We went for a 3D scan last Thursday, and we brought along Zara, thinking it would be good for her to look at the baby as well.

Our Doctor did the scan himself together with a sonographer, and we spent more than an hour doing this.

Zara was very chatty throughout, but also got restless after 2mins.
“Doctor put oil on mummy’s stomach”
“Doctor check check mummy. Check check baby”
After a while, “Mummy carry”
She wanted to climb up the bed I was lying on, and then said this herself, “This is not the play ground, this is hopital (hospital) bed. Cannot crimb (climb) up.”
After a few bored moments, “*pointing to the door* Daddy go there!”
When she saw a glimpse of the baby, “There, baby there on the compiter (computer)”
And most of the time, she kept wanting to get out, “Open the door. Zara want go out!” “Open the door!” “Daddy, please, open the door please.”
When nobody responded, she started banging on the door, and tried to open it herself, making lots of noise. That was when I told her I’m very upset. “Sorry mummy. Sorry.”
“Zara cannot talk loud loud, must talk soft soft like doctor.”

When we’re done, she was so glad to say, “Thank you very much! Bye bye, See You” to the Doctor and the sonographer. Ah, I should have brought her some books to keep her occupied.

Back to the baby, every thing is ok. Throughout 1hr+ scan, she was moving nonstop. One moment she hid behind her hands, next moment, she hid behind the placenta, another moment she lifted up her legs and covered her face, and then did some kicking motion. She was always on the move. See, if I didn’t know she’s a girl, I would have thought she’s a boy again, based on her activeness. Dr was having a tough time trying to capture a perfect shot of her face.

However, we did manage to see she has the same skull shape as Zara, she has rather big and slim feet, she has the same button nose like Zara; daddy said, “Don’t all babies look like this?”, oh well, maybe they do. Most important thing is she’s doing well.

Here’s a shot of her, the best I could get from the video clips that were given to me from the scan. Daddy said the scan looks like abstract art. Doctor said he’s not satisfied with the machine, not giving him crisp enough image. (The 2 ‘hook’ like thing next to her face are her hands.)

As for me, I’m doing fine, big, but fine. Into my 23rd week (coming to 6months), have put on ~6Kg, feel like I’m 8months pregnant, always tired, always hungry.

We had another fun filled but busy weekend. Heard a lot about A Famosa Resort, so we thought we will make a trip there before I get too big.

We left the house at about 12pm, there was a massive jam on the highway caused by a major accident, near Seremban, it took us almost 1 1/2 hrs to drive through that stretch.

Jason recommended that we stay in Tampin town instead of the resort, since Tampin is very near A Famosa, and there’s a brand new ‘budget’ hotel just opened recently. We arrived at 4pm and went to check out the hotel first. For RM110, Wangsa Mas price wasn’t ‘budget’; since it’s new, it’s relatively clean but the room is very basic. After we checked in, with the directions from the hotel receptionist, we headed towards A Famosa, Daddy was saying, “Just in time for the Animal Safari, to see the action (of the animals) in the evening.”

After 30mins of driving and A Famosa was no where to be found, Daddy got a bit annoyed. “Near is very a very subjective word. Your friend’s kind of near, is definitely not my kind of near.” Daddy even got more furious when we arrived at A Famosa shortly, and the parking attendant at the Animal Safari told us they are closed at 5pm.

So no animals for that day, we headed towards the Cowboy town instead. We paid RM30 per adult (Zara is free since she’s below 2yrs old), and when we got in, Daddy was not impressed. It was a dead town (since we were early), with just a street with buildings built to look like a cowboy town. “For this they charge RM30?” Mr Grump said. Since it was too far to go back to Tampin for dinner (so we thought) and too early for anything, we just had an early dinner in a Chinese restaurant in Cowboy Town.

After dinner, we walked about the ‘town’. Zara finally meeting a pony (she has been keen to see one since she saw it in her Barney DVD), she was so eager to pat the ponies, and got a kick on her calf by one unfriendly black pony, poor girl. One of the cowboys greeting visitors at the entrance. Red Indian with a very small head.

For RM10, Zara is able to get unlimited ride on the amusement park in the town, but all she wanted was the Carousel. We tried to put her on one of the aeroplane rides (that just goes round like the carousel), and we had to get the operator to stop it mid way because she was crying and screaming.

She didn’t want to get down, always asking for ‘some more’ every time when it’s over. We had to lie and said the batteries of the horses need to be charged for her to get down. We definitely got our RM10 worth.

These trampolines were meant for some ‘bungee jumping’ and the section was closed. We just let Zara jump on one, since she loves jumping on bed so much.

Showtime in Cowboy Town starts at 8:30pm. This was when we started feeling ‘worthwhile’. First show was Red Indian show, or ‘Fire’ show, followed with Animal Carnival.

