♥Zara♥

She wanted to wear a dress (a hand me down) from Karen, Eve‘s daugther, which she loves.
I asked her to wear her Zara dress instead, telling her, “See, this one is nicer, some more if you check the label, it says ZARA. Same as your name.”
Her reply, “This one (her earlier choice) is also nice wut. The label says KAREN.”
o.O

Over heard her talking to Fifi.
Fifi, you must start sleeping on your own already you know or not? I cannot sleep with you always. When I’m bigger girl, I’m giong to sleep with my boy friend, you have to sleep in your own room already.
o.O

She told me we have to go to Ikea, I asked her why.
“We must bring Fifi back to see her parents in Ikea. They didn’t see her for so long already, they miss her you know?
(Fifi is her favourite soft toy which we bought from Ikea)
o.O

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♥Zaria♥

Zaria was bring naughty over dinner, so I scolded her.
Zaria :Mummy hug hug.
Me : No. You yai-yai (Cantonese : Naughty), Mummy don’t want to hug.
Zaria :Want mummy hug now.
Me : No. You eat your dinner properfly first.
She fussed and struggled, got down from her high chair, climbed up my chair, forced herself onto my lap, buried her face on my shoulder, then declared victoriously, :“Haha, mummy hug hug oh-di (already)”
o.O

Love the girls’ natural smiles, but when they are asked to smile for the camera, this is how they look like.

Check-out-how-many-teeth-I-have smile.

I-saw-a-scary-monster smile.

The-stool-is-too-hard smile.

I’m-young-but-I-have-crooked-teeth-and-wrinkle-on-my-nose smile.

They look funny, but I still love it.

Suddenly, I realise how much my little girl has grown.

She feeds herself on most meals (she only needs help to debone or needs probing when she’s eating something she doesn’t quite like).
She carries the stepping stool to the sink to wash her hands.
She uses to the toilet on her own (except when it’s a big business).
She chooses and puts on her own clothes.
She puts on her own shoes (except for buckle types).
She brushes her own teeth in the morning (in the night, we’ll help her).
She walks up and down the stairs as she pleases, and opens and closes doors as she enters or leaves a room.
She helps to keep an eye on Zaria – either shouts for help or steers Zaria away from dangerous objects.
She recognises the numbers 1 to 10, and able to name the alphabets, and knows the sounds of the alphabets from A to Z.
She can talk about a subject with others (or herself) using knowledge we’d shared with her, i.e. pollination, Jesus’ crucifixion and how the dinasaurs got extinct.
She does a forward roll with ease, sings in pefect tune and pronunciation.

Suddenly,
She who used to need me sleeping next to her or to be in the room with her until she fell asleep
is sleeping on her own.
Be it nap time or night time.

Just so suddenly.

My program manager is a Taiwanese, and our test manager is a Mainland Chinese. I speak a lot to them over the phone in Mandarin.
On Saturday, while trying to get the girls to nap, I took a Chinese book in the attempt to bore them to sleep and read aloud.
Zara stopped me midway and said, “Mummy, you sound like you are having a meeting right?”
😛

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Zaria just did a poop and since was about to take her bath, we left her diaperless, just in her pajamas pants.
She was playing in the living room on her own, and then shouted to Jelly, “Auntie! Chu-chu (Chinese : peed) oh-di (already).”
Jelly being the slow self, took a while before she came out to check on Zaria.
Jelly said when she came out to the living room, Zaria was already holding some tissue (pulled from the nearby tissue box) and was trying to wipe away the puddle on the floor.
😛

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Zara was trying to tell me something about trying Japanese something, while we were going for a walk, and she was in the pram.
Me : Can you speak louder I can’t hear you.
Zara : mumble mumble…try Japanese ….
Me : What about Japanese, I can’t hear you.
Zara : *loudly*Haiya!*whisper*mumble mumble…TRY JAPANESE!
Me : Zara, when you talk to mummy, please turn your head to look at me. I can’t hear what you are saying
Zara : Aigh! Never mind la.. since you cannot hear me, I also don’t want to talk already
o.O”

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I’d been telling Zara about aging.
Zara : Mummy, I don’t want you to grow old. I want you to be like Ah Kim. Alicia jiejie and Sam jiejie big girl already Ah Kim still not old yet.
(Ah Kim has kids when she was younger, I had mine when I was older..and Ah Kim has La Mer cream to keep her young.. how to compare)

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I asked Zara if she liked her Alice In Wonderland DVD.
Zara : I like it a little bit only
Me : But you’d been watching it so often. Why don’t you like it.
Zara : Because, Alice is only a normal girl. She’s not a princess.
Sorry Alice!

♥Zaria♥

On asking her to give me her favour cheese omelette.
“Give mummy some can or not?”
“Teh-not”
“Why cannot?”
“Hot Hot”
“Then mummy blow first.”
“Teh-not. Zah-ya’s one.”

