Zaria on the other hand is speaking and communicating really well, she’s growing up to be quite fiery. She’s easy to get angry, and when she does get angry, she throws things, shouts, beats or scratches us. o.O”

Influenced by Zara, she tries to correct our English occasionally too.
One day I pointed a picture to her, “Mei look, so special this umbrella.”
She replied, “Don’t speak sloppy English, there’s no la in English.” o.O”

We were telling the girls about the trips Daddy and I used to take before they were born. When we went through the photos of our trip, Zaria started frowning, and she banged her fist on the album, “Why you didn’t bring me?” but then remembering, she brows straigtened and she added, “I not yet born? Oh.”

One evening, she came to me, “I love you mummy.” and kissed my lips.
“I love you too meimei.” I kissed her back.
She laid her head on my shoulder and a moment later, she remembered and asked, “If I naughty, you love me or not?” o.O”
I told her, although I don’t like it, I will still love her.
And she looked at me and said softly, “Sorry, mummy.”

One day after her nap, she wanted to get out of the room but the room door was close. Not able to get out, she started kicking the door, when I opened the door for her, she frowned and said, “I was trapped!”

That’s our Zaria, the fiery, spunky chilly padi

We’d celebrated Hari Raya and also Deepavali in the same month. For us, it’s really just a holiday break. For the girls, it was a time for them to discovered the differences in each of this celebration.

Zara drew this in school for Hari Raya. She knows there’s ketupat and the pelitas (some type of Malaysian wall candle sconces or oil lamps) in this celebration.
.

And then for Deepavali, she realises that there’s Kolam drawing every where, and she made one herself on paper.

Zaria, not to be outdone by Zara, did a drawing too. She has been very proud of her drawing, and kept showing it to us. Can you tell what she tried to draw?

Here’s her answer : “See, my birthday cake drawing. I draw (drew) decoration on the cake. They are sweets. This is the baloon. See, Daddy and mummy is (are) also there. My picture got present also.” Zara helped to write Zaria’s name, and put in the words (ok, she spelled that phonetically); she also drew Zaria next to Daddy and mummy, drew a present (which Zaria later coloured), and also some candles on the cake.

Lately, I feel so tired all the time. Even with all the supplement I’m taking, and sleeping early, it’s still the same.

~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~

When I call Zaria Little One, she tells me, “I’m not little any more. I’m big girl already.”
When I ask her to do something on her own like clean up or yesterday, to wear her own socks before bed, she said, “I’m still a small girl. I cannot do myself.”

~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~

Every week, we get Zaria telling us :
“I love you mum.” one day; then another day “I don’t like you anymore” or “You are not my daddy any more.” or “I don’t friend you then you know”

~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~

One day when Zaria was super naughty, since there’s no cane in the house, I took hold of a paintbrush the size of a cane (in circumference not in length), and smacked Zaria.
Later, when it was Zara’s turn to be naughty, I threatened to use the same method on her, and she said, “You smack me with the paint brush, I’ll ask Aunty Jelly to call the police and catch you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~

I asked Zara who was her favourite aunt, Karen yi-yi, Teresa yi-yi (my sisters), ku-ma or Ah Kim Jenny (my SILs). She told me “I like Ah Kim the most.” When I asked why, she told me the reasons, “Because Ah Kim is the most rich” Then further added “And also because mei-mei doesn’t like her. If I don’t like her, then she’ll be very pitiful.”

~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~

I enrolled in a baking course ran by Taylors but last minute decided to pull out because my neighbor who’s done the course before told me it wasn’t worth the money. Zara was quite keen in me joining the class, so that I can bake big cheese pies for her and also nice cakes (that’s what she said). So I asked her, “Will you blame mummy if mummy didn’t go for the class?”
Like an adult she told me, “No, I won’t because it’s your property.”
Then continued, “You just learn from books then, and also watch TV to learn.”

Like an angel hor..?

This is what she’s capable of doing…. (and what I’m capable of doing)

I forgot to bring their milk along to pick them up from school.
Little Tyrant : *shouting on top of her voice* I WANT MY MILK NOW!
Me : Sorry I forgot to bring.
Little Tyrant : “I said I WANT MY MILK NOW!
Me : But mummy didn’t bring.
And started driving the car away from school.
Since Little Tyrant sits in front, she started kicking me, scratching me, kicking the gear box..
Me : Stop doing that
Still, she scrarched me, smacked me, kicked me.
Me : *found a spot to stop the car* You get out of the car and take the taxi home if you want to kick me some more.
Little Tyrant continued kicking.
Me : *Opened the door* You go! You get down and take the taxi home!
Little Tyrant stunt (probably didn’t think I was going to do that).
Zara : *Crying* Mummy, what are you doing? *covered her eyes* Mummy, what if someone catch meimei?
Me : Do you want to get down or do you want to be good.
Little Tyrant : *in small voice* Be good

