Since Flower mummy likes doses of the girls’ talking, so here is another one. 🙂

I was trying to tie 2 plaits for Zara one day, and after trying a few rounds, I found her right plait is always thicker than the left.
So I asked, “How come your hair one side is thicker than the other?”
She replied, “I think that’s my birth defect mum.”
o.O”

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

Her hair is getting thicker, as she gets older, so I commented on it.
She said, “I think my hair is splitting into two. One becomes two. That’s why my hair is bushier.”
😛

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

There was a thunderstorm brewing and Zara was looking up into the sky.
“I think the white clouds and the black clouds are having a fight. If the white clouds win, then it’ll be bright. If the black clouds win, it’ll be dark.”

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

One day, when I was facebooking, she saw some photos my colleague tagged me, that photos were group photos taken on one of my work trip in Singapore.
“Mum, is that photo taken on your field trip?”
o.O”
I guess you can say so..

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

I was talking about trips I saw parents took without their kids, and I pretended to sulk and told the girls, “Everybody goes on a holiday without their children. Everybody, except your mummy. I’m going to plan for a holiday without you girls. I want to go some where ALONE.”

Zara said, “You are an animal, and we’re the animal keeper. We’ll watch over you and make sure you don’t escape. Hahaha..”

I continued, “Even you. You go on field trips without mummy and your daddy. Why can’t I go on a holiday without you?”

Zara quickly defended herself, “That one is not planned by me ok. That’s something that my teacher planned, and you allowed us to go.”

o.O”

On our way out shopping, another squabble broke up at the back seat.
Zaria : Maaa.. jiejie lying down on the arm rest.
Me : Let her lie down then. What’s wrong with that?
Zaria : It’s a(n) arm rest, not a head rest! I want to put my arm there!
o.O”

Zaria made a big mess in the bed room, taking out most of the toys from the toy basket, one of them was an iguana stuffed with alphabets. I asked her to clean up, and put everything back into the basket or we’ll not bring her out for dinner.
Zaria gave a big sigh then said, “But the Iguana will be so bored in the basket!”
o.O”

Lately, she’s always use the word bored, boring. Like in Penang, she wanted to stay in the hotel all the time, when we said we had to go out for lunch or dinner, she’ll roll her eyes and comment, “So boring, always eat and eat and eat and eat.” And when she found out we’re going to eat char kuey teow, she feigned boredom and said, “So boring, always char kuey teow, char kuey teow, char kuey teow.”
o.O”

In the mall, she wanted to go to the book shop but it was lunch time. So I told her, “No, we are going to eat lunch now.” She replied, “After we eat, then we read. OK?”
🙂 Glad she loves reading so much.

I showered her one cool evening, and when I was towelling her dry she told me, “Just now it’s so cold, my teeth was chattering like a castanet.”
o.O”

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

She wanted to do ‘homework’ when I was coaching Zara, so I asked her to take a paper, and write A to Z for me, without any help from us.

And here is her writing at 3 and a half. The J and S are mirror image, the K strokes are a bit out, but I think she’s doing good.

Zara gave her a star, and I gave her a sticker which made her so proud of her work.

Glad the school holidays are finally over and the girls are back to school, and I’m back to peace and quiet, at least for the whole morning and most part of the afternoon.

Another few more weeks and I think I’ll go nuts, with all the bickering, the furniture moving and the big mess they created in the house.

Here are photo shots of the rest of their holidays :

Sent them to neigbour’s play group (thanks to my neighbour who accepted them), even if it was meant for kids for 1+ to 2+, just to keep them occupied and burn some energy.

Sent them to the gym.

And then let them play at home (their own games, their own rules),

I havent’s started sex education at home with the girls yet, except the below few points :
1) You have to get married to have babies
2) tell me if someone stroke them or touch their private parts (Daddy also cannot, Aunty also cannot, their school teachers also cannot, not even their friends, etc etc.)

Here are some conversations with Zara, which is so innocent.

