Day 4 ~ Sunday 29th April

We hired Ketut’s car again for the day. This time to get us inland to Danau (Lake) Bratan, near Bedugul. It is a town located 1400 meters above sea level. As we got nearer to our destination, the weather got cooler, and we started seeing rice terraces.

Bedugul is a small highland town, a bit like our Cameron Highlands, popular for its vegetables and fruits.

Rice fields on our way; a stop before arriving Bedugul; at the Bedugul market; happy to get myself a pair of beaded slippers for less than RM30

There was some religious ceremony which has just completed when we arrived at Lake Bratan.

Around Lake Bratan; Pura Ulun Bratan, a small temple, can be seen on the pix, built on a small island in the lake; Zara trying out one of the boats for hire; Zara checking out the ‘big swimming pool’ (that’s what she called the lake)

running around and exploring in the park surrounding the lake

For lunch, we headed for a nice restaurant in Pancung, about 20minutes away. It is located on a slope, so you get a good view of rice terraces. It’s slogan for the restaurant, “A view to dine for”.

Zara occupying herself during lunch. Pulling out petals from chrysanthemums, stopped only to munch on some prawn crackers.

We then headed to Ubud, where we’ll be staying for 2 nights.

We chose the Barong Resort right in Ubud town. When we arrived, we got a bit worried, seeing that it’s located right at a busy street, but was quite surprise the rooms are all tucked further in, and it’s very quiet, only sound we heard was birds chirping. It’s almost 3 times the price of Ellie’s and hence more luxurious. The elegant room came with a little court yard, where we could choose to have our complimentary breakfast and afternoon tea; a huge bed to roll about (for Zara) and a sunken bath tub. We also got complimentary shuttle service to any where we wanted to go within Ubud, and 2x 1hr massage (I used them all since Daddy doesn’t like massages).

Zara happy to be bouncing on the big bed; the little court yard; Zara feeding in style; and Zara playing in the sunken bath tub

Since there was still some sun light, we brought Zara to the nearby Monkey Forest Sanctuary. It’s very shady in the sanctuary and rather well maintained. Monkeys were every where, but did not come near us, until I purchased a bunch of bananas. A couple jumped on me to snatch the bananas giving me a fright; and Zara started weeping (still cradled in her carrier) seeing me attacked.

After this incident, every time I ask her, “Are the monkeys naughty or good?”. She would reply, “Naughty!” “Beat mummy (she thought the monkey beat me).” “Snatch many manana (banana).” “Zara sked(scared)”. I seize this opportunity to tell her it’s not nice to snatch things, and she must always ask nicely if she wants something.

Monkey Forest Sanctuary

As for dinner, we went to this very popular restaurant called Bebek Bengkil (or Dirty Duck). It’s a very nice pavilion-style restaurant with a rice-field backdrop. Extremely romantic setting. With a toddler, and to prevent her from mosquitoes’ attack, we took the seat at the main pavilion at the entrance of the restaurant.

The signature dish, crispy duck (duck seasoned with herbs boiled until cooked, then deep fried), delicious with the Balinese sambal

Zara having the drum stick; I was busy eating, and she came and hugged me and said, “Mummy, miss you (probably thought it was the same meaning as Love you)”; Daddy let her try his beer, and after a few dip and lick, dip and lick, she really behaved a bit strangely (I think she got tipsy).

Day 5 ~ Monday 1st May

We just hanged around in Ubud, shopping. I bought some absolutely gorgeous handmade silver and beaded jewelry!

Yes, market again!

Offerings for prayers around Ubud

And for dinner, it was Bebek Bengkil round 2.

Our dinner : Balinese starter (absolutely fabulous), some smoke fish pate (even Daddy who is a fish lover complained this dish is a bit weird), and of course crispy duck again; Zara ‘supervising’ and checking out the surrounding; resting on a cushion; and thumbs up from Zara and mummy

Day 6 ~ Tuesday 2nd May

Time to pack up and go home on our afternoon flight!

We had breakfast at our courtyard; Daddy getting Zara to read on the plane; Zara running about in Changi (since we took SIA).

Day 3 ~ Saturday 29th April

We hired a car with a driver for the day. Our plan for the morning was to visit the Southern coast of Bali, however, we changed our mind after speaking to Sam, from Ellie’s. Instead, we asked our driver Ketut (almost every body is named Ketut in Bali) to drive us up to Tirtagangga, East of Bali using the coastal road.

