15 Ramadhan

In our household, we celebrate two birthdays...(bestnye, someone said), date based on the gregorian calender and the islamic calender. Today, 15 Ramadhan is Abang's hijriah birth date. He turns 13 today. Quite the young man and every bit the "Abang".

Abang was born with much fan fare. Girl was so excited to get a little brother. When my waters broke just as A was having his break fast, Girl quickly ran upstairs and got a pillow for me. She put it on the floor and told me to lie down. "Baby nak keluar Mama, cepatlah baring!" This from a 3 year old girl! Must be those pictures in the Mirriam Stoppard books. We waited for Tok Ma to come pick Girl and Kak P (who was our helper at that time, and still is now, albeit after 2 breaks home for her - another story for another day) and A and I left for the hospital. Abang arrived after only about 1 hour of hard labour (!!), a relatively easy delivery at 1:08am. He is cucu #6 on my side (making up an even 3 boys and 3 girls) and cucu #8 on A's side (and only the 2nd boy cucu after 6 years of girls). Girl was having chicken pox at the time so we didn't stay in the hospital too long. He's also the first baby to come home to our own house as Girl was born when we were still living in my parents house.

Today, Abang is slightly taller than mama (although this isn't too difficult a task as Mama is vertically challanged) and is fast catching up to his papa. He just completed his UPSR and is looking forward to going to boarding school next year [ :-( ]. Mama prays that Allah guides him down the best path for him.

Abang is into sports. He plays soccer for his school, touch rugby for school and district, is a Pum in taekwando (pre black belt as you have to be 16 to be a black belt) and was the olahragawan for this year's sports day with 5 golds and 1 silver. Alhamdulillah. He supports the Manchester United football team and frequently gets into arguments with mama and papa who are die hard Liverpool fans.. hee hee hee.

He's a good boy and mama is proud of him and is humbled by the responsibility of raising this precious young man. May Allah keep him in His blessings always, and may his Iman always be strong, his heart pure, his mind sharp, his life long and fruitful and may he always be among the solehin. Amin.

Happy birthday precious Abang.