When it comes to food, Zara likes to call herself a half vegetarian, she doesn’t take much meat besides fish; and Zaria loves her meat.

Zara is a connoisseur, she is very fussy with food, and only enjoys good food. She takes the trouble to add flavour to her food, i.e. sprinkle this on her spoon of rice, add that to her cracker; and lay them out on her plate neatly so that it’s pleasing to the eyes etc etc.

Zaria on the other hand, does not bother much with flavour or presentation. She loves meat. Full stop.

This was our Monday lunch. Chicken burger & sausage with homemade bread.

This is how Zara wants her lunch to look like.

She wanted her burger drizzled with homemade pesto, and topped with slice parmesan cheese, and a basil leave. Just like how a gourmet burger shop would serve their burger.

As for Zaria, I asked if she wanted me to serve her burger just like how I did with Zara’s, she said, “No.” Went on to cut her sausage and burger while chewing on her bread. “Because I want to have a meat buffet!”, she said. o.O”
And this is her meat buffet lunch. o.O”

The family, as described by Zara.

Here is another set of Barbie we got, Barbie Design and Dress Studio!

Girls were so excited. Zara immediately ‘chuped’ (Malaysian slang : booked) this set. Telling Zaria she can have the Barbie Fashion Combo Holiday and she will own this set.

This set is retailing at RM99.90 at major toy and department stores nationwide. See what comes with it?
♥ 3 design markers in pink, black and purple
♥ 2 design stencils
♥ 1 sheet of beautiful stickers
♥ 5 real fabric dresses

Zara has decided that Zaria can have the white dress to design while she’ll have the rest.

These dresses are all ready to be designed by the girls (using the design markers, stencils, stickers).

After drawing the design on the dress and/or sticking stickers on it, you can just tear along the perforated line and then get the dress out; and it’ll be a new dress for Barbie!

In the next post, you’ll see how Zara did her designing and her telling you about her Barbie’s experience.

Watch out as well for a Giveaway of this Barbie Design and Dress Studio during the 2nd week of September!

Being diagnosed of hyperopia a year ago, Zara has been wearing her glasses for a year, everyday, all the time.

What are the changes we see after she started wearing glasses?

She started reading more, and now an independent reader. Her glasses definitely helps her with reading (less taxing = more willing to read).

Maybe her judgement is affected due the high power and/or her glasses, she doesn’t run as fast as she used to, and she has difficulty picking up badminton. Or maybe, this is just my perception.

She needs to do patching daily (although most days she forgets), so that the vision of her right eye will improve.

So, how is she doing after 1 year?
Hyperopia power remains.
Astiq, right eye 0.50 increased.
Vision improved from 6/12 to 6/9.

Recently, we just got her glasses changed, and then I realised this :

Glasses and Long Lashes don’t compliment each other. No wonder she always have stain/lines on the inner part of her lens.

Sigh…..

Look what we got from Mattel? A Barbie Fashion Combo Holiday set!

Such a BIG SET!

Barbie is going on a holiday, so she’s bringing along, a comb, 5 sets of clothing, 5 pairs of shoes and 2 bags!

Zaria went, “Waaaaaaa” then silent, not knowing where to begin.

Lovely accessories.

Look at how intricate the shoes are.

Lucky Barbie! Lucky Girls!

As one of the girls’ favourite show currently is Barbie Fashion Fairytale, they absolutely love this set of Barbie Fashion Combo Holiday.

Watch out for a Giveaway of this Barbie Fashion Combo Holiday set later in the month!

Mean while, the girls will start enjoying their set first.

Oh no, this is not a political post. Read on.

Zara just finished her exams recently. This round, as I was not well for a couple of days, she was a bit slack in her revision (because I’m not there to go through stuff with her).

She told me her class teacher mentioned that she didn’t do as well this round, so I gave her a lecture.

Me : Yada yada yada. Next time if you don’t do your own revision when I asked you to, fine! If you did badly in your exams, I’m going to throw your books away in the dustbin. Since you don’t want to study, then no need to study. Can go sweep the street when you are older. Yada yada yada.
Zara : (angry) If you want to throw my books away in the dustbin, go and throw then. After that, you need to speak to Najib and explain to him everything.
o.O”
Zaria : Who is Najib, mummy? Hehe, how come his name is so funny.
Me : (still o.O”) Najib is our prime minister.
(recovered) So, why do I need to speak to Najib? What has he got to do with your studies?
Zara : My teacher says the books are given to us by Najib, so if we don’t take care of them, we’ll have to explain to Najib.
o.O”

Najib will be very busy if he has to get involved in these.

What is the opposite of a worry wart? In Chinese we say ‘bochap’, in Malay we say ‘tidak apa’, is an optimist the same in English?

Anyway, this is how the girls are. One a worry wart, another isn’t bothered with anything, here is an example.

We were packing for our recent holidays, and I got the girls to pick out their clothes for me to put in the luggage. I told them we’ll be away for 5days/4nights, we need a set of clothes each day, 2 panties for every day, and then 2 set of pajamas.

Zaria finished hers real quickly. Picking up 2 sets of clothing, 2 panties.
Me : We are going for 5 days, you need 5 set of clothing! This is not enough.
Zaria : I can wear them again wut. o.O”
Me : *rolled eyes* Ya.. you’ll wear your panties again and again until you can throw it on the wall and it’ll stick there.

