One day, just out of fun, we had this discussion.

Me : *asking the girls* “Do you think you are my children? I think maybe the stork delivered you to me.”
Zara : “No, we are your children. If we are not your children then you’ll have to have another baby. You’ll have 3 daughters!”
Me : “Huh? Why do I have to have another baby?”
Zara : “(Because) You don’t take a husband for no reason.” o.O” (looks like, to her, husbands are only meant for reproduction purpose!)

Zara : “Anyway, I can feel your intestine last time.”
Me : “When you were in my stomach?” o.O”
Zara : “Ya, and I was playing with the umblical cord.” o.O”
Zara : “I can (could) hear your voice.” o.O”
Me : “What did I say?”
Zara : “I can’t remember.”
Isn’t this spooky? Although she said it’s true, but I think she only said this as she saw the videos I showed her on youtube.

Zara : “And I have your eyes.”
Me : “Zaria doesn’t have my eyes, so maybe she’s not my daughter”
Zara : “She has daddy’s genes”

Now Zaria interupted and asked : “What’s jeans? I have Daddy’s jeans?”

But Zara ignored her and continued : “Her eyes are like Daddy. And, she has Ah Kong’s (Hokkien : Maternal grandfather’s) bulgy forehead. She has Ah Kong genes, so she’s also your daughter.”

Hmm.. ok.. she does know her stuff.

Zara has been attending the Yamaha JMC class since last July. She has just started her Book 4 in October.

It was quite a struggle initially to get her to practice, and pay attention, but now, she seems to enjoy playing those musical pieces, and is quite motivated to practice.

She’s doing quite well in her keyboard playing, and she memorises all the musical pieces instead of reading the notes from the book when she plays. She’s still rather weak in note reading, and I hope she’ll pick up.

Occasionally, she even creates her own musical pieces; or adding the left hand chords herself when the teacher has only taught in class how to play the piece with one hand. Too bad her notes reading/writing is not very good, or I can ask her to start writing those notes down as she composed.

Here is a video playing The Little Red Shoe in her book 4, recorded 2 weeks back.

I wish I was like HN and HN’s husband Lybil, who are so soft spoken, especially with their children Sophie and Sethy.

We do raise our voices with the children, and although they may not like it, sometimes we just had to do it to get our message across. What do the children do when we raise our voices at them?……….

Not sure what happen, but I think Zaria was scolded by Daddy who was coaching Zara with Bahasa Malaysia (she was probably disturbing them). So she came upstairs extremely upset, and complained to me, “I don’t like my Daddy any more. I think I’m going to throw him in the dustbin. But if he says sorry, I’ll pick him back up from the dustbin.”

And later the same day, Zaria wanted take some photos with the point and shoot, so I let her. I strapped it around her neck (in case it dropped, it won’t crash on the floor). She happily went down to look for Daddy, planning to take some shots of Zara and Daddy.

Daddy, of course freaked out. His cameras are his second (and third) wife ok. He told me off claiming I’m crazy to let Zaria play with the camera, and snatched the camera away from Zaria and told her loudly she cannot play with the camera. So again, Zaria came up stairs, this time crying. I told her that’s because the camera is so precious to Daddy. She replied through her sobs, “If I die already.. then you no more meimei right. If the camera spoilt, daddy can still buy another one. Who’s more precious.” o.O”

Zara on the other hand tries not to say anything mean when she’s angry (one part of her nightly prayer is “Jesus please help me not to say anything bad.”). So what does she do? She draws.

Today, she got scolding from me because she was fooling around when she was doing her keyboard practice. So she stopped playing, turned off the keyboard, went down stairs, and 15 minutes later came upstairs with this drawing.

(I locked her in a chamber, and shot her with a gun, the speech bubble is saying, “I don’t love you.” See how wicked I looked! o.O”)

I laughed when I saw that (couldn’t help it, really). I asked her if I looked so evil? And if I would ever shoot her? She broke down and cry, only after some hugging and reassurance, she stopped crying and felt better.

