My program manager is a Taiwanese, and our test manager is a Mainland Chinese. I speak a lot to them over the phone in Mandarin.
On Saturday, while trying to get the girls to nap, I took a Chinese book in the attempt to bore them to sleep and read aloud.
Zara stopped me midway and said, “Mummy, you sound like you are having a meeting right?”
😛

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Zaria just did a poop and since was about to take her bath, we left her diaperless, just in her pajamas pants.
She was playing in the living room on her own, and then shouted to Jelly, “Auntie! Chu-chu (Chinese : peed) oh-di (already).”
Jelly being the slow self, took a while before she came out to check on Zaria.
Jelly said when she came out to the living room, Zaria was already holding some tissue (pulled from the nearby tissue box) and was trying to wipe away the puddle on the floor.
😛

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Zara was trying to tell me something about trying Japanese something, while we were going for a walk, and she was in the pram.
Me : Can you speak louder I can’t hear you.
Zara : mumble mumble…try Japanese ….
Me : What about Japanese, I can’t hear you.
Zara : *loudly*Haiya!*whisper*mumble mumble…TRY JAPANESE!
Me : Zara, when you talk to mummy, please turn your head to look at me. I can’t hear what you are saying
Zara : Aigh! Never mind la.. since you cannot hear me, I also don’t want to talk already
o.O”

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I’d been telling Zara about aging.
Zara : Mummy, I don’t want you to grow old. I want you to be like Ah Kim. Alicia jiejie and Sam jiejie big girl already Ah Kim still not old yet.
(Ah Kim has kids when she was younger, I had mine when I was older..and Ah Kim has La Mer cream to keep her young.. how to compare)

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I asked Zara if she liked her Alice In Wonderland DVD.
Zara : I like it a little bit only
Me : But you’d been watching it so often. Why don’t you like it.
Zara : Because, Alice is only a normal girl. She’s not a princess.
Sorry Alice!

After 18months of breastfeeding Zaria, it has come to an end. My milk supply dwindled to a mere 6oz a day in May with the increasing work travels.

I refused to bring the breast pumps to US as I intended to stop since Zaria was coming to 18months. No engorgement, no leaking breasts, my body just stopped producing. And how did Zaria cope? She’s fine having her formula milk. She asked for the breast a few more occasions when I got home, I told her, “Mummy’s breasts no more milk.” and she replied, “Suck suck breast oni (only)” pulling my top up. And she really meant it, just a minute, and she let go.

On days, when she tries to be funny, she tells me “Mummy, want suck suck breast.”, and when I lift my top, she turns away, and then looks back at me smiling cheekily and says, “Don’t want.” repeating this a few times. OR she pulls up my top, and pinches the breasts, and says, “Peet Peet” (the sound of honking). I can’t remember Zara being so cheeky last time.

Then there was once, she asked for the breast, and after just a while, she let it go and said, “No milk oh-di (already).”

The request to nurse and actually nursing, is becoming more infrequent. Now, she said, “Mummy, make milk” or “Aunty, make milk.” when she wants her milk.

Nursing Zaria for 18months just like Zara (see, I’m fair!) has brought me some embarrassment (leaky breasts) and some pain (engorgement, the biting) but it’s all worth it. We have lots of private 1 on 1 to increase bonding, she has strong immunity, and she’s rather smart for her age because of all the DHA I was giving her from my milk.

Now the time has come. I chucked away my nursing bra and bought myself some new bra, and I’ll be putting up an ad to sell my pumps and all other nursing gear.

The big solid boobs are gone, the bottles are here to stay. Goodbye Big C, hello Little B (or is it A?).

♥Zaria♥

On asking her to give me her favour cheese omelette.
“Give mummy some can or not?”
“Teh-not”
“Why cannot?”
“Hot Hot”
“Then mummy blow first.”
“Teh-not. Zah-ya’s one.”

On her wanting to go home after park to have dinner
“Go. Go Home oh-dee (already).”
“Why Meimei wants to go home?”
“Go home. Dinner. Eat yice.”
“Meimei hungry huh?”
“Aah.”

