We see Zara growing up beautifully and we’re happy for her development. She speaks politely most of the time, using proper English, and she tries to influence people around her to do the same.

We were told in school, she will correct other children’s English, or manners. And she correct her music teacher’s English too, when the teacher uses ‘la’ or ‘ma’ in her instruction.
“Teacher, don’t speak sloppy English.”

She shows more interest in Mandarin now, and always asks me to speak to her in Mandarin. She will try to speak or reply in Mandarin, mixing in English words when she doesn’t know or forgot the word in Mandarin. E.g. “老师对不起，我没有做功课。因为我went out, 没有time做” (Sorry teacher, I didn’t do my homework because I went out and didn’t have time to do).
or “妈妈，我可以吃那个biscuit吗?” (Mummy, can I eat the biscuit?)

She’s becoming more mature in her thinking, i.e. She has been playing and walking our neighbour’s dog, and one day she came back and told me, “Mum, can you buy me a dog?”
I told her we’ll need to get a bigger house first, or else we won’t be able to accomodate a dog.
“Then from now on, you should not buy me any more things. Even if I deserved it.”
She said that way we can save more money to buy a bigger house.
When I asked her what about her birthday, she deserves a present, but should I get her one?
She replies, “No, my birthday is different, you must get me something. Maybe you draw me a card?”

She does her homework on her own after her nap daily, she puts back her things after using it. She’s doing well, really. She’s very honest even when she knows if she confessed something she may get punishment.

Of course, there are times she still snatch things from Zaria, or bully Zaria, but she always have her excuse (the same one), “I got a bit carried away.” o.O”

Her strength is defintely around the liguistic field.

When you are in Penang, you have to try the delicious and refreshing Nutmeg juice. I haven’t really tried the juice that’s freshly squeezed out from the nutmeg (which I think is also available), the one I’d tasted is the boiled nutmeg juice which is a mix of sweetish, sourish and minty. Zara had her first taste of the drink when we went to Penang 2 weeks back. She loved it, and said it tasted like fizzy Ribena.

On our last day in Penang, since I spotted some fresh nutmeg for sale in Chowrasta Market, I bought 2Kg home and asked around for the method to make the drink. (Btw, at the stalls that are facing Penang Road, they were selling at RM12/kg, but at the back of the market, it was only RM3/Kg).

This is what fresh nutmegs look like

This is what the seeds look like, the red ‘flowery’ mace and the seed can be used for cooking especially salted vege duck soup (Kiam chai ak) but they all turned mouldy and I had to throw them away before having a chance to try it on other recipe.

This is how I made mine (recipe calls for 1Kg nutmeg and 1Kg rock sugar, but I reduced the rock sugar amount).
2 Kg fresh Nutmeg
1Kg Rock Sugar

Method
Wash nutmeg and scrub off any dirt from nutmeg.
Half the Nutmeg and remove the seed.
Smash the Nutmeg.
Layer Nutmeg and sugar in slow cooker, i.e. one layer nutmeg cover with rock sugar, until the whole pot is filled (no water added!).
Turn on slow cooker to high and boil content for 3hrs, then turn power to auto and boil for another 6hrs.
Filter out the thick reddish liquid which can be stored in a container
Mix nutmeg syrup with water to get nutmeg juice drink.

After this first round of boiling, I actually put back the boiled nutmeg into the slow cooker, poured in some water, and turned on slow cooker to auto and boiled the content for another 8hrs. This gave me another batch of syrup which was a bit more diluted but nonetheless as tasty.

I love the red wine colour of the drink, and wonder why the flash being so white, can produce drink this colour.

(The very detail report is for our convenience so the next time we’re in Penang, we know exactly where to eat!)

We made our yearly trip to Penang again on October 12th to 17th. No, we didn’t stay in Hard Rock, but Bayview Beach Resort next door (making it our 4th stay in this hotel). We had to go on weekdays (and the girls have to skip school) because I joined Bayview Privilege and got some vouchers usable only during weekdays.

♥12th Oct 2009♥
Our first stop as usual was St Anne’s in Bukit Mertajam. I so love the old church building.

When we entered the church, I asked Zaria to dip her fingers into the holy water to do the sign of cross. She shouted, “NO! IT’S POISONOUS!” o.O” She waited and see what happened to us before agreeing to do it, and later, at the new church, she wanted to dip her fingers in each holy water container and do the sign of cross at every entrance.

