My Two Girls – All About Zara and Zaria

Out of the blue, Zaria asked, “How come you don’t kiss your parents anymore?”

Can you remember last kissing your parents? I don’t think I’d ever done it? My dad although a little better than my in-laws who totally don’t do physical contact, would limit his affection to holding hands, patting the girls head, putting his arms around the girls when they share a joke or secret.

So I explained our parents come from an older time, where showing affection through kissing is not common. “Long long time ago, parents kissing children in Chinese family is not common. That’s why we don’t kiss our parents, and show our love in different ways.”

Zara asked cheekily, “So you were from prehistoric time?”

Zaria added on, “So it was Mommy and Daddy B.C.?” o.O”

I asked, “Do you know what is B.C.?”

Zaria replied, “That means one hundred million years ago!” o.O”

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

So, can you remember the last time you kiss your parents?

What is the opposite of a worry wart? In Chinese we say ‘bochap’, in Malay we say ‘tidak apa’, is an optimist the same in English?

Anyway, this is how the girls are. One a worry wart, another isn’t bothered with anything, here is an example.

We were packing for our recent holidays, and I got the girls to pick out their clothes for me to put in the luggage. I told them we’ll be away for 5days/4nights, we need a set of clothes each day, 2 panties for every day, and then 2 set of pajamas.

Zaria finished hers real quickly. Picking up 2 sets of clothing, 2 panties.
Me : We are going for 5 days, you need 5 set of clothing! This is not enough.
Zaria : I can wear them again wut. o.O”
Me : *rolled eyes* Ya.. you’ll wear your panties again and again until you can throw it on the wall and it’ll stick there.

Zara picked what? 12 panties, 8 sets of clothing.
Me : Aiyo, we’re going for 5days and 4nights, you don’t need so many panties and clothes.
Zara : I need to bring extra, what if I dirty them, or spill something on my clothes, then I have extra to change to. o.O”

This is how they are… one the worry wart.. the other the opposite.

These are the things she said in May that raised my eye brow, or put a smile to my face (although I have to pretend I’m not amused).

Zaria made a mother’s day card for me but she can’t recall where she’s placed it.
Asked her to search.
She said can’t find (without moving her butt).
Me : Go help mommy find please.
Zaria : *moved her butt reluctantly* Find until I become an old lady is it?
o.O”

About cars and money.
Zaria : I like your car more than Ah-Gu’s car (BMW)
Me : Why?
Zaria : B’cos your car is a bit more simple than Ah Gu, and you can save money.
Me : Save money for what?
Zaria : For your wedding dress.
Me : *laughed* But I’m already married.
Zaria : Then maybe save money for Zaria’s shop then. (she’s always very jealous of Zara having so many shops named after her, and found in all big shopping malls).
o.O”

Zaria : Why is Ah Gu so rich?
Me : You ask him next time you see him
Zaria : Maybe he studied very hard when he was young
Me : Maybe
Zaria : And he work very hard when he’s older
Me : What about mummy? Mummy doesn’t work hard? How come I’m not rich?
Zaria : You.. you spend time playing with Bug Village (iPad game which I checked 4 times daily) only.
o.O”

Zaria : Next time when I’m older.. I’ll buy a BMW.
Me : Oh.. will you give me a ride in your BMW?
Zaria : By then, you are dead already. o.O”
Me : I won’t be dead so early.
Zaria :Then you’ll be an old nenek (granny)? Yah.. I can drive you.. o.O”

On a day where her Yamaha class was cancelled.
Zaria : Why is my class cancelled.
Me : Ms Tan has to take a day of holiday
Zaria : Why does she want to take a holiday?
Me : (simply pick a reason) Maybe her daughter is having exams, so she needs to do revision with her?
Zaria : Oh.. you mean now she’s at home shouting at her daughter?
(revision == mom shouting at daughter… now you know how it’s like during Zara’s revision) o.O”

Zaria : I love you mum
Me : I love you too Zaria
Zaria : If you love me, why you scold me, pinch me, smack me and give me chili to eat then? Huh?
o.O”

On the way home from school.
Me : Zaria, what songs did you sing in Parent’s Day last year?
Zaria : I cannot remember.
Me : I cannot remember too.
Zaria : I know, you can go to google, and then type Zaria, and then you’ll get the answer…. Wait, not Zaria. Because if you type Zaria, then all the things about other Zaria will come out. You have to type Zaria Low, then you’ll find the answer about me.

