My Two Girls – All About Zara and Zaria

7 year olds’ friendship is sooooo fragile.

One day it’s like this :
(from Chloe to Zara)

Another day it’s this :
(they have a disagreement in the car today and talked about breaking up)

Mind her spelling, she just started reading and writing independantly.

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

Another incident unrelated to the above.

I met my secondary school mate in Midvalley one day, and I told the girls she’s my BFF.
Zaria said, “Huh? I’d never seen her before. How can she be your BFF? BFF is supposed to see each other everyday.”

Me and BFFs definitely need to meet up more frequently.

One more week and it’s the end of Standard One for Zara, I’d also moved from one who was seeking advice last year this time to one who can tell others on what to prepare for Standard One (based on my own experience).

School Bags – Buy a good bag, but not too expensive
I’m not sure about Kebangsaan school, but for Chinese school, with the amount of books they have, it’s best to get a trolley bag. The school will put the Standard One kids on the ground floor anyway.

Unless your child is big size, it’s going to be difficult for them to manage a backpack no matter how back friendly it is. The books probably weigh 5~7Kg if not more, I think for a 7yr old, that’s too much weight to carry.

(My neighbour paid a lot for a good backpack, but after seeing how her daughter struggled on the first day with the big bag filled with books, she went shopping that same night to get her a trolley bag)

Think (at least) 400 children racing hurrying through corridors, halls, a couple of steps;
Think kids unzipping their bags, reaching for things in one shout of instruction (and when there’s any delay, they may get a stroke of cane).

Try out the zip, the retractable handle, see if they are easy to operate. Target for the bag to last the child for 1 year at least. Unless your child is the extremely careful, not too active kind, the bag will probably get very ‘charn’ (Chinese : worn out) come year end.

For Zara, who’s quite careful, but rather active (always racing her friends to get to the hall the fastest) this is how her bag looks like after a year (we gave it a wash during school holidays, or over long weekends). She’s already asked for a new bag for next year.

School Shoes – At least 2 pairs to interchange.
I got Zara 2 pairs of cloth Kikilala shoes which is washable. She alternate between the 2 pairs. We wash them weekly, and apply those white shoe polish to whiten them.

I don’t think an expensive pair is required, as they will be running in fields, dusty basketball courts, and their feet grows so quickly.

We had to buy a new pair for Zara a month back because one of her pairs just ‘disintegrated’. This is what the surviving pair looks like. Definitely need new ones next year.

School Uniforms
Unless you are on a tight budget, buy something which fits the child (oversize uniforms and very faded uniforms make the child look sloppy). We bought ours from Kamdar, nice cutting, and didn’t cost a lot. If I remember correctly, it was ~RM20 for the pinnafore, and ~RM10 for the blouse, we got Zara 3 sets to interchange.

By end of the year, the blue has faded a bit, the skirt has reached the knee (was slightly below the knees starting this year). Still presentable, but I think Daddy will want to get new ones for her to make her look smart.

Stationary
She had 20 mechanical pencils given to her for Christmas last year. None she could use because the teachers only allowed normal pencils for her Standard. We got her lots of 2B pencils instead.

We got her a nice pencil case, but after a while, she started using her reward points or sweet talks (Daddy) to get other pencil cases, and when she was given allowance, started buying them from pasar malam or the school bookshop. So I guess, they don’t need a fancy one to start the year. (Now, she has one for school, one for music class, one for English class, one for ….. I lost track).

Drinking bottles, food containers
We just get the Bros ones. Don’t want them to get something too expensive and when she looses it we get heartache.

Wallets
We got Zara a small wallet to put some coins and her allowance. She leaves it in her bag, and sometimes money goes missing. Not sure she miscalculated her spending or someone has been pinching from her wallet.

When I asked her to put the wallet in her pocket and bring it every where, she said she’s afraid it may fall off from her pocket. Her next wallet will be one which comes with a strap and hook which she can hook on to her belt.

