Glimpses January 3, 2009
Posted by Zara's Mama in : my two girls, home affairs, celebration , 14 commentsAfter 1.5 months of blog break, I got what I needed to do done, well, almost.
During this time, no watching DVDs, no book or blog reading, trying to be very focussed.
What did I do this 1.5 months?
Worked really really hard and long hours of course, just before the long break.
Completed the 8 photobooks just in time!!
Celebrated Zara’s birhtday with some planning.
Celebrated Zaria’s birthday almost last minute.
Found a new school for Zara and Zaria.
Went on a week’s holiday.
Did whatever minimum housework that I needed to do.
My 4 weeks leave is almost over.
The girls will be starting in a new school next Mon. Jelly will be back next week, and I’ll be back to work on Thurs!
Here are peeks of what went on in the household.
Zara’s birthday, celebrated with the family and neighbours in the house. I baked her ‘birthday cakes’ this time.
Zara with her ‘fairy’ cakes.
Zaria and Tasha blowing off candles over and over again on a couple of the cupcakes.
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Christmas was celebrated at my bro’s house. With my nephew’s band performing.
My niece, Ally, being the Santarina.
My niece, Sam, did some magic tricks to con awe the below 5.
Of all presents, Zara loves the musical jewelry box from King’s Wife. Seen here the girls gazing at it.
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Zaria’s birthday was planned very last minute. Without a maid, we just had KFC and Dominos Pizzas, and cupcakes from Cupcake Chic. You think she’ll be thrilled to get to blow her candles?
Wrong! She cried when the birthday song was sung. Not sure if it was because someone turned off the lights, or accordingly to her, “I don’t want Ah Ku to sing.” (Ah Ku, i.e. my brother, some one Zaria fears).
And Zara sulked big time, claiming it’s not her birthday, so she didn’t want to participate. Grrrrr..
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And here is a sneak peek of our week long holiday. Can you tell where we went? (Those who were told of the trip should not review the answer). The post will come later.
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Happy New Year All!
Tic Toc Tic Toc - Part 2 November 13, 2008
Posted by Zara's Mama in : myself , 31 commentsTic Toc Tic Toc
I haven’t scheduled for my yearly medical check up yet.
Tic Toc Tic Toc
How come work has not reduced?
Tic Toc Tic Toc
Jelly will be going home for a month and I’ll be alone with the kids. (Pray that I’ll survive)
Tic Toc Tic Toc
Zaria’s birthday next month and I don’t know what to do. (Without a maid, what can I do?)
Tic Toc Tic Toc
Zara’s birthday IS NEXT WEEK and I’d done nothing YET. (Die)
Tic Toc Tic Toc
Should I or should I not change Zara to another school?
Tic Toc Tic Toc
Nothing progressed since 3 months ago. My 8 photobooks (due end of the year) is only 1% done!
Tic Toc Tic Toc
So many blog sites I’ve not visited yet. (Sorry, really no time)
Tic Toc Tic Toc
Ok… I need a break. I’ll see you folks around.
Meanwhile, I wish I was as calm and cool as this girl.
Effect of Working From Home & Self Defence November 7, 2008
Posted by Zara's Mama in : Zaria, Zara, language , 12 commentsThis only happens if you work from home full time.
I have a week’s training to conduct in a KL hotel so on last Sunday, I told Zara I wasn’t going to be at home for the week, and will only see her in the night.
Zara : “Mummy I want to go with you.”
Me : “No, you can’t. Mummy is working and you cannot be in the (function) room with mummy.”
Zara : “I can wait for you downstairs.” (recalling the security guard didn’t allow her to go into our office previously)
Me : “Mummy is not going there for a short while, mummy has to be there for the whole day. Anyway, uncle Chintan (my colleague from Sydney whom we met 2 weeks ago) is also going to be there.”
Zara : “Uncle Chintan is just your small boss (which I told her when we met him during his earlier visit), you don’t have to listen to him right?”
Me : “But mummy’s big boss also asked mummy to go to the hotel to work.”
Zara : (knowing she’s not winning) “You know mummy, if you are not at home, I cannot sleep properly.”
o.O”
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As for Zaria, she’s getting quite good with self defence.
