Zaria The Horrible 2

August 2, 2010 at 10:40 am

Remember this?
The little Denis The Menace struck again!

Yesterday, we were driving back from MIL’s place, and the girls were at the back seat, and as usual teasing each other. Next thing I know, a hard TWACK, a scream from Zara, followed by her wailing. I stopped the car, and turned back to ask what happened.

Through her wailing, Zara said Zaria just took the sun shade (retractable type, so it’s big rod-like) and hit her in the eye.

I quickly checked Zara’s eye, asked if she could see, see if there’s any cuts. Her eyes seemed to be ok, but her left eye lid was bruise.

I was fuming, I turned to Zaria, took away the sunshade from her, smacked her hand and shouted at her.
“WHY DID YOU HIT JIEJIE? LOOK WHAT YOU’D DONE? WHAT IF SHE GOT BLIND?”
She was just a bit scared with my outbreak, “But… but…”
“KEEP QUIET AND SIT AT THE CORNER”
She then said, “Don’t shout at me in my ears, ma..” and sobbed a little.

On the car journey, I told her if anything happened to Zara, I’ll have to call the police. Not sure if the police will need to put her in the jail, etc.

When we got home, I quickly did another check on Zara, Zaria just stood a side quietly. Confirmed, it was just the eye lid that got hit, luckily.
Zara's Bruise

When I told Zara it’s not too serious, she asked, “How come like one eye cannot open properly?” I told her because one of her eye lid is swollen.
“People will think it’s my birth defect. But actually it was an accident.”
I reassured her the bruise and the swelling will fade eventually.

She called Daddy (who was out) to tell him what happened. Zaria refused to go to the phone to listen to Daddy lecture her.

I asked Zaria what made her hit her sister.
She said, “I said something to jiejie, and she made funny noise. I don’t like it.” o.O”
I told Zaria I was really upset with her behaviour, and maybe the police will need to put her into jail if jiejie’s eyes didn’t get well.
She said, “But I said sorry already wut.” o.O”
I asked her to stand at the naughty corner for 5 minutes.
She said, “But what if there’s coackroach?” o.O”
I had to shout, “GOT COACKROACH ALSO YOU MUST STAND THERE!!”

She was cool throughout, until I issued the ultimate punishment……..
No reading for her tonight!
Then she started crying.
However, when she cool down, she said, “Never mind, when you read to jie, I can listen.” o.O”

………………..

I thank God only Zara’s eye lid got hit.

Reaching for Stars!

July 8, 2010 at 6:36 pm

Zara could read, phonatically. However, she takes time to read simple sight words like their, my, we etc. I do not know what reading level children her age should be at, but I’d seen her friends in the same age group (from school, from her music calss) reading phrases with difficult words effortlessly. If I used that as a bench mark, then we’re in trouble.

I thought I’ll do something about it.

Normally in the evening, I try to spend about 30minutes with Zara, helping her with her keyboard pieces, her Chinese, her maths, and English writing or reading. Most of the time she’ll protest having to do more work (on top of her school homework).

So since last week, I thought I’ll start a reward system. Every day, if she’s done well with her extra homework from me, she gets a star. And each star is RM1. She can cash out the money at any time to buy anything she wanted. When this was first introduced, she already had things in mind that she wanted to buy. A pair of sun glasses (30 stars) and a helium balloon (30 stars).

Since the introduction of the reward system, daily, before we read her her bed time story, she’ll proactively ask me to choose the book for her to read; she’ll try to read phonetically, and I’ll help her with the difficult words. For passages which she struggled to read, I will ask her to re-read them the following day to familiarise herself with the words she found difficult.

After slightly more than a week of doing this, I could see her reading has improved a lot! She’s more familiar with the sight words, and getting better with her phonics.

These are the books I used for her reading.
Books Zara Read

Zaria seeing her sister getting stickers and all, wanted to participate too. She’ll ask me to pick a book for her to read too. Being younger, I’ll do most of the reading, but I’ll ask her to read words that are 3 or 4 letters which are spelled phonetically.

