We got Aunty Ping Ping’s package few days back, and today, Zara got a chance to put on her All American swim suit. The weather is good, so I thought I’ll bring her for a dip in the pool together with my nephews.

She just looks so cute in the 2 piece swim suit, and the matching hood.

She had so much fun kicking and waving her arms in the water. A few times, she shook her head to try to shake off the float, but it was securely fastened with 2 pieces of velcro. The float is one of the best Chinese creation! I have to remember to thank Ma Xin Ah Yi who got this for her from Beijing again.

She didn’t do her poo in the morning, and the whole time we were in the pool, I was worried she was going to contaminate the pool. Phew, luckily she didn’t.

This week the kids are staying home as it’s the school holiday.

Norman ko-ko was monkeying around with the broom stick pretending to be Monkey God, he was jumping around and using the broom stick to hit anything that he spotted, shouting “Hike! Aike!” while the imaginary villains got hit.

Zara was napping in another room, and when she heard all commotions, she wanted to be part of it. She stuck her head out of the room and saw the prancing Monkey God and got excited. She crawled towards Norman ko-ko and tried to reach for the stick.

She was happy just to be able to hold on to the stick and be part of the action. The Monkey God has just found his apprentice.

The last 2 days have been good, Zara is in a more cheerful mood and is willing to be in the company of kakak and Aunty Elizebeth.

She still refused to let Elizebeth bath her, but besides this, she’s alright. Playing happily, ‘talking’, and eating well too.

This makes every body less stressful too, and I’m able to be away from her without feeling guilty (of her crying or fretting).

Zara has turned 9mth old yesterday. A summary of her development at this stage:

She weighs 7.33Kg
She’s 72cm tall
She has 4 teeth (2 upper and 2 lower)

Mobility :
Sitting – she sits well, and able to pull herself to a sitting position from crawling or while lying down.
Crawling – she’s able to crawl, preferring the tummy on the floor method than tummy lifted off the floor.
Cruising – She’s able to bring herself up to a standing position while grabbing on to something, cruise around furniture confidently, sit herself down from standing position (still need some fine tuning, as now she’s just plonking herself down)

Language :
Understanding – simple phrases/words like sit down, NO NO, STOP, stand up, clap your hands, say(wave) bye bye, stamp your feet, kick, come (to mummy or daddy), biscuit, mum-mum, drink water, give me five.
She likes people to read to her, and follow our finger when we point out the words to her while reading.
She also enjoys listening to songs sung to her, if it’s a recording of songs, she prefers children doing the singing.

Speaking – She babbles in more than 1 syllable and sound, but no mama or dada or mummum yet. Most frequent sound she makes is “Ek!” (for calling some one), or Ah-ta (don’t know what this means), “Aaaaa” (probably singing).

Communication (w/out words) – she tells me she’s hungry by leaning on me and sucking her thumb. She rubs her eyes when she’s sleepy. She likes to copy people’s facial expression, like pouting her lips for kissing, sticking out her tongue, opening and closing her mouth like she’s eating.

Hands coordination :
She can clap her hands, wave bye bye, open and close her hands (doing twinkle twinkle little star, nowadays, her bye bye seems to be done in this manner too) pick up small pieces of bread or biscuit to put in her mouth (still perfecting her pincher grip).

Feeding :
She’s on 2 solid meals (probably eating about 2 to 3 table spoons of food), 5 feeds of breast milk, and snack on some biscuits a day.

Preferences :
She’s started having preferences on who she wants to be with, where she wants to be, what to eat (if we give her something she doesn’t like, she’ll just purse her lips and if we forced feed her, she’ll make the Urk vomit sound).

Emotions :
She has very developed tear glands, when she cries, big droplet of tears roll down the cheek, a very pitiful sight.
She knows how to complain by making noises or whining. Sometimes stiffening her legs in protest.
When she’s happy, she makes happy noises, “Aaagh!”
She smiles a lot when she’s in a good mood.
She is a thumb sucker, and normally can pacify herself or get herself to sleep sucking her thumb.

Overall, she’s a happy and healthy baby.