When she tried to touch a forbidden object, I told her I’ll ‘flick’ her hand if she tried to.
Zaria : “Don’t shoot.”
Me : “If you are yai-yai (Cantonese : naughty), and you touch it, mummy will shoot you. How will mummy shoot you?”
Zaria : “With arrows!”
o.O”
Once when she let go of my hand and ran to the middle of the road, I picked her up and smack her buttock, telling her what she did was dangerous.
Zaria : “Don’t! Don’t smack my buttocks!”
o.O”
And every time when she gets hold of a toy, and Zara starts reaching for it too, Zaria shouted, “Don’t snatch. Che-che, Don’t snatch!”.
Mile Stones - Toilet Trained November 1, 2008
Posted by Zara's Mama in : Zaria, parenting, development , 15 comments
Since Zaira could tell us she wanted (depending on her mood) to poo beginning of this year we slowly introduced her to using the toilet bowl to pee as well.
We started by placing her on the toilet bowl in the morning and before bed time at night, and then slowly got her to use the toilet before her baths too. She then began to inform us she wanted to “she-she” whenever she felt like it.
3 weeks ago, we took off her diaper during the day. And told her repeatedly, “Must tell mummy or aunty when you want to she-she or poo-poo yah?”. In the night, we left her diaper on. Since then, there were 3 incidents where she poo-ed in her panties; 1 incident where she got too busy playing and forgot to inform us so she wet herself. Besides these incidents, she remains dry, even in the night!
The past week, every time she needed to use the toilet be it to pee or poo, she informed us, sometimes even going to the toilet first to get herself ready while shouting for help, “I want to she-she” or “My poo-poo coming out already.”
Although she has her diaper on when we go out, she will inform us if she needed to go to the toilet. Unlike Zara, she can actually pee while being carried, so she didn’t have to sit on dirty toilet bowls. Once, she’s fallen asleep after our night out, when I changed her to her pajamas, in her sleep, I asked her if she wanted to she-she, and she nodded her head sleepily. I carried her to the toilet bowl, and she did her pee with eyes closed and her head resting on my shoulder. o.O
Sometimes I ask her, “Mei mei can she-she or poo poo on the floor or not?” She replies, “No… Zah-yah not a dog. Zah-yah she-she/poo-poo toilet boh (bowl) only.” 
This is her 22 month’s mile stone! But I’ll still let her wear the diaper in the night and when we go out, just in case.
Note : Anybody interested to buy Drypers Drypants (M) and (L) size from me? I’ll give you a good discount. RM25 for 44pieces M, 36pieces L. There are some which are in loose pieces, but all wrapped up nicely. Drop me a mail. Mamipoko too if you are interested.
Shanghai 2008 October 29, 2008
Posted by Zara's Mama in : going places, notable, myself , 20 commentsI went to Shanghai for almost a week 2 weeks ago. Approval was pretty last minute, and the Chinese Embassy was closed for a whole week prior to my departure. I only got my passport at 9pm on Monday, 6th October night itself, and my flight was 3hrs later. Imagine my stress level prior to my flight.
The purpose of the trip was to conduct training to our clones new Shanghai colleagues. After months of being overworked, the management has finally decided to hire more people to ease our workload.
I arrived early morning on Tuesday. This time staying in Pudong (蒲东) instead of Puxi (蒲西) where we stayed last year. By the time I got into Raddison Hotel Pudong Century Park it was 9am. With less than 4hrs sleep in total the night before, I slept in for the rest of the morning.
The room was very nice and comfortable. I like the big glass panel seperating the toilet and the bedroom, making the place look very spacious.
The hotel is next to a commercial square with lots of restaurants and a Carrefour within walking distant. The only complain I have is there’s no MRT station nearby.
My first lunch, I just grabbed a fried noodle (blech!) nearby and then headed to the office, located in Pudong, in an isolated techology park. For the 3.5 days of training, I spoke mainly in Mandarin (I thank my parents for sending me to Chinese school, making me so ‘useful’ in my adult life), I wonder if I confused anybody since my Chinese isn’t that great.
On my first day, I opted to be alone because I was still feeling tired from lack of sleep. Had dinner in a restaurant near the hotel. It’s difficult to order for one, I had a portion of smoke duck and pot stickers, and didn’t manage to finish them.
