One of our colleagues came from Sydney to Malaysia for a holiday, so Mom2Ashley and I met up to have dinner with him. We brought our kids along.

Ha, we didn’t plan this, but both Ashley and Zara wore the same outfit which we bought for them from US. Not to mention, I too wore the same outfit, because Zara insisted that I wear the same top as her.

When the 2 first met, Zara being the brave one, went over to shake hands with Ashley. Ashley was a bit shy, and she just stared at all of us smile-less.

At the restaurant, we put both of them seated together.
Zara initiated, “Can I borrow your car.”
Ashley said, “Yes”
They both played with a car separately.
After a while, when we said we wanted to take a photo with the 2 of them, Zara sat over at Ashley’s seat and put her arms around Ashley (See Ashley in the photo, still hardly warmed up yet).

Next moment, spark flew. They started playing like old friends, chasing each other around, laughing at each other’s jokes. When Ashley needed to go to the toilet, Zara followed too, holding each other’s hands. We can see both of them were enjoying each other’s company.

When it was time to leave, Zara asked me, “Why we go home so early? I was having fun with Ashley.” o.O”

That’s no way I can have as much fun with Zara as she could with her own group of friends. Just like the last time we went to Jazzmint‘s place, she too had lots of fun with Faythe. So we’ll need to organise some kind of play group for them in the near future.

Oh what about Zaria? That girl was too busy exploring, no time to make friends, if she could just sit down quietly like Aidan half the time, that’ll make us less tiring.

Before the Raya mad rush, we took a week off and headed North for our once a year trip to Penang.

The night before, Daddy asked, “You sure we need to bring along Jelly?” (he was thinking of bringing his dad instead).
Imagine we’d been having this bring-don’t-bring conversation since August, and made a decision and now this?
I was ‘tulan’ (Cantonese : annoyed) and replied, “If you can feed the girls, bath them, wash the bottles after their feed, then no need to bring.” Grrrrr…
Of course Jelly came along eventually.

We took off on Saturday, with a car choked full of things. It’s no joke travelling with 2 young kids.

When we had a pitstop at an R&R some where near Tapah, we kidded with Zara and told her that we’ll be staying in one of the outdoor pavilions; nearby, some goats were bleating. She was worried, and when she was convinced we were staying there, she said, “I think we better go home.”
Daddy still teasing, “We thought both of you like farm stay, that’s why we chose this hotel.”
Zara replied, “I don’t like farm stay, I like home stay more. We go home better.”
I pretended to cancel this hotel and told her we’ll try to get another room in Penang. She was relieved, but still added “If no nice hotel, then we drive back home ok?” o.O”

First stop of course is St Anne’s (church) at Bukit Mertajam.

In the old chapel, Zara said her prayer while all Zaria wanted to do was blow off the candles at the alter (of course after Happy Birthday singing). -.-”

While looking around, Zara stopped at the statues showing Jesus’ crucifixion looking very sad and asked me, “Mummy, why the people so wicked they want to nail Jesus on the cross.”
Seriously, for me who still have questions about my religion, I don’t know how to answer her.

We stopped at Bukit Tambun for dinner, the restaurant that we went to last year was closed to public for a wedding so we had to go to another restaurant (some fishing-floating restaurant). Food was lousy. Phhhhbbbbbt…

We arrived at Bayview Beach Resort at 8:30pm. Zara was so happy and relieved when we stepped into the room. We took the L-shaped family room again. The room is spacious and clean; 4 of us took the king bed, and Jelly took one of the single beds. We had an early night although I was tempted to sneak out to start my DVD shopping.

Sunday morning was spent at the pool and at the beach. Zara preferred the earlier, while Zaria the latter.
When we brought Zaria to the pool and took her to a deeper end where her feet couldn’t touch the ground, she said, “I’m scared.” or “I don’t yike(like)”. When we asked Zara to go to the beach, she said, “I don’t want, the sand is so rough.” So we had to split into two groups. 1 to the beach, 1 at the pool.

For lunch, the girls had Pizza from Papa Pizza at Tanjung Bunga, while we had char kuey teow (Hokkien : fried flat rice noodle) behind Papa Pizza. I think the pizza was better than the kuey teow.

Love this shot of the girls, just up from their naps and attacking the left over pizza.

In the evening, we headed to the Botanical Gardens. Zaria, the adventurer, tried to get close to the monkeys, and a few times almost got attacked by them. She was a bit disappointed to know that the monkeys were ‘not-friendly’ and ‘naughty’.

They loved the place, the flowers, the plants, the space.