On her being full
“Pao Pao oh-dee (already)”
*move the bowl to Jelly*“Auntie eat.”

On her like and dislike
“Meimei want ice cream?”
“Want! Ice Kim Koh-koh (cold cold). Nice.”
“Meimei want medicine?”
“Don’t want.”
“Why?”
“Sour.”

On her jumping on the floor.
“Mei mei cannot jump on the floor huh.”
“Jump jump bed oni (only)”

♥Zara♥

What about Zara…?? She’s so good at talking back sometimes she is just testing my patience.
She goes like this : “Mummy I’m grouchy, you keep quiet, don’t make any noise.”
and “Mummy, you listening or not, I say keep quiet.”

And when something goes wrong, she bosses around, “Whose fault is it? Huh? You tell me whose fault is it?”

Once, I scolded her for not behaving, she told me off, “Next time I big girl already, I go to another country and leave you behind.”
(Did I travel too much?)
But later, when we were best of friends again, she added, “I said next time I big girl already, I go to another country to work, when I finish work, I come back and see you.”
(Definitely I’d travelled too much)

She started singing Happy Birthday 4 weeks ago, I was too busy to capture her on video then although caught her on sound clip.

Today, I managed to get her singing, and quickly took the camera to capture this. She always only sings 4 verses of this, then stops at the 4th verse to ‘blow a candle’. Sometimes it’s Happy Birthday To You, or Happy Birthday to whoever, but most time it’s Happy Birthday to Zaria, just like in this video.

Check this out.

This comes from a girl who’s turning 18 months next week. I have to say, we’re quite proud of her achievement. *grinning from ear to ear*

Do you think it has got something to do with the mum who sings all kinds of silly songs to her kids and a sister who sings a lot of made up songs?

Miss me? Miss my girls?

I have been so busy it’s crazy!!

Here’s some glimpses of what I’d been doing.

Can you recognise this face? Or the cap?
Yes! I’m the first, I’m the first to meet Simple American!!
We did some soul ‘linguistic’ searching, he finally knew what the real meaning of PIAK is, or how to pronounce ‘Roti Canai’ and ‘Nasi Lemak’.

Visited a place with a fake miniature Statue Of Liberty.

And then this place with this dense skyline.

As for the girls, this is what they are saying..

She and her icy cold stare.

The manja Zaria is always asking me to ‘come’ or ‘carry’.

Juicy details will come later!

Zaria turned 16 month last week. I captured some of the moments which happened during her 15th month.

She said her first 4 syllabus word = Nani nani (frangipani). She can recognise the flower, and she’ll point to it and say “Nani nani”

Although she’s saying words in abbreviation, i.e. Nana for Banana, Raff for Giraffe, Bra for Zebra, Pard for Leopard. She is beginning to say some of the words in full rather than the short cut version. i.e. Papaya as papaya and not Papa any more.

She starts talking in phrases, e.g.“Take doll doll.” “Give cock-con (pop corn).”

She discovered sugar sachet. Once sucking on it, the pack ripped off and she tasted sugar. “Weet, weet. (sweet sweet)”, and she tried sucking harder to get to the sugar.

She is singing and the tune and words are more ‘audible’.
Old Mac Donalds sounds like “Cow, Eeeya-eeya Yo. Moo there, moo there”
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star sounds like “Ker Ker Star. Up up up up high”
Somewhere Over The Rainbow sounds like “(Some)where..Oh(ver)..(the rain)Bow”

She starts being able to identify a person is masculine of feminine, old or young. Pointing to small girls “Jiejie”, small boys, “korkor”, adult female “Ah-tie (Auntie)”, adult male “Ah-Ker (Uncle)”, elderly lady “Poh Poh”.

