We really have to be careful how we talk to Zara, because she’s learning fast, picking up our talking style, and the words we used. Here are some moments which caught me off guard.

Kiddie Rides
Every time when Zara points to a Kiddie Ride and requested to go on it, we’ll say we have no money, can’t go on this time.
We were in KLCC on Saturday, we thought we’ll give her a treat, and inserted some coins (she also associates coins with money) for one of the rides. After her RM1 ride, she said, “More more! Money! Put”

Diaper Changing
When I try to get Zara to listen to me, I always repeat please many times. “Zara please, don’t touch the floor.” “Zara please, it’s dirty.”
When I was changing her diaper this morning, I wanted her to lie still, but she wanted to sit up to play instead. After a few failed attempts to sit herself up (because I pinned her thighs down), she looked at me desparately and said, “Pis! Pis! Pis!” (her Please)

Thanks for your compliment
We are teaching Zara to say thanks. We prompt her to say thanks after we give her something. We will also say thanks when she helps us with some chore (dropping the laundry in the bag, throwing the paper in the dustbin), or kisses us.
That day, she did something smart, and Daddy said, “You are such a clever girl!” Her reply, “tats” (her Thanks).

Wait
When Zara needs attention and we are busy, we always say “Wait, let mummy …” or “Wait, daddy finished … first”. “Wait Wait, Wait First”
Before bedtime just now, I helped her with her usual pre bed time ritual (hand washing and tooth brushing). I soaped her hands, rubbed her hands together, and when I wanted to rinse them, she just retracted both her hands away from the running tap.
I told her “please, let mummy rinse the soap away”, and pulled her hands back to the tap. She held her hands firmly away from the tap and said, “Wai, Wai! Wai Wai! Wait” (her Wait) as she wanted to get more bubbles on her hands.

Swearing
She was playing with a ball in the room, accidentally dropped it. And I seriously think I heard her said “shit” (my expression when I drop things accidentally) and then she just tried to retrieve it from under her cot.

Zara likes to sing very much. Sometimes she sings on her own. No comprehensible words can be heard, and the tune is all out. You can’t tell what songs she’s singing, but you know she’s definitely singing; she sometimes even accompanies her singing with some dance moves.
Here are 3 which she can sing along

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Me : Twinkle Twinkle Little..
Zara : Stars
Me : How I wonder what you..
Zara : Ah (Are)
Me : Up above the world so ..
Zara : Sky (She doesn’t know it’s supposed to be “high”)
Me : Like a diamond in the ..
Zara : Sky
Me : Twinkle Twinkle Little..
Zara : Stars
Me : How I wonder what you..
Zara : Ah (Are)

This Old Man
Me : This old ..
Zara : Mang (Man)
Me : He played ..
Zara : Wung (One)
Me : He played knick knack on my ..
Zara : Dum (Drum)
Me : Knick Knack pat-a-whack, give a dog a ..
Zara : Bong (Bone)
Me : This old man came rolling ..
Zara : Home

Sing A Song Of Sing Pence
She can’t make out most of the words but only this part
Me : The King was in the counting house, counting out his ..
Zara : Money
Me : The Queen was in the parlour eating bread and ..
Zara : Chis (Cheese, since she likes bread and cheese a lot)

And every time after each song is sung, she would be clapping her hands and shouting, “Oh!!” with a big big grin.
I would of course have to clap my hands and praise her, “You are clever aren’t you?”
Guess what she’ll do next?
She’ll say “Pan-Teh-Tic” (Fantastic) and give a bigger grin.

Btw, she has started calling me mummy since yesterday instead of Ah Meen. *big grin*

I have to be discipline and do this every month, just to capture Zara’s development. She turned 14 on Saturday, I had been so busy, only have time to do this now.

Weight: ~ 7.9Kg (weighed 27/12) but I believe she’s about 8.5Kg now b’cos she feels very heavy.
Height: ~77cm
This month, she sprouted another tooth, so she has 4 upper teeth, and 4 lower teeth now.

Dexterity :

Zara was in one of her ‘naughty’ mood this morning.

I gave Zara her First 1000 words book to ‘read’, while Daddy and I were busy getting ready for work. She was happily flipping, pointing out to things she knew and uttering the words.
“Ao” (Cat)
“Dog”
“Nai-yen” (Lion)
“Eh-Bit” (Rabbit)
and then “PIAAK…” she tore out one of the pages; she held the torn piece in her hand and looked at me.

