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?

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.

Me : Zara, what do you want to be when you grow up? Doctor? Teacher? Chef?
Zara : When I grow up I want to be a real princess.

Neighbours were talking about sending their girls (around the age of Zara for ballet).
Me : Zara, Chloe and Erin will be going for ballet classes soon. You want to learn ballet or not?
Zara : I don’t want mummy. I want to learn princessing.

Daddy asked about Zara’s sunglasses, “Zara, why you put your sunglasses at home? You should leave it in the car. When it’s sunny, then you can put it on.”
Zara replied, “Daddy, if it’s sunny, I don’t want to wear my sunglasses.”
Daddy asked “But why?”
Zara replied rolling her eyes, “Do you see princess wear sunglasses one or not?” (obviously not those Disney princesses)

The other day when I read Beauty & The Beast to her and when we reached the ending, which read, “She kissed him.. blah blah.. She sobbed, “I love you!”.. blah blah.. the beast turned into the handsome prince.. blah blah.”
Zara smiled shyly and asked, “Next time when I big girl, I will also meet my handsome prince right? And then we’ll get married right?”

My princess Zara

Since Zara turned 2 1/2, she’s very much into princesses. Her enthusiasm increases with time. I wonder when this stage will pass. I was told, I should bring her to Disneyland before she passes this stage, so that she’ll enjoy herself more. Hmmm….

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”.

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.

We were in Ikea last Sunday, and I just grabbed one of the soft toy, a dog, available from the kids section and placed it in the pram for Zaria to play with. When Zaria fell asleep, Zara took over the dog and started cuddling it, talking to it, stroking it.

At the check out counter, I said we’ll return the dog back to Ikea. Zara went, “Maah-meeEEEE. I really like it.” So I got it for her. RM39, not to expensive, ok la.

She immediately named the dog Fifi, claiming Fifi to be her ‘child’.

Now, she watches TV with Fifi, sleeps cuddling Fifi, she reminds me to bring Fifi along when I go pick her up from school. Zaria tails Zara calling after Fifi, “Fee Feet” but only gets to cuddle Fifi when Zara is at school and not watching when Zara is feeling generous.

The other day, Zara said in the car cuddling Fifi, “You know, mummy, I’m the luckiest person. Only I have Fifi. Nobody else have.”

Remember Mr Blue? He has been cast aside to make way for Fifi. “Mr Blue’s skin is so rough now.” That’s her excuse. She still lets Mr Blue sleeps with her on the bed, but only Fifi is in her arms.

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.

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!♥

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!”

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

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.