Not me, the girls, they are making plans for their wedding already. Our conversation in the car one day.

Zaria (to me) : When I get married, I’ll invite you to my wedding dinner.
Zara : What are you going to wear for your wedding?
Zaria : The princess baju (Malay : clothes) mummy bought from Bali.
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Zara : You know, Mickel is not my real real boy friend, Ling Jing is still my real boy friend.
Me : But Ling Jing is not in your school now and you haven’t seen him or talk to him for so long.
Zara : Never mind la. I’ll just get married to Mickel. o.O”
Me : Then you’ll be staying with him and not with mummy any more. (pretended to be sad)
Zara : I know what, you can stay with us in our house.
Me : What if Mickel’s mummy also want to stay with you? Your house can fit all of us or not?
Zara : I’ll ask Mickel to buy a house with 2 extra rooms. One computer (study) room, one guest room. His mother can sleep in the guest room. And in our room, we’ll have 2 beds, 1 for me and Mickel, 1 for you. (Ok la, at least I’m more important than her MIL, for now. :P)
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And then, back home, Zaria bathed and changed in to this dress, and she told us all, “I’ll wear this for my wedding!” (Thanks Aunty Jesslyn, for making her her ‘wedding dress’.)

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On another occasion, we were driving passed some bridal shop, Zara said, “You know, I must tell koo-ma (Cantonese : aunt i.e. father’s sister), when she gets married, she has to ask me to be the flower girls. All my other aunties got married without asking me to be their flower girls. Hmph!” (actually all her other aunties got married before she was born! and also not sure if her koo-ma will get marry since she’s older than Daddy, but then, we never know, the thing with fate).

I’d bought 3 packets of jellies for the girls the last week, when Daddy (who doesn’t like the girls to eat junkfood) saw the girls eating the jellies, he complained and said I was indulging the girls with too much junk food.
Zara defended me, “This is not junk food, this is good quality jellies.”
Daddy said, “How do you know this is good quality?”
Zara replied, “Mummy bought from the organic shop (girls went with me to get them actually), of course it’s good quality.”
(I just hope she’s right, that organic shops don’t sell bad quality stuff).

Daddy went out with Zaria, and the radio was playing a song about ‘who can stop the rain’.
Daddy asked Zaria, “Zaria, who can stop the rain? Can you stop it? Can I stop it?”
Zaria thought for a while, then said, “The thunder and the lightning can stop the rain. Because, after the thunder and the lightning, then the rain stop(s).”

🙂

Zaria kind of pick up the interest in arts from Zara. During the school holidays, when Zara spent time drawing, Zaria too would request for paper, and joined in. Sometimes she would ask us for help with drawing certain things, most of the time, she’s on her own.

While Zara made me a handbag, Zaria did this with scraps of colour papers.

Here are some of her pictures, drawn during the school holidays.

She said this is a family.

And here is another family drawing.

Here is one she asked, “You know what is this or not?”

I could only say, “It’s very beautiful. Can you tell me what this is?”
Do you know what this is?
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Zaria said, “It’s a mermaid on a rock. See the long hair or not.”
Oh.. ok.

Here is another one she asked me to guess.

I was very confident, “A bird flying towards a mountain.”
She said, “Nooo..”
What do you think it was?
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According to her, it is “A bird flying to a diamond castle.” o.O”

And then one day, she was drawing a birthday cake for herself. She asked me to help with the knives, and then she did more doodling, and came over to surprise me with this.
Her first attempt in writing her name.

All these before she turned 3.

Zaria is getting good with arguments these days.

Can’t remember why, but she was angry with Jelly.
Zaria : “Auntie I don’t want you any more”
Me : “Ok, then we pack auntie’s bags, tonight she’ll take airasia flight, and go back. Tomorrow you won’t see her any more.”
Zaria : “No I don’t want.”
Me : “Then why you said you don’t want her.”
Zaria : (innocently) “I didn’t say anything.”
o.O”

