My google ranking is ZERO now! (actually not just now, but since Jan 1st)

Daddy is not around, so I have to send Zara to school in the mornings, getting stuck in the heavy traffic!

Only 1 maid at home, cannot do my own things or work after 6:30pm until the girls are asleep.

Zara throwing lots of tamtrums, probably missing Tuyam, and maybe also because she’s tired sleeping late and waking up early for school.

So many escalations lately at work. Working late all the time!

I want to do this tooo…..
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

(but then I’ll be careful and not knock my head so hard until I get a permanant bruise on my forehead)
(this also explains why I have not been visiting your blogs)

I took half day off and sent Zara to her kindergarten today.

I was expecting a little reluctance, or maybe whining, or even some crying when I left her in her class.

She surprised me again. She just said her bye bye, joined in, blended in, and didn’t ask for me. Half the children around her were crying and clinging on to their mummies or daddies, and my little girl didn’t even look out the classroom to see if I was waiting for her there.

I sneaked out to the bank, and came back and class has been dismissed earlier than scheduled. I was a bit worried, and was trying to locate a crying face but I found Zara happily playing in the play ground. When I told her I need to go to the office to settle her fees, she said she would stay outside and play.

My, has she grown up!

Zara’s first day of school and no hic-ups. I’m so proud of my girl. 😀

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

On the other hand, Zaria at home was missing me. According to the maid, she was whiney, crying a bit and kept saying “Maaaameeee Maaaameee”, looking for me.

Zaria just turned 1yr old two days ago.

We have a small celebration for her cum Christmas Eve dinner at the Royal Palace King’s Wife’s place.

Zaria frowning, when she was asked to cut the cake together with my brother, whose birthday is just few days apart from Zaria’s

So how is this 1yr old doing?

Weight : 7.7Kg (lost a bit after her fever).
Height : 74.5cm
Head Circumference : 45cm
Number of teeth : 7  – Upper and Lower Incisors, left lower lateral incisors sprouted before the 11th month, upper lateral incisors sprouted this month.

♥Mobility & Dextirity♥
She crawls really fast nowadays.
She enjoys walking in the court yard (with pebble washed flouring) with her hands held but she won’t walk and prefers to crawl at other places.
She now knows how to get up and down furniture very well.
Able to crawl up and down the stairs on her own.

♥Speech Development♥
Started saying some phrases.
“Go kai kai“ : Go Out (of the house).
“Mum mum ker ker” : Eat Biscuit.
New words she picked up :
Cake
Cat
Go
Pis (Please)
No no
Tow (Throw)
Ah-per (Apple)
Tah (Car)
Tar (Star)
Pish (Fish)
Walk-walk
Poo (Put)
Poo Poo
Pao Pao (Chinese : Full)
Beh-Bee (Baby)
Ah-yang (Sayang, Malay : pat lovingly)
Ter-Tee (Dirty)
Meh-meh (Mei Mei, calling and pointing to herself)

She knows how to make sounds on demand, E.g. Ao for cat; Ugh Ugh for dog; Moooo for cow; Kghhh for snoring; and she clucks her tongue for lizard or gecko.

Able to listen and follow instructions, e.g. “Bring the book, and mummy read to you.” “Let mummy smell your finger.” Points to object or people when we ask her where the person or object is.

Able to do action on demand, e.g. “How Mei-mei brush your teeth?” She puts her finger in her mouth and moves it about.

♥Food and Milk Intake♥
3 solid meals a day, and I started introducing her whole eggs and fish this month (realised these animal products actually make her wet diaper super stinky!). Sometimes when we have chicken soup at home, I’ll let her have some as well.
She likes noodle, and not so keen on porridge.
She still loves to eat, but the amount she takes has reduced. She takes about 2/3 of a bowl (rice bowl) or less of whatever that’s served.
Tasted a bit of ice cream this month, but she didn’t like it and immediately said “Pao Pao”.
Ate her birthday cake (home made) and she liked it.
Still fully on breastmilk.

♥Sleeping♥
Taking very short naps these days. Once at noon, and another (by force) at 5pm. Total nap time doesn’t exceed 2hrs.