‘Red Indians’ spinning torches, swallowing and spitting fire. Trained animals (from chickens to lion) walking the street

And then it was fireworks. Zara got a bit frightened by the blasting sound, but with our hands covering her ears, she started enjoying it as well.

The most spectacular of all the show

We left after the fireworks. This time, with the A Famosa guard giving us directions, it took us about 5mins to get back to Tampin. We took a wrong way earlier. “Your friend was right, it is very near.” A cheerful daddy said. “And for RM30, it’s quite good entertainment in the Cowboy Town hor?”

That night, both Daddy and I didn’t get a good sleep, and for some extend, Zara too. We had extremely noisy neighbours, who came in a group, and booked a few rooms. They were slamming doors, shouting to each other across rooms, playing loud music. At 2am, I couldn’t stand it anymore, went out of our room and shouted at them, “Oi, what time is it ah? You don’t need to sleep other people need to you know?” After a few sorry, I thought they will be more quiet, but then the noise didn’t stop till 3am, and then started again at 5am. Gosh, I almost wanted to slap them when I met them in the morning.

And for Zara, I’m not sure if she’s starting to get attached to her room, or she finds the hotel room too ‘basic’ for her liking, she started asking us to “Go home” when we changed her for bed. And middle of the night, she woke up a few times, looked around her, and then nudged me and said “Mummy, go home”. She dropped back to sleep when I told her it’s too far to go home. So it was like no sleep for me the whole night.

The following morning, after checking out and had breakfast in Tampin Market, we headed to A Famosa Resort, to ‘revisit’ the Animal Safari. Zara was chanting “Go Zoo, go see animals” the whole morning.

Entrance fee for Animal Safari is RM35/adult, free for Zara again. We missed the morning shows (shows start early, and then get repeated in the afternoon), since we arrived at about 11am.

Zara is always keen to meet ‘animals’.

We caught the bird show, which was really good.

Photos with the trained birds after the bird show.

For lunch, it was 4 packs of Tong’s Garden’s nuts, and 2 milo ice shared between Daddy and I. Zara had her milk, and some nuts. Oh well, we were not ‘stingy’ and unwilling to spend. The cafe in the Animal Safari only served some I-don’t-even-know-what-they-are Middle Eastern meals if you ordered over the counter. For more common dishes like Fish and Chips, Chicken Chop, you have to purchase the voucher from the entrance of the park. Stupid system? That’s what I told the lady mending the restaurant.

We then watched the Wild Wild West show; the most boring of all shows, for me. However, Zara was so entertained by it, and can even recalled what happened (“Good cowboy take gun bang bang bad cowboy. Bad cowboy fall down from the building. Then got Red Indian jiejie.” etc). And then followed by Multi Animal Show (with dogs, monkeys, raccoons performing).

Daddy then took the Safari truck with Zara to go around the park. I wasn’t allowed on the truck because I was pregnant, and the guy mending the station said they already encountered 7 miscarriages of pregnant ladies who went on the truck from the bumpy ride. It was a 20mins ride, and Zara said she liked it as she could see lion, tiger and giraffes.

By now, Zara wa very tired, but she kept saying, “Want to see more animals”, and trying to keep herself awake. However, 3minutes later, she was asleep in her pram. We only let her have a 30mins nap, we woke her up when it was time for the Elephant show.

Photos with the casts from the Wild Wide West show, and then with the Elephant from the Elephant show.

After the elephant show, it was already 5pm. We took Zara to the last attraction, the Chicken farm. Daddy sneaked his hand into the chicken coup and pulled out a little chicken for Zara to stroke. She really loved it, after that she kept saying, “Little chicken so cute and soft”.

The Animal Safari is worth the RM35 entrance fee. The place is cleaner, and you get closer to the ‘animals’ than Zoo Negara, and the shows are all quite entertaining. Very worthwhile for parents with young children.

Yesterday at the park,
Me : “Zara, Mummy stomach ache, maybe ceret beret (Malay : diarrhea).” (actually trying to tell her we may need to rush home)
Zara : “Come mummy, Zara hug hug. *hugged me* Mummy ceyek beyek. Make mummy better.”

5am this morning.
Zara : *rolled over to my side of the bed* “Zara drink milk”
Me : *groggily, checked the clock* “Still night time, morning only drink ok”
Zara rolled back to her cot, tossed and turned, tossed and turned. 2 minutes later,
Zara : *rolled back to my side of the bed* “Mummy, Zara drink milk”
Me : “Zara hungry is it?”
Zara : “Zara hungry, better drink milk now.”
So I had to crawl out of bed to make her milk.

