Do you realise as a parent, you always have something to buy for the kids?

The last 2 weeks, I’d bought quite a few items for the kids (and no, they have nothing to do with the mega sales), and got my loot over the weekend.

I met Chanel on Sunday and picked up Zaria’s new Kissaluv and Drybees (washable) diapers together with a set of inserts. I ordered them from Miabambina and got them delivered to Chanel together with a few parents so we could save on shipping cost (I discovered this is called a SPREE from Domestic Rat).

The Kissaluv diapers are so soft and they come in such nice colours! The only thing is, I didn’t know this is a fitted diaper which means the outer layer is not waterproof, so after 2~3hrs, expect to feel the wetness from the outside. Unlike Drybees, the outer layer remain dry even after 4hours of wearing.

I also collected from my best friend’s cousin The Leap Frog Learning DVDs; Badger Sunblock; and Busy Baby Wrap which came from New York.

I want Zara to pick up phonics, and I was hoping the set of Learning DVDs will do the trick. She watched 1 of the DVDs repeatedly over the weekend (probably 5 times in the 2 days) as she really likes it, and started saying, Ssssss Sssssss, Ke Ke Ke, Je Je Je, etc to herself. So I guess, the money spent on this will not be wasted.

The Busy Baby Wrap will make nursing in public easier away from prying eyes. I started with a small nursing cape, but as Zaria becomes more active, she likes to yank the nursing cape when she’s nursing, and have my breast play peek-a-boo with the world. The Busy Baby Wrap material is a bit on the thick side though, it’ll be very warm if I wanted to use it outdoor. 🙁

My best friend got me 2 tubes of Badger Sunblock as birthday presents, it’s a sunblock for the whole family and supposed to be one of the best sunblock available. Domestic Rat had done a very good research on this.

Finally, the biggest item is Tripp Trapp, for Zaria. Daddy was tempted to get an immitation initially, but after looking at the finishing of the fake, we decided against it.

Zara has been using her Tripp Trapp since she was 6 months old, she eats her breakfast, lunch, dinner at the dining table (not away like most high chairs do because of its bulkiness) together with us. She gets up and down the chair on her own since she was very young (how many high chair allow a toddler to do this safely?). Not once, the chair has toppled or fell. Her chair still looks as good as new without any paint chipped. The chair is adjusted every now and then to follow her growth, it’s her chair which grows with her, and she can still use it even when she’s a full grown adult!

Added later :
I forgot to add, in the warehouse sales that we went with Chanel and family, we also managed to get some plastic animal figurines for Zara (RM1 per piece), a real working microscope and statescope.

Have to hold off shopping for a while after this lot. o.O

Took 1/2 day off to have our passport renewed/updated/done yesterday.

Jabatan Imigresen these days is pretty efficient. I got the forms printed from the website (so you don’t have to pay RM1 for each form used) and filled them up the day before.

Yesterday I brought the girls to have their photos taken (which took a while because they just couldn’t sit still or look at the camera), and then straight to Jabatan Imigresen Subang Airport branch.  

The girls’ many shots before getting the right photo for their passports

We arrived at 11:45am, and didn’t have to wait long. Got Zara’s photo updated (FOC); applied for Zaria’s passport (RM150); and renewed mine (RM300). We left at 1pm with Zara’s updated passport. Zaria’s and mine would be ready by 2:30pm same day, but I didn’t want to wait, so I will have to go back next week to collect.

The counter staff were courteous, and efficient! I think our goverment departments are getting better these days.

I was also very impressed to see this :

A nursing room in the waiting hall! Way to go Malaysia!

I swing. I jump. And then I shout,
“This is what I’m all about!”
I’m Zipping, Zooming, Zara – the greatest gymnast of all.

I cartwheel on.. then off the mat. My leaps are short, or long – like that.
On and off, short and long,
I do it all, ’cause I’m so strong.
I’m Zipping Zooming Zara – the greatest gymnast of all.

A forward roll. A backward flip.
I’m high, then low, I rarely slip.
Forward, backward, high and low.
I’m putting on a wonderful show.
I’m Zipping, Zooming, Zara – the greatest gymnast of all.

My feet are near. Out far they go.
Up and down, near and far.
I feel like I’m a superstar.
I’m Zipping, Zooming, Zara – the greatest gymnast of all.

And I even have a side kick. The flipping, drooling, Zaria.

Now, do you want my autograph, before I get too famous and popular?

‘Gymnastic’ is currently her favourite before bed time exercise.
Original text is taken and slightly modified from The Greatest Gymnast, currently one of Zara’s favourite books.

