the political scenario in Malaysia (thus, the above quotation) and how Malaysia has become 5 years from now. The story is written Damages-style, with some flashbacks. But then, since that story hasn't yet finished, I think that can wait coz like I said, the one I'm posting today, is far more important.

Based on the Islamic calendar, yesterday was 12 Rabiul Awal 1429H, a Maulidur Rasul day, i.e. the Prophet Muhammad pbuh’s Birthday (which was equivalent to 1st April last year). That means today marks our beloved son, Ikhwan, is now one year old. Both Ayah and Ibu are proud of you and love you so much Ikhwan!!! You can read/reminisce
the day Ikhwan was born here.

In conjunction with the Maulidur Rasul day (also a public holiday here), the surau at our condo (surau is a place, which can be as small as a room, allocated for Muslims to pray but can cater only a small number of jemaah, unlike mosques) organised a 'selawat', 'berzanji' and a 'potong jambul' (Ikhwan and a neighbour's daughter joined in).
While in the surau, there was a time when Ikhwan crawled from his Ibu (mother) who sat about 2 metres apart from me, just to get to me. Seeing the happy expression on his face looking at me while he was crawling, was rather touching... I noticed Ikwan was also very friendly to those other people in the surau, young and old.

During prayers, again, my heart was deeply touched by the words recited by the imam, who pray not only for the 'potong jambul' babies, but also their parents, and not to forget, the rest of the jemaah and all Muslims. He even prayed for the author of the 'berzanji' book.

Talk about feeling touched, here's a little something:

TUHANKU, sesungguhnya aku tidak layak untuk syurgaMU,
namun tak pula aku sanggup menghadapi api nerakaMU.
Dari itu ampunkanlah segalan dosa aku, dan maafkanlah aku.
Sesungguhnya ENGKAU maha pengampun segala dosa-dosa.

English translation:

YA ALLAH, I am not qualified to be in your Heaven,
but neither can i bear your Hell fire.
For that, please forgive me, for all I have sinned.
For Allah is Most Merciful, Oft-forgiving of all sins, regardless of how big they are (as long as we don't worship other than Allah of course).

For some of us, take these words to our hearts, we might not realise there'll be tears forming at the corner of our eyes.

Ikhwan, here's verse 286, taken from Surah AL-BAQARA:
On no soul doth Allah Place a burden greater than it can bear. It gets every good that it earns, and it suffers every ill that it earns. (Pray:) "Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget or fall into error; our Lord! Lay not on us a burden Like that which Thou didst lay on those before us; Our Lord! Lay not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear. Blot out our sins, and grant us forgiveness. Have mercy on us. Thou art our Protector; Help us against those who stand against faith."

Still reminiscing...... ever since only a few months old, Ikhwan always responds whenever his name is called, whether by turning his head around, or twitching his legs a bit, or slanting his head (I have finally recorded a video on this, which I shall put up soon), or uttering his baby words as a way to talk back to us or simply, by smiling/laughing. Nowadays, if he's busy playing or doing his exploring activites, he becomes so excited and sometimes he claps his hands or wriggles his body on the floor, especially when we continuously call his name in full, which is Ikhwan Rasydan. In this particular video, see how he reacted when I whispered his name...



Responsive - The best video clips are here

I shall soon recount the things that he's able to do now, still learning to do and some memorable moments my wife and I had shared with Ikhwan this past year, Insha' Allah...

P/S: Tazkirah for the day
Nowadays, it's common for parents (especially if both are working) to send their kids to be taken care of by baby sitters. Yes, kids these days spend most of their days of their weeks with people who are not their parents. But, despite of that, every single time, when the parents arrive at the sitter's place, the children would drop everything that they do and even 'toss' the sitters aside, to go home with their parents (provided that the parents are lovable to their kids laah!). So, it is in human nature for children to always feel the attachment with their parents and want to go back with them, regardless of what. Likewise, it is nature for all humans to return to the Creator whether or not they want it or they are ready. So, the question is, are we prepared to meet our Creator?


PP/S: In the above photo, Ikhwan was enjoying his meal while sitting down on his portable chair. What an ingenious design for a toddler's chair - it's lightweight yet tough, affordable and safe. I shall talk more about the chair when I share more of Ikhwan's gadgets.

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3 Comments:

At Tuesday, 25 March, 2008, Blogger Mel Ija said...

He's coming to a year old, eh? Hhmm.. time sure flies fast when you're busy. My son is 10 months old today. And I feel that I just gave birth to him a couple of months back.

I agree about the children wanting their parents, but there have been cases where the children put their parents after the babysitters. My Maksu is one of those rare cases. Sampaikan, one of the parents merajuk because her son didn't want to go home, but prefer to stay at my Maksu whom he fondly calls mama. Yerlah, my Maksu feeds him with her own hands, my Paksu washes his butt and 'siput' and bathed him, and when he was sick, the parents didn't know what to do, so sent the son over to Maksu's house. My Maksu and Paksu took turns to take care of him during the night until they were sure that the fever had subside.

Amazing, huh?

 
At Tuesday, 25 March, 2008, Blogger Mel Ija said...

Gosh.. forgot to wish:

HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY, IKHWAN..!!

ppsstt.. come 1st April, I'll give you another wish :)

 
At Wednesday, 26 March, 2008, Blogger The Pisces Man said...

Ikhwan: TQ auntie Ija, eh, your name is the same as my mum lah...

Ikhwan's dad: There was this couple who lived in Ampang but whose baby daughter was raised by the wife's parents in Cheras. The distance is very closed right and yet, they hardly visited their daughter one weekend in a month, let alone every weekends.

For some of us, yeah, they do want to have kids, or at least one of the parents does. But they don't want to go through all the hassles of butt wiping, 'siput' cleaning (siput? hahaahaha), bathing, attending the babies at times when they are sick, and not to forget, the lack of time for them to do the things they want to do since it's mostly occupied with the babies.

Like I said, provided the parents are lovable (open to interpretation of course, though I'm not implying parents like the above or the ones you mentioned are less lovable), it's natural for kids to be jumping up and down everytime they see their parents coming to pick them home.

I think the parents in your case, to some extent, it's their mistake ('fault' is a bit too harsh of a word to choose) that their son is closer with his Maksu than with them. They shouldn't have sent the son over to Maksu's house when the son is sick. It's during those times that the son would feel much loved by his guardian when he needs it most. Well, that's just my opinion lah...

February 2008 was a sick month for Ikhwan. Started with measles, then eye infection (the right eye), followed with chicken pox. Most of the days, it was my wife who took leave. Starting from the point henceforth, I notice Ikhwan is very much closer with his Ibu. When I'm the only who take care of him, he's fine with the idea. But when both of us are around, it's apparent I'm dropped to no. 2 (which I don't mind of course, I mean, well, it's his own mother anyway).

 

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