Zaria before playing the iPad (she likes watching those MTV with skimpily dressed dancers/singers)
Zaria : No sexy shows right?
Me : Yes.
Zaria : Then why did God create Lady Gaga? o.O”

The diarrhea bout I had early this month has made me lost some weight, so I could squeeze into the dress that I wore as my friend’s bride’s maid.
Me : Do I look nice? I wore this as Auntie Ping Ping’s bride’s maid.
Zara : You looked puffed up now. o.O”
Zaria : You mean you were Auntie Ping Ping’s maid? Her kakak? Cleaning all the mess after her wedding? (maid to her is domestic helper) o.O”

Daddy was in Japan recently for a work trip. I asked him to buy a couple of things for me from Japan:
1) Fancl, my skin care which unfortunately not available in Malaysia
2) Royce Chocolate, my favourite chocolate (I haven’t found anything that could beat the Royce Almond Milk Chocolate).
3) Macarons

So on the day he has some time to shop, we exchanged smses, in gist..
8 for USD30 how? The confectioner is Ladurée.
(never heard of it) buy 8 then. expensive but hope it’s nice.
(after dividing USD30/8) maybe just buy 4.
The sales lady gave me a small pack of dried ice to keep macarons cool, can last 2 hours, I don’t know if they will keep well to last the journey back home.
oh. hope it will. it’s macaron you bought, not ice cream right? (getting a bit worried, as sometimes he can ‘misunderstand’)
They look like macaron to me. o.O”

So I hope for the best, and quickly went to google Ladurée, and realised it’s a bakery founded in 1862, 150yrs ago!

According to Wikipedia,
Ladurée (French pronunciation: [la.dy.ʁe]) is a luxury cakes and pastries brand based in Paris, France. It is known as the inventor of the double-decker macaron, fifteen thousand of which are sold every day. They are still one of the best known makers of macarons in the world.

Macaron is one of the dessert I like a lot, but I don’t know much about which bakery in the world makes the best, except the ones we can find in Malaysia. I’m so happy he hit jackpot this time, unknowingly, getting me macarons from the bakery that created the macaron as we know today!

I was as excited as the girls when I heard the gate opened the day he arrived home.

These were what he brought home from Ladurée.

Ladurée’s macarons are the best I’d ever tasted. The meringues are lightly flavoured, making the taste of the ganache stand out. I don’t know what flavour Daddy has bought, so I slowly savoured each one (2 ~ 3 a day), sharing and nibbling with the girls.

I tasted
~ pistachio meringues, with ultra light texture of whipped cream and another with pistachio marzipan
~ light chocolate meringues, with rich and dense chocolate ganache
~ coffee meringues with creamy coffee gananche
~ vanilla meringues, with chewy marshmallow ganache
~ brown sugar meringues with thick buttery caramel filling

It’s not as sweet as the ones we find here, and some almond chunks could be tasted. For me, every bite is orgasmic. It has to be the world’s best macaron (actually based on google search results, it is the best; although some said Pierre Hermé is the best).

I was actually quite sad (so was Zara, who’s a connausier in the family) when we were left with the last piece yesterday…. all good things must come to an end.

Daddy took 2 shots of the Ladurée Shop (before he was asked to put his camera away).

Hmm, how come there were only women queuing up? Is macaron more of a female dessert?

Oh, what about the slice of cake? It’s a pistachio mousse cake which is so light (not too sweet) and full of nutty flavour and little crunch. I’d never tasted anything like this before.

Worth the money? Some would pay RM200 for a beef steak. Me, Ladurée, again, anytime.

Note : The nearest Ladurée to us would the the ones in Japan.

I love re-reading some of my old posts about the things the girls, recently however, instead of putting in a blog post, I put it on Facebook instead.

Just so I don’t miss some of their witty conversation, I’d better jot them down here too. These were some of their witty remarks earlier this year (I remember because I either put it on paper or update Facebook), some taken from Facebook status.