Book Wrapping
Don’t be like me, cutting up big sheets of PVC to wrap her books (took me 20mins to wrap 1 book), unless you enjoy wrapping book. They have book sleeves available which you can buy and then just slot the books in. The books come in similar sizes anyway.

There….. Hope you find this useful to get all the things ready for Standard One.

OMG! I just realised I’d not put in a single post yet in October. I have been busy at work, and after work, it was to do revision with Zara to prepare her for her final exams.

Now the Final Exams Are Over!! At least I’m less busy at night (if I don’t have to work).

Yesterday, while Zara was sorting out her school bag, I just realised, she’s almost coming to the end of Standard 1! How time flies.

She’s done well for the 1st year in Primary school. Her 2011 at a glance….

She didn’t speak much Chinese last year, now she can quarrel with me in Mandarin.

She didn’t read much Chinese, and was getting ~8X% in Chinese for her first 2 exams, now she’s getting ~9X%.

There was a Li Bai’s poem taught in school, with the ending 2 sentences :
举头望明月，地头思故乡 (which is translated to : I lift my eyes to watch the mountain moon, Lower them and dream of home). And when I asked her if she knew what it was about she told me something like, “You look at the moon, then you think about the good old days.” o.O”

She said she corrects her English teacher’s English in class at times. o.O”

She started picking up bits of Cantonese from school, and she asked me one day, “How come all the Cantonese words are the 3rd sound?” (Chinse intonation 3rd sound). Quoting examples like, sek-farn (eat rice), fei-poh (fat lady).
Aaaa.. I didn’t notice that.

She’s now started swimming laps in her swimming lesson while trying to perfect her stroke.

She sleeps without bed guards, and knows when to ‘pull the breaks’ at the edge and not fall off the bed.

Although she prefers to be read to, she now started reading on her own too. Reading Sponge Bob comics, Geronimo Stilton etc.

She can bath herself now, and at times even bath and shampoo Zaria. Sometimes in times of need, even wipes Zaria’s butt after Zaria has done her poop.

She manages her own pocket money of RM5 a week (spending most of it buying useless things from the school bookshop).

She’s definitely done a lot of growing up in 2011.

I have a long day yesterday and I wasn’t happy with some of the expectation my boss has of me, especially when I’d worked so hard. I told the girls when we came back from the park, and here is the gist of our conversation.

Me : Mummy got scolded by mummy’s boss, mummy want to stop working already
Zara : It’s ok. You can do something you are good at. Like baking. You can sell your cakes and pastries.
Me : Oh, but baking doesn’t give mummy as much money. We’ll have less money to spend. Maybe we need to sell our house now and move to a smaller house.
Zara : *eyes turned wide* Move to a smaller house?…. And then…. (calculating) you have to get a smaller car as well…..? And there’ll be less food….?
Me : Ya, I think so.
Zaria : *eyes turned wide now* And go to a school with no aircon?
Me : Yup. You have to go to a kindergarten with no aircon.
Zara & Zaria : I don’t want.
Zara : You should continue working. When your boss scold you, treat it like it’s not important, and just do your work.
Me : But it’s difficult.
Zara : You told me not to quit piano when it gets difficult. So you should not quit also.
Me : *Moan*
Zara : (imagination run wild) I don’t want to move to a shed in the jungle. I don’t like scorpions, and mosquitos…….Sigh.. Sometimes I wish I just turned to something that cannot move and think.
Me : You want to be a statue?
Zara : Ya.. then I don’t have to worry about all these. o.O”

These girls are so worried about having to change their lifestyle if I quit working.

Continue from here.
♥August 30th♥
We were supposed to check out on this day. However, the girls didn’t want the holidays to end so soon, and asked if we could stay for an extra night. There was still rooms available for the night, so we extended another night.

In the morning, the girls went swimming with Daddy after breakfast while I went to the market again.