Zaria as usual climbing here and there, and Zara told her off.

Girls loved looking at the stations of cross, and especially interested in Christ’s crucifixion.

Before crossing over to Penang island, we had dinner at Bukit Tambun but found the food quality deteriorated. Should have eaten in Penang Island instead. One meal wasted.

Our first night in Bayview was in the Superior room (free), with a super huge king bed, which the whole family could sleep on comfortably.

♥13th Oct 2009♥
I drove out to look for breakfast as it was not included for our free night stay. Except for mamak stalls, there wasn’t much to offer around Batu Feringgi. I finally found a food court in some residential area, and got nasi lemak and noodle for the girls and myself, and toast for breadman Daddy.

Girls of course wanted to go to the pool after breakfast. Zaria had all the gears ready, but she was afraid to be in any part of the pool where her feet couldn’t touch the ground.

We switched to the family suite at noon time, which has 2 rooms (1 with the super king size bed again, and the other with 2 single beds) and a shared bath room. Girls were happy to have their ‘own section’, and each happily booked a bed.

After switching room, we thought of driving out to Tanjung Bunga Papa Pizza for lunch since the girls so liked it the last time. Tried as I did, the girls couldn’t stay awake on the drive, and when we got to Tanjung Bunga, both were sound asleep. Worse still, Papa Pizza was closed (I think they no longer do lunch). We couldn’t find the char kuey teow stall behind Papa Pizza as well, and all the rest of the restaurants (The Bulgaria, The Thai restaurant) were not opened! What is this? Restaurants in Penang don’t open on Tuesday? We ended just having some road side curry puff, fried sweet potatoes and some bread for lunch, and the girls later had the cheese puff I brought from home after they woke up from their nap. Another meal wasted!

In the evening, Daddy suggested we took a drive to Balik Pulau. We shouldn’t have agreed. What a waste of time. All we got to see was the big dam, the winding roads and lots of durian orchards. What saved the trip was dinner. We chanced upon this road side Seafood restaurant near Ayer Itam called, Red Bali Seafood Restaurant, which was quite good and very reasonably priced. No food pix as we didn’t bring along the maid, and every meal time was like so kan-chiong (Cantonese : nervous), trying to coax both the girls to eat.

We drove back to Batu Feringgi, did some DVD shopping, and then walked over to Hard Rock Hotel for drinks. Girls absolutely love the sandy pool area.

That night, we got the girls to sleep in their own room. Zaria reluctantly let go of my arm when I said my good night, and Zara made me promise I wouldn’t close the door to our room. At ~3am, I heard Zaria crying, and got up. She was actually walking around the other room probably looking for us. I invited her to our bed, and then she settled down. Zara too was awaken by Zaria’s cry, but when I asked her to join us in our bed, she said she was fine sleeping on her own. What a big girl’s behaviour!

♥14th Oct 2009♥
We decided to spend the whole day in the hotel. Zara swam with Daddy, while Zaria preferred to stay in the Kids’ Club. When it drizzled, Zara too came and joined Zaria at the Kids Club for arts and craft.

For lunch, we walked over to Hard Rock poolside pizzeria with our swimming gear.

Girls immediately went to play in the water play area next to the pizzeria. 2 staff actually came over to tell us to get them out, as the play area was only for hotel guests. We tried to get the girls out but they just wouldn’t listen, and anyway, we’re paying guest as well, for lunch, and who asked them to put the play area near the pizzeria? In the end, when the 3rd staff came over, I shouted for Zara and Zaria to come back and told him, “They won’t listen to me, you go and tell them yourself.” He then said, “Never mind la, I have children myself, I know how they are.”

Btw, as guests, when you get your pool towels, you are being tagged with wrist bands, so they can identify you are Hard Rock Hotel Guests in the compound (and not like us who just walked over from another hotel). Hmm..

The pizza wasn’t really that great, girls only had a little. And I guess they were also distracted by the slides and the water play area next to the pizzeria.

When we asked Zaria to pose for the camera, this was what she did.

After lunch, they continued to play under the hot sun, and I had to literally dragged them out and go back to our hotel to shower and rest.

For dinner, I met up with my friend and her family at Mama Nyonya in town. I haven’t met her for 15years (and I found her through netlog)! Her children are already 15 and 12! It was also nice to meet up with her pop star look-a-like husband.

