This month we saw great development in Zaria, in her ability as well as her emotions.

Put her in the pool of balls she’s happy, put her in the pool of water, she’s happier!

I don’t know what her weight is nor her height, but she’s definitely growing. Clothes are tighter, skirts are shorter.
Her 2 upper incisors started growing 3 weeks ago. With 4 teeth now, and with her very strong sucking motion (Zara never used to suck so hard from what I recalled) nursing her can be a bit of a pain, imagine piranhas nursing! (OUCH!)

Other things the little girl can do :
1) Sitting without support like a pro now, only loosing balance occasionally
2) Clap her hands and give us five
3) Signing more (but it’s Zara’s version by tapping 1 finger on the other palm)
4) Waves bye bye; pats her stomach when we asked if she’s ‘pao pao’ (Cantonese : Full); but I don’t know if she knows the meaning of these actions
5) Raises her hand when we asked if she wanted to be carried; turns her hands and head away from whoever she doesn’t want
6) Making new sounds like ke, pa, te (effect of my new purchase? I don’t know.)
7) Crawl commando style, but right now it’s going back wards.
8 ) Seems to understand words like No (following it is another thing), Carry, mummum (Chinese : food, eat), no more, go park
9) Cover and uncover her mouth which produces the wa-wa-wa sound
10) When she sees food, she smacks her lips and says mummum repeatedly, does this mean she’s uttering her first word already?

Eating :
She absolutely loves eating. When she sees us eating, she tries to reach out and grab.
She has breakfast and dinner at the dining table together with us, so she doesn’t have to stare at us eat. Sometimes she wants to try what is on our plates, so we’ll give her a suck on the fruit we’re eating, or give her 2-3 rice grains to munch.
Still on 2 solid meals (breakfast and dinner, ~2.5 tbs) and have her milk 3 hourly (I let her rest for an hour before giving her a milk feed after her solid meal). Snacks on babybites biscuit at noon time.
She only takes home made cereals, fruit or vege puree. No meat introduced yet (will wait till 1yr old).

Clock wise top left : absolutely love this pix taken by my neighbour in the park; showing off her clapping skill; On her Tripp Trapp, her new found favourite; Spending lots of time in the walker

Sleeping
She takes 2 naps in the day for about 1hr to 1.5hr per nap.
She sleeps at ~9:30pm. Wakes up 1 to 2 times in the night (depending on how soundly she sleeps), requests for the breast, and drifts off to sleep (most of the time I too drift of to sleep with her) midway nursing.

Emotions
She started having preference on who can touch or carry her. She never used to be that particular, but this month, it’s different!
She dislikes wrinkly people in particular. MIL, out! My sis’ elderly maid, out! She will look at the person, hold the stare for 2s, then she’ll cry, with big drops of tears!
She needs time to warm up to people whom she doesn’t meet that often. SIL once jumped out from no where to greet her, Zaria freaked out, cried like there was no tomorrow.
Every time when we enter someone’s home, she’ll be looking from ceiling to the floor and around, clinging on to the one carrying her tighter, sensing the unfamiliar ground. People started saying she’s ‘papai’ (Cantonese : fussy), but I think she’s just getting more aware of things.

She prefers me over most people. When my maid is carrying her and she sees me walking by, she’ll be calling out for me  and her eyes will follow where I go. If I didn’t stop to play with her or carry her, she would be fretting, making crying sounds. However, she prefers Daddy over me when she’s in a playful mood, because Daddy plays a lot with her.

She likes
1) to touch, shake, knock just about any objects she gets her hands on
2) to stand or to bounce herself up and down
3) anything that makes sound and music
4) go to the park (and she loves to lift her head to watch the swaying leaves on trees)
5) baths
6) grind her teeth playfully (the top with the bottom) which gets on my nerve (hate the sound).

I like it when she feels manja (Malay : TLC required) and lays her head on my shoulder when I carry her.

I just love this little chilli padi!