Kept Zara occupied for an hour by letting her do handpainting on a linen cloth (which can be kept as an art piece or wash away for reuse).
And she loves watching the baby fishes swimming in our ‘water feature’, and spotting the mummy fish which is pregnant.

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

Two For The Price of One, that’s the bargain I got by bringing the two girls to Kidzsports, where Zaria is too young to be a paying guest, but old enough to have some fun.

Zaria had lots of fun in the pool of balls, then later she was really enjoying herself at the swing, so much so that ……
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
She fell blissfully asleep.

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

Met Baby Shern, and his mummy at Zara. Zaria’s potential boy friend, Baby Shern was touching Zaria now and then. So cute! And I’m so envious of Baby Shern’s thick hair!

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

I was in Zara on both Saturday and Sunday, since it’s their sales, and I just love the kids’ clothes there. I got the girls their birthday dresses (which is 5 and 6 months later, and Tuyam reminded me that they may outgrow the clothes before they get a chance to wear it), and lots of ja jam bo clothes spagetti strap tops for Zara in different colours.

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

Had my biggest fright, when Zara fell from the high chair (she was monkeying around), and knocked her head on the metal leg of table in Fish & Co. I thought I was going to pengsan (Malay : faint) when I saw her crying and knew the severity of the fall.

Luckily, she was still alert despite the fall and was able to tell us where it hurt in between her wailing. She even repeated, “I don’t want to have stitches! I don’t want to have stitches!”, remembering her cousin Norman had some stitches on the head a month back when he knocked into a lamp post.

I really thank God it was just a small cut on the head. After 30mins of trying to calm her down, she was back to her normal self. She was even able to model her dress back home to Tuyam.

Besides the cut, she didn’t have other swelling on the head. This morning, when asked, she told me, “I’m fine. I’m better already.”; “a little bit painful only” and “I cried so much because I have a fright.”

Sisterly Love

Zaria will be turning 6months next week, and is more responsive to her surrounding. She adores Zara, especially when Zara is dancing or singing, she’ll be watching Zara intently smiling. On the other hand, because Zaria is tougher now, Zara is able to hug and hold her and not crush her, Zara is enjoying the company of Zaria more.

Zara is also starting to show her love for her sister. She is willing to share her toys with Zaria, and when Zaria takes one of her favourite item, she will swap it with another less favourite and tell Zaria, “This one jiejie play. You take other one.”

At Zara’s bed time, if Zaria cried in the midst of me cuddling and talking to Zara, Zara will tell me, “Mummy, you go feed Zaria.” She no longer clinged on to me leaving her sister to cry.

2 days ago, when I was having a teleconference, Zaria cried because it was time for her feed. Since the meeting was about to end, I told Jelly (my other maid) to pacify Zaria while waiting for me. I heard some commotions downstairs caused by Zara. After the meeting, I checked what happened. Jelly told me Zara was very anxious when she heard Zaria crying so pitifully, so she kept saying, “Aunty Jelly, mummy meeting, you feed meimei the milk in the fridge! Meimei hungry.” “My mummy meeting cannot feed meimei, you feed meimei with this one (shoving a pack of frozen milk into Jelly’s hand).” “You don’t feed meimei after I smack you huh!”

When my aunt came visiting a week back, she pretended she wanted to bring Zaria home, and carried Zaria to the door. Zara cried, looking desperately for me for help, “Don’t take meimei! Cannot! Cannot take! It’s my meimei.” She only stopped when Zaria was back into my arms.

Sometimes, when she thinks I’m not looking, I can see her leaning over to kiss Zaria and mutter, “I love you meimei”.

I’m rather pleased to see this progress. 🙂 But being her normal self, she still say things like, “I’m pretty. Mei mei is ugly” “Meimei ugly because meimei’s eyes look like ganster (I wonder if she really knows the meaning of this).” or “Meimei so ugly because meimei’s eyes so small like daddy. Meimei’s hair botak like Ah Ku (my bro). My eyes big like mummy and my hair so long and soft.” “o.O

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

On another note : My sister came over with Tasha 2 weeks back, I attempted to take photos of the 3 girls together. Boy, it’s tough. It’s hard to make them look at the camera the same time. Here are some ‘nicer’ shots.

If you walked passed my house and hear sound of crying, you can be quiet sure it’s Zara’s. The Two and The Half cries more than her Four Month Old sister in a day!