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I had to go to Kinokuniya, KLCC to exchange a book I wrongly bought. Daddy dropped me off and stayed in the car with the girls. When I got back, Little Tyrant started a shouting bout.
Little Tyrant : I WANT TO GO TO KLCC NOW!
Me : Mummy finished changing the book already, now we go for dinner
Little Tyrant : I don’t want to go for dinner, I said I WANT TO GO TO KLCC NOW!
Me : *bluffing* KLCC closing already, because it’s so late, we need to go for dinner.
Little Tyrant : I throw my shoes at you then you know!
Me : *turned back and warned* Don’t do it…
Little Tyrant really took off her shoes and started tossing to the front, but because her aim is not good, it hit the back of our seat and dropped.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Little Tyrant was very quiet for a very long time. When we found her, she was in the toilet staring at the bubbly sink, grinning. She had poured half the bottle of Dettol handwash into the sink, turned on the tap and watch the bubble mass.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Little Tyrant cries for the tiniest thing, like Zara flushed the toilet for her instead, she’ll be screaming and wailing “I WANT TO DO IT MYSELF!!!!!”

And when she cries, she CRIES. Wailing on top of her voice, kicking a big fuss, lying down on floor, breaking things she comes into contact etc etc.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have tried all sort of ways to discipline her, sending her to the naughty corner, puting her in the toilet to cry herself off, smacking, threatening (e.g. She’ll go to naughty school if she cannot behave). Then yesterday, I told her, “If you so yai-yai, you are not like my daughter, you are like Cruella De Vil’s (from 101 Dalmation) daughter.” I gave her the DVD and showed her the cover with a big Cruella De Vil’s face. She doesn’t like it, and normally she would quickly put the DVD down with Cruella De Vil’s facing downwards.

This morning, she picked up the DVD, put it right in front of her face (with Cruella De Vil’s face out) like a face mask, and started walking around. “Look at me!!” o.O”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Most of the time, she is like this…

Tell me, what can I do?

I’m amused and at the same time finding myself out of wits handling the little one. See the things she said.

Daddy asked her to share a piece of cake she’s eating, she said, “This is a girl’s cake, boys cannot eat.”

Zara complained to me that Zaria took a piece of dough I gave her. Zara said, “Naughty Zaria, took my dough”
Zaria explained to us, “No. I’m not naughty. Jiejie left it there (at the sink), so I take.”

Sometimes I mixed the girls’ name up, and a few times when Zara did something wrong, I raised my voice and said, “ZARIA! Don’t do that.”
Zaria would quickly correct me, “It’s not Zaria, it’s Zara.”

While poking my belly button, she saw my laproscopy scar. She looked concerned, “Tssss. Mummy, what happened?”
“Mummy, had an operation last time.
“Painful or not? Let me sayang. *blow the spot* Better? *kiss the spot* The doctor just now ampoo-tait (amputate) you?”
(for her, anything that happened in the past is ‘just now’)

She asked me to read a book to her, I told her I can’t because I was having a fever.
“Then, I read myself.”
She took a book, and pretended to flip the pages. “Once upon a time, the mummy is having a tem-pee-cher (temparature), the jiejie is coloring, the mei mei is covering her (face with a) book, the aunty is cooking, the daddy is working. The end.”

Daddy was asking Zaria why she broke a basket at home in the car, and when we arrived our destination, she refused to hold Daddy’s hand, she said, “I’m not going to friend you any more. Because you say something bad about me.”

o.O” o.O” o.O”

Sometimes when I raise my voice at Zaria, or scold her, she’ll challenge ask me, “What did I do? Mummy? What did I do?”

One day, I called her “Little One”, and she replied by folding her arms, and turning away, “I’m not little any more oh-kay? I’m big girl.”

Daddy was touching her head, while reading a book to her, she said annoyingly, “Daddy! You cannot stroke me, after that my hair fall down (i.e. messing up her hair).”

I asked her to tidy up the puzzles she’s scattered on the floor before reading, she told me, “I cannot clean up, it’s hard work. After that my hand become hard.”

o.O”

♥Food Intake♥
1) She’s taking whatever we’re eating except spicy stuff. She’s more adventurous with food then Zara, and willing to try new food.
2) She loves parmesan cheese, nuts, beans (green, red)
3) The amount of food she takes is as much as Zara ~ about 1/3 bowl of rice (my girls eat very little). When we go out, the girls will share a kid’s meal, or a bowl of noodle (and still, there’s left over).
4) Drinks 3 times and 24ozs of milk a day, but sometimes she will refuse a milk feed.
5) Supplements that she takes : Kawai, Nordic Naturals DHA pill.