Some days, I got her to spell out the words she has read too, and she could. This was one of her ‘spelling’. She got the D written wrongly in AND, so she wrote again; and she tried a few times before she got the tricky S in STOP right.
Zaria's writing

I gave them each a ‘sticker passport’ (just A4 paper folded into 4), and their rewards are pasted on the ‘passport’. Rewards come from reading mainly, but I also give them a star if they are able to spell, do some sums, or behave extremely well.
Sticker Passport

Each day, after getting their stickers, they will count the total, and Zara woud do a count down, “20 more stickers and I can get my sunglasses.”

And Zaria told me yesterday after getting her 11th stickers, “I’m going to the shop to find something with 11 (dollars) on the label.” 🙂

Sex Education…. Not

June 22, 2010 at 4:32 pm

I havent’s started sex education at home with the girls yet, except the below few points :
1) You have to get married to have babies
2) tell me if someone stroke them or touch their private parts (Daddy also cannot, Aunty also cannot, their school teachers also cannot, not even their friends, etc etc.)

Here are some conversations with Zara, which is so innocent.

I talked to her about original sin, baptise and baptism.
She asked : What is baptism?
Me : Baptism is the ceremony of getting baptised. Just like if you get married, what is the ceremony? Wedding right?
Zara : Yah. So what happened if I don’t get baptised?
Me : (already told her about original sin, so I thought I’ll tell her what she can’t do if she’s not baptised)Then if you get married next time, you cannot have your wedding in the church.
Zara : Never mind, I can have my wedding in the restaurant.
Me : Normally, you don’t have your wedding in the restaurant. You throw a party after your wedding, and it’s held in a restaurant. You don’t get married in the restaurant.
Zara : Oh….I know. The real real wedding is in the hospital.
Me : Huh?
Zara : You get married already, then you have baby, then you go to the hospital to take out the baby. So your real real wedding is in the hospital right?

o.O”
I had to tell her doesn’t mean once you get married you’ll have a baby, and I told her our story of waiting for her for so long (well, not the whole story, but the waiting and finally having her).

She went “oooooh….” but don’t know if she really understood it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometimes when we share a toilet, they will check my panty to see if I was getting my period.
“Oh… you are not having your period. But how come you got pus in your petpet?”
o.O”
“It’s discharge, not pus!” I have to tell them.
It’s rather embarassing if they said that out loud in the public toilet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On another day, Zara told me she felt a pain in her private area and she might have ‘pus’. We waited till we got home so I could check what happened to her.
Upon checking, I found that it’s just because we were out the whole day, and she’s just a little dirty down there so I washed her and told her she would be fine.
Me : How come you don’t know your pain is caused by your petpet being dirty?
Zara : I don’t know because my teacher never teach me in school.
o.O”
And then, she thought of something really funny and she started giggling.
Zara : My teacher cannot teach me in school also. Hahahahaha.. Because if they teach me, then they’ll have to say the word ‘petpet’. Hahahahaha..
Zara : How can teacher said the word ‘petpet’.. Hahahaha..
o.O”
I told her they don’t have to use the word petpet to teach her, they can say ‘private part’. But then, normally teachers don’t teach them about such things.

Wait till it’s time for me to tell her the real truth about how a baby is made. Maybe I can write a blog post and give her the link. o.O”

Ooommmph...

Relaxing Weekend…. Not

May 31, 2010 at 9:55 am

We’d done quite a fair bit of travelling in the car during the long weekend, going here and there. Being stuck in the car with two boisterous chatterboxes for many hours requires a lot of patience, which I have not.

In the car, Daddy and I tried to plan for a get-away during the coming school holidays but constantly got interupted by the girls, for the smallest things, such as the below :

Zaria: Maa. Maaa. Maaaa. (Girls call me either ‘ma’, ‘mummy’ or ‘mum’)
Me : huh?
Zaria: Do you know what is kolam? It’s pond.
Me : Hm.

