Have seen many photos from Mom2Ashley titled Good Morning Ashley. Just like Ashley, Zara is always in a good mood when she wakes up in the morning, I thought I too should capture moments like this.

This was taken last week, Zara was still sleeping when I had finished changing for work. Camera in hand, I woke her up by using the standard wake up call, “Wakey, Wakey, Sleepy Baby!” This was what greeted me, a smiling and good smelling (yes she smells like a sweet in the morning, and best of all, no morning breath!) toddler!

eyes opened; a cheeky smile; hands stretched out to be lifted up (to sitting position); a moment on the bed before she climbed down to start her busy day

On another note, I contributed my angelic voice singing to Lin Peh’s Chinese New Year sing song project. Go here, if you want to know what it’s all about and hear some of the bloggers singing!

Tasha’s Fullmoon Dinner
It was already a month since Tasha (my eldest sis’ daughter) was born. We had a little family dinner party in a restaurant.

It was a typical Chinese dinner with shark fin soup and suckling pig (both of which we don’t take), and because it was close to CNY, we got to lou-sang (raw fish salad) as well.

A full blown karaoke session was going on in another section of the restaurant (probably a company dinner). This group of people, blasting singing extremely outdated songs in horrendous voices. Tasha slept through, oblivious to the noise. Zara on the other hand was showing lots of interest in what was going on on stage, she kept wanting to get out of the room and when she saw people singing, she started dancing too, never mind if their singing sucked!

Tasha sleeping
Zara dancing

The singing and torturing didn’t end, until our last course was served and when the group has left. What a noisy dinner.

Zoo Visit
Daddy dragged brought us to the zoo again on Sunday. He thought Zara has picked up quite a lot of names for animals, and it should be more fun for her compared to the last time.

The weather was so hot, and Zara so much heavier, it was quite a torture, physically, when I had to carry her in the sling.

Zara was quite excited when we could see the elephants, giraffes and flamingoes up close. We got a chance to feed the camel, but Zara wouldn’t do it as she was afraid. I fed it instead, and Zara just looked on gingerly.

At one resting area, the zoo keeper was handling a tiny green snake. He passed it to me when I showed interest in it. And yes, I had the little fella twirled around my arm (Daddy was so disgusted he just walked away, so no photos of the snake lady). I asked Zara to stroke the snake, but instead, she was squashing the snake with her pincher grip! I had to unclutch her 2 fingers, fearing for the snake’s life. I quickly passed the snake back to the zoo keeper.

We spent almost 2 hours in the zoo and at the end of it, we were all sweaty and smelly, and then, it was to KLCC to enjoy the aircon and to get some retail therapy!

Shopping
This was the only weekend left before CNY (Chinese New Year), so we went to KLCC and did lots of shopping both on Saturday and Sunday. The sales are still on, more reason to grab something.

As usual, we bought the most for Zara. She had to have new top, new bottom, new pajamas, new everything for CNY.

Daddy wanted to get me a good and expensive handbag. One which is big enough to hold some of Zara’s stuff like a water bottle, a few pieces of diaper, a tupperware to hold some biscuits.

We were looking around in Coach, Furla, Burberry (oh, Zara just loves the signature sheep on display) and Ferragamo. I loved this and this (with pix shown), but when I looked at the price tag, I just cringed (although I pretended to look cool and behaved I could afford 10 of those).

In the end, I settled for a LeSportSac which was just 10% of the price of the above items. I am too kiam siap (Chinese: stingy) still can’t bring myself to buy a bag with a 4digit price tag.

I have to be discipline and do this every month, just to capture Zara’s development. She turned 14 on Saturday, I had been so busy, only have time to do this now.

Weight: ~ 7.9Kg (weighed 27/12) but I believe she’s about 8.5Kg now b’cos she feels very heavy.
Height: ~77cm
This month, she sprouted another tooth, so she has 4 upper teeth, and 4 lower teeth now.