Every time when I need to shower in the morning, and nobody is around to take care of Zara, I’ll put her in her tub at one corner of the bathroom, so I can keep an eye on her while I shower. These few days, to save some time, I placed her naked in the tub, and when I’m done with my shower, I’ll carry her and do a quick rinse for her (instead of filling up her tub and bathing her when we have more time).

To make things interesting for her, I tell her she will wait in her ‘boat’. I don’t believe she understands what boat is yet, but having a few toys to play with in the tub, and the occasional splattering of water on her, while I sing Row Row Row Your Boat in the shower, does keep her occupied and happy.

This time, she froze after playing with her stacking cups for a while, and her face turned red.

“Zara are you poo-poo-ing?” I asked while rinsing the shampoo off my hair. Too late, I could see her done with her business, and continued banging her stacking cups like nothing happened.

She did it, she pooed in her tub. This is the first time she did her business without her diaper on. I must say it’s easier to clean than a soil diaper.

While folding the day’s laundry, I kept Zara occupied by giving her smaller pieces of clothing to play with.

She was busy pulling pieces of her own clothing out from the laundry basket, checking it, flapping it (to see what sound it can make). When she’s done with one piece, she reached into the basket for another. This went on for a while, until she got hold of my breast pad in the basket. The minute she held it in her hand, she started sucking her thumb, a natural reflex, as this is her favourite comfort object.

She has this look in her face like she’s ‘high’ on something, like the Cantonese saying, “吹鴉片“ (taking opium) which depicts the addiction of a baby to the bottle, breast and in this case thumb/breast pad.

Maybe because I’m working from home, and she could hear my voice, and know I’m present; maybe she’s more choosy about who takes care of her, and where she is; or maybe it was just because she was ill the last week and still recovering; lately she had been extremely sticky, and preferred to glue on to me all the time than to play or to cruise when we’re in Karen’s house. She cried every time one of the maid came to carry her away so that I could work.

I tried to hide in the room to work today, so that she couldn’t see me or hear my voice at all, and it seemed to work. She only cried when I passed her back to the maid after nursing her.

Maybe next week, I can go back to the office to work.

Bought her a Leap Frog singing/talking Hug & Learn® Baby Tad™ Plush yesterday, but it didn’t seem to excite her as much as I would like to. After paying a hefty RM110 for it, I would at least like to see her show some enthusiasm or interest in the toy.

Here she is preferring to suck on her thumb, play with her tube of diaper cream, check out the wet wipes, examine the rubber mat (things she sees and plays with every day), and just not giving the huggable toy any attention.

At this age (coming to 9 months), I’m just not sure what toys to get for her any more. The ones meant for 12mths are too advance for her, while the ones meant for 6mths don’t capture her interest as much.

Maybe I should just let her play with normal house hold things, or just give her an old key board to play with, this could save me some money.

Zara was so happy when Jenny Ah Kim and Samantha che-che came over for lunch yesterday. She was just clinging on to Samantha and was all smiles! She was touching Samantha, leaning her head on Samantha, and was trying to get Samantha to play with her the whole time.

This morning, I took the day off, and brought Zara over to Jenny’s place. The minute she saw Aunty Litha (the Filipino maid), she was smiling from ear to ear. When she entered the house, she was so happy, she started making happy babbling sounds, and was trying to chat to Litha (the 2 of them always seem to understand each other with their own language).

I could leave her with Litha, and have a peaceful breakfast, and I did not need to carry or pacify her. What a holiday (for me)!

She seems to be facinated with balls, be it big or small. Karen’s excercise ball is something we can use to pacify her when she’s crying, and keeps her entertained and forget about whatever she was fretting about.

Here she is trying to figure out what the big ball can do compare to the small one she was playing with (which she used it as a teether even though we kept telling her not to put it in her mouth).

The other thing that excites her is the PC, when she sees someone at the PC, she would try to reach for the key board with all her might (use the human body as a ladder to climb near the key board).

I opened up a photo in her blog and showed it to her, and she got very excited, drolling onto the key board at at the same time hitting the key board furiously.

There’s something about balls and little buttons that babies like.