The girl one day just declared, “I’m not getting married to an Italian any more. I’m going to get married to Ling Jing my boy friend.”

o.O”

Me : “Who’s Ling Jing?”
Zaria : “Ling Jing is jiejie’s boy friend la, in kool (she always leave out the ‘s’ for words with blending sound starting with s).”
(oh.. so even Zaria knew about it)
Me : “In kool?”
Zaria : “SSs-kool. Ling Jing is jiejie’s boy friend in school.”
Zara : *smiled shyly* “He’s from the 6 years old class. I like him.”
Me : “Why? Is he handsome?”
Zara : “A little bit. But he’s nice.”
Me : “Why do you say he’s nice?”
Zara : “He always smiles. And he always greets all the teachers in school.”
I was wondering if this was the boy which had lost some teeth and was always grinning.
Me : “Is he the boy with some teeth missing?”
Zara : “Some of his teeth fall off already.”
(I’m rather glad she likes some one for his ‘goodness’ rather than for his looks).
Me : “Did you tell him you like him or not?”
Zara : “Ya. I told him he’s my boyfriend.”
Me : “What did he say?”
Zara : “He just smiles.”

Hmm… I thought it’s just for that one day she thinks she likes this Ling Jing fella.

Then she drew this.

Zara : *shyly* “Mummy, look. I draw (drew) Ling Jing and me. See. He has flowers for me, and he’s holding my hand”
o.O”
Me : *tried to sound cool* “Nice picture. Why is he thinking about himself and you are thinking about yourself?”
Zara : “No. He’s thinking that I love him, and I’m thinking he loves me.”
o.O”

Zaria not to be left out, also said, “I also have boy friend you know. Benjamin is my boy friend”

o.O”

I think this girl really has the potential to be a lawyer.

Zara sometimes see a nice wedding scene on magazines or her TV show, and she’ll talk about getting married.
Initially, she said she wanted to get married to Daddy’s boss, because Daddy’s boss is extremely handsome (so mummy told her). However we told her by the time she’s old enough to get married, Daddy’s boss will be too old for her.
We offered her alternative. She loves pasta and cheese and hence we told her she may want to get married to an Italian.
Few days later, she said, “Mummy, how am I going to get married to an Italian?”, she sounded very worried. “I cannot speak Italian.”
It seems she’s been thinking about our proposal. o.O”

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

I told Zara over the weekend, “My eye sight is getting bad. I think I need a pair of glasses made.
Zara casually asked, “Did you get your book yet?”
Huh?
I answered, “I need a pair of glasses, not a book.”
She replied, “Did you get your book yet? You know, a book to give you instructions to make a pair of glasses?”
Oh, she probably thought glasses (which no one in the house wear one, thank our lucky stars), can be made following instructions from a book just like cake making or biscuit making.

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

While checking out my SIL’s new house which is bigger, and more spacious, Zara sulked and said, “I don’t like people’s house to be bigger than mine you know.” and then she added “I don’t want them to pity me (and my small house).”
o.O”

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

It’s always hard trying to get Zara to finish her homework before dinner. Yesterday, while we were going to the park she told me, “I like to have fun first, then later, do my homework.”
I teased her, “In that case, maybe mummy also should have fun first, and do my work later. Then maybe mummy’s boss won’t be happy and won’t pay mummy the money to buy food or clothes for you.”
She considered it for a moment and replied, “Mummy, don’t listen to me ok? You follow what your heart tells you to do.”
o.O”

Long long time ago in England, I had tasted Linda McCartney’s soy burger, and I absulutely loved it. They didn’t come cheap, and was more expensive than the meat burgers, but that was one of the few indulgence I allowed myself.

A week ago, Daddy used his credit card points to claim some voucher, and bought a high end Philip blender for me during the Harvey Norman sale.

Since then, I’d made 10 cereal milk (十榖奶) and also soy bean milk (豆奶) a couple of times at home. The first time I made soy bean milk, we used the pulp which is called okara as fertiliser. On my 2nd attempt which was on Saturday, I kept the okara, with the intention of making soy burger with it.

For lunch today, that was what I did. Here is what I’d used (in estimation):
1) a cup of okara
2) one big onion diced
3) less than half a cup of corn kernels (freshly scraped out from a cob)
4) a stalk of spring onin diced
5) a stalk of coriander diced
6) a lightly beaten egg
7) some corn flour and flour to made the patty less runny

Mix them all up in a bowl. Add soya sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

Add extra flour a little at a time so that the patties can be formed (but expect it to be a bit on the soft side).

