Zara loves cabbage. We normally fry cabbage with dried prawns and she’ll pick up all the dried prawns and put aside before consuming the cabbage. One day,
Me : Aiyo, just eat the dried prawns la. You won’t die, it’s just a small one.
Zara : I’m not a seafood-tarian you know. I don’t like seafood. I don’t like prawns, I don’t like crabs. I’m a vegetarian. I like cabbage.
Me : But you eat fish right? Fish is also seafood. You cannot be a vegetarian if you eat fish.
Zara : That one I just force myself to eat. Because I want to have brains. (we had been telling the girls, eating fish will give them brains because of the DHA)

On another ocasion, when we asked her to eat some pork dish specially cooked for the girls, she said, “I’m a vegetarian, I don’t eat pork.”
I replied, “Who said you don’t eat pork. You eat charsiew (BBQ pork) , you eat juicy pow (Xiao Loong Bao).”
She said, “I only eat low quality pork. All the low quality pork no pork taste. Good quality pork we eat at home got pork taste. I don’t like.” o.O”

Another totally unrelated topic, I asked Zara if Daddy and I can go on a holiday without her.
Zara : “That’s not fair! You go for holiday you must bring me and meimei”
Me : “But Daddy and mummy also should go for holiday on our own right? To pak toh (Chinese : Date) and spend time together.”
Zara : “No. You should bring us.”
Me : “Next time when you get married, you also will go for holiday with your husband alone right? You won’t bring mummy right?”
Zara : “When I get married already, after a while, you will be dead, that’s why I can’t bring you on holiday.”
Ouch!

I don’t know where she learnt all these, or where she got the talent from (maybe from me? I used to draw manga when I was in school you know. Haha), but this girl has started coming out with different font styles as part of her drawing.

A few are captured here.

She calls this the Curly Whirly Letters

Another take on the Curly Whirly Letters

I don’t now what it’s called. She used this when she was drawing something more ‘manly’. Masculine font?

And yesterday, she cut a piece of paper into 4 strips, stapled them together, did some drawing and came out with this.

She actually wanted to create a book, and the title of the book is The Story Of A Girl, in her phonic spelling.

I created an album each for the girls for their 1st year. Last night, Zaria wanted to look at hers, so we flipped through hers together. Some of the photos that stirred them emotionally.

Zara : *pointed to the above photo* What’s this?
Me : That’s Zaria. The photo is taken when she was still in mummy’s stomach
Zara : Why is she brown?
Me : (aiyo, what to say?) Err. It’s just how the photo turned out. Maybe b’cos she’s surrounded by water in my stomach.
Zaria : That’s me? I’m a brown baby?
Me : Ya, that’s you.
Zaria : *lips curled downwards* I don’t want to be a brown baby!
Me : Ok ok.. we look at other photos. Don’t look at this one.

*flip flip*

Zara : *pointed to the photo* Oh.. look at Zaria, she’s so cute!! So chubby. Oh… now she’s so big *full of affection*

*flip flip*

Me : *pointed to the photo* Hey, Zaria, look. Last time you were so brave, you dare to swim in the pool yourself. How come now you need to hold on to mummy?
Zaria looked at the photo, her lips started to curl down, then tears started falling.
Me : Hey, what’s wrong?
Zaria : *pointing at the bottom middle photo* I’m drowning. I’m drowning. Waaaaaaaa..
Me : (surprised why it made her so emotional) You were not drowning.
Zaria : *tears still flowing* You see or not, I’m crying. I’m drowing. Look.
Me : (quick! Find an excuse) You were not drowning. We wanted to go home already but you still wanted to swim, so you cried.
Zaria seemed to be thinking about my answer, and stopped crying until she saw this..

Zaria : *her mouth curled further down, and big drops of tears flowed down* “WAAAAAAAAA!!! I want my daddy. I want my daddy.
(Daddy has been out on work trip whole of this week)
Me : (aiyo) You missed your Daddy?
Zaria : *nodded and continued to cry and sob* “Uhgh..Huh huh”
Me : I call Daddy then?
Zaria : *shook her head* “I don’t want. WAAAAAAAAAAA”
Me : *quickly called Daddy* “Eh, your daughter miss you very much la, saw your photo then started crying. You talk to her. *passed the phone to Zaria*
Zaria : *took the phone and listened* “sob sob”
Daddy : ….. (don’t know what he said)
Zaria : *nodded her head* “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.”
Daddy : …..
Zaria : *nodded her head some more, then gave me the phone* “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. I don’t want to talk any more.”
Me : *took back the phone* Aiyo, never mind. See you tomorrow, let me calm her down first.
Zara : *sadly* I also miss my daddy you know. He’s so fun. (ok, ok, I know, I’m not as fun as Daddy).
Zaria : *looked at Zara* “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.”
Me : Never mind, never mind. Tomorrow Daddy coming back already. (Alleluia!)
Me : We sleep now, tomorrow wake up, go to school, come home, take nap, then Daddy is home. Ok? Come lets go to bed now.

The End.

At home, we got the girls to wash their hands as frequent as possible. When we’re out, we warned them not to touch railings, lift buttons, actually just about anything. We also got them to use the hand sanitizer if they’d touched anything we thought might have germs. In school, their temparature is taken before they are allowed in the school compound.

Naturally, they asked us what is all this fuss about. We told them there’s a virus called H1N1, and the ways one can contract it. After a while, they started forming ideas themselves.

Zara being a bit paranoid will came out questions like, “How do you know if you have H1N1?”
“Mummy, I have a bit of a sore throat, do I have H1N1?
“Mummy, I just touched the XXX (which could be anything), will I get H1N1?”

And she said, “H1N1 is the king of virus. All the other germs listen to him, and they will attack you. So you’ll be very sick.”

