Redha

Redha. A movie about autism. Autism awareness, Accepting autism.
It is only being exclusively shown in SG. Hence the tix is more expensive. Nevertheless, part of the cost of the tix will be donated to Autism Association Singapore.
Nope. We didn't purchase the tix coz it is expensive & to buy more than one would mean spending quite a bit.
After thinking rationally, we decided not to watch it on the big screen. We will wait for a bit before it will be available online or even in DVD.
Alhamdulillah...alhamdulillah...alhamdulillah, I got to watch it on the big screen!
In fact I'd just watch it earlier at 6.20pm & I can't wait to blog about it.
Today was just a normal Friday for us until the craziness began at 5pm. Hehe!
Me & Mr Husbern were on our way to fetch Aqil from school. So, Mr Husbern was driving & I was on my mobile...browsing my social media.
It was then that I saw a post by one of SG's blogger, Diah Mastura. Yes, I am very grateful to her for choosing to give me the tix.
She posted at abt 5pm abt 3 tix to watch Redha today at 6pm. It was a giveaway coz the person couldn't make it last minute.
I immediately responded to her post. She replied to confirm with me as it was for 6pm show & then it was 5.05pm.
After receiving her reply, I was quite hesitant coz I was worried we couldn't make it in time as we have to fetch Aqil first. But 3 tix were not enough for us & Mr Husbern is working tonight.
However, Mr Husbern persuaded me to go for it since the tix were free.
So I quickly called my lil sis for company coz Mr Husbern had to work tonight & the kids are at home.
Lil sis immediately said yes coz we were all waiting to watch this movie actually but too bad its not shown at the cinemas.
Then I went back to the post to send a reply however the post was gone! Yup, it was deleted.
For a moment I thought that's it. The tix must have been given to someone else.
Just then I received an email notification & TADAAAA!!!!!
I RECEIVED THE TIX IN MY INBOX! WOOHOO!
I was all excited! Called my sis again to arrange meeting with her at the venue. We fetched Aqil & Mr Husbern sent me to the venue. By the time we fetched Aqil, it was 5.35pm.
I sent a screen capture of the tix to sis so that she could go in first if she reached there first.
And thanks to the traffic of coz, I was delayed. Reached there at 6.20pm.
Nevertheless, we enjoyed the movie. It was touching.
The movie focussed more on children with autism.
I love how these special kids are said as 'children from heaven'.
It also bite as some of the reality of being autism parents were also surfaced.
How people will be starring & glaring at our child.
How people look at a child having a meltdown in public.
But I kinda like the ending whereby the message sent was totally beautiful.
When we are talking about children with special needs...it is nothing about winning nor scoring.
It is about persevering to encourage & motivate the child so that he/she can finish the journey that was started...albeit much slower than others.

Don't give up on them from the start.
Don't give up on them when they are struggling.
Don't give up on them when they feel like giving up.

They didn't ask to be born that way....

Stay  with them...be with them...all the way...insyaAllah....the sweetness will be beyond description.

Alhamdulillah....thank you Ya Rabb!

Sardines

Life. 

Life will be simple & satisfying if you think of it as such.

Life will be unfair & sucks if you think of it as such. 

Learn to be happy. 

Happy with every little things in life.

Learn to be grateful.

Grateful & appreciative of every little things in life.

Growing up in a family of nine with Abah as the sole breadwinner...and as a mechanic at that, we never knew what was luxury. 

We never went anywhere for holidays. 

Oh...maybe we did, if you consider 'balik kampung' as going 'overseas'. 

That's the further we went & that was in JB too. 

No toys. 

Serious. No toys.

So what do we play with? 

We played at the playground.

We played at the void deck.

We played at home.

Our toys? 

Name it.

Blankets.

Eldest sis's stilettos.

Pillows.

Sofa.

Pots.

Pans.

Baby powder.

And we had lots of fun coz we used our imagination.

We opened a shop. We taught a class. We drove (though Abah never owned a car).

Life was great. 

But never once did we ever starved. Never. 

Coz breakfast or lunch or dinner would always be yummy comfort food of fried eggs + soy sauce or fried fish + soy sauce or stir-fried taugeh & beancurd or sardines etc. 

Mak & Abah had never bought any fast-food for us. 

Too expensive. 

Every morning, Abah made us eat half-boiled eggs. 

Supplements too expensive.

Half-boiled eggs are good for the brain according to Abah. 

Then he would send us to school on his motocycle. 

One by one. 

Abah would come back home for lunch...everyday.

Mak would make sure lunch was ready on the table...everyday.

We never went hungry. 

We were staying in a three-room flat then. 

Abah's first owned flat.

We stayed in a rental flat for the first 5 years of my life. 

We stayed in the three-room flat for 13 years.

