From this…..

to this….

After 1 year and 3 months of breastfeeding Zaria, it’s slowly coming to the end. After my Hong Kong trip, my milk supply dwindled. Not sure if it’s from the stress, or it’s really time to wean her. She started taking half bottle and half breast. She will go to Daddy or Jelly to ask for “Mek (Milk)” when she wants the bottle, and if it’s breast she wanted, she’ll come to me.

She wants breast mainly during the night, or when she wants to do this to me…

This girl likes to poke my belly button when she suckles, and it’s really not comfortable for me at all especially if her nails are not trimmed!!
Sometimes when the breast is not available, she’ll be poking her own belly button instead.. o.O”

While Zara weaned off at 18 months and I wanted to do as long with Zaria, looks like the travellings and the pressure from work is not in our favour. Everybody is telling me it’s high time. Ha.. I’ll stop when the time comes, i.e. when she really doesn’t want it any more because she’s not getting anything.

My chilli padi Zaria is getting ‘spicier’.

Coming to 15 months, she’s learnt how to 争宠 or ‘fight for attention’.
If either of us we were reading to Zara, she will come with her book, squeeze for a space on our lap with her buttocks, and then say, “Book book.”

Although we trained her to sit in a car seat since birth, she still complains and wants to wiggle herself out (and most times she succeeds); possibly because both Zara and I sit at the back.

At meal times, we have to use a linen cloth to strap her up on her highchair (we never had to do that with Zara). When we don’t, she will get out of the high chair, and try to get on to the dining table (and mess the dishes up) or just stand on the high chair giving us the victory grin.

When she gets hold of the house key, she’ll try to reach for the key hole chanting, “Go Go Go..”, probably planning for an escape.

We call her the great Houdini.

She’s rather stubborn and no matter how many times we’d told her not to touch the rubbish bin, she still likes to put her hands in the bin and then exclaimed, “Tir-ty” (dirty).

On speech development, she is picking up words like a hungry sponge.

She now knows how to ‘complain’ when Zara snatched things away from her by screaming. When I ask what happened, she’ll point to Zara and say, “Che-che.. fight.”

She also knows how to relate experience in her simple English.
Once there was a thunderstorm and Zara was crying because she’s very scared of thunder. I went down and asked what happened, Zaria pointed to Zara and said, “Che-che.. (thun)der. *patted her own chest* Scared scared… Kai Kai (cry cry).”

She answers “Za-yah” when we ask her “What’s your name?”.
She answers “Za-wah” when we ask her “What’s jiejie’s name?”

When we go out, she’ll go to the shoe rack and picks up her shoes, claiming “Za-yah‘s“. And then point to Zara’s shoes and says, “Che-che‘s“, and then to mine and says, “Mummy‘s“

When she has snot in her nose, she’ll be telling us, “Nose.. wet, wet… dab dab (as in use tissue to dab)”.

She’s a sweet girl who hugs my leg and not let me get back to work; calls Jelly sweetly “Auntieeeee” when she wants something and nobody is entertaining her; most of all, she’s Daddy’s girl. Always happy to see Daddy, and always calling him, “Daddy.. Daddy..”

Just for the record, she’s 77cm tall and weigh 8.2Kg. And her lower left molar has sprouted, making her teeth count to increase to 9 teeth.

I sing a lot to the girls, sometimes giving instructions in songs (which I made up the lyrics), sometimes just songs to sooth them, to entertain them, to teach them.

E.g.
Before bed time, I may sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars, or Barney’s I Love You.
To get them to bath, especially Zara, I’ll sing (a silly song and tune I created), “Your hair so smelly smelly, It’ll kill all the buggies. Quickly go washy washy, to get rid of the smelly.”
Or we’ll have Jackie Cheung’s karaoke at home.

The girls grew up with songs, and hence their minds are filled with songs too.

When Zaria sees a moon (the real thing or in the book), she’ll point to it and say, “Moon”.
Then she’ll ‘sing’ “Ke Ke… Star”; her version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars.

When Zaria sees a rainbow, she’ll point to it and say, “(Rain)bow”., looks at me “Uh.. Uh”.; and waits for me to sing Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

Zaria after a bath. (This has got nothing to do with this topic but I really like this photo.)

Zara is constantly entertaining us or herself with song singing throughout the whole day. Sometimes at the most inappropriate time as well, like during dinner time, she’ll sing with her mouth full or takes forever to finish because she’s singing more than eating.

