Hui Sia asked why I don’t mention much about the pregnancy in my blog. Actually I wanted to wait after the 1st trimester before I include updates of the pregnancy since things can still be very uncertain.

We went to see the Dr 2 weeks ago for my first check up. By right at 7 weeks, the baby’s heartbeat should be visible. However, the Dr couldn’t find one. He told us to return in 2 weeks time. You can imagine how worried we were.

Yesterday we went again. This time, the heartbeat was visible (at least to the Dr). From the size of the baby (slightly more than 1cm), Dr thinks that I’m only 7weeks + pregnant. Still very early in the pregnancy.

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Weaning Zara wasn’t difficult. After I knew I was pregnant, I increased another feed of formula to Zara. I still let her nurse 1st thing in the morning and before she went to bed. I think my milk supply reduced a lot, because she still asked for a bottle after nursing.

A week later, the nursing time also reduce, sometimes she just politely pulled down my t-shirt when I offered her the breast and said, “Close. Want bottle milk.“. At this stage, I found that the taste of the milk has changed as well, from something sweetish it has become a bit sour, probably due to the pregnancy hormones, nature’s way of weaning a child.

By the time she turned 18mths (3 weeks later), she totally stopped wanting the breast. Happy to just have the “bottle breast“, as she calls it.

I was expecting engorgement, and some discomfort, but maybe because the weaning process was spaced out, I do not have any of this. The amazing thing is, the breasts immediately shrunk 2 cups smaller! Just like that. (If only the tummy can shrink in this manner.)

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I’ve started telling Zara about the baby as well. She likes to bounce on my tummy, and I’d told her she can’t do that anymore because there’s a baby in my stomach, and the baby will feel the pain if she jumped on me. She seems to understand it.

Now, if she forgot and started bouncing on me, I’ll tell her, “Zara cannot jump on mummy”. She would quickly stop, kiss my stomach and say, “Got baby inside”.

Zara wanted to play with some paint on a rainy day, she started making a mess. So I stripped her and let her paint herself silly in her tub.

When I was not looking, she found my really really old tampons, unwrapped the plastic wrapper, and started playing with it.

We were at my sister’s place on Sunday, and she had a good time playing with her cousins. Here is here trying to strum the guitar.

She’s trying to do a yoga bridge, after seeing King’s Wife’s daughter Samantha did it.

And here is her extremely tired, waiting for daddy’s car at the lobby of my sis’ apartment

Cocka Doodle wants to know what gives me pleasure, but he should know, it’s everything to do with Zara, but I’ll try to add in others too which is not related to her.

1) Smelling Zara’s skin and hair after her bath or early in the morning
2) Having her wrapped her hands around me, giving me a hug
3) When she plant those lips on mine without being asked
4) Zara laying her head on my shoulder when I lift her up
5) Her funny ways of using words
6) Seeing the naked little bum of Zara’s
7) The way she looks up on me to do things she can’t do yet (like putting on the CD for her, helping her to climb up a chair, or reciting the nursery rhyme). “Mummy help” or “Mummy do”
8) Daddy shuffling my hair (a sign of his affections)
9) Biting on that piece of juicy duck with crispy skin.. Aaaaa
10) Seeing the 2 love of my life enjoying the food I’d cooked for them

I won’t tag anybody but it’s an easy tag to do, if you are interested, please go ahead and do it.

About 2 months back, Zara started showing some sign of independence.

She wakes up in the morning, and if we still wanted to sleep, she would play on her own (although sometimes she stepped on sleeping bodies to get down of the bed, or to reach the other side of the bed to grab things that interest her).

I could leave her in the room and take a shower as long as I have her ‘approval’.
Me : Mummy take shower Zara play on your own ok?
If the answer is : OK. It means she’ll be fine, the most she would do is come to the bath room and peek into the shower screen.
If the answer is : Don’t want or Cannot. Then it means she would cry if I really step into the shower.
She would normally busy herself with her books, or just play with the bed side table (she pretends that’s her piano).