In Jan
She gave me the paper doll she created in her art class.
Zaria : Since I give you my dolly, you have to give me something.
Me : I give you my love.
Zaria : I don’t want any part of your body.
Me : I’m giving you my love. Not my body.
Zaria : Your love is from your body right? I don’t want any part of your body. o.O”

Caught Zaria watching Xmen2.
Me : I thought I told you no more Xmen show?
Zaria : But I remember in this show they didn’t say “kiss that, bitch” so I can watch right? o.O

If you’d been to the busy shops in SS15, you’ll notice near Mc Donald’s, there’s a dodgy place called Momo Hime Japanese Lounge. We passed by one night, and Zara said she wanted to check out the place.
Me : No, you can’t go there, because it’s a place for people and do hanky panky things
Zara : What’s hanky panky?
Me : When a man wants to go and date another woman who’s not his wife
Zara : You mean they go there to mate? o.O”
Possibly.. but I don’t know.

Zaria is very good with giving threats earlier this year. i.e.
If you don’t buy me the crown, I won’t let you take photo of me.
If you don’t XYZ, I won’t talk to you for 13yrs. o.O”
If you don’t …., I won’t ….. etc etc etc

Zaria asked over dinner one day. “How come in adult shows, they don’t just kiss one time, they go muak muak muak muak muak (pouting her lips she tilted her head left, then right, then left)”…. o.O”

In Mar during our holidays in Singapore;
Zaria saw so many Zara shops there, so she complained, “So not fair, every where there’s jiejie’s shop!”
Then she thought of an idea, “I want to change my name. I want my name to be Unique. So I’ll have lots of shops as well.”
(Their sirname is Low…. so Unique+Low = Uniqlo.) o.O

In Mar when I was maidless for a month.
Asked Zaria to peel garlic and onion for me.
Me : Zaria, can you please help me to peeeeeeel…………. (3s and the word is still not out)
Zaria : Onion is it?
Me : Yes. Make sure you peel them on top of tttthhhhe ………… (3s passed)
Zaria : Newspaper. Mummy, why are you loosing your words? Are you going crazy
Yes.. almost. Luckily it was only for a month.

One day, Zara kept interrupting me at work to help her with her homework. On the way to school..
Me : Next time you have to do whatever you know how to do first, then whatever you don’t, ask me at one go. I need to work you know. I cannot be interrupted so many times.
Zara : You have the whole day to do your work.
Me : It’s not a matter of whole day or not. If my boss wants something in the morning, I have to give it to him in the morning.
Zara : At least your boss don’t cane you. o.O”

Our ex neighbour who’s relocated came back to Malaysia for a holiday in April. Their eldest daughter CY is one of Zara’s best friend before they relocated, so Zara was really looking forward to meet CY again. A play date was arranged for the girls so that they can spend some time having fun together.

After some consideration, we decided to bring the girls to Petrosains, a place the girls have been before and like very much. It was CY first time though.

For 2 adults and 3 children, the ticket came to RM35.

Except for the wait to take the dark ride into Petrosains, there was very little wait time for each of the exhibit. The girls have a good time, and we just have to do some explanation here and there.

Photos of the trip.

Re-adjusting tubes to see how a ball rolled when dropped from top to bottom

Trying to catch the hologram car

Magnet fun

Robot Football – see who can score a goal first

Interactive image – trying to catch a butterfly on their shoulders/hands

Interactive image – sand flowing down

Interactive image – dancing to form designs

Hurricane simulator – only Zaria and I dared step in

Zaria trying to spot a fake star

Can’t recall what these were for

This is probably the girls’ favourite, each one getting a cannon of spray, and trying to create an imagine with all the virtual squirting

After Petrosains, we had late lunch, did a bit of shopping at KLCC, then since CY’s dad didn’t mind CY having dinner with us, we proceeded more play time at KLCC Park.

Zaria has strong arms and she can cross the monkey bar all by herself

It was a fun day for the girls. Zara will be looking forward to CY’s return next year.

The 2 BFFs walking back to KLCC

2 biggest news that hit the nation a week ago which affected us Malaysians :
1) Bersih 3.0 Rally
2) Nayati Moodliar’s missing

I was planning to go the Bersih 3.0 Rally. Daddy who didn’t want to go was ‘supportive’ of me going, but with a warning, “If you get locked up, just don’t expect me to bail you out ok?”
The girls, especially Zara, asked me what a rally is. Explaining to them in the simplest form, i.e. protesting, gaining support for something they believe in is a rally. Giving them an example such as if they didn’t like their parents forcing them to eat vege, and they know vege is not good for them, they can do a rally in the house. Carrying cards, “NO MORE VEGE”, and shout slogans to get other children to support their course and try to influence and change us.
Zaria, half understanding half not, said, “I want to go to Bersih, because I want to get clean!”
Zara, getting some ideas some of the things that can happen during a rally, told me, “If you are going, just come home safe ok?”