She also likes to create her own tune and lyrics to reply to me, like e.g. “No, no, no, I don’t want to eat this one” when a vege she dislikes is offered to her.

Yesterday I made some pan cakes for breakfast, and got Zara to help me. While helping she sang a new song I never heard before,
Mix the pan cake
Stir the pan cake
Pour it in a pan
Turn the pan cake
Toss the pan cake
Catch it if you can.
(She said she learnt that from school)

So if you are in this neighbourhood, you’ll know which house is mine with all the melodic singing coming from. 🙂

Since Zara started school beginning of the year, the girls have been infected with all kinds of viruses.
Zaria gets fever almost every fortnightly.
Zara gets cough, runny nose frequently.
Both girls have their first course of antibiotic this year. *sigh*
The girls have never looked so dirty before, there’s always snot on their faces, and dried booger in their noses.

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It’s school holidays and Zara is home whole day.
This morning we have this conversation,
Zara : Mummy, you going to work today?
Me : Yes. Mummy will be working at home.
Zara : Mummy, don’t work today. You play with me.
Me : No, Mummy must work, or else, will have no money to buy food.
Zara : You use my money loh mummy.
Me : You have money meh?
Zara : You use my money from my ang pow. Then you no need to work loh.
(if only it was that simple).

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Zaria is pointing at things and naming them, or some times asking us to name them.
She’ll point to an object (mainly from books), “(What is) This?” and turn to look at us to wait for an answer.

The other day, she pointed to a picture of a computer on a book and said, “(compu)Ter.” and started tapping the picture with her fingers from both hands mimicking typing.  (She must have seen me typing in mine and connected the two.) 😛

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My uncle met Zaria for the first time and wanted to carry her. Zaria waved her index finger and said, “No No.” And then patted her chest, indicating she’s afraid of him.

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Had a conversation with Zara the other day about milk.
Zara : Milk comes from cow
Me : Yes. Which part of cow gives out milk?
Zara : Milk comes from the breast
Me : Yup. Girl cow or boy cow have breast?
Zara : Girl cow. But I’m a small girl. I only have nipple, I don’t have breast. Mummy have breast, so mummy got milk. Daddy also only have nipple, so Daddy don’t have milk.
Never knew we can differentiate nipple and breast in that way. 😛

This month we’d nicknamed her the scholar.
She is always looking through her picture books at the book shelf.
She is always asking us to read to her.
E.g. She’ll go to the shelf, picks up a book, walks to us, hands us the book, uttering “Ugh. Book Book.”, and then tries to sit on our lap.
She likes to point out the picture and says “There!” when we say out the name.
She likes to name the picture (if she can say the word) we point to her.

Language Development
She knows her body parts now. Head, Hair, Feet, Hands, Nose, Eyes, Ears, Face, Teeth, Mouth, Stomach, Belly Button, Petpet (Chinese : Female private part) and of course Breast.

Her vocabulary is expanding :
Baloon Meh-noon; Rainbow Boh; Clouds Cows; Moon Moon; Eyes Aiyes; Ears Yers; Mouth Mao; Nose Nohs; Hair Air; Read Yeed; Help Hep; Kick Kick; Cow Cow; Bike Bais; Bus Bus; Chair Chair; Hug Hugs; Splash Pash; Poke Poke; Socks Sohs; Shoes Soo; Rice Yais; Put Poot; Scared Sked; Happy Eh-Pee; Yai Yai (Chinese : Naughty) Ya-yai; Zaria Za-yah (Zara is Za-wah, and she knows she’s Za-yah, and Zara is Za-wah)

One day when I was getting all the syringes filled with her medicine in the kitchen and she saw them; she looked at me and said, “Ya-Yai” and walked out of the kitchen away from me.

When she wants to drink milk, she’ll be saying “Mehk”; and if I don’t feed her still, she’ll be saying it louder and louder until it becomes a scream “MEHK!!!”

She says “Deh-Doh” when she wants something to be given to her (a word she created, it’s like her saying “Pass me that”).

“Take off” to her is “Pops”. A sound I used to make to draw her attention when I take off her socks for her. When she ask for “Mehk”, she’ll come over to me and try to lift up my clothes and will say “Pops”.

“Pao Pao” (Chinese : Full) to her is “Enough”. Put her on a swing for too long, and she’ll say “Pao Pao”

Physical Development
She’s walking very well now and refused to be held.
Getting up and down the stairs or furniture on her own by going on all fours.
She likes to climb up on the stepping stool to reach for things, and sometimes tries to push it around to get to places she wants to reach.
She sometimes tells us she wants to poo but most of the time, she tells us after the fact.

