Besides Kunci Farting, here are some of the other words that Zara uses to replace words she’s not familiar with:

Sauce –> Horse as in Soya Horse; Tomato Horse; Chilli Horse(this has been going on for a while, and we still can’t make her say ‘sauce’)
Remote Countrol –> Vomit Control
Scab –> Raisin Thingy. i.e. while trying to scratch off the scab from my knee she said “Mummy, I scratch off your raisin thingy from your leg. The mosquito bite there.”

The other day, a 4 year old from our neighbour pointed to Zara and told her mum this when we walked past her house, “Mummy, the little girl looks like (she) have(has) spiders on her eyes. The eyes got long long hair one.” She actually meant Zara’s dark long lashes.

I have more patience with Zaria since she’s still so little, but very little patience with Zara.
Zara’s language ability and maturity makes us treat her like a 4yr old, and we assume she should behave like one (our fault!).
I keep reminding myself that she’s only two plus and we shouldn’t expect too much from her. She still needs lots of cuddling and time with us. I always feel so sorry when I loose my patience with her.

She’s crying so much these days, always expecting to see me next to her when she wakes up from her sleep.
When people come to the house bringing gifts for Zaria, the moment she spots the gift, tears will well up in her eyes.
For a month, she has kept her diaper dry almost daily/nightly (only the occasional “I forgot” situations). She does both her big and small business on the toilet bowl; ONLY wants me to help her and cries when she has to go to the toilet badly but I’m not able to assist her.
She asks me to carry her constantly, and when I can’t, sometimes she cries too.
If I’m nursing Zaria, she wants me to hold her hand at the same time.

Yesterday, when I was changing Zaria’s diaper, Zara wanted to be carried.
I said impatiently, “Zara, let mummy finished changing mei-mei first ok?”
For a while she was quiet, then she started crying.
Daddy asked her what happened, did she fall down etc.
She said in between her sobs, “Mummy don’t sayang (Malay : love) Zara any more”
Aiyo.. it broke my heart to hear that and I have to stop what I was doing, gave her a hug and reassured her that I love her very much. I also explained to her that because meimei is still small, I need to spend a lot of time nursing her and changing her diaper, since Daddy can’t do these (Daddy is totally hopeless with new born). I told her when I’m done with all these, I’ll spend time with her. Then the below conversation took place.
Me : “Why Zara think mummy don’t love Zara any more?”
Zara : “Because mummy always smack Zara”
Me : “Huh? Mummy long time never smack Zara already woh. (yeah, yeah, I used to smack her, but I tried not to these days, and have not been doing it)
Zara : “Because mummy always scold Zara”
Yup! I do, I scold her often because I always loose my patience with her.
Me : “Ok, ok. Mummy say sorry yeah. Mummy try not to scold Zara any more ok?
Zara : “And Zara be good girl.”

Today, after nursing Zaria, I told her we can go and play with bubbles. She was so happy and said, “Yeh! Mummy finished feeding meimei, now can spend time with Zara already!”

This girl, she’s just so sensative. And me, I really need to be more patient!

Bubble Time

This is a phrase Zara likes to use these days. She tells me what she wants to do/be when she becomes a big girl.

Zara : *going through my lipsticks*When I big girl, then I can put lipstick. Then I can wear nice baju (Malay: Clothes).
Me : Where do you want to go?
Zara : Go office to work loh. (she’s using lots of loh, lah in her conversation these days, and Daddy said it’s my bad influence)
Me : What work do you want to do?
Zara : Play with uncle guard (she followed me to office once on a Sunday, and there was only this guard working, she probably thinks there’s only the guard in the office working with me)

Sometimes she can talk on her own with no audience or response from us.
Zara : When I big girl I (will) be like Dr Jason (my gynae). Help to take baby out from the stomach.
Zara : Yes, after check check stomach must wash hands like this *pretend to wash hands*
Zara : Then after check stomach, I go home and have dinner with my children (wow, already know about work-life-balance)

Other things she wants to be when she is a big girl :
Zara : When I big girl, then I can carry meimei
Zara : When I big girl then I can ride the big bicycle
Zara : When I big girl then I can pump petrol
Zara : When I big girl then I can play with knife, to cut cut xxxxx
Zara : When I big girl, then I can eat sambal (Malay : chilli paste)

Once I asked her :“When you are a big girl, will you still love mummy or not?
Her response: “No.”
Ouch!

