Ramadan Message from President Obama

How refreshing and nice to hear the US President really understand what one of Islam important rituals. This is a wonderful message from President Obama on Ramadan even though he does put in a bit of political message in it. :)

As for the muslims in the Bay Area, this is the first time since I've been here that all of us are starting Ramadan on the same day, this Sat, Aug 22, 09. There's 2 schools of thought here, one uses the calendar and the other uses the traditional method of actually looking for the new moon (which signifies the start of the month). I follow the group that uses the calculation method which is backed by ISNA (Islamic Society of North America). Also due to the two groups, we sometimes have 2 different days of Eid...so two prayer days. I'm hoping that we're going to have the same day for Eid too.

Anyway, here's the video.

Video from a long time ago

When I was back in Malaysia, Kevin found out about our home movies (8mm), they were all in a plastic bag - hundreds and hundreds of feet worth. He insisted that we transfer them to DVD to keep for prosperity. It's funny how my sister and I weren't as excited as he was..maybe coz it's our past. Anyway, I called up some places in Malaysia and found out that there's no place to the transfer so we brought them to the States.

At first I found some really expensive quotes to do the transfer but then I discovered that one of my club buying warehouse does it too. So, I brought one reel there to test it out. After a few weeks, the call came to let me know that it's ready. It was nerve-wrecking and exciting.

After I brought it home, I popped it into the DVD player, sat down and watched these long ago images in front of me with my mouth open. The images seems to have a 3-D effect in my head. For example, there was a scene of us bathing in the river, and we were playing with this big leaf. I actually remembered the sensation of how the leaf felt and how it looked like - every golden vein.

Anyway, there's a lot of stuff in that one reel. I edited one for You Tube - had to slow some parts down a lot coz my Dad loves to pan very, very fast and I was all dizzy watching it. Due to the slowing down, it created some white lines on the screen so do expect that. This part of the home movie was the time when our family went to Zurich, Switzerland to visit my uncle and aunt. My late Mother looked so young (she's younger than me now in that film), and it was so nice to see her again in that time. My late Grandmother is there too. The rest of the family is still alive so I think they'll definitely enjoy watching this especially the 70's outfit and hairstyle that everyone has.

I hope you enjoy a bit of my past too.

-Haniza-

Brigitta's latest photos

Brigitta is going to be 7 months in 2 more days. My baby girl is growing up fast! Anyway, here's her latest adventures :

Having fun in her crib.

This is the greatest mat ever by Ikea and so reasonably priced too. Great buy!

Taking her own photo? heh heh...slicked hair look. She loves baths now.

We found a bubble bath for kids that has the most nicest smell. I think it helps her sleep too.

At the Muslim Community Association Picnic. She's starting to learn how to crawl. Have done a few rolls already. Yay!

Trying out hats to see if it shades her enough from the sun, it only lasts a few minutes though.

Official weigh : 17 lbs 5.5 oz. By the end of the day, my knees are crying for help! :)

At a music around the world class...we were singing in different languages. She was just fascinated with her drum sticks.

Likes to ponder by the mirror. :)

Trying out her inflatable swimming pool in the backyard. It's cold...brrr!!! She's discovering that its easier to walk in the water than on land, esp with the floatie.

Baby Food and SIDS

I can't believe I'm making baby food. First, it's a great money saver, and secondly, I want her to have more flavorful food. The baby food is like canned food...it's not bad but wouldn't you prefer a home cooked meal? I learnt how to mash, puree and freeze. The kitchen looked like it survived a tornado especially after doing my brown rice, peas, carrot with chicken broth recipe. Heh heh...do I sound like proud of myself or what! :)

I haven't taken any photos of the food making process coz I am so tired nowdays. I'm not used to carry a 17lb wriggling baby up and down the stairs. And she's been fussy and waking up every 2-3 hours so I was exhausted! Kevin then really helped out and he took over her when she wakes up so that she learns not to nurse in the middle of the night. If she looks thirsty, he will give some water. After about 4 nights of this, yesterday, she seemed to learn that she can sleep right through. I'm praying that will be the case. :)

We're getting ready to place her in the nursery at night now so I made some research on that. I found out about this study from New Zealand about toxic fumes from mattresses and that might be the cause of SIDS. I heard the radio interview and read up on it, it's pretty compelling stuff. Here's a couple of links :

1) Third party article : http://www.johnleemd.com/store/more_crib_sids.html

2) Radio Interview (48 minutes) : http://www.babysnugglebugs.com/catalog/tjinterview.mp3

3) The researcher's website : http://www.cotlife2000.com/

I decide to be better safe than sorry and purchase a BabeSafe mattress cover to wrap it as per instructions. It's not expensive at all. Later on, when we get a new mattress, I want to wrap that too coz the fumes are in every mattress according to the reasoning, it could even be in the organic mattress. That's why one of the top organic mattress maker wraps their mattress already.

I just want to share it with you all in case you haven't heard of this.

Later!

Haniza