♥Emotional Development♥
1) She’s shy compared to Zara. Quiet in others’ presence but very chatty with us.
2) Even after 8mths in school, when we send her to school, she still clings on to us, and takes a while to let go.
3) Always bully Daddy. When she falls down, she beats Daddy. When I scold her, she beats Daddy. It’s like she blames Daddy for anything unpleasant that she experiences.
4) Very loving to me, when I’m upset with Zara, she’ll come and kiss me, “It’s ok mummy. I love you.” She’ll give me kisses very often, but very stingy with Daddy.
5) When she doesn’t get her way, she will throw tantrums, especially when Daddy is the one who doesn’t give in.
6) When she’s angry, she likes to fold her arms and announce loudly, “I’m very angry with you.”
7) Gets angry easily but also cool down very quickly.
8 ) High pain tolerance, but very emotional. Rarely cries because of pain, but will cry because we speak too loud to her, we scold her, or punish her.

Once, Daddy punished her for some naughty things she’s done, and she told him, “I don’t like you. You are not my daddy any more.” When I explained to her Daddy loves her so much, always brings her to Giant shopping, always bring her to the beach, she started sobbing and then gave Daddy a big hug feeling really sorry for what she’d said.
9) She always has this cool, arrogant look on her face especially when she’s not smiling; but she’s actually quite soft inside, and very cheeky and smiley at home.

She’s very witty and funny.
Once we went to the park, and I told her not to run on uneven ground, she didn’t listen and fell down. When I went to pick her up, she folded her arms and said, “I’m very angry. I don’t want to friend..” before she finished, I added, “Oh, You don’t want to friend mummy? Mummy told you not to run right? Or else you’ll fall down. Mummy told you nicely you don’t want to friend me?” She quickly said, “I don’t want to friend the grass only. I friend you, mummy.”

♥Others♥ :
This is a girl who loves to mess things up.
~ She loves to see where the water goes when she pours it on the table.
~ She likes to step on dirty puddle to see what will get dirty.
~ She loves to pour all toys out from their containers to hear their clanking sound.
~ Not attached to any particular soft toy. Likes my belly button, but I won’t say she’s attached to it. Loves books, and can spend a long time flipping through her books.
~ She’s selective with what TV show to watch, and only pay attention to those she likes (unlike Zara who will stare at the TV no matter what show is on).
~ Started to understand that when she’s not behaving, she’ll have to stay in the naughty corner, or get a smacking.
~ She has a love hate relationship with Zara. They play well together, but sometimes for the slightest thing they fight, or argue. Most common argument that they have is when one found something (which has been ignored all these while) to play with, the other insisted on wanting to play with the same item, and then there’ll be snatching, argument, shouting, and finally crying (from the one who lost the battle).

I created an album each for the girls for their 1st year. Last night, Zaria wanted to look at hers, so we flipped through hers together. Some of the photos that stirred them emotionally.

Zara : *pointed to the above photo* What’s this?
Me : That’s Zaria. The photo is taken when she was still in mummy’s stomach
Zara : Why is she brown?
Me : (aiyo, what to say?) Err. It’s just how the photo turned out. Maybe b’cos she’s surrounded by water in my stomach.
Zaria : That’s me? I’m a brown baby?
Me : Ya, that’s you.
Zaria : *lips curled downwards* I don’t want to be a brown baby!
Me : Ok ok.. we look at other photos. Don’t look at this one.

*flip flip*

Zara : *pointed to the photo* Oh.. look at Zaria, she’s so cute!! So chubby. Oh… now she’s so big *full of affection*

*flip flip*

Me : *pointed to the photo* Hey, Zaria, look. Last time you were so brave, you dare to swim in the pool yourself. How come now you need to hold on to mummy?
Zaria looked at the photo, her lips started to curl down, then tears started falling.
Me : Hey, what’s wrong?
Zaria : *pointing at the bottom middle photo* I’m drowning. I’m drowning. Waaaaaaaa..
Me : (surprised why it made her so emotional) You were not drowning.
Zaria : *tears still flowing* You see or not, I’m crying. I’m drowing. Look.
Me : (quick! Find an excuse) You were not drowning. We wanted to go home already but you still wanted to swim, so you cried.
Zaria seemed to be thinking about my answer, and stopped crying until she saw this..