Eating and Drinking
Since I got back from Japan, she has refused to drink from a bottle, and only wanted to be breastfed. Not sure if this has anything to do with her ear infection.
She likes to eat, but is starting to prefer some food over others. She likes ABC soup but will spit out herbal soup. She eats spinach but will spit out carrots.
She demands for the things that we’re eating, and if it’s not something she should eat (e.g. french fries) normally we have to lie tell her it is spicy and even dip it in chili sauce before giving to her, so she knows it’s something she can’t eat.

Emotional Development
Unlike Zara who do things to get praises, Zaria does thing she wants to do. No amount of persuasion can get her to do the things she doesn’t want to.
She’s always looking very serious around people, and sometimes will hit the person or herself when the person comes too close to her.
She’s starting to be clingy and always wants me or Daddy. When I need to return to work after feeding her, she’ll be crying and screaming, “Mummy! Mummy!”
She’s always eager to come over and hug us, or give us kisses; but when she’s not in the mood, you can keep asking her for a hug or a kiss, and she’ll just ignore you (or hit herself).

♥She’s walking, she’s talking, she’s demanding, she’s cute!♥
♥She loves eating, she loves books, she loves going out, she loves ME♥
♥The girl is absolutely fun to be with!♥

!#$%!#!

My Italian junk car just went dead on a busy road on my way to pick Zara up from school.
Car zoomed me by, drivers glared at me for slowing them down, but nobody offered to help!
And 2 of our traffic police stopped by and asked me what happened, instructed me to lift up my boot up to notify cars zooming by my situation, so that I don’t get rammed. And they too didn’t offer to help push my car to the side!

In the end, it was Axa that came to the rescue. I called their hot line, and they sent a tow truck to tow my car away. All free! (next time when you buy car insurance, make sure the company you buy from offer such services at no additional cost)

Daddy too rushed from the office to pick Zara up (her school was quite good, changed her and fed her lunch while she waited for us) and then home to check on the car, he declared my battery has totally gone flat. !#$%!#!

Sigh!

Zaria had recurring fever since Christmas. Her fever always fell on holidays, and got well after the holidays so she’d only been checked out by GPs. Yesterday, on her 4th fever, we brought her to see a paed.

It seemed, she had middle ear infection, and so had to be put on antibiotic. Sigh!

Baaah!

Zara’s school has a post Chinese New Year celebration today, and they had placed the notice in Zara’s bag. Neither Daddy nor me checked her bag ever the last few days.

Today when she went to school, all her friends were in their Chinese New Year’s best and our girl was wearing her uniform!! What kind of parents are we for not being more interested in the girl’s school work bag. Baaah!

Another 3 more days to go and it’s the end of Chinese New Year and this will be stale news.

This year, we have such a low key Chinese New Year, mainly because the 2 weekends before Chinese New Year, I was in Japan. There was no cookie baking or buying at all, and the decoration in the house is minimal. Thanks to Daddy who didn’t do anything during my absence.

This year’s reunion dinner was held at our house, and we did something different from the past 9 years! We had steam boat, instead of the anual steam fish, steam chicken, stewed mushroom that MIL always dished out. I was busy in the kitchen and later with serving everybody food that I forgot to take photo of my handy work. *sigh*

1st day of Chinese New Year is always the same, we visit MIL and FIL in the morning, and then it’s off to lunch with my family and then a visit to my close to 90 year old maternal grand father.

And that’s it for us, the rest of the new year, it’s stay at home (except for the open house that my bro threw). So low key, huh?

Some of the photos taken during the New Year.

Yearly, we serve tea to my dad and wish him good health, and in return get a big ang pow. This year, Zaria joined in as well.

Zaria enjoying a stroll and a roll in the royal garden.

Zara playing those (hopefully kid friendly) Pop Pop fire crackers. Red Cheong-sum was hand-me-down from my niece Samantha (and Zara’s favourite cousin) who wore that to my wedding 10yrs ago!

It’s always a difficult feat to take photos of the cousins together. At some point, one will try to sneak away, or one or two will cry. These few are by far the best shot during this Chinese New Year.

I think I’m slacking I’d not been writing as regularly as I have wanted because of work commitments.
I’m supposed to write about CNY but then I thought let me write this first before I forget or it becomes stale news.