A lot of people were crowding around this guy at the entrance of the garden. He was selling curry puffs, spring rolls, wades, samosas. What made it so special is after you’d chosen what you want, he’ll cut them up and pour asam laksa soup over them. I had a piece of ‘asam laksa’ spring roll, and it was quite good.

Dinner was at Nonya Breeze (we never missed it). Still so good, still so reasonably priced.

Monday morning after breakfast, we visited Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. We missed 30mins of the guided tour, and still, the girls were getting a bit restless following the guide for the rest of the 30mins. This place is beautifully maintained, but girls have no appreciation for all these.

We had char kuey teow at Lorong Selamat. Yummy but very expensive. RM14 for 2 plates and even the boiled sugar cane water cost RM1.70.

After the girls’ nap back in the hotel, we split into 2 groups and let them chill out at the pool and beach again.

Guess what we had for dinner? Papa Pizza was so good we went there for dinner (actually, it’s also because the Phang Hainanese Seafood Restaurant we wanted to go was closed).

Tuesday morning, we finally managed to see a horse at the beach (horse riding was one of the reason why we chose to stay in Batu Feringgi). After agreeing on the price (RM50 for 2 rounds), I took the girls. Poor horse had to endure the weight of the 3 of us. Zaria was really happy to finally get to ride on a horse. She kept patting and saying, “Hello horse.”.

(Some sad fact : This horse used to be a race horse, and retired after 5 years of racing. It became a horse for holiday goers to ride on at the beach until it reaches 10years old. What happened next? The owner will sell it to some Chinese who’ll turn it into horse satay. Humans are so cruel. -.- )

Zara spent more time at the pool after the horse riding, and I squeezed in a foot massage by the pool. Zaria went back to the room with Jelly for a nap. Before 1pm, we checked out and left the hotel. On our way out, we had a very tired Zara snoozing, and a very energetic Zaria singing.

TV can be so useful, to ‘baby sit’ the girls, and for the girls to pick up new words, some of it good and some may not. And I also saw a lot of reaction from the girls, which in normal day to day life may not surface.

Zara being the sensitive girl, held my hand tight with tears forming in her eyes when she first watched Mulan and heard Mulan singing the song Reflection.

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My sister told me when we missed the return ferry out of Pulau Ketam, Zara kept saying, “My mummy will kill me.” to my sister. When I asked her where she learnt that from?
Zara said, “Ariel (from the Little Mermaid) said that when she missed her concert (musical debut). She said her daddy will kill her.”
o.O (Thanks Ariel)

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Zara asked Daddy, “Daddy, do you know what is San Diego?”
Daddy replied, “It’s a city in America.”
Zara said, “San Diego is a beach with lots of sand.”
I looked at her and said, “How do you know?”
Zara said, “The zebra in that zoo show said so.”

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

When she saw her cousin’s lantern which is a horse with wings (I would have called it that), she said, “I want to play with the flying pegasus lantern.”
(This she picked up from Barbie’s Magic of the Pegasus show).

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

And we have Zaria, watching the war scene in Mulan, shouting excitedly, “Oh Gosh. Oh Gosh. Oh Gosh.” o.O

She also started calling Daddy, “Papa”. Obviously, picked up from Mulan too.

When we bring Zaria out for meals, she normally will try to stand up on the high chair to reach for things on the table. We’ll deter her by telling her, Uncle or Auntie in the restaurant will scold her if she did that.

At home if Zara and/or Zaria wanted to get me to do something or spend time with them when I’m working, I’ll tell them that my boss will scold me.

In one of these occasions, I said, “Mummy cannot play with you. Mummy is working. What will mummy’s boss do if mummy don’t work?”
Zaria replied, “Scold scold mummy.”
“How mummy’s boss scold mummy?”
Zaria said loudly, “Hey you! Sit poh-plee (properly)”
(the exact words we used when we told her how the uncle or auntie in the restaurant will scold her)

Yesterday, we were doing sounds that animals/things made.
Me : “What sound does the rooster make?”
Zaria : “Ko-ko ko-kOHHHH”
Me : “What sound does the snake make?”
Zaria : “Sssssssssssss”
Me : “What sound does the lizard make?”
Zaria : “tsk tsk tsk tsk” *clucking her tongue*
Me : “What sound does the door bell make?”
Zaria : “Ding Dong!”
Me : “What sound does mummy’s boss make?”
Zaria : *loudly* “Hey YOU!”

😛

Zaria signature smile she kept only for cameras

Shame on me. I’d been so busy at work since returning from Houston, I have no time to write her development post. Today, she’s 20months, 2 weeks old.

