Zara’s trying to use more and more words to express herself, her pronunciation is not perfect and sometimes it takes a trained ear to know what she’s saying. When trying to pronounce a difficult word, she always brightens up when we understand her.

My MIL always says to her “only your mummy understands what you say”. I guess it’s people like myself and Tuyam who can make out what she says most of the time because we spends the most time with her.

Here are some of Zara’s talking moments, very straight forward.

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Brought her to the bookshop the other day, when she stepped in, she looked around smiling, and said, “Many Books!”

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Put a Sesame Street VCD on for her
Zara : *took a glance* Don’t want
(we pretended we didn’t hear that)
Zara : *shook her head* Don’t want
Zara : *pointed to the TV* Off. Don’t want.
Tuyam : What you want?
Zara : Barney! (but of course)

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She likes playing this game
Me : Zara is a girl or a boy?
Zara : Boy! *looked at me with a cheeky smile*
Me : *pretended to be shocked* BOY?? Oh No!
Zara : Ger! *giggled*

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And this, really warmed Daddy’s heart.
Me: Zara love Daddy?
Zara : Larf
Then she continues : Many Many

After more than 2 weeks, Daddy finally came home yesterday. I’d been preparing Zara for his arrival, telling her Daddy was coming home, asking her to shout “Daddy” loud loud, and give Daddy a big “BOO” with her monster face when Daddy arrives. I even made her practice a few times to see if she knew what she was supposed to do.

It was dinner time and I was having a tough time feeding her the fish we cooked (freshwater fish with very strong ‘earthy’ taste). She spit out every mouth full I gave her, and said “Don’t Want” (her favourite word now). I had to resort to opening a bottle of baby food, and still progress of feeding her was slow, as she was refusing to open her mouth.

When a car stopped at the front gate, she got all excited, and kept pointing outside and claimed, “Daddy. Daddy.” I brought her out to greet Daddy. All the earlier practices gone wasted; the minute Daddy held her at the gate, she just laid her head on his shoulder, not calling him, not looking at him, but just stayed there, holding on to Daddy.

It took us a while to persuade her to let Daddy put her down (all the time she just refused to lift her head up from his shoulder). After which, I told her to show how clever she was to Daddy by finishing her food, and she cooperated, opening her mouth wide while I spooned her the food from the bottle, eager to impress Daddy. The little one sure miss Daddy, in her own ways.

Daddy bought me a Bree bag (a wee bit too big for me I would say, but then, I shouldn’t complain), and 2 pairs of slip ons from the Birkenstock company. Zara didn’t have any apparels but Daddy bought her some biscuits.

Here’s Zara checking out the bag.

And then, trying on the slip ons.

We have been staying on and off at King’s Wife’s place while Daddy is away. Every morning, when I carry Zara downstairs, she’ll be shouting, “Tatak! Batitel!” (Kakak, Bicycle) from the stair case.

She loves to ride on the tricycle that King’s Wife’s Kids used to own. She can’t reach the paddles yet, so Tuyam has to push her around. She’ll put her feet up, and request, “Tatak, Push” (Kakak, Push)

I bought a Barbie Tricycle for her for Christmas, but this is so much bigger, she couldn’t even reach the ground when mounted; she will just push it around in the house, and also use the storage space under the seat to store her little treasures.

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After seeing us applying moisturiser on our faces, and lotion on our body, she started imitating us. When she’s in the room, she’ll ask for a bottle of lotion, and start pretending to apply on herself too.

I worry for the day when she knows how to unscrew bottle tops, and start opening any kinds of bottles and apply all sort of things on herself. Yikes!

Me : “Zara, where is Daddy?”
Zara : “There” (pointed outside)
Me : “Daddy go where?”
Zara : “Work Work”
Me : “Daddy sit what to go work work?”
Zara : “Uh-pen” (Airoplane)

Daddy has been away for more than 2 weeks now. Does Zara miss him? Or Does Zara know how to miss him? She doesn’t cry for him, but there are signs which shows there’s a hint of longing for the man who reads her bed time stories, who gives her horsey rides.