Dexterity :

Zara’s Ku-che (my SIL) gave her this bag over the weekend, she told Zara it’s for her to take along when she goes shopping.

Yesterday, when we were about to leave the house for King’s Wife’s place, Zara wanted to take the bag along, and she kept muttering “Ping” “Ping” while holding it. Probably she wanted to go shopping with it. Here is Zara with her ‘aunty’ looking bag.

(L) We going shopping?? Let me take my bag
(R) Oh, I better make sure I bring my phone along.

(L) Ok, I think I got everything in my bag
(R) Lets go now

(L) I need to make a call to get an appointment to do my hair
(R) Hello? Baldilocks Hair Salon? Can I speak to Richardo please?

Zara was in one of her ‘naughty’ mood this morning.

I gave Zara her First 1000 words book to ‘read’, while Daddy and I were busy getting ready for work. She was happily flipping, pointing out to things she knew and uttering the words.
“Ao” (Cat)
“Dog”
“Nai-yen” (Lion)
“Eh-Bit” (Rabbit)
and then “PIAAK…” she tore out one of the pages; she held the torn piece in her hand and looked at me.

Since she learnt how to appreciate books, she had never torn any pages out of any books. I wonder what happened this time. I went over to her :
Me : (stern voice) Zara, that’s not nice! Why Zara tear the book?
Zara : Tuck (Take)! (she gave me the torn piece)
Me : (stern voice) Mummy don’t want!
Zara : (gave me a fake smile)
Me : (lecture time) Zara likes this book right? Then why Zara naughty? Tear the book?
Now you see (put the torn piece next to the page it was torn out), you cannot see Elephant any more.
(Shouted to Daddy) Daddy, you see, Zara tore her book!

Zara stood up, and started pulling her pajamas top up (a sign showing that she’s nervous). I picked up the book, and wanted to put it back to the shelf. Zara immediately hugged my leg.

At this time, Daddy stuck his head out from the bathroom, “What happened?”. Before he could say anything else, Zara quickly let go of my leg, walked to daddy, and hugged his leg. This is probably her way of saying sorry, so I thought.

I picked her up, and said tenderly, “Zara saying sorry is it? OK, next time don’t tear your book any more ok?” I put her down, and continue dressing, while Zara walked to the shelf to pick another book.

5 seconds later, “PIAAK..” She did it again, this time she tore a page from her Nursery Rhyme book.

I quickly went to her, smacked her hand, and told her sternly, “Zara cannot tear your book! Why Zara naughty?” Daddy chipped in, “Zara, you tear your book again huh? Why you naughty?”

What happened next really caught us off guard.

Zara looked at us (normally if I smacked her, she would fret a bit, but this time she didn’t).
Tossed the torn piece down at the book.
Waved her hand in the air and said, “Bye”
While walking towards the bed room door nonchalantly.

What the.. ?? My jaw dropped!

I asked, “And where is Zara going?” She just turned back and looked at us one more time, and tried to reach for the door knob, and said “Bye” again (of course she’s not tall enough to actually open the door and get out)

Cha-dou! (Cantonese : Being caught off guard)

I can’t help wondering what will happen when she gets older, she’ll pack her bags and go to Mama’s (Cantonese : Paternal Grandma) or YiYi’s (Hokkien : Mum’s sis) house? Or she would talk back like this kid when she knows how to speak better?

Note: I normally used yai-yai (Cantonese: naughty in a mild form) instead of naughty, unless she’s really badly behaved. As for smacking, I do it only when warning has been issued and she just ignored it.

After the long break during Christmas & New Year, and with me working from home twice a week since we had broadband, Zara has become ever closer to me.