That night, girls slept on their own beds till the next morning!

♥15th Oct 2009♥
We let the girls swim a while after breakfast, and then we had to check out to move to the city. We had the overpriced Char Kuey Teow shop on Lorong Selamat for lunch!

When we arrived, girls were asleep, and gosh, Zaria was such a tyrant when she got up. I.e. throwing the spoon when Daddy tried to feed her some ice cream, pushing the plastic chairs in the coffee shop, and the final straw was lying on the greasy floor and picking up the ice cream that dropped with her spoon earlier and then put it in her mouth! I raised my voice, gave her a smack, carried her to the toilet at the back (risking she could very well lie down on the toilet floor) and lectured her. I got a few stares from tables around, but heck! She decided to be behave when I told her I would have to close the toilet door and leave her there for a few minutes if she didn’t.

I was actually boiling mad when I ate my char kuey teow!

We got a Junior Suite in Bayview Hotel Georgetown. It was just a suite with a small room and a big living room (whatever for! I want a bigger room anytime!) The bed was just king size. I joined two of those semi-circle chairs together and told Zaria that’s her lily pad bed, just like Thumbelina, and she bought it (just for the first night though).

After a nap for everybody (did you notice every day we have to nap? Not just the kids, the adults too), we decided to explore George Town on foot!!

We took a slow walk from the hotel along Penang Road, all the way to Komtar, then to Lorong Abu Siti, have dinner in our favourite restaurant Nyonya Breeze, then walked back again to the hotel.

We stoped and rested on benches along the road (how come in KL there’s no such thing?) when the girls needed a rest. We pointed out interesting things or building to the girls, chi-chatted, and on a balmy evening, it was quite a pleasant walk. My 2 girls were great, they walked and walked (we left the stroller back home, btw), and when they were tired, they asked us to carry them.

Once, Zara said she was tired, and asked me to carry her. She’s already 18Kg, I can only carry her piggy back style. After 2~3 minutes or so, I told her my back was hurting as she’s very heavy. She told me, “Never mind mum, you can put me down. I’m not tired any more.”, and she walked the rest of the journey. Such a considerate girl.

That night, Zara, Daddy and I slept on the King bed, and I put Zaria on the make-shift ‘lily pad’ crib. I should have taken a photo but didn’t. If you wonder how the lily pad crib looks like, I actually park 2 of such chairs together to form an oval shape crib.

Credit : picture taken from Cococozy

♥16th Oct 2009♥
We took another walk around George Town after breakfast. Because of the late morning heat, this time we didn’t go that far. We stopped for tea and toast at Toh Soon (yummy!), packed Char Siew Rice for the girls from Jit Seng (girls gave thumbs up); had char kuey teow and Hokkien Mee along Penang Road (so-so). Zara started asking question, “Why we always eat only?“

When we got back to the room, girls took their naps while I went to Liang Xin Reflexology on Penang Road, near the hotel, for a 90 minutes message. Boy, it was gooood. The masseur’s strong hands kneaded all my tiredness away (doing every thing for the girls without the maid did take a toll on the body).

In the evening, we drove out this time and decided to try the char kuey teow my friend recommended, at the junction of Anson Road and Siam Road. At 6pm, the place was already packed! We ordered a big plate to share since we planned to eat at a few more places, and didn’t want to fill our stomach up at the first stop. OMG! It was scrumpilicious! And so much cheaper than Lorong Selamat’s!

Zara tried ours which was spicy, and asked for a plate for herself too. We ordered another one for the girls without chilli, and they really liked it (actually, this was their first taste of char kuey teow).

After that we went to Lebuh Kimberly for more food. I ordered a bowl of duck porridge, and then we all had dessert from the Tong-sui stall. Porridge has this strong pork intestine smell (Buek!), but my almond milk was good. Daddy bought some ham jim peng (Cantonese : some fried spice dough) from a stall, and he loved it.

Then we drove to New Lane near Sunway Hotel, a super busy place with lots of stalls, but we just ate some Apom and red bean soup.
I jokingly asked Zara, “What do you want to have for dinner? It’s 8pm now, dinner time.”.
She arched her brow and went, “Huh? I had fried kuey teow already wut.”
“That was snack, now it’s dinner. In Penang, you must eat and eat and eat.”
She frown and said, “People in Penang don’t sleep one is it? They just eat and eat and eat? I don’t want to be a midget, I want to go back and sleep.
Hehe.