We wanted to stop to look at how salt are produced traditionally in Bali on the East Coast, but the road leading to that stretch of the beach was closed for construction. After more than 3hrs drive, we reached Padang Bai, a port on East of Bali for ferries to Lombok. We had seafood lunch there, and then headed inland.

Padang Bai : a port mainly used for travelers to get to Lombok. Clear turquoise water, very popular for snorkeling and diving.Another hour or so, we reached Tirtagangga, the best surviving Bali royal water palace.

Around the water palace, Zara was fascinated with all the sculptures, especially the ones in animal forms

What surrounds the water palace fascinates us most. The lush green hilly rice fields, with lots of walking paths, makes a very nice stop for Zara to stroll around.

Zara very happy to be ‘free’ and not confined in her carrier or the car

Rice fields at the foot of Gunung Agong, seen here with its peak shielded by the cloudsWe made another short stop at Candi Dasa, a small coastal town for coffee.

I love these photos. Zara was very chatty and was talking to me, while Daddy took these shots

It was then another 3hrs drive back down to the South. We got off at Kuta and did some shopping and had our dinner there.

DVDs were going for USD1, I bought 10 Barney DVDs for Zara, and 2 sets of clothing. I’d gone past the phase of buying attractive handicrafts which I’d no used for. If I don’t see a use for it, I don’t buy it, it helps with the pocket.

In the night, Zara slept soundly, while Daddy and I watched Four Weddings and A Funeral on DVD. (Ellie’s had an extensive selection of DVDs for loan, and each room is provided with a DVD player.)

It was a very long day, to be confined in the car most of the time from 10am to 7pm to see scenaries like this, I thought it wasn’t worthwhile.

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Zara’s moments in Bali

We brought along Zara’s comfort softie, Mr Blue to Bali, but unfortunately, it got lost in KLIA before we took off. Guess who became Zara’s comfort object? Me!

She’s always saying :
“Mita Boo, where you(where are you)?” followed by
“Want suck suck Mummy’s breast.” (her exact words, no kidding! And her pronunciation for “Breast” is perfect!)
“Want drink milk milk.”
And she continued to mumble, “Don’t want Daddy’s breast. Don’t have milk.”

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She didn’t have any bowel movements the day we did the traveling, I was getting a bit worried. Then she surprised me while we were having tea at the cafe in Candi Dasa by holding my hand and telling me suddenly, “Mummy (in a sweet tone), poo poo oh-di (already). Change dar-per (diaper) pis (please). Smeh-wee(smelly).” in one breath.

Since then, she’s telling us to “Change dar-per” every time she does her poop.

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I think I’d been telling her she can’t do this and that too often. One day during the trip, while we were getting ready to go out, she was singing (tuneless but I know she’s singing) her own invented song. She sang and swayed, “Ten-not (Cannot) Ten-not Do Do Do. Ten-not Ten-not Do Do Do.”

It was a jaw dropping moment for us, followed by lots of laughing.

I’d always brought along a travel guide on holidays. This round, I left both my Rough Guide and DK Eyewitness on Bali behind, and we did suffer the consequences. For 2 days, we just traveled long distant to places which are not appealing at all, wasting money and time *sigh*. On a brighter note, the holiday was good, Zara coped very well, in long car rides, on the plane, and even shopping long hours seated in her stroller or carried in the baby sling.

Day 1 ~ Thurs 27th April
We arrived Bali on Thursday night. A car has been sent to pick us up from Ellie’s, our hotel in Nusa Dua. It was pitch dark even though it was only about 7:30pm. The owner, an English named Sam, helped us checked in. It’s a small hotel, with only 8rooms, clean (most importantly) and gorgeously furnished.

While Sam ordered dinner for us from a local restaurant (Ellie’s doesn’t do dinners), we freshened up. Zara absolutely loved the bath.

fun on the plane and in the tub

From our dinner of nasi campur (Malay : mixed rice) and fish satay, Zara only took the rice, some tempeh (Malay : fermented beans) and lots of prawn cracker (her staple diet for the next few meals).

Day 2 ~ Friday 28th April
There’s no buffet breakfast in Ellie’s, but you can order fruit muesli, pancakes, french toasts, eggs, and it’ll be freshly made. You get to choose a hearty fresh juice or smoothie too.

I like establishment like this, Zara is free to roam about, and because the place is small, I’m not worried she’ll knock into people, or lost in a crowd. Zara had buttered toast, and half a glass of watermelon juice (for the next few days, she always had good breakfast, but took little from the rest of the meals).