She knows how to say some of our names.
“What is Mummy’s name?”
“Neck-Nurse”
“What’s Auntie’s name?”
“Yeh-Lee”
And of course her own “Zah-yah” and Zara’s “Zah-wah”

She can recognise and knows how to address all the family members.
My sister as Yi-yi
My PIL as Yeh-yeh, Ma-ma
My brother and SIL as Ah-Ku and Ah-Tim (Ah Kim)

She started saying “No”.
Zara : “Give jiejie back her Fifi.”
Zaria : “No”

Her vocabulary is pretty extensive, knowing most of the animals, objects at home, differentiating rice, bread, noodle. etc.

She’s very ‘manja’
When she falls or hurt herself, she’ll come over and ask for a hug. “Pain Pain” “Hug Hug”
When I raised my voice on her, she’ll also come over and ask for a hug, “Mummy. Hug Hug.”

She’s becoming very clingy now, preferring me over most people, sometimes even daddy. But still, she’s more of a daddy’s girl than Zara.

Our weekends mornings are normally filled with activities, i.e. we need to do our marketting, Zara needs to attend class.

Yesterday, a public holiday, we didn’t have anything on in the mornings so we went out for breakfast, and brought the girls to a big field near our place. Zara has this fascination about plucking flowers from the fields, park, anywhere, so this is really for her.

Zaria checking out a big decorative pots in the restaurant we had our breakfast.

Zaria loves patting flowers, like the character Mr Night, in her book titled Good Night, Mr. Night.

Zara just loves plucking weeds flowers.

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After that, we went to a farm near our place too (you can imagine how ‘ulu’ our place is). This is more for Zaria, to see the cows, turkeys, goats, ducks etc. Zara almost puke because of the stentch from the cow dung. So she stayed with me near the car, while Daddy brought Zaria near the farm. No photos, since I was holding the camera.
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In the evening, we brought them swimming. It has been a while since they last swam. Zaria was clinging on to me, refusing to float on her own. The moment I let her hands go, she’ll be calling “Mummy.. Mummy.”

See the expression on her face, she’s not comfortable when I let her go.

Zara on the other hand, just swam about on her own, of course staying near to Sam, her favourite cousin.

Zaria was afraid to be on her own, but she still enjoyed herself. Constantly showing the ‘good’ sign.

Sam, my niece, splashing down the slide.

Zara followed suit.

Weeeeeee…………

Splash!!
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After that, it’s off for some ice cream.

Fun day for the kids, tired day for the parents.

We went to the Taman Tun park on Saturday. Zaria was very excited and eager to get down from her stroller to walk when we arrived.

We could see she was walking a bit like a drunkard (unstable),  probably because she missed her second nap, and wasn’t as alert as she normally is. When she was walking on the tar path, she just tripped and fell, landed on the right side of her face. It happened so quickly, nobody could have dashed to her to catch her in time.

When we picked her up, being a toughie, she cried a bit, pointed to her face and said, “Face.. pain-pain.” She scratched her face, and knocked her forehead, luckily it wasn’t a very deep cut. “Mummy, hug-hug.”, she asked for hugs from every one, and then after that she was ok and playing again.

See the scratch, in the morning after…

If you are wondering what happened to the patch at her lower lip, that’s caused by her saliva constantly soaking that part. She is teething, her lower right molar fully sprouted, and she was salivating a lot from the right corner of her mouth. Then now her upper left and right molars are sprouting, so the salivating hasn’t ended.

I chatted with Zara after Zaria’s accident : Zaria is so brave right?
Zara : I’m also brave wut.
Me : Zaria fell down, such a big scratch on her face, she just cried a little. But if you fall down, even a very small cut, or no cut at all, you will also cry and cry and cry.
Zara : You know or not, my skin is so sensative ma, that’s why I cry. o.O

Zaria is showing behaviour that we’d never seen in Zara. The I-don’t-care-you-better-give-me-what-I-want-or-I’ll-cry behaviour.

Don’t let this angel looking face fool you

When she wants something, and doesn’t get it, she wails, as though she has fallen down or hurt herself.
Sometimes going on all fours, but now being more clever, she’ll just slap her hands on the floor, but not her head.

She immediately switches to a smile the minute what she wanted was given to her. These days, we’ll just distract her with something else or ignore her cry until she stops.

