In preparation for a new man in the house...

Tomorrow my little boy will move a step nearer to being a man.

Yup, it's the "snip-snip" time for him.

It'll be done by Dr. Ra*ak at DSH. It was initially scheduled for 8:30a.m, but, I received a phonecall from one of his nurses yesterday to inform me that the procedure has been rescheduled to 12:00p.m tomorrow. It makes no difference to me as I will be on leave tomorrow. In fact I'll be on leave until 29 December. But, Ayah would have to reschedule some things at work. He will now have to go to the hospital early tomorrow morning and hopefully he'll be in time for the procedure.

We have had to make some new arrangements and preparations in light of our Hilman becoming a MAN.

First of all, to prepare Hilman mentally, Ayah had a heart-to-heart talk with him two nights ago about the whole thing. We had dinner at Mak's house on Friday night. The kids were sent there earlier in the morning before I went to the office, and I went back to Mak's house after work, as did Ayah. So, after dinner, we went back in separate cars. All the girls went in my car, and the boys went in Ayah's car. Quite convenient for Hilman to ask his Ayah all the necessary stuff about the whole thingy throughout the journey back to SD when he was alone with his Ayah.

Later when I asked Ayah if Hilman told him if he was scared, Ayah told me that Hilman said, "A bit...", but he appeared to be okay with the whole thing. But, was he? Because later that night, he came knocking on our door at 3:30a.m, crying slightly saying that his left knee was hurting, and he asked me to urut his kaki. I massaged the part he showed me which was painful, he curled up against me, and I hugged him tightly until he fell asleep.

After he fell asleep, Ayah and I just looked at each other and we just couldn't help but broke into laughters. Ayah said that Hilman probably had a bad dream or a nightmare about hurting his leg or something like that - all triggered by his anxiety. He was walking just fine when he came into our room. No limping whatsoever. He was (and probably still is) anxious about Monday. I hope and pray that he'll be fine tomorrow, pre-procedure.

Secondly, as mentioned, I'm taking leave until 29 December. If only I could extend it until the kids start school again, but the Uni's second semester starts on 30 December. So, no choice :( I know Hilman will probably need me to bring him to the toilet and all, at least in the first two weeks post-procedure. I know that he will not want Dar to help him with those stuff yang sewaktu dengannya, too. So, I'll be at his becks and calls for the next 2 weeks. It'll be an interesting experience for both of us, I'm sure (and for his sisters, too!)

Thirdly, all this while Hilman has been sharing a room with his sisters. Obviously, that arrangement has to be changed after tomorrow. The kids and I have been pretty busy clearing up our top-floor room for the past one week. The room has been our huge store-room of sort since we first moved in to SD. And we rarely go up there, except when Hilman wanted to play with all of his Hot Wheels tracks. We are now converting it into the girls' room.

But, you can just imagine the state of the room after 12 years of storing all sorts of stuff! At the moment it's full of toys, clothings, old books (especially Ayah's!), and old whatevers. We have managed to divide their old toys and clothings into three groups - those to be donated to Rumah Titian Damai, those they want to keep, and those to be thrown into the bin. I must say, those Alam Flora guys have been working overtime clearing our garbage in the last few days! Ayah's books and stuff are still up there, and we have come to accept the fact that it'll be an impossible task to get the room ready by tomorrow.

We need to really clear everything before we could re-paint the walls, fix an air-cond unit there, and pasang the curtains. And of course, there's the trip to IKEA which the girls have been pestering me the whole of last week. Nasib baik there's already a Queen-sized bed up there which the girls are willing to share, and there's already a set of built-in wardrobe and cabinets in the room. So, it's just to get some additional drawers and lightings for them. And as I'm typing this, we have not even chosen the colour, we have not bought the air-cond, and we have not ordered the curtains yet! I hope to get everything ready for the girls by next Monday, insya Allah. I'll probably post a posting on the room make-over after everything is done nicely :)

Fourthly, I've also stocked up the freezer with ikan-ikan yang tak gatal for Hilman's consumption for the next one week. Luckily, Hilman loves his fish, so, he'll be fine being a "fishetarian" for the next 2-3 weeks. The freezer is full to the brim with all the bawals, kurau, tenggiri, ikan merah and senangin, etc. The only thing left for me to do is to think of what to do with them! Hilman loves his fish just fried with garam kunyit, but his Mommy is thinking more like steamed, souped, sweet "n" sour fish, and the likes for him. Hilman will surely miss his Ay*mas Hot and Spicy chicken :(

Still on food, considering that Hilman will have to berpantang for the next 2-3 weeks, I decided to cook some Laksa Asam for tea today - one of his favourites which he will not be able to take masa pantang because of the belacan in it. And tonight, Ayah will take us out for dinner, most probably at Co*y Co*ner so that Hilman can have as much sharks fin soup as he wants!

And, fifthly, I have all the kain pelikats ready on standby. We bought a few kain pelikat for boys while in Langkawi that day, and I've also taken out quite a number of Ayah's semi-old ones, too :)

The truth be told, I am pretty nervous about tomorrow and the 2-3 weeks that follow actually, but, I don't want Hilman to know that.

Please make do'a that Hilman (and his Mommy!) will be fine for the procedure tomorrow, ya... And, wish Hilman luck, y'all! :)

Thanks so much!