... and you are one of them!
Ikhwan and his toys - I hope Ikhwan will always remember his Thomas & Friends toy collections
Last 1st April marked the day when Ikhwan turned 3 years old. His current obsessions include Thomas and Friends, raksasa (monsters), Ultraman, cars and the animals (elephants, ducks, tigers etc).
For most parents in the world, some of the earliest things they teach their kids would be the 'A', 'B', 'C' and what better ways to make that learning interesting for the kids other than to match the letters with animal names such as 'C for cat - meowww', 'E for elephant - eeekkkkk' and 'T for tiger - aummmmm'. Likewise for Ikhwan. This (the learning of A,B,C), together with the catchy 'Old McDonald' song and the recent family visit to the Safari in Malacca (I will write more on this soon), has contributed much to Ikhwan's fascination with the animal world.
Cars - I'm not a caratic (car fanatic, hehe), but once in a while, I do read articles on cars or buy car magazines. I notice that whenever that happens, Ikhwan will always want to take a peek, if not wanting the paper/magazine all to himself. I guess his liking for cars is in his genes. I just push his interest further by buying him some car toys and letting him watch Cars (the cartoon). Also, the fact that he always sits in the front passenger seat whenever we ride together since he was little, may have also played the part in arousing his curiosity on cars. I remember when I just got my new car last November, he kept saying, "Car Ayah, car baru" (baru means new - you see, we Malaysians always mix the language, even the little ones).
Ultraman and monsters - thanks to our previous baby sitter whose son always play the Ultraman video game, and his mother, who entertained his request by buying him some Ultraman movies, he always imagined himself as Ultraman. Whenever he said, "Ayah, nak yash!" - that would mean he wanted some 'sparring' sessions with me (don't ask me where he get the word yash from). He was always Ultraman, while I was a monster.
Guess the Ultraman stories always depict monsters as baddies and uncool - until one day, he caught the movie Ice Age 3. That movie completely changed his perception on monsters. Nowadays he is always a monster. I remember one day, when he was pretending to be a monster, I asked him "Who am I?" He immediately replied "baby elephant" (in reference to Ice Age 3). Funny huh? I would prefer to be named a father elephant instead. Our roles have reversed somehow haha.
Recently, all three of us watched the movie 'How To Train A Dragon' at the cinema. As expected, he had a blast!!!
Thomas and Friends (T&F). I admit, it's all me who started it. You see, when I was a kid, I've always wanted a train set, with all those little houses, little trees, little people, mountains, animals etc etc. But that would be a ridiculous thing to ask from parents yeah?
So now, I'm living up my unfulfilled childhood fantasy through Ikhwan by telling him "Let's watch T&F on the Disney channel". Not enough with that, I bought him (close to 10) T&F DVDs, T&F story books and lots and lots of railway lines (ops sori, that's the line from T&F opening sequence, heeee). I meant lots and lots of T&F toys. This way, I get to be a kid again - minus the diapers, haha!!!
I memorise the T&F theme song and always sing it to him. Imagine a jovial dad singing to his kid - Disney style. By Disney style - I mean 'hitting' high frequencies when reaching the end of the song and spreading my arms out while doing so.
I also teach Ikhwan the different characters from T&F - Thomas (of course), James, Percy, Emily, Toby, Gordon, Henry and Edward. Impressively, Ikhwan has memorised them all. Even if the pictures in his books don't clearly show which particular characters, he can still tell the difference and name them correctly. I remember how one night, my wife tried to make up her own storyline and blindly named the train characters in one of his books. She ended up being corrected by Ikhwan due to wrong names given..... :-)
Anwyay, here are photos of our T&F toys (mine and Ikhwan's that is, hehe).
Twist the knob and see Thomas moves along the 'railway line'.
I just love Percy and his carriages. The chocolate did actually smell like chocolate, for quite some time after it was unwrapped.
Don't you just love (I guess) Harold the helicopter, carrying Sodor mails? When you pull Thomas, the fans of the planes will spin around, while the crane at the back of the lorry will turn left and right. 
Flick one of the switches at the back of Percy - you can hear the choo choo sound when you move it. Flick the other - it's the theme music. For James, his eyes will move as he is pushed or pulled. Thomas has switches that will turn either the front or the back lights on.
I haven't opened this toy set yet. I'm waiting until we have finally moved into our new home in about 2 months' time or so.
The first Toby has slide shows, viewable from the lense. The other Toby 'gives' you three different surprises everytime the door is closed and then opened back again. Plus, what better way to brush your teeth while on the train, if not using T&F toothbrush eh? Ok, I'm rambling... Heck, it's close to 1am....