On her wanting to go home after park to have dinner
“Go. Go Home oh-dee (already).”
“Why Meimei wants to go home?”
“Go home. Dinner. Eat yice.”
“Meimei hungry huh?”
“Aah.”

On her being full
“Pao Pao oh-dee (already)”
*move the bowl to Jelly*“Auntie eat.”

On her like and dislike
“Meimei want ice cream?”
“Want! Ice Kim Koh-koh (cold cold). Nice.”
“Meimei want medicine?”
“Don’t want.”
“Why?”
“Sour.”

On her jumping on the floor.
“Mei mei cannot jump on the floor huh.”
“Jump jump bed oni (only)”

♥Zara♥

What about Zara…?? She’s so good at talking back sometimes she is just testing my patience.
She goes like this : “Mummy I’m grouchy, you keep quiet, don’t make any noise.”
and “Mummy, you listening or not, I say keep quiet.”

And when something goes wrong, she bosses around, “Whose fault is it? Huh? You tell me whose fault is it?”

Once, I scolded her for not behaving, she told me off, “Next time I big girl already, I go to another country and leave you behind.”
(Did I travel too much?)
But later, when we were best of friends again, she added, “I said next time I big girl already, I go to another country to work, when I finish work, I come back and see you.”
(Definitely I’d travelled too much)

Miss me? Miss my girls?

I have been so busy it’s crazy!!

Here’s some glimpses of what I’d been doing.

Can you recognise this face? Or the cap?
Yes! I’m the first, I’m the first to meet Simple American!!
We did some soul ‘linguistic’ searching, he finally knew what the real meaning of PIAK is, or how to pronounce ‘Roti Canai’ and ‘Nasi Lemak’.

Visited a place with a fake miniature Statue Of Liberty.

And then this place with this dense skyline.

As for the girls, this is what they are saying..

She and her icy cold stare.

The manja Zaria is always asking me to ‘come’ or ‘carry’.

Juicy details will come later!

Our weekends mornings are normally filled with activities, i.e. we need to do our marketting, Zara needs to attend class.

Yesterday, a public holiday, we didn’t have anything on in the mornings so we went out for breakfast, and brought the girls to a big field near our place. Zara has this fascination about plucking flowers from the fields, park, anywhere, so this is really for her.

Zaria checking out a big decorative pots in the restaurant we had our breakfast.

Zaria loves patting flowers, like the character Mr Night, in her book titled Good Night, Mr. Night.

Zara just loves plucking weeds flowers.

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After that, we went to a farm near our place too (you can imagine how ‘ulu’ our place is). This is more for Zaria, to see the cows, turkeys, goats, ducks etc. Zara almost puke because of the stentch from the cow dung. So she stayed with me near the car, while Daddy brought Zaria near the farm. No photos, since I was holding the camera.
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In the evening, we brought them swimming. It has been a while since they last swam. Zaria was clinging on to me, refusing to float on her own. The moment I let her hands go, she’ll be calling “Mummy.. Mummy.”

See the expression on her face, she’s not comfortable when I let her go.

Zara on the other hand, just swam about on her own, of course staying near to Sam, her favourite cousin.

Zaria was afraid to be on her own, but she still enjoyed herself. Constantly showing the ‘good’ sign.

Sam, my niece, splashing down the slide.

Zara followed suit.

Weeeeeee…………

Splash!!
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After that, it’s off for some ice cream.

Fun day for the kids, tired day for the parents.

We went to the Taman Tun park on Saturday. Zaria was very excited and eager to get down from her stroller to walk when we arrived.

We could see she was walking a bit like a drunkard (unstable),  probably because she missed her second nap, and wasn’t as alert as she normally is. When she was walking on the tar path, she just tripped and fell, landed on the right side of her face. It happened so quickly, nobody could have dashed to her to catch her in time.

When we picked her up, being a toughie, she cried a bit, pointed to her face and said, “Face.. pain-pain.” She scratched her face, and knocked her forehead, luckily it wasn’t a very deep cut. “Mummy, hug-hug.”, she asked for hugs from every one, and then after that she was ok and playing again.

See the scratch, in the morning after…

If you are wondering what happened to the patch at her lower lip, that’s caused by her saliva constantly soaking that part. She is teething, her lower right molar fully sprouted, and she was salivating a lot from the right corner of her mouth. Then now her upper left and right molars are sprouting, so the salivating hasn’t ended.

I chatted with Zara after Zaria’s accident : Zaria is so brave right?
Zara : I’m also brave wut.
Me : Zaria fell down, such a big scratch on her face, she just cried a little. But if you fall down, even a very small cut, or no cut at all, you will also cry and cry and cry.
Zara : You know or not, my skin is so sensative ma, that’s why I cry. o.O

Zara was having a very bad cough the whole of last week.

On Saturday, we wanted to go to Ikea to get Zaria a mattress for napping. Before we went, we stopped at a coffee shop for a drink. Zara had a big glass of Ribena.

