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Posts Tagged ‘Parenting’

The Last Supper

Posted in Write On, tagged , , , on April 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

“Anything you would like me to cook or make? Anything you’re craving?” That was my offer even though I knew there’s practically nothing they can’t get at T&T Supermarket in the city where they will be returning to.

Kitreena wanted Nasi Lemak at first, but changed her mind to Lontong. She changed her mind again to Nasi Lemak, but was okay with the vegan one at Hungry Tapir since we were going there the night before their flight. Lontong is easy enough for her to make 8,169 miles away nanti, katanya. While Edrick wanted his favorite Green Curry Pasta and he specifically craved for farfalle. The Dancing Chef Green Curry paste I usually used was a no-go. It had dried shrimp in it. So I grabbed Adabi Kurma powder at Hartamas when we made a quick run for some last minute stuff there.

Monday pagi-pagi lagi I was making pasta – unheard of at our Mesra home. Pasta has always been for dinner. Oh well!


VEGAN FARFALLE KURMA

4 cups of Barilla farfalle (boiled)
2 blocks of hard tofu (mashed)
1 packet of Adabi Kurma powder
1 cup of coconut cream
1 cup of pasta-boiled water
1 cup of grated kyuri
1 holland onion thinly sliced
½ cup of shallots thinly sliced
½ cup of fresh/frozen cilantro
cooking oil
salt and pepper

1. Sautee sliced shallots and holland onion in oil til golden brown.
2. Mix in mashed tofu, kurma powder, coconut cream, pasta water.
3. Simmer til boiling, pour in pasta, kyuri and cilantro.
4. Mix well, add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve with love.

Menitik airmata Edrick dapat makan Green Curry Pasta yang saya sempat buat, realizing that he might not get anything like it di negara omputeh. “Alahai sayang, nanti buatlah sendiri. Bukan susah sangat.” Ya, katanya. Tapi takkan lah dapat sama macam Mommy’s cooking. Of course lah. I am simply irreplaceable!



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Dan Demi Pintu Ku Buka

Posted in Write On, tagged , , , on April 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Since 2010, the house rule was… to always keep the door behind us closed. So whenever we left our rooms, or went downstairs, all the doors on the third floor should be shut. Mine, the kids’ and the linen closet doors. The reason was the wind, initially. And when Cino came into the household, he was an add-on to the rule. All the more reason why the doors should remain closed. The wind and the moving bulu.

But April 20th 2026, these doors were left open. Cino had left the house a week earlier. And then Monchies followed suit. When I came home from the airport after midnight, I was too exhausted to notice. But the next morning, as I opened my door to go downstairs, I was instantly reminded of who and what that would not be walking through them again. Ever.

Things have changed since. And so will the rules.

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What It’s Like

Posted in Write On, tagged , , , on January 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »

At the kitchen island one morning, after having a casual conversation with my son about Father’s Day celebration this year, he said…

“I don’t know what it’s like to have a father, Mom.”

My heart stopped beating, or maybe I stopped breathing. I can’t remember now if you asked me. But I was washed away by a tsunami of emotions right there and then. I felt guilty, first of all, for not providing him with a father, or a father figure since we left his father. I used to think that my son’s uncles might be able to fill in; spend time with him growing up, play with him, teach him a thing or two. But I never asked any of my male siblings to do that, nor did I know how it could have worked.

My first response to my son was, “I’m sorry, sayang. I’m so sorry. I really am. It’s my fault.” I was sorry, I really was. What he said cut me deeply. The honesty was too much and yet it was perfectly enough for me to feel its truth. My son could not have put it in any other way. He just does not know what it is like to have a father. He hasn’t had one since he was four. It was as raw as it got — the statement, the feeling, the truth. He simply did not know what it was like to have a father. He had none. Pure and simple.

Edrick assured me it was not my fault because his father was still alive and kicking. Us leaving his father was my decision but the father not being in the kids’ life was purely his choice. Although I reminded Edrick that his father did put him through school until 2018, it was not really what he meant by “what it’s like to have a father”. Anyone could pay for his education, he said. But Dad never really wanted to be Dad other than that.

He wasn’t sad saying all this to me that morning, at our kitchen island. In fact, he was just stating the fact as facts appeared to him. This was his reality. He accepted it and he was just telling it. As it was. And these whole 13 years I never looked at my own kids going through life as fatherless. Never!

Until then.

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Siri Bercakap Dengan Edrick LIII

Posted in Monchies, tagged on April 29, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Edrick was telling me how his knuckles hurt a bit after the soccer training the other day. I reassured him that it is normal when one takes up a sport and how it takes a toll on our body.

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Mom: But the main thing is you enjoy it.
Edrick: Yeah. I know Mom. I’m not complaining.
Mom: I know, I can see how passionate you are about soccer.
Edrick: Mom, no pain no gain.
Mom: Hey! That’s my line!
Edrick: I know, you’ve taught me well.
Mom: Awwwwwww!

.EDRICK LITTLE LEAGUE

[Photo Credit to Little League Soccer]

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The Theory of Forever

Posted in Monchies, Sense, tagged on May 25, 2016| Leave a Comment »

It didn’t ideally start with an excitement of driving Monchies to school this morning, to be honest. I had missed the kids despite knowing they had fun walking from Sofia’s house who lives just across the road from school the day before, when I was in Singapore. I wish I could keep them at home to make up for yesterday. But there was something about our supposedly-routine drive to school today that awakened me and had not put me back to bed.