Zara : Maa. Maaa..
Me : huh?
Zara : I love you, you know.
Me : Hm.

Zara : Maa. Maaa..
Me : huh?
Zara : You know I can sing well.
Me : Hm.

Zaria: Maa. Maaa.
Me : huh?
Zaria: Jiejie teased me. You scold jiejie.
Me : Jie….

Zaria: Maa. Maaa. Maaaa.
(if still no answer from me) Mummy!!! Mom!!! Why you talked to jiejie but you’re not talking to me?
Me : Ok, what?
Zaria: Just now I saw a red car.
Me : (loosing patience) Oh kayyyyyyyyy

So after like 100 rounds of the above.
Me : Girls! Girls…….! Can you girls stop interrupting? I can’t even have a decent conversation with your Daddy.

All quiet… for like 15 seconds.

Zara : Maa. Maaa..
Me : *annoyed* WHAT???!!!!!
Zara : You are not having a conversation now, so can I talk?
*faint*

Daddy intervened : Can the two of you just sit back and relax?
Zaria: I cannot relax. I cannot feel anything.
Daddy : You are not supposed to feel anything. You are supposed to relax.
Zaria: But I cannot feel anything.
*faint*

Zara : Maa. Maaa..
Me : What NOW??!!
Zara : I think you are gumpy because you are having your period. (so they know, because I asked them to help get me sanitory pads from the cupboard)
Zara : When is your period going to be over?
o.O”

And Daddy said he feels like bringing the girls to Terengganu during the holidays. Imagine the looooong drive.

Dad The Alien

May 24, 2010 at 2:08 pm

Girls Playing Dollhouse Together

The girls get along so well sometimes, we smile just observing them play together, enjoying each other’s company.

Girls Playing with My Phone

However, they spend a lot of time squabbling too. Zara the annoying one, Zaria the easily annoyed. On days like that, I am the screamer mediator, the referee who tries to tone down their screaming and teasing.

On Sunday, Daddy however decided to step in, when the squabbling started just after we left the house for an outing.

Daddy said, “Since the two of you cannot get along, I think we’ll have to send you to different families. One to Karen yi-yi’s house, another to Teresa yi-yi’s house. OK?”
Zaria was the first to react, “If you say (said) that again, I’ll kick your teeth off.” (there was once, she even told Daddy, she’ll kick his penis if he scolded her again)
o.O”
Zara responded slowly and calmly, “I think you are an alien. You should just take a spaceship and go to another planet.”
Zaria chipped in, “Ya, go to another planet.”
Daddy said, “Are you sure you want me to go to another planet? Daddy is a wise old man. Without Daddy, nobody will give you wise advice.”
Zara replied, “Mum is even more wiser than you.”

Now you may think we should not let our kids talk back to us. However, Daddy said he prefers his daughters to respond to him intelligently, than to be so afraid of him they are quiet around him. I on the other hand, will not allow them to say use any derogatory words/phrases like, stupid, useless, you are nothing; but I don’t discourage them from expressing themselves even if they were showing dissatisfaction towards us. That’s our parenting style anyway. You may beg to defer.

On another unrelated incident, we were reading a book about dinosaurs, and after the book, I told Zaria, “I think I know what dinosaur you are. You are a cryasaurous.” Zara replied to me, “And you are a scoldasaurous.”
o.O”
I added, “What about you?”
Zara replied, “I’m the annoyedasauraus. I always annoy meimei!”
At least she admits.