Here is a quick update before everything is ‘stale’ news.

Taken on 17th July –
Weight = 9.4Kg
Height = 81cm
Teeth = 16 pearly whites. She cut her upper and lower first molars almost the same time in June.

Zaria flashing a smile

♥Dexterity♥
♥Jumping♥ – She likes jumping, and can lift herself off the ground pretty high. When she’s asked to dance, she normally does a jump instead.

♥Running♥ – This girl can run. Sometimes Zara has a race with her friends in the park, and she will join in too. Although not as fast, she can finish the two loops (~200metres) the other bigger kids are doing.

♥Climbing♥ – She likes to climb. Ladder, furniture, slides which are meant for sliding down, she does it.

♥Tossing a ball♥ – She’s quite good at it, although sometimes backwards. And she just loves balls.

♥Language♥
She is able to express herself very well, although sometimes it takes a keen ear (like mine) to decode what she’s saying.

♥Vocabulary♥
Naming most of the shapes, animals, items in her picture books. Count 1 to 10 sometimes. And sometimes she gets the colour right too, e.g. yellow, black, green, orange. Knows the difference between, breakfast, lunch, dinner. E.g. In the morning, “After bake(break)fast, watch Baby Einstein.” At lunch time, “Want eat Mac (and) Cheese (for) lunch.” After park, “Go home oh-di (already), dinner time!”

♥Alphabet Recognition♥
She can recognise the Capital A and occasionally letter Z too. She knows they are “ABCs” when she see letters.

♥Pronunciation♥
She has problem pronouncing some sounds. K sound is replaced with T. E.g. “Go Tai-tai (“Kai-Kai” in Cantonese). And her L sounds like Y, E.g. “Um-be-yah” (Umbrella).

♥Singing♥
Can sing a few songs on her own : Happy Birthday, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep, I Love You (from Barney), Old Mac Donald, ABC.

♥Language Structure♥
Talking in phrases now.
Mixing the “me” with “you”. E.g. “Mummy hug you (me).”
Skipping the Is or Tos. E.g. “(I) Want (to) go there.” “(I) Want (to) wear this shoes.” “Cheh-cheh go (to) school oh-dee (already).”

♥Mandarin♥ – She can understand a wee bit of Mandarin, and able to reply “要” “不要” to answer my question in Mandarin.

She likes to play with cars.

♥Temperament♥

♥Ah Ngao/The Bull♥
We call her the ngao or ‘bull’ at home – head strong, charges at things and not deterred by obstacles, very unlady-like.

Up till today, we still have to ‘tie’ her on the high chair when we have meals because if we didn’t, she would be climbing on the table, putting her hands in the dishes, or pulling the place mats off the table, spillng soup/sauces. To her, it’s a ‘belt’, and after dinner, she’ll request, “Take off belt now. Finished dinner oh-di (already).”

When she’s unhappy, she smack the person that made her angry. If I scolded her for that, she’ll instead use her hand and beat her head or thigh. o.O”

♥Vain-Pot♥
She’s getting vain now. Sometimes, she refuses to wear t-shirt and pants, and her reason, “Zah-yah Pin-ses (Princess), want wear Pin-ses (Princess) Baju (Dress)”.

Every time after she’s taken her bath, she’ll ask to see me or Daddy. “Daddy look. Zah-yah wear Pin-ses Baju” or “Mummy look. Zah-yah’s hair so nice oh-di.”

Princess Zaria

♥Tough but Soft♥
She can stand pain, but she’ll cry if she’s not getting what she wants, or being scolded, or feeling sad.

♥Food♥
Willing to try new food but getting very difficult to get her to eat her regular meals, especially when it’s rice. A few times I had to put her in the naughty corner because she spit out every thing we fed her. Now, she wants us to applaud when she eats and not spit out her food. “Za-yah eat oh-di. Mummy clap clap hand. Daddy clap clap hand.” o.O”

She’s eating what we’re eating now, and if we can, we’ll make her portion salt-free.

♥Favourite food♥
Macaroni & cheese, chocolate, sea weed, banana crisp (“Banana Krop Krop” that’s how she says it), fried chicken.
(the junk I feed my kids.)

♥Milk Intake♥
Only able to take 4oz per feed, about 4 to 5 feed per day. She’ll ask when she wants, and we don’t fix the timing she takes her milk.

♥Toilet Training♥
Since early this year, we try to get her to do her business on the toilet bowl, and half the time we are successful. When she feels like it, she’ll tell us she wants to “she-she” or “Poo Poo”. She doesn’t want to use the toilet for big business because she said her “Bum-bum pain pain” (from hard stool).