Our plan was to skip lunch and then head on to Siam Road again for char kuey teow (the stall is opened from 3pm to 8:30pm) for tea. We arrived 3:15pm and there was already a large group waiting.

It was a hot and sunny day, and the wait (at the coffee shop oposite the stall) was loong.

When our plates of kuey teow finally arrived, it was a bit too spicy, and of course wasn’t as good as the night before.

As we still have the whole afternoon free, Daddy thought we should take a drive to Balik Pulau. There was no destination in mind, but we somehow ended up in Hai Boey Seafood Restaurant 海尾海鲜 (29 MK 9,
Pasir Belanda, Teluk Kumbar, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang).

It was 5pm+, only a few tables were occupied. What attracted us was not the restaurant but the beach the restaurant was facing. The restaurant has set up some lazy chairs at the beach, probably for customers to laze about while waiting for their food.

The girls have a fun time playing at the beach.

And I just enjoyed the breeze while watching over them.

We drove off before sunset, when throngs of customers started arriving, filling up all the tables. We thought we’ll see if we can find a better and similar restaurant.

We passed Good Friend Seafood, a few KM away (driving towards Bayan Lepas), it was smaller and so crowded, we thought we’d better go back to Hai Boey.

Alas, Hai Boey by then was in full swing. All tables were occupied, with many more customers standing waiting for a table. We thought we would have to have chai boey (菜尾, whatever scraps left) at Hai Boey. Luckily most of the customers came in big group, and we got a small table for 4 after about 10mins wait.

Food was quite good, and reasonably priced. No wonder the restaurant was so crowded.

There was some prayers being held opposite the restaurant, and we thought since the night was young, we would go check out what was going on at the prayer hall. What a gem we found.

A Chinese puppet opera show, (the locals told me it was called Char Kah Lay in Teow Chew), put up by the locals for the ‘God’ Tuah Pek Kong (大伯公). We didn’t know what the script was all about because it was all in Teow Chew, but we stayed to watch for ~20mins.

The locals were so friendly, they came up to talk to us, asked us to join in their little dinner party of catered food and roast pork. They told us it was the first time they have hired the puppet opera troop for Tua Pek Kong’s birthday, so we were lucky to catch it.

We stayed till almost 10pm before we left for the hotel.

Back in the hotel, Grammy Awards 2011 was showing, and girls and I watched till way passed midnight. It was the last day of their holidays, so I just let them stay up late.

♥August 31st♥
After lunch, it was more swimming for the girls, and then it was off home.

Staying in town where everything is easily accessible (compared to staying in Batu Feringgi) made the holiday more relaxing and enjoyable.

We’ll be there again next year.

We did our once a year trip to Penang during the Raya Holidays. Some may ask why go during peak season? Since Zara started schooling this year, we can only go away when she has holidays, so we are really not left with much choice.

♥Aug 27th♥
First time in our family history, we left the house before 11am to go on a road trip holiday! Yay to Daddy, who kept his promise of leaving the house by 7am to beat the jam.

We managed to have breakfast in Ipoh, and then have late lunch in Bukit Mertajam. Before lunch, we stopped by St Anne’s church to say our thanks for another wonderful year.

Girls were facinated by the candles.

Zara giving thanks.

Girls collecting holy water playing water

St Anne’s.

Since we’d never tried the Ferry before, we thought we would try out this time. Girls loved it.

It was so windy, the girls’ hair was in a mess.

We got to the Traders Hotel (our current favourite hotel in Penang), by 5pm. It was nice to be greeted by a nice cool room with comfy beds. To the girls, this was when the holidays begun (getting into the hotel room).

That night dinner, we have it at Nonya Breeze (50, Abu Siti Lane, 10400 Georgetown, Penang), Zara’s request. The team there has changed (as the original team had moved to Strait Quay to run the other newly opened Nonya Breeze), but the food was still equally good.

