Can You Spot The Differences..

The first thing, that people ask when they know that you have twins is..
What are their differences?

For me,
they're both very different..
Physically, their attitude, their character, their behavior,..
everything..
They're two very different persons..
They just happened to share the same exact birthday and womb..hahaha..

OK,
These are what people say..
Raihan's, my second son, version:
Tama's the cool one, Dika's the funny one
*yea right rai..very informative!!..hihihi*

My mom's version:
Dika's the one with the nose facing the audience..
*neneeeek...what does that supposed to mean..*

Dika's version:
I'm the one with the chicken pox scar under my left eye..
*very small one di...and it will go away...*

Tama's version:
I'm the one without any front teeth..
*you'll get new teeth eventually tam...*

My version:
Dika's the round-faced one
Tama's the oval-faced one..
*round..oval..what's the difference..huahahaha*

So,
can you tell,
Which one's Who?

The Twins' Stories..again!!

As a parent of 4..
I'm still amaze, how children pick things up very fast..
Everywhere..
School, teachers, parents, friends,..
and the wonder of them all..TV!!

I thought I'll be already getting used to it
when it comes to the twins..
as my last kids..
Well..nope..still amazes me..

My twins went to a bilingual Kindergarten
One day, when they were around 3..
I was checking on their ability to count..
I pointed to a picture of 5 monkeys..
And I asked them
"How many monkeys are there?"
And I counted out loud..
"Satu..Dua..Tiga..Empat..Lima"
"So..how many..?"
They looked puzzled, so I helped them by saying "Li.."
and was hoping they'll say "..ma"
But they didn't..

So, I thought..
Hmm..maybe that were too many..
Probably, I should start with a smaller number..
3..
I did the same process again..
Still they looked confused..

O..o.. I thought..
This is bad..
Aren't they supposed to learn this at school..
So, I was using this poster of numbers with animals representing them..
Still thinking..hmm, where should I start?..

And suddenly,
The next minute..
Almost together, they said..
"Ooo..this is Tiga..
I thought it was Three.."
Explaining among them,
"And this one is Lima..not Five"
Hehehe..silly me!!

The twins, like most kids their age..
love commercial..
They'll recite the things in the commercials..
again..and again..
There was this shampoo commercial, with a celebrity introducing them self
They loved this one..
"My name si Nicole.."
I corrected them and said "My name is Nicole"
Expertly they said..
"Aaah..Ibu salaah.."
"Ibu ga tau siiih..Itu bahasa Inggris!!"
Hihihi..thanks for the information kids..

Every night,
The twins always choose a book for me to read it to them
for their bedtime story..
One night,
When they were choosing a book..
One of them said, holding up a book..
"Buu..yang ini ya?"
But in a hurry, they added..
"Tapi bahasa Inggris lho bu..Ibu bisa gaa?"
Hahaha..I'll try my best kids!!

My Boys Opinions on Malin Kundang

OK..
I bet all of you know the classic story of Malin Kundang, right?
Especially.. all the mommies
Definitely.. all the padangnese mommies
...hahahaha..
It's a sure weapon
against children who doesn't listen to their mommies...hahaha..
at least..at first I thought it was..

This is the story..
Well, this is how I tell the story to my kids..
So, once upon a time..
Somewhere in a small village in West Sumatra..
Lived this boy named Malin Kundang
He lived with his dear mom..
They were very poor..
Although they don't live in luxury,
They had always have each other..
They loved each other very much..

One day,
Malin Kundang just can't stand it anymore..
He's tired of being poor..
He wanted to travel outside his village..
To see the world..
To be prosperous and rich..
Anything, out of his miserable poor life

So, he told his plan to his mom..
and ask for his mom's blessing..
His mom gave her blessings..
and pray that Malin
will find whatever he wanted
will always be safe on his journey
and will return back as a rich, prosperous man

So off Malin go..
Days, months, years gone by..
Malin's mom is getting older, tired, and often gets sick..
But her prayer still goes on and on..