She cries in the morning when she wakes up and doesn’t see me next to her.
She cries when she wants to wear her choice of clothings but we give her another set.
She cries when she recently had her Hep B vacination.
She cries when she wants to come to the study to play with me but I disallow because I have to work.
She cries when she wants Daddy or me to bath her, but both of us are busy and we ask the maid to do it.
She cries when she wants a sweet drink during dinner and we refuse.
She cries when she is not able to yank a toy out from the toy box.
Basically, she cries when she doesn’t get what she wants; when she’s in pain, frustrated, or just moody.
When she cries, she wails, with big drop of tears flowing down, wetting her face, and the top she’s wearing.
She cries more, when her face is wet, and she demands to be wiped; and it normally takes a while to calm her down.
Zara was a high need baby and now a high need toddler.

Zaria on the other hand, cries only when she’s frightened (by a loud bang, or the unfaimiliar whirring of the blender; or by a bad dream);
When what she is holding is snatched away;
When I abruptly end a nursing session and she hasn’t had her fill of milk;
When she wants to sleep, but she’s not comfortable enough to fall asleep.
When she had her vacination on the same day as Zara has hers, she made just an Argh sound, and that’s it. No tears or wailling like her sister.
And when she cries, she’s easily pacified : the toy returned to her, the feed continues, or just picking her would normally do the trick.

When Zara was younger, I was able to capture lots of crying photos of Zara (see here, here, here, here, here). With Zaria, as she deosn’t cry often, it was tough, but I’d been waiting. Last 2 days, I managed to capture these shots and that’s about it:

She was unhappy when her book was taken away; She wanted to be picked up after lying on her stomach for too long; She wanted to sleep but she was hungry and Zara was making too much noise in the room

We talk to Zara a lot since she was born, pointing out things to her and naming them, speaking out an action, even though she was still a baby.

“Mummy is changing your clothes now.. Put your right hand in, put your left hand in.”
“We are in our room now. See, that’s the light switch. Now press on it. See, the light is turned on.” etc etc.

And then for the first 18months, she went to King’s Wife’s place at least 3 days a week, she has her cousins talking to her. 

Now that she’s older, we still talk to her a lot and we encourage her to describe things to us.
If she says, “Mummy, Mr Blue (is) very happy.”
(Don’t let it end) “Tell mummy why is Mr Blue happy.”
“Because me just feed Mr Blue.”
(Corrected her) “I just fed Mr Blue.”
*repeated “I just fed Mr Blue.”
(Don’t let it end yet) “What did you feed Mr Blue?”
“Me give Mr Blue some macaroni and cheese.”
(Corrected her and make sure she repeated after me. Then continueed to get her to talk) “Who cooked the Macaroni and Cheese for Mr Blue.
Zara replied.
Probed further “What did you put in the macaroni and cheese”
Zara replied.
…… depending on how much time I have and what I’m doing, the conversation can go on, but normally we don’t let her conversation end at the very 1st line.

Nowadays, she talks a lot, and she describes things she’s doing aloud.
“Mummy, you wearing stripey baju (Malay : clothes) today huh?”
“Kakak, you put the cup here? After the sofa wet, Daddy come home scold you then you know.”
*sniffing the air* “Somebody frying fish. Maybe it’s spicy, I don’t know.” etc etc.

Now with Zaria, I don’t have the luxury. Her chatter box jiejie is always nearby. When I’m feeding Zaria and want to talk to her, Zara will come and ask me questions, or just talk to me, especting a response.
When I sing or talk to Zaria, Zara will be near by adding in her comments, or in turn asking me questions, also expecting a response.

Our new maid who is looking after Zaria while I’m working is very quiet (another gold in the mouth type). She walks around with Zaria in her arms queitly, and when she plays with Zaria, it’s just rattling a toy in front of her, without uttering a word.

Zaria doesn’t get as much “talk time” as Zara did and still does. It’s too early to tell, but I wonder if she’ll be talking later than Zara because of this.

Went to our neighbour’s son, Zackary’s birthday party in Kidszone, Plaza Damas on Saturday. I realised when Zara is eating with friends, she’ll just scoop up whatever that’s placed in front of her. When she’s with us, it’s a different story all together.
Zaria didn’t miss out the fun too, quietly observing what’s happening around.
My mum’s death anniversary, and the family met in the cemetary. This is Zara’s first visit to the cemetary (spot her Phua Chu Kang’s boots).
Zara was saying a prayer, but I really don’t know what about.
Later when we asked her why we went to the cemetary, she said, “Mummy’s mummy die already.” When I asked, “Where is mummy’s mummy now?” She replied, “Under the grass now.”