Since she learnt how to appreciate books, she had never torn any pages out of any books. I wonder what happened this time. I went over to her :
Me : (stern voice) Zara, that’s not nice! Why Zara tear the book?
Zara : Tuck (Take)! (she gave me the torn piece)
Me : (stern voice) Mummy don’t want!
Zara : (gave me a fake smile)
Me : (lecture time) Zara likes this book right? Then why Zara naughty? Tear the book?
Now you see (put the torn piece next to the page it was torn out), you cannot see Elephant any more.
(Shouted to Daddy) Daddy, you see, Zara tore her book!

Zara stood up, and started pulling her pajamas top up (a sign showing that she’s nervous). I picked up the book, and wanted to put it back to the shelf. Zara immediately hugged my leg.

At this time, Daddy stuck his head out from the bathroom, “What happened?”. Before he could say anything else, Zara quickly let go of my leg, walked to daddy, and hugged his leg. This is probably her way of saying sorry, so I thought.

I picked her up, and said tenderly, “Zara saying sorry is it? OK, next time don’t tear your book any more ok?” I put her down, and continue dressing, while Zara walked to the shelf to pick another book.

5 seconds later, “PIAAK..” She did it again, this time she tore a page from her Nursery Rhyme book.

I quickly went to her, smacked her hand, and told her sternly, “Zara cannot tear your book! Why Zara naughty?” Daddy chipped in, “Zara, you tear your book again huh? Why you naughty?”

What happened next really caught us off guard.

Zara looked at us (normally if I smacked her, she would fret a bit, but this time she didn’t).
Tossed the torn piece down at the book.
Waved her hand in the air and said, “Bye”
While walking towards the bed room door nonchalantly.

What the.. ?? My jaw dropped!

I asked, “And where is Zara going?” She just turned back and looked at us one more time, and tried to reach for the door knob, and said “Bye” again (of course she’s not tall enough to actually open the door and get out)

Cha-dou! (Cantonese : Being caught off guard)

I can’t help wondering what will happen when she gets older, she’ll pack her bags and go to Mama’s (Cantonese : Paternal Grandma) or YiYi’s (Hokkien : Mum’s sis) house? Or she would talk back like this kid when she knows how to speak better?

Note: I normally used yai-yai (Cantonese: naughty in a mild form) instead of naughty, unless she’s really badly behaved. As for smacking, I do it only when warning has been issued and she just ignored it.

Daddy loves fish, any types of fish (not the same type of Piscean Lust that this guy has though, Daddy’s love is the edible type). Big fish, small fish, ocean fish, fresh water fish ; cooked in whatever styled, steamed, fried, soup, curry. And Zara is just like Daddy.

When it’s dinner time, and we put her onto her highchair, she would point to the fish dish (we always have a fish dish for dinner because Daddy can’t do without) and bounced excitedly on her chair chanting, “wis!”

If we gave her just her porridge (cooked with either pork or chicken with vegetable), she would just casually trust her tongue and push the porridge out of her mouth (her way of spitting). We have to take a bit of fish, put it on top of the porridge and tell her, “See, fish! Now, eat.” We can’t cheat her, she has very sensitive taste bud, if she tasted no fish in her porridge, she would just spit out the porridge.

We went to have Japanese dinner during the weekends. We ordered a serving of grill salmon with salt for Zara. The first bite she took, she immediately put her thumb out and said, “Gng” (her pronunciation of Good). She had 2/3 of the salmon steak all by herself!

At home for dinner, the amount of fish she consumed is the same as the amount I would take.

This week for dinner, she refused to have her porridge nor rice, and just wanted fish, nothing else! Where is she going to get her carbo?

This morning, I told her in the car,
Me : Tonight’s dinner, you ask Kakak to cook you fish ok?
Zara : *bouncing in her car seat* Wis!
Me : How you tell Kakak to give you fish?
Zara : TATAK! Wis!
Me : How big you want the fish to be?
Zara : *stretched her arms out and bounced further* (her way of signing big)

The rate she’s eating fish, we’ll have to buy another adult’s portion every time we go marketing. With a big cat and a little cat at home, fish has become a necessity!! Luckily we have befriended the fish monger in our market in Kampung Subang who sells us very good and fresh fish at a reasonable price (used to do marketing in Imbi Market and paid double the price for same amount of fish)!!

It’s first day at work after such a long break *sob sob*. It was nice to spend more than a week at home with Zara, to be there to see some of her development, and to experience some of the funny or special moments.