She wanted a dip in the pool after breakfast and mummy oblidged.

Zara absolutely likes having her back ‘massage’ by the fountain

In the morning, we wanted to go to this big art market Kumbasari in Denpasar (capital of Bali), but the cabbie we hired told us to go to Sukawati instead. What a con job! After 2 hours of car ride, and 110,000R poorer (~RM60) we arrived at a dirty and small market, not worthy of a visit, in a isolated town. The cabbie wanted to wait for us and do the return trip but we just told him off. We roamed around the town a bit, and then took a local transport to Denpasar.

Around Sukawati; sticks for Satay on sale and narrow alley in Sukawati market; taking the local transport back to Denpasar.

We really enjoyed walking about in the local Pasar Badung in Denpasar, it is a very big market with lots of interesting things to see.

Cooked salted fish; lady packing Balinese Gado-gado; different types of eggs (salted, blackened etc); tempeh (fermented bean cakes) of all sort

Flowers for prayers; bamboo leaves for weaving; drink vendor and a very bored Zara; local vege on sale from the baskets

After this, we went to Pantai Geger in Nusa Dua (where Nikko Hotel Bali is located). We didn’t visit the hotel beach, but instead we hung around the local sea weed farms, and had grilled sea food dinner at a beach front restaurant.

After sea weed is harvested, the farmers have to dry them before selling them off; harvested sea weeds are transport by hand; women who need to take care of young kids are not spared; the sea weed farm right at the shore

Zara found a sea weed to play with; the sand around the farm is quite coarse, Daddy had to carry Zara while around walking in the farm; Zara rewarded Daddy with a hug; Daddy and Zara’s footsteps

Zara loved the sand; resting on Daddy’s shoulder with her head perched on Daddy’s head; inspecting a sea weed

I was changing her diaper. She suddenly blurted : “Fish Ball!”.
I was curious why she said that, I just guessed and said, “Zara thinks Zara’s toes look like fish ball is it?”. I pointed to her toes.
Zara looked at me (as though I was stupid), then started pointing her finger at her mouth while saying, “Mum mum *point point* (Chinese: eat), Fish ball.”
(Tuyam said she does that very often, when she asked for something to eat, and Tuyam couldn’t understand her, she’ll point to her mouth and sign to us, like we’re some bozos)

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This morning, while at play, she shouted, “Mita Boo (Mr Blue), where are you? Want suck tum (thumb)!”
(She has the habit of sucking her thumb while holding her soft toy Mr Blue)

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While pushing her in the stroller yesterday, Zara counted, “For, fai, sik, sehwen, egg” And repeated. Asked her to do from One, it will go something like “One, Egg, Ten.” (She knows they are numbers but doesn’t know the sequence).

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Zara’s reciting the nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle sounds like this:

Diddle Diddle, Cat the fiddle, Cow oh the moon, spot, away spoon

(Actual, Hey Diddle Diddle, The Cat and the fiddle, The Cow Jumped over the moon, The Dog laughed to see such sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon)

While playing, Zara lets me see a side of me from her angle. The way she handles her doll, the way she role play is a reflection of how I handle her.

While playing with her doll (She calls it Baby Doll)
Zara : *took a small bottle of lotion* Drink milk ha. *Put bottle near the doll’s mouth*
After a while
Zara : *smacked the doll* Beat!
Me : Zara, why you beat baby doll?
Zara : *poked the doll’s chest* naughty! Baby Doll!
Me : Baby doll naughty meh?
Zara : Naughty!
(That’s how I behaved when she’s naughty I guess. Yikes!)
A moment later,
Zara : *stroke the doll* ayang (Sayang. Malay : stroke tenderly). *Bent down and kissed the doll’s face* Muak! *carried and gave the doll a cuddle*
(I normally feel so guilty after smacking her, I kiss and ‘sayang’ her right after that)

Later, she was playing with her masak-masak (Malay : Cooking set), she ‘made’ soup and fed me.
Zara : bow first ah (Blow first huh?) *blew the spoon* fu.. fu.. *then put the spoon near my mouth*
Me : Mummy don’t want.
Zara : *she stared at me with very fierce looking eyes* Must Drink!
(Yikes! Sounds like me forcing her to eat something)

I have been busy, but it’s no excuse not to post Zara’s 17th month (which she turned on Friday) progress just like I always did in previous months.