I talked to her about original sin, baptise and baptism.
She asked : What is baptism?
Me : Baptism is the ceremony of getting baptised. Just like if you get married, what is the ceremony? Wedding right?
Zara : Yah. So what happened if I don’t get baptised?
Me : (already told her about original sin, so I thought I’ll tell her what she can’t do if she’s not baptised)Then if you get married next time, you cannot have your wedding in the church.
Zara : Never mind, I can have my wedding in the restaurant.
Me : Normally, you don’t have your wedding in the restaurant. You throw a party after your wedding, and it’s held in a restaurant. You don’t get married in the restaurant.
Zara : Oh….I know. The real real wedding is in the hospital.
Me : Huh?
Zara : You get married already, then you have baby, then you go to the hospital to take out the baby. So your real real wedding is in the hospital right?

o.O”
I had to tell her doesn’t mean once you get married you’ll have a baby, and I told her our story of waiting for her for so long (well, not the whole story, but the waiting and finally having her).

She went “oooooh….” but don’t know if she really understood it.

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Sometimes when we share a toilet, they will check my panty to see if I was getting my period.
“Oh… you are not having your period. But how come you got pus in your petpet?”
o.O”
“It’s discharge, not pus!” I have to tell them.
It’s rather embarassing if they said that out loud in the public toilet.

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

On another day, Zara told me she felt a pain in her private area and she might have ‘pus’. We waited till we got home so I could check what happened to her.
Upon checking, I found that it’s just because we were out the whole day, and she’s just a little dirty down there so I washed her and told her she would be fine.
Me : How come you don’t know your pain is caused by your petpet being dirty?
Zara : I don’t know because my teacher never teach me in school.
o.O”
And then, she thought of something really funny and she started giggling.
Zara : My teacher cannot teach me in school also. Hahahahaha.. Because if they teach me, then they’ll have to say the word ‘petpet’. Hahahahaha..
Zara : How can teacher said the word ‘petpet’.. Hahahaha..
o.O”
I told her they don’t have to use the word petpet to teach her, they can say ‘private part’. But then, normally teachers don’t teach them about such things.

Wait till it’s time for me to tell her the real truth about how a baby is made. Maybe I can write a blog post and give her the link. o.O”

I can’t remember since when this started. Probably some time last year, Zaria started getting extremely annoyed by the labels on her clothes.

Initially, she would tug on them, and complained. Then she started getting the scissors, and tried to snip them off herself. She gets frustrated when she struggled to reach the label with one hand, and trying to cut it with the scissors in the other; she’ll shout for help in frustration.

Reasons she gave, “The label makes me so itchy!” “It’s poking me.” etc etc.

She will only relax when we cut it off for her. So most of her clothes has the washing instruction tag as well as the label snipped off.

Then for a few months, she refused to wear her socks to sleep (As girls don’t use blanket, I let them wear socks to bed so that they don’t get cold feet and can sleep better). She said, “The sewing so not nice. Make me uncomfortable.”

Eventually, I let her wear a pear of socks 2 sizes bigger, and she happily wore them and said, “This one the sewing is nice.” o.O”

So this girl doesn’t like frills, laces, that sort of things.

We thought we’ll make our yearly Penang trip this year earlier during the June school holidays.

We decided that this time we’ll not stay in Batu Feringgi, but in George Town instead, so that we don’t waste time travelling to town for all the good food. We chose Traders Hotel as our base, since I thought this is a business hotel and it should not be as crowded with families on holidays.

It was definitely a good choice, Traders Hotel is so near to everything, provides very good breakfast spread, and although there were many families on holidays, it didn’t feel as crowded. The only complaint I have is the room is a bit small for our family compared to rooms in hotel at Batu Feringgi.

♥June 10 – Thursday♥

We left home late morning, and 1st stop was Tanjung Malim town for (so-so) duck rice. After that, instead of heading towards Penang, Daddy drove back towards KL by mistake. He only realised that when we were reaching Lembah Beringin. 45mins wasted journey.

