Daddy wasn’t in town this weekend so it was just Zara and I. These are photos showing what we did over the weekend.

Top (L->R) :

I had lived in the same house with King’s Wife and her daughters for about 5 years. When my nieces started watching TV, King’s Wife bought loads of Barney VCDs for them on purpose to drive us up the walls.

You can imagine the house was always filled with songs from Barney, and the silly sounding laugh of Barney every time my nieces conquered the TV (which was almost ever day!). Everybody was singing “I Love You, You Love Me.. yada yada “.

When all you get on TV was Barney, you lost interest in TV itself (no wonder I really don’t watch that much TV, must be the post-Barney syndrome), and any appearance of him made you want to tear your hair and punch the wall.

For Zara, in the beginning, I only showed her Baby Einstein (she almost always falls asleep with this) and Wheels In The Bus.

One day while shopping in Singapore, I saw Barney’s VCD going for S$1.99. Wow, what a great deal isn’t it? So I bought 2. Since I bought, I might as well play it for Zara, give her a variety of programs to watch.

Big mistake! Now that she knows she can make her own decision (for choices like Bottle or Breast, Bread or Yogurt), she wants to decide what she should watch too. Every time when I asked her to choose a VCD to watch, she would go to her stack, pick up Barney, and shout “Money! Money! (her Barney)”. Even when I play another program for her, she would continue to hold up the Barney VCD, and chant “Money! Money!” It is very difficult to get her to watch another program now.

When Helen’s old house was invaded by termites, mine was invaded by the purple dinosaur. I can foresee it is here to stay for at least another 5years!

And guess who is going to inherit King’s Wife’s numerous Barney VCDs? Yikes!

Which kid doesn’t like horsey rides? Zara loves it, and she’s looking for all kinds of things she can ‘ride’ like a horsey.

My bolster, her bolster

Daddy. The funny thing is she will sayang (Malay:pat/stroke lovingly) the ‘horse’ head’ first before she rides on ‘it’.

And finally..

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Russ our cat. We actually have to stop her from crushing the cat.

Kissing Little Yong (King’s Wife’s nephew)

Giving her favourite che-che (King’s Wife’s daughter Sam) a tight hug

Giving Ah Kong (Maternal grandfather) a hug

Showing Baby Tasha (my sister’s baby) some TLC.

Giving Pooh Bear a kiss

Hug Hug Daddy

And finally, big big kiss for mummy

Happy Valentine’s Day Everybody

We really have to be careful how we talk to Zara, because she’s learning fast, picking up our talking style, and the words we used. Here are some moments which caught me off guard.

Kiddie Rides
Every time when Zara points to a Kiddie Ride and requested to go on it, we’ll say we have no money, can’t go on this time.
We were in KLCC on Saturday, we thought we’ll give her a treat, and inserted some coins (she also associates coins with money) for one of the rides. After her RM1 ride, she said, “More more! Money! Put”

Diaper Changing
When I try to get Zara to listen to me, I always repeat please many times. “Zara please, don’t touch the floor.” “Zara please, it’s dirty.”
When I was changing her diaper this morning, I wanted her to lie still, but she wanted to sit up to play instead. After a few failed attempts to sit herself up (because I pinned her thighs down), she looked at me desparately and said, “Pis! Pis! Pis!” (her Please)

Thanks for your compliment
We are teaching Zara to say thanks. We prompt her to say thanks after we give her something. We will also say thanks when she helps us with some chore (dropping the laundry in the bag, throwing the paper in the dustbin), or kisses us.
That day, she did something smart, and Daddy said, “You are such a clever girl!” Her reply, “tats” (her Thanks).

Wait
When Zara needs attention and we are busy, we always say “Wait, let mummy …” or “Wait, daddy finished … first”. “Wait Wait, Wait First”
Before bedtime just now, I helped her with her usual pre bed time ritual (hand washing and tooth brushing). I soaped her hands, rubbed her hands together, and when I wanted to rinse them, she just retracted both her hands away from the running tap.
I told her “please, let mummy rinse the soap away”, and pulled her hands back to the tap. She held her hands firmly away from the tap and said, “Wai, Wai! Wai Wai! Wait” (her Wait) as she wanted to get more bubbles on her hands.

Swearing
She was playing with a ball in the room, accidentally dropped it. And I seriously think I heard her said “shit” (my expression when I drop things accidentally) and then she just tried to retrieve it from under her cot.

Zara likes to sing very much. Sometimes she sings on her own. No comprehensible words can be heard, and the tune is all out. You can’t tell what songs she’s singing, but you know she’s definitely singing; she sometimes even accompanies her singing with some dance moves.
Here are 3 which she can sing along

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Me : Twinkle Twinkle Little..
Zara : Stars
Me : How I wonder what you..
Zara : Ah (Are)
Me : Up above the world so ..
Zara : Sky (She doesn’t know it’s supposed to be “high”)
Me : Like a diamond in the ..
Zara : Sky
Me : Twinkle Twinkle Little..
Zara : Stars
Me : How I wonder what you..
Zara : Ah (Are)

This Old Man
Me : This old ..
Zara : Mang (Man)
Me : He played ..
Zara : Wung (One)
Me : He played knick knack on my ..
Zara : Dum (Drum)
Me : Knick Knack pat-a-whack, give a dog a ..
Zara : Bong (Bone)
Me : This old man came rolling ..
Zara : Home

Sing A Song Of Sing Pence
She can’t make out most of the words but only this part
Me : The King was in the counting house, counting out his ..
Zara : Money
Me : The Queen was in the parlour eating bread and ..
Zara : Chis (Cheese, since she likes bread and cheese a lot)

And every time after each song is sung, she would be clapping her hands and shouting, “Oh!!” with a big big grin.
I would of course have to clap my hands and praise her, “You are clever aren’t you?”
Guess what she’ll do next?
She’ll say “Pan-Teh-Tic” (Fantastic) and give a bigger grin.

