my lovely motherhood: That Tiny Journey

Last two days Iris set up a sugar festival for ants, on Bapak's study desk. I left her all by her own and only answered her questions from my work spaces-kitchen and laundry room. At first I wasn't excited with her activity. I meet ants everyday, nothing to amuse me (how boring and arrogant I was, O Allah please forgive me). They are only tiny small black moving dots for me, but not for Iris. She tendered the ants, she feasted them and talked to them.

The girls also loved to listen to the story of ants. They have lots of questions about ants. It wasn't easy for me to entertain their "Mummy, cerita-lah pasal semut." I would repeat the same stories I know. "Semut ni dia bertelur. Queen dia yang bertelur. Sekali dia bertelur, banyak. One hundred. Pastu ada babysitter jaga baby ants macam kat taska Iyra. Ada yang jadi askar, ada yang cari makanan. Macam dalam cerita Bugs Life."

They asked me the next day, and I repeated the same stories. They got bored, they wanted new information. I added about Nabi Sulaiman and the ants, "Ada ketua semut ni dia bagitau semut-semut lain supaya berhati-hati sebab nanti takut kena pijak dengan Nabi Sulaiman. Semut kan kecik. So kita kena cereful-lah jangan pijak or pukul semut. Kesian semut."

Allah even dedicated a surah for that tiny ants-Surah an-Naml. I cited the Quran version of Nabi Sulaiman and the ants: "Then, when they reached the Valley of the Ants, an ant said: "Ants! Enter your dwellings, so that Sulayman and his troops do not crush you unwittingly."- (Quran, 27:18). I will show this ayat to the girls and we can have greater discussion about ants later. Insya Allah.

Now I'm ready for the next list of questions about ants. I have few references from Harun Yahya and National Geographic. Let us begin our tiny journey!