Zaria’s favourite phrase now is “Why not?”

Zara : Zaria, don’t colour on jiejie’s book.
Zaria : “Why not?”

While I’m working,
Zaria : Mummy, I want to sit on your lap.
Me : No, mummy is working.
Zaria : “Why not?”

Daddy : This is your last chocolate already, you cannot have any more.
Zaria : “Why not?”

o.O”

Zaria was digging out books from the shelf in the study, and have those books strewn all over the floor. Before she went down stairs (and out of the room), I told her, “Zaria, you took the books out and scattered them on the floor, you must clean up before you go downstairs.
“I’m not jiejie, ok.” She replied while walking out of the room.

o.O”
(and it’s the case in the house, Zara will clean and tidy up but Zaria always ‘designate’ to Jelly or just refused by saying “I cannot.”).

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Yesterday, just out of the blue, Zara said, “Mum, I don’t like my name you know. Why do you call me Zara?”
Me : *a bit surprised* “Zara is a beautiful name, why don’t you like it?”
Zara : “I want a name with feelings.”
o.O” Can some one please tell me what is a name with feelings?
Me : “What do you mean a name with feelings? What kind of names would you like to be called”
Zara : “How about Shanika?”
o.O” Where did she get that name from? Anybody knows if any princesses in Disney or Barbie show which is called Shanika?

There are more to come on the Japan trip, however, here are some short ones not on Japan :

Now have you heard about goreng pisang seller putting straws into the oil to make whatever they are frying crunchier? Do you believe it? I didn’t until last week.

Zara and Zaria love Keropok lekor, so sometimes I stopped by this stall to buy some for them. Last week, I parked right in front of the stall, and after getting some, I was busy passing the keropok to the girls, wrapping the bottom with tissue first where the girls could hold.
I saw the seller pouring oil into the wok. You know those cheap oil in plastic bags?
After the bag was empty, I saw her dipped the plastic bag into the oil. That caught my attention, and I stopped what I was doing, sat upright and watched again, the corner of the bag where she dipped into the oil had actually melted. I thought that’s the end, and then she dipped the bag further, melting the rest of it in the hot oil, leaving only the corner which she was still holding on. And the smirk on her face, as though she was enjoying poisoning the oil.
I didn’t look further, I quickly took back the keropok where I’d given to the girls drove off, swearing never to buy again.
I’m not sure if only that stall is doing it, or all stalls do it, but really…. BUEK!!

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Now for something nicer…

We always go to the wet market on Saturday with Zara. It was drizzling last Saturday, so I told Zara she should stay at home. She kept saying she wanted to follow, but I insisted she shouldn’t.
Zara then said “I waited for you for so long already, now you want me to wait for you again?”
I didn’t know what she was saying, “I don’t know what you mean you waited for me for so long. When did you wait for me?”
Zara replied, “You went to Japan for so long right? I waited for you for so long to come back.” Ouch!

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After one of their fights, Zaria came to complain, “I don’t like Zara any more.”
“Mummy send Zara (to) ah Kim’s house” o.O”
To her, Ah Kim’s house must be like a torture chamber.

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I asked Zaria, “Tonight should we watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire?”
Zaria replied, “The boy got a lot of blood one?”
I didn’t get it the first time, so I asked, “Why got blood?”
She said, “Because, the boy (Harry) got-blood of fire.” o.O”

My 2 years old

Zaria was naughty so I asked her to stand at the naughty corner, she was only allowed to leave when the timer went off (I normally set a timer on how long the girls have to stand at the naughty corner.)

Before the timer went off, Zaria went back to the play room.
I went after her, “Why are you not standing at the naughty corner? The alarm hasn’t sounded yet.”
She replied, “My leg is itchy.”
I told her, “Itchy also must stand. Go!”
Since itchy didn’t work, she tried again, “My leg is painful now.”
Trying to stifle a smile, I told her, “Painful also must stand! Until the alarm goes off. Go!”
She looked at me with puppy eyes, thinking I will give in, “My leg is very painful you know.”
A punishment is a punishment, I tried to hold on to my stern face, “Very painful also must go.”
She knew she lost the battle, she walked back to the naughty corner and stood until the timer went off.