♥Aug 28th♥
After a sumptious breakfast at the hotel, we visited the market along Jalan Kuala Kangsar. Our ‘must-do’ in Penang.

Fresh oyster seller.

Jalan Kuala Kangsar.

Offerings to the Hungry Ghosts (孟兰节).

Popiah skin maker (last year, an elderly man was making them, this year, he’s seen relaxing in the shop while this lady took over).

Poridge seller preparing the last few bowls of poridge for customers.

My favourite dry grocer Fook Weng, a yearly must stop.

Ointment seller giving extra service to get the sale.

Big Sale going on for Angry Bird stuff.

Girls choosing Agry Bird items.

By the time we were done, it was lunch time.

We went to Soul Kitchen (102, Muntri Street, 10200 Penang, Malaysia), a restaurant highly recommended by Tripadviser. Their pizza was one of the best I’d tasted!

We had to shelter ourselves after lunch from a down pour in a temple on Muntri Street. For Zaria, it meant play time!

After that it was back to the hotel for a rest.

One of the advantages of staying in Traders is everything is so near and within walking distant. For dinner, we walked out to De Happy Seafood Restaurant (62 Macalister Road 10400 Penang). Food wise, it was so-so, so I don’t think we’ll be going back there next year.

♥Aug 29th♥
Daddy woke up early, and went exploring George Town by foot before daybreak. He took these photos.

After breakfast, we decided to go to Penang Hill, since we didn’t get to explore the place due to a downpour the last time we went there.

The old funicular train has been replaced with something more modern. It was going at faster speed as well.

View from the train.

It was a wet day, but we could still see George Town from the hill.

Because it’s cooler environment, flowers bloom beautifully.

Besides the cool air, the train ride, Penang Hill has not much to offer. We had tea at the Bellevue Hotel, and then took the train down.

We headed back to the hotel to rest. Daddy took a nap with the girls, while I went to have a massage in the hotel.

For dinner, we decided to go to the Siam Road Char Kuey Teow.

More than 1hr wait later, we were rewarded with a plate of super delicious Char Kuey Teow.

(continue from here)

When we stopped over in Ipoh for breakfast, we told the girls Ipoh is famous for beautiful girls.
Zaria asked, “Where can we see them? Can you bring us to see them?” (like they are some zoo animals)
We ate in this coffee shop, and it was mainly operated by elderly people.
I overheard Zara told Zaria, “Ipoh girls all old ladies only wut.”

When in Penang, there are 2 eateries that we’ll never miss. Nonya Breeze, and Jalan Siam Char Kuey Teow.
After an extremely satisfying dinner at the Jalan Siam Char Kuey Teow stall, seeing that the stall owners (father and son team) were less busy as it was the end of business day, both Daddy and myself went up to them and chatted a bit as well as praised them.
“Your char kuey teow is the best!” We told them.
When we went back the following day for another plate of char kuey teow, it wasn’t as satisfying, as I think the uncle put too much chilli in ours. And the girls too thought their plate of chilli-free kuey teow wasn’t as good as the night before.

We went to Nonya Breeze twice as well this round. Once for dinner, and once for lunch. It was good both times. We had this conversation in the car.
Daddy : We should have just eaten the char kuey teow once. Too much of a good thing is not good
Me : No not true, we ate Nonya Breeze twice and both were equally good.
Daddy : Hmm, yeah, why huh?
Zara : That’s because the char kuey teow man is a show off
Me : Huh?
Zara : Ya. You went and said his char kuey teow was good right the 1st time? So he became arrogant. That’s why 2nd time not so good already. Nonya Breeze you didn’t tell them their food was good, so they just continue to do what they do.
o.O”
(She believes that I shouldn’t praise her too, or she’ll be too proud. So everytime when I say played a piano piece well, or her drawing is nice, she’ll put her index finger on her lips and said, “sssssh..”)