My big girl

Apology: I’m reading my comments for each post, by have no time to respond to each of them.

Zaria 
At  6 week old, she has established a routine which is very close to the family’s. I thank God for this.
She wakes up in the morning, and entertains herself (I’d seen her kicking her legs quietly in the mornings). When she hears us waking up, i.e. the talking, the foodsteps in the house, she’ll call/cry out to us, to be acknowledged/carried or nursed.
She spends the day in between sleeping and waking. When she’s hungry, she will call out instead of crying. Normally when Zara and myself nap, she’ll also be napping with us or quietly kicking her legs or punching her fists keeping herself occupied.
From 6pm to 10pm, she becomes more demanding and wants body contact; she wants to be carried, or to be on the breast. This is when she cries the most, especially when we put her down. Dinner time is a bit challenging for us with Zara and Zaria both requiring attention at the same time. 
When it’s bed time, she takes light out as a que. After nursing her, and given Zara her milk, lights will be turned off. She’ll quietly lie on the bed, dozing off to sleep.
She gets up once in the night, and another early in the morning to feed. Actually, she doesn’t cry out to be nursed, she just shuffles on the bed; being a light sleeper, I’ll wake up and feed her. (I’m thinking of ignoring the shuffling once she goes pass this week, since Zara stopped waking up to be nursed at 6th week).

Zara
It has been rather challenging caring for Zara since Zaria’s arrival.
She will have stomach aches when I’m nursing Zaria. She gets into accidents a lot like knocking her head on the dining table while walking, falling down from the sofa, tripping on things etc.
She says things like, “I smack meimei yeah because she’s so naughty.” (when Zaria cries).
“I want to fry kakak until kakak becomes krok-krok (crunchy), and then I (will) eat kakak”
“Kakak you go home to Indonesia loh.”
“Daddy, that’s my bed, go away.”
(she doesn’t use such words with me though)
She cries a lot and the trigger can be something very minute (e.g. Can’t pull out a book from the shelf; I need to be in the study blogging working; she wakes up and I’m not next to her).
In the night, she will stay up until I’d finished nursing Zaria, and wants me to cuddle her to sleep.

We started toilet training her (should have done this before Zaria came). Since last week, she’d only poo-ed in the toilet bowl, and sometimes if she remembers to tell us, she pees in the toilet bowl too. She wants me to be the one who help her with using the toilet and normally have urges to pee and to poo when I’m cuddling Zaria.

Start young with good toilet habit

She wants to be carried a lot, especially by me. She wants me to be the one bathing her, napping with her, brushing her teeth, helping her with the toilet.

Child Care Options
I don’t know how some SAHM does it, handling 2 kids without a maid. I salute them! I’m finding it tough even with a maid. I get so stressed when Zaria needs her feed and Zara gets all worked up and wants my attention too.

I’m cracking my head with child care options after my maternity.
1) Hire another maid
2) Put one of the girls in child care center
3) Send Zara to half day nursery

Tuyam confirms she’ll stop working for us in early 2008. Hiring a maid seems to be a good option since the kids now need most attention. By 2008, Zaria will be 1 and Zara 3, and hopefully things will get better, and we will just need 1 maid (the new one) to handle the kids during working hours and to do the house work.

Parents out there, do you have any suggestions for child care? I’m not as lucky as others, as my MIL is not keen too old to help.