It was in the evening by the time we reached St Anne, Bukit Mertajam, a place we try to come once a year to give our thanks to all the blessings we received.

Zaria would now request for her photos taken at places she likes. Here is one with her in front of the old church.

And another at one of the station of cross.

Girls like the taps at the St Anne’s Water, because they get to play with water without get scolded.

And even do some water fight.

It’s always a nice feeling coming to this church.

Since we didn’t quite like the sea food in Bukit Tambut last year, we decided to have dinner in Penang Island instead. We headed to our favourite char kuey teow stall (Jalan Siam and Jalan Anson junction), but were told they have sold out. We headed to Nonya Breeze instead for home style Nonya food. The food at this place is always satisfying.

Girls were all excited when we reached the hotel. When we got into our room, they immediately rushed to the bed to jump. Some thing they always do on hotel beds! We had to literally drag them out of the room to head across the road to have some Tang Yuan.

Daddy can’t understand the rave about this tang yuan stall (across Traders Hotel on Magazine Road). It’s good but nothing fantastic. I told him he was lucky I made them at home, even the ones with fillings, or else, this would probably the best tang yuan he’s ever eaten.

♥June 11 – Friday♥

After a really good breakfast at the hotel, we let the girls spend time at the pool. The hotel has 2 small swimming pools (one for adults and another for kids) but because there wasn’t a crowd, it was very enjoyable.

We then headed to Ah Leng char keuy teow (junction of Jalan Dato Keramat and Jalan Dunlop), recommended by Chubby Hubby, where the kuey teow is a little wet, like pad-thai. It was ok but not really our cup of tea.

Girls fell asleep in the car, and we headed to Pulau Tikus to search for the best Soya Sauce made in Penang, which is also recommended by Chubby Hubby (Kwong Heng Loong 廣興隆醬園醬油, 7A, Jalan Pasar, Pulau Tikus).

I requested to taste the soya sauce before purchasing, and the shop owner scoped some out from an urn and dripped some into my palm to taste. Boy, it was good. I bought 10 bottles of the best ones, and already regretting I didn’t get more.

You can buy the soya sauce in bottles.

Or you can bring your old bottle to the shop for refills.

After that, we headed to Lebuh Armenian to look at all the World Heritage buildings.

We saw 2 of the houses under Straits Collection, run by Bonton.

We then chanced upon the Khoo Kongsi, and decided to visit it (RM5 per entry for adults).

It is a nicely preserved, and a beautiful place. Even though I don’t know much about architecture, I like the place and the feel of it.

If you think the outside of the clanhouse, Leong San Tong, is beautiful, the inside is even more so.

Since we didn’t get to eat our favourite Chay Kuey Teow the night before, we decided to try our luck again and went there earlier. Such an unassuming stall, but the char kuey teow is super good. The man who’s frying is rather old, I wish him good health so we can continue to enjoy his char keuy teow.

If you think Lorong Selamat or Sister’s Char Kuey Teow is good, wait till you try this. And only for RM3.80 per plate.

Back at the hotel, girls had a wild time jumping on the bed and playing hide and seek in the cupboard, until they got tired.

♥June 12 – Saturday♥

We have struck a deal with the girls that after breakfast, we’ll head on to Chowrasta Market and swimming will come later.

Instead of going to the market building on Penang Road, we went to the stalls along Jalan Kuala Kangsar.

Saw this man selling King Crab (I heard that’s what it’s called) and Giant Snails. Something we don’t find in KL except in those expensive sea food restaurant.

I bought ham and chinese sausages from this shop last year, and I went back there again to get more since my MIL said the ham was rather nice (and the chicken Chinese sausage is rare to find any where else). Zara was giggling away watching the animated owner when he gave us recommendations and introductions of items he sold in his shop.

Found a stall selling Kueh Ketayap. She was almost done for the day, but decided to make more batter, so she could sell a few to me to try. The coconut was grated fresh on the spot. It was soooooo delicious, even when we had them in the evening.

I also saw a popiah skin seller making the skin on the spot.