Starting this year, on days I go to the office, when I drop Zara and Tuyam off at King’s Wife‘s place, Zara would kick up a fuss. She would be reaching her hands out for me, put on a very sad face, refusing to follow Tuyam or Lita (King’s Wife‘s maid) into the house. Normally, I’ll pick her up from the car seat, say my bye bye firmly, tell her to be good and that I’ll see her later, passed her to either Lita or Tuyam, get back to the car and drive off. Making our parting short and sweet.

this is how she looks like when she doesn’t want me to leave her (this is not taken at King’s Wife‘s place, but the situation and the expression is the same)

Tuyam said at King’s Wife‘s place, Zara would be fretting, and during nap time, she would be tossing and turning, and mumbling Ah-Mee (her pronunciation of Mummy). Sometimes Tuyam has to call me in the office and let me talk to her. Normally it’s just a ‘Hi’ from her, some talking from me to tell her to be good, listen to kakak, and then a ‘bye’ from her and end of conversation. It seems to help her to feel more settled.

While working from home, she would constantly try to climb up the stairs, or point up to the study from the courtyard, and start calling “Ah Mee”. I have to avoid coming downstairs, because if I do, she would rush to me, then cling on to me and refuse to go with Tuyam when I have to go back to the study to work.

Even in the middle of the night when I have to go to the washroom, if she so happened to turn to my side and found I wasn’t there, she would sit up and then call for Ah Mee (crying will start if she didn’t see me in a few seconds).

I wonder what would happen if I was given a summon by the boss to go for a business trip??!! How will the both of us cope with the separation anxiety?

Besides going shopping on Saturday and visiting my eldest sis on Sunday, during the weekend, I spent quite a fair bit of time in the kitchen.

Saturday
After we came back from the wet market, while we were sorting out the shopping, Tuyam commented about Daddy buying apples again as we already had some in the fridge. Daddy mentioned that those in the fridge were not nice, and he would like to chuck them away.

I just read about Greenapple‘s post about double boiling apples to make a drink, so I thought I’d tried it out using these 4 unwanted apples + 5 mud-chou (Chinese: honey dates). After 5hrs in the slow cooker, a wonderful drink was produced. We all loved it, especially after it has been chilled! Thanks Greenapple!

Since Zara loved Ping’s mum’s fish porridge so much, I made Pomphret (couldn’t get Mayao/Kurau from the market, so I just substituted it with Pomphret) porridge using her method for lunch. I didn’t like it at all *blech*, but the little cat took 1 big bowl for lunch, and another big bowl for dinner! So I guess it must be good for her standard.

Sunday
After coming back from my sis’ place, I got Daddy to look after Zara while I tried to bake some chocolate chip cookies for Chinese New Year. I like making this because it’s so simple and the recipe is a hand-me-down from Ping’s Australian FIL.

While trying to get Zara to take her evening nap in the living room, Daddy fell asleep first before Zara (=.=), and Zara walked to the kitchen to kay-poh (Chinese : busy body). She was very good though, I told her I was busy, the oven was hot, and asked her to play at the dry kitchen area while I worked on the cookies. She cooperated, and stayed out of my way and the oven’s!

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Dough on a baking sheet, nice golden choc chip cookiesI managed to bake 2 bottles (old Hollick bottle), they are very nice, just a bit too sweet (I forgot to adjust the recipe like I used to in previous years).

And for dinner, I thought I’ll make salt baked red mullet, a recipe from Jamie Oliver. The fish was stuffed with ginger, spring onion, coriander leaves (the recipe calls for fresh thyme, rosemary, lemon and bay leaf, and since I didn’t have any of the ingredients I compromised with what I could find in my fridge), laid it on a bed of course salt, covered with another layer of course salt, and then baked in the oven.

Fish before entering the oven, cooked fish with the salt cake scrapped off

I find the fish was too salty, I think probably because I pricked the skin accidentally before I baked it. However, both Zara and Daddy loved it. I chose the bits which were not too salty for Zara, and Daddy just cleaned up the rest of the fish after Tuyam and myself took a little each.

Anybody has any proven cookies recipe to share which is easy to make, and delicious? I would try to make another batch of cookies the coming weekend.