Zara understands instruction very well, and we can tell her
“Don’t carry this because it’s heavy and it may fall on your feet (big books or small furniture)”
“Don’t climb on to the chair if nobody is around or you may fall”
“Don’t put small things in the mouth because you’ll get choked”
“Don’t put the lotion/cream in your mouth because it’ll make your stomach pain pain” and she would not ignore them.

We still of course try to make the environment as safe for her as it can be, but it’s good to know that even if she found a coin or a button on the floor, she wouldn’t put it in her mouth; and she wouldn’t climb up the book shelves or try to move the teak chair around when we’re not watching.

I caught a glimpse of what she was doing through sleepy eyes the other day. She was just playing in her own cot and talking to herself. When I saw how at ease she was playing on her own, I couldn’t help but to climb off the bed and took a few photos of the moment.

It’s also a good feeling to know that if we need to leave her alone for a moment, she wouldn’t do silly things to endanger herself.

I got tagged by LB. To qualify to be in his hug hug club, I have to oblige.

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I AM a mother to a beautiful daughter
I JUST NOW made my husband wake up at 5am to make milk for Zara
I SAID he should help out more often because she’s also his daughter
I WANT to cuddle and kiss Zara all the time
I WISH I had more patience with Zara
I HATE loosing my cool with Zara
I MISS the little girl when I’m at work
I FEAR financially I may not be able to provide her and her coming sibling
I HEAR her speak and sing (although tuneless), and I feel a great sense of pride
I WONDER if I will be able to love her sibling as much as I love her
I REGRET every time after I smack her for the naughty things she did
I AM NOT the perfect mum although I would like to be one
I SING to Zara in the car, when she’s taking her bath, before bed time or on request
I CRY when she gets a fever or get very sick (luckily it’s not very often)
I AM NOT ALWAYS there when she says something funny or achieves a milestone
I MADE Zara home made fruit and vege pureed when she just started solids
I WRITE about Zara’s adventure and her development in this blog
I CONFUSE about the things Zara says sometimes
I NEED a good maid, who’ll stay and work with me till my kids all turned 10.
I SHOULD be nicer to Daddy, although he’s not the perfect father, he does try (I think)
I START thinking how we will cope with 2 young kids
I FINISH this meme
I TAG my SIL King’s Wife and Mr Cocka

Zara loves Roti Canai (Prata) and Nasi Lemak (coconut rice) very much. If we have it for breakfast, she’ll be hanging around Tuyam, shouting for “Canai” or “Emak”. She’s smart, she’ll take the part without the gravy or the sambal, if you give her those other parts, she would say, “Don’t want. Spicy!”

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We went to Jusco after meeting some mummy and daddy bloggers in Kidzsports on Sun (read about it here and here), since it’s members’ shopping day. I got Daddy to look after Zara at the toy section while I went to grab things I need. Daddy joined me at the cashier once I’m done. I then realised Zara was munching on something.
Me : You bought something for Zara to eat? (since the pram with all Zara’s goodies was with me)
Daddy : No
Me : *shocked* Then what is it she’s eating?
Daddy : *quickly checked Zara* Zara, open your mouth and show Daddy. *dug into Zara’s mouth, and scrap out some nut like thing* What is this Zara?
Me : *angry* Where did she get that from? Picked up from the ground? Or did you see someone giving it to her?
Daddy : I don’t know
Me : *even angrier* You were looking after her, and you don’t know?? What were you doing??
Daddy : I’m telling you I was looking after her and I didn’t see her picking up anything or anybody giving her anything!
Me : (“Yeah! You are blind!” But I didn’t say that) Please be more responsible when you are given the task to look after her!!
Men! Didn’t even realise his daughter is munching on something and how she got hold of that something to much! *slap head*

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I’m trying to quicken the process to wean Zara. Every time when she asks for milk, I tell her I’ll go make a bottle of milk for her. She’ll protest, “Don’t want. Don’t want bottle! Want only mummy’s breast!” But she’ll suck on the bottle anyway when the bottle is placed near her lips.

She’s still nursing for her first feed and last feed though, I let her get her ‘fix’ then will supplement with some formula since I know my milk suppy is very low now.

