Her love for Daddy :

Her relationship with Daddy has improved a lot since Zaria was born.
She told Daddy, “Daddy I love you so much”
Daddy asked her back, “Why do you love Daddy?”
She said, “Because you (are) so clever to jaga (Malay : take care of) me. That’s why.”

She told me, “I love Daddy so much.”
I asked her why she loves Daddy, she told me, “Because Daddy never scold me, only angry with me.” (what she didn’t say is : unlike mummy who always scold me and occasionally smack me or send me to the naughty corner) “o.O

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On why I can’t cane her :

She tossed some sea shells into the court yard the other day, crushing them.
Me : *shook my head* “I think I have to go and buy a cane already. When someone is naughty, I’ll cane that someone.”
Zara : “NOOOOOOO! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
Me : “Why are you screaming?”
Zara : “YOU CANNOT!”
Me : “Why I cannot?” *looked at her and wait for an answer*
Zara : “Because…” *thinking*
Me : “Yeah? Because…?”
Zara : “I’M ZARA!”
Me : *trying to stiffle a laugh* “I know you are Zara, so…?”
Zara : “I.. I………..” *Lost of words* “AAAAAAAAAAH!” *cry*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On boiled egg :

I wanted to make some steam egg and Zara wanted to help me shell the egg.
Zara : “Mummy, I help you peck peck the egg.”
Me : “You cannot peck the egg because it’s not boiled egg.”
Zara : “Oh, this is girl egg.. cannot peck, only boy egg can peck.”

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

On Hamburger :

We saw a Ramly Burger stall, with a big burger picture.
Me : *pointing to the burger picture* “Zara, what is that, do you know?”
Zara : “It’s a bun”
Me : “It’s a special bun with a special name. Do you know the name?”
Zara : “Hmmmm… It’s a McDonald Bun“
(talk about branding!)

Sisterly Love

Zaria will be turning 6months next week, and is more responsive to her surrounding. She adores Zara, especially when Zara is dancing or singing, she’ll be watching Zara intently smiling. On the other hand, because Zaria is tougher now, Zara is able to hug and hold her and not crush her, Zara is enjoying the company of Zaria more.

Zara is also starting to show her love for her sister. She is willing to share her toys with Zaria, and when Zaria takes one of her favourite item, she will swap it with another less favourite and tell Zaria, “This one jiejie play. You take other one.”

At Zara’s bed time, if Zaria cried in the midst of me cuddling and talking to Zara, Zara will tell me, “Mummy, you go feed Zaria.” She no longer clinged on to me leaving her sister to cry.

2 days ago, when I was having a teleconference, Zaria cried because it was time for her feed. Since the meeting was about to end, I told Jelly (my other maid) to pacify Zaria while waiting for me. I heard some commotions downstairs caused by Zara. After the meeting, I checked what happened. Jelly told me Zara was very anxious when she heard Zaria crying so pitifully, so she kept saying, “Aunty Jelly, mummy meeting, you feed meimei the milk in the fridge! Meimei hungry.” “My mummy meeting cannot feed meimei, you feed meimei with this one (shoving a pack of frozen milk into Jelly’s hand).” “You don’t feed meimei after I smack you huh!”

When my aunt came visiting a week back, she pretended she wanted to bring Zaria home, and carried Zaria to the door. Zara cried, looking desperately for me for help, “Don’t take meimei! Cannot! Cannot take! It’s my meimei.” She only stopped when Zaria was back into my arms.

Sometimes, when she thinks I’m not looking, I can see her leaning over to kiss Zaria and mutter, “I love you meimei”.

I’m rather pleased to see this progress. 🙂 But being her normal self, she still say things like, “I’m pretty. Mei mei is ugly” “Meimei ugly because meimei’s eyes look like ganster (I wonder if she really knows the meaning of this).” or “Meimei so ugly because meimei’s eyes so small like daddy. Meimei’s hair botak like Ah Ku (my bro). My eyes big like mummy and my hair so long and soft.” “o.O

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On another note : My sister came over with Tasha 2 weeks back, I attempted to take photos of the 3 girls together. Boy, it’s tough. It’s hard to make them look at the camera the same time. Here are some ‘nicer’ shots.

If you walked passed my house and hear sound of crying, you can be quiet sure it’s Zara’s. The Two and The Half cries more than her Four Month Old sister in a day!