This is all Ikhwan. His imagination must be running wild when he arranged the toys like this, or he was probably remembering episodes from T&F, where the coaches always ended in trouble whenever they reached the dead end at high speeds. Sadly, Emily was considered useless and thus, thrown into the bins :-)P/S: While it may seem that Ikwan and I are very tight, he's actually closer and cheekier with his mother. Not that I blame him or feeling jealous with my wife or anything, but I do know the reason behind this. This had something to do with what happened in the past, when I, a new father with still a lot of temper issues to handle, was left with a baby, and my wife's work schedule was a lot crazier back then. What I may reveal in a future post may shock you, and possibly Ikhwan, should he reads this when he's older...
© Copyright Abdun Nizar Ahmad
Labels: Cartoons, Love, My car, My Children, My Families, Songs and Nursery Rhymes, Time, Toys
Spider Crossing
Itsy Bitsy Spider in a Car - Celebrity bloopers here
These days, whenever I sing the nursery rhyme 'Itsy Bitsy Spider', Ikhwan would immediately looking where my hand is at. This is because, I would normally make it crawl like a spider, crawl around him and on his body. Of course, this would lead to him laughing, giggling and wriggling.
In the above video, as I sang the nursery rhyme while waiting (for my dinner) with Ikhwan in the car, I only managed to make him laugh towards the end of the song. Although he should have laughed a lot more, guess on that day, he managed to gain control of his tickle bones :-) Then, I was about to record the condominium block where we live in, I realised Ikhwan was trying to mimic my singing. How sweet...
By the way, in the middle of the video, you can see how his legs were spreaded out as he slumped in his car seat. That is his usual way of sitting in his car seat while enjoying the ride. 'Cara duduk orang senang', as I commented to my wife one day (translation: The way how a worry-free person would sit).
Anyway, just for the sake of sharing, the lyrics to 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' goes like this:
The itsy bitsy spider,
Crawled up the water spout,
Down came the rain,
And washed the spider out,
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain,
And the itsy bitsy spider Crawled up the spout again.
The Birdie in the Car - Click here for the funniest movie of the week
Now, here's just a short video on Ikhwan getting too preoccupied with his Birdie toy. Next to the Birdie is his one of his cloth books. That particular one is on 'Colours'. We sometimes hang the Birdie and the book on his stroller too whenever we took him out on it.
The Birdie comes with a teether that Ikhwan enjoys to bite on and the small fishes that are visible in the bird's 'tummy' sometimes mesmerizes him (it's a pelican by the way). The velcro fastening of the book creates sound that Ikhwan enjoys to hear everytime he opens and closes it (he does flip other pages too of course).
Hmmm.... what else can you find in my car? Well, the spider-man is still there, then there's a Ronaldinho' jersey key-chain hanging next to it. This 'kaki bangku' father (meaning: lousy at playing soccer or as they say it in England, football), is hoping his son would master some soccer playing skills when he grows up.
Hanging on the rear-view mirror are 2 key-chains - one was given by my wife, with a list of characters of a Pisces and the other was given by my father, which shows the Ka'bah.
On the dashboard, there's a non-clock looking clock that has fooled a few into thinking it was just a dummy, an Air Asia airplane model and an alien head.
On one side of the back seat window is a car sign that shows a few fishes with the wording I'M FREE on it. The other back seat window has another car sign pressed against it. It shows a spider with large capital words that say SPIDER CROSSING.
On the rear window, I put up a sticker on Ayatul Kursi at the top part, which takes up almost the whole width of the window. On the lower left and right side corners, two more car signs on each side. Those people behind me may be able to read one sign that says DON'T HONK! BABY SLEEPING, BACK OFF! (wife thought this sounded rather harsh when I first got it, hehe..), while the other sign politely announces there's a LITTLE KALIFAH ON BOARD. There's also a tall blue Disneyland hat placed right on top of the third brake light, flanked by a couple of The Incredibles pillows and a monkey doll.
Now, don't ask me what's the monkey doll doing there. I'm a people's pleaser (as some of you might have already guessed by reading this blog....errr... I guess)... Even before Ikhwan was born, I was thinking, should my nieces ever ride with me (which they have, a few times before), at least, they have something to play with, you know, for them to occupy their time while in the car..
Labels: Gadgets, My car, My Children, My Families, My Videos, Road Safety, Songs and Nursery Rhymes, Toys
Favourite song 3 - Ikhwan's Song
Baby's Songs - Watch more amazing videos hereWould you agree that a particular melody had given births to a few songs for children such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Ba Ba Black Sheep and A B C. Their lyrics go like these:
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, how I wonder what you are...
Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky..
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, how I wonder what you are...
***********************************************
Ba Ba Black Sheep, Have you any wool, Yes sir, Yes sir, Three bags full..
One for the master, and one for the dame. And one for the little boy, who lives on the lane...
***********************************************
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Now I know my ABC, Next time won't you sing with me?