And then another, she got angry with me.
Zaria : (towards me) “I don’t want you any more”
Me : “Ok then, later, I go stay in hotel”
Zara : “If Zaria said that again, then you and I will go somewhere together.”
Zaria : “Stop it! I say stop it.”
Me : “What’s wrong?”
Zaria : “You said you are going somewhere without me, so I’m very angry with you (pointed to me), and you (pointed to Zara)! You cannot go anywhere without me. Hmmmph!” (folded her arms)
Daddy : “I won’t go anywhere without you. Don’t worry.”
Zaria : “Hmph! I don’t believe you.”
Daddy : “I cross my heart.”
Zaria : (pointed to me and Zara) “You and jiejie also must cross your heart(s).”
o.O”

During dinner 1 day, she was drinking water by holding a cup with single hand.
Daddy : “Zaria, you are still a small girl, use two hands to hold your cup.”
She didn’t listen and midway through dinner, she spilled her whole cup of water.
Me : “See?”
She started defending herself (and blaming everybody but herself).
Zaria : “Auntie! Why you put the cup so near to me!”
Jelly : “Aiya mei, I didn’t touch your cup at all.”
Zaria : “Daddy! It’s your fault then!”
Daddy : “Huh? I didn’t do anything, why is it my fault?”
Zaria : “I’m still a small girl, and you never help me hold my cup! That’s why it’s your fault!”
o.O”

(seriously, I have to discount everything she said)

♥Machine♥
I have a little machine at home. She switched to different machines according to her mood.
Some day she says she’s a toaster, and she says, “So I want to eat chemical bread*.” or when it’s bath time, “Toaster no need to take bath.”

Sometimes she’s just a machine. And when it’s time to brush teeth, she says, “I’m a machine. You must touch the right button, then my mouth will open.”
We have to pretend to touch something on her face/head, “Dee-Deet. I touch the open mouth button already. Can you open your mouth now?”
If the game ended here, she would open her mouth, if not, she’ll close her mouth even tighter then says, “You touched the wrong button, so now you must touch the righ one, after that I open my mouth.”

♥Mispronuncing words♥
Love the way she mispronounced certain words. I.e. Olivia, she said Oli-dia (she has seen then corrected herself).
Vanilla, she said Va-lilla.

She calls Maggie mee Mega Mee (just because she has been going to Mega Mall), and then she told me one day our High school musical chair (i.e CD) wasn’t working, it took me a few seconds to realise what she was talking about.

♥Understand♥
After the incident which caused a bump on Zara’s head. I told her I will only let her wear her click clock shoes when she turned 23.

On the day she turned 3, and after all of us wished her Happy Birthday. She proudly said, “I’m 3 years old now. Now can I wear my click clock shoes? Now I understand you already, because I’m big girl.”
When I asked her what she understood, she said, “Cannot throw click clock shoes at jiejie. See, I understand already.”
So the click clock shoe ban was lifted.

When I repeatedly asked her in a public toilet if she wanted to she-she (Chinese : urinate) since we were already there, she said, “You understand or not? Why I tell (told) you so many times I don’t want to she-she, you still asking me?”

When she had a fall, and I told her that’s because she was clumsy, she told me, “You understand or not? The door pushed my head (actually she knocked her head on the door and fell), that’s why I fall down.”

She’s extremely irritated when we don’t ‘understand’ her

♥Others♥
When Zara keeps disturbing her, she tells Zara off. “Jie, stop irritating me.”

She put a fork in her mouth, and started climbing from chair to chair. Daddy told her she can’t do that, she might accidentally swallow the fork and then we’ll need to bring her to the hospital to remove the fork from her throat, possibly having to cut her open her if the fork stuck too far deep. “You cannot cut open my stomach. After that my blood splatter on your face then you know.”

My, I’m so entertained by the things she says.

*I told the girls Gardenia and High5 breads are ‘chemical bread’, since I wanted the girls to eat homemade bread; and if you read the label, those bread do contain lots of chemical

See this girl.. so angelic looking right?

When she’s angry, she is fierce. Girls were playing together, and Zara took away a pebble from Zaria. Without warning, Zaria took off one side of the click clock shoes she was wearing, and tossed it at Zara in a fit of rage. It hit Zara on the forehead, and created a big bump on her head, not to mention a bruise.

See the bruise? That’s 3 days later.