2 days ago, when I was reading to Zara, she moved her buttocks to my lap and tried to push Zara away. Zara was very patient, she just moved aside while I handled Zaria.
Me : Zaria, mummy reading to jiejie. You go and play with your toys.
Zaria : EHHH! Boo-book. (she put her book on top of Zara’s).
Me : Mummy already read so many books to you, now jiejie’s turn (I took her book away and asked Zara to sit back on my lap)
Zaria : Ehh!!! (she slapped Zara’s book)
Me : You sit on mummy’s lap, we read together then.
Zaria : Ehh! (she tore Zara’s book)
Very quickly, I lifted her up, and told her, “Cannot tear book book! You yai-yai (Chinese : naughty). Mummy read to jiejie why you tear jie-jie’s book book? You go to naughty corner then.” Then I put her in her cot and walked back to Zara.

She cried and wailed and screamed. And I just finished reading to Zara, ignoring her. Zara kept throwing glances at Zaria, but didn’t say anything. 3 minutes later, when I’d finished reading to Zara, I picked Zaria up. Immediately, Zaria smiled. *roll eyes*

Me : What happened just now?.
Zaria : Yai yai! (referring to herself) Beat!
Me : No, mummy didn’t beat you. Mummy put you in naughty corner. Why? Because you tear jiejie’s book
Zaria : (she pointed to her cot) (cor)Ner!
Me : Next time cannot tear Jiejie’s book ok?
Zaria : Ten-not (Cannot)
Me : Promise? (I reached out my hand)
Zaria : (she beat it with hers, our way of ‘promising’) (pro)Miss
Now it was Zara’s turn to speak, Say sorry to jiejie.
Zaria : Soyee
To me : Mummy, say sorry to Zaria (for making her cry)
Me : Sorry meimei

Following day, I asked Zaria.
Me : Meimei, remember what happened yesterday?
Zaria : (remem)Ber
Me : You tore jiejie’s book, what did mummy do?
Zaria : (Naughty Cor)Ner! (ha, she remembered!)
Me : Where is your naughty corner
Zaria : Cot. (clever)
Me : Can tear book book or not?
Zaria : Ten-not (Cannot). (pro)Miss (she slapped her hand on mine)

Good, looks like she learnt her lesson. 😛

This is almost the same everyday at our dinner table. Zaria will eat half heartedly, and then after a few spoonful, she’ll start spiting her dinner out. “Pow-Pow! (Chinese: Full)”.
“You don’t want any more?”
“No-want. (Don’t want)”
But then, when we put her down from her high chair, she’ll go straight to the fridge, and shout, “Khuet!! (Chocolate)”; she’ll keep saying “Khuet!” until we give her her doze of chocolate or something else to distract her.

Zaria knows now when she needs things done she’ll go to Jelly.
Once she was trying to take a few pieces of clothings down from my cupboard, but the whole stack came tumbling down. I was next to her, but she went on to look for Jelly, shouting “Ah-tie (Auntie)! Ah-tie! (Put) Back! *pointing to the cupboard* Back!”.

And when she wants her bath, she’ll be shouting “Ah-tie (Auntie)! Ah-tie! Ba-Bath! Ba-Bath!”

I tried asking her, “You like Auntie?”
She replies with her index finger out “Good!” (meaning her Auntie is good, so she likes her Auntie).

When she gets hold of a pair of shoes, a hat, or watch, or even a hair clip, she’ll come to us with the item placed on where it belongs (i.e. place hair clip on the head) “Wear.”

She knows how to correct us when we name something wrongly. E.g. *pointing to my BIL* “Mei-mei, is this Daddy?”. She’ll smile and shake her index finger, “No-no, no-no Daddy. (He is)Uncle “

Of all the things Zaria says, Daddy is most pleased with Zaria constant chanting of “Daddy-DaddEEE..Daddy-DaddEEE” when he’s around. I tried to get her to say Mummy-mummeeee.. Mummy-mummee, but she’ll only be able to say “Mummy” and not like she calls Daddy “Daddy-DaddEEE..Daddy-DaddEEE”.