She’s starting toilet training earlier as Zara only started to use the toilet to do her business when she turned 2.

♥The Things She Likes♥
TV – Sesame Street (she calls it Da-di-da di-da show, because of this song in that VCD), Noddy, Baby Einstein, Barney, High-5, and sometimes she’ll also sit and watch Barbie show with Zara.

She loves books – picture books, short stories for toddlers.

She loves soft / huggable toys.

She is very close to Daddy and loves him very much. Unlike Zara at this age who didn’t allow Daddy to sooth her, sleep with her, feed her, Zaria loves Daddy doing all these for her.

Only Daddy allows her to play with the computer

She likes princess stuff – she loves crown, dresses, click-clock shoes (heels that make that sound)

She loves playing with water and sand – that’s why she’s always asking us to bring her to “Ah Lang Ah Lang“.

She loves her sister Zara, but at the same time likes to annoy Zara by snatching her things, messing up her things. o.O”

Kissing one of her favourite soft toy – Pootle Bear

And we all love her.

Taught Zaria how to sign “I Love You” 2 days back.

Yesterday, she was flipping through a book with pictures of real horses. When she reached the page with a horse resting, she signed to the picture “I Love You” while mouthing the words; and then proceeded to lean one side of her cheek on the picture (her way of ‘sayang’ or showing her affection).

When I asked her “What about us?”
She then also did the same thing to Zara, Daddy and me while saying “Aff (love) you che-che” “Aff you mummy.” “Aff you daddy.” while signing “I Love You”.

Sweeeeeet…

Love You (Thanks to Sasha for making this into a gif)

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I like her way of signing smelly too. She puts her hand near her ear, bends and stetches her fingers.

Smeh-yee

♥Zara♥

She wanted to wear a dress (a hand me down) from Karen, Eve‘s daugther, which she loves.
I asked her to wear her Zara dress instead, telling her, “See, this one is nicer, some more if you check the label, it says ZARA. Same as your name.”
Her reply, “This one (her earlier choice) is also nice wut. The label says KAREN.”
o.O

Over heard her talking to Fifi.
Fifi, you must start sleeping on your own already you know or not? I cannot sleep with you always. When I’m bigger girl, I’m giong to sleep with my boy friend, you have to sleep in your own room already.
o.O

She told me we have to go to Ikea, I asked her why.
“We must bring Fifi back to see her parents in Ikea. They didn’t see her for so long already, they miss her you know?
(Fifi is her favourite soft toy which we bought from Ikea)
o.O

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♥Zaria♥

Zaria was bring naughty over dinner, so I scolded her.
Zaria :Mummy hug hug.
Me : No. You yai-yai (Cantonese : Naughty), Mummy don’t want to hug.
Zaria :Want mummy hug now.
Me : No. You eat your dinner properfly first.
She fussed and struggled, got down from her high chair, climbed up my chair, forced herself onto my lap, buried her face on my shoulder, then declared victoriously, :“Haha, mummy hug hug oh-di (already)”
o.O

Love the girls’ natural smiles, but when they are asked to smile for the camera, this is how they look like.

Check-out-how-many-teeth-I-have smile.

I-saw-a-scary-monster smile.

The-stool-is-too-hard smile.

I’m-young-but-I-have-crooked-teeth-and-wrinkle-on-my-nose smile.

They look funny, but I still love it.

We’re very amazed with how Zaria expresses herself. Some moments :

When she looked as though she’s about to poo, we quickly took off her diaper and sat her on the toilet bowl, she struggled.
“Don’t want poo poo. Bum bum pain pain” (she has been having big hard stool).
But when you have to go, you have to go, she tried for a moment and said “Poo poo stuck.”
Once done, she said, “Za-yah poo poo boh (bowl) there. Ah-tie(Auntie) hold”

She saw a faded Winnie The Poo figure (but you can still make out it’s Winnie The Poo) on some girl’s water tumbler in the park. She pointed to it and say, “Poo bear gone oh-di (already)”

Asked if she needed help on the swing, and she said, “No. Za-yah own.” And this is what she did.

One day, she wore the top below and she pointed to the polka dots and said, “Mummy, look, rain dops (drops)”
And yes! She’s jumping now.

And yesterday, she put her bear on the bottom half of the russian doll like below, and shouted, “Ah-tie (Auntie)!! Bear-bear poo poo oh-di!”

This girl is 1 year, 6 months and 2 weeks old today. Although she looks like Daddy, she definitely has my brainy genes. 😛