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My 4yrs old

Zara had “Colour Carnival” day at school, and she wanted to wear her ‘party’ dress to school.
I told her they would be getting wet and paint all over so she should just wear a t-shirt and pants to school.
She said she won’t get wet and paint all over and she would be careful in her party dress.
I told her it’s “Colour Carnival” and she’s supposed to get paint and wet. The teachers would even do face painting or body painting for them.

She was upset because she could not wear her party dress, so she complained, “Do you know there’s chemical in paint? And you want the teacher to paint on me? After the chemical get into my blood then how?” o.O”

Anybody needs defend lawyers? You know who to call.

Yesterday, while I was working (yes, it was a working weekend for me), Zara was hanging around in the study. She started pointing to objects, and said, “Per-per-per Eh-Eh NNN.. PEN!” “Ker-ker Ah-Ah Per Per.. CUP.” “Der-Orrr… DOOR.”

I have been trying to teach her to put phonic sounds together to make words, but she had not grasped it, so I was surprised she’s doing it herself just overnight.

In the night, when it was reading time, I took out a book I’d been keeping away from the girls which is meant for phonic readers, a book Zara has not read before. I got Zara to read it. Shorts stories like, “A bug. A rug. A bug in a rug. As snug as a bug in a rug.“ or “Tom’s dog has lots of spots. Tom and Bog have not got spots. Splot! Now Tom and Bob have lots of spots. And Tom’s dog has not.“

She was able to put individual sounds together in a word, and read the sentences; with occasional help on words she has not learnt the sounds yet (i.e. Now). Slowly but surely, she finished reading the few short stories in the book.

You can imagine how happy both Daddy and I were! We cheered and carried her around the room. I told her, “Now that you know how to read, very soon you’ll be writing as well. Writing is just putting sounds in a word on paper.” All motivated, she said she wanted to try.

She wrote these. Can you make them out? (Some alphabets were written in mirror image. I don’t correct her when she’s writing words, so that it doesn’t stop her flow of thoughts, but only correct her when she’s writing alphabets)
CUP, DOG, MUM, DAD, SIS, SAM and then she turned the page and wrote more, BOOK, CAT.

These are pretty obvious.

And then she said, “I want to write (the word) calculator. Can you help me?”
o.O” (I didn’t help, as it was already 11pm, and she hasn’t learnt the sound ‘oo’ ‘ay’ or ‘er’ yet. I’ll keep that for next time).

I used to work in an English centre for pre-schoolers where phonics were taught, that’s were I picked up my phonics, and understand the importance of phonics for young kids to learn reading and writing. I made sure the school I sent the girls to emphasise on phonics, and I spent time to help Zara with phonics; so I’m really proud that Zara has finally understand how to piece sounds to make words (for reading), and how to break the words into sounds (for writing). We’re really happy with her development at 4yrs 3months.

Just came back from a 2 weeks work trip in Japan.

Zara greeted me with lips like these :

Apparently, she peeled some dead skins from her lips but got so carried away, some flesh got peeled off as well, they were bleeding quite badly, and now started to heal, but still look quite bad.
Me : “What happened to you?? Why did you peel the skins off your lips?”
Zara : “Because you were not here for so long, so I became silly!” o.O”

As for Zaria, she showered me with kisses, and kept stroking me (my hand, cheeks).
She kept asking, “You come back already mummy?”
And then kept saying, “I like you, you know, mummy?” “I love you, you know, mummy?”

During these 2 weeks I was away, Daddy was away 1 week in Japan too, we had to send the girls and Jelly to my bro’s place during that 1 week when both of us were not home.
Today, when we said we’ll drop by my bro’s place today to pass them chocholate & green tea, Zaria got worried.
She asked “We’re going Ah Kim’s (Chinese : Auntie) house?”
I said yes.
She asked “Why we go Ah Kim’s house? My house is ok wut?” (Probably thinking we’re sending her over to stay again.)
Then asked again, “Are you coming with me?”
Only after reassuring her that we’re just dropping things off, she’s not going to ‘sleep’ there, then, she stopped her questioning.