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

Don’t be fooled by the face, she’s very capable of driving you up the walls

The whining started on Friday.
“Tomorrow we going cinema?”
“Yes.”
“The cinema turn off lights one?”
“Yes. But it won’t be very dark, because the big screen like a big TV will be very bright.”
“I’m scared, I don’t want to go.”
“But mummy and daddy will be going with you.”
“But I don’t want to go.”

We brought her anyway, and in the cinema, she sat between Daddy and I. Mid way through the show, Ratatouille, she started saying every now and then, “I want to go home!” “I don’t like the cinema.” “It’s too loud.” “It’s too dark.” “I want to go home”. Luckily, the whole cineplex was booked by our company, I allowed her to walk up and down the stairs next to the aisle, she was entertained until the movie was over.

Then on Saturday, she started her whining again.
“I don’t want to go to school.”
“You just go and have fun.”
“It’s not fun la. I don’t want to go to school la.”
“You go and learn new songs and read new story books. Maybe you’ll get to play with sand and water this week.”
“But I don’t want to go to school.”
Daddy even said, “Maybe we should stop her, she seems to be traumatised by the whole thing.” (Whining == traumatised? *roll eyes*)

We brought her anyway. I was supposed to have 15mins play time with her in the class (parents are allowed to be with the child the first 15mins), but when she got into the class and I was getting seated, she told me, “Mummy, you go out and wait. You don’t stay here.” o.O

After class, we met with Chanel and family in the market. Zara was whining the whole time, “I want to go home, I want to go home.” Even crying pitifully. But when we brought her to Wisma Bakti for a warehouse sales (the place was full of slides, see-saw for sales), she was happily playing and forgot that she needed to go home.

In the evening, Daddy asked where she wanted to go.
“I want to go One Utama.”
“What do you want to do there?”
“I want to go buy something.”
“What do you want to buy.”
“……. I want to go look at people walk here walk there.”

In the end, we just went and had dinner in a Chinese restaurant some where in PJ and Zara was whiney again, chanting “I want to go home” the whole time, even while enjoying her fried fish.

It’s really getting very difficult to bring her out these days, she only wants to do her own things, or else, she’ll be chanting ‘I want to go home’ throughout. Very annoying, very ‘fan’ ?. Haih.

On Friday, we told Zara we’ll get her a school bag for her to bring to school on Sunday.
Zara : “I’m going school tomorrow?”
Me : “No, on Sunday. Tomorrow is Saturday.”
Zara : “I go school tomorrow tomorrow?”
Me : “Yeah, it’s day after tomorrow.”
Zara : “I don’t want to go to school.”
Daddy : “Why? You can learn new things and be clever.”
Zara : “I don’t want to be clever.”
Daddy : “Why don’t you want to be clever?”
Zara : “Because I want to be a clown.” o.O”
Me : “Never mind, you just go and play and have fun then.”
End of conversation 1.

Zara : “I want to go see monkeys. I don’t want to go to school.”
Me : “We can go to school then we go and see the monkeys.”
Zara : “I want to see the monkeys first!”
Me : “The monkeys are going to school in the morning, because they need to learn how to climb trees, how to shell a peanut. So they won’t be around in the mornings. We can go and see them after your class.”
Zara : *thoughtful for a moment* “The monkeys go to school and frighten the teachers then.” o.O”
End of conversation 2.

Zara : “I don’t want to go to school.”
Me : “You just go and have fun Zara. Do your painting, play with the slides in the school. Just have fun.”
Zara : “I don’t like the park in the school. I like the park on grass one. That one no grass, not nice one.” (The school has an in-door play ground)
Me : “But you like Gymboree, there’s also no grass in Gymboree too.”
Zara : “I don’t like Gymboree. Our park in XXXX YYYYY got grass, is even more better.” (XXXX YYYYY == the name of our residential area) o.O”
End of conversation 3.