Chubby Cheeks a.k.a Sleepy Head

The girls together. Zaria seems to be in a bit of a shock as this is the first time we propped her up like that

Prezzies from blogging friends, Sasha‘s blankie, Cocka‘s bear (which is 3 times bigger than Zaria), Kat’s height and photo chart; Zaria’s full moon pack out to friends

Sometimes Zara wants the same treatment as Zaria (i.e. lie on mummy’s lap) when she takes her milk

Zara getting ready to ‘nurse’ her lamb (something she does very often when I’m nursing Zaria); Zara and her cow boy costume; Zara wanting to look like the Chinese Four Princess tying her hair like that.

Zaria, 2026 bond girl, started practicing for her audition.

It’s nice to see that Zaria is getting a bit chubby, and I feel proud knowing that all this was the result of her drinking the milk I produced.

She latched on well since day one which makes breastfeeding her easy. She now drinks 3 to 4 hourly, and I think she should be drinking about 3oz. In the day, when she wants milk, she’ll just give us a shout (yeah, a shout, like “Ehhhh”); and in the night (she probably knows this since the room is dark), she only makes the “Eh Ugh” sound or shuffles in her sleep when it’s time for her feed. Once she ‘informs’ us she wants her milk, she patiently awaits for us to feed her. What a nice baby she is.

She’s now nick named Chubby Cheeks at home.

Chubby Cheeks asleep

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

Since Zara only weaned off from the breast at 18 months, she remembers those breast feeding days. I initially thought I will probably need to do tandem feeding when Zaria was born, but she was proud to have been ‘promoted’ to jiejie, and she thinks only babies drink from breast.

On the first night after we were back from the hospital, I was feeding Zaria, and realised that it’s also milk time for Zara. I asked “Zara, you want milk?” (actually asking if she wanted me to make her milk for her). She looked at me with this funny expression, and pointed to her teeth, “Zara got teeth already, cannot drink milk from the breast.” :-I

There are other times when she proudly says, “Mei mei baby, drink milk from mummy’s breast. Zara jiejie already, drink bottle milk only.” or “Last time Zara baby, Zara drink breast milk, now Zara big girl already, drink milk from bottle only”

She’s so proud to be all big and grown up now. 😛

Since I go to bed the same time as Zara (and luckily Zaria goes to bed the same time too), I started praying together with her lying down on my bed. I’ll ask her to put her hands together, and I’ll say the prayer, it goes some thing like this : “Mummy ask Jesus to protect Zara and meimei, so that Zara and meimei will be strong and healthy. Mummy ask Jesus to teach mummy to be a good mummy.”

Yesterday, after I’d finished the above prayer, Zara added, “Mummy ask Jesus to teach mummy to be a good mummy, so that mummy will not scold Zara so much yeah?”

Oh boy, her ‘prayer’ tickled me but at the same time made me realise I must be quite harsh on her most of the time. I have to learn from this young lady, to use more positive words when I give out instructions or comments to Zara.

So God, help me to be a better mum, that I will not scold my kids (or sound as though I’m scolding them) so much. Amen.

“Zara, please don’t jump on the bed, you may accidentally fall on meimei.”
“Ask Kakak to put on your CD for you, mummy is feeding meimei, mummy don’t have free hands.”
“Zara, please be careful with your toys and don’t drop them, meimei is sleeping, she may get a fright.”

These are said so frequently at home these days; and Zara suddenly realises that mummy is not 100% hers and that she’s no longer the only one who gets all the attention in the house.

Zara started to demand for more attention. She insisted that I nap with her, and if I didn’t, she would cry. When she wakes up from her nap and doesn’t see me next to her, she will wail, and shout for me. At night, she wants to sleep with me on my bed, and wants me to have my arms around her when she goes to sleep. I have to lie down in such a manner that I can have my arm holding her and at the same time feed Zaria.