Over dinner, the little one said, “I got H1N1.” pointed to her wound from her fall yesterday, “See my H1N1.” o.O”

I can make them soup they would never drink, ask them to eat vege they would normally give it a pass, all I have to say is, “It’s good for you, help your body to be strong, to fight H1N1” And they would cringe and gulp.

When I was giving them their dose of DHA pill (which they love btw, no coaxing required) just now, Zaria said, “I eat fish pill (which is what they called) already, then can squash the H1N1.”

The girl one day just declared, “I’m not getting married to an Italian any more. I’m going to get married to Ling Jing my boy friend.”

o.O”

Me : “Who’s Ling Jing?”
Zaria : “Ling Jing is jiejie’s boy friend la, in kool (she always leave out the ‘s’ for words with blending sound starting with s).”
(oh.. so even Zaria knew about it)
Me : “In kool?”
Zaria : “SSs-kool. Ling Jing is jiejie’s boy friend in school.”
Zara : *smiled shyly* “He’s from the 6 years old class. I like him.”
Me : “Why? Is he handsome?”
Zara : “A little bit. But he’s nice.”
Me : “Why do you say he’s nice?”
Zara : “He always smiles. And he always greets all the teachers in school.”
I was wondering if this was the boy which had lost some teeth and was always grinning.
Me : “Is he the boy with some teeth missing?”
Zara : “Some of his teeth fall off already.”
(I’m rather glad she likes some one for his ‘goodness’ rather than for his looks).
Me : “Did you tell him you like him or not?”
Zara : “Ya. I told him he’s my boyfriend.”
Me : “What did he say?”
Zara : “He just smiles.”

Hmm… I thought it’s just for that one day she thinks she likes this Ling Jing fella.

Then she drew this.

Zara : *shyly* “Mummy, look. I draw (drew) Ling Jing and me. See. He has flowers for me, and he’s holding my hand”
o.O”
Me : *tried to sound cool* “Nice picture. Why is he thinking about himself and you are thinking about yourself?”
Zara : “No. He’s thinking that I love him, and I’m thinking he loves me.”
o.O”

Zaria not to be left out, also said, “I also have boy friend you know. Benjamin is my boy friend”

o.O”

I think this girl really has the potential to be a lawyer.

Zara sometimes see a nice wedding scene on magazines or her TV show, and she’ll talk about getting married.
Initially, she said she wanted to get married to Daddy’s boss, because Daddy’s boss is extremely handsome (so mummy told her). However we told her by the time she’s old enough to get married, Daddy’s boss will be too old for her.
We offered her alternative. She loves pasta and cheese and hence we told her she may want to get married to an Italian.
Few days later, she said, “Mummy, how am I going to get married to an Italian?”, she sounded very worried. “I cannot speak Italian.”
It seems she’s been thinking about our proposal. o.O”

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

I told Zara over the weekend, “My eye sight is getting bad. I think I need a pair of glasses made.
Zara casually asked, “Did you get your book yet?”
Huh?
I answered, “I need a pair of glasses, not a book.”
She replied, “Did you get your book yet? You know, a book to give you instructions to make a pair of glasses?”
Oh, she probably thought glasses (which no one in the house wear one, thank our lucky stars), can be made following instructions from a book just like cake making or biscuit making.

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

While checking out my SIL’s new house which is bigger, and more spacious, Zara sulked and said, “I don’t like people’s house to be bigger than mine you know.” and then she added “I don’t want them to pity me (and my small house).”
o.O”

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

It’s always hard trying to get Zara to finish her homework before dinner. Yesterday, while we were going to the park she told me, “I like to have fun first, then later, do my homework.”
I teased her, “In that case, maybe mummy also should have fun first, and do my work later. Then maybe mummy’s boss won’t be happy and won’t pay mummy the money to buy food or clothes for you.”
She considered it for a moment and replied, “Mummy, don’t listen to me ok? You follow what your heart tells you to do.”
o.O”

In a recent trip to the mall, when I brought Zara to the toilet, she pointed to the gents and said “Penis goes there.” And then to the ladies, “Pet Pet this way.”

o.O”

My in-laws have just moved to a house ~2km away from ours (and leaves me many tales to write about). After picking up the girls from school, on our way, I sent some packed char siu (Cantonese : BBQ Pork) rice over. My FIL was working in the garden topless when we dropped by.

Zaria : Why yeh-yeh never wear baju (Malay : clothes)?
Zara : Because he’s feeling hot. His body is very hot, so he took off his clothes.”
She added further : His penis is not feeling hot, that’s why he didn’t take off his pants.”

o.O”

On our way home from school, just for the sake of discussion, I asked the girls if I can have another baby.

Here is a gist of how the conversation went.

Zara : NO!
Zaria : Cannot
Me : Why?
Zaria : *very quickly*You can only carry me. You can only sleep with me. Oh-kay?!
Zara : If you want to have another baby, then you must get married again, then I will have a Step-father. I don’t want to have step-father (I have been telling her you have to get married then only can get pregnant).
Me : I don’t need to get married again. I’m already married. Remember or not, when mummy have mei-mei, did mummy get married again?
Zara : Oh.. You just went to the doctors only right?
Me : Yah.. So, can I have another baby?
Zara : NO!
Zaria : NO!
Zara : If you have another baby, sure you will have a boy one. I don’t like boys. So naughty.
Me : Maybe it’ll be a girl. Then you’ll have another mei-mei.
Zaria : I don’t want mei-mei. I don’t want baby.
Zara : I got mei-mei already. You have another baby, then you will have no time for us any more.
Me : You two can play together right?
Zara : But we still need you to play with us. If you got baby already, then you will forget about us.

Not that I’m considering having another. I have closed shop. But it’s nice to see their reactions. 😛