Btw, she has started calling me mummy since yesterday instead of Ah Meen. *big grin*

1) In the midst of Weaning
She started taking 1 bottle of formula each day. She’s no longer complaining. Happily takes it, even if I was the one offering compared to the previous months.
Not sure when she’s going to be completely weaned off breast feeding, but it is definitely in progress (I guess it’s more of mummy not willing to stop than her).

2) Bottle or Breast
She has a choice now, especially during the days when I’m around.
When she asked for Milk Milk (she no longer said “HUH, HUH” like she used to), I would ask her, “Zara want breast or bottle?”
In most cases, she’ll say, “Best” (breast), and points to my breast

3) Frustrated
One day I had a block duct on my left breast. Since I wanted her to help me clear the blockage, during her feed, I kept only offering that breast (for those who’s not familiar with breast feeding, normally you swap breast mid feed so the baby gets to have a fuller feed) which was my weaker breast (less milk).
She sucked, then stopped. Looked at me, “milk milk!”.
The duct didn’t clear yet, so I told her, “yeah, Zara suck suck then” and stuffed the breast back to her mouth.
She sucked, then stopped and said “milk, milk!” again.
The duct didn’t clear, so I guess she was getting very little milk.
She did this one more time. Finally, she stopped and looked at me, “Bottle!”
She was frustrated, all the sucking and no milk. Ha, she opted for the bottle instead!

4) Habis (Malay: Finished)
I fed her a bottle of formula on Sunday. After taking half the bottle, she sat up, took the cap of the bottle, cap back the bottle and said, “habis!”
Guess where she picks up that word from.

5) Excited over the breast
Since it’s CNY, we eat out a lot (some how some one would be buying dinner or it was our turn to buy). At about 10pm, Zara would want her milk fix.
She would then suck her thumb, lay her head on my chest, and said, “milk milk”
If I can’t find a place to feed her, she would then grope my breast, follow by a louder, “milk milk”.
If I still don’t feed her, she would try to reach her hand into my blouse to get to my breast.
All these in public.
My solution, hand her to daddy. 😛

(So I’m still not in the mood to work although there’s lots to be done, and I do wish I could bawl like Zara)

The photo I posted earlier, wasn’t taken when I had to leave her (at the house) for work (at the office). It was one of those days I was working from home, and while I came down stairs (from the study) to get a glass of water, I was greeted by this cry baby.

She was just feeling manja (Malay: feel like being pampered/loved), wanted me to carry her. When I asked her why she’s crying.
She complained, “Paink Paink” (Pain Pain).
When I asked here where pain pain.
She pointed different parts of her body. I.e. Her head, her hand, her stomach..

I knew she wasn’t in any physical pain, just wanted me to stay on and play with her, so I ignored her cry. She cried even more sorrowful, I thought it was cute and took the camera and started shooting away. Here are two more pitiful sight. Wicked, I know.

Ah Meen, Ah Meen

Paink Piank

Our 4D/3N holidays up on the east cost finally ended, and we had to return home *sigh*.

We were in Tanjung Jara for a family (my side) holiday, 18 of us (inc 1 infant, 1 toddler and 2 maids) in 4 cars went and we took up 6 rooms. It was actually the very first ever family holiday where every one were present (except my mum) since we were kids.

We stayed in the resort the whole time, enjoying the pool and the sea, and some of us got to enjoy the spa as well (part of the package). I had 2 spa treatments consisting of 100min massage each as I took Daddy’s session since he didn’t like people to ‘work’ on him (his exact words). It was blissful….

The only complain about this trip was the mediocre food in the resort (where we took all meals) and the journey to and fro (almost 6hrs/trip) . Thank goodness for the new Karak Highway, or the journey would have been 8hrs from KL!

We were lucky because King’s Wife‘s daughter, Samantha, decided to come in our car on both the journeys, and Zara was really happy having her as company.

Just before we left the resort for home. We were the last to leave.

Samantha Che-che tickled one of Zara’s funny bones on the journey home.

More photos and moments captured will be in later posts.

On Chinese New Year eve, instead of dining at our place (the initial plan), we had it in MIL’s because BIL was bringing 6 of his friends from the Philippines to join the dinner (we only knew later that these ‘friends’ were actually his new girl friend and her family/chaperon).

No pix to show for the dinner since it was quite kelam-kabut (Malay: chaotic) to be having so many people in the house for dinner (normally it’s just 6 of us).

On the first day of Chinese New Year, as usual, we visited MIL early morning, and then it was lunch with my family. Zara did the GONG XI, GONG XI sign while addressing the family, and she also served tea to my side of the family (since this is our tradition).
All I could say is these 2 days were really hot!

Next few days there’ll be no blogging as we’ll be going for a holiday (unless I got so bored and there’s free broad band connection in the hotel).

HERE IS TO WISH EVERY ONE

A HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

GONG XI FA CHAI.

????!