On Zaria

She started taking her first steps 3 weeks ago.
1, 2, 3 steps while her hands were let go, and now 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ….. until she lost her balance, and thud, she lands on her buttocks.
Most of the time, she holds on to the wall and cover the distance she wants to travel.
When she looses her balance and lands on her buttocks, she frowns and looks at us, waiting for the encouraging words from us.

When I returned from Japan, she clung on to Daddy, and cried when she saw me.
Didn’t allow me to carry or touch her.
When I offered her the breast, she pinched it, and looked at me with suspicion.
Daddy said she’s taking the bottle really well when I was away, maybe I should wean her.
But then, I wanted to breastfeed her till she is at least 18months like I did with Zara to be fair, so I continued to offer her.
On the 2nd day, she clung on to me, as though regaining her memory of me and the breast.

She started ‘hitting’ her self when she is angry or unhappy, she just smacks the head and frowns. Don’t know where she learns that. *sigh*

A typical conversation we have during feeding time. I like to tease her and see her reaction.
Zaria : “Milk”.
Me : “Bottle milk or breast milk?”
Zaria : “Best”.
Me : “Mummy gives you bottle milk, ok?”
Zaria : *smacks herself and frowns* “Ugh!” or *moves her index finger in front of her face* “No”
Me : “Mummy gives you breast milk then”
Zaria : *smiles and moves herself to the bed or sofa* “K!”

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On Zara

I don’t think I’d mentioned this before, but since her 3rd birthday, she refused to put on a diaper. She has been diaperless ever since. She has 2 accidents so far and we thought that has to do with Tuyam leaving us.

She’s talking and singing more. She’ll entertain us with her make up stories or songs, or sometimes throws in some dance moves as well.

Some recent events :
She was singing Baa Baa Black Sheep and sang, “Yes sir, yes sir, three bag full.”
Daddy corrected her by saying it’s three bagS full, not three bag full. Daddy told her she needed 3 bagS or else there won’t be enough to give the master, the dame and the little boy.
She kept getting it wrong, and after several corrections by Daddy, she sang, “Yes sir, Yes sir, one bag full. None for the master, none for the dame, one for the little boy who lives down the lane.”

On our way home one day, she wanted to get off her car seat to sit close to me.
“Mummy I don’t want to sit in the car seat any more.”
“We’re on the highway, so you must sit on your car seat.” (I sometimes allow her to be without her car seat when we make short trips to the nearby mini-market.)
“What if we’re on the low-way, can I come out from the car seat?.”

MIL nick-named her Lou-chou (老粗, which is used for someone who’s roudy in Cantonese) when she becomes too rough.
So these days, when we see a behaviour we didn’t like, we ask her, “Are you a lou-chou?”
She’ll quickly replies, “I’m a princess, not a lou-chou.”, and quickly change her behaviour.
It’s a very good way to remind her of her manners, and that she’s a girl. 😛

Just before she turned 1, there were occasions where Zaria would do a poo, and she would stand still in a frozen state and utter, “Poo Poo”.
3 weeks ago, when I checked with Jelly on Zaria’s bowel movement, Jelly told me Zaria has been doing her business in the toilet bowl. “She said poo poo mum (that’s the Filipino pronunciation for Maam), I put her in the toilet bowl, she poo poo mum.”

I didn’t believe Jelly, as well as Zaria’s ability.
It was the same story Jelly gave me for the next 2 weeks, although there will be occasions where Jelly said Zaria did it on the diaper. Still, it’s hard to believe what Zaria could do.

Yesterday, while I was taking care of Zaria, she suddenly froze, and said, “Poo Poo” and held out her hand (to indicate she wanted to be held to walk).
I quickly asked, “Meimei want to poo poo is it?”
Still with hand outstretched, she repeated, “Poo Poo”. and then had the expression that she’s pushing something out.
I did a quick check of her diaper, and saw a stool just being pushed out. Yikes.
In an urgent voice I told her, “Meimei wait, mummy bring you to the toilet.”. In a dash, I removed her diaper and sat her on the toilet bowl. “Meimei can poo poo now. Mmmm Mmmm.. Mmm Mmm.” (urging her).
She sat still and really did it! She did 2 more big poops, and then wanted to get down. Probably an indication she’s done!

I didn’t believe what Jelly told me, but when I saw it myself, I was really amazed. Even Daddy think this girl is unbelievable. And there was no concious effort to toilet trained Zaria. Not when she’s still so young though.

Zara was able to tell us she’d done a poo only after the fact at 18 months. Zaria hasn’t reached 13 month yet, and she is able to tell us before she actually does it! I find this really amazing.