She cries in the morning when she wakes up and doesn’t see me next to her.
She cries when she wants to wear her choice of clothings but we give her another set.
She cries when she recently had her Hep B vacination.
She cries when she wants to come to the study to play with me but I disallow because I have to work.
She cries when she wants Daddy or me to bath her, but both of us are busy and we ask the maid to do it.
She cries when she wants a sweet drink during dinner and we refuse.
She cries when she is not able to yank a toy out from the toy box.
Basically, she cries when she doesn’t get what she wants; when she’s in pain, frustrated, or just moody.
When she cries, she wails, with big drop of tears flowing down, wetting her face, and the top she’s wearing.
She cries more, when her face is wet, and she demands to be wiped; and it normally takes a while to calm her down.
Zara was a high need baby and now a high need toddler.

Zaria on the other hand, cries only when she’s frightened (by a loud bang, or the unfaimiliar whirring of the blender; or by a bad dream);
When what she is holding is snatched away;
When I abruptly end a nursing session and she hasn’t had her fill of milk;
When she wants to sleep, but she’s not comfortable enough to fall asleep.
When she had her vacination on the same day as Zara has hers, she made just an Argh sound, and that’s it. No tears or wailling like her sister.
And when she cries, she’s easily pacified : the toy returned to her, the feed continues, or just picking her would normally do the trick.

When Zara was younger, I was able to capture lots of crying photos of Zara (see here, here, here, here, here). With Zaria, as she deosn’t cry often, it was tough, but I’d been waiting. Last 2 days, I managed to capture these shots and that’s about it:

She was unhappy when her book was taken away; She wanted to be picked up after lying on her stomach for too long; She wanted to sleep but she was hungry and Zara was making too much noise in the room

4 people tagged me, eastcoastlife, Samm, Dancing Queen, Chooi Peng, interested to know the meaning of my girls’ name?

So why Zara and why Zaria?

It’s quite difficult for Daddy and I to agree on things 100%. When we were looking for a name for Zara, he wanted names like Catherine, and I wanted something more exotic which ends with an A (Eliana, Alina, Carissa etc) . We agreed Sarah is a nice sounding name, but since it’s pretty common; I picked Zara instead, a twist from Sarah and it means “princess”.

Daddy wasn’t quite convinced, until he met Zara for the first time in the delivery room; the spunky kid, who was partially delivered, head out, shoulders still stuck in the pelvic, screaming her lungs out. When Zara was placed on my tummy with umblical cord still intact, Daddy whispred in my ears, “I think the name Zara will suit her.” So Zara it is.

For Zara’s Chinese name, Daddy didn’t mind me making the shot, since he’s not Chinese Educated. I had a dream which repeatedly mentioned Jun Jan (It might have been due to Lin Jun Jie’s song getting lots of air time on radio during that time). When I woke up, I told Daddy about it, and he said Jun Jan sounded nice. So I started looking for Chinese words that sounded like that. It was 君倩 (pronounced as Jun Qian but spelled as Jun Jan in her birth cert) finally, which means gentlemen, noble for the first character, and winsome for the 2nd character (a winsome girl who’s noble).

As for Zaria, we wanted to look for a name which start with Z and end with A and only 2 sylabels. After a long hunt, we narrowed down to Zaria and Zonya (Simple American reminded me they are actually 3 sylabels). Since Zaria also means “Princess”, and both Zaria and Zara are names of young royalties in Europe (Zara Phillips and Countess Zaria), it makes more sense to choose Zaria.

Again, I was given the honour to choose a Chinese name for her, I chose 君洁 (pronounced and spelled as Jun Jie), which is noble, pure and chaste; with pronuciation not deviating too much from Zara’s Jun Jan.

Both girls have the same initials : ZLJJ. I hope the similarity in their names will bring them closer together as sisters.

Here are other bloggers and the meaning of their kids’ name.

1) Msaufong – Meaning Of SQ & Kiki?s name
2) Miche – My ACB
3) eastcoastlife – Choosing Jaymes?
4) Shopping Mum – The meaning of Justin and Isabell
5) Judy Chow – Terry
6) Shannon – Rachel
7) Samm – Gordon n Malcolm
8 ) Sasha – lil J
9) mott – 2 monkeys
10) Fatty Poh – What’s in a name?
11) Binky – The meaning of Ian
12) Dancing Queen – What’s in your child’s name?
13) Chooi Peng – Meaning of KW’s name

A lot of people have been tagged, so I’m not passing this to any one.

“Me is half!”

Today, Zara turns 2 and the half. If you asked her how old she is, sometimes she’ll say, “Twenty” when she wants to be a big girl.  And sometimes she’ll say, “Half”, when she wants to be her age, but not knowing how to say “two and the half”.

11Kg and 89cm. With full set of teeth grown (2nd molar started sprouting early this year).
She gives us much happiness, and sometimes some hair pulling moments when she throws tantrums or ‘bullies’ her meimei. She gives us the tickles at times, and most time we’re just at awe with her.

