The days when I was away for my work trip, Daddy got MIL to come and stay in our house so that she can keep an eye on our maid while he’s at work.

MIL’s style of caring for a child vs mine is very different, especially in these 3 areas :
1) She didn’t believe in breastfeeding, and thought I breast fed Zara for too long, making Zara too attached to me. She was so glad I finally weaned her off from the breast, even after I told her many times the benefit of breast feeding, including the DHA I’m giving Zara, and the boost of immunity she’s getting from all the breast milk.
2) She thinks that a baby should be and can be toilet trained by the 1st few months of life. She’s appalled that Zara is still not toilet trained by 1 1/2yrs. She said all her kids were toilet trained within the first few months. I don’t believe a child can hold their bowel movement or bladder at such a tender age. It’s more of her being ‘trained’ to bring them to the potty at specific intervals.
3) She over protect the child. Even now, she still has her arms stretched out around Zara when Zara walks about, she’s getting ready to catch Zara if Zara fell.

I’m actually quite glad that I get to bring up Zara my way, which is through reading lots of books written by child care experts. Tuyam, my maid, is not married and has not cared for a child before, so I thought her my desired method, and she followed them.

So when MIL came over to the house to stay, both Zara and her were in for some surprises.

MIL was shocked we allowed Zara to play in her bath for so long.
MIL was always following Zara with arms outstretched, Zara found it very annoying.
MIL tried to stop Zara from sucking her thumb, and or course Zara was very upset.

When I wasn’t around, Daddy told me that Zara has been asking MIL to be away from her. When Zara is upstairs, she would tell her Mama, “Mama, go down stairs!”
When Zara is downstairs, she would tell her Mama, “Mama, go up stairs!”
And sometimes MIL close her arms around Zara (ready to catch her if she falls), Zara would point to a corner and tell her Mama, “Mama, go there!”

When I was around, I saw Zara pushing MIL away when MIL tried to help her climb a chair or on to the sofa (which Zara is already an expert doing it). I had to chip in and tell Zara, “Cannot be rude to Mama. Mama is just helping ok?” or “Cannot push Mama away, you know Mama is Daddy’s Mummy and she sayang (Malay: Love) you very much?”. Zara would then turn towards MIL and give her a hug, as though to apologise.

I know MIL loves Zara and cares for her. However, her method is not one that Zara is used to, so Zara is not accepting her. I’m glad and thankful she was wiling to help out when we needed her help. However, I’m also glad that she’s not Zara’s main care giver, as I think Zara would be a very different person under her care.

I’m so into capturing Zara’s conversation these days because she’s never seized to surprise me every day with her choice of words; and she’s becoming so chatty, always talking when she’s in high spirit.

She likes to grope my breast or Tuyam’s, (not sure if this is the symptom of breast feeding her too long), and she’ll say when she does that, “Zara humsup (Chinese : act of a pervert).” (I told her before she can’t do that, because that’s ‘humsup’)

When her VCD starts showing with the volume turned off, she said, “Oh shit! No sound.” (I know this is from me, because I use SHIT very often).

Calming herself, she talked to herself, “Daddy is here, mummy is here mah, no need to be sked (scared)”.

She farted and she laughed, “Mummy, Zara fart fart!” “Zara like a skunk.” “Zara crazy girl!” “Zara joker” “HaHaHaHa”

Note : This post was written a month ago, and didn’t get posted it until today.

A few years back, I’d been on the Dolous ship with King’s Wife and her girls when it docked in Port Klang. It was more to bring the girls to visit the ship then to check out its book shop on board.

When I heard Dolous is back again in Port Klang, I told Daddy about it, and we decided to bring Zara there on Sunday. We arrived at Star Cruise Terminal, West Port 15minutes before it was due opened (@ 2pm), there was already a long long queue awaiting to get in.

Upon seeing such a long queue, Daddy started cursing and swearing. “Such a long queue!?” “You are crazy to want to come!” “Only Malaysians would queue up for such at thing!”
Zara was asleep, so she didn’t hear any of daddy’s ranting. I just said, “You don’t want to queue then go home lor.”
“You stay in the car and wait then. I go queue up, and call you when you can come.” (It always work if I pretended not to care and let him make the call, hee hee.)

So Zara and myself waited in the airconditioned car, and Daddy went to queue up. It wasn’t that bad, within 10mins, he called and told us to come, it was also good timing as Zara has awaken from her nap.

The Doulos

It was a hot day, and the ship was crowded! We could hardly squeeze into the book shop. When we wanted to get an ice cream, another long queue awaited us, so Daddy told me to just forget it. Despite the heat, Zara liked it though, to experience being on a ship, to enjoy the cool breeze on the deck. When Daddy pointed to her the sea below, she insisted, “Zara go down there! Go swimming!”