We moved because of SERS. 

There were 8 of us then. And we all slept together on mattresses in the living room. 

No aircon. 

We cuddled up close & slept well throught the nights & even woke up late.

We were happy. 

And today?

People are all unhappy.

Unhappy with life.

Unhappy with work.

Unhappy with everything.

Why?

Because a flat is so not in.

Because a car 'needs' to be changed every 3-4 years.

Because Hyundai or Toyota or KIA is so not in.

Because Charles & Keith is so not in whatmore Perllini.

Because Bata is so not in.

Because it is a must to go 'overseas' for holidays. 

Because even Private Suite at KKH is so not in to give birth at.

Because a sick child 'need' to go to a paediatrician & not any GP. 

So think again.

Life makes you unhappy or you make yourself unhappy? 

Sardines is good.

Sardines is good with rice.

Sardines is good with prata.

Sardines in good with bread. 

Sardines is good for puffs.

Who said sardines is not good? 

Who said sardines is unhealthy? 

Me & my sistaz grew up eating sardines.

We loved sardines then.

We love sardines now.

Anyway, I wasn't really talking abt sardines here. 

Get it? 😁

 

 

Aqil's Graduates Pre-School! 🎓

He was supposed to enter Primary One last year but we'd wanted him to be in a special needs school as recommended by his doctor. 

Hence he continued another year at EIPIC Centre as we waited for a place in a SPED sch. 

And this year...he finally graduates frm EIPIC Centre. There's no way we can extend any longer. 

His graduation fell on the same day as my sista's wedding. We were contemplating whether to attend his graduation concert or not. But since he will be leaving EIPIC Centre for sure...and he had a few lines to say in his class performance, we decided to sneak away from the wedding for a bit for our lil king's graduation concert. 

Upon reaching the venue, his teacher took him to change his T-shirt. I was as usual all excited to snap away & record his performance...I had even created an album in my FB to post all the pics of his graduation concerts.

However, that album only contains a pic of me, husband & Aqil. At the start of the concert, audiences were told that we could snap as many pics as we want & record as many videos as we want but we're not allowed to post them on any social media...except for pics of our own child. 

Hence the empty album. Of course I still went snapping & recording away coz I need to keep this beautiful memories of him.

It was a very beautiful concert. The kids were so so so innocent. Their performances were not anywhere perfect but they were the most beautiful performances that I couldn't believe I'd teared. 

All the classes were accompanied by their teachers...and almost every child has a teacher with them and that includes Aqil.

Our lil king was so excited during his class performance that he was flapping away! 😍

We are so proud of him...he was so cool when he said his lines...even his teacher was proud of him too! 

Just before his class performance, a drawing was shown on the screen. A drawing with four names & one of the name was 'Aqil'. I'd thought nothing of it...I thought it was super nice of his teacher to do the drawing coz only his class had that drawing....until the teacher messaged & told me abt the pic. 😱

And his proud Mama, ME, took the effort to crop the vid of his performance coz his Mama wants everyone to see how well he'd performed for his part & how proud she felt then! 😍

http://youtu.be/K22uuPrp1MU

Sensory World of Autism

Yesterday, we had an advance birthday celebration for eldest sis & Ariq (16&18 Nov respectively). Since 3 of us sistaz are down  with exam fever (one even had a paper yesterday) & an upcoming wedding, we decided to hv a meet-eat-cut cake kind of thing. 

So before the dinner, we ensured Aqil was fed first...he had both chicken rice & McD fries yesterday. 

Upon arrival he was fine...running around the place...watching YouTube as usual. 

As we were greeting each other (Muslims kiss the hand of the older ones), Aqil went "there's so many people" coz he had to go around greeting his aunties & uncles...hehe! And once the food was served, he started screaming & ran off! Haha! His sensory sensitivity took place...😁

Of course we had to run after him & got him to sit by the side whereby the food was out of his view. 

But the place he was seated was along the path to the restroom...and so he kinda 'blocked' the way of those who wanted to go to the restroom. Our poor lil king...😁

Thus we grabbed a chair so that he wouldn't be able to spread his legs & it was much more comfortable for him actually. 😉

Alhamdulillah...this lil king with full tummy was happy & comfortable with his seat & occupied with YouTube! 

With that, we were able to enjoy dinner & cake-cutting & opening presents...thank you lil king! 😍

In fact...I realised that he wasn't in any of the pics we took. Hence, the last few family pics...we made sure he was in...hehe! 👍🏼

Thank you Ya Rabb...for everything...😘

SG50

SG50. Yup...Singapore celebrates 50 years of  independence this year. Not that I was directly involved in the whole SG50 or what but this year does feel a bit different. 

