Aqil starts fasting at 7 yrs old! Alhamdulillah!

Alhamdulillah! Today marks the 4th full day fasting for Aqil. 😘

Since Day 1 of Ramadhan, I have been posting abt getting Aqil to fast this year.
Why is Aqil's Mama so excited abt him fasting? Why is Aqil's Mama posting abt it everyday?

Haha! Nah...this isn't showing off...in fact that intention was never there.
Usually when I post abt something...it is something that somewhat has an impact on me. I just like sharing abt it.

And Aqil's fasting is one that has an impact on me...his Mama. His fasting has made his parents very,very proud of him. Aqil actually started fasting much later than his Abang & Kakak. Ariq & Arisya started with half day fasting at 4 yrs old and full day fasting at 6.
And of course...Ariq & Arisya had iftar at the same table as us at the sound of Azan.

But its different for Aqil. In fact, we didn't even try to start him with fasting at 4 yrs old coz then we'd just knew of his condition. And with his incomplete & unbalanced diet, we were cautious abt his health.

So it is only this year that we wanted to try getting him to fast. It started off quite badly...he was having meltdowns & getting restless the first 2 days.

One thing for sure is we're not gonna force it on him...in fact, fasting was not forced on Ariq & Arisya too. But with Ariq & Arisya...explaining worked coz they were able to understand.
However, its totally a different thing with Aqil. He doesn't understand the purpose of fasting in Islam.

But with having fasted for 4 consexutive days successfully...I think he's getting the idea of fasting but has yet to understand the purpose though.
Aqil now knows he can't eat or drink in the day & can only eat or drink at night. It gets easier each day. I'd always remind him that he's fasting & make him look outside the window, to show him its day time. And when its time to break fast, I make him look outside the window again to show that its dark, that its night time & he can eat and drink already.

His sleeping time is haywired....sleeping at almost dawn & waking up at 2/3pm. Hence...we can't even start him with half day faaring.
Scientifically, he did full day fasts but logically, he's only fasting for that 4-5 hours that he's awake.
Yet again...that's the best we can do as parents...insyaAllah, his efforts will be accepted & blessed...amin 3x.

Today...he woke up 'quite early' at around 12pm. I was a bit worried that he might not be able to complete full day fast today coz it'd be more than 6 hrs.
But alhamdulillah...not only was he able to complete full day fast, he was totally calm the whole day! I was amazed!
No request for susu, no request for cookies, no request for chocolates...nothing! Such amazement...for me at least!

And that lasted all the way till the last few minutes before Azan. As usual, I waited with him by his side with his milk in my hand.
He gave a glance at the bottle & smiled cheekily at his Mama.
"No...not yet Sayang..." I said.
"Wait for Allah..." he said.
Yes...Aqil said that! SubhanaAllah! 😍

For the 4 days he fasted, not once has he sat at the same table as us for iftar.
Hehe! In fact he avoided the dining table...and it has been 7 yrs!

This boy...fasted full day, is happy to have his milk for iftar...& waited patiently for his Mama to bring him out for his chicken rice after his Mama has cleaned up the kitchen & performed prayers.
Thank you so so so much Aqil Danish Hisham! 😍

Thank you Ya Rabb....

Aren't you a parent too?

Spent half a day at Wild Wild Wet yesterday. It was a request by the birthday girl...in fact our last trip to WWW was also her birthday last year.

The kids had fun of course but Aqil had the greatest time. Why? Hehe...well, Ariq wanted to try rides but didn't wanna queue for it. And Arisya...she don't really like rides, in fact she's scared...so scared that USS was out of interest for her. And these two feel that the lower slides are too 'kiddy' for them.
Well...ask Arisya why she wanna go WWW in the first place! Gggrrr!

A few hours there, we decided to stop for some snacks. Aqil didn't wanna stop! We had to make him come out of pool. He refused much but when we walked away...he started wailing & ran after us reluctantly. So we had to coerce him...we told him that we'd just need to buy something quickly before we could go back to the pool.
The wailing stopped but he was on a repeat mode telling us to be quick! Gggrrr!
Told ya he was having a blast!

Hence after getting some snacks....we headed back to the pool. We sat by the poolside while having the snacks. Aqil ran back to the pool...going down one slide after another.
We sat by the poolside...having our snacks...while keeping an eye on Aqil.

Moments later...we saw Aqil being held by his right hand by a man. Nope...the man wasn't holding Aqil's hand...rather he was holding Aqil's right arm...if you can imagine that.
Well....we were shocked of course! We knew Aqil wasn't injured or anything coz he was still looking towards the slides as he was being held by the arm.
The husbern got up and went towards them....I didn't rush. I had a bad feeling...I didn't like the way that man held Aqil by the arm.

I could hear bits and pieces of what that man said to the husbern. I held Aqil while the husbern talked to the man. I heard the husbern apologised to the man before the man finally walked away.
I asked the husbern what did the man said...I could feel anger in his voice.
As the husbern was explaining to me, I was holding on to Aqil while my eyes followed the man as he walked away. He had walked towards his wife & children...he said something to his wife, his wife looked over at us and they walked away with their kids.
Haha! That's me...with my killer eyes especially when it comes to my children!

Apparently...he wasn't happy that Aqil pushed his way through while playing the slides....and that happened to his children. Not that Aqil pushed his children but rather Aqil somewhat jumped the queue and pushed his way through to get on the slide.
And the husbern apologised for that. Well...its only right that we apologised coz what Aqil did was wrong and may even be unacceptable for some people.
But the husbern too told the man abt Aqil's condition...before he finally walked away.

All the while...we have always watched out for Aqil. Even when taking the elevators...we had to hold his hands to make sure that he don't touch any other people.
And while at WWW yesterday...we did notice him ignorantly going up & down the slides oblivious of the others around him. But never once did he push anyone...if someone was already seated to slide down, he waited for his turn. However, if someone was heading towards the slide, no matter how close) he'd just slumberly moved past that person and got on the slide.

When the husbern told him abt Aqil's condition, that man remarked why didn't us the parents be with him while he was playing. Well, the husbern didn't say anything more & just apologised again.

We'd never go up the slides with Aqil...all the while Ariq was the one accompanying him. Well, Ariq was having a break then of course but we kept our eyes on Aqil. We did notice that Aqil did cut queues...but he wasn't the only child who did that. We'd seen other kids cutting Aqil's queue too...and well, they are just kids!

And...there were so many other children...so many other parents...that man had to be the only one who was angry with Aqil?
Oh...and the way he held Aqil by the arm...we were really pissed off with that. For goodness sake, he was only a boy & what was the man thinking? What would he feel if someone held one of his kids by the arm?
It was a theme park! Kids lose their minds when playing...what more a child with autism who's oblivious of his surroundings 24/7!

We talked to Aqil & reminded him not to play rough...before he ran back to the slides which he enjoyed so much.
We didn't leave immediately...the kids continued with their waterplay. However, we didn't see that man & his family anymore until we left...