In another Ikhwan's video (edited), he is laughing his heart out as I sing my heart out to him. I had also written him a song based on that same melody. The lyrics to 'Ikhwan Rasydan' song (in Malay and with English translation) goes like this: Ikhwan Rasydan Bin Abdun Nizar. Nama Ibu Nor Hariza. Ikhwan budak lelaki, belum lagi tumbuh gigi. Ikhwan Rasydan sudah minum susu. Lepas ini baca buku... (the English version may not rhyme due to it being directly translated): Ikhwan Rasydan Bin Abdun Nizar. Ibu's name is Nor Hariza.Ikhwan is a baby boy, who still doesn't have teeth. Ikhwan Rasydan had already been fed. After this it's time to read...I also sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star towards the end of the video but pardon me for my mistake, 'coz I sang 'where you are' instead of 'what you are', hehee...In case the above video link doesn't work, you can click here to view. Enjoy it folks... :-)P/S: My family and I just want to wish Happy Ramadhan al-Mubarak to all Muslim readers out there... Labels: My Children, My Videos, Songs and Nursery Rhymes
Favourite song 2 - My Favorite Things
Get your baby stuffs here...
It's been a while since I sang My Favorite Things (taken from the movie The Sound of Music) to our baby Ikhwan, and I hope one day, when he already learns and understands a little and more of English, he would understand the song and can sing along. Meantime, for those of you who would like to know the lyrics to the song, here it is. While doing that, why not view the movie clip here, or how about singing it to your kid(s) with this as the music playground....
Raindrops on roses,
And whiskers on kittens,
Bright copper kettles
And warm woolen mittens.
Brown paper packages
Tied up with string
These are a few of my favorite things.
Cream colored ponies,
And crisp apple strudel.
Doorbells and sleighbells
And schnitzel with noodles,
Wild geese that fly
With the moon on their wings,
These are a few of my favorite things.
Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes,
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes,
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things.
When the dog bites,
When the bee stings,
When I'm feeling sad.
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don't feel so bad!Labels: My Children, Songs and Nursery Rhymes
Favourite song 1 - Do Re Mi
The Sound of Music (TSOM) is one of those classic (musical) movies that most people would still enjoy even after repeat viewings. What with the catchy tunes, impressive sceneries (the movie was shot in Salzburg, Austria - read about my brief journey to the magnificent place here) and interesting storyline (there is a trailer remix made by a fan here - though pretty nicely done, you might be put off thinking that it's a war movie, especially if you have no idea what the movie is about).
One of the things that I really enjoy about the movie, as I already listed earlier, is the songs, and from what I understand, to this day, some of the songs are being taught at some schools overseas.
If that is so, then how come they are not considered as nursery rhymes? I mean, I've been collecting English and Malay nursery rhymes for my son (and for other future children of course) - from buying CD's and books to outsourcing from the internet. However, for some reason, the songs from TSOM were never listed as one of those English nursery rhymes. I mean, why not, considering that songs like Do Re Mi, My Favourite Things, Edelweiss and So Long, Farewell are very suitable for children, with rhythmic melodies and easy-to-remember lyrics.
I've been singing these songs to Ikhwan, especially when he's in such a jolly mood or when I try to cheer him up. It seems that he's very much enjoying himself, laughing and trying to communicate with me everytime I sing to him Do Re Mi and Edelweiss (I just hope he didn't actually try to say 'there's some pitchy problems laa, papa' - hahaha).
If you would like to listen to the song, here's the clip taken from the movie, while the lyrics goes like this:
Doe, a deer, a female deer. Ray, a drop of golden sun. Me, a name I call myself. Far, a long, long way to run. Sew, a needle pulling thread. La, a note to follow sew. Tea, a drink with jam and bread! That will bring us back to do oh-oh-oh!..... AND if you would like to hire me to entertain your children with lively and entertaining songs/performances, I'm also open for bookings. Reasonable charges apply... Hahahahaha...
P/S: Somebody commented that the deer in the above drawing doesn't look like a deer. Oh deer... :-)Labels: Cartoons, My Children, Songs and Nursery Rhymes
Penguin Rush
I just love Percy and his carriages. The chocolate did actually smell like chocolate, for quite some time after it was unwrapped.
Don't you just love (I guess) Harold the helicopter, carrying Sodor mails? When you pull Thomas, the fans of the planes will spin around, while the crane at the back of the lorry will turn left and right. 
Flick one of the switches at the back of Percy - you can hear the choo choo sound when you move it. Flick the other - it's the theme music. For James, his eyes will move as he is pushed or pulled. Thomas has switches that will turn either the front or the back lights on.
I haven't opened this toy set yet. I'm waiting until we have finally moved into our new home in about 2 months' time or so.
The first Toby has slide shows, viewable from the lense. The other Toby 'gives' you three different surprises everytime the door is closed and then opened back again. Plus, what better way to brush your teeth while on the train, if not using T&F toothbrush eh? Ok, I'm rambling... Heck, it's close to 1am....