Our highlight of the night was supposed to be the Tang Yuan stall directly opposite Traders Hotel. We were saving our stomach for this. Alas! The place was closed for that night! Sigh. Zara is the happiest, “Now we can go back to the hotel!”

That night, Zaria said no to the lily pad crib, so 4 of us squeezed on the king bed.

♥17th Oct 2009♥
Girls preferred to stay in the room after breakfast while I went to do some shopping in Chowrasta Market. I really should have skipped breakfast and eat at the market. There was so much on offer and they all looked good! I did pop by Toh Soon for a cup of tea first though. Bought some fresh nutmeg, some dao-zhang from Cintra Street, more DVDs (btw, the vendors in Georgetown are not as honest as the ones in Batu Ferringgi), and then walked back to the hotel.

We started packing and checked out. Lunch was again Char Kuey Teow at Lorong Selamat. This time Zaria behaved but vomited instead. She said I fed her too big a bite. o.O” I think the next time we go there, they will pay us and beg us to go else where!

On our way home, girls were rather glad, and they started telling us what they missed most. Zara was her cosy bed, and Zaria was all the jigsaw puzzles she’s left behind.

Until next year.

We’d celebrated Hari Raya and also Deepavali in the same month. For us, it’s really just a holiday break. For the girls, it was a time for them to discovered the differences in each of this celebration.

Zara drew this in school for Hari Raya. She knows there’s ketupat and the pelitas (some type of Malaysian wall candle sconces or oil lamps) in this celebration.
.

And then for Deepavali, she realises that there’s Kolam drawing every where, and she made one herself on paper.

Zaria, not to be outdone by Zara, did a drawing too. She has been very proud of her drawing, and kept showing it to us. Can you tell what she tried to draw?

Here’s her answer : “See, my birthday cake drawing. I draw (drew) decoration on the cake. They are sweets. This is the baloon. See, Daddy and mummy is (are) also there. My picture got present also.” Zara helped to write Zaria’s name, and put in the words (ok, she spelled that phonetically); she also drew Zaria next to Daddy and mummy, drew a present (which Zaria later coloured), and also some candles on the cake.

Lately, I feel so tired all the time. Even with all the supplement I’m taking, and sleeping early, it’s still the same.

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

When I call Zaria Little One, she tells me, “I’m not little any more. I’m big girl already.”
When I ask her to do something on her own like clean up or yesterday, to wear her own socks before bed, she said, “I’m still a small girl. I cannot do myself.”

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

Every week, we get Zaria telling us :
“I love you mum.” one day; then another day “I don’t like you anymore” or “You are not my daddy any more.” or “I don’t friend you then you know”

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

One day when Zaria was super naughty, since there’s no cane in the house, I took hold of a paintbrush the size of a cane (in circumference not in length), and smacked Zaria.
Later, when it was Zara’s turn to be naughty, I threatened to use the same method on her, and she said, “You smack me with the paint brush, I’ll ask Aunty Jelly to call the police and catch you.”

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

I asked Zara who was her favourite aunt, Karen yi-yi, Teresa yi-yi (my sisters), ku-ma or Ah Kim Jenny (my SILs). She told me “I like Ah Kim the most.” When I asked why, she told me the reasons, “Because Ah Kim is the most rich” Then further added “And also because mei-mei doesn’t like her. If I don’t like her, then she’ll be very pitiful.”

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

I enrolled in a baking course ran by Taylors but last minute decided to pull out because my neighbor who’s done the course before told me it wasn’t worth the money. Zara was quite keen in me joining the class, so that I can bake big cheese pies for her and also nice cakes (that’s what she said). So I asked her, “Will you blame mummy if mummy didn’t go for the class?”
Like an adult she told me, “No, I won’t because it’s your property.”
Then continued, “You just learn from books then, and also watch TV to learn.”