Fry the patties in a pan. (The 1st one Jelly actually deep fried it like an Indian wadai, and after that I had to take over the frying)

And viola, our lunch.

It was quite good, probably as delicious as Linda McCartney’s. *ahem*

Lunch was served with a cup of home made soy milk.

(The girls had left over pizzas instead, since they are not keen on any meat burgers, I didn’t think they will like the soy burger, what more, it was my first attempt. However, I will definitely feed them this the next round).

Btw, I have been getting contradicting information about soya bean. Is it good, is it bad? Does it give you health benefits, or actually harms you? I really don’t know. As I like the taste, I’ll continue to make them.

In a recent trip to the mall, when I brought Zara to the toilet, she pointed to the gents and said “Penis goes there.” And then to the ladies, “Pet Pet this way.”

o.O”

My in-laws have just moved to a house ~2km away from ours (and leaves me many tales to write about). After picking up the girls from school, on our way, I sent some packed char siu (Cantonese : BBQ Pork) rice over. My FIL was working in the garden topless when we dropped by.

Zaria : Why yeh-yeh never wear baju (Malay : clothes)?
Zara : Because he’s feeling hot. His body is very hot, so he took off his clothes.”
She added further : His penis is not feeling hot, that’s why he didn’t take off his pants.”

o.O”

Remember this photo? Which I posted here when Zaria was 15months old?

Her love for my belly button hasn’t reduced even at 30 months. She doesn’t really ‘depend’ on it for comfort, but she loves to poke her finger in my belly button, or wriggles her finger in my belly button.

When she watches TV and if I sat next to her, she would put her finger in my belly button.

At night when I lay on my stomach to read to her, she’ll try to lift my shoulder up (and sometimes make the dramatic sound as though she’s exerting herself trying to do that) so that I’ll lay on my side, and then she’ll have access to my belly button. While I read to her, this happens :

Sometimes when we’re out and about (in public places), she would lift my t-shirt to reach for my belly button. After many times of telling her not too, now when she has the urge, she’ll say, “In public cannot poke poke belly button right? At home only right?”

Normally at bed time, I’ll tuck them in then I’ll go for my shower. At times, Zaria will tell me, “Can (I) poke poke your belly button first?” So I’ll lay next to her and let her poke my belly button for a while.

Nowadays she even wants to control what I can do with my belly button. If I appled lotion after my bath, and the belly button caught some of the lotion, she would tell me off, “Why got cream in your belly button? You cannot put cream in your belly button oh-kay??!! Next time don’t put huh?”

If I wear a dress, she will tell me, “Why you wear dress? Now I cannot poke poke belly button already.”

If I go to sleep at the same time with the girls, with Zara on my left, and Zaria on my right (yes, we’re still co-sleeping, with Zara on her own bed parked next to ours, and Zaria on our bed in between us); Zara will ask me to hold her hand or put my hand on her tigh (as long as I’m touching her); Zaria will ask me to turn towards her so she can poke my belly button. Imagine how uncomfortable it is for me? With me lying on my right facing Zaria, and my left hand stretched towards the left to touch Zara until either one fall asleep?

On our way home from school, just for the sake of discussion, I asked the girls if I can have another baby.

Here is a gist of how the conversation went.

Zara : NO!
Zaria : Cannot
Me : Why?
Zaria : *very quickly*You can only carry me. You can only sleep with me. Oh-kay?!
Zara : If you want to have another baby, then you must get married again, then I will have a Step-father. I don’t want to have step-father (I have been telling her you have to get married then only can get pregnant).
Me : I don’t need to get married again. I’m already married. Remember or not, when mummy have mei-mei, did mummy get married again?
Zara : Oh.. You just went to the doctors only right?
Me : Yah.. So, can I have another baby?
Zara : NO!
Zaria : NO!
Zara : If you have another baby, sure you will have a boy one. I don’t like boys. So naughty.
Me : Maybe it’ll be a girl. Then you’ll have another mei-mei.
Zaria : I don’t want mei-mei. I don’t want baby.
Zara : I got mei-mei already. You have another baby, then you will have no time for us any more.
Me : You two can play together right?
Zara : But we still need you to play with us. If you got baby already, then you will forget about us.