Zara : “I don’t want to go to school.”
Me : *for the xth time* “School is fun Zara, just go and have fun.”
Zara : “But I scared.”
Me : “Mummy and daddy will wait for you outside right?”
Daddy : “If you have any problem, you just come out and we’ll be there.”
Zara : “I open the door and come out?”
Daddy : “Yes, we’ll be waiting for you outside.”
Zara : “If I have any problem, mummy and daddy will be there?”
Me : “Yes. We’ll be outside. But I don’t think you’ll have any problem, so after class, you can come out and we’ll be waiting for you, ok?”
End of conversation 4.

Zara : “The dinosaur will go to the school and attack the teachers.”
Me : “Then what will happen to the children?”
Zara : “The brachiosaurus will play with the children. The T-Rex will attack and kill the teachers.”
Me : “Zara, there are no more dinosaurs. They are all dead.”
Zara : “All die already?”
Me : “Yes. All dead.”
End of conversation 5.

So how was she in class? When I said my good bye, I told her we’ll wait for her outside; before I left, I put my thumb up and mouthed the word “You’ll be ok?” Her eyes were a bit wet, but she nodded her head.
I went in and checked on her again when they were playing in the indoor play ground. “Mummy waiting for me outside?” She came forward and asked. I said yes, and told her to have fun.

Basically, she was ok in class, according to the teacher. This time, she didn’t even tell the teacher she needed to leave to go to Lake Gardens like she did every now and then last week.

I wonder if there’ll be more of such conversations every weekend when it’s time for school again.

Zara wanted Daddy to show her some pictures on the computer, but she hasn’t taken her bath yet. So I nagged told Daddy : “Get her to bath first la.”
“If you start showing her now, she won’t go for her bath.”
Then to Zara : “It’s almost 10pm. Zara, you go and bath first.”
“You don’t bath, mummy ask Daddy not to show you huh?.”
“Go, go and bath first.”

Zara spoke scornfully, “Mummy, you stop it! You stop whining ok? Enough of whining ok?”

o.O”

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I was talking to Daddy casually while flipping through Donna Hay’s recipe book.
“Eh I think I’ll be fat if I was a chef, look at all the food I would be cooking.”
Zara heard what I said, and joined in, “Mummy you are fat wut.”
“Your stomach like pregnant wut.”

o.O”

I know I’m fat, you don’t have to remind mummy ok?

I like the colour of Zaria’s food, so I thought I’d take photos of her every day meal for a few days.

She has so far been given mainly home made cereals (brown rice, quinoa, millet) with vege or fruits, and occasionally, we add some Earth Best Whole Grain Rice Cereal when we need to thicken her fruit or vege puree.

She loves pumpkin, apple, pear, sweet potato, banana, papaya; accepted potato, carrot, cauliflower, spinach, plum, brocoli. She refused avocado twice, using her tongue to push it out and turning away from the spoon.

We started with cereals (brown rice, millet, quinoa) and then later added one fruit or vege to her cereal. Sometimes we just give her 1 type of fruit or vege puree, e.g. puree pumpkin, puree papaya or mash sweet potato or mass banana. Later, we started mixing her favourite item to her vege cereal so that she will enjoy it more, e.g. brocoli + apple cereal; cauliflower + pumpkin cereal.

She enjoys meal time, opening her mouth eagerly, shouts out when the feeding is not quick enough.

From memory : spinach cereal, mash purple sweet potato, carrots cereal, brocoli cereal, plum puree, cauliflower cerel, potato cereal, pumpkin puree, carrot and apple cereal

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Besides paying attention to Zaria’s food at home, I’d also been keeping myself busy in the kitchen with some baking and others.

Let the photos say it.

Cup cakes for Zara and her friends; biscotti; ingredient for pesto; and pesto after blending

Every body is kept happy with some home made food.

I’m the ‘bad’ guy who disciplines Zara at home. I use scolding, occasional smacking and when she’s really naughty, I’ll be putting her in the naughty corner.

There are times when I try to ‘discipline’ her and she ends up putting a smile on my face (although I try not to let her see that).

We were walking to the park, and she was irritated with something and started whining. I yanked her hand and stopped, stood still and looked at her. She took a glance at me, smiled and said, “Haha, I’m so grouchy..” Immediately, she stopped the annoying behaviour and walked on. 