Such Reasonings

May 20, 2010 at 2:26 pm

Zaria jumping on trampoline

Last week, Daddy had the TV on after dinner to watch the Thomas Cup live telecast.
Zara : Dad, I want to watch my DVD.
Daddy : Daddy wants to watch badminton.
Zara : But I want to watch my show.
Daddy didn’t reply, eyes glued to TV.
Zara : *upset* Even my own Ah Kong let me watch Sponge Bob in Karen yiyi’s house!
(My dad who monopolises the TV in my sister’s place, allowed the girls to watch Sponge Bob from 7pm to 8pm on Astro every time we were there. Well, he didn’t have a choice. The girls begged and begged with all their PLEAAASSSSE, until he gave in.)
There’ll be more to come, when World Cup season starts!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When dining out, despite having her own seat, Zaria loves squeezing her butt on our chair midway through dinner.
One of these occasions, I told her off, “Go and sit on your own chair!”
She raised her voice, frowned and said, “But we’re a family right? We should sit together!”
o.O”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When we’re home, Jelly is the one who bathes the girls. But when we were at my sister’s, I did the bathing while Jelly did the dishes.
One day when were at my sister’s, I was at the computer working, and Zaria came and asked me, “Mum, you bath me now.”
I told her, “Later, mummy finish mummy’s work first.”
She frowned and said, “You can bath me first right? Then you can finish your work right?”
Clever to reason now, I see.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the girls go downstairs, they like to jump from the fourth step before the landing to the ground, and laugh every time they did it.
I was worried that an accident will happen, so I gave them a lecture, ending with something like that, “You all think it’s fun huh? Wait till an accident happen. If it’s so bad, you have to be on wheel chairs forever. Next time if I saw who did it, I’ll bring out my big fat juicy cane to cane the person.”
Girls were silent.
I asked Zara, “Zara, do you understand what I just said?”
Zara was a bit upset with the lecturing, and replied, “You also did it last time right?” (I told her when I was young, I jumped once from the cupboard and sprained my ankle)
“You also didn’t listen to your mummy right? And it’s fun right?”
o.O”
I had to explain, I know it’s fun to jump like that, if they like jumping, we can bring them to Jungle gym or Kids Sport to jump on trampoline. Jumping like that is too dangerous, and I cannot let them do it, just in case they get hurt.
Since then, nobody did the jumping any more except on trampoline and well padded flour.

Zara jumping on trampoline

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My Fifteen Five Year Old And My Thirteen Three Year Old

April 23, 2010 at 11:31 am

Zara was being picky during dinner, she didn’t want to eat the fish, didn’t want to eat the vege, only wanted to eat rice with soup.

Daddy said, “Wait till I send you to the desert.”
Zara put down her chopstick, glared at Daddy, and said very slowly “If you want to send me to the desert, you better send me tonite. I’ll pack my bags and go.”
o.O” <-- Daddy and I went I chipped in, “Your daddy is just kidding.”
Zara continued to glare at Daddy and said, “You don’t really mean it right??”
“If you say one more time, then I’m OFF.”

o.O” <-- Daddy and I went Daddy asked, “Off where?”
Zara clarified slowly, “Leave. The. House.”

Five year old already like that. Fifteen year old that time how huh?

The little one, didn’t like what Daddy said too, so she frowned and told Daddy, “Dad you are speaking nonsense.” and refused to speak to him afterwards.

o.O”

Sharing..

April 21, 2010 at 9:26 am

Monday

When I picked the girls up from school, they smelled of oil. So I asked them what they have been eating or playing with.
Zara : Mummy, we ate Mc Donalds nugget in school
Me : Someone’s birthday today?
Zaria : Yah. Fin’s (Fin is from Zaria’s class) birthday. See I got so many things in the party pack.
Zaria started digging into her bag to get out all her goodies from the party pack.
Me : Zara, did you get a pack as well?
Zara : No, only the 4 year old class have. 6 year old don’t get anything.
Me : How come you got to eat the nuggets then.
Zara : Zaria shared with me. She also shared with WY and JY (who are both from Zara’s class). I only ate little bit, WY and JY ate so many you know.
Me : Mei mei, you are such a good girl, you shared with jiejie and her friends.
Zaria : Yah. I let jiejie and her friends eat my nuggets and chips.
(Thinking of testing out her reaction) Me *pretending to be sad* : But mei, you never keep any for mummy. I’m so sad. You never share with me. And I’m so hungry you know.
Zaria : You are working wut, how to share with you? (Clever reply)
Me *still pretending to be sad* : But you can keep for me right? When I pick you up, you can give it to me.
Zaria : …. quiet