The other day Zara taught me something.

Zaria was playing with a watermelon in the kitchen.
First trying to kick it like a ball.
I told her, “Don’t do it, this is not a ball!”
Then she tried picking it up.
I raised my voice, “DON’T DO IT. This is NOT a ball!”
She ignored me, and then picked it up (she’s really strong, this one), and then tossed it like a ball.

“SPLAT“

The watermelon cracked into two.

It was the time of the month, you know, when women get grouchy, and easily irritable.

So I took the cane, and gave her a twack on the butt.

She cried of course. Looking for Jelly, then Daddy to ‘sayang’ her.

Zara who just came out from the toilet, saw the watermelon cracked into two, and Zaria wailing. She told Zaria, “Never mind Zaria, it’s a small matter. It’s not like you broke mummy’s precious jug or what.”

It’s like this light just shone down on me. Yah, it’s not even a precious jug or what, why did I cane her? Then I told Zara, “But I caned Zaria, even though it’s not a precious jug.”
Zara told me, “It’s ok. Just remember next time don’t do it again.” o.O”

So that day, I learnt from my child.

Thank You.

I’m not capturing much of what Zara said these days because she’s speaking longer sentences, and I have a hard time memorising these. I’m however, started to capture the more interesting things she said using my phone Note Apps. Even she’s telling me, “Ma, are you recording what I’m saying?” 😛

This girl is getting extremely good with articulating her thoughts or getting her message across.

She’s very good with giving a punch line, or being creative with names calling.

For example, when she’s upset with Daddy, she’ll say something like “Excuse me, Daddy Raddy, …..” or “I’m dissapointed with you Bow Daddy.”
(Daddy Raddy or Bow Daddy terms she made up along the conversation).

She’s good in talking back to Daddy; like telling Daddy, “You don’t have a brain, you just have a butt.”

One day, the two girls were playing in the car, shouting, laughing, making so much noise. Daddy told them to be quiet, and then he started talking to me. Zara said sulkily, “The one who asked me to be quiet can’t keep quiet himself.” o.O”

Another day, Zara stepped on Daddy’s tripod, and Daddy scolded Zara, “Told you how many times not to step on my things! Come! Let me step on your head and see.” (oh, all the photography gear to him is soooooo precious)
Zara started crying and told him, “My head is more important or your thing is more important? My head right? Why did you say you want to step on it?” o.O”

Yesterday, on the rare occasion where I turned on the TV, I saw an interesting TVB drama on NTV7 (I think that’s the channel). The TV was left turned on while we were having dinner. When I saw Zaria was not eating her meal but kept looking at the TV, I turned it off.
Zara said, “Just now you were not my real mummy. Now you are my real mummy.” I asked her why did she say that, and she replied, “Real mummies won’t teach their children bad habbits by having bad habbits themselves.” (bad habbit == watching TV while eating) o.O”

She did very well in her Chinese reading homework and also piano practice (normally, both of us end up being angry with each other because I get angry with her not paying attention, and she gets angry with me loosing my patience), so I told her, “You did so well today for your reading and your piano playing, and I’m so proud of you.”
She replied, “Ma, I did well to impress you.” o.O”

This girl, if she’s going to a English medium school, will sure not have problem. But.. this is Malaysia, and I cannot afford to send her to international school. 🙁

Woh… more than a week I’d not posted anything. If you wanted to know why, go here. I’ll be posting more photos of the holiday here once I sorted out all the photos.

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Recently in blogsphere, we’d lost a dear friend, Lisa. She has been battling cancer with so much spunk, but eventually, cancer won. We’d lost her, but heaven has gained an angel.

We’ll always remember her fighting spirit, her generosity, her humour despite the situation, her positive vibes.

We’ll always miss her.

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I’m not sure if it’s a good thing to expose my children to death at such an early age.