Zara picked what? 12 panties, 8 sets of clothing.
Me : Aiyo, we’re going for 5days and 4nights, you don’t need so many panties and clothes.
Zara : I need to bring extra, what if I dirty them, or spill something on my clothes, then I have extra to change to. o.O”

This is how they are… one the worry wart.. the other the opposite.

I love re-reading some of my old posts about the things the girls, recently however, instead of putting in a blog post, I put it on Facebook instead.

Just so I don’t miss some of their witty conversation, I’d better jot them down here too. These were some of their witty remarks earlier this year (I remember because I either put it on paper or update Facebook), some taken from Facebook status.

In Jan
She gave me the paper doll she created in her art class.
Zaria : Since I give you my dolly, you have to give me something.
Me : I give you my love.
Zaria : I don’t want any part of your body.
Me : I’m giving you my love. Not my body.
Zaria : Your love is from your body right? I don’t want any part of your body. o.O”

Caught Zaria watching Xmen2.
Me : I thought I told you no more Xmen show?
Zaria : But I remember in this show they didn’t say “kiss that, bitch” so I can watch right? o.O

If you’d been to the busy shops in SS15, you’ll notice near Mc Donald’s, there’s a dodgy place called Momo Hime Japanese Lounge. We passed by one night, and Zara said she wanted to check out the place.
Me : No, you can’t go there, because it’s a place for people and do hanky panky things
Zara : What’s hanky panky?
Me : When a man wants to go and date another woman who’s not his wife
Zara : You mean they go there to mate? o.O”
Possibly.. but I don’t know.

Zaria is very good with giving threats earlier this year. i.e.
If you don’t buy me the crown, I won’t let you take photo of me.
If you don’t XYZ, I won’t talk to you for 13yrs. o.O”
If you don’t …., I won’t ….. etc etc etc

Zaria asked over dinner one day. “How come in adult shows, they don’t just kiss one time, they go muak muak muak muak muak (pouting her lips she tilted her head left, then right, then left)”…. o.O”

In Mar during our holidays in Singapore;
Zaria saw so many Zara shops there, so she complained, “So not fair, every where there’s jiejie’s shop!”
Then she thought of an idea, “I want to change my name. I want my name to be Unique. So I’ll have lots of shops as well.”
(Their sirname is Low…. so Unique+Low = Uniqlo.) o.O

In Mar when I was maidless for a month.
Asked Zaria to peel garlic and onion for me.
Me : Zaria, can you please help me to peeeeeeel…………. (3s and the word is still not out)
Zaria : Onion is it?
Me : Yes. Make sure you peel them on top of tttthhhhe ………… (3s passed)
Zaria : Newspaper. Mummy, why are you loosing your words? Are you going crazy
Yes.. almost. Luckily it was only for a month.

One day, Zara kept interrupting me at work to help her with her homework. On the way to school..
Me : Next time you have to do whatever you know how to do first, then whatever you don’t, ask me at one go. I need to work you know. I cannot be interrupted so many times.
Zara : You have the whole day to do your work.
Me : It’s not a matter of whole day or not. If my boss wants something in the morning, I have to give it to him in the morning.
Zara : At least your boss don’t cane you. o.O”

I joined Melaleuca recently as member, and started switching to their product for most of the household items, including the girls’ shampoo. While most of their products are good, I find the Herbal Shampoo which came highly recommended, too rich and too overly scented.

Now, I’m not sure if this was the cause of it, but after changing the girls to the Herbal Shampoo for about a month, I discovered a couple of ‘crusty’ patches on Zara’s scalp, cradle cap like.

There are 2 patches above her ears, and she’s scratching them frequently. Crusty, scaly, itchy, and when scratched, there’ll be scaly flakes coming off.

It fits the description of seborrheic dermatitis of the scalp from here :
~ Red, oily skin covered with greasy white or yellow scales
~ Yellow or white scales that may attach to the hair shaft
~ Patchy scales or thick crust on the scalp that may be easily removed
~ Patches usually confined by hairline
~ Itching, which may be severe

I used to have this after I’d given birth to Zaria. Probably due to hormonal changes. And I had a bigger patch. For a whole year, I’d tried different shampoo, bought over the counter, organic, prescribed by the doctor, but nothing worked. I have to stop wearing black because it was very embarrassing, a slight scratching would create an avalanche of dandruff.

After a year of searching for a solution, I finally came across something that worked. Kaminomoto Medicated Shampoo! After using for a few weeks, the itch on the scalp stopped, and slowly, the skin healed!

With Zara, initially, I thought maybe she has not rinsed away the shampoo properly, and the residue has caused this. For 2 weeks, she continued to use the Herbal Shampoo and I rinsed her hair for her. No improvement; and the spots were still very itchy and flaky.

Then I started her on the Kaminomoto Medicated shampoo. Sure enough, after a week, the ‘crust’ thinned out, and within 2 weeks, the 2 spots have cleared. Thank goodness! I don’t see her scratching her scalp fervently any more.

This is something I would like to recommend to all who has dandruff or seborrheic dermatitis of the scalp. It has worked for both Zara and me. The only problem is, it’s not available in Malaysia but you can get it in Singapore.

Nowadays, I alternate this with another shampoo of my choice, just to keep the scalp healthy.

As for Zara, I’d moved her back to a kids’ shampoo from Buds, and stopped the Herbal Shampoo from Melaleuca totally. I’m now stuck with the remaining 1 liter of the shampoo. Sigh.