aQiqah

Al-hamdulillah, my babies' aQiqah went well. Guest came in as early as 12pm. Since I didn't do any cukur jambul ceremony, at about 11am we had a group of Tahfiz from Darul Quran, Kuala Kubu Baru to recite the Quran instead, they khatam the Quran. 15 of them came and each of them read 2 juzu' each. It took them about an hour to finish everything. Oh of cause they didn't take turn to read the Quran, kalau macam tu bile nak abis bacanye...so all read serentak. Masing2 read the juzu' that was assigned to them. And later followed by Selawat beramai2.

My well behaved boy during Selawat session

The crowd that came at 12pm were mostly neighbours. Whereas relatives started coming at 1pm onwards. Parents' friends came from 2:30pm. Time allocated for my friends was from 4pm onwards and at night, pApa's friend came to complete the day. Yup it was an all day long event. Fuh...mmg sungguh penat. Well, we had 3 goat...so might as well invite a big crowd. But since my house compound could only have 150 seats...not big enough for everyone to sit at once, we had no choice but to stagger the time. The first goat was served at noon, 2nd was at 3pm and the 3rd was served for dinner. We had Rice Mandey...it's Arabic way of cooking where they cook the goat together with the rice and serve it on a big tray.

Mandey Rice

Of cause we had other menu too cause I believe not everyone fancy goat. So for noon we also had white rice and lauk pauk kampung menu. Laksa was also in the menu till dinner and the great thirst quenching, ABC. Since we knew nasi putih sure tak laku after 4pm, we started serving Char Kuey Teow and Roti Jala besides having the Nasi Mandey and Laksa. For dinner, we had the Nasi Mandey, Laksa, Char Kuey Teow, Rojak Buah and Yong Tau Foo. We had lots of kuih muih for dessert, few guests came with desserts in their hand.

Food, food and more food

Everyone seems to enjoy the food (I hope,hihi), they love the Rice Mandey especially...most of them eating it for the first time. The total number of guest was easily about 500 people (or could even be more). The weather was being kind enough to me, it only rain just before Maghrib and stop around 8:15pm, just in time for the next batch of guests to come in.

The best part of all, or shall i say the most amazing thing was my babies' behaviour. They were not cranky at all despite the huge crowd and hot weather. Even when i brought them out under the canopy to meet the guests, they didn't show any discomfort at all. Both of them mmg takde bunyi langsung through out the day. Ussualy even if I were to carry them on normal days after few minutes they tend to be restless. But on that day it was just amazing, they were at their best behaviour. Everyone commented on that. They remain quiet regardless who was carrying them. They even stick to their ussual bedtime routine. By 730pm both were sound asleep and even though guests at night went in and out of the room, that didn't caused them to wake up at all. We even had guests yg selamba borak kuat2, sungguh tak reti baby tgh tido...but yet babies remain asleep.

The secret to it? Talk to your babies, never underestimate their capabilities. A week before the aQiqah I told my babies every single day what to expect. I told them "there will be lots and lots of guests coming to see both of you, and people want to see good babies not cranky babies", " the guests wants to meet friendly babies so you must be good with everybody", "don't give mOmmy and pApa a hard time to put both of you to sleep because we have guests to entertain.", "pApa's friend coming at night, but by then it will be your bedtime...so you have to sleep and mOmmy will bring them in the room to see both of you, but please don't be awaken by the guests". I kept on telling them everyday what to expect. Al-hamdulillah they understood me. Well of cause some might say, not that they understood what I said, it was just coincidence that the babies behaved well. As long they behaved, it was good enough for me. But from my point of view, I do believe babies can understand us. We just need to talk to them. So never give them false promises, cause if you do they will not take your words seriously.

For example, there are times where I need to go out. So I would tell my babies...once mOmmy come back I'll play with you. So even if they felt asleep while waiting for me to return, I'll approach them, kiss them and whisper in their ears that "I'm home and you can wake up if you want to play with me." Yes no doubt they are asleep, some parents wouldn't want to disturb a sleeping baby and just wait till the baby wakes up. But I kept to my words, I told them before I left that ONCE I come back we can play. So that's exactly what I would do, approach them to inform them that I'm back. If they remain asleep, it means they want to play later. In most cases they would wake up with a smile.

Another example was yesterday, in the morning pApa promised hArith to have a swimming session in the evening. But at about 530pm when the 'pool' was ready, he felt asleep. We woke him up. We wouldn't want him to wake up middle of the night feeling that his day wasn't a cOmplete one (cause he was expecting the swimming session). So we woke him up for his swimming session then had his meal. Putting him to sleep after that was easy. By 7pm he was asleep.

So, I believe in the power of communication and must always keep to our words.We wouldn't want our own kids not trusting us.

Overall, the event went well. Food was enough for everyone. More than enough in fact cause the last batch siap tapau balik...hihi. To those who came, thanks alot. It meant a lot to my family and I. Sorry couldn't really sit down and have a chat with all of you. I was going from one guest to another. Through out the day I only had 4 roti jala. Each time I wanted to eat, I'll be hearing people calling me...so tak dapat lar makan. And thank you for the presentssss and $$$. Oh I seriously didn't expect to be receiving begitu banyak hadiah and $$$. It was like a 0year old b'day party....hehe

Lotsa presents for hArith and athirAh