As for Jelly, she was quick to bring out the laundry hamper (ours is actually a basket) when she saw me opening my suitcase; she knew there’ll be a fair bit of washing to do.

Taken 3rd of Feb 2009 @ 2yrs 2months.

This girl is so independant she doesn’t want to be helped to get up the toilet bowl. If we offered our help, she’ll say, “No. I do myself.”

Looks dangerous right? She started doing this when she turned 2yrs +, at the first few climbs, she peed facing in, it was later that she was able to adjust herself to face out. And… she had 1 accident where her foot landed in the bowl while trying to turn herself.. luckily she didn’t get hurt and there was no stool in the bowl. o.O”

Zara’s current favourite pastime besides watching the TV is drawing. Give her a piece of paper, some colours (pencil, markers, crayons, doesn’t matter) and she’ll be busy drawing. It seems she’s not picky with where she draws, sometimes she just draws on scraps of crumply paper.

At first, it was simple lines, and then the stick man appeared; later, she started adding the hair, hands, the dress, and even designs on the dress. She likes drawing girls, flowers, butterflies; and her favourite shape is heart shape.

Here are a few of her drawings.

Done before the year end school holidays. She calls this Picasso. This was when she started drawing flowers.

Done during the school holidays. Seems like it’s flowers in a vase.

Done beginning of the year. She started ‘signing’ her name with a heart shape nearby

Done during Chinese New Year. She started drawing designs on dresses, and flowers are now always in a pot.

Done after Chinese New Year. More things are added to show a scene. Mountains, houses, trees and butterflies.

Potentially, besides being a lawyer, she can consider being an artist too

I so love the way the girls talk these days, so don’t mind me doing post after post of their conversations.

We were meeting my extended family for dinner. On our way, Daddy turned into a petrol station to fill up, and right there is a KFC. Zara asked, “Why are you stopping? I want to go to the restaurant now.”
Knowing she couldn’t wait to meet her cousins, Daddy teased Zara, “I think we’ll just have KFC for dinner today.”
Zara replied, “If you eat KFC, you are not having proper dinner, you are just eating FAT.” o.O”
(on other days she would have happily accepted the offer)

On our way home from school, Zara as usual asked, “What are we having for lunch?” I told her we’re having spagetti and cheese which is her favourite. She replied happily, “Yummy! Now my eyes will lit up like stars.”

One day, when we were talking about big houses and cars and why we don’t have them.
She told me, “We are not rich, you know why? You are not working enough. Got holiday, you want to do your own things or go holiday and you don’t work. And you don’t work long enough.” o.O”
(Of course I later told her we don’t work long hours because we want to spend time with both of them, and if she preferred us to live in big house and drive big cars but then never get to see us around except during bed time. She replied, “It’s ok we’re not very rich, because I want you to spend time with me.”)

Zara attempting to tickle Zaria’s neck, but it was a bit like strangling her, and Zaria was getting upset.
Me told her stenrly, “Stop bullying your meimei.”
Zara replied, “This is not bullying, this is irritating. OK?” o.O

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I was helping Zara with homework (and I must admit I’m very impatient). When I paused to ask Zara what she was writing (which was 九 or 9), she would count from the start of the page in Chinese (each page 1 number), but missed a few pages, so when it got to 9, she would say a number smaller than 9. This happened a few times, so I got really annoyed, and started holding her finger and point to the numbers while she counted. I exerted a little more force on her finger when we pointed a number, so she started crying. She calmed down after I apologised and finished her homework.

When we got to the living room, Jelly said this conversation took place between Zaria and her.
“Aunty, why jiejie crying?”
“Because jiejie don’t know how to count.”
“I know how to count you know. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10”

I smiled and asked Zaria, “So next time when mummy help you with homework, willl you make mummy upset?”
She replied, “Noooo, I will make mummy happy. Becossssss, I know how to count!”

Captured some of these interesting conversations with Zara.