New Year’s Eve Morning
Zara woke up next to me and saw that Daddy’s side was empty, she climbed down the bed and searched for Daddy
Zara : *extend her palm up* Papa?
Me : Papa in the bathroom
Zara : *half squatted down* Sssssss
Me : *tittering* No, Daddy is not in the toilet to she-she (Chinese: Pee), Daddy is in the toilet to take bath
I think she knows how we adult ‘she-she’ by going into the toilet with me when she’s in her clingy mood, and I told her I was sitting on an adult’s potty to ‘she-she’

New Year’s Morning
Me : Zara, wakey wakey, sleepy baby!
Zara : *stretched and smiled*
Me : Call me, MUMMY.
Zara : *smiled* Mi-na
Me : MUM-MEE
Zara : Mi-na
Ok Ok, will just settle for Mi-na for now.

Later the same day
Me : Zara, call me, MUMMY
Zara : Ah Mee
Me : MUMMY
Zara : Ah Mee
Ah Mee sure sounds better than Mi-na. And yes, she started calling me Ah Mee since New Years Day!!

Breakfast
Me : Zara, what do you want to have for breakfast?
Zara : Mum-mum! (Chinese for food)
Daddy: Do you want bread? *gave her some*
Zara ate and spit out, then shook her head
Me : Mummy get you yogurt then
Zara : Kng! (not sure if she’s saying yogurt or just ‘good’)
I opened a tub of Petite Miam for her and started feeding her. Half way through,
Zara : *pointed to something* Moo-ner-mang! Moo-ner-mang! *excitedly*
I followed her finger, and saw she was pointing to Daddy who’s having a banana
Me : You want a banana?
Zara : *did her more sign by pointing her index finger to her palm* Moo-ner-mang!
I peeled her one boomerang, I mean banana and offered it to her together with her yogurt.
So, banana to her is a boomerang!

Hair cutting at the salon (Zara sitting on my lap)
Yen (the hairdresser) : *Put her hand on arm* So what hair style do you want?
Zara pushed her arm away
Yen : Eh, your daughter won’t let me touch you
Me : No la, where got?
Yen : You see.. *she put her hand on my arm again*
Zara pushed her arm away and stared at her
Me : Yeah hor. I didn’t realise. Do again.
Yen put her hand on my arm one more time
Zara pushed her arm away again.
Haha, the little girl doesn’t like strangers to touch me! She’s started to be possessive!

Nap time
Me : *kissed her cheek* Mummy loves you, Zara. Do you love mummy?
Zara : *stroke my face tenderly with her hand, and looked at me*
Me : *kissed her cheek again* Yes, Mummy knows you love mummy too
Zara : *laid her head on my shoulder* Huh Huh
Me : *Tightened my arms around her* Mummy hug hug you too.

She has been extremely loving these few days, always coming to me and wrapped her arms around my leg while I was standing; or laid her head on my lap if I was sitting; or just patting my shoulder, or stroking my face when I carried her.

Office is shut this week, so all of us have to take compulsory leave. I’m home with the little one, and luckily I have Tuyam, or else I won’t be able to even go and clear my bowel with the little koala, Zara, clinging to me.

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She uttered her first phrase 2 nights ago. I was nursing my migraine and I heard her told Daddy, “Uh-Oh, book” while pointing to a pile of books on the floor (Even though it’s not fully in English, it’s still a milestone to capture)

She uses Uh-Oh for things dropped, things missing, things lying on the floor. For the above phrase, her books were scattered on the floor after Daddy read to her, so she was probably complaining about the mess.

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This morning, after Zara woke up this simple dialogue took place :
Me : Zara, lets go downstairs already!
Zara : Mum Mum *excitedly*!
Me : Yes, go downstairs to mum mum!
Zara : Wise (her pronunciation of rice)!
Me : No, not rice. Morning we don’t take rice.
Zara : Wis (her pronunciation of fish)!
Me : No, no fish in the morning. We have bread or biscuit ok?
Zara : Bed (her pronunciation of bread)! Bed! Bed!
When we got downstairs, she went to the kitchen and chanted Bed until I gave her a small slice of bread.
(She loves fish, and rice compared to her porridge, and bread is her staple diet too).

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Before we got broadband, most nights, I will be in the room reading after Zara has gone to bed or interrupt Daddy’s love making to his DIY amplifier to have some small talks.

After we got broadband, most nights, I would be in the study reading blogs or blogging, and if Daddy wasn’t downstairs making love to his amplifier, he would be coming into the study to make small talks, but I would be rolling my eyes and waiting for him to finish whatever he wanted to say so I can go back to whatever I was reading or doing again.