I didn’t go eventually. Because I didn’t have a gang of friends who’s going, I’m too afraid of heat, and a rally at 2pm? I may faint under the sun in the crowd. I’m too chicken.

But I was touched and moved. By how so many Malaysians were driven to join in the rally for a better Malaysia; how a rally of this size could be organised without any of our government controlled TV/newspaper/radio providing any coverage/lobbying. This is People’s Power.

credit : Facebook News

I’m still catching up on the Berish 3.0 stories and photos as I’d been down with food poisoning which lasted for a week. One of the photos that I like best is this by Hugo Teng

The other news that affected nationwide and wordwide is Nayati Moodliar’s abduction, near his school early morning on 27th April.

If a 12year old boy can’t even walk to his school a few minutes away from his home along a busy road, how should I ensure my children’s safety in this city? How protected should I be of them? These were all crossing my mind.

I was checking (a lot of us were doing this world wide) the facebook page that was set up for him frequently for updates; worrying for him, feeling the pain and anxiety that the family must be experiencing; no parents should have to go through what his parents have gone through.

May 3rd, 6 days later, Nayati got home. What a wonderful news to know that he’s returned home safely without any harm.

Here is a video of him taken a few days after he got home.

I joined Melaleuca recently as member, and started switching to their product for most of the household items, including the girls’ shampoo. While most of their products are good, I find the Herbal Shampoo which came highly recommended, too rich and too overly scented.

Now, I’m not sure if this was the cause of it, but after changing the girls to the Herbal Shampoo for about a month, I discovered a couple of ‘crusty’ patches on Zara’s scalp, cradle cap like.

There are 2 patches above her ears, and she’s scratching them frequently. Crusty, scaly, itchy, and when scratched, there’ll be scaly flakes coming off.

It fits the description of seborrheic dermatitis of the scalp from here :
~ Red, oily skin covered with greasy white or yellow scales
~ Yellow or white scales that may attach to the hair shaft
~ Patchy scales or thick crust on the scalp that may be easily removed
~ Patches usually confined by hairline
~ Itching, which may be severe

I used to have this after I’d given birth to Zaria. Probably due to hormonal changes. And I had a bigger patch. For a whole year, I’d tried different shampoo, bought over the counter, organic, prescribed by the doctor, but nothing worked. I have to stop wearing black because it was very embarrassing, a slight scratching would create an avalanche of dandruff.

After a year of searching for a solution, I finally came across something that worked. Kaminomoto Medicated Shampoo! After using for a few weeks, the itch on the scalp stopped, and slowly, the skin healed!

With Zara, initially, I thought maybe she has not rinsed away the shampoo properly, and the residue has caused this. For 2 weeks, she continued to use the Herbal Shampoo and I rinsed her hair for her. No improvement; and the spots were still very itchy and flaky.

Then I started her on the Kaminomoto Medicated shampoo. Sure enough, after a week, the ‘crust’ thinned out, and within 2 weeks, the 2 spots have cleared. Thank goodness! I don’t see her scratching her scalp fervently any more.

This is something I would like to recommend to all who has dandruff or seborrheic dermatitis of the scalp. It has worked for both Zara and me. The only problem is, it’s not available in Malaysia but you can get it in Singapore.

Nowadays, I alternate this with another shampoo of my choice, just to keep the scalp healthy.

As for Zara, I’d moved her back to a kids’ shampoo from Buds, and stopped the Herbal Shampoo from Melaleuca totally. I’m now stuck with the remaining 1 liter of the shampoo. Sigh.

Like the season, Zaria changes her interest frequently.

At one point, she was crazy over puzzles. She would sit down and do puzzle after puzzle.

Then it was bubbles. She would sit in a corner of the house, and blew bubbles after bubbles.

Next came badminton. Every evening, she would ask Minerva, our helper, to play badminton with her in the garage.

This week, it’s cycling. Still fond of her tricycle, she would be cycling at the garage with Minerva watching over her.

I wonder what’s her following week’s interest.