30mins later, we were at Ikeno, and went to Manhattan Fish Market for dinner (Fish & Co still the best!). Zara had the kid size fish and chip, and it came with a glass of orange juice. She ate almost 2/3 of her meal, and drank up the whole glass of orange juice. Jelly couldn’t finish her fish & chips, and we packed it up, and the restaurant gave us a big plastic bag to hold the small styrofoam box.

Zara was coughing quite badly while we walked to Ikea. The girls stopped at the play area near the customer service counters. Suddenly Zara just stood still and started vomiting, two blobs landed on the floor. I managed to quickly put the plastic bag from the take away near her mouth while she continued to throw up. Her puke filled up like 1/8 of the bag. All she cared about after that was, Mummy, my beautiful dress! which she had stained a bit. o.O

After changing her to the spare clothes (which we always bring along for the girls), she was back to her normal self hopping around and checking out things at Ikea. We especially spent a lot of time at the children section where she picked up another Fifi (the soft toy dog) for a hug before we headed downstairs to pick up the mattress.

I was carrying Zaria and we went down the escalator first. Jelly was holding on to Zara’s hand and the light weight pram following behind. Just a few steps down, I heard Jelly shouted, “Zara!”. I turned around and saw Zara missed her footing on the step, and with Jelly pulling her up right, she stood up for a while and then plunged down into a sitting position on the step. Fifi was 2 steps below away from her. I shouted to Zara, “Stand up Zara”. Instead of standing up, she lunged forward, trying to grab the fallen Fifi. Luckily Jelly was holding her firmly, and she didn’t fall. I was screaming, “Zara, leave Fifi!”. Zara still tried to lunge forward. Jelly very quickly kicked Fifi away, so that Zara stopped attempting to pick it up.

2 seconds later, we’d all got out of the escalator. I dragged Zara to the side and asked her, “Zara, what was wrong with you!!?? Why didn’t you stand properly. I told you many times don’t fool around on escalators. Why did you want to pick Fifi up? What you did was very dangerous!” blah blah blah. Then I saw her face turning pale. I calmed down, and realised I didn’t check how she was. I gave her a big hug and told her I was so worried (actually, I probably missed a few heart beats thinking Zara was going to fall), and asked her what happened. She spoke weakly and said she wanted to sit on the pram. After putting her in the pram, she sobbed a bit and looked as though she was about to go to sleep. So I asked her gently again. She said, “Just now I was so tired and my leg just went soft.” Jelly then only spoke up (she’s not someone who offers information freely) “Mum, I hold her mum, and then she just fall mum. Like no more streght mum.”

Zara was in the pram looking pale and her eyes half closed. I kept stopping and checking with her if she was ok. She said, “Mummy, I’m just very tired. I want to sleep.” I then realised she might have fainted because of her earlier vomiting. I asked her if she wanted something to eat, she asked for sweets. We’d none but I told her I’d go grab a donut for her. I quickly paid for the mattress then headed out to get her something to eat. She asked for pop corn when she saw them. The colour on her face return as she started eating, and then she started telling me, “Just now mummy, when I stepped on the escalator, I feel dizzy. So my legs just went wobbly.”

I kept reminding her about her safety being more important than a toy, and it’s ok to loose a toy because we can always buy another for her. I knew she was back to herself when she told me, “If no more Fifi, mummy can buy another for me. If no more Zara, then Daddy and mummy have to get married again. And then Daddy and mummy will have a new step daughter.”

That’s my girl and her logic.

Me : Zara, what do you want to be when you grow up? Doctor? Teacher? Chef?
Zara : When I grow up I want to be a real princess.

Neighbours were talking about sending their girls (around the age of Zara for ballet).
Me : Zara, Chloe and Erin will be going for ballet classes soon. You want to learn ballet or not?
Zara : I don’t want mummy. I want to learn princessing.

Daddy asked about Zara’s sunglasses, “Zara, why you put your sunglasses at home? You should leave it in the car. When it’s sunny, then you can put it on.”
Zara replied, “Daddy, if it’s sunny, I don’t want to wear my sunglasses.”
Daddy asked “But why?”
Zara replied rolling her eyes, “Do you see princess wear sunglasses one or not?” (obviously not those Disney princesses)

The other day when I read Beauty & The Beast to her and when we reached the ending, which read, “She kissed him.. blah blah.. She sobbed, “I love you!”.. blah blah.. the beast turned into the handsome prince.. blah blah.”
Zara smiled shyly and asked, “Next time when I big girl, I will also meet my handsome prince right? And then we’ll get married right?”

My princess Zara

Since Zara turned 2 1/2, she’s very much into princesses. Her enthusiasm increases with time. I wonder when this stage will pass. I was told, I should bring her to Disneyland before she passes this stage, so that she’ll enjoy herself more. Hmmm….