Zaria trying out Bebe Pod (a “Help Me Sit Seat”). Of course we didn’t buy that for her.
Zaria swimming in a pool for the first time 2 weeks back. She was such a natural, paddling here and there on her own, no need to have mummy near by.
Zaria absolutely love to lick the lollipop liked teether. We keep it in the freezer, and on a hot day, we give it to her as a treat, she’ll be happily licking it away.

4 people tagged me, eastcoastlife, Samm, Dancing Queen, Chooi Peng, interested to know the meaning of my girls’ name?

So why Zara and why Zaria?

It’s quite difficult for Daddy and I to agree on things 100%. When we were looking for a name for Zara, he wanted names like Catherine, and I wanted something more exotic which ends with an A (Eliana, Alina, Carissa etc) . We agreed Sarah is a nice sounding name, but since it’s pretty common; I picked Zara instead, a twist from Sarah and it means “princess”.

Daddy wasn’t quite convinced, until he met Zara for the first time in the delivery room; the spunky kid, who was partially delivered, head out, shoulders still stuck in the pelvic, screaming her lungs out. When Zara was placed on my tummy with umblical cord still intact, Daddy whispred in my ears, “I think the name Zara will suit her.” So Zara it is.

For Zara’s Chinese name, Daddy didn’t mind me making the shot, since he’s not Chinese Educated. I had a dream which repeatedly mentioned Jun Jan (It might have been due to Lin Jun Jie’s song getting lots of air time on radio during that time). When I woke up, I told Daddy about it, and he said Jun Jan sounded nice. So I started looking for Chinese words that sounded like that. It was 君倩 (pronounced as Jun Qian but spelled as Jun Jan in her birth cert) finally, which means gentlemen, noble for the first character, and winsome for the 2nd character (a winsome girl who’s noble).

As for Zaria, we wanted to look for a name which start with Z and end with A and only 2 sylabels. After a long hunt, we narrowed down to Zaria and Zonya (Simple American reminded me they are actually 3 sylabels). Since Zaria also means “Princess”, and both Zaria and Zara are names of young royalties in Europe (Zara Phillips and Countess Zaria), it makes more sense to choose Zaria.

Again, I was given the honour to choose a Chinese name for her, I chose 君洁 (pronounced and spelled as Jun Jie), which is noble, pure and chaste; with pronuciation not deviating too much from Zara’s Jun Jan.

Both girls have the same initials : ZLJJ. I hope the similarity in their names will bring them closer together as sisters.

Here are other bloggers and the meaning of their kids’ name.

1) Msaufong – Meaning Of SQ & Kiki?s name
2) Miche – My ACB
3) eastcoastlife – Choosing Jaymes?
4) Shopping Mum – The meaning of Justin and Isabell
5) Judy Chow – Terry
6) Shannon – Rachel
7) Samm – Gordon n Malcolm
8 ) Sasha – lil J
9) mott – 2 monkeys
10) Fatty Poh – What’s in a name?
11) Binky – The meaning of Ian
12) Dancing Queen – What’s in your child’s name?
13) Chooi Peng – Meaning of KW’s name

A lot of people have been tagged, so I’m not passing this to any one.

Hijackqueen mentioned that there’ll be a bloggers’ meet at Morib on 1st May last week, I wasn’t keen initially, puting off by the thought of the heat and having to nurse Zara in sweat. When I asked her again if it was still on Monday, she said no takers so she called it off. Hmmmphhhh!

With a spontanious husband, we headed for Morib again yesterday, arriving 6hrs too late for the bloggers’ meet (which actually took place), and 3hrs too late for the tide.

Half a year ago, when we were there at the same hour, it was low tide. This time, it was high tide when we arrived at 3:30pm, and there’s no beach for us!! What more there’s no breeze, and most part of the picnic ground was wet or muddy due to the frequent rain we’d been experiancing. Sigh.

We still managed to get a spot luckily, but since it was pretty hot and we didn’t have much to do, we left after a short while. We headed to Tanjung Sepat for seafood, but chose the wrong restaurant (Restaurant Lovers Bridge) and waited for almost an hour for our dinner (even though we arrived at the restaurant at 5:30pm). With the dining area perched on planks above the sea, and strong breeze blowing at us, the wait was bearable; the girls were kept contented by watching the waves and cooled by the breeze. Seafood was very fresh and delicious, but the wait was just too long.

Still, the girls have a good outing. Lots of smiles from them.

Girls at Morib, and the Lovers Bridge at Tanjung Sepat