I spent the rest of the evening wondering around. Found a few road side DVD peddlers, so I did some DVD shopping (RMB5 for a movie, how about that?), and then also spotted a traditional massage place next to the hotel operating till 1am. I booked myself for a 1hr Duina (推拿) massage that night itself. I slept like a baby after the massage.
The next 3 nights, I have my colleagues accompanying me in the evenings, bringing me out for dinners. I had no time to shop in the malls, but thank goodness for all the DVDs peddlers which are opened till 11pm, I managed to buy quite a lot of DVDs. I also managed to go for another round of massage.
Here are pictures of my dinners.
2nd evening - with a colleague, at 鹭鹭酒家 (Lulu Jiu Jia) he ordered some of the more famous Shanghainese dishes. Chicken in wine; tofu with crab roe (蟹粉豆腐); some soya mock meat (四喜烤夫); steamed “many treasure fish” (多宝鱼), a type of sole which is only available in Shanghai.
3rd evening - Group dinner at Lang Yi Fang Restaurant (廊亦舫酒樓). Armed with a RM50/head budget, this was what we got.
5 types of cold dishes - I love the fried fish with sauce (熏鱼), they come in a stack.
7 types of warm dishes - Gosh, I thought there was no end to the food they dished out. The fried prawns and the cucumber and corn soup were really good.
The restaurant even has a very good view of The Bund (外滩). For RM50 per head, I think it’s so reasonable.
4th evening, dinner was at Qiao Jiang Nan (悄江南). It took us almost 1hr 15mins to travel from MRT station (near office) to the hotel (to drop off some books I ordered) then to the restaurant at The Bund, all due to Friday rush hour.
This was by far the best meal. The fresh vege with sesame dip was so good, I tried to make it at home last week, and Daddy loved it too. Then there’s the famous spicy chicken (口水鸡) and the most delicious chicken pot stickers I’d ever eaten.
These few dishes were not too bad too. Prawn and corn fried with salted egg yolk; cold noodle; stir fried shredded duck with mushroom.
All these with drinks and beer for 3, came out to RMB300 (RM150). I think dining in Shanghai, is still cheaper than dining in KL.
If you think all my meals are this yummy, check out the lunch that they dish out in the canteen. Every thing is cold, and quite horrid tasting not to mention you have to queue around 10 minutes before you get your food.
Some sights :
The Bund (外滩) viewed from the Pudong side.
Shanghai Telecom Building (东方明珠)
Love their road signs, so informative, telling you exactly what’s ahead, the name of the roads that are intersacting with the road you are on etc.
On the last day, before my flight, I managed to go to Puxi, and shopped for some Shanghainese cakes in Nanjing Road (南京路). If you are ever in Shanghai, you have to try the ShenDaCheng (沈大成) cakes. They are really yummy.
To get to the airport, I took the Maglev. RMB40, and it only took 6min to get to the airport (instead of the 30~45min taxi ride). The fasted it went was 430Km/hr!
(All photos taken in Point & Shoot, such vast difference in quality)
Zaria’s Chitter Chatter October 24, 2008
Posted by Zara's Mama in : Zaria, language , 12 commentsZaria loves talking just like her sister. And when she tries to tell us something and we cannot catch her meaning, she’ll keep trying, trying to correct her pronunciation, trying to use other words until we are able to make out what she says. She always like to see us confirm our understading by repeating what she says.
Some of the things this girl says :
While waiting for Zara for her speech and drama class to be over, Zaria heard a loud bang on the door,
“Hor! Got thunder!”
A few parents seated around were looking at her, then me, “Did she just say thunder?” They didn’t believe such a small girl using the word thunder.
She tried doing a piroute, but looked a bit clumsy in her attempt (and she knew it), so she said, “Checheh do this very well.”
She’s started to tell on Zara. When Zara snatched things from her or hit her, she would come and complain. “Checheh bully her (me)” “Chehcheh beat her. Like this” *acting out how Zara beat her*
Jelly fed her a piece of chicken over dinner, she spat out the chicken and said, “Too big! (I) can only eat small small one, baby one.”