She was touching the ‘untouchables’ in MIL’s place (glass deco items),  she refused to listen when we told her several times not to touch them, and eventually broke a piece of the glass wear. I told her, “Maybe I should put you in the naughty corner!”
She gestured to the living room corner which was filled with deco items and said, “No, the naughty corner got too many things, I cannot go” o.O”

And there was this time, she was crying for no reason for a long 15mins, so I sent her to the naughty corner. Daddy came to the rescue after a moment, and told her she could come out of it. With tears, she replied, “Cannot! Mummy put me here one!” and then looked at me arms stretched out, “Mummy, I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
To her, since I’m the one who placed her there, I have to be the one who forgive her.

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There are times, when I see myself in her.

I’d heard her said this to the maids often with a very serious face, when she disapproved of their smiling.
“It’s not funny!! It’s not funny you know! You don’t laugh!”

And she’s ‘scolded’ Zaria for crying, “Mei Mei, you don’t cry! You stop crying! Mummy is working you know. You don’t disturb Mummy.”

I’d heard her said this to her Mr Blue, “Look at me! You go shopping you must hold hands yeah?! You don’t hold hands after you get lost! Then you have no more mummy!”

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And recently, she started talking back.
I had been ‘scolding’ her the whole day since she was whiny and cried for the smallest reasons. At night, when I was brushing her teeth and snapped at her again, she told me, “Mummy, you are like a wicked witch la. You always scold me la.”
I didn’t know if I should laugh of be angry with that statement, so I remained straight face and told her, “Mummy scold you sure got reason, ok? Mummy don’t simply scold you.”
End of conversation, for now.

Zaria was taking her nap in the noisy living room.
We were playing different types of music so Zara could dance to it.
We had Jackie Cheung blasting one minute, Eva Cassidy singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow next, then Carly Simon’s Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Zaria slept through the noise, not even a stir from her.

We then changed the CD to Vivaldi’s Spring.

We saw Zaria responding to the tune. She opened her eyes, listened a bit, blinked, then rubbed her eyes, and she started turning around, trying to find the source of the tune (the speakers) sleepily. It seemed she’s remembering the tune, which I played to her weekly (I have 7 sets of clasical tune which I alternated daily) with an mp3 player since I was four months pregnant with her. She rolled to her stomach and liistened without moving for half a minute before wriggling about again.

Ever wonder if a babies could recall things that happened when they were in their mother’s womb? I think they can based on this experience.

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Our paed gave me a sample tin of Neslec 1+. I thought I shouldn’t waste it, I let Zara have it on Sunday. After she’d taken a few sips, I stopped her and asked, “This is a new milk mummy is giving you, nice or not?”
Zara replied, “Not nice, old milk nicer. Old milk creamy creamy. New milk taste like mucus.”
I thought she was trying to be funny, “Taste like mucus meh?”
Zara replied, “Yeah, salty salty one.”
I took the bottle from her and had a sip, “Let mummy try.”
True enough, the milk is a little salty just like mucus.

I think milk companies should hire Zara to taste their milk since she has such acute sense of taste and able to describe the taste using lay man terms. >.O

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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.”

Whoosh! 4 more days and Zaria will turn 6months. We let her have her first solid yesterday.

Soaked rice grain; blending the rice; Zaria all excited in the kitchen; Zaria kept entertained while the cereal was being cooked

Recipe:
1 soup spoon organic brown rice
1 oz breast milk
some water

Soak brown rice for 2 hours
Blend brown rice with water until grains become fine
Cook liquid rice over slow fire, stirring often for about 5~7mins
Stir in Add breast milk and bring to boil.

Yummy Yummy, faster, quick, feed me, feed me!

She loves it! Kept opening her mouth and trying to grab the spoon! Next week, I’ll add quinoa and millet into her cereal.

Me : “Are you happy? Pao pao (Chinese : full) already?” Zaria : *big grin*