She woke up at home, and pointed outside (where Daddy had been quarantined for a week because he had a very bad flu just before he left) and said, “Daddy” then looked at me and waited for an answer.

She picked up the phone and started talking to the mouth piece, “Daddy, mm-hhh, mm-hhh” (the mm-hhh, mm-hhh sounded sad, a sound she pretended to make when we asked her to show us how she cried).

She reached her hand out to an imaginary image, and said, “Daddy, Keh-Yee”; “Daddy, Keh-Yee” (Daddy, Carry).

Daddy will be home tomorrow, I would like to see if Zara will squeal in delight to see him. As for me, I will, thinking of those goodies he’s bringing back for me.

And btw, if you are reading this, Happy Birthday, Dear. The lotus plant bloomed while you were away.

To follow up on this post, here is how the cot is joined to our bed after one of the railing has been removed.

Every night, I push the cot close to our bed. I put the brakes on for the cot, place a chair between the other side of the cot and the wall (to prevent the cot from even making the slightest move away from the bed frame). Then I place 2 bolsters to fill the up the gap between her mattress and our bed frame.

Put 2 more pillows to cushion the gap. (Our bed frame is slightly lower than the standard bed frame. If we got a bed frame with the standard height, it probably would have been leveled with her mattress.)

Normally if she woke up middle of the night, she would roll over, and snuggle beside me.

In the morning, all the bolsters and pillow will be removed, and we’ll ‘park’ her cot against the wall.

This is the 2nd weekend Daddy is away (the longest ever since Zara was born). I kept Zara occupied with lots of activities in the house as well as hanging out with my siblings and family.

Top (L->R) :
1) Bubble bath, it never fails to pick her spirit up (not that she needs any).
2) Morning hangout in our little grass patch.
3) She loves inspecting the ferns.Middle (L->R) :
1) At my sister, K’s place, that’s Tasha baby (my eldest sis, T’s 2 months old baby).
2) Zara playing with Norman ko-ko’s (Chinese : older brother) musical car track.
3) Sleep over at King’s Wife’s again, playing with Samantha che-che (Chinese : older sister).

Bottom (L->R) :
1) Early Sunday morning smile
2) Played with Samantha che-che’s soft toys
3) Samantha che-che piggie backing Zara

I also went to 2 publisher warehouse sales. One organised by MPH, the other by Times. Discounts were really good. Got lots of books for Zara, and a few books for myself. My loot from MPH.
Times bookshop warehouse sales is still on till end of this week, and it’s held on the 1st floor Atria Shopping Complex. The novels are a steal (but you have to really spend time to search for the title you want), and the Ladybird series are all going for RM5. Good bargain.

Both Daddy and I were engineers before, it is not a surprise that our little girl turned out to be Little Miss Engineer as well.We planned to join Zara’s cot to our bed, so that we can have our bed back she can have her own space and yet she can reach out for me or roll over to curl beside me if she wanted to. Daddy was trying to remove the side bar from Zara’s cot, and Little Miss Engineer got so excited and wanted to help.

“Daddy, Daddy, what are you doing?”

“Daddy, Daddy, come! Let me help you!”

“Daddy, see, this screw needs tightening too!”

*concentrate*

After waiting for 14months, I finally heard Zara uttered her first “Mummy”. Once she started using Mummy instead of Ah Meen, she calls me more often, and with a more tender tone. The wait was well rewarded.

Every morning when she wakes up and opens her eyes, her first word would be “Mummy”. When she spots me, she would be giving me this big big smile while stretching.

If she woke up in the middle of the night, she would sit up and call “Mummy”.

Every day when I returned home after work, she’ll be greeting me with outstretched arms calling, “Mummy! Mummy!”

If she cried or feeling down, she would be calling “Mummy” even though I may not be around (Tuyam would normally call my mobile and have me speak to her or calm her).

When she’s alone with me, if I was taking a bath, she will just stand behind the shower screen, peeping in and calling “Mummy! Mummy!” until I finish my shower.
If I was using the toilet (be it for a pee or a poo), she would stand beside me, grin at me, calling “Mummy Mummy” (it can be very tough doing your ‘business’ with a grinning toddler watching you). She always waits for me to finish, helps me to flush, and then follows me out.