Zaria : *her mouth curled further down, and big drops of tears flowed down* “WAAAAAAAAA!!! I want my daddy. I want my daddy.
(Daddy has been out on work trip whole of this week)
Me : (aiyo) You missed your Daddy?
Zaria : *nodded and continued to cry and sob* “Uhgh..Huh huh”
Me : I call Daddy then?
Zaria : *shook her head* “I don’t want. WAAAAAAAAAAA”
Me : *quickly called Daddy* “Eh, your daughter miss you very much la, saw your photo then started crying. You talk to her. *passed the phone to Zaria*
Zaria : *took the phone and listened* “sob sob”
Daddy : ….. (don’t know what he said)
Zaria : *nodded her head* “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.”
Daddy : …..
Zaria : *nodded her head some more, then gave me the phone* “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. I don’t want to talk any more.”
Me : *took back the phone* Aiyo, never mind. See you tomorrow, let me calm her down first.
Zara : *sadly* I also miss my daddy you know. He’s so fun. (ok, ok, I know, I’m not as fun as Daddy).
Zaria : *looked at Zara* “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.”
Me : Never mind, never mind. Tomorrow Daddy coming back already. (Alleluia!)
Me : We sleep now, tomorrow wake up, go to school, come home, take nap, then Daddy is home. Ok? Come lets go to bed now.

The End.

I feel extremely guilty for not providing any development update on Zaria like what I did for Zara. Here is one which I will try to capture her development this year in 2 parts (too overdue, too much to update). And for the records, she’s 2 years 7 months when I wrote this.

♥Academic Development♥
1) She’s the youngest in her class but doing very well. The teachers said she’s quiet in class, but always have the answers for questions which other children can’t answer.
2) She can count and recognise 1 to 10 (counting objects, and not just memorising the number sequence). She can also put out her fingers 1 by 1 to indicate number 1 to 10.
3) She can recognise alphabets from A to U (capital and small letter), and of course Z, and know the sound they make. (Thanks to Letter Factory and Letterland)
4) She knows quite a lot of Mandarin, and Bahasa Malaysia vocab; sometimes, when Zara doesn’t remember how to say something in Mandarin or BM, Zaria will be helping her.
5) She got awarded, best improved in Mandarin for her age group, on her 100th day in school (June ’09).
6) She can sing a lot of songs taught in school, although sometimes I can’t make out the words (especially BM and Mandarin songs), her tune is pretty accurate.
7) She’s very interested to learn, and always asking me questions like, “How many swings is (are) there” “What is bench in Chinese?” “What is sing in Malay?” and the best is, she likes to ask “Sky starts with letter what?” “Grass starts with letter what?” Normally, I’ll ask her to give me the answer, and she’ll start with the sound first, e.g. “S-S-Sky, Samy Snake! (Letterland character for S). Letter S!!” “G-g-g-Grass, Golden Girl! Letter G!” etc etc

Zaria doing colouring in May, she’s already doing within lines. Then last month, she started ‘drawing’ by drawing circles, and then colouring the circles to create her picture.

♥Language Development♥
I think she’s doing very well in this area, able to express herself like a little adult, using some complex words, and her extensive vocabulary. Sometimes for a not-commonly used word, she may make mistake, but she’s quick to correct herself. E.g. When she wanted to do painting, she said, “I want omelette.” When I asked, “Did you say omelette?” She thought for a while and corrected herself, “I want the palatte.”
For her age, her pronunciation is very good, she could pronounce most words accurately. The only regular mistakes she makes is leaving out the S sound for S-blending sound, e.g. Sweet; Swim, School, but when we repeat her wrong pronounciation after her, she’ll quickly self correct.

♥Other Skills♥
1) Can draw circles and colour within the lines.
2) Loves to cut paper with scissors and mess up the house
3) She can work on the todler sewing card, stringing them without supervision.
4) She likes working on jigsaw puzzles, and figuring out how to buckle things or button up.
5) She can take off and put on her own clothes, but sometimes still put 2 legs into one trousers hole.
6) She can now reach for the door knobs, so she’s getting in and out of closed rooms freely.
7) She can feed herself very well, but Jelly still prefers to feed her. When she’s out with us, I normally let her eat on her own.
8 ) She stopped wearing diaper in the night since Feb, ’09 (2 years 2 months). And since then, she’s wet the bed 4 times (and we found out it’s becasue she didn’t go to the toilet before she went to bed). She normally has her last pee before going to bed, and she’ll sleep through until the following morning without another toilet going.
9) When she needs to go to the toilet (be it small or big business), she’ll remove her own pants and climb up the (adult) toilet seat on her own; and will shout out when she’s done. Sometimes, Zara will go and help her ‘clean’ up.