In Hong Kong when she asked me to buy her something, and I told her it’s very expensive, she replied, “You need a lot of coins for this?

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After being punished for being naughty, she talked to herself.
“I want to have new super power.”
“so that it will fight my bad power and make me change to be good.”
“and the bacteria will also go away.”

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One morning during the school holidays, I told Zara I was working that day, and Daddy also said he needed to work.
Zara said, “No, I want one of you to play with me.”
Daddy said, “Auntie Jelly will jaga and play with you.”
Zara’s reply, “I want a playmate, ok. Not someone who keeps going to wash dishes.” o.O”

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During Jelly’s holidays, we were eating out very frequently.
In one of the restaurants, Zara commented the food was good. I told her, “So we can come here to eat every day if mummy’s not cooking?”
Zara’s reply, “No, we cannot come here every day. Just like you cannot wear back the same baju (Malay : Clothes) even if you like it very much.” o.O”

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On our flight back from Hong Kong, Zara asked, “Is this aeroplane Air Asia?”
I replied, “No, this is not Air Asia.” (since we were flying MAS)
Zara asked, “Is this another species of aeroplane?” (I guess we can say that). o.O”

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On our way home from my brother’s place (which is a gated community), Zara declared, “Ah Ku so rich that’s why he put(s) a guard house near his house right? So that the robbers will not rob his money. We are not so rich, that’s why we don’t have a guard house.” o.O”

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While talking about love, i.e. she loves me, she knows I love her, and Zaria etc.
I casually asked, “Do you think mummy and daddy love each other?”
She replied, “I also don’t know, because the two of you always shout at each other. o.O”

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Visited by Egghead, whom we always joked that we could be in-laws since he has 2 3 sons and I have 2 daugthers, I jokingly told Zara, “This uncle here may be your father-in-law you know. If he’s your father-in-law then *pointing to LLS* who will he be?”
Zara (who ‘aspires’ to marry a prince) thought for a moment, then when she realised what that meant, she said gravely, “You don’t talk to me about boys ok?” o.O”

We have been preparing Zaria for the big day, asking her over and over again if she wanted to go to school, and she always replied “Yes.” And then we did count down telling both the girls, in X more days, they’ll be going to a new school, in Y more days, it’ll be school day etc.

For the last few weeks, Zaria has been crying for the tiniest problem.
I.e. She wanted to flush the toilet, and we did it before her.
She wanted to put on her own shoes but since we were in a hurry, I wore it for her. Etc etc.

So, on her first day of school, I was preparing for the worst with all her recent unnecessary crying bouts. She was the youngest in her class, just turned 2 and joining the 3 year olds. I sent her to her class, bid my good byes, and walked and stood at the door. She wanted me to be with her, but I kept telling her “This is your school, this is not Mummy’s school, so mummy cannot go in, mummy must wait outside.”. She looked at the door (where I stood) a few times, but did not shed a single tear, although all around her, 4 out of 6 of her friends were crying or wailing. Later, I told her I had to go out for breakfast and I’ll be back to pick her up. She hugged and gave me a kiss and went back to her class.

I was at the school the whole time, moving between the girls’ classes. Peeping and making sure she couldn’t see me after I said my goodbyes. She did well, although a little quieter then usual. Her teachers said she was very independant, doing her own things, fetching her own water and snack from her bag when she needed it, and asking for help occassionally.

3 days has passed and she has not cried at all, although she did tell me today, “I don’t want (to) go school, I want (to) go kaikai with mummy.” when we were on our way to school, but she was ok once she went into her class.

♥I’m so proud of her.♥

As for Zara, this is a new school for her against her wishes. One of the reason why I moved her to this school is because she’ll be getting equal lessons in Chinese and English; and the Chinese is taught by a lady who speaks perfect Beijing Chinese. Although she didn’t really kick up a fuss, she kept telling me “I like XXX better.” (XXX == her old school). “I don’t like to learn Chinese.”

However, in class, she does mingle with other children, and answering teachers’ questions when necessary. Hopefully, very soon, she’ll have some really close friends like she did in XXX.

♥I’m so proud of her.♥