This morning, upon waking up, she examined the crucifix that was hung at her cot, and started talking to her self.
“Jesus on the cross”
“Jesus don’t want to come out, so shy shy.”
“Jesus come out loh.”
“Then can see Zara loh.”

Zara is at a stage where she’s very reluctant to share her things, and we have tried hard to make her understand that sharing is nice, sharing is good.

We also remind her that her friends share with her, and so do mummy and daddy.
E.g. “Chloe share with you her toys when you go to her house to play right? So you also must share share.”
“Mummy share with you the nice chocolate ice cream right?”
“Daddy share with you the watermelon right?” etc.
And “must share share” was something we say to her often when she’s not sharing.

Sunday after we’d finished shopping in Ikea and took the lift to get to the car park, Zara saw 2 little girls holding on to an Ikea bear each.
From her pram, she said to one of the girl nearer to her, “Give you (me) the bear please.”
When the girl clutched on the bear tighter, Zara said to her, “Must share share mah.”

Yikes, she thought every thing should be shared and everybody should share…. although she’s still reluctant to do her part.

The weekend was all fun for Zara.

Saturday, my sis came over with her daughter Tasha for a while to collect Zara’s walker. Zara was so protective over her toys, worried we’ll be giving away her toys to Tasha.

See how much Tasha has grown.

Later that evening, we went to Elisa’s 1st birthday party in Temptations, New World Hotel. It was a good buffet spread. Zara had lots of cheese and some bread sticks for dinner, had some fun running around the place, collected some balloons from the clown. Mummy ate from 7pm to 9pm non-stop. Oh boy, I was stuffed!

When one of the guests breast fed her little baby in a corner, Zara was just staring at the two of them, probably reminding herself how it used to be. I had to drag her out of the corner and left the mother with some privacy.

Zara playing with a balloon the clown made her; the birthday girl and her family; the beautiful cake (but I didn’t dare to eat any of the icing); Zara and daddy in the crowd.

Thanks to Allyfeel, we had a free trial session in Gymboree. I dragged daddy out of bed early morning to send us there.

Zara enjoyed the session, although she wasn’t participating as a group (I guess it’s common for kids this age), she drifted out of the group, and played with the other things, and I kept having to drag her back. I was really exhausted at the end of it.

After breakfast, Daddy suggested to bring Zara to Lake Gardens to feed the ducks and monkeys. So we bought some peanuts and bread and headed to Lake Garden. It was 35degree at that time, and it was 12noon. I don’t know why I let Daddy talk me into going.

We were lucky we spotted some monkeys on the way. Zara threw peanuts to the group of monkeys to feed them.

After the monkey feeding, we walked about in Lake Gardens, trying to spot the ducks to feed. Imagine before Zara, I could run the whole garden (about 4Km) together with Daddy. That day, to walk just from the car park to the lakes, I was panting and had to stop a few times to rest.

We didn’t see any ducks, but Zara still have a great time.

See how similar the 2 of them look like in the 1st two photos. Zara was exhausted after spending an hour in the park. I wish I could take her place in the pram too. What a workout for all of us

After work yesterday, I went to have dinner at my sis’ place and to pick up Zara.

When I arrived, she was playing in my sis’ room. My nephew who’s sitting for his UPSR (Primary 6 exams) next week was studying in the room as well.
Me : “Zara, lets go out. Nicholas kor kor need to study.”
Zara : “Don’t want.”
Me : “We must go out. And let Nicholas kor kor study.”
Zara : *glanced at his books* “Nicholas kor kor need to study A, B, C.”
I shut the room door and led her outside.

After 5minutes.
Zara : *came to me and asked* “Go yi-yi (Chinese : mum’s sis) room jump jump on the bed.”
Me : “Cannot, Nicholas kor kor studying. When Nicholas kor kor finished his exams, then you can go in and jump jump on the bed like a crazy girl.”
Zara was happy with my answer and continued playing in the living room.

10 minutes later, when Nicholas came out of the room to get himself a drink, Zara came to me and pointed to him.
Zara : “Nicholas kor kor finished exam already. Zara can go into the room to jump jump on the bed like crazy.”

That’s her comprehension of ‘study’ and ‘exam’.

Pst. I’m having problem accessing comments of blog who has migrated to Blogspot Beta version. It’s taking forever to launch the comments pop up. If I’d not left a comments in your post, it’s not because I’m not visiting you, it’s due to this technical problem that I’m not leaving my ‘mark’.

I’m getting so lazy… or maybe I should say tired.
Lots of work to do, and these 2 days, I have gone to the office to work and sent Zara and Tuyam to my sister’s place.

