When the girls heard Bagan Lalang, they all got excited! Daddy brought them there once when I was away on my business trip, Zara said it was fun, Zaria squeled, “Play Play Sand!”

I wasn’t quite convinced especially after seeing the photos that Daddy had taken the last trip. Like this one here.

But, for the sake of the girls, I relented.

I made some onigiri (my first attempt) using the rice Daddy bought from Japan. (Yums! But the girls didn’t like it)

Packed a picnic basket, and an ice box filled with our favourite drinks; off we go, on a cloudy Saturday.

Check out what we found in the shallow pool.
Guess what this is?

.
.
.
And look how much they love it.

Zara danced and did gymnastics

Zaria was so happy she was smiling and laughing all the time.

Zaria jumped on puddles after puddles. See her ‘lifted’ here.

They played and fed each other ‘mud-pies’.

Zara catching crabs

And my favourite of all the photos.
Zaria checking out what’s in the mud

The girls got really dirty at the end, but they had so much fun. Lovely outing! We’ll definitely go again.

**Sold! As of 27th July 2008**

I’m selling off my Medela Pump-In-Style Traveller Breast Pump for RM500 (including 4 other breastfeeding gears).

I bought this when Zara was about 8months, around September 2005. I used it not as frequent as I should especially after I’d started working from home.

Here is what RM500 includes :
1) Medela Pump In Style Traveller breast pumps (inc double electric pump, backpack, pumping accessory kit, manual pump, cooling element, cooler carrier, ac adapter, battery pack, 4 breast milk bottles) ~ RRP RM1,600

2) Medela Harmony manual pump (acts as a back up when you don’t have electricity, exclude : a) misplaced bottle stand but you are getting 2 from the electric pump anyway, b) SoftFit breast shield) ~ RRP RM300

3) 1 pack of Medela washable nursing pads which contained 4 pieces of pads (unused still in sealed plastic but I tossed the box away already) ~ RRP39

4) 74 pieces of Lansinoh milk storage bags (unused, only available from the US) ~ RRP RM50

5) 1 barely used My Breast Friend nursing pillow (bought when I had Zaria, and, you can see how I used it here) ~ RRP RM189

Product shown here (except the breast pads) :

If you are interested, please contact me zarasmama@gmail.com

♥Zara♥

She wanted to wear a dress (a hand me down) from Karen, Eve‘s daugther, which she loves.
I asked her to wear her Zara dress instead, telling her, “See, this one is nicer, some more if you check the label, it says ZARA. Same as your name.”
Her reply, “This one (her earlier choice) is also nice wut. The label says KAREN.”
o.O

Over heard her talking to Fifi.
Fifi, you must start sleeping on your own already you know or not? I cannot sleep with you always. When I’m bigger girl, I’m giong to sleep with my boy friend, you have to sleep in your own room already.
o.O

She told me we have to go to Ikea, I asked her why.
“We must bring Fifi back to see her parents in Ikea. They didn’t see her for so long already, they miss her you know?
(Fifi is her favourite soft toy which we bought from Ikea)
o.O

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

♥Zaria♥

Zaria was bring naughty over dinner, so I scolded her.
Zaria :Mummy hug hug.
Me : No. You yai-yai (Cantonese : Naughty), Mummy don’t want to hug.
Zaria :Want mummy hug now.
Me : No. You eat your dinner properfly first.
She fussed and struggled, got down from her high chair, climbed up my chair, forced herself onto my lap, buried her face on my shoulder, then declared victoriously, :“Haha, mummy hug hug oh-di (already)”
o.O

Love the girls’ natural smiles, but when they are asked to smile for the camera, this is how they look like.

Check-out-how-many-teeth-I-have smile.

I-saw-a-scary-monster smile.

The-stool-is-too-hard smile.

I’m-young-but-I-have-crooked-teeth-and-wrinkle-on-my-nose smile.

They look funny, but I still love it.

We’re very amazed with how Zaria expresses herself. Some moments :

When she looked as though she’s about to poo, we quickly took off her diaper and sat her on the toilet bowl, she struggled.
“Don’t want poo poo. Bum bum pain pain” (she has been having big hard stool).
But when you have to go, you have to go, she tried for a moment and said “Poo poo stuck.”
Once done, she said, “Za-yah poo poo boh (bowl) there. Ah-tie(Auntie) hold”

She saw a faded Winnie The Poo figure (but you can still make out it’s Winnie The Poo) on some girl’s water tumbler in the park. She pointed to it and say, “Poo bear gone oh-di (already)”

Asked if she needed help on the swing, and she said, “No. Za-yah own.” And this is what she did.