The celebratory mood started earlier maybe because of the extra PH on 7th Aug. Then of course there are freebies & discounts & activities all over the island over the Jubilee weekend. What more with free rides on the 9th itself! 

And for us...the mood was even more with my cousin's wedding on 8 Aug whereby the theme is red & white in conjunction with SG50! 

Had wanted to bring the kids out taking the free public rides but the kids were reluctant & since Aqil was asleep...we decided to forgo the idea. 

Nothing special was planned...just wanna spent some quality time with the family & let the kids feel some of the National Day mood.

The kids wanna have something which they have not tried before. Hence we chose Turkish delicacies. Not that the kids have not tried before but it has been years ago perhaps. Furthermore, they absolutely have not tried Derwish. 

And I'd thought it be just nice coz Arab Street is indeed a historical area...really fits the mood huh? 😝

Of course their idiosyncratic mother...ME...made everyone don red! Haha! Patriotic mah! 😍

Luckily Aqil was asleep thus we were able to enjoy lunch at Derwish. While waiting for our food...the husbern & Ariq even managed to solat at Sultan Mosque...which is of course very rare for us! 😘

Ariq & Arisya enjoyed Derwish so much saying that it was a delicious meal. And Ariq even thanked us for bringing them there for lunch. Aawww....that was heart-melting for his Umi at least. Being appreciative & able to say thanks is something we absolutely want our kids to have in them. 😍

And with some Takashimaya vouchers at hand, we grabbed some Godiva ice-cream there & even got Pezzo pizzas for NDP@home with the family! 

And to make it all the more perfect day was Aqil being awake in time for him to have chicken rice before we were back home just in time for NDP live on TV! 

So proud to be a Singaporean! Singapore itself is a beautiful & clean country. The education here is one of the best in the world apart from its airport & sea port among others. 

And what's uniquely SG is its multiracialism. Regardless of race, language or religion...everyone is equal. 

It is a bit sad that Mr LKY is no longer around to celebrate this special year. A man that deserved all the respect that anyone could have. 

Thank you for leading SG, moulding SG, changing SG...believing in SG...thank you Sir! 😘

SG has been in good hands for these 50 years & we trust our leaders to continue doing their best for SG just like what our forefathers have done...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE! ❤️

Raya with Autism

Syawal is here again! Yup...the annual visitings of relatives & friends is here again! And definitely it is the season that Aqil dislikes...hehehe! 

While all of us are looking forward to Eid, our lil king is among them who'd wish otherwise especially the visitings part.

Alhamdulillah...being the 7th year of Eid for him...he's adapting much better each year. With the years of experience and observing, we realised that Aqil will enter the house if there's no crowd or the house is spacious or there's a space in the house that he can be by himself. Otherwise, he'd not enter & will scream if forced to. 

Most relatives have known of Aqil's condition (of course) but they are very concerned about him especially if he chose to stay out...hehehe! 

And it is during such events that gadgets & technology are very very very helpful...to us! Haha! 

With an ipad & even better with internet connection, Aqil will be kept occupied & we can mingle with the relatives & friends.

Two days ago, we went to a cousin's wedding. Luckily Aqil was asleep throughout the event! Haha! 

Yup, our lil king didn't sleep the whole night before and only fell asleep in the car , on the way to the wedding. 

Thank you Ya Rabb! 

And yesterday...we continued our Raya visitings in JB. One thing I dread is the fact that there'll be no internet connection unless we are at a house with Wifi. 

But alhamdulillah, Aqil wasn't cranky when told that there's no internet hence he could only draw or play apps that requires no internet. 

He also fell asleep in between hence we were able to bring him into the houses. Hehe! 

He stayed outside at the first house. Refused to be brought in even after he fell asleep on the chair...thus we had to put him in the car so that he could lie down. 

His grandpa was even cushioning Aqil with his arm when Aqil started dozing off. 

That was such a sweet sight! 

And at another house...he walked away when my brother-in-law brought his plate of food out of the house & ate nearby Aqil. He walked towards the gate and sat there to eat his wafers instead of the chair that he was sitting on earlier. 

I do believe that there are parents who'd opt to avoid visitings with their child(ren) diagnosed with autism. But we'd think of it otherwise. We'd want Aqil to get used to such visitings coz it is an annual thing & we want him to know the relatives & vice versa. 

And it is never about us ignoring our lil king. Letting him be as he is just so we can eat & be merry...no! Never that in mind! 

We're visiting...its a festive season...we do not wish to destroy that feel. 

The world is not just about us...not just about autism...especially during festives or events. 

We are just being like any other family, enjoying the festive season. We'd love to enjoy the gatherings & be able to mingle & catch up with the others...and we can best do that when Aqil is calm & comfortable at each & every house. 

Thank you to all for understanding!

Thank you Ya Rabb for everything...❤️❤️❤️.

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....