This year, Zaria has attended my grandfather’s funeral, and I also brought her along when I went to pay Lisa my last respect.

She used to tell me “Ma, I don’t want you to be fat.” occasionally. Because she knows fat = unhealthy or maybe it was the Harry Potter’s Prisoner of Azkaban that she saw where Harry inflated his aunt.

She would tell me I need to exercise, and if I missed my sit ups in the night, she would ask me, “Why you didn’t do your exercise, ma? I don’t want you to be fat. You must do your exercise.”

Now this week, her tone has changed. She’ll tell me “Ma, I don’t want you to be old.”
She says that to me, Daddy, and even Jelly.
And she’ll work herself to tears after a while, sobbing quietly away, and said, “But I don’t want you to be old.” after we’d explained to her (upteenth time) growing old is natural, and we’ll all go through that.

Yesterday, she brought this up again. Before she shed her first drop of tear, I told her, “All of us will grow old. Even you, you’ll grow bigger, you’ll be 4, then 5, then 6 and then one day you’ll be sixteen.”
She replied, “But I don’t want to grow bigger or older. I want to be small forever.” o.O”

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On our way back to school, we had a chat about the day. Zara as usual likes talking about her best friend WY, telling me about WY’s dad etc. I asked her, “Do you know what WY’s daddy do?” (I was asking more of occupation).
She replied, “I don’t know.”
I asked again, “If people asked you what your Daddy does, do you know (what to say)?”
She replied, “Ya, I know. My Daddy always sleeps, sometimes he snores. My Daddy wear glasses. My Daddy always drinks tea. Sometimes my Daddy goes out with his friends to drink beer.” o.O”
(Wow Daddy, you sounds like someone who’s retired and having a good life.)
I asked another question, “What does Mummy do then?”
She replied, “You bake and you read a lot of books.”

I’ll have to give her more details about our occupations soon.

Kids get influenced so easily.

I had taken a few cake orders, and I like to ask the girls when I make something new, “Is this nice? Can mummy sell this?”

(She can finally write her own Chinese name)

One day, Zara did a painting, and she asked me, “Is this nice?”
When I told her it was, she passed it to Daddy, “Can you go to the market and sell this?”
She thought for a while, then added, “Maybe next time you get orders, you can give this as a free gift with your cake” o.O”

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We watched an MTV of a hit song on youtube yesterday, and after watching it, Zaria started drawing this.

Can you guess who this famous artist is?
.
.
.
.
.
Lady Gaga!

She can’t draw that well yet, but the glasses is very Lady Gaga. And she said the O–O she drew on the chest is Lady Gaga’s bra top! o.O”

And she even started doing the Bad Romance Dance.

Daddy likes to say we always end up in the shopping mall during the weekends, but guess what? He was away this weekend, and we didn’t step into the mall at all, and the girls still had a swell time.

We did something we would never have done if he was around, we had a sleep over at my sister’s place, and spent the whole of Sunday there. With Tasha, their cousin, also sleeping over, the girls absolutely enjoyed themselves.

On Saturday, I did some cookie decoration just for fun, and kept some icing for girls to have a go with decorating their own cookies.

To stop myself having to scream the
“Be careful!!”
“Don’t spill it!!”
“Watch out!!”
I set up the table at the porch, and let the girls make whatever mess they wanted, and I could focus on trying to take some shots of them hard at work.

Zaria did hers real quickly, she topped them with lots of icing and lots of sprinkles, all for her beloved Auntie Jelly.

And she proudly showed off her decoration.

Zara took her time, but she was frustrated they didn’t come out they way she wanted.

I think I’ll have to invest in the edible marker set for her to do drawing on cookies, but I kind of like her abstract ‘art’ pieces here.

