Ahnaf dan Buku

Mengulangi tengah malam kemarin, udara di Sydney cukup nyaman untuk tidur. Pun nyaman untuk berseteru dengan opini dan hasil riset di jurnal-jurnal. Sayang, kenyamanan ini tak bertahan lama... working memory saya over-load dan jenuh membawa saya kembali ke blog ini.

Saya ingat pertama kali saya memberikan buku ke anak saya, Ahnaf. Pintar sekali dia memgang buku, seolah-olah mau membacanya. Buru-buru deh kamera saya ambil... adegan berikutnya ternyata bukan membaca, terang bayi kecil saya ini belum bisa membaca, namun berusaha untuk memasukkannya ke dalam mulut. Memang inilah kemampuan motorik halus yang umum dimiliki oleh bayi seusianya (3,5 bulan). Berikut fotonya. Di foto ini Ahnaf kelihatan lebih lucu oleh kepala gundul, pipi tembem dan aksi mengatupkan bibirnya. Saya tersenyum, kejenuhan saya memudar.

Tengah Malam

Udara di Sydney tengah malam ini cukup bersahabat, tidak dingin atau panas, just comfy for sleeping beauty :) Sayang sekali saya tidak bisa tidur memang sengaja tidak tidur. Tengah malam seperti ini biasanya saya tidak tidur bukan untuk bercinta, namun mengerjakan tugas yang katanya mulia sebagai seorang siswa, atau lebih umum di negara saya, saya ini sekarang disebut sebagai mahasiswa.

Saya pengen sekali mengabarkan foto ini di blog saya yang abu-abu ini. Ini adalah foto saya bersama suami dan anak pertama. Kepada merekalah cinta saya berlabuh.

Baby Massage

Baby massage (pijat bayi) sounds traditional application but is very recommended nowdays in this modern era. Read and get guidance about it here or here.

I often massage my baby after bathing him. I do not need to massage all of his body everyday because it takes time and honestly, he doesn't like it everyday. Moreover, my baby is not always happy after bathing and he just want to finish bath ceremony as soon as possible. He gives me indication like yawning or screaming. If I find him relax, or I can make him relax, I will massage his body completely. I've never pushed him to be relax though, or it will just be frustrating. Anyway, massage has lots of fun. I do it happily by singing songs or talking with him. The most important is that it bonds you and your baby.

Perfectionist

One of my weaknesses is tend to be perfectionist.

Firstly, whatever I do is supposed to be perfect. Well, this is good in one side, as such this will assure outstanding performances. However, on the way to make it perfect could be the lack one. Frequently, I spend too much time to make preparation. I keep imagining, thinking, planning, revising, imagining, thinking, planning and revising again and again before the real action. Quite often, the real action is on the last minute. If a bad lack on me like technical trouble in my computer, lost money, tired or sick; the result, as you reckon, won't be as perfect as the plan. Poor me! The worse thing is that if I get interruption of another tasks during the 'thinking' period. I can keep one task behind and do the other, and so forth as live goes on, I get many things to do in my head. Eventually, I just get frustration and do it reluctantly. Some even unconsciously be forgotten.

Secondly, I want to do many things at once as I want to be seen as the perfect one. I have ambition to do this, this and this but reality, I only have one head, two hands, 24 hours, many hours sleeping period and many-many homeworks as a mother of one, a wife, a daughter, a grand daughter, an aunt, a student, a teacher, a friend, a traveler, a milister, a reader, a blogger may be, etc. I do aware that I have limitation that I can't handle many things at once, but am not sure why I still make plans and think actions. Consequently, this makes me more dreaming than doing real action. Eventually, nothing is resulted and I just become nerd.

Nonetheless, I still tend my self as a perfectionist. I know it could make me mad, and also people around me perhaps, that's why I categorise this character as my weaknesses. Even though it is not easy to perform perfectly, I insist to be perfectionist. What makes me like this is that I am always impressed by the perfect performances that I accomplished some times ago. I will try as hard as I could to pursue the perfect again. True that this sentence is typically said by a perfectionist, hehehe... You know, it is such a satisfaction once you could be perfect. And I believe that it will make a difference.