We spent less than 30mins on board the Doulos Daddy was so glad to get down from the ship. While we were getting out, check out the number of people waiting to get on board the ship! We spent sometime at the Star Cruise terminal, enjoying the cool breeze from the sea. Zara started exploring, singing, dancing, playing.

If you are interested, the Doulos will be in West Port till end of the month. Admittance is free, you just have to pay RM1 per car to park at the Star Cruise terminal.

Daddy: Zara, do you love Daddy?
Zara : Larf
Daddy : How much do you love Daddy?
Zara : Two
Me : Zara, what about mummy? Do you love mummy?
Zara : Larf
Me : How much do you love Mummy?
Zara : SEVEN!

Haha. Daddy 0, Mummy 1

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I’m already into my 2nd trimester. Tummy is already showing. This time, it’s protuding front wards instead of going side ways like the time I have Zara.

My appetite is getting better, although I’m still not able to eat as much as I used to when I have Zara.

Because of my age, my next hurdle is doing the amniocentesis around 16weeks (this round I’m not going for the tripple blood test). For those of you who don’t know what this is, it’s to inject a very long syringe into the abdomen to collect amnionic fluid. The fluid collected is then sent to a lab for culturing to check if the baby has any genetic or chromosomal abnormalities. The wait time for the result is 3 weeks. A long wait!

I remembered the last time when I have Zara, I didn’t celebrate until the amnio test came back to say everything is ok. I didn’t dare to celebrate. It would be the same this round.

For the first few days in Hong Kong, I tried to shop for clothes and shoes for Zara, but I couldn’t find anything. They were either the upmarket brands where every thing are ridiculously priced (even after discount); or they are cheap low quality stuff sold in the markets. The more popular local brands like Giordano or Bossini only have clothes for kids 3yrs and above. I was getting disappointed with the shopping.

On the last day, however, I saw there was a sale on in Zara! I love the kids clothes from Zara, they are ideal for Zara because she is tall and lean; most of the other international brands like Osh Kosh and Mother Care do not fit her well because they are made for bigger size kids.

Here are the loot I got for her, most of them are from Zara (which became more affordable after discount).
Baby doll clothes are very popular now in Hong Kong. People with flat tummy wearing ‘maternity’ looking blouse. I got myself one which will cater for the growing tummy. I also got myself a pair of sandals and a bag.

And what is going to Hong Kong without buying the extremely good quality dried sea produce/??. I got the viagra prawns mentioned in Domestic Rat’s blog too, but they are from Southern China and not Sarawak. I bought double of everything below, because I have to give them to MIL as gifts for keeping an eye on Zara and maid during the time I was away.

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Zara modeling her new clothes from Zara.

I got her a watering can from Hong Kong too, she really loves it, and immediately wanted to help Kakak water the plants.

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I wonder when I’ll go to Hong Kong again (the last time I went was 20yrs ago with my mum and sis), it’s not a holiday destination I have in mind. So I’ll wait for my next business trip.

What I like about Hong Kong
~ The transport system, cabs, busses, MTR are very good and extensive.
~ The porridge in Hong Kong is superb, so creamy and delicious. Anybody knows how to make porridge like the ones you find in Hong Kong?
~ The roast goose is to die for.

What I don’t like about Hong Kong
~ People smoke indoor, in buildings, in restaurants. Blech!
~ Food or dishes whipped out from restaurants are extremely salty for my liking.
~ Every where is so crowded, and there’s no green lungs!

Zara is angry I left her.

When I called her on Sunday, she chatted to me, ‘promised’ to be a good and brave girl. Say Hi and bye nicely.
When I called her on Monday, she came to the phone, said, “Zara play ball”, then quickly said bye and left.
When I called her this morning, she didn’t want to come to the phone, I could hear her shouting, “Don’t want mummy.”
“Don’t like mummy.”
“Stupid mummy XXXXX” (XXXXX being my name)

Tuyam told me the whole of yesterday, she has been mumbling to herself, “Stupid Mummy XXXXXX.”

Stupid is a word she picked up but I have taught her not to use, she never uses it when I’m around. She must be very angry with me for leaving her, using the word against me. *big sigh*

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On shopping and eating, I don’t find it so great here. I wanted to get shoes and clothes for Zara, but I have been shopping and couldn’t find much.

Food has also just been so so (even with local colleagues’ recommendation), the only nice food eaten so far is the roast goose… Aaaa, I would like to sink my teeth into another piece of the goose.

I’m away for work in Hong Kong. Little Zara is taken care by Tuyam with MIL’s supervision.

Zara waiting for mummy to come home.

