My Two Girls – All About Zara and Zaria

Confused with her school concert date, we decided to celebrate Zara’s birthday a week earlier, thinking the concert would be held on her actual birthday, but it is actually a week later. We are obviously parents who do not read school notices.

On 14th November, we invited our neigbours, 6 families all in plus my SIL and MIL who also moved to our neigbourhood recently, to celebrate Zara’s birthday. This time, I ordered Nasi Dagang, fish curry and fried bee-hoon from a new restaurant near our place; at home, Jelly fried a veg, some chicken wings, and I baked some cheese puffs, apple crumble, and of course, Zara’s cake.

Zara has been very much into mermaids these days, so I thought I’ll create a mermaid cake for her with sea creatures all included.

Baking of the cake and cupcakes started Friday morning. In the afternoon, I tried to mould a mermaid using fondant, and in fact it was a nice mermaid with a tail that sparkled. I’m not sure what went wrong, but I suspect it’s due to the humid weather, the mermaid started sweating, and turning soft; by evening, it was one fat and flat mermaid. So at night, I started creating another mermaid, this time making its body thinner, and then I left it in a air tight container with dehumidifier sachets. I can still see the mermaid softening a bit, but it was better than the fat mermaid. Because of the softening of the fondant, I didn’t feel comfortable creating more sea creatures for the cake.

The fat mermaid that was ‘sweating’ away.

I decorated the cake and the cup cakes till 2am on Friday, and this was the end result.
Still a lot of room for improvement, but I guess for a first fondant cake attempt, it’s not too bad.

The cake (for adults) surrounded by cupcakes (for the kids).

Side track, on Saturday morning, Zara was being a bit naughty, and due to lack of sleep, I was getting grouchy, and I told her off, “If I knew you would be so naughty, I wouldn’t bake you the cake.” Now this was before she actually saw the cake I completed the night before, and guess what my spunky daughter said? “It’s ok mum. I can ask Daddy to buy from the shop. The ones in the shops are nicer anyway.” *crack! went my heart*
After she saw the cake, she felt really sorry, and started apologising profusedly. But you see, she is capable of saying such things.

Ok, back to the party.

It was a good turn out, and the girls have fun playing with their play mates (whom they regularly meet and play together at the park). I am thankful to my SIL who was entertaining 11 children in the play room with baloon fights and all, while I spent time chatting with the neighbours.

Now, Zaria has been attending friends’ parties, and she has stopped crying during birthday song singing since early this year, so we thought there won’t be any drama on Zara’s birthday. When the birthday song singing started, she was quiet for a while, and then suddenly burst into tears.
Later, when we asked her why she cried, she said “Everybody was singing so loud.” o.O”

Thanks to Kathy, who still caught Zara blowing her candles amidst the chaos (the loud bawl from Zaria, and Daddy running off with Zaria to calm her down).

One of the children came to me at the end of the party and said, “This is the best party ever. I have so much fun.” I give my SIL credit for entertaining the kids. 😛

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On Friday, a day before Zara’s actual birthday, we celebrated Zara’s and Zaria’s birthday in school. Zaria’s birthday is not until end of the year, but she wanted so much to celebrate with her friends and teachers in school I thought we’ll do this 1 month earlier together with Zara’s.

The day before, Zara helped me to think of how to decorate her cupcakes. She wanted flowers in the middle of each cake, and I got her to decide on the colours (with me making a few small batches of fondant in different colours). The final product, was a batch of cupcakes decorated with (store bought) sugar flowers.

I sent them to school in the morning, and stayed till their break time. I helped the teacher to set up the snack area to prepare for the ‘cupcake party’ (since that’s the only food served)

Zara and Zaria were beaming with happiness. When the birthday song was sung, Zaria didn’t cry, but was smiling and looking around. (Later when I asked her why she cried in jie-jie’s party, but not in school, her reply, “I only like children singing, I don’t like adults singing birthday song.” She’s sure full of excuses).

They were both happy to distribute their party packs to their friends too. Later, when Zaria came home without a party pack and started sharing Zara’s goodies, Jelly asked Zaria, “Why you didn’t take one party pack home?” She replied, “The party packs are for my friends. Not for me.”

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Happy 5th Birthday Zara, may you grow up healthy and filled with love and happiness. Daddy, mummy and mei-meil love you very much.

Here is Fifi

Here is Flower.

Here is Daisy.

You think they are the same ‘dog’?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
But they are not.

Zara has had her Fifi for almost 3 years now, this is the soft toy she brings on her trips, she hugs to sleep, watches TV with.

This is the soft toy she plays pretend with, and every time when we tell her about an experience, or a fact, she’ll always apply it on Fifi and tell us in return, “You know right, Fifi also been to China before with her mummy…” or “Fifi eats a lot of carrots, that’s why her eyes are very sharp, she can see very far away….”