I went to visit my eldest sis, T, at home. My little niece, Tasha, who’s now 3 weeks old, have grown quite a fair bit compared to the last time I saw her. She has very chubby cheeks and even double chin now, thanks to Enfalac A+ and a little breast milk (my sis is still breastfeeding, but because her milk volume is very low, Tasha’s main source of milk is from formula. Still, it’s better little than none).

Tasha has very big eyes and prominant double eye lids, compared to the time when she was born, her features are now even more prominant. She doesn’t look Chinese at all (then again, both T and BIL don’t look like Chinese too)! I think she’s going to grow up to be very beautiful.

Zara was very happy to see Puh-Pay (her way or pronuncing Baby) Tasha. She was very gentle with Tasha, looking at her tenderly and stroking her. She even tried to sing and dance for Tasha (as since on the top left hand of the photo below).

She got a lot of praising from me, I told her she really behaves like a che-che (Chinese: elder sister) now.

Zara’s physical strength sometimes makes us wonder if she’s going to grow up to be a tom boy.
When she was 10months old, she would lift up an orange using 1 hand;
At 13th month, she would try to lift up her tricycle, and drag it to wherever she wanted it to be. And once, she even carried a bag with 2 tins of formula (sample from her Paed) weighing 1Kg in total from the living room to the kitchen.

Recently, however, she has shown some feminine interest. When she gets hold of a hair clip, she tries to clip it on herself. And when she spots my bracelet or spots hers, she would ask for it; and then attempts to put them on her wrist.

To make her keep her hair clip on her hair, we tell her, “Zara looks pretty!”.
To encourage her to have the bracelet on, we tell her, “Wah, Zara’s bracelet so pretty!”.
She would then happily have those pretty things on.

When she puts on these ‘pretty’ accessories or put on a piece of clothing she thinks is beautiful, she point to those items or pull her clothes up to to show off when she sees familiar faces. She would like the person to comment that it’s pretty before she walks off with a grin.

After all, she’s a girl; she likes pretty things, likes to look pretty and likes to be complimented.

One of Zara’s favourite book was about Jojo a baby who likes to play with his food instead of eating it. Every time when Zara misbehaves, we’ll ask her if she’s yai-yai (Chinese: naughty in a mild form) like Jojo. Actually Jojo isn’t really naughty, just playful, but it was appropriate to use this to teach Zara.

A few days ago
Tuyam told me this conversation took place when she was looking after Zara, and Zara was throwing her toys in a tantrum.
Tuyam : You naughty huh? You Jojo?
Zara : Za-ah!
Tuyam : You not Zara, you naughty, you Jojo!
Zara : *pointed to her chest* Za-ah!
Tuyam : You Jojo!
Zara : *kicked her legs, about to cry, pointed to her chest* Za-ah!
Tuyam : Ok Ok, you Zara, not Jojo.

This morning
I was changing to my work clothes and Daddy was in the shower. Zara walked into the bathroom, and started tapping the shower screen.

Me: (while adjusting my clothes) Zara, what are you doing?
No response from the bathroom, so I went to check on her, guess what I saw? Zara had her hands in the toilet bowl playing with the water! *YUCKS*
Me: *rushed to her and slapped her hands*
Zara, yai yai!
Mummy told you cannot touch that!
It’s big people’s potty!
The poo poo goes in there!!
Very dirty!
Zara touched it, get germs, then stomach PAIN PAIN!
(Had to say the above phrase by phrase, so she could understand)
Zara: *clapped her hands* beat!
Me: *scooped her up* Yeah, mummy beat beat Zara because Zara yai-yai!
Zara: *stared at me* (I think she knows she’s at fault)
Me: *brought her to the sink* Now your hands are dirty, must wash hands!
Zara obediently let me wash her hands. After cleaning her up, I brought her out of the room.
Zara : *pointed to her mini library* Jojo! *clapped her hands* Beat!
Me: Yes! Zara yai yai like Jojo lo, that’s why mummy beat beat! Next time don’t be yai-yai any more ok?

Not sure if she understood my ‘long lacture’ in the bathroom and will not pull that stunt again, but she definitely knows how to relate to Jojo.