Since Zaira could tell us she wanted (depending on her mood) to poo beginning of this year we slowly introduced her to using the toilet bowl to pee as well.

We started by placing her on the toilet bowl in the morning and before bed time at night, and then slowly got her to use the toilet before her baths too. She then began to inform us she wanted to “she-she” whenever she felt like it.

3 weeks ago, we took off her diaper during the day. And told her repeatedly, “Must tell mummy or aunty when you want to she-she or poo-poo yah?”. In the night, we left her diaper on. Since then, there were 3 incidents where she poo-ed in her panties; 1 incident where she got too busy playing and forgot to inform us so she wet herself. Besides these incidents, she remains dry, even in the night!

The past week, every time she needed to use the toilet be it to pee or poo, she informed us, sometimes even going to the toilet first to get herself ready while shouting for help, “I want to she-she” or “My poo-poo coming out already.”

Although she has her diaper on when we go out, she will inform us if she needed to go to the toilet. Unlike Zara, she can actually pee while being carried, so she didn’t have to sit on dirty toilet bowls. Once, she’s fallen asleep after our night out, when I changed her to her pajamas, in her sleep, I asked her if she wanted to she-she, and she nodded her head sleepily. I carried her to the toilet bowl, and she did her pee with eyes closed and her head resting on my shoulder. o.O

Sometimes I ask her, “Mei mei can she-she or poo poo on the floor or not?” She replies, “No… Zah-yah not a dog. Zah-yah she-she/poo-poo toilet boh (bowl) only.” 😛

This is her 22 month’s mile stone! But I’ll still let her wear the diaper in the night and when we go out, just in case.

Note : Anybody interested to buy Drypers Drypants (M) and (L) size from me? I’ll give you a good discount. RM25 for 44pieces M, 36pieces L. There are some which are in loose pieces, but all wrapped up nicely. Drop me a mail. Mamipoko too if you are interested.

Zaria is 21 month and 2 weeks old, another 2.5 month to her 2nd birthday! Gosh, so soon already??!!

Seen here crushing crabs. She seems to enjoy crushing tiny creatures like bugs or crabs. *sweat*

Here’s an update on her development.

♥Dexterity♥
~ She’s walking up stairs with no assistance now, and when going down stairs, she can do it on her own by balancing herself using the wall.

~ She’s able to do thumbs up and down to show things/food is good or bad.

~ She loves lifting her leg up and trying to balance herself with one leg, that’s the influence of Kungfu Panda.

She likes to get all dirty, here, she’s lifting her leg, doing the Kungfu Panda’s kick

~ Loves to climb up furniture, still has to ‘tie’ her down on her high chair even today. *sweat*

♥Language♥
She’s talking very well, and able to mimick most sounds, therefore picking new words up very quickly.

~ Like to relate to past incidents with “(Re)Member?”. E.g. “(Re)member, Zah-yah fall down, then knee painful. Mummy put cream?”

♥Vocabulary♥
Extensive vocabulary. She knows the names of most common things, and some uncommon ones. She knows her colours, although sometimes may still get it wrong. She can recite 1 to 10, A to Z (by singing ABC song), although mispronuncing some of the name of the alphabets.

Doesn’t she looks like a fugitive here?

♥Counting♥
Caught her counting her own fingers one day, then we realised she could count! Able to count up to 5 objects (“1, 2, 3, 4, Four books!”), and tell us the quantity of the items. If more than 5, she’ll forget where she stops. (“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Three lady birds!”

She’s able to recognise a few numbers, i.e. 5 (thanks to High-5), 4, 8.

♥Favourite Phrase♥
“I don’t want.” (Because now, everything also I don’t want) o.O”

♥Language Structure♥
~ She’s talking in longer sentences now.
~ Using compound noun, e.g.
“Cheh Cheh drop biscuit, everywhere dirty”
When we want to go out, I normally ask if anybody wants to use the toilet first, I get her shouting, “Nobody!” (probably because she’s eager to get out of the house).
In the car, “Everybody sit down in the car go kaikai.”

♥Emotions and character♥
Suddenly, this month she turned into a cry baby and also very clingy.
Every day she’ll cry at least twice when it’s bath time, unless I bath her. “I don’t want. I don’t want aunty bath. I want mummy bath.” And after crying, she can still say “Zah-yah cry already. See, got tears.” *sweat*

She has no fear of anybody. No amount of scolding, nor placing in the naugthy corner will make her ‘repent’ or learn her lesson. The only person she’s afraid is Nenek (my sis’ MIL). If she ran to the road, I have to ‘threaten’ her, “After car bang you, and you have to go to the hospital.” She’s not affected, until I add, “Then nenek will jaga (Malay : Take care of) you.” That will make her stop, and reply, “Don’t want nenek jaga.” sometimes adding, “Nenek scarry.” Ha.