~ Weight should be around 8.5kg to 9K
~ Height : ??
~ All four 1st molars are out, sprouting her 4 Cuspids (canines)

Dexterity :
Started jumping up and down, climbing up dining chairs or anything she thinks she can climb on (like a monkey), .

Trying to drink from a cup, but still needs us to control the tilt of the cup.

Language :
Developing really well in this area.

New popular phrases :
Cannot
Sked sked(Scared)
Not nice

Can tell us her experiences and feelings better :
About the park : “Ship Park. Turn turn wheels! Sit sides (Slides). Sit See Saw”
About Kidzsports : “Many balls. Tow away (Throw away). Big sides (Slides). Tuh-ner (tunnel), sked (scared).”
About a video she watched (Oliver): “Korkor (Chinese : Elder brother) so sad. No mummy. No Daddy. No kakak. Cry.”

Able to say things in different intonation depending on the purpose:
If it’s a request, she goes very sweet and nice.
If it’s asking me where I am, she shouts real loud, “MUMMY, WHERE ARE YOU?”Started using words with four syllables :
– kat-ter-eh-yer (caterpillar)
– eh-mot-on-toh (remote control)

Able to indicate sizes, quantity, ownership and use of other adjectives :
– many baju (Malay : clothes), many toys, many books, so many pebbles
– big snake, small stones, big bus
– mummy’s one, Zara’s one, ah-tie’s (Auntie’s) one
– sessy tothes (sexy clothes), dirty baju (Malay : clothes), wet for (floor), pretty bracelet, bitter cho-tet (chocolate)

Able to say the names of the people closest to her :
– my name, Daddy’s name, Maid’s name, King’s Wife’s name and King’s name

Feeding / Food :
Fish is her favourite food, followed by bread and cheese; loves vegetables which are not too fibrous (asparagus, cabbage, spinach); likes fish balls very much.

Still, taking 3 solids meals (it may sound a lot, but the quantity she’s taking is very little). Typically :
breakfast : one pot of petite miam yogurt, or half a bowl of oat porridge
lunch : one slice of bread with cheese, half a bowl of baby cereal, or half a hard boil egg
dinner : 1 small slice of steam fish fillet or 1 small whole steam fish (pomphret is her favourite) with half a bowl of porridge or rice with soup

3 to 4 (depending if she woke up early in the morning for some sip of milk) breast milk feed (3~4oz) + 1 formula feed (~5oz) a day.

In between she snacks on biscuits and fruits.

Emotions :
Very good in exerting her rights, but sometimes still confused about what she wants.

Very emotional, sometimes when we ask her to pretend to cry, she’ll act out but then suddenly it becomes real tears flowing down her cheeks.

Very loving, gives kisses (especially for me) and hugs very frequently,

Nap

She’s at this stage where 2 naps are too many, and 1 nap is not enough.

With 2 naps, it’s very difficult for me to get her to sleep in the night, and I really want her to sleep by 10pm, so that I’ll at least have some time to do my own things before going to bed.

With 1 nap, she gets sleepy around 8:30pm. It’s fine if I worked from home, but if I was at King’s Wife’s place, she falls asleep in the car on our way home, and then wakes up and becomes very fretful when I have to change her to pajamas; which means I’ll need to spend lots of time calming her.

I try to get Tuyam to let her take 2 naps in King’s Wife’s place (but it’s tough because she gets easily distracted by my nieces) and then take only 1 on days when I work from home.

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Jump

She started jumping 2 weeks ago. On her first attempt, she fell backwards and landed on her buttocks. On her 2nd attempt (few minutes later), she landed on her buttocks, then lost her balance and knocked her head. After that, she’s very careful, she held on to something (the chair, a pair of hands) when she jumped.

These few days, she just jumps! Happy to have her feet lifted off the ground. Naggy mummy is always saying, “Be carefully, after fall down” when she starts her jumping spree.

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Request

She had been shouting for things she wanted. E.g. “KAKAK, VA-TER-JEN” (Vitergen). “MUMMY, PUT BARNEY!”

Tuyam taught her to ‘speak nicely’ when she wants something. So now, she request for things nicely, even the way she calls Kakak or Mummy is different. I added and told her she must say “please” for things she wants.

Sometimes she still shouts out her request, but most time, she remembers and speak nicely with a please.

Last weekend, when it was bed time, Zara as usual asked for, “milk milk”. Daddy and I were both on the bed playing with Zara just a while back. Daddy decided to be naughty. He lifted up his t-shirt, exposing his chest, and said, “Nah, Zara, drink milk milk.”