We then drove to my sister’s, had dinner there, and the girls (Zara, Zaria and Tasha) played together. When it was bed time, I think I knocked out first, the last phrase I heard was from Tasha, “Agnes yi-yi, who talks must go outside one.” (she was repeating this the whole time, when I said whoever spoke next would have to go outside). I was too lazy to reply the 100th time, “Yah, now go to sleep.”

On Sunday, we went to the market together. Jelly deliberately not get ready in the morning although I told her she had to follow me to the market a day before (normally it’s Daddy and I who did marketting together, and she never had to follow). I was handling the 3 girls alone until later my sis and her family came and joined us (they woke up slightly later than us).

In the evening, it was to the most ‘fancy’ (borrowing this word from Zaria) birthday party I’d ever attended. My cousin threw a grand birthday party for her daugther, Monique’s 2nd birthday. I have to write a post about all the fancy stuff, but here is one photo of Tasha, full of courage, singing I Love You from Barney.

(Look at Zaria covering her mouth, she was so afraid she had to sing too.)

Two things that Zara can really concentrate on are : 1) TV watching 2) drawing.

And of course, because of that, she’s able to draw what she has watched. Can you tell what shows she’s trying to draw? (answer in comments)

Drawing 1

Drawing 2 (which is from the same show as Drawing 1)

Drawing 3

Drawing 4

And Zaria, much younger, wanted to try too, and this is her drawing, and according to her, of a very famous character in one of the movies she watched recently.

Drawing 5.

Too bad they are all drawn using colour pencils (except Zaria’s drawing), making the colours and lines a bit light.

The girls are growing up so fast, and loosing their Kiddish English or Thoughts.

Although we conciously try to correct them (especially Zaria) when they mispronounced words or made gramatical mistakes, so that they get a good start in the language, none-the-less, I like to reminisce the little mistakes or the innocent thoughts they have.

Here is to capture a few of them.

Over dinner, Zaria was holding a princess book of stickers (Thanks to Rachel), then she asked me, “Maa, which one you think is mosest pretty?”
(mosest = most)
😀

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In the car, the girls wanted to see who can count the fastest.
Zaria gave the command to start the race, “Alamak… get set, go!!”
(alamak = on your mark)
😀

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Zaria always pronounce Maggie Mee as Mega Mee, so I asked her, “Why you always call maggie mee as mega me?”
She replied, “No, I never say mega mee wut, I say meh-ger mee.”
😀

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One day, Zara was standing behind me watching my computer display.
She asked, “Maaa, what are you doing?”
I told her, “You know how to read right? So you read this (pointing to the top left of the display), and tell me what I’m doing.”
She slowly read (phonetically), “Feh-Keh-dook.”
o.O”

If you don’t get it,
Fa == Feh
ce == Keh
book == dook (she always mixed up d and b)

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We were seated right at the back in the church attending my grand father’s 100th day mass, making it difficult for the kids to see what’s happening at the alter (and although I’m Catholic, the girls don’t go to church. o.O”).
During the eucharistic prayer, when the server rang the bell, Zaria tip toed, tried to see what’s happening in front and asked, “Is that Santa Clause??”
😀

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Daddy brought the girls out to do grocery shopping, and normally after shopping, he always gives the girls an ice cream treat. However, on this particular day, as both the girls had the flu, Daddy said no ice cream for the day.
Zaria begged Daddy, “Give me a chance dad…”
😀
Daddy gave her a chance by buying her smarties instead.

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Girls were fighting just before I finished work.
So when I got downstairs, I took the cane and asked them who started the fight first, and what they each did.
Zara kicked Zaria down from the sofa; her punishment, 1 cane stroke.
Zaria kicked Zara numorous times because she wanted space on the sofa; her punishment, 1 cane stroke too.
While caning Zaria, her skirt actually prevented the cane from touching the buttocks, so I lifted her skirt and smack again.
She cried and looked at me with pitiful eyes, and through her sobs, she asked, “Maa, *sob sob*, you *sob sob* want to give me *sob sob* a cane mark?? *sob sob*”
o.O