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I was quietly cursing the driver in front of us for signalling but didn’t inch in to our lane by the ‘which-planet-did-you-get-your-license-from-Pluto-or-something’ curse, when Kitreena was scolding her brother for finishing his previous day’s lunch money on a snack. I thought she wasn’t paying attention to my Italian-driving skills on Jalan Tun Nazak.

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Kitreena: Ma, Pluto is not a planet anymore. It’s a dwarf planet.
Mommy: Yeah, I know. See? Nothing lasts forever. Not even a fact!
Kitreena: What do you mean? They just discovered it.
Mommy: Pluto was a planet for… like, forever. It was a known fact. I was born to that fact. And I thought I was going to die knowing that for a fact Pluto was going to be a planet forever. But even that fact could be changed on us, you see. Just like a person you trust to be honest forever. To you, that is a fact. Until… the next thing you know, they change.
Kitreena: Ya. True lah, Ma. If facts can change, what more people.
Mommy: Yup, and that’s the thing about forever. It has its ‘until’.
Edrick: Hmmm… that’s new.

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IMG_4489

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Monchies and I agreed today that there is no such thing as forever. And that is a fact. For now.

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Siri Bercakap Dengan Edrick LII

Posted in Monchies, Sense, tagged on December 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Some time in October…

It was just him, these two days. His sister is recovering from the battle with the haze. Today, to distract us from thinking too much and being bothered by the pollution, I asked him about the most interesting lesson he learned at school.

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Edrick: Mom, I think microbes are amazing.

Mommy: Oh yes they are.

Edrick: And it is amazing how many diseases they can cause.

Mommy: That is because they are super duper tiny, they can get into anything.

Edrick: Yeah, I know. Mom, have you ever had wumps?

Mommy: You mean, mumps or lumps?

Edrick: Hahaha sorry, not wumps. I mean mumps.

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I had a big laugh that I forgot to tell him the story of my humps.
Uh! I mean mumps!

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Mumps

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Wrap It Up

Posted in Monchies, tagged on August 31, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Balut bukumu, anakku...Among the very first things I was taught by my parents when I was in grade one was how to wrap the school books. We could not afford the plastic wrapper, so my parents made do with the brown/grease paper. I didn’t know how lucky I was until I saw some other kids’ book wrapper, which was old newspapers. I still felt bad for many years for not getting plastic wrappers, but I learned to be grateful.

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Today, I finally forced Monchies to start wrapping their own school books, instead of me doing it — Kitreena is already going to grade seven, Edrick to grade five. We got 43 books wrapped under two hours, with me doing most of them, as eye-rollingly expected. I wasn’t overly pleased with the neatness, but I learned to let go.

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Kitreena asked me about my experience wrapping school books during my tender years knowing how strict my dad was. “What if you didn’t get it right, Mom?” It took me a while to answer her. Little did I expect that the question would trigger some bitter-sweet memories.

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I remember how my dad ripped off and crumpled the wrap of one thick Maths text book because I did not do it properly. It wasn’t easy for a little kid to wrap an inch-thick book without any guide, and I remember being angry at my dad. He then showed me how to do it while I was busy holding back my tears. “Wrap it like a gift! You are lucky to get text books, I never had a book when I went to school! I had to borrow and sometimes steal! Wrap it like a gift!” And so, I learned to wrap it like a gift.

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Today, I learned to teach my children to wrap it like a gift, almost like the way my dad did it. Probably a little better… we now have plastic wrappers and I didn’t have to rip or crumple any. I embraced my anger as a child when my book-wrapper was ripped and crumpled in a bitter-sweet lesson to be thankful.

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I learned to love books.
And that, to wrap it up, is the best lesson and gift my dad has given me. Ever!

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Tulis lah…

Posted in Inside Enida, tagged on May 16, 2015| 5 Comments »

Selamat Hari Bapa, Guruku...

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Overwrite

Posted in Monchies, tagged on November 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Kitreena's Handwriting

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I used to get unnecessarily overworked with my own unnecessary worries over Kitreena’s handwriting. At 3 and a half, she decided that her letter ‘b’ should look like a ‘d’. But the theory that people change is proven correct. She has changed. She has grown. Beautifully so.

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Siri Bercakap Dengan Edrick XLII

Posted in Monchies, tagged on August 6, 2013| 5 Comments »

Anak MommyExactly like last year, shopping for Baju Melayu for this anak mat saleh took only 15 minutes at Metrojaya The Curve. On the way out from the store going into Borders, to distract him from his thirst, we had this conversation.

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Mom: Do you know how much your baju raya is?
Edrick: No. How much, Mom?
Mom: Forty-one ringgits and ninety-nine cents.
Edrick: What?! That is almost forty-two ringgits Mom!
Mom: Yup.
Edrick: That would take me longer than the puasa month to pay!
Mom: Yes, it would. But don’t worry, I’ll pay for it sayang.
Edrick: Are you sure, Mom?
Mom: Oh yeah, I’m very sure. Your allowance is only one ringgit per day. Don’t worry about it. It’s raya anyway. I’ll pick up the baju cost.
Edrick: How much is YOUR allowance per day, Mom?
Mom: Oh my allowance is enough to pay for your baju and Kitreena’s baju.
Edrick: What about YOUR baju?
Mom: Nah, I’ll just go bugil this Raya.
Edrick: Hahahahaha! Nooo, Mommm! Don’t go bugil. I can pay for your baju.
Mom: Hahahahaha! You are too embarrassed to have a bugil Mom on Raya huh?
Edrick: Yeaaaah. But I love you, Mom.
Mom: Hahahaha! Of course.

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