So sad.

Zara is 13 month old today. Just like the updates in previous months, this is just to sum up her development:

– New weight and height unknown (but we’ll be seeing the Paed next week, by then we should know how much taller and heavier she is).
– This month, she sprouted another tooth, so she has 3 upper teeth, and 4 lower teeth now.

Dexterity :
– She walks independently and confidently; and her mode of transporting herself from one point to another is fully through walking now
– She can stoop down and stand back up again
– She dances according to tempo, by shaking her head, waving her arm, stamping her feet, and turning her body
– She likes to use a pen to make dots and lines on her magna doodle, a white board or a piece of paper; when she is ‘writing’, she always exclaims Za-Ah, asthough she’s writing her own name.
– She’s able to unscrew bottle tops (those which are not tightly screwed)

Language :
This month, she seems to have pick up quite a lot of words, besides knowing how to call or address the people she meets regularly, additional words she’d learnt this month :
– an (ants)
– mo-to-pike (motorbike)
– no moh (no more)
– poo bah (Pooh Bear)
– beh beh (Bell, thanks to Christmas)
– bird (extremely accurate pronunciation for this)
– mow (Mole, since I have one just below my wind pipe)
– poo-meh-eng (Boomerang, she can say this but not mummy, can you beat it??)
– kang-eh-oo (Kangaroo)
– sky
– stah (Star)
– bed (Bread)
– ah buk (mabuk/drunk)

Her understanding of English is very good I have to say. She can follow simple instruction now like “Bring the phone here, Daddy will call Mama (paternal grandma)”.

This month, I’d also started speaking to her in Mandarin just like someone has taught me. I say some thing in Mandarin first, follow by English. Not sure when she’ll actually start to understand Mandarin though.

Feeding / Food :
She prefers lumpier food, able to chew on chicken, cucumber slices, and prefer rice with soup more than porridge. She no longer fancy baby cereals or bottled food.

She’s still on breastmilk, but I’m introducing 1 to 2oz of formula to her on days that I go to work.
She has very discerning taste, not an easy toddler to please, food wise.

Emotions :
Although she still refuses to call me, but I think I’m still her favourite slave person based on the below :
– Only I can tuck her in at night
– Only I can calm her when she cries
– She gives me the most hugs and kisses
– She likes to sleep close to me in the night

She’s also a drama queen, very good in pretending to cry and pouting her lips. Knows who she can manja (Malay: get pampering from) (Daddy) and who she can bully (Kakak Tuyam). She knows mummy loves her but won’t give in to her if she’s being naughty, so she doesn’t play her tricks on mummy.

I think it takes a mum to understand her child. Daddy doesn’t understand Zara most of the time; even when she’s hugging his legs and saying “Hug Hug” he doesn’t know that Zara was offering him a hug, and when I told him about it, he would go wide eye and exclaim, “oh, was she saying that?” Men.. They are soooo DUH!

I could see Zara brightening up when we could understand what she was trying to ‘communicate’, and gets frustrated when she tried to tell us something, and we just couldn’t figure out what she was saying (I get frustrated too, not just her).

Here is a typical situation that happened during her bed time :
Me : *laid Zara down next to me* Zara, come, drink milk milk
Zara : *suckled for 5 seconds, let go of the breast, shook her head vigorously* Urrrgh!
Me : You don’t want already? So fast?
Zara : *shook her head vigorously, swayed her arms around* Urrrrgh!
Me : *scratched head* What do you want?
Zara : *did the ‘more’ sign by pointing her index finger to her palm , shook her head vigorously, swayed her arms around* Urrrggh!
Me : Oh! You want mummy to sing is it?
Zara : *smiled and do the ‘more’ sign*
Me : *started singing*
Zara : *latched on and started suckling*
(Shake the head vigorously and sway her arms around is her way of dancing; boy, she’s creating some really hard ‘sign’ to understand)

These are other ‘conversations’ that took place:

Morning
Before I went to work, I wanted to nurse her.
Me : *carried her* Zara, come and have milk milk
Zara : *suckled for 5 seconds, let go of the breast, pat her belly* Pao Pao! (Chinese: full)
Me : How can you be pao pao so fast? Drink more! *pressed her head back to breast*
Zara : *suckled for another 5 seconds, let go of the breast, pat her belly* Pao Pao!
Me : *looked at her* Sure you are pao pao? Don’t want any more?
Zara : *shook head*
Me : *put her back down on the floor* Ok then, what do you want to do now?
Zara : *walked towards her biscuit container* Bis-KGH, Bis-KGH! (Biscuit)
Me : *rolled eye*