Until one day,
Came a very big and luxurious ship
to that small, poor village
All the villagers huddled around the dock..
And to their surprise..
When the captain showed in front of them..
Standing high, young and handsome..
It was Malin Kundang..
the long lost boy who went for a long journey years and years ago..

Some of them, immediately ran to Malin's Mom's house..
Told the story in amazement to her..
and brought her to see it by herself..

When, finally she saw her son..
Her eyes were filled with happy tears..
Thank You, dear God !!
God has answered all her prayers..
And with all the strength in her that's left..
She ran towards him and hug her son..

But to her surprise,
Malin got really angry and shoved her away..
"How dare you, touch me with your dirty hand, old woman!"
Crying emotionally, she replied
"I'm your mom..don't you remember me?"
Malin looked away from her and say in disgust..
"I'm rich and handsome, you dirty, poor, old woman...
YOU ARE NOT MY MOM!!"
Between her tears, his Mom tried to convince Malin, again and again..
But Malin didn't want to listen..
He headed back to his ship
leaving her poor mom, begging on the ground
and sailed away..

She stood up, strugglingly
And said a prayer..
"Dear God, My own Son just did the biggest sin..
He rejected me as his mom,
insulted me,
and turned against me..
May he turn into STONE!!"

Suddenly, the winds start blowing harder..
a big storm was coming..
Malin's ship was in trouble..
Malin couldn't control it any longer..
and it crashed back right on the beach of his village..
and Malin was turned into STONE!!..
The End

Imagine telling that dramatic story..
With all the right intonation..
At night..
Before they go to bed..
Lights off..
Hahahahaha..

I told that story to My Oldest Son, Rizqi when he was 2
When he went to Air Manis Beach, the location of the so called Malin Kundang stone..
His immediate reaction was..
"His mom is not nice!! BAD MOM!!..turning her own son into stone!! She'll definitely go to hell!"

Hahahaha.., that wasn't the reaction I expected..
So, My Husband tried to tell it to my second son, Raihan..when he was about 4 years old..
My reason was..
maybe when I told Rizqi, he was too young..
maybe I didn't tell it the right way..
Raihan's reaction was..
First he froze, and mumbled "Poor Malin Kundang...Why did his mom do that?"

Hahahaha...wrong reaction again..
So, to this point..we realized that the story's not working..
They didn't get the moral of the story..at all!!

But, we just wanted to know the twins', Tama's and Dika's reaction..
It was just a couple of nights ago..
My Husband was in turn to put them to bed..
Their reaction were..
Running out of their room in horror..and scream
"Buuu, I want to sleep with you!!...Ayah is telling a scary story!!"
Hahahahaha...

Raihan's English

I started writing about my kids..
simply because,
there are just too many moments that are just too precious to be left undocumented

These are some of my favorites of Raihan's

Nowadays, Raihan is enjoying his English course a lot..
I can tell just by
the way he gets excited when it's the day to go to his course..
or,
the way he comes one and a half earlier than he supposed to..
but mostly,
by the way he tells stories about his lessons, friends, and teachers..

One night,
after he went to his course in the afternoon..
*by the way, I know that his teacher's got this British accent..^_^*
"Bu, how do you ask if want to know about someone's name?"
Suspiciously I answered,
"What's your name?"

Enthusiastically, he said
"WRONG!!"
With a winning smile, he said,
"That's not how you say it.."
Hmmm?...
"It's: Whot's your name.."
He said with his best effort of a British accent..
"Not: What's your name..It's O not A!!"
Hihihihi...

and more came along the way..like
"Bu, bahasa Inggrisnya kaca emang mirrah bu?"..(read: mirror..with your British accent..)
and..
"Write your name on the top of the peipah.."..(again, use your British accent reading: paper)

The closure was..
After watching this TV program on a British kids channel,
he went looking after me..
"Buuu, come on and watch Cbeebies!"
I went to see it, and didn't get what he wanted..
Quizzically, I looked at him..
"My English teacher talks like them.."
he explained, pointing to the TV
Hahahaha..