♥Emotions and character♥
Very strong will. If she wanted something and didn’t get it, she’ll fake a cry and go on all fours. Or she’ll keep requesting until she gets her way, e.g. She’ll keep saying “”Pis” (Please) if she wanted something and we didn’t give in to her, and each “”Pis” will be spoken with more anger until we give in or she’s distracted by something else.
Very loving, always kisses me, and hugs me.
Frowns a lot, especially when she doesn’t like something, and doesn’t agree to something.

(More celebration photos coming up soon).

Zaria has started the clingy period, she always wants me to carry her, and used to fuss a bit when I didn’t. However, after her fever, she started to cry if I didn’t oblidge or didn’t get her way.

She will cry with big tear drops, sometimes even going on all fours, and slaps the floor with both her hands, banging her head on the floor in the process. o.O”

She wants to be nursed all the time. Making the milk sign every time she saw me. Yesterday, when she did that again 30mins after I’d fed her, I commented, “Milk again? You just had your milk.. Mummy don’t have so much milk you know. You think Mummy is a cow huh?” When the word ‘cow’ was heard, Zaria did a “moooooo”. Made all of us laugh. Haha… Anyway, this post is not about how cute she is…

Here are some shots of these ‘drama’ moments.

Oh, who’s coming?

Maaameee

“Beat!” She said, when I didn’t pick her up and she got a bit angry

She stood up and cried when she saw me walking away. See those big drop of tears?

Bad news first

Zaria had her very first fever yesterday evening. Jelly (Daddy nicknamed her Jelly brains, which I think it’s quite mean, but then, she is, well,…. jelly brains) didn’t even realise, and I discovered when I came down to feed her at 6pm. Sigh. Her temparature was 38.4, and she was hot! Trust the maids? *shake head*

Brought her to see a GP nearby, and kept sponging her when we got back. She was very active still, babling, crawling, cruising, just like her usual self but took lots of short naps in between. 

In the night, it shot up to 39. Being the mum, I was the one who went sleepless; sponging her, checking on her, feeding her medicine. This morning, we brought her to see her paed just to make sure she’s alright.

She’s still running a fever, and probably fighting a viral infection, according to the doctor, she should come out of it by Sunday. So, more sleepness night for me.

Daughter fever, mother suffers. 🙁

Since we went to the paed, got her latest measurement :
Height : 74cm; Weight : 7.8Kg (thin…); Head Circumference : 45cm

♥Good news now♥

Zaria has started addressing me on Wednesday night. Not Ah Meen, or Mama, and I didn’t have to wait for 14 months like Zara.

She calls me in her sweet little voice, “Maa-meeee”, when she sees me and it’s in the mood.

Daughter fever, mother willingly suffers.

Maa-meeee

I love watching Zaria’s expression when she’s watching TV.

Look at Zaria, all geared for the show, even before the show began she was already signing ‘more’.

The show began, the animals were appearing, Zaria was getting real serious.

The cows went Mooooo, look at Zaria attempting to do moooo.

Watch Zaria signing bath (again, her own version but not the ASL standard) as the pigs were bathing now.

More animals were coming out, Zaria was getting really excited.

The show was about to end. She’s probably asking, “Where are the animals?”

The last scene where all the animal puppets appeared for the last time. Watch her go “THERE……”

Finally, when the show has ended, she wanted me to play it again. “I want more!”

I love to see these expressions. While Zaria is watching Baby Einstein – Baby McDonald, I’ll be watching her. 🙂

What can this 11th month old do besides messing up the house?

♥Mobility & Dextirity♥
She moves around the house mainly by cruising, or crawling on her knee (I thought she would not be crawling on her knee like Zara, but I was wrong).
Can stand unsupported momentarily.
She’s starting to enjoy walking about with her hands being held.
Her pincer grip is getting better, able to pick up small rice puffs for eating.
She likes to pick things up and place them in bottles, boxes, containers.
She is able to climb down from the bed, buttocks and legs first! Even stairs, with some assistance.