Zaria got lots of lecturing from both Daddy and I, and also spanking from me. And now, her beautiful click clock shoes will be locked up. No more wearing click clock shoes for her.

This wasn’t the first click clock shoes incident. A couple of months ago, she was wearing them in the bed room, and something triggered (which I can’t recall what it was now), and made her really angry. She tossed one side of the shoes at our wardrobe, no damage to the cupboard doors, but see the chip on her shoe?

Do you think it’s her age? Or more her character? I just hope she’ll be able to manage her anger better when she gets older.

We just came back from Bali (will post later) 2 days back, and girls were rather happy to be home after being away from home for 7 days.

Zaria fell ill in Bali, and everytime when it’s medication time, she will be running away from us and hiding with her mouth covered, and coming out with all kinds of excuses.

“I don’t want to eat medicine. It’s so bitter.”

“You give me too much medicine, now I got stomach ache.”

We walked a lot in Bali in the hot weather to see sights and shop. This afternoon, when we wanted to go out and buy lunch, we walked passed my car and out to the gate. Zaria immediately pointed to my car, “We must take the car.”
I immediately told Daddy in Chinese that she’s ‘scared’ of walking after Bali, so Daddy teased her, “We’re walking out to buy lunch.”
Zaria immediately whined, “No, we must take the car. I’m too tired to walk.”

While looking at the photos from Bali with my nieces and all (since we went together), I asked Zaria, “Do you miss playing with your cousins?”
Zaria’s reply, “No. I don’t miss them. They are always disturbing me, they are all so irritating.”
o.O”

Confused with her school concert date, we decided to celebrate Zara’s birthday a week earlier, thinking the concert would be held on her actual birthday, but it is actually a week later. We are obviously parents who do not read school notices.

On 14th November, we invited our neigbours, 6 families all in plus my SIL and MIL who also moved to our neigbourhood recently, to celebrate Zara’s birthday. This time, I ordered Nasi Dagang, fish curry and fried bee-hoon from a new restaurant near our place; at home, Jelly fried a veg, some chicken wings, and I baked some cheese puffs, apple crumble, and of course, Zara’s cake.

Zara has been very much into mermaids these days, so I thought I’ll create a mermaid cake for her with sea creatures all included.

Baking of the cake and cupcakes started Friday morning. In the afternoon, I tried to mould a mermaid using fondant, and in fact it was a nice mermaid with a tail that sparkled. I’m not sure what went wrong, but I suspect it’s due to the humid weather, the mermaid started sweating, and turning soft; by evening, it was one fat and flat mermaid. So at night, I started creating another mermaid, this time making its body thinner, and then I left it in a air tight container with dehumidifier sachets. I can still see the mermaid softening a bit, but it was better than the fat mermaid. Because of the softening of the fondant, I didn’t feel comfortable creating more sea creatures for the cake.

The fat mermaid that was ‘sweating’ away.

I decorated the cake and the cup cakes till 2am on Friday, and this was the end result.
Still a lot of room for improvement, but I guess for a first fondant cake attempt, it’s not too bad.

The cake (for adults) surrounded by cupcakes (for the kids).

Side track, on Saturday morning, Zara was being a bit naughty, and due to lack of sleep, I was getting grouchy, and I told her off, “If I knew you would be so naughty, I wouldn’t bake you the cake.” Now this was before she actually saw the cake I completed the night before, and guess what my spunky daughter said? “It’s ok mum. I can ask Daddy to buy from the shop. The ones in the shops are nicer anyway.” *crack! went my heart*
After she saw the cake, she felt really sorry, and started apologising profusedly. But you see, she is capable of saying such things.

Ok, back to the party.

It was a good turn out, and the girls have fun playing with their play mates (whom they regularly meet and play together at the park). I am thankful to my SIL who was entertaining 11 children in the play room with baloon fights and all, while I spent time chatting with the neighbours.

Now, Zaria has been attending friends’ parties, and she has stopped crying during birthday song singing since early this year, so we thought there won’t be any drama on Zara’s birthday. When the birthday song singing started, she was quiet for a while, and then suddenly burst into tears.
Later, when we asked her why she cried, she said “Everybody was singing so loud.” o.O”

Thanks to Kathy, who still caught Zara blowing her candles amidst the chaos (the loud bawl from Zaria, and Daddy running off with Zaria to calm her down).