Not that I’m considering having another. I have closed shop. But it’s nice to see their reactions. 😛

On Saturday, Daddy brought us on an excursion to Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary, which is located at the Temerloh district. It was ~2hrs drive on Karak Highway (towards Raub and Exit : Lanchang) and small roads (with very good signage to the Santuary), passing small villages and Orang Asli settlements.

When we arrived ~2:30pm; they had finished distributing the ‘yellow stickers’ (which entitled you a ride on the elephant), and only left with ‘red stickers’ (which is just an ‘entrance ticket’). Entrance is free! Can you beat it? It seems the place is getting funds mainly from foreign tourists’ donation.

What the girls got to do was got real close to the elephants. However, Zara thought the elephant was dirty, didn’t want to get too close.

The elephant had just performed a trick (greeting visitors) and being awarded a pack of crysenthimum tea. o.O”

After seeing how the elephant took peanuts from my hand, Zaria too tried to feed the elephant.

Zara afraid of getting herself dirty, stood aside and watch.

Zaria is very proud she dared to do something her sister was afraid of doing.

After the feeding, the elephants were led to the river for a bath. Visitors can join in and bath the elephants. The elephants actually got a bit afraid when a big crowd jumped into the river and chased after them; they actually went to the other side of the river, and wanted to climb up to the banks. After a lot of persuation from the handlers, then only they came to the centre.

Daddy wasn’t properly dressed, so I went into the water together with the girls.

Splash! Splash! Splash! See the huge crowd?

For those with yellow stickers, you can actually take a ride on the elephant in the water.

The elephant will dive into the water.

And throw you off their backs!

After the elephants climbed back up to land, the girls wanted to swim in the water. Gosh, there’s elephants’ dropping here and there, but they refused to get up, so I have to stay with them. The river was shallow and the water extremely cooling, and there’s no foul smell or anything (but still, I DID see the droppings).

I just walked away a bit so that Daddy could take a photo of just the girls and Zaria started complaining “Mummy, why you go away? I’m drowing you know.” o.O”

They were probably in the water for about half an hour before they were willing to leave. Both girls got themselves a lilly leaf (I think that’s what it is).

Girls giving the thumbsup for the trip. I think they really like the cool dip in the pool.

In terms of washing facilities, like all Malaysian public restrooms, they are horrendous. There’s however running water, so I just gave the girls a rinse and got them changed outside of the restrooms. I cringed when I changed myself. BUEK!

On our way back to Karak highway, Daddy stopped by at a road side stall and ordered a durian. (Just in case you are wondering, no that’s not Daddy).

Zara had a taste of durian and didn’t quite like it (btw, we not a family of durian eaters).

Zara and myself waited for Daddy at the orchard owner’s shed, whiled Daddy finished off the durian.

Zara and the orchard owner.

(Daddy likes to rob the colours from our lives black and whilte photography these days; so everything is boring black and white).

Having 2 daugthers who are of similar sizes do have its advangtage. They can share clothes.

If a dress is too short, just add a pair of pants.

She saw how her jiejie wore the dress with a pair of pants, she wanted the same (although the dress is long enough for her).

Daddy and I are not the most loving couple, but recently, we try to have more couple time by sneaking going out for meals without the girls (mind you, the times we did this are probably ~ 5 times since Zara was born but they all happened this year). Here is my marriage counsellor’s view.

Me : Do you think Daddy love mummy?
Zara : No, I don’t think so.
Me : Why don’t you think Daddy love mummy?
Zara : If he loved you right, he will have a party like the party Ah Ku have for Ah Kim. o.O”

When we got back from late lunch without the girls on Saturday (we actually went out while the girls took their naps to a near by restaurant for lunch, but Zara woke up earlier than normal so she ‘caught us’ red handedly), Zara was very upset, and started questioning why we went out without them etc.
I had to spend a great deal of time explaining to her, in gist, I told her we are married, and sometimes we need to have some time on our own without them, so that we will be closer and more loving etc.

On Sunday, when we went to have lunch in Fish & Co (this time with the girls of course), Zara said, “Mummy and Daddy, the 2 of you sit that side (pointing to 1 side of the table with 2 seats). Zaria and me sit this side. Then you can spend time together.” o.O”