She normally takes her bath after her breakfast, so while naked, she touched her buttocks. I told her, “Eee Yew, don’t touch your bum bum, after your finger smelly.” She had a sniff of her finger and replied, “Nooo… Not smelly. Smell like Koh-song (Croissant, what she had for breakfast that morning).”
At the park, she wanted to go on the swing, but I was busy talking to my neighbour.
“Mummy, don’t talk. Come now.”
When we asked her what TV program she wants to watch.
“I want to watch Baby Ai-tine doc kong.” (Baby Einstein DOT COM. That’s what’s ‘announced’ at the end of each of her Baby Einstein program).
And every day, she wants to cling on to me. Only I can pass her her milk bottle (even though it’s made by Jelly or Daddy), only I can remove her from the car seat. She says, “I don’t like Auntie Jelly, I like mummy only.”
Oh, she’s almost off diaper, not wearing any in the day now (for 1.5 weeks), and not wetting her diaper in the night too. She will inform us when she wants to use the toilet, sometimes even climbing up two flights of stairs to ask me to bring her ’she-she’ if Jelly is busy cooking. The only problem is, she doesn’t tell when she wants to poop, only tell us after the fact (soiling her panties). Still the same reason, “My bumbum painful.” o.O”
Click Clock Shoes October 21, 2008
Posted by Zara's Mama in : sisterly love, parenting, my two girls , 17 commentsI’m sure those parents who have daughters (and probably some sons), will experience the same thing; their girls going for heels, or shoes that sparkle. For my girls, it’s the same, even better if the shoes make the clickety clack sound when walking around with them on.
The ones that the girls have is this pair a neighbour gave us, and they call it click clock shoes (in Zaria’s case it’s tick-tock shoes, since she can’t pronounce the ‘cl’ sound).
Both of them like this pair of shoes. And when one of them (remembers to) wear them, the other will (be reminded and) also says she wants it, sometimes ending in a fight or tug of war with the loser crying (most of the time Zaria looses because she’s not as strong as Zara yet). So we taught them to share, and sometimes they agree to.
One wears the left side
The other wears the right side
That’s how far they will go sharing this pair of click clock shoes.
o.O”
Zaria says - Die Already October 17, 2008
Posted by Zara's Mama in : Zaria, language , 10 commentsOne day, after crushing an ant, she declared triumphantly, “Zah-yah press(ed) (the) ant. (The) Ant die already.”
On another day, she was looking for the grasshopper in the courtyard.
Zaria : “Where (is) gus-hopper?”
Me : “I don’t know. You tell me, where is the grasshopper?”
Zaria : “Die already.”
So I thought she knew what ‘die’ means. Until….
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
One day she was playing with the Badger Sunblock, opening the tube and applying it on her face, so she had patches of white on her face.
I asked her, “Zaria, what happened to your face?”
Zaria replied matter-of-factly, “Die already” o.O”
Zaria - 21 month + October 15, 2008
Posted by Zara's Mama in : Zaria, language, development , 15 commentsZaria is 21 month and 2 weeks old, another 2.5 month to her 2nd birthday! Gosh, so soon already??!!
Seen here crushing crabs. She seems to enjoy crushing tiny creatures like bugs or crabs. *sweat*
Here’s an update on her development.
♥Dexterity♥
~ She’s walking up stairs with no assistance now, and when going down stairs, she can do it on her own by balancing herself using the wall.
~ She’s able to do thumbs up and down to show things/food is good or bad.
~ She loves lifting her leg up and trying to balance herself with one leg, that’s the influence of Kungfu Panda.
She likes to get all dirty, here, she’s lifting her leg, doing the Kungfu Panda’s kick
~ Loves to climb up furniture, still has to ‘tie’ her down on her high chair even today. *sweat*
♥Language♥
She’s talking very well, and able to mimick most sounds, therefore picking new words up very quickly.
~ Like to relate to past incidents with “(Re)Member?”. E.g. “(Re)member, Zah-yah fall down, then knee painful. Mummy put cream?”
♥Vocabulary♥
Extensive vocabulary. She knows the names of most common things, and some uncommon ones. She knows her colours, although sometimes may still get it wrong. She can recite 1 to 10, A to Z (by singing ABC song), although mispronuncing some of the name of the alphabets.
Doesn’t she looks like a fugitive here?