Girls found the place extremely interesting too, although it was a hot day, they enjoyed themselves checking out all the different stalls.

We then stopped by at Toh Soon Cafe (Lebuh Campbell) for drinks. I absolutely love the ice coffee-C (coffee with evaporated milk) there.

And Zaria loved the ice teh-C.

Pity the girls have to endure the heat, but luckily they didn’t complain.

We had some light lunch and then headed back to the hotel for a nap.

Girls spent more time at the pool after their nap, and was really hungry during dinner. We had our last dinner at De Happy Seafood Restaurant (62, Macalister Road) near the hotel. It was not bad, although a bit pricey.

♥June 13 – Sunday♥

The hotel was extremely busy on our last day. We had to wait for 15mins to get a table for breakfast, as the restaurant was full.

After breakfast, I went back to Chowrasta Market to buy nutmeg and zhong (Mandarin : rice dumpling) while Daddy took the girls to the pool.

After I got back with my loot, we checked out and headed for lunch. We decided to go to Lorong Selamat for Char Kuey Teow. Big mistake. The place was very crowded, and we were told the wait is more than an hour, and if we weren’t willing to wait, we can go else where.

We waited, and true enough, got served only more than an hour later. And seriously, the kuey teow isn’t as good as our favourite stall (and RM7 per plate!). And the people in the coffee shop where the stall was located were extremely rude. We decided this would be our last time here. Next year, we should boycot this place.

Drive back home was rather slow as the traffic on the high way was very heavy. Maybe before Zara starts Std 1, we should try to go for holidays during school days instead to avoid all the expensive hotel rates and crowd.

If you are my Facebook friend, you might have seen my status asking for ideas how to handle the 2 Duracell Bunnies I have at home.

The two weeks school holidays started this Monday, I’m getting stressed staying at home whole day with the girls, who has no where to spend their energy.

The Duracell Bunnies (the girls) out lived all the other bunnies (the parents) with their long lasting energy.

On Monday, they finished watching 3 DVDs by lunch time.

Fully charged up (since I guess watching TV turns your imagination wild and you don’t really use much energy just sitting there), they started moving little furniture around the study and arranged them into some sort of adventure land. Where they could crawl under stools, hopped walked from furniture to furniture and see who won’t fall off.

After their naps (both still take a nap in the afternoon), they were playing a little, but most of the time squabling. So they took turns to come upstairs to lodge their complaints. “Maa, jiejie snatch my things, punish her!” “Maaaa, Zaria drew a line on my drawing!” yada yada yada.

By the time I finished work, the study, the living room, the play room were in a mess. Thank God I have Jelly to do the clean up. (Although I did scream at the kids to get them to tidy up a bit, but they did a sloppy job)

It was a gloomy day, so nobody was in the play ground, and the girls didn’t want to be there. Again no ‘exercise’.

After dinner, they played in the room while I did some bread baking and Daddy took a shower. I heard all the giggling upstairs, so I went to check on them.

They were probably playing some dame in distress game. Zaria used the rubbish bin as the stepping stool, climbed up to her chest of drawers (~100cm), then she jumped down. Zara was moving a big pillow on the ground, trying to cushion Zaria’s fall. o.O”

I don’t know how many times they’d done the jumping and catching game, but I immediately screamed and told them to STOP! Told them how dangerous it was. Both looked at me with dissapointment, as though I’d thrown a wet blanket on them.

Reading, doing some spy games, more reading, and at 12am, they were still so energised, but we just turned off the lights, and went to sleep. Don’t know who fell asleep first, they or us.

On Tuesday, same routine. After breakfast, DVD watching again. I brought them out for lunch, and got them to do some running outside the shops.

When we got back home, they didn’t seem to be tired. Started pillow fighting, and stopped only when Zara’s pillow hit Zaria so hard, she knocked herself on the corner of the table. *faint*

More shouting and screaming (from me), and finally got them to take their naps. This time, I limit it to 1hr.