One day, she wore the top below and she pointed to the polka dots and said, “Mummy, look, rain dops (drops)”
And yes! She’s jumping now.

And yesterday, she put her bear on the bottom half of the russian doll like below, and shouted, “Ah-tie (Auntie)!! Bear-bear poo poo oh-di!”

This girl is 1 year, 6 months and 2 weeks old today. Although she looks like Daddy, she definitely has my brainy genes. 😛

Suddenly, I realise how much my little girl has grown.

She feeds herself on most meals (she only needs help to debone or needs probing when she’s eating something she doesn’t quite like).
She carries the stepping stool to the sink to wash her hands.
She uses to the toilet on her own (except when it’s a big business).
She chooses and puts on her own clothes.
She puts on her own shoes (except for buckle types).
She brushes her own teeth in the morning (in the night, we’ll help her).
She walks up and down the stairs as she pleases, and opens and closes doors as she enters or leaves a room.
She helps to keep an eye on Zaria – either shouts for help or steers Zaria away from dangerous objects.
She recognises the numbers 1 to 10, and able to name the alphabets, and knows the sounds of the alphabets from A to Z.
She can talk about a subject with others (or herself) using knowledge we’d shared with her, i.e. pollination, Jesus’ crucifixion and how the dinasaurs got extinct.
She does a forward roll with ease, sings in pefect tune and pronunciation.

Suddenly,
She who used to need me sleeping next to her or to be in the room with her until she fell asleep
is sleeping on her own.
Be it nap time or night time.

Just so suddenly.

My program manager is a Taiwanese, and our test manager is a Mainland Chinese. I speak a lot to them over the phone in Mandarin.
On Saturday, while trying to get the girls to nap, I took a Chinese book in the attempt to bore them to sleep and read aloud.
Zara stopped me midway and said, “Mummy, you sound like you are having a meeting right?”
😛

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

Zaria just did a poop and since was about to take her bath, we left her diaperless, just in her pajamas pants.
She was playing in the living room on her own, and then shouted to Jelly, “Auntie! Chu-chu (Chinese : peed) oh-di (already).”
Jelly being the slow self, took a while before she came out to check on Zaria.
Jelly said when she came out to the living room, Zaria was already holding some tissue (pulled from the nearby tissue box) and was trying to wipe away the puddle on the floor.
😛

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

Zara was trying to tell me something about trying Japanese something, while we were going for a walk, and she was in the pram.
Me : Can you speak louder I can’t hear you.
Zara : mumble mumble…try Japanese ….
Me : What about Japanese, I can’t hear you.
Zara : *loudly*Haiya!*whisper*mumble mumble…TRY JAPANESE!
Me : Zara, when you talk to mummy, please turn your head to look at me. I can’t hear what you are saying
Zara : Aigh! Never mind la.. since you cannot hear me, I also don’t want to talk already
o.O”

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

I’d been telling Zara about aging.
Zara : Mummy, I don’t want you to grow old. I want you to be like Ah Kim. Alicia jiejie and Sam jiejie big girl already Ah Kim still not old yet.
(Ah Kim has kids when she was younger, I had mine when I was older..and Ah Kim has La Mer cream to keep her young.. how to compare)

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

I asked Zara if she liked her Alice In Wonderland DVD.
Zara : I like it a little bit only
Me : But you’d been watching it so often. Why don’t you like it.
Zara : Because, Alice is only a normal girl. She’s not a princess.
Sorry Alice!

After 18months of breastfeeding Zaria, it has come to an end. My milk supply dwindled to a mere 6oz a day in May with the increasing work travels.

I refused to bring the breast pumps to US as I intended to stop since Zaria was coming to 18months. No engorgement, no leaking breasts, my body just stopped producing. And how did Zaria cope? She’s fine having her formula milk. She asked for the breast a few more occasions when I got home, I told her, “Mummy’s breasts no more milk.” and she replied, “Suck suck breast oni (only)” pulling my top up. And she really meant it, just a minute, and she let go.