♥Speech Development♥
She’s really doing well, and her vocabulary is expanding. She likes to talk and express herself, some words are still not comprehensible (to us), but we’re understanding her more. Here are some of the new words she can say.
Zara : Zah-Wa
Jiejie : Teh-Teh
Daddy : Pa-pa
Banana : Ah-Nana
Bear : Beh-Beh
Park : Pak-Pak
Bath : Ba-Ba
Duck : Duck-Duck
Back (put back, come back) : Back
Biscuit : Kuht
Bird : Ber-Bert
Pat : Peh-Pek
Rusty (our cat) : Tih
Book : Boo

Every morning, when she wakes up, she’ll turn to check for Zara, she will point to Zara and shouts, “Zah-Wah! Zah-Wah!” Sometimes she’ll crawl to Zara’s bed and pat Zara and shouts some more “Zah-Wah! Zah-Wah!” (she normally talks in a shout like voice).

When I ask her, “Where’s Daddy?” If she could hear Daddy in the shower, she’ll shout, “Pa Pa! Pa Pa!”

Me? When I ask her to call Mummy, she grins and keeps quiet. 🙁

Another example of her talking :
When it’s time to go to the park, she’ll shout excitedly, “Pak Pak!”. When we leave the house, she’ll look up and point to the sky, and say, “Ber Bert!”; flapping her hands at the same time. When we reach the park, she’ll point to the rocking duck and shout, “Duck-duck!”, asking for a ride.

♥Other means of communication♥
She sign pain, but in her own way by fanning her face with her fingers, and frowning (she can even do this on demand).

She expresses her happiness by clapping.
She compliments the chef (good food) by cluthching  her fist with a little of her thumb sticking out.
She demands more of some thing, by tapping her pointer to her other palm.

She says YES by moving her head forward and backwards.

She’s also able to understand simple instructions like, “Give mummy the book, mummy read to you.” “Danger Zaria, come back.” “Cannot put in the mouth!

♥Food and Milk Intake♥
She loves eating. We give her 3 meals a day, and some light snack in between, such as rice puffs, fruits, Baby Bites.
She is still still fully on breastmilk, and I feed her on demand (she’ll come to me, and sign the milk sign, or sometimes, she’ll point to the study and sign the milk sign to whoever is handling her).

♥Sleeping♥
Unlike Zara who only stopped taking 2 naps when she’s close to 2yrs old, Zaria is occasinally taking only 1 nap a day. 🙁
She sleeps at 9:30pm (if she only took 1 nap) or 11pm together with Zara (if she took 2 naps on that day).
She wakes up at about 8am daily.

♥Emotions and character♥
She’s more clingy now, preferring me over most people. However, she only fusses a little before she allows another person to carry or handle her.

She shows her displeasure by crying, at times a bit dramatic by crouching on the floor and crying. However, unlike Zara who can cry for hours, she can be easily pacified.

She loves books, flipping them, pointing at the pictures, saying the names of familiar objects (“Ao” for cat, “Ah-nana” for banana etc). Sometimes even laughing when she sees a funny picture (e.g. a baby doing a funny face).

She enjoys Zara’s program occasionally, especially when there are lots of singing involved, and can sit at the sofa watching together with Zara; clapping her hands, and moving to the music.

She’s rather independant, we can normally leave her alone with some toys or books, and she can keep herself occupied.

We’d started to make lumpier food for Zaria as well as introducing new food to her such as macaroni, noodles and spaghetti. No meat or eggs for her yet, and she’s still fully ‘vegetarian’ until she turns 1 (just to lower the risk of allergy).

She’s having 3 meals a day now. Breakfast is normally oat with fruits; banana or avocado. Lunch is mainly fruits but sometimes her dinner is cooked earlier, and she’ll have a bowl of her dinner for lunch. Dinner is always something savoury.

Here are some of the things we cooked for her :
Apple, broccoli, carrot cereal (cereals are always made using : brown rice, buckwheat, millet and quinoa)
Red spinach cereal
Cauliflower and potato cereal
Carrot porridge with mashed toufu
Carrot and turnip porridge
Purple cabbage cereal
Red dates and gooseberry porridge
Zucinni with cherry tomatto millet porridge
Beetroot cereal
(as shown in above photo)

Her favourite type of food is actually soup (ABC soup minus the meat; ‘pearl bean’ soup; herbal soup) with rice, noodle or macaroni.