When we bring her out, we sweat, because she will not sit still nor hold on to our hands. She’ll be running around like a wild horse. Imagine how tiring it is? (I kept telling Daddy we should keep her at home until she’s 3 years old.)

Like a wild horse, she likes open space.

♥Food♥
This month, almost everything is “Not nice”, or not right, “Don’t want, too hot.”. Very hard to please her tastebud.

Luckily, she still loves her milk.

♥Toilet Training♥
Still working on this. She knows when she wants to go, but she may not tell us. So, she still has her diaper on 24hrs.

♥The Things She Likes♥
Must be her books and her selected TV Programs (High-5, Sesame Street, Barney, some Barbie shows).
She is starting to tell us what she likes.
“I like Zah-wa cheh cheh.” “I like Daddy. I like him.” Sometimes when she’s in a loving mood, “Like” is replaced with “Love”
She also likes to say “I like it!” when she’s shown things she like.

We like and love you too Zaria!

(Photos taken 11/10/08 – Daddy brought the girls to Bagan Lalang again without me)

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.

Zara used to be a wailer, you know the crying-for-1hr-like-a-banshee kind? The no-matter-what-you-do-will-not-calm-her-down-once-it’s-started kind?

She was at her worst when she was around 18months~30months old. Not that it was’t bad when she was younger, but that time I thought she was still a baby (and a high need one) and I could tolerate it better. This so stressed me out.

When she started her wailing;
I used to hug her, didn’t work.
Talked to her and tried calming her, didn’t work.
Put her in the naughty corner, didn’t work.
Once, when she was standing right in front of the study screaming her head off (while I was working), I got so angry, I lifted her like a sack of potato, brought her to the room, placed her on my lap gave her 2 big smack on her buttocks. It didn’t stop her crying but instead made her cry even louder, and made me feel extremely guilty and lousy.

Daddy kept telling me it’s her state of mind, and nothing we did would stop it, so we should just let her cry it out.

Eventually, I took the approach. I just told Zara I won’t hold her or hug her until she stops. She can wail or shout or scream, I won’t touch her. “If you are upset, or angry, crying is ok, but you have to control yourself and not cry and shout like you are crazy. Mummy will hug you when you calm down.”

I’m not sure if this helped, or she is just growing up and went passed that phase. Nowadays, when she cries, it will be only for a short while. Sometimes, the crying is replaced with a sob, and she’ll come over and say, “Mummy, I can control myself already.” occasionally adding, “Because now I’m 4 years old.”

I have been telling her, I’m really very proud of her. I really am.

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.

We always think that Zara is advance with her speech development, but come to her penmanship, we were getting a bit worried.

She could write numbers, but not alphabets. I thought her to remember my mobile number (just in case she need to use that info one day) by singing my number to her, “ZERO ONE doot, doot dooot doooot, doot dooot doot dooot (*censored*) mummy’s telephone.” to the tune of Twinkle-twinkle Little Star repeatedly.

She could recite/sing out the number quite a while back and a month ago started writing them on papers. Woooooot!

During the 1 week school holidays, I got her to start practicing to write the letters A, R, Z. Although she can recognise the letters, she had difficulty remembering how to write them.

To make her remember the stroke of the letters, I have to say,
A is like a tippee
R is like half a lollypop which is wearing a skirt (P = half a lollypop; that strokes -> |\ is a skirt); if the skirt is too tight, the lollypop will not be able to walk, if the skirt is too wide, the lollypop is making a split.
and
Z is a lightning, or a zig zag.

It may not make sense to others, but she use that info and started practicing, and on the 2nd day, she managed to write her own name. Wooooooot!!

And then we also started seeing her putting more details in her drawing. Woooooooot!

This is one of her work. Our family with her ‘signature’. I guess you can kind of make out who is who.

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. 😛

Suddenly, I realise how much my little girl has grown.

She feeds herself on most meals (she only needs help to debone or needs probing when she’s eating something she doesn’t quite like).
She carries the stepping stool to the sink to wash her hands.
She uses to the toilet on her own (except when it’s a big business).
She chooses and puts on her own clothes.
She puts on her own shoes (except for buckle types).
She brushes her own teeth in the morning (in the night, we’ll help her).
She walks up and down the stairs as she pleases, and opens and closes doors as she enters or leaves a room.
She helps to keep an eye on Zaria – either shouts for help or steers Zaria away from dangerous objects.
She recognises the numbers 1 to 10, and able to name the alphabets, and knows the sounds of the alphabets from A to Z.
She can talk about a subject with others (or herself) using knowledge we’d shared with her, i.e. pollination, Jesus’ crucifixion and how the dinasaurs got extinct.
She does a forward roll with ease, sings in pefect tune and pronunciation.

Suddenly,
She who used to need me sleeping next to her or to be in the room with her until she fell asleep
is sleeping on her own.
Be it nap time or night time.

Just so suddenly.

♥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)