On days, when she tries to be funny, she tells me “Mummy, want suck suck breast.”, and when I lift my top, she turns away, and then looks back at me smiling cheekily and says, “Don’t want.” repeating this a few times. OR she pulls up my top, and pinches the breasts, and says, “Peet Peet” (the sound of honking). I can’t remember Zara being so cheeky last time.

Then there was once, she asked for the breast, and after just a while, she let it go and said, “No milk oh-di (already).”

The request to nurse and actually nursing, is becoming more infrequent. Now, she said, “Mummy, make milk” or “Aunty, make milk.” when she wants her milk.

Nursing Zaria for 18months just like Zara (see, I’m fair!) has brought me some embarrassment (leaky breasts) and some pain (engorgement, the biting) but it’s all worth it. We have lots of private 1 on 1 to increase bonding, she has strong immunity, and she’s rather smart for her age because of all the DHA I was giving her from my milk.

Now the time has come. I chucked away my nursing bra and bought myself some new bra, and I’ll be putting up an ad to sell my pumps and all other nursing gear.

The big solid boobs are gone, the bottles are here to stay. Goodbye Big C, hello Little B (or is it A?).

Continue from here.

On the last day of the training in Houston, Friday, 6th June, I took a 3hrs flight to New York, to visit my best friend, Ping, who’s 7 months pregnant. I spent 3 days there (you should see Daddy’s sour face when I told him I was extending my stay). We’d never spent so many days together before since 1997. It was really good catching up with her, at the same time I managed to see a bit of New York.

When I arrived, New York was hit with a heat wave, so throughout my stay, it was very hot, always above 30c!

Our first stop on Saturday morning was my favouritest shop in US, Whole Foods Market.
I only managed to glance through things at the skin care and health care department, no time for the supermarket as we had to rush to our next stop. The Big Apple Barbecue Party at Maddison Square Park.

So hot, such long queues and wait! If it was me, I wouldn’t be bothered, but it’s a big thing since all the famous barbecue joints around US will have a stall here in this event. Ping’s hubby is a big fan of barbecue.

After you queue for ages, you get your food, and sit in the park to have your meal.

If you are drinking, too bad, you’ll have to stand and finish your drink before you can step into the picnic area.

After being under the sun for 2 hrs, we went back to Ping’s place for a nap.

In the evening, we went to walk about in Greenwich Village .

Around The Village. Check out the Limo and the fire escapes.

Nice houses, all with back yard away from prying eyes.

Patriotic Artwork.

I had the best meal for the whole US trip in Mary’s Fish Camp. A small little restaurant which is bustling with activities.

We shared half a lobster and fish.
So delicious I tell you!

Sunday morning, we walked about around Tribeca, where Ping lives. This is the view a few minutes walk from her appartment.

We had breakfast at the World Finance Centre. This is the famous Winter Garden within the building.

Through the building, I saw Ground Zero of the World Trade Centres.
Such a vast gap! Now with some construction going on.

We then went on a free return trip ride on the Staten Island Ferries (such a bargain!), you get nice view of Statue Liberty from the ferry.

Also Manhatan skyline.

Next stop Central Park. So big.. but not shady enough. I was sweating profusely.

Ping decided to head on home to rest after Central Park and I continued my walk around Time Square. I hid myself in shops to enjoy the cool aircondition most of the time.

There’s a big Ferrel’s Wheels in ToysRUs at Time Square. If only the girls were with me!

I managed to navigate through New York Subway with a guide Ping left me and got myself home. New York subway isn’t glamourous at all.

Following Day (Monday), Ping decided it’s too hot to go out, so I went on my own.

Checked out Rockefeller Centre.

Walked along Fifth Avenue.

Checked out Apple Shop and FAO Shwarz Toy Shop
Too bad, no more iPhones for sales!

Then I met up with Ping at Kitchenette for lunch! Such a nice place, and the food is very homely. Love their cookies on display.

After lunch, it was off home to pack and leave for the airport. I took my flight home from New York, flight hours is shortened to 20+hrs.

You want a glimpse of my shopping? I bought lots of natural skin care and ointments (for the girls), mainly from Whole Foods Market.

My bag is 8Kg overweight but luckily they just let me through. *phew*.