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Zara sometimes like to call us by our names
“Mummy XXXXX (XXXXX being my name), where you (where are you)?”
“Mummy XXXXX, come!”
“Daddy YYYYY (YYYYY being Daddy’s name) come home di (come home already).”
And I don’t know who taught her this, but she likes to say, “Ah Ku ZZZZZ (ZZZZZ being my brother, the King’s name) botak head (Malay : Bald headed)” since my brother has crew cut. (Tuyam denied teaching her this) .

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Zara as a whole is a very good girl, the only problem I have with her is during dinner time. She likes to climb out from her high chair, and scoop food from the dishes laid in front of her (she eats together with us, we don’t feed her at a different time). She likes to complain about the food, “Don’t want” “Don’t like” “Not nice” “Blech” are some of her complaints.

The last 2 days, I played a children music CD for her during dinner time. It did wonders! She sat down throughout (it could be us readjusting the height and depth of her chair too, since she’s using Tripp Trapp, which we need to adjust the chair occasionally based on how much she has grown), chewing her food, while we can see her mind working on the songs (she has this far away look).

She took lots of chopped vege (something she would spit out on normal days), rice, and fish. And because she’s busy with listening to the songs, she left our dishes alone. I wonder how long this ‘trick’ will work on her.

After a week holiday in Bali, I had so much to catch up work wise and blog reading wise. Will need some time to clear some of these back logs. Although I have lots more to share, I’ll have to do this only when I find time.

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If you asked Zara how Bali was, she would say, “Drink” (she can’t understand we went to Bali, to her Bali is the drink Barley).
If you asked her what she did in her holiday, she can’t remember the scenery or the car rides, but she recalled her encounter with the animals. This is how she remembers :
“Pat pat snake” (she patted a snake in Lake Bratan, braver than Daddy, who ran away and hid behind me when the snake handler took out the big snake)
“Hmmm… Pat pat ruh-coon (Raccoon)” (also in Lake Bratan)
“Hmmm… Pat pat big deer” (she likes to punctuation her sentences with Hmmm nowadays. The deer was a wood carving found in Bebek Bengkil restaurant)
“Hmmm.. Touch lion” (one of the stone carving she saw)
“Hmmm.. Touch cow” (another stone carving)

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My take on traveling to Bali:
~ Bali is a nice place to go to. If you are afraid of bombing, avoid the busy or the concentrated area, like Kuta.
~ I think it’s ok to go with kids above 1yr old, but not below. Since drinking water is 100% mineral water, and it’s not advisable to give any mineral water to kids below 1yr in fear that their kidney may not be able to handle the high mineral content.
~ Kids who can already take rice would have no problem eating in Bali, however, you need to inform the restaurant what you order is for kids so no spices or chili will be added. For younger kids, you may want to bring baby cereal along.
~ I sterilised Zara’s bottle using only boiled mineral water, not even tap, just to be safe.
~ Every restaurant serves fruit juices, the water used to mix with the juice is also mineral water, I gave Zara lots of fruit juices, since she’s not taking much vege and fruits while we were there.
~ Bali’s main tourist attractions is not very stroller friendly (lots of steps, narrow path), using a sling or carrier will be better. Popular shopping street is better for stroller, but still very bumpy (uneven road surface and walking path).
~ Renting a car with a driver for the whole day cost (~10hrs) about 450,000Rupiah 350,000Rupiah (US50-US40) with petrol and parking fee all included. It’s more worth it to rent a car, than to take a cab, especially if you are going to a few places. On our first day of travelling in cabs, it cost us 300,000Rupiah in total (Ellie’s->Sukawati->Denpasar->Nusa Dua->Ellie’s).

We survived Bali, so I guess now I can probably plan for another trip to Thailand. 🙂

While playing, Zara lets me see a side of me from her angle. The way she handles her doll, the way she role play is a reflection of how I handle her.