Tuesday

I picked up the girls from school, and when I was buckling Zaria up, she tried to reach for her bag.
Zaria : Mummy, wait. I got something for you.
30 seconds digging later, she found what she was looking for. She opened up the box, and gave it to me.
Zaria : Mummy, I share this with you. I only take (took) 2 bites, and then I keep (kept) for you.
This is what she kept for me.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Zaria's half eaten jacob

She normally empties her lunch box after school, eating or sharing whatever she has with her friends, while waiting for me to pick her up. It must have taken her a little effort and restrain to keep some cream cracker for me.

She put a big smile on my face all the way home. (I didn’t eat the cracker, b’cos I wanted to get home to take a photo of it.)

Typical Car Rides

April 19, 2010 at 4:29 pm

Most weekends, we bring the girls out for meals, or to visit their cousins. Kai-kai (Chinese : Outing) is a must or they’ll complain.

A typical ‘kai-kai’ trip will take us around 15-20mins to arrive at destination, and the girls sitting at the back in their respective car seat will either entertain us or annoy us.

Here is a typical peaceful and entertaining car ride, which makes Daddy and I very happy, and glad to have 2 girls who can get along.

Girls singing nursery rhymes or some sound track from their DVDs.
Girls talking to each other about certain things, and laughing at each other’s silly jokes.
E.g
Zara : What do you call a witch at the beach?… Sandwitch!!
Both girls : Ah Hahahaha
(Repeating dialogue from Backyardigans)

Girls taking turns to be baby, and the one who’s not baby teaching the baby how to speak. Normally, Zaria will be the baby, and repeating what Zara asked her to say.
E.g.
Zara : Baby, says carot
Zaria : *purposely mispronuncing*Keh-yot
Zara : Baby, says mummy
Zaria : Mah-mah.

When they do the above, it allows Daddy and I to have a conversation without being interupted, and sometimes we join in their merry making too.

Most of the times, however, the journey is a tiring one with 2 of them bickering away, a typical one will be something like this.
Zaria : Mummy jiejie teasing me.
Zara : I didn’t do anything, you baby.
Zaria : Mummy jiejie call(ed) me a baby.
Me : Zara..
Zara : I didn’t do anything wut. BUEK.
Zaria : Mummy jiejie stick out her tongue at me.
Me : Zara..
Zara : You are such a baby!
Zaria : Mummy jiejie call(ed) me a baby.
Me : *pretends not to hear*
Zaria : “Stop annoying me jie. Mummy! Look at jiejie
Me : *pretends not to hear*
Zaria : *louder* MumMY! MuMMY! MUMMY! Look at jiejie!!! JIE JIE STOPS ANNOYING ME. You are so irritating. *and starts kicking the back seat*
Me : What is it now?
Zaria : Mummy jiejie is irritating me.
Me : What did jiejie do?
Zara : I didn’t do anything, she’s just a baby.
Zaria : See, jiejie is irritating me. You are so annoying, jie.
Zara : You are the one who’s annoying.
Zaria : You!
Zara : It’s you!
Zaria : It’s YOU!
Zara : NO! It’s YOU!
Zaria : NO IT’S YOU! Mummy, jiejie said I’m annoying.
Zara : BABY BABY BABY!
Me : Stop it Zara
Zara : BABY!
Zaria : Jie, mummy said stop it. Mummy, Jiejie still calling me baby.
Me : ZARAAAAA
Zara : *immitates me*ZARAAAA
Zaria : Mummy, Jiejie still not stopping.

And it goes on…….

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