Evening
I was feeding Zara papaya, she took a bite, then walked away to touch some other things; and then walked back to me when she’d swallowed the papaya in her mouth.
Zara : *did her ‘more’ sign*
Me : *fed her* Must chew chew huh? (Such a naggy mum I am)
Zara : *walked away, almost tripped on something* Ah Buk! *smiled, steady herself, walked on*
Me : *smiled* Yeah you mabuk (Malay: Drunk) already, walked like that.

We spent the night at King’s Wife’s place, yet again, since Daddy was away.

Zara and I took the guest’s maid’s room as usual, and both Tuyam and King’s Wife’s maid took the girls’ room next to ours. After tucking Zara in at 9:30pm, and making sure she has pillows all around her to prevent her from accidentally falling, I went downstairs to the study to do some blog surfing.

I told Tuyam that I needed to ‘work’, and asked her to ‘listen out’ for Zara’s cry in the adjoining room when she went to bed.

There I was happily blog surfing, without Daddy or King’s Wife waiting for their turn. At about 11pm, I could hear some noises, a bit like wailing, penetrating the quiet night. The first thing I thought was ‘ghost’ (I’m always very scared to be downstairs alone when everybody is asleep, even in my own home). I could feel a chill down my spine. I stopped what I was doing, and tried to listen again. Shit! It was coming from upstairs, not ghost, but Zara crying! I quickly ran upstairs. The sound of her cry grew louder and louder as I ascended the stairs.

When I entered the room, I found Zara standing on the floor in the dark room. She probably had already been crying for a while, because her voice was coarse. I quickly scooped her up, turned on the lights, almost in a panic, wondered if she’d fallen from the bed and hurt herself.

“Zara, did you fall down?” Of course she didn’t know how to reply. She continued crying! I checked her head, no bumps no red patches, don’t think she knocked her head.
“Zara, where pain pain?” I asked her. She pointed to her chest. Her way of signing to indicate some where is hurting. I went on to check her arms, her legs, but there’s no sign that she’s hurt.
“Zara, scared scared or pain pain?” I asked further. She started patting her chest, an indication to say she’s scared.
“Mummy so sorry, mummy shouldn’t have left you alone in the room.”

All these while of ‘communicating’ to me, she was still crying, and shouting on top of her lungs. I carried her out of the room, so that I have more space to walk about and calm her.

Tuyam then stuck her head out from the girls’ room, “Nangis ya?” (Malay: Crying, is it?)
There was this very strong desire to lash at her, but because I have a wailing baby to calm, I just responded angrily, “You tak dengar ke?” (Malay: You didn’t hear it?).
“Tak, mari saya dukong” (Malay: No, come, let me carry her), she replied.
I just stared at her and said, “You balik tidur la, dia mana mahu you sekarang?” (Malay: You go back to sleep, she won’t want you now).
She stuck her head back into the room, and closed the door.

When Zara cried like this, it is very difficult to calm her. I patted her, rocked her, pacing up and down the corridor. She had her head leaning on my shoulder all the time, but she was still crying. I went back to the room and thought of lying her on the bed to nurse her, but the minute I lifted her away from my body, she wailed loudly. I kept calming her, “Mummy is here, don’t worry, mummy won’t leave you.” However, she just won’t let me separate her body from mine.

I started singing her lullaby, “Hush Little Baby don’t say a word, mummies going to buy you…..” She started calming down, still crying, but more of a sob, head still on my shoulder.

When I finished the song, I stopped and tried to lay her back on the bed again. She looked at me with teary eyes, and pointed her finger to her palm (her MORE sign). So I sang, again and again and again, every time I tried to stop, she would do the MORE sign.

After singing like 10times, I slowly placed her back on the bed, she didn’t protest now, but her hands clung to one of my arm, as though afraid I would leave her. So I laid next to her, arms around her, and patted her, kept telling her it’s alright, her sobs slowly turned to sniffles, and then she fell asleep, still with hands firmly around my arm.

I felt so very bad for the rest of the night, not knowing if she’d fallen or climbed down the bed on her own; not sure her cry was due to pain or fear, or probably both. What a bad mummy I’d been, placing her alone in the dark room and went blog surfing. I need to make sure my Baby Monitor is with me if I ever needed to leave her like that again.