Zara had a good weekend.
On Saturday at 8am, she woke Daddy up, “Daddy wake up! Zara want go pet shop.”
When we asked her what she wanted to do in the pet shop, she said, “See iguana, dog dog, cat cat, rabbit, mouse”.
So Daddy oblidged, and I told him his daugther has more persuasive power than me. I could never drag him out of bed like that.

On Sunday morning, when we stepped out of the house for a walk, we met Zara’s friend Chloe and her mum walking passed our gate also taking a walk.
Chloe is 9mths older than Zara, and we always see her in the park. Chloe’s mum is also pregnant like me, so we have lots of things to share, about our daugthers, about our pregnancies.
So we went walking together, 2 pregnant ladies with 2 toddlers.
After our walk, Chloe invited Zara to her house to play. Zara had a good time there, this is her first visit to a friend’s house. She wasn’t shy at all, digging out Chloe’s toys from her toy box without prompting, playing the slide, jumping on the sofa like it’s her own home.
I should invite Chloe over next time but I wonder if Zara will so willingly sharing her toys.

Yesterday when I went to pick Zara up from my sis’ place, she told me, “Zara happy. Got kor kor (referring to my nephews) play with Zara.”

She must be so lonely always stuck at home with mummy and Tuyam all the time.

And for me, after getting home from my sister’s place, I just feel like sleeping and do nothing.. So I went to bed with Zara at 10pm. Zzzzzzz.

Here’s Zara getting ready for her birthday..

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Gukdc8B80]

Few days back
Me : Zara, mummy buy you new bed, you sleep on new bed ok? Your cot let baby sleep.
Zara : Don’t want. Zara sleep Zara’s bed.
Me : Where will baby sleep then?
Zara : *pointing to our bed* With Mummy and Daddy

Yesterday night
Me : Zara, mummy buy you new bed, you sleep on new bed ok? Let baby sleep in your cot.
Zara : Don’t want. Baby sleep new bed. Zara sleep in the cot.
Me : Why? Mummy get you nice nice new bed woh, you don’t want?
Zara : Don’t want. Zara likes Zara’s cot. Baby sleep new bed.
Me : What about nap time? Can baby sleep with you on the mattress (she has a mattress downstairs for her afternoon nap) down stairs?
Zara : Cannot. Baby sleep in small cot downstairs.
Me : But, we don’t have small cot downstairs.
Zara : Baby sleep on the floor then.
Me : But the floor is so hard and cold. You must sayang (Malay : love) baby, let baby sleep on the mattress with you.
Zara : Sleep on mummy’s body then.
Me : *roll eyes*

We still have yet to sort out the sleeping arrangement. We thought of getting a new bed for Zara, park it next to my side of the bed (like we did with the cot), and let baby sleep in the cot. Zara doesn’t seem keen with the idea.. but maybe she’ll change her mind when we bring her bed shopping.

By the way, got my amnio test result, and every thing is ok.. what a relief. So I’m now half way with my pregnancy, 20more weeks to go.

Before we went out over the weekend, I had a short top and shorts on, my tummy showing.
Me : *sticking out my tummy* Zara, can mummy go to the supermarket like that?
Zara : *looked at me* Cannot.
Me : Why?
Zara : Because can see breast.
Me : Can see breast meh?
Zara : *pointed to my belly button and corrected herself* Can see belly button.

Zara likes to point to my stomach and says : Mummy stomach got baby.
And I like to ask her back : What about Zara? What is in Zara’s stomach?
Zara used to say : Zara’s stomach got worms (thanks to SIL who told Zara she would have worms in the stomach if she continued to suck her thumb)
And I told her she no longer have worms, because she’s stopped sucking her thumb. Now her reply is : Zara’s stomach got egg and cheese (her staple every day).

While checking out our wedding photos.
Zara : Daddy so handsome.
Me : Mummy pretty or not?
Zara : No
Me : Why mummy not pretty?
Zara : Mummy got mole. Like raisin. (referring to the mole I have on chest which is, yup, like a raisin, which could be seen on the wedding photo)

I wanted to test her again later.
Me : Zara, Mummy pretty or not?
Zara : …. (quiet)
Me : Mummy pretty or not?
Zara : Mummy happy.
Aiyo.. cannot say I’m pretty just to please me meh??
I probably have to dress up more nicely at home these days.

I have a night conference, after changing her to her pajamas, I told her I need to go and work, and Daddy will look after her.
Zara : Mummy stay with you (me).
Me : Mummy need to work, Daddy stay with you.
Zara : *trying to get rid of Daddy* Daddy, go to the toilet outside poo poo (referring to the shared toilet outside which we use for big business as the ensuite toilet in the master bed room flushing system is not that good)
Daddy : Daddy no poo poo. Daddy look after you while mummy works.
Zara : Go to the toilet outside to she-she (Chinese : pee) then. Go she-she. Mummy stay with you (me).