At this age, she knows how to :
1) put on her shoes, her trousers, and take them off. Knows which shoe should go into which foot.
2) put a disc into the DVD player, turn on the TV, and play a movie/program of her choice.
3) eat on her own with fork and spoon as well as chopsticks (although most of the time she perfers to be fed).
4) stack up building blocks or lego, claiming it to be a house, a room, a rail way track.
5) do simple drawing like puting eyes and a smile or a sad mouth to turn it into face
6) recognise some numbers (8, 7, 1) and alphabet A.
7) finish a 16 piece puzzle effortlessly
8 ) play imaginary games like having a royal tea party,  being a butterfly,  caring for babies or driving a bus on her own.
9) sing almost all nursery rhymes. She’s actually quite good with memorising sounds, so even though she doesn’t know Chinese, she can sing some Chinese kids’ songs too.

Eating with chopsticks; Her creation; Her drawing of happy and sad faces;
Completing her puzzle; Having a royal tea party; Her royal guest, the lamb;
Favourite past time in a restaurant; Being a butterfly; Decorating herselves with stickers.

She’s more independant now, able to be on her own, playing, watching a TV program, doing ‘drawing’ and ‘colouring’.
She allows Daddy or Tuyam to tuck her to sleep occasionally, but mostly it has to be me.
She sometimes go over to neighbour’s house to play on her own, without us accompanying her.
She’s the English teacher at home, correcting the maids’ English. “It’s maam, not mum”. “It’s meh-dee-sen (medicine), not meh-lee-sen.”
She’s assertive and expressive. “No, no, no, you don’t touch the remote control, I want to watch my DVD.” “I want Vitagen 1st not later” “You don’t push me ok, and you don’t scold me!” (e.g. when she tries to give Zaria too tight a hug, and I had to seperate the 2 of them, and raise my voice at her). “No, this baju (Malay : clothes) is not nice. I want to wear my jeans.” “I want to go home, this restaurant is too noisy.”
She loves books, TV, being pretty, being outdoor, playing, animals, home made macaroni and cheese, ice cold non-fizzy drinks, ice creams, cheese, singing, dancing.
She’s afraid of me getting angry with her, loud thunder, cars zooming passed her too quickly, creepy crawlies.
She’s Mummy’s and Daddy’s beloved. Although sometimes she thinks I love Zaria more because I spend a lot time with Zaria (she told Tuyam once, “Mummy sayang (Malay: love) me little bit. Mummy always sayang mei-mei only.”)

Zara is starting to be curious about her body, and the differences she found in mine. She asked about the differences sometimes, and at times just make passing comments.

She’ll say things like,
“When I big girl, I will have hair in my petpet (female private part).”
“When I big girl, my petpet will have blood. Then I have to wear mummy’s diaper (sanitory pad).”
“When I big girl, I will have milk in my breast. Then I can breast feed Mr Blue (she recently claims Mr Blue is her baby).”

She has been touching her private part recently, and I took it as a passing phase and did not make a big deal out of it. Today, over dinner Tuyam told me she said the below to Tuyam during the day,
“Kakak, my petpet got peanut. You help me take out the peanut.”

……… “o.O

So that’s why she’s been touching herself, she was just curious why there was a peanut in her private part.

I laughed so much over dinner I had tears in my eyes, the way she relate to things ….. And my little girl, she’s really growing up.

Zara speaks like an old lady at times. Giving me speechless moments, or a good laugh, or just at awe with how much she’s grown. More of such moments :

She likes to call people Yoo Hoo these days. E.g. “Yooo Hooo… turn on the TV for me” “Yooo Hooo! I want Vitagen”
I did the same, and called her, “Yooo Hooo.. You want to take bath now?”
She looked at me and said, “Mum, dont’ call me yoohoo, call me ZA-RA.”

She wanted some Pringles chips.
I told her, “Only one piece, you cannot eat so much ok.”
She continued, “Because got MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) right?”
(We always tell her she can’t have instant noodle, or outside food too much because they contain lots of MSG)

Overheard her talking to her toy lamb.
*pretending to apply something to the lamb’s face*
“No worries, it’s just paint (make up) ok.”
“Are you comfortable?”
“Finished already. All done!“
*started holding the lamb and ran around the sofa*
“Run, run, run, Isn’t it fun?”

Over heard her saying :
“Don’t worry. I love you very much.”
“I sayang you ok?”
“When I big girl, I get married with you.”
“Rusty boy, you is (are) my husband.”
And who is Rusty Boy?……… Our cat at home. “O.o

I told her I need to change before going out to buy lunch.
Zara : “Me is wearing new (clean) baju (Malay : clothes) already. You is going to change.”
Me : *correcting her Grammar*”I AM wearinng new baju. You ARE going to change.”
Zara : “Me is changed.”
Me : “I changed. Not Me is changed.”
Zara : “I have CHANGE-DED.”