When they got up, asked Jelly to do body painting with them. Which occupied them for an hour, and they were so proud of their artwork (most of it done by Jelly though).

When I finshed work, brought them to the play ground. Held a race and made them compete with their friends. After dinner, Daddy brought them out for ice cream and took them to some indoor play ground.

When they got home, I took over, showered and brushed their teeth and then did reading with them, and there wasn’t any more jumping around in the room. By 11pm, Zaria climbed up the bed and said “I’m going to sleep already.” Yee Har!

Lights out at 11:30pm, we all slept. Did better on 2nd day.

There’s still 8 more weekdays to go.. Have to find ways to tire these two Duracell Bunnies! (and I didn’t sign them up from any camps or holiday programs. Sigh)

Last weekend, Daddy was in the mood to go to the country side (that’s what he calls these places), even though I was not as keen. My excuse, HOT! HOT! HOT!

Just so he doesn’t say all I do is expose the kids to shopping malls, I went along. With an ice box in tow, we headed to Kuala Selangor…for lunch! Try asking him to go to PJ to meet friends, he’ll complain so far, waste of petrol, but….. Kuala Selangor…FOR LUNCH…. that’s ok.

The drive to Kuala Selangor was a pleasant one. Pleasant because we were in the aircon car, sleeping.. , while Daddy drove.

Somewhere on the journey, we stopped, because we saw this road shaded by trees which made the scenary look over-sea-ish. So we took turns to hop on down to take some photos.

When we arrived at our regular place for lunch, we were glad there’s no crowd.

Alas, the food wasn’t as good any more. Luckily the company was good, especially when the girls were in a good mood after their naps in the car.

So we’d decided if we ever did come the next time, we’ll go somewhere else FOR LUNCH. But.. the hiong peng here is quite good.

So we bought a few packs home.

Wanted to buy the Ikan Bilis, but when I asked if they were locally produced, I was told the fish were from Pangkor or Thailand. So, I didn’t get any.

Saw this stall selling Bubble Tea at the road side, near the Hiong Peng shop. With just a blender (powered by generator), some ‘powder’ or ‘flavouring’ and a container of water and ice. Who would order from him? Hmmmm..

Then we’re off, to a nearby fishing village (directed by a local) to buy some fish, and head on home.

Daddy couldn’t resist taking a photo of this tree on our way home.

Of course, Daddy being the adventurous one, wanted to make another stop at Batu Arang, and that’s like entering a time warp. Shops, buildings all looked ancient.

Even the play ground looks like the one we used to have when we were younger. You don’t see these kind of monkey bars made with metal any more in new housing area.

I stayed in the car all these while, just didn’t want to get baked under the sun.

Girls, like their dad, did enjoy themselves.

One day we talked about death.
Zara : I think it’s better for me to die first than for you to die first.
Me : Why do you say that?
Zara : Because I love you so much, I think I’ll be too sad if you die first.
Me : But I’m older than you, so I will most likely die first. I’ll be happy if I can live till I’m able to see you grow up, get married and have children.
Zara : Then you must stay healthy. Until you cannot take it any more, then you die.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

I scolded Zaria for spilling milk on the coffee table, and while I was cleaning up the mess. I heard the below conversation.
Zaria : Jie, I don’t care about mummy any more.
Zara : You must care about mummy.
Zaria : Because mummy scold me, jie.
Zara : It’s ok. She’s your mummy. You don’t (won’t) know how to behave yourself if mummy don’t scold you. And you don’t (won’t) know what is right or wrong.

It’s sweet of Zara to advice Zaria so wisely.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

There’s Parents’ Day celebration at the girls’ school, the school had each class made the same gift to their parents. A vase with flowers for the mothers, and a mug for the fathers.

Me : How come the gifts are the same?
Zara : Because mei mei and I love you the same.
Me : (to tease Zaria) How can it be the same.. mei mei always said don’t want to friend me. Don’t want to care about me. You never say that.
Zara : When we are angry, we behave different(ly), but we love you the same.

Always so wise.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ MUAKS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