Last Sunday I made fry spinach noodle for her, and she just loved it. We can tell she loves something because she’ll be shouting “mum-mum mum-mum” excitedly and impatiently throughout the meal.

The recipe :
~ 30ml blended boiled spinach (as the sauce)
~ finely shreded carrots
~ finely chop spinach
~ chopped shallots
~ small amount of cooked plain wheat noodle (or mee sua)
Fry shallots with small amount of olive oil until fragrant; stir in carrots and fry until soft.
Stir in noodle and chopped spinach until spinach is cooked.
Pour in the blended boiled spinach to coat the noodle evenly.

She loved it so much she even clapped her hands after the meal.

Jackie Cheung was in town a while back. Because we were going for his concert, we played quite a bit of his CD at home.

Zara like 2 of his songs most and always listened to them.

Here is she trying to sing one of the song.. take note, this is a girl who doesn’t speak Mandarin, so she’s just remember the “sounds” of the words.

I don’t know why the expression, nobody taught her that.

What do you think? Not entertained at all? How about if I added a background dancer?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

My girls rock, don’t they?

Little Zaria turned 10th month old on Sunday. This post is more on her language development.

She knows the name of more things now, e.g. aeroplane, banana, ball, fan, doll, bear, upstairs, biscuit, cat, book, Mother Mary (a picture we have of Mary hung on the wall), park (as in play ground), duck, speaker, mum-mum (Chinese : food), trees, leaves, up, down, face, etc.

She understand these words : nice, good, hot, cold, clever; and will turn back if she heard us saying dangerous, no loudly, etc.

She knows the name of some actions, and able to do these actions on demand (but depending if she’s in the mood), e.g. kiss, pat pat, hug, sayang (Chinese : pat or stroke), sit, stand up, knock, bang, shake, wave bye bye, flying kiss, throw, etc.

She understands some instructions, but following them is another story: e.g. come back, No, Cannot (e.g. Cannot put in the mouth, Cannot touch)

This is the face she’ll give you if you ask her to do a ‘funny face’

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

This is how she tells me she wants milk when she comes to the study

She’s getting better with her hands, so she’s doing her baby signing better. Signs she can do :
More : tapping her index finger on her other palm
Milk : Open her hand, then clutching her fist
Scrared : Patting her chest
Full : Patting her stomach
Good : clutching her fist
Yes : bounching up and down

She moves both her arms like flapping when we say fly, put her hand on her ear, when we say Hello or go on the phone.

She can do the action to the song “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” (opening and closing her palms); “If You Are Happy And You Know It” (clap her hands, stamp her feet, raise her hands to the words Hooray, point to her face).
Even without the song being sung, and only the music is played, she would be doing the actions.

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

The first word she’s spoken must be mum-mum on her 7th month. She’s started mimicking a few more sounds, and able to say a few more words. E.g.
Ta-Ta (calling Tuyam, kakak)
Doh-Doh (for Doll)
Jer-Jer (the Badger sunblock as there’s a badger picture on it)
Cat to her is “Ao” (just like Zara)
Aeroplane to her is “Aaaa-ohhhhhhh” (very similar to the cat sound, but she would drag it longer).
When she sees me and she wants milk, she’ll say, “Mak”. Probably her short form for saying, “Mum, I want milk.”

When we’re drinking, and she’s nearby, she would say a short “Ah” when we finish drinking and move the cup away from our lips.
When we ask her how does daddy snore? She’ll do the sound “Keghhhh”.

Pointing is her favourite hand action now, point to things she wants, places she wants to go

She also communicates with us with her facial expression, and making other sounds, and pointing to things she wants or pointing to places she wants to go.

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

Unlike Zara, she’s not eager to please. With a bit of encouragement and praising, Zara will repeat her action or say a word when we ask her to do so. Zaria on the other hand, will only do an action or say a word when it pleases her, or when she needs to express herself, not so much to please us.