While we were at Morib.
Zara was curious with every thing she saw on the ground, and I was shouting,
“Zara, don’t touch that, that’s rubbish” when she was aiming for the piece of ice cream wrapper
“Zara, don’t touch that, that’s rubbish” when she was trying to pick up a bottle cap
“Zara, don’t touch that, that’s rubbish”.. it just came out automatically when she reached for something on the ground.
She raised her hand and showed me a casuarina seed, “This is pineapple lar. You silly girl, everything also you say it’s rubbish rubbish. Tsk.” (And shook her head. She is using the ‘tsk’ sound a lot to indicate her displeasure)

At the dinner table, Zara didn’t want to eat her vege.
Daddy *coaxing her* :”You must eat your vege, so you’ll grow up properly.”
Zara : “No, I don’t want.”
Daddy : “blah blah blah. You must eat.”
After a few times of Daddy ‘nagging’ her, she finally said, “Daddy, it’s difficult. It’s difficult to eat the vege Daddy.” (her first time using the word ‘difficult’)
……………

Zara didn’t want to drink water.
Me : “Zara, please drink some water.”
Zara : “I don’t want.”
Me : “Zara, mummy tell you nicely, please drink some water ok?”
Zara : “Mummy, I tell you nicely, no thank you please”
……………

Zara likes to sit with her legs opened wide, and has just recently learnt that a boy’s petpet (reproductive organ) is called “penis”.
She had her legs opened wide the other day in her car seat. To encourage her to be more lady like, I told her : “Zara, you sit like that you’ll grow a penis in your petpet.”
Very quickly she responded, “Last time daddy sit(sat) down open(ed) his legs big big that’s why his petpet got penis now.”
……………

Zara is aware you say the verb differently for past tense, and is also aware of comparatives and superlatives, conciously or not. And here are few of her attempts lately playing with the English Grammar :

“Mummy I cry-ded just now” (Mummy I cried just now)
“I stand-ded and watered the plant” (I stood and watered the plant)
“I want to make the plant grower and grower“ (I want to make the plant grow bigger and bigger)
“I brushed my teeth already, now my breath is small smelly only” (I brushed my teeth already, now my breath is a little bit smelly only)

Terror huh? Her English?

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Some other ‘good’ conversations.

Me : *pointed to a fly in the living room floor* Girl look, a fly!
I tried to kill the fly by smacking it, but the fly flew away every time my hand almost landed on it.
Zara : *excitedly* Mum, the fly can perform tricks!!

We were in my sis’ place and Zara has taken her milk and used up the milk powder we brought from home. While trying to get her to nap,
Zara : Mummy I want to drink milk
Me : You already drank your milk. We have no more milk for you.
Zara : I want milk!
Me : Do you want Norman’s kor kor’s milk then?
Zara : Norman kor kor has no breasts! I want powder milk
Aiyo, I actually meant drinking my nephew, Norman’s, growing up milk and she thought I’m asking her to drink from Norman’s breast!

At bed time, Daddy getting ready to sleep on his side of the bed.
Zara : Daddy, you cannot sleep here. You go sleep there (pointing to the matress the confinement day used to sleep on) This is women’s bed, men’s bed is there!
Just because Daddy slept on that mattress a few nights after the CL has left to make night feeds easier for me, Zara thought he no longer can sleep on our bed.

Since Zara was born, my knuckles became bigger and I could not put on my wedding band any longer. Of course my knuckles did not miraculously shrunk after Zaria’s birth, no matter how much I wish for. I can’t resize my ring since the jeweller we bought the ring from can’t do it as the ring was imported from New Zealand. I asked Daddy to get me a new ring for this reason, and he agreed, giving me a RM400 budget. Hence, the hunt began.

Gold prices have gone up 100% since we got married 9years ago. His RM400 budget probably could get me a ring as thick as a wire band, so I just ignored his set budget. Our original ring was a platinum + 750 gold band. What used to cost us RM750, now it’s going for around RM2000. I was contemplating whether to go for one which is the same design as ours, or go for one which is totally different. It was a long hunt and I’d been dragging Zara along visiting jewelry shops.

Last Saturday, we finally made the purchase, I got myself a puny small eternity ring instead.

On Sunday morning, upon seeing the ring on my finger, Zara commented, “Mummy buy (bought) mummy’s ring already.”
I responded, “Yeah. Zara leh? Zara got ring or not?
Zara replied, “No. I have no ring. When I big girl already, I get married. Then I get pregnant. Then when doctor take baby out already, I buy ring.”

Let’s hope she stick to the get-married-then-get-pregnant part, the ring can come earlier I don’t mind.