When I picked Zara up from school, Ling Jing, the boy Zara likes, was there too waiting for his transport. When we got to the gate of the school, Zara told me to wait and turned back, “I need to go back and give Ling Jing a hug.” o.O”

In the car we had this conversation. It goes something like this :

Me : Why do you like Ling Jing so much?
Zara : Errr….. Because he’s a bit taller than me.
Me : Mikel (who was his dancing partner in her concert) is nice and quite good looking also, why don’t you like him?”
Zara : Mikel is not so tall ok. How can I marry some one shorter than me?
Me : Oh, you like someone tall. Then you should marry mummy’s boss. (my boss is very tall, fyi).
Zara : Your boss is too tall, his head is going to poke through my car. o.O”
Zara : And Mikel should marry Chi Ling, because their skin colour is the same. (both have darker tanned skin) o.O”
Me : Then why don’t you like Ze-Wen (another boy in her class)? He’s tall.
Zara : Do you know Ze-Wen has a problem?
Me : *o.O* What problem does he has? (I thought he has learning disability or something)
Zara : You know he’s only five years old and he’s so t-a-l-l, something is wrong? o.O”
Zara : Ling Jing’s height is perfect for me!
Me : Does Ling Jing speak well?
Zara : Ling Jing’s Chinese is very good.
Me : His English is not good?
Zara : His English is ok, he doesn’t speak sloppy English (at home when she uses lots of ‘lahs’ and ‘mahs’ and ‘wut’.. Daddy will say she’s speaking sloppy English)
Me : Is Ling Jing nice to you or not?
Zara : He’s very shy. You know, WY (her best girl friend in school) also likes Ling Jing. I have to see how to get rid of her. Maybe I’ll set a trap to catch her. o.O”

I don’t think she meant the last remark, because she said it while smiling.

Like an angel hor..?

This is what she’s capable of doing…. (and what I’m capable of doing)

I forgot to bring their milk along to pick them up from school.
Little Tyrant : *shouting on top of her voice* I WANT MY MILK NOW!
Me : Sorry I forgot to bring.
Little Tyrant : “I said I WANT MY MILK NOW!
Me : But mummy didn’t bring.
And started driving the car away from school.
Since Little Tyrant sits in front, she started kicking me, scratching me, kicking the gear box..
Me : Stop doing that
Still, she scrarched me, smacked me, kicked me.
Me : *found a spot to stop the car* You get out of the car and take the taxi home if you want to kick me some more.
Little Tyrant continued kicking.
Me : *Opened the door* You go! You get down and take the taxi home!
Little Tyrant stunt (probably didn’t think I was going to do that).
Zara : *Crying* Mummy, what are you doing? *covered her eyes* Mummy, what if someone catch meimei?
Me : Do you want to get down or do you want to be good.
Little Tyrant : *in small voice* Be good

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

I had to go to Kinokuniya, KLCC to exchange a book I wrongly bought. Daddy dropped me off and stayed in the car with the girls. When I got back, Little Tyrant started a shouting bout.
Little Tyrant : I WANT TO GO TO KLCC NOW!
Me : Mummy finished changing the book already, now we go for dinner
Little Tyrant : I don’t want to go for dinner, I said I WANT TO GO TO KLCC NOW!
Me : *bluffing* KLCC closing already, because it’s so late, we need to go for dinner.
Little Tyrant : I throw my shoes at you then you know!
Me : *turned back and warned* Don’t do it…
Little Tyrant really took off her shoes and started tossing to the front, but because her aim is not good, it hit the back of our seat and dropped.

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

Little Tyrant was very quiet for a very long time. When we found her, she was in the toilet staring at the bubbly sink, grinning. She had poured half the bottle of Dettol handwash into the sink, turned on the tap and watch the bubble mass.

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

Little Tyrant cries for the tiniest thing, like Zara flushed the toilet for her instead, she’ll be screaming and wailing “I WANT TO DO IT MYSELF!!!!!”

And when she cries, she CRIES. Wailing on top of her voice, kicking a big fuss, lying down on floor, breaking things she comes into contact etc etc.

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

I have tried all sort of ways to discipline her, sending her to the naughty corner, puting her in the toilet to cry herself off, smacking, threatening (e.g. She’ll go to naughty school if she cannot behave). Then yesterday, I told her, “If you so yai-yai, you are not like my daughter, you are like Cruella De Vil’s (from 101 Dalmation) daughter.” I gave her the DVD and showed her the cover with a big Cruella De Vil’s face. She doesn’t like it, and normally she would quickly put the DVD down with Cruella De Vil’s facing downwards.

This morning, she picked up the DVD, put it right in front of her face (with Cruella De Vil’s face out) like a face mask, and started walking around. “Look at me!!” o.O”

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

Most of the time, she is like this…

Tell me, what can I do?