I have written about the same topic last year, click this away to read it.

Pengajian Akhwat

Pengajian Akhwat is sort of muslim women association whose activities like reading the Holy Qur'an, discussing family matters in Islam perspective, sharing experiences and, always, food. This in Sydney, however, is not limited for women only, but their children (male and female) can also be involved. Most of them are Indonesian students from UNSW, UTS, USyd, etc. Indonesians who are already PR also involved. Find about them in this site.

I am currently one of the member. It's a lovely place to meet mothers in here. Above is our picture (just a few of us who did Ied prayer at UNSW) after sholat Ied this year at Sam Cracknel pavillion, UNSW. My baby was in my cuddle. He was deeply sleeping. Can you find us?

Recipes in Mind

I love everything related to cooking. I forget when I exactly started like doing cooking, though. It may have been growing up since my mum asked me often to help her in kitchen when I was a kid. I am remembering now, I had kid's cooking stuffs and I played such a chef, cooked 'fake' food and friends of mine became the consumer. He..he..he.. typically femi-girl!

I am a mother of one at this moment. My husband really likes snacking, just fits with my hobby of cooking. If I have time, I surely make some for him. As my baby will be introduced to solid food shortly, I just started looking around recipes of baby food. About baby's, I like suggestion in this website: raising your children! It's worth to read it.

Once I got a place called recipes heaven. It's my friend's web blog actually, Mbak Ayu. Her latest entry, cupcakes, inspired me to make something similar in the near future when my son grows. It also makes me remember some recipe books on my shelf, mmm... not, I think it's in the box, already to sent to my home town in Jogja ^_^. Imagining my son eats what I make for him. Describing myself busy creating cakes and my son waits for them. I really can't stop my mind imagining(and smiling alone) that it'll be nice and indeed, becoming one of them who love serving with food is just profound.

Flying over some recipe pages, I keep them in my mind. They're just waiting for the time to be realised.

Zulfadhli Ahnaf

My first son was born on the twenty-first of June this year at Royal Hospital for Women, Randwick, NSW, Australia, with 2495 grams weight and 48 cms length. It was about four months ago and to be honest, I sort of forget how small he was. He was a very bit under normal weight which is 2500 grams. Now, he is a healthy lovely charming baby boy. His weight at this moment is around 6.5 kgs and his length is 64 cms.

I used to carry him using baby pouch at the first few weeks. Since after he's heavier than 6 kgs, I often go out by pushing him in his pram, but for short distance I still find that using baby pouch is more practicable. More effort to straighten my back, though!

Three words to say my most impression of having a baby are fantastic, patience and live. I can't lie to you that it is also tiring since I am also a student with thesis dues shortly, living apart from extended family, surrounding by foreigners. More, this is my first baby, that means first experience of a new life. I have to find by myself hints, tips and tricks to grow him up. However, this tiredness is gone when I see my baby is healthy, smiling, gaining new skills, and sleeping deeply. The feeling of motherly also shines up so beautifully, particularly when I am breastfeeding. It is wonderful! I love this motherhood.

I am back!

My last posting was in April in which a half of a year ago describes clearly the title of this post. I had postponed my desire to blogging until now because of many reasons... and because too many to mention... he..he..he.. I won't mention them here. However, just to say one that I was kind of bored to compile sentences. It doesn't mean that now I highly intense to write though, I just have too many stores in my head and couldn't stop my mind to think about sharing these stories in this blog. So, now my blog is waking up. I hope within my busy busy days, I am enable to manage time and share stories to my readers. Wait... I suspect they're gone already since I was quite for such a long time... sorry guys... I am a bit sad but doesn't matter! Surely I will be happy after kicking off stories in my head.

Okay, I am now back. Enjoy the following posts!