Zara had this very amused smile on her face. She shook her head vigorously and said, “Don’t want.” Then turned to look at me, “Mummy, milk milk.”

Daddy moved his chest closer to Zara, told her, “Daddy also got milk milk. Come and have milk milk.”

Zara still smiling, looked at Daddy’s chest, shook her head and retreated a few pace, “Don’t want.” Looked at me, and said in a louder tone, “MUMMY, milk milk!”

Seeing the two of them like that, I actually had tears in my eyes, trying to stifle a laugh.

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(This happened a month back)

Zara was playing in the room, and then Daddy came out from the shower butt naked. Zara spotted something she didn’t have.

She stood up, went closer to look at IT. Then decided to touch IT. Instead of using her hand, she went to her toiletry box, took out a tube of diaper cream, walked back to daddy, and use the tube of cream to lift IT up and then had a closer examination of IT. She then giggled out loud.

I was rolling on my bed laughing. Funny why she went to search for a tool to flick IT instead of using her hands.

It has been raining almost daily over the weekend. We couldn’t bring Zara to the park and was too lazy to go out. We stayed at home most of the time, and this is what we did while at home.

Painting

On Friday, I stripped her down to her diaper, because she’s going to get dirty (which she did), and let her do some painting on the floor so we can mop up the mess later. She was happy, and kept asking for “Per-per” (purple, Barney’s colour) paint.

Drawing
She spotted a box of markers the day before, and when I asked her what she wanted to do on Saturday, she said, “daw daw” (draw draw). I asked her what she’s drawing and she said, “Snake, many snake!” Well, they did look like a bunch of very tangled up snakes.

Playing with her toys
She likes masak-masak (Malay: cooking) the most. She said it was “soop” she was cooking and when I asked what soup, she said, “fis ball”. She pretended to blow the soup cold to feed herself and me. After that, she put on her hat, and turned on the music on her electronic keyboard, and started dancing. Then, it was playing with the xylophone. She got tired later, and started whining.

The middle photo shows the mess hurricane Zara creates every time she sweeps through plays in the living room.

Pie baking

I baked some chicken pies for lunch on Saturday. (After making the filling, I went to Giant to hunt for Pampas Frozen Pie Crust, and guess what? None available in Giant. No puff pastry, no pie crust, NOTHING, not even local brands. Luckily, spotted a shop selling baking supplies on our way home and managed to get some puff pastry.)

Daddy and Zara both didn’t like it. Daddy said he’s not a chicken person, esp if they are soaked in gravy but he took 2 anyway. Zara said “Don’t want” because she’s “Sked” (Scared). *slap head*. Guess who took the most?

On Sunday, I cooked some simple fish porridge, Daddy gobbled up loads, and so did Zara. Both of them are such fish lovers, and sooo Chinese!

(I have lots to update, but I’ll just do a short post because I have lots to do at work)

Zara doesn’t speak Chinese, or rather nobody speaks to Zara in Chinese so she has not picked up any Chinese. I tried to do what Shiaulin has taught me, to repeat each English phrase I say to her in chinese so she learns to associate the two. However, after a few attempts, I got lazy. It’s tiring when you have to talk to the kid and repeating everything (already, lots of repetition in English to get a massage across).

Then I tried speaking to her just in Chinese, but she’ll say, “Don’t Want” when she hear non-English words coming out from me.
Me : Mummy 和你讲华语好吗 (Mummy speaks to you in Chinese ok?)
Zara : Don’t want
Sometimes she even says : 不要 (Chinese: Don’t want). Don’t know if she really know what it means.

However, she likes this particular Chinese song which I sing (only the chorus) to her quite frequently. Here is her singing this together with me (I must say for someone who doesn’t speak Chinese, her pronunciation is quite good).

Click here to listen to her sing.

我是一只小小小小鸟 – Translated based on my best knowledge
我是一只小小小小鸟
Wo shi yi zhi xiao xiao xiao xiao niao (I’m just a little bird)
想要飞呀飞却飞呀飞不高
Xiang yao fei ya fei que fei ye fei bu gao (Even when I attempt to fly, I can never fly too high)
我寻寻觅觅寻寻觅觅一个温暖的怀抱
Wo xun xun mi mi xun xun mi mi yi ge wen nuan de huai bao (I’d been searching for a warm embrace)
这样的要求算不算太高
Zhe yang de yao qiu suan bu suan tai gao (Is this a very difficult request?)

(The song sung by the original singer can be found here)