Less hectic mornings...

'Twas a time long time ago in 2008.  Reading it back now, I can actually laugh.

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School holidays are here and the past 2 mornings have been considerably relaxing for me as compared to the normal weekday mornings - and Haikal is only in kindy.

Typically, I would start my morning very early for my shower and prayer followed by getting Haikal ready for school. Depending on his mood i.e. whether he is in his lazy mood, or cheery mood, or grumpy mood, etc..., the process could be as short as 10 minutes to as long as half an hour. Then, I would prepare his breakfast and get ready myself to go to work. If Daanya slept through the whole process, I would be ready to leave home by 7:15 am. But, if she woke up during any of this time, I could leave home as late as 7:45 am.

The past few weeks also I have been the designated driver for Nurin and Nabeel after Kak Lin met with an accident and she had been on MC with the car still in the workshop. So, transporting 4 temperamental kids in the morning could be very enjoyable or it could be very distressing - if everyone is in a good mood, then I would be enjoying their chatters all the way to the respective schools; but, if only 1 of the kids woke up on the wrong side of the bed, lo and behold, then I could be wrestling with him/ her... These kids are strong, I tell ya. I'm just a scrawny little thing.

Monday last week was exceptionally bad. Nabeel was having a tantrum and didn't want to go to school but his Ummi forced him to go anyway. Now Nabeel is a very strong, strong boy. He was screaming and kicking, refusing to go to school. But, we managed to put him in the car. My car's back doors have all been child-locked for safety purposes (Haikal used to jump out from the car whenever the car stopped), so he couldn't open the doors. He then, tried to go out from the front but I managed to block him from doing so. How I did it? It was a miracle!

First stop was Nurin's school. It was a test week, so her Ummi told her to bring a smaller bag. Upon arriving at her school, she saw that some of the kids brought the "normal" size bags (read: the REALLY big bags). And suddenly she became panicky. She said she couldn't remember anything for the test and started to cry, while Nabeel was still crying in the background. So, I had to tell her to recite the doa and just try her best. She refused to go at first, but after further coaxing, she finally went out from the car - 1 down...

Next was Haikal and Nabeel's school. Nabeel still refused to go. He was running around in the car trying to avoid me. I tried to pull him out from all different angles that I could think of to no avail. I almost gave up when one of the teachers arrived and managed to get him out from the car. Boy, what a relief - 2 down...

Last, but not least, Daanya's nursery. After seeing all the commotion, Daanya commented, "Mama, Daanya good girl, kan? Daanya tak nangis pun..." She made it all better...