One of the children came to me at the end of the party and said, “This is the best party ever. I have so much fun.” I give my SIL credit for entertaining the kids. 😛

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On Friday, a day before Zara’s actual birthday, we celebrated Zara’s and Zaria’s birthday in school. Zaria’s birthday is not until end of the year, but she wanted so much to celebrate with her friends and teachers in school I thought we’ll do this 1 month earlier together with Zara’s.

The day before, Zara helped me to think of how to decorate her cupcakes. She wanted flowers in the middle of each cake, and I got her to decide on the colours (with me making a few small batches of fondant in different colours). The final product, was a batch of cupcakes decorated with (store bought) sugar flowers.

I sent them to school in the morning, and stayed till their break time. I helped the teacher to set up the snack area to prepare for the ‘cupcake party’ (since that’s the only food served)

Zara and Zaria were beaming with happiness. When the birthday song was sung, Zaria didn’t cry, but was smiling and looking around. (Later when I asked her why she cried in jie-jie’s party, but not in school, her reply, “I only like children singing, I don’t like adults singing birthday song.” She’s sure full of excuses).

They were both happy to distribute their party packs to their friends too. Later, when Zaria came home without a party pack and started sharing Zara’s goodies, Jelly asked Zaria, “Why you didn’t take one party pack home?” She replied, “The party packs are for my friends. Not for me.”

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Happy 5th Birthday Zara, may you grow up healthy and filled with love and happiness. Daddy, mummy and mei-meil love you very much.

Here is Fifi

Here is Flower.

Here is Daisy.

You think they are the same ‘dog’?
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But they are not.

Zara has had her Fifi for almost 3 years now, this is the soft toy she brings on her trips, she hugs to sleep, watches TV with.

This is the soft toy she plays pretend with, and every time when we tell her about an experience, or a fact, she’ll always apply it on Fifi and tell us in return, “You know right, Fifi also been to China before with her mummy…” or “Fifi eats a lot of carrots, that’s why her eyes are very sharp, she can see very far away….”

Last weekend, we went to Ikea, to get Zara a new Fifi, because hers was wearing out, she named her new Fifi, Flower. Zaria insisted she wanted a Fifi too, so we got her one, and Zara named it Daisy.

Zaria hugged Daisy to sleep the 1st night, brought her to school on the 2nd day, and then chucked it away and only took it out when we reminded her about Daisy.

Fifi is easy to identify, as she’s scruffy looking. I had to write Daisy’s and Flower’s names on their labels so the girls know who is who, but I guess after a while, when the soft toys take on their owners’ scent, they’ll be able to identify who is Daisy and who is Flower. (Actually, Zara already know how to tell Daisy and Flower apart. According to her, Fifi has sad eyes, Flower is always frowning, Daisy has normal eyes) However, I doubt Zaria will still show interest after a few days though.

Zaria is very chatty now, not many people see this part of her, since she’s rather quiet when there are other people around, but at home, this girl can talk.

The other day she asked me to help her to do her business. Normally what she needs is just some one to hold on to her hand while she sits on the (adult’s) throne, and then later help her wipe her buttocks. So I was in the toilet, holding her hand, and waiting for her. After a minute :
Zaria : My poo poo didn’t want to come out, want to stay inside my stomach.
Me : Never mind, you try, mummy will wait for you.
After a few more seconds,
Zaria : I think I must ‘pause‘ first.”
Me : (didn’t get her) Huh?
Zaria : I ‘pause‘ first. Later only poo poo.
o.O” (must have learnt from the pausing of her DVDs)

Later, we went to the mall, and she wanted to do her undone business. In the toilet :
Zaria : Now my poo poo want to come out already.
Me : OK.
Zaria : My poo poo is out. Can you smell it? o.O”
Me : Yah I know, it’s smelly.
Zaria : You can say ‘Eee Yoooo’ you know. o.O”
Me : (oblidging) Eee yooo… and are you done yet?
Zaria : Not yet, I want to shu-shu first. Because my poo poo want to swim in the shu-shu. o.O

She does has a funny sense of humour. 😛