On our way back from Penang, I told the girls, “So girls, we’d spent all our money in Penang. I guess we don’t have money for other holidays anymore.”
Zara replied, “You don’t lie to me. You only spend your Penang money. You still have Hong Kong money, Singapore money and other money you haven’t spent yet.”
I went, “Huh?”
Zara said, “Ya, you only spent your Penang dollar. Your Singapore dollar and Hong Kong dollar you didn’t use wutt. You don’t try to lie to me, ok.”
o.O”
Have to work on her money concept, this one.

I took off a couple of days last week, so that we can spend the girls’ school holidays together, and also go on our yearly trip to Penang.

Here are some conversations worthy to mention on our trip.

It was a wet day when we travelled to Penang. When we passed by the limestone hills in Ipoh, the girls saw the fluff of clouds floating around the hills. Zaria said, “Look, God’s spirit is everywhere.” o.O”

We talked about sleeping arrangement in the car. As Zaria has been really naughty the past few days, I told her, “I think I’ll sleep with jiejie, and Zaria can sleep with Daddy.”
She replied, “If I sleep with daddy, I’ll kungfu his kukujiao (Chinese : penis)” o.O”

We stayed in Traders Hotel in Penang. Every time when we turned on the TV, the Shangrila Hotel channel will come out first, showing the various Shangrila Hotels and Resorts world wide.
I commented one day, “These places are soooo nice, I wish I could go to these hotels to stay. Too bad your Daddy is not rich.”
Zara replied, “It’s not that he’s not rich. He’s cheap.” o.O”
Oh my, wonder what gave her that idea, but we had a good laugh hearing her reply.

Zaria told me later that when she’s older, she’ll bring me for holidays, and stay in those hotels. She said “I’ll bring you to Paris, and Italy.”
While swimming at the hotel pool, I asked Zaria to remove her float and tried to swim without (since she’s been attending swimming class for a month now).
She refused even after lots of persuation.
So I told her, “Next time when mummy is old, and you bring me for holidays, what if I fall into the sea, and you don’t know how to swim, then who’s going to save me?”
Zaria replied, “We are going to Paris. There’s no sea right?”
I told her in Paris there’s River Seine, a big river.
She then asked, “What about Italy? Is there river?”
I told her Italy is surrounded by the sea.
She thought for a while longer. “I think you go to Italy and Paris with jiejie (because Zara knows how to swim) then. I bring you to Ipoh.” o.O”

The girls get along perfectly most of the time. Enjoying the same TV shows, playing the same iPad games, singing the same songs, playing the same silly self created games.

There are times when they tease or annoy each other, especially on long car journeys. And common complaints we get are :
“Maa, jiejie is annoying me.”
“Maa, jiejie spit at me.”
“Mum, Zaria doesn’t want to share the arm rest”
“Mum, Zaria copying (immitating) everything I say.”
I normally ignore them, until they get physical with each other, and start punching each other pushing and shoving.

For every movie that they watch together, they like to identify who is which character in the show. E.g.
Powerpuff girls.
Zara : Zaria, Jiejie is Blossom, you are Butter Cup because you always frown.

Alice In Wonderland the movie.
Zara : I’m the White Queen.
Zaria Jiejie said I’m the Red Queen.

And then sometmes they cannot agree with each other.
Zaria : Why jiejie always want me to be the villian
Zara : Ya.. because you always get angry.

Zara is also constantly reminding Zaria she’s the jiejie. E.g.
Zaria : (asking me) Why you didn’t buy for Zara?
Zara : It’s jie jie ok. not Zara.. you need to call me jiejie.

I like listening to their conversation with each other, it can be quite entertaining. I caught these few.

The girls were reading about Sleeping Beauty, and this version started with the King inviting 12 wise women to the party to celebrate the birth of the pricess.
Zaria : (referring to the picture in the story) How come there’s only women in the party and no boy except the King?
Zara : Have you heard of men being wise? Only women are wise, that’s why there are only wise women to invite.

