We’d been really busy the last few weeks, with the Malaysia General Election (following real news on the internet, going to listen to ceramah or speeches held by political parties); the preparation for the girls’ exams, etc etc.

Still sorting out the photos taken during our holiday in Sri Lanka, and working on the posts.

Here is a post to capture some of the things that Zaria said in May.

Brought Zaria for music class and waited for a car to back his car from a parking spot so I could take it, and the fella took forever so I drove away cursing.
Me : Idiot!
Zaria: Well, why don’t you call him a jerk.
Me: Hey, watch what you say ok.
Zaria: What? Why can you usethese words and I cannot?
Me: Because I’m an adult you are a child.
Zaria: So?
Me: We are different.
Zaria: Are you saying I’m not human because we are not the same?
o.O”

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Looking at a poster in a lift of a crowd cheering (concert attendees I guess). Zaria asked me, “They are attending Ceramah (Bahasa Malaysia : lecture) is it?

I think we’d been watching too much political ceramah on youtube.

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

At one of her tantrums, Zaria was taking the pencil and writing really hard on the dining table.
Hubs : Stop it yeah. You are damaging property.
Zaria still angry, glared at hubs and then started drawing on her own hands.
Hubs : So I don’t let you draw on the table, you draw on your hands yeah?
Zaria : So what? This is my property right?
o.O”

Zaria has started Std 1, and attended 3 days of school last week. Is she enjoying school? I don’t think so.

As I was getting them to bed just now (Sunday night), we had this conversation. Lucky for me, Zara can help to reason with Zaria most of the time.

Zaria : I don’t like Chen Lao-she (Chinese : Teacher Chen).
Me : It’s school Zaria. I can’t change the teachers in school. For your swimming class or music class, I can change. But I cannot change your teachers in school.
Zaria : But I don’t like her.
Me : Give her a chance.
Zaria : What? I’d given her 3 chances wut. (i.e. 3 days of school)
Me : If you really don’t like her, maybe you should talk to the headmaster.
Zaria : I don’t know how to speak in Chinese.
Me : The headmaster understand English.
Zaria : ….

(after a while)
Zaria : I don’t want to go to school. Why do I need to go to school.
Zara : The spam (Zaria has a protruding forehead and we said it’s her spam) on your head is filled with ideas and thoughts.
Me : And knowledge
Zara : If you don’t go to school, your SPAM will be empty.
Zaria : Then why should I go to Chinese school? You should send me to English school
Zara : Mummy cannot afford it.
Zaria : Then work work work work work.
Me : You will go and work?
Zaria : No.. you.
Zara : If mummy worked like this, she won’t have time to play with you. Or bring you to the park. No one will read to you at night.
Zaria : Then daddy bring me..
Zara : Daddy too have to work and work to send you to English school.
Zaria : Then Auntie Minerva plays with me.
Zara : Auntie Minerva will be too busy cooking.
Zaria : Then you don’t send me to school
Zara : Let me tell you something. (getting serious) You know, the government wants everybody to go to school. If you don’t go to school you know what will happen?
Zaria : What?
Zara : Mummy and Daddy will go to jail. So, do you want your parents to get locked up in jail, or do you want to go to school?
Zaria : I thought I’ll go to jail.
Zara : No.. You parents. Not you.
Zaria : Then.. ask the lawyer to help. o.O” (thanks to Kidzania, she vaguely knows what a lawyer is)
Me : Ask the lawyer to help with what?
Zaria : Ask the lawyer to protect us.
Me : *laugh*I don’t think the lawyer can help us.
Zaria : Is the lawyer more powerful or the government?
Me : The government.
Zaria : *frustrated* Why is the government so bossy?

…………..

After her school orientation, she told me this, “I’m still Chinese deaf you know, because I don’t know what the teacher is saying “

2nd day of of school she refused to get dressed, telling us, “Why do I need to go to school when all I get to do is SIT??!!”

It’s going to be a long 2013.

One of the things I didn’t teach the girls, but since Zara started going to Standard 1, she likes wearing a pair of shorts under her pinafore when in school or under a skirt when she goes out.

Zaria too pick this up from Zara.

So I asked them to write about why they need to wear ‘under protection’ (what they called that pair of shorts they wear under their skirt/dresses), and these are what the girls come out with.

Zaria’s reasons.

Zara’s reasons.

Check out their last reasons… o.O”

I was away during the weekend accompanying my dad to do his chemo in Singapore. When I got back, I saw this piece of writing by Zaria about Zaria.

Bad spelling, and bad punctuation aside, it shows that she adores her sister.

She’s always amaze at Zara’s ability, especially Zara’s ability to ‘swish’ her hips on the hula hoop.

………

And here are the girls on the hula hoops. Zara is a pro.

While Zaria is still learning.

As a rule in the house, the girls have to either do a page of writing (on any topic) or do some worksheet to earn themselves time on the iPad.