Last weekend, we went to Ikea, to get Zara a new Fifi, because hers was wearing out, she named her new Fifi, Flower. Zaria insisted she wanted a Fifi too, so we got her one, and Zara named it Daisy.

Zaria hugged Daisy to sleep the 1st night, brought her to school on the 2nd day, and then chucked it away and only took it out when we reminded her about Daisy.

Fifi is easy to identify, as she’s scruffy looking. I had to write Daisy’s and Flower’s names on their labels so the girls know who is who, but I guess after a while, when the soft toys take on their owners’ scent, they’ll be able to identify who is Daisy and who is Flower. (Actually, Zara already know how to tell Daisy and Flower apart. According to her, Fifi has sad eyes, Flower is always frowning, Daisy has normal eyes) However, I doubt Zaria will still show interest after a few days though.

One day, Zara handled an expensive toy lizzard roughly and torn a big piece of fabric where a sucker was glued to the palm of of the lizzard.

I was really upset. Although I bought it during a sale, it’s still none the less expensive. I told her “From now onwards, I won’t buy you any more toys!”. I could see she was upset as well with my reaction, but she didn’t say anything.

I went to our bed room and did some reading. Zara came in, with trembling voice (not from fear but rather on the verge of crying) she said, “It’s ok, you don’t have to buy me any more toys. I don’t want any.” and before I could say anything, she walked away.

Then 2 mins later, she came back in holding a sticker, with tears in her eyes, she said, “Actually I wanted to give you this. But now I won’t.” Again, she walked out of the room before I could react. I didn’t go after her either, because the book I was a page turner.

Another 10 mins later, Zara walked back in with a drawing. She just gave it to me, and walked out of the room. Below is her drawing.

You can see that she has drawn me crossing her out in my thoughts, and both the love next to our names being crossed out, she said it shows that we don’t love each other any more.

After looking at the drawing, I went out and saw her standing at the door sobbing. I told her I didn’t really mean what I said, and I was angry but now I forgave her for breaking the toy. She asked me, “Do you still love me?” I told her “Of course.” She asked me to wait, and she went back to the table to draw, and 5 minutes later, she came back with this.

She said now we have a lot of love for each other, and both of us are happy

Zaria is very chatty now, not many people see this part of her, since she’s rather quiet when there are other people around, but at home, this girl can talk.

The other day she asked me to help her to do her business. Normally what she needs is just some one to hold on to her hand while she sits on the (adult’s) throne, and then later help her wipe her buttocks. So I was in the toilet, holding her hand, and waiting for her. After a minute :
Zaria : My poo poo didn’t want to come out, want to stay inside my stomach.
Me : Never mind, you try, mummy will wait for you.
After a few more seconds,
Zaria : I think I must ‘pause‘ first.”
Me : (didn’t get her) Huh?
Zaria : I ‘pause‘ first. Later only poo poo.
o.O” (must have learnt from the pausing of her DVDs)

Later, we went to the mall, and she wanted to do her undone business. In the toilet :
Zaria : Now my poo poo want to come out already.
Me : OK.
Zaria : My poo poo is out. Can you smell it? o.O”
Me : Yah I know, it’s smelly.
Zaria : You can say ‘Eee Yoooo’ you know. o.O”
Me : (oblidging) Eee yooo… and are you done yet?
Zaria : Not yet, I want to shu-shu first. Because my poo poo want to swim in the shu-shu. o.O

She does has a funny sense of humour. 😛

Apologise for all the paid posts that have flooded my site. Suddenly I had ~20 assignments and all due the same time.

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We claimed credit card points for a new point and shoot, Panasonic DMC-TX7. Don’t ask me why this model, it’s Daddy’s points, so he got to choose the model.

See the quality of the photo taken with the point and shoot

vs the DSLR

Not bad hor?

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Some funny things the girls said recently.

Zaria wanted Daddy to read to her, and when he said he was busy, she came to me and instructed, “Mum, scold daddy, faster, he didn’t want to read to me”
(You can tell I’m always the one doing the scolding).

While waiting for Daddy to finalise his purchase in the camera shop, Zaria was saying, “It’s so boooooring here. I know what, lets go to to book shop. Mum, is there a book shop here?” After that, it was “I want to go to the book shop” all the way.

We were talking about why we need to have a maid at home. Zara said, “You don’t know how to wash the dishes right? That’s why you need Aunty Jelly.” Children are just so innocent.

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Zara’s passport is due for a renewal, and Zaria’s for a photo update.

This was Zaria’s old photo

This was the photo taken few days back.

Oh my, how much she has grown.

And look at Zara’s old photo, taken when she was about the same age as Zaria now.

How much THEY have grown!

Zaria on the other hand is speaking and communicating really well, she’s growing up to be quite fiery. She’s easy to get angry, and when she does get angry, she throws things, shouts, beats or scratches us. o.O”

Influenced by Zara, she tries to correct our English occasionally too.
One day I pointed a picture to her, “