Zara was meant to go to MIL’s place while Zaria was attending Yamaha JMC class, but she decided she wanted to stay home, so she called MIL.
(MIL speaks only Cantonese and Mandarin)
Zara : (on the phone) 我不要去你的家了。我要在家做我自己的东西 (I don’t want to go to your house, I want to stay home to do my own things). Bye bye.
Zaria : 再见 (zai-jian), you should say 再见 (zai-jian). Bye is English. Mama cannot speak English.
Zara : Every body can understand bye ok? Even if you don’t understand English.
Zaria : (enlightened) Oh

Zara joined in the school Bahasa Malaysia singing contest and got 2nd place, so she brought home a silver trophy.
Zara showed Zaria the trophy and told her about her contest.
Zaria : Wah. Jie, good…. you got a trophy.
Then she continued : But jie, how come your trophy is silver and not gold?
Zara : Because I got 2nd place. If you get 1st place, your trophy will be gold.
Zaria : (another enlightenment) Oh

But the 2nd day, when Zara is not around.
Zaria : Ma, you know, I don’t like jiejie’s trophy. Jiejie’s trophy is silver.. I like a gold one
Me : Next time when you are standard 1.. you go to jiejie’s primary school.. you go on stage to sing and get the gold trophy ok?
Zaria : I’ll go on stage.. but I won’t sing.. I’ll snatch the gold trophy from the 校长 (headmaster) o.O”

If only every day is like this.. (the littlest one is my bestie’s daughter Maya).

Kiasi (traditional Chinese: 驚死, 惊死, kiaⁿ-sí) is a Hokkien phrase, literally means afraid of death, to describe the attitude of being overly afraid or timid.

Since she was very young, Zara has already shown sign she’s very kiasi.
She’s afraid of the dark.
She’ll try to eat healthy so that she’ll not fall ill.

When she was 3+, she sometime had nightmare which woke her up in the middle of the night. Her nightly prayer during that time would include a line like “Jesus, please don’t let me have nightmare.” and she would ask me everynight, “Mum, will I have nightmare?”

She’s never been on a nebuliser, but had seen kids using it. When she’s not well, she will eat her medicine on a timely basis even though it’s extremely yucky. She will not touch cold drinks when she’s having the flu/cold/cough because I’d told her if she didn’t take care when she’s not well, she might need to use the nebuliser.

When she learnt about Hand Foot And Mouth Disease and H1N1 in school, she started checking her body frequently, and when there were ‘suspicious’ spots, she would ask worriedly, “Do I have Hand Foot and Mouth Disease.”; and when a stubborn cough or flu continued for a few days longer, she would ask, “Do I have H1N1?”

Early this year, she started having frequent nose bleed. A couple of times, it bled in the middle of the night, making everybody worry. I initially taught it was caused by extreme ‘heatiness’, so I told her to watch what she eats, and drinks more water.
Her prayer became “Jesus, please don’t let me have nosebleed.” and she would ask me everynight, “Mum, will I have nosebleed?”
She stopped having chocolate and deep fried food although those were her favourite (Even if you tempt her and placed them in front of her, she’ll just say, “No! After I’ll get nosebleed.”)
We eventually found out the reason for her nosebleed. She has extremely sensitive nose. No nose picking and no nose spray (anto-congestion nor salt-water spray) and that fixed the problem.
She’s back on her favourite food now.

She eats most vegetable although she may not like them just because they will make her healthy.
She makes sure her hands are clean before picking up anything to eat.

Recently, I started making homemade ice cream and told her that most ice cream sold had some sort of chemical or preservatives to make them last longer, so best for her to just stick to my ice cream. I shared with her as well some ice cream use artificial sweetener which may cause cancer.
So now her favourite question is, “Will I get cancer.” when she touches something which I told her might contain artificial flavouring or sweetener. o.O”