There were times when Zaria needs a feed, and Zara will just start making a fuss, “Mummy put meimei down! I want to sit on mummy’s lap! PUT MEIMEI DOWN!”
“Daddy carry meimei, MUMMY CARRY ZARA.”
“I want mummy carry Zara NOW!”

The other day, when we told her that Auntie (the CL) is going to go home next week, Zara added, “When auntie go(es) home, ask Auntie to bring meimei home also. Zara don’t want meimei.”

Daddy and I have to really try and split our time among the 2. Zara now is more vocal and demanding, and since Zaria is more easy going, she’ll just lie there waiting to be fed. We have to be careful not to give in to Zara’s demand too much that we’ll deprive Zaria of our attention.

Sigh. Parenting with 1 child is tough, with 2, sometimes I feel like tearing my hair out (and this is just the beginning)! I pray for patience every night, and that I be fair to both kids, not to the one who shouts the loudest.

Zaria has entered into week 2, and as a new born we can see that she’s very much different from Zara.
Zara wailed for her milk when she was younger. And if we were a bit slow, she wailed until she turned all black.
Zaria just shuffles about, making ‘ek, ek, ek’ sound, when she wants milk. And patiently waits for us to feed her.

Zara dislikes wet or soil diaper even when she was an infant. When she cried, we have to go through a check list : 1) fed? 2) burped? 3) diaper wet/soiled?
Zaria is just not bothered with her diaper, if it’s on, if it’s wet or if it’s soiled.

We think she’ll have more patient than Zara, and probably better temprament. Maybe it’s just the ‘any thing also ok’ attitute of a Capricorn. We shall see.

Zara over night has grown quite a fair bit. Suddenly, we noticed she speaks better, using the accent she acquires from her TV program. She will shout for me from the stair case in the night, “Come on mum. It’s bed time. Let’s go upstairs.” And when Daddy leaves the room without saying goodnight to her, she’ll say, “I want daddy, daddy didn’t say good night to you (me).”

She’s also very direct nowdays. If we talked too loud when she’s watching her TV program, she’ll say “Shh.. Don’t talk so loud.” If she saw the CL siting there watching her TV program with her, she’ll say, “Aunty, close your eyes, don’t watch. This is Zara’s show.” Since she’s not very fond of the CL.

She’s very good with Zaria though. She is very gentle around her. “Mei mei very fragile, Zara must be careful, yeah.” she reminds herself every time she’s near Zaria. She likes to stroke and sniff Zaria’s hair, her way of showing her affection to Zaria. 

She woke up one morning and started crying, big drops of tears flowing down (not the wailing type of crying).
Me : What happened?
Zara : Mummy gone!
Me : Did you have a bad dream?
Zara : *still crying* Mummy gone to Morib.
Me : Mummy is not gone, see, mummy is here.
Zara : *smiled and wiped her tears* Yeah, mummy is here. Not gone.

On our last visit to the Dr.
Zara : Zara ask Dr Jason to take out baby from mummy’s stomach.
Me : Why?
Zara : Then mummy can go to the park with Zara. Zara can sit on mummy’s lap on the swing, then Zara and mummy can swing high high.
(She missed the time I used to sit her on my lap and we shared a swing together)

Earlier today.
Zara : Mummy, Daddy, Zara, family.
Me : Yeah, later we’ll have mei-mei. Then it’ll be Mummy, Daddy, Zara, mei mei. We’re a family. Zara : I don’t want mei mei. Zara’s family only have Mummy, Daddy and Zara.

When I tugged her to bed, I prepped her for tomorrow.
Me : Tomorrow mummy will go to the hospital and stay there ok? Zara sleep with Daddy in the night.
Zara : *started crying* I don’t want mummy to go to hospital, I want mummy to stay with Zara. Me : Zara can come and visit mummy with Daddy you know.
Zara : *still crying* Then Zara say hi to mummy. *started wailing* I don’t want.
Me : Ok ok. We talk about happier things then. What did we do today.. let’s see…….
Zara : *stopped her crying*