In our long car ride home, sometimes she’ll just reach her hand out to the driver seat, and calling, “Mummy, Mummy”. Normally I’ll explain to her I’m driving, can’t hug her or give her milk.
Sometimes it goes :
“Mummy”
“Yes Zara?”
“Mummy”
“Yes Zara?”
We can go on repeating like this for a while.

However, when I ask her to “call me” (address me), she would say “Ah Tum” (Ah Kim, Hokkien: Mum’s Brother’s Wife). Thanks to King’s Wife, always saying “call me, call me” to Zara and only satisfied while Zara says “Ah Tum”. Now Zara links the words ‘Call Me’ to ‘Ah Tum’.

Another month has passed, and my little girl turned 15th month old yesterday. This is another post to capture her development.

~ Latest weight and height unknown (haven’t been to the Paed, so didn’t get the proper tool to measure her)
~ No new tooth sprouted, with 4 upper and 4 lower full-sized (like corn kennels) teeth.

Dexterity :
Running around more.
Able to retrieve 1 cent coin from the floor (which I think can be quit tough even for adults).

For this month, she seems to prefer being carried than walking. Always reaching out her hands and says, “keh-yee” (her carry) to who ever is willing. Once you held her up, if you wanted to put her back down, she would cling to you, hold up her two feet, refusing to let them lend on the ground. *sigh*

Language :
Amazing progress. One day I took a pen and paper and jotted down the different words she used in a day, and counted about 50words.

She’s also using more non-noun words now :
Dirty, Keen (Clean), Big, Smo (Small), Up, Down, Pretty, Notty (Naughty), High, Spicy, Scah-Scah (Scared), Happy, Kai (Cry), Pus (Push), Pu (Pull)

Use Pis (Please) when asked for things, and Tats (Thanks) after receiving things.
Started calling me Mummy.

She’s also saying more phrases :
Baju dirty
Daddy work work
Uh-pen fie (aeroplane fly)
Tutc Seh-doh (touch shadow)

Able to join in song singing

Able to address people based on gender:
Adult men are Ah-Ter (Uncle)
Adult ladies are Ah-Tee (Aunty)
Little girls are Che-che (big sister)
Little boys are Toh-toh (big brother)
Any toddler or babies are Beh-Pee (Baby)
Any Malay looking ladies are Tak-Tak (Kakak)

Feeding / Food :
Still loves fish, and now starting to like crunchy stuff like crisps (she says Pok-Pok for these things, probably describing the sound of the crunch)

Taking 3 solids meals, 4 breast milk feed + 1 formula feed a day. In between she snacks on biscuits and fruits.

Emotions :
Getting very cheeky now.

Her idol is King’s Wife’s daughter Samantha.

She’s overall a very happy kid, but occasionally may get moody and throw a tantrum or get angry for the littlest reason.

While changing her clothes on Saturday, Zara suddenly said, “Ah Tu (Zara’s Ah Ku; Hokkien : Mum’s brother a.k.a King)! Baju(Malay: Clothes).” and then she started touching her cheek with her pointer.
I actually didn’t know what she was saying. King Wife was laughing and explained that she asked Zara to shame King when he was walking about bare chested the other day. Zara must have recalled the incident while I removed her clothes.

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On Sat night while getting ready for bed, I saw an annoying mosquito flying about in the room. Sam was shouting, “Mosquito! Mosquito!”, and I was chasing after it. Finally I managed to slap and kill it. I showed Zara the squashed mosquito in my palm and said, “See, mosquito very naughty, that’s why mummy beat beat mosquito”. She then clapped her hands together and said, “Moh-toh-toh”.

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Zara was taking her morning shower with Sam at King’s Wife’s. Half way through her shower, she just uttered, “Happy!” (she knows what it means, but never spoken the word before). I guess she was really happy to be taking the shower with her favourite Sam che-che.

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A moth flew in the house and was clinging on to the curtains, Zara pointed to it and said, “Mot”. I was surprised as I never taught her the word, but remembered this was one of the many characters that appeared in her story book, Miss Spider’s Tea Party.

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Kids learn very fast, and you don’t know what retain in their memory and what not.