Most of the time, Zaria chooses to write, and after a while, she knows how to take the easy way out. Check out her writing below.

Listing her family members’ names.

Listing our birthdays.

Listing our birthstones.

And improved further on the same topic.

And the latest, writing about our characters.

When I told her, “How can you always write about my family this, my family that?”
Her reply, “What do you want me to write? Five hundred lines is it?”

o.O”

Half a year ago, I wrote about Zara going into an internal turmoil or worry state where she kept thinking of the worst of things and kept asking what happens if….. While things at school has improved, she’s still a worry wart.

One day before bed time, she found a mosquito in the room. She asked Daddy to swat and kill it. It wasn’t easy to spot the mosquito, so after a while, Daddy gave up. Zara got worried.
Zara : What happens if the mosquito sting me?
Me : It’s ok, you’ll just get an itch.
Zara : NOOOO. What happens if it has plasmasodium?
Me : o.O Plas-WHAT?
Zara : Plasmasodium, the parasite that caused dengue.
(It’s actually Plasmodium. I googled later then found out.)
Me : o.O …..

And another day, she put a pencil in her mouth (don’t know why she did that).
Zara : Dad, I put a pencil in my mouth. And I think I accidentally ate some of the lead. What will happen to me?
Daddy : Nothing will happen to you.
Zara : I remember you told me lead is poisonous. What happens if I got poisoned?
Daddy : The pencils now are made with safe lead. It’s not poisonous any more.
…..
(thought it was over)
Zara : Dad, how long ago was pencil lead still poisonous?
Daddy : Maybe 30 years ago?
Zara : When did you get that pencil? (referring to the pencil she put in her mouth)
Daddy : Don’t know. Maybe last year.
Zara : What happens if the pencil was 30yrs old?
Daddy : It cannot be.
Zara : What happens if you forgot but the pencil was actually something you have for 30yrs?
o.O” Oh.. she can go on.

Other things she worries :
Such as when Daddy cuts her fruits, she’ll ask him, “Did you wash your hands?

Or when Daddy offers her a piece of Tamagoyaki from his sashimi plate, she’ll tell him off, “You took that from the same plate as the raw fish and you want me to eat? I don’t want to get salmonella, ok?.”

Zaria had a bad fall 2 days ago. Instead of me writing about what happened, let me have Zara write about it.

They were together when it happened. One minute they were chasing each other, the next Zaria walking to me crying with a bloody nose with Zara following closely behind.

Here is Zaria sharing her experience.

How bad was the fall?

This was taken yesterday.

This was taken today.

Scratches are drying up.. Now it’s to make sure she doesn’t scratch off the scabs.

When it comes to food, Zara likes to call herself a half vegetarian, she doesn’t take much meat besides fish; and Zaria loves her meat.

Zara is a connoisseur, she is very fussy with food, and only enjoys good food. She takes the trouble to add flavour to her food, i.e. sprinkle this on her spoon of rice, add that to her cracker; and lay them out on her plate neatly so that it’s pleasing to the eyes etc etc.

Zaria on the other hand, does not bother much with flavour or presentation. She loves meat. Full stop.

This was our Monday lunch. Chicken burger & sausage with homemade bread.

This is how Zara wants her lunch to look like.

She wanted her burger drizzled with homemade pesto, and topped with slice parmesan cheese, and a basil leave. Just like how a gourmet burger shop would serve their burger.

As for Zaria, I asked if she wanted me to serve her burger just like how I did with Zara’s, she said, “No.” Went on to cut her sausage and burger while chewing on her bread. “Because I want to have a meat buffet!”, she said. o.O”
And this is her meat buffet lunch. o.O”

The family, as described by Zara.

We saw a pair of lovely high heel shoes with metal heels in Jiufen, Taiwan. Zaria wanted us to buy for her, but I didn’t want to because the heels were pretty high for her age.

Since then, every time when we asked where she would like to go for holiday, she would reply, “Taiwan.” Why? “Because I want to go and buy the high heel shoes with the metal heel.”

We asked her back then, “Why do you like high heel shoes so much?”
Her reply, “Because high heel shoes is my destiny“ o.O”

Zaria loves high heel shoes. I’m not her influence, because I can’t wear heels. I have clumsy feet which will get twisted if I walk in a pair of heels.

My SIL recently went to Accessories warehouse sales and got Zaria shoes with High Heels + Glitter = Perfect High Heel Shoes.

See the happy face?

A bit too big but.. so what?

Since the 1st pair was a bit too big, my SIL went back and got her another pair.

Fits her perfectly, and make her look like a teenager.

How much does she like the shoes?

She wore them when she watched TV

She wore them to do her homework

She wore them when she used the iPad

And for someone who doesn’t bother tidying up after herself (you should have a look her pencil case and her bag), she laid them next to her neatly when she took her nap.

That’s how much she loves her high heel shoes.

And of course, she’s still not really satisfied, she still wants to go back to Taiwan, to get the pair that she didn’t buy.