While playing with her doll (She calls it Baby Doll)
Zara : *took a small bottle of lotion* Drink milk ha. *Put bottle near the doll’s mouth*
After a while
Zara : *smacked the doll* Beat!
Me : Zara, why you beat baby doll?
Zara : *poked the doll’s chest* naughty! Baby Doll!
Me : Baby doll naughty meh?
Zara : Naughty!
(That’s how I behaved when she’s naughty I guess. Yikes!)
A moment later,
Zara : *stroke the doll* ayang (Sayang. Malay : stroke tenderly). *Bent down and kissed the doll’s face* Muak! *carried and gave the doll a cuddle*
(I normally feel so guilty after smacking her, I kiss and ‘sayang’ her right after that)

Later, she was playing with her masak-masak (Malay : Cooking set), she ‘made’ soup and fed me.
Zara : bow first ah (Blow first huh?) *blew the spoon* fu.. fu.. *then put the spoon near my mouth*
Me : Mummy don’t want.
Zara : *she stared at me with very fierce looking eyes* Must Drink!
(Yikes! Sounds like me forcing her to eat something)

Nap

She’s at this stage where 2 naps are too many, and 1 nap is not enough.

With 2 naps, it’s very difficult for me to get her to sleep in the night, and I really want her to sleep by 10pm, so that I’ll at least have some time to do my own things before going to bed.

With 1 nap, she gets sleepy around 8:30pm. It’s fine if I worked from home, but if I was at King’s Wife’s place, she falls asleep in the car on our way home, and then wakes up and becomes very fretful when I have to change her to pajamas; which means I’ll need to spend lots of time calming her.

I try to get Tuyam to let her take 2 naps in King’s Wife’s place (but it’s tough because she gets easily distracted by my nieces) and then take only 1 on days when I work from home.

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Jump

She started jumping 2 weeks ago. On her first attempt, she fell backwards and landed on her buttocks. On her 2nd attempt (few minutes later), she landed on her buttocks, then lost her balance and knocked her head. After that, she’s very careful, she held on to something (the chair, a pair of hands) when she jumped.

These few days, she just jumps! Happy to have her feet lifted off the ground. Naggy mummy is always saying, “Be carefully, after fall down” when she starts her jumping spree.

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Request

She had been shouting for things she wanted. E.g. “KAKAK, VA-TER-JEN” (Vitergen). “MUMMY, PUT BARNEY!”

Tuyam taught her to ‘speak nicely’ when she wants something. So now, she request for things nicely, even the way she calls Kakak or Mummy is different. I added and told her she must say “please” for things she wants.

Sometimes she still shouts out her request, but most time, she remembers and speak nicely with a please.

It has been raining almost daily over the weekend. We couldn’t bring Zara to the park and was too lazy to go out. We stayed at home most of the time, and this is what we did while at home.

Painting

On Friday, I stripped her down to her diaper, because she’s going to get dirty (which she did), and let her do some painting on the floor so we can mop up the mess later. She was happy, and kept asking for “Per-per” (purple, Barney’s colour) paint.

Drawing
She spotted a box of markers the day before, and when I asked her what she wanted to do on Saturday, she said, “daw daw” (draw draw). I asked her what she’s drawing and she said, “Snake, many snake!” Well, they did look like a bunch of very tangled up snakes.

Playing with her toys
She likes masak-masak (Malay: cooking) the most. She said it was “soop” she was cooking and when I asked what soup, she said, “fis ball”. She pretended to blow the soup cold to feed herself and me. After that, she put on her hat, and turned on the music on her electronic keyboard, and started dancing. Then, it was playing with the xylophone. She got tired later, and started whining.

The middle photo shows the mess hurricane Zara creates every time she sweeps through plays in the living room.

Pie baking

I baked some chicken pies for lunch on Saturday. (After making the filling, I went to Giant to hunt for Pampas Frozen Pie Crust, and guess what? None available in Giant. No puff pastry, no pie crust, NOTHING, not even local brands. Luckily, spotted a shop selling baking supplies on our way home and managed to get some puff pastry.)

Daddy and Zara both didn’t like it. Daddy said he’s not a chicken person, esp if they are soaked in gravy but he took 2 anyway. Zara said “Don’t want” because she’s “Sked” (Scared). *slap head*. Guess who took the most?

On Sunday, I cooked some simple fish porridge, Daddy gobbled up loads, and so did Zara. Both of them are such fish lovers, and sooo Chinese!