Alahai anakku sayang...

Aida is now 3years 2 months old. Other ordinary toddlers of her age would have been able to converse almost fluently by now, but Aida's progress has been a wee bit slow. I suppose one factor that contributes to this is because she stays at home alone most of the time with no one to talk to, so she gets less practice. The maid is of course there but what do you expect? She's got tonnes of house chores to settle before we come home in the evening, so the chance of talking like there's nothing to worry about is very slim.

Anyway, I am not saying that my child cannot talk at all. But she's still in her "baby talk" mode and though sometimes we wonder when she'll be talking like her brother and sister, we continue to enjoy our conversation with her. One day, while we were having breakfast ala-ala mat saleh outdoor at the porch, suddenly a neighbour's Persian cat hopped onto the garden table and meowed loudly. We were all surprised to see the cat's sudden appearance, but the most excited person was Aida.

"Ibu, taik kucing atas meja" she shouted.

When we heard that, we were stunned for a few second, then started searching for the cat's poop. Gosh! Habislah nasi lemak aku...We really thought there was one but no, there's no such thing.

"Ayah, taik kucing!" Aida shouted again, pointing at the cat.

We really did not understand what she was trying to tell us until finally my eldest son came out from the house and joined us. He explained that if Aida said "taik kucing" then what she really mean is "kucing".

We had a hard laugh. So, actually she was trying to tell us there's a cat on the table, but instead, she said there is a cat's poop on the table!!!

We tried to correct her. Using fried anchovies from the nasi lemak as bait, we made the cat stayed with us much longer. While the cat was eating, we taught Aida how to refer to a cat correctly in Malay language.

Oh well..... despite all the things we've tried, we failed.... till this very day, she still call a cat as taik kucing. Ha ha ha...

My son revealed more unthinkable everyday words promoted by Aida, the popular ones are:

1.) JONANG. 

If you think it has anything to do with THE JONAS BROTHERS, you're wrong. Aida loves to sing a song from a movie "Halimah Jongang" aired on TV. How she sing it?

"Jonang jonang jonang.... jonang jonang jonang.... bibik jonang..."

Yes. Poor bibik. Obviously she's the victim. Ha ha ha....

2.) AMAK.

Amak is the short of Alamak! Sentence example: "Amak! Taik kucing!" which really is "Alamak! Kucing!"

3.) BAIBI

This word has put us in dilemma for many months. It actually refers to "baby", but the way she pronounce it really sounds like BABI (pig). Oh my God!!! Help us!

4.) SHAIMAN

She is referring to Spiderman, actually... Ha ha ha... And almost immediately she will be glued to the wall with one leg lifted up as if to climb it.

5.) SHUBIN

This is her "adopted father". He is no other than MR. BEAN...!   She will not allow you to change the channel when he's amusing her, even though she has watched the same sitcom over and over again for thousand times...

That's Aida Amani, my miracle baby....I love you, Darling..!