my chatterbox

nadia nasira has become a chatterbox and i am so glad she has. from the moment she wakes up till she sleeps at night, never a moment of silence...she has so much to say, such sweet and high spirited girl, she is.

there are so many things she says that i find it amusing...i wish i could freeze those moments into eternity.

her first language appears to be the penang malay that my MIL speaks though i speak to her mostly in english and tamil. she has now slowly assimilated herself to the language i speak...

i have always referred to myself as amma or mummy. nadia nasira calls me mummy and she would only call me amma once in a blue moon when she wants to be very manja with me. one day, i heard her say... mum...the way they say it on tv. another day i heard her call me mama.... where did she get all that? Astro 613 Playhouse Disney.

i was driving the other day and i stopped at the traffic light. i heard a tiny voice from the back seat.... mummy, what's wrong?

one of the weekends, she lifted the cover of a storage box that contained all her toys. i asked her why was she doing what she was doing....she replied na (short for nadia as she calls herself) nak cari something else.

i like the way she says...hah (with a surprised facial expression), oh my God....and she continues her sentence...

when i put her to sleep, there are a number of things i do...i tell her a little story about the little brown bear and little kutty bear (based on an animation on 613 which she really likes) or the lion king, teach her to say Thank you Allah, sing lullaby to her...some nasyid, doa or a verse from the Quran...

she can now tell a story which she starts with... one day or once a upon of time, there was a little brown bear.... little kutty bear tak mau sleep.... mama bear.... and she goes on and on.

she would say....thank you Allah for giving adik, mummy, daddy, nanni, ummamma, anne, akka... and the list would sometimes stop at daddy or goes on in that sequence... sometimes, she forgets to mention some people in her thank you Allah session...

i let her listen to a doa on IKIM in the mornings...something i really liked and listened to without fail when i was pregnant with my children... after a week or so, she could read it... bismi kallahumma nadaau fi ghuduwi[n] wa rawah laka minna kullu hamdin fi masai[n] wa shobah hablana minka rosyada[h] wahdiina subulasholah inna taqwa Allahi nuurun waa thariiqun lil falaa...
she can read the doa bismillah hillazi la yadurru ma'ismihi shay un fil ardi walaa fis samaa wa huwa samee ul Aleem.... one of the lullabies...

im currently teaching her the rabbana atina fid-dunya hasanatan wa fil 'akhirati hasanatan waqina 'adhaban-nar...i sing it in a rythem to help her to memorize... she is already half-way on it...

when she puts her stuffed toy to sleep....she goes... Subhanallah, Alhamdulillah, La ilaha illallah, Allahu Akbar....
i think i need to make a list of all that she has memorised so that i can help her remember them until one day when she could understand the deeper meaning of her recitations more than just a lullaby mummy sings or a doa mummy recites....

i can't imagine my life without listening to my chatterbox everyday.... i can't wait for my son to start talking and so that i can enjoy listening what the brother and sister has to say to each other....

these days, the only thing nadia nasira says to her brother....

adik, why cry?

adik, don't cry.

adik, NO!!!