♥Counting♥
Caught her counting her own fingers one day, then we realised she could count! Able to count up to 5 objects (“1, 2, 3, 4, Four books!”), and tell us the quantity of the items. If more than 5, she’ll forget where she stops. (“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Three lady birds!”
She’s able to recognise a few numbers, i.e. 5 (thanks to High-5), 4, 8.
♥Favourite Phrase♥
“I don’t want.” (Because now, everything also I don’t want) o.O”
♥Language Structure♥
~ She’s talking in longer sentences now.
~ Using compound noun, e.g.
“Cheh Cheh drop biscuit, everywhere dirty”
When we want to go out, I normally ask if anybody wants to use the toilet first, I get her shouting, “Nobody!” (probably because she’s eager to get out of the house).
In the car, “Everybody sit down in the car go kaikai.”
♥Emotions and character♥
Suddenly, this month she turned into a cry baby and also very clingy.
Every day she’ll cry at least twice when it’s bath time, unless I bath her. “I don’t want. I don’t want aunty bath. I want mummy bath.” And after crying, she can still say “Zah-yah cry already. See, got tears.” *sweat*
She has no fear of anybody. No amount of scolding, nor placing in the naugthy corner will make her ‘repent’ or learn her lesson. The only person she’s afraid is Nenek (my sis’ MIL). If she ran to the road, I have to ‘threaten’ her, “After car bang you, and you have to go to the hospital.” She’s not affected, until I add, “Then nenek will jaga (Malay : Take care of) you.” That will make her stop, and reply, “Don’t want nenek jaga.” sometimes adding, “Nenek scarry.” Ha.
When we bring her out, we sweat, because she will not sit still nor hold on to our hands. She’ll be running around like a wild horse. Imagine how tiring it is? (I kept telling Daddy we should keep her at home until she’s 3 years old.)
Like a wild horse, she likes open space.
♥Food♥
This month, almost everything is “Not nice”, or not right, “Don’t want, too hot.”. Very hard to please her tastebud.
Luckily, she still loves her milk.
♥Toilet Training♥
Still working on this. She knows when she wants to go, but she may not tell us. So, she still has her diaper on 24hrs.
♥The Things She Likes♥
Must be her books and her selected TV Programs (High-5, Sesame Street, Barney, some Barbie shows).
She is starting to tell us what she likes.
“I like Zah-wa cheh cheh.” “I like Daddy. I like him.” Sometimes when she’s in a loving mood, “Like” is replaced with “Love”
She also likes to say “I like it!” when she’s shown things she like.
We like and love you too Zaria!
(Photos taken 11/10/08 - Daddy brought the girls to Bagan Lalang again without me)
Look Who’s Playing Together October 13, 2008
Posted by Zara's Mama in : Zaria, Zara, development , 16 commentsOne of our colleagues came from Sydney to Malaysia for a holiday, so Mom2Ashley and I met up to have dinner with him. We brought our kids along.
Ha, we didn’t plan this, but both Ashley and Zara wore the same outfit which we bought for them from US. Not to mention, I too wore the same outfit, because Zara insisted that I wear the same top as her.
When the 2 first met, Zara being the brave one, went over to shake hands with Ashley. Ashley was a bit shy, and she just stared at all of us smile-less.
At the restaurant, we put both of them seated together.
Zara initiated, “Can I borrow your car.”
Ashley said, “Yes”
They both played with a car separately.
After a while, when we said we wanted to take a photo with the 2 of them, Zara sat over at Ashley’s seat and put her arms around Ashley (See Ashley in the photo, still hardly warmed up yet).
Next moment, spark flew. They started playing like old friends, chasing each other around, laughing at each other’s jokes. When Ashley needed to go to the toilet, Zara followed too, holding each other’s hands. We can see both of them were enjoying each other’s company.
When it was time to leave, Zara asked me, “Why we go home so early? I was having fun with Ashley.” o.O”
That’s no way I can have as much fun with Zara as she could with her own group of friends. Just like the last time we went to Jazzmint’s place, she too had lots of fun with Faythe. So we’ll need to organise some kind of play group for them in the near future.
Oh what about Zaria? That girl was too busy exploring, no time to make friends, if she could just sit down quietly like Aidan half the time, that’ll make us less tiring.