Here’s a conversation that took place before I left.
Me : Zara mummy sit airplane go work work ok?
Zara : Cannot. Mummy go work work, Zara cry.
Me : Mummy will buy you nice baju (Malay : clothes), pretty shoes, and a big big present woh. Ok?
Zara : Ok.
Me : What present does Zara want mummy to get?
Zara : Hmm.. (deep in thought), Ribena. Zara want mummy buy Ribena.
Haha. Such an innocent request.

Daddy told me Zara has been very good whole day yesterday. She only cried after she heard my voice when I called home before her bed time. But Daddy managed to calm her down by telling her if she cried, mummy will also cry when at work, then both Zara and mummy will be crying. She stopped after that, such a sensible child.

I will keep blogging to minimal as I’ll be kept busy in meetings and shopping after work.

Zara turned 19th month 2 days ago. I was so busy, I only have time to write down her development (just like the previous month) today.

~ Weight 9.2kg
~ Height : 81cm
~ No new teeth sprouting. Her 4 Cuspids (canines) are still not fully sprouted.

Dexterity :
Expert in climbing and getting down furniture, but sometimes still prefer to shout out “Mummy help”
She’s jumping more and higher nowadays.

Language :
She never seized to amaze us in her language development. Speaks very well for her age, and with quite accurate pronunciation. She’s also talking non-stop now, we could always hear her chatter in the house.

New popular words:
Before & Because
~ Mummy give Zara grapes before
~ Zara sit on horsey before
~ Zara don’t want, because Zara don’t like.
~ Zara cry, because Zara angry

Very good with forming sentences now, and always picking up new words without us consciously teaching her.

She can count 1 to 6, not just saying the numbers, but actually counting items.
Knows how to differentiate a few colours, purple, green, black, orange, still mixed up with the rest of the colours.
Able to recite longer part of some nursery rhymes (Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, etc), and also started singing part of some songs in tune (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Polly Put The Kettle On etc).
She knows a baby frog is called tadpole, and a baby butterfly is called caterpillar.
Started differentiating left and right. Knows her left hand from right, and left leg from right etc(mainly her body parts which comes in pair).

Feeding and Food:
3 meals and 3 milk feeds a day.

Not very adventurous in trying out new food, but will still try with lots of persuasion and the permission given to her to spit out if she didn’t like it.

Takes most vege except those extremely fibrous and bitter.

Emotions :
I have to say she’s very loving, she gives lots of hugs, and kisses; although still not quite know how to share yet.
Although clingy (to me), and sometimes very mischievous to the extend of being naughty, she’s overall quite an easy girl. She listens to instructions and reasons (at least to the ones given by me); knows what she can and can’t do; knows what is rude and shouldn’t do (like pushing people or things away); knows her manners, i.e. greet people (by saying Hi or waving her hand) and say good bye; knows when to use please, thank you, excuse me (when she sneeze).

I just love her to bits!

We just found out on Sunday that there are free kiddie rides in Giant Shah Alam.

There are 3 units at the kids’ play area, and another 3 near the check out counters. I like the ones at the check out counters. Giant cashiers are not known for their efficiency. From queing to having your items scanned to paying, you probably have to wait for at least 15mins. What a good idea to have some free kiddie rides for the kids while the parents do the paying (and waiting).

The rides are old and they play Indonesian pop songs instead of nursery rhymes, but who cares, it’s free!

We got Zara on a few of them, waiting quite a while for our turn because some kids just refused to get down from the rides, and went on and on.

She probably likes the duck ride the most, because it was the first ride she has. The lion was found at the check out counter. She likes Lion, so she seemed to like this too.

Hmm.. Now, she’s a bit bored.. Too many free rides already.

Note: These photos are taken from Daddy’s mobile, hence the grainy quality.

Having Zara around is fun, but it also means the house can never be tidy, every where she ‘sweeps’ through, either a small mess or a big mess is created.

Daddy and I sometimes call her Hurricane Zara.

The worst hit area is the living room, where she has her 3 boxes of toys, a small shelf of books, her box of CD/VCD/DVDs, her box of colouring and drawing stationary.

Depending on her fancy, she helps herself with whatever she wants to do for the moment.
It may mean pouring out a bottle of glass pebbles;
Then going to her shelf of books, digs for the one she wants, in the mean time scattering the rest on the floor.
And then she decides she wants to draw, so she reaches for her box of drawing tools and papers, takes them all out, draws a few lines on the paper
A moment later, she goes back to her box of toys, takes out her cooking set, and starts to do cooking.
A big messy trail is left behind, all within 30mins.

When we bring her up to the room, the same process happens, but b’cos she has less toys up stairs, all she gets to mess up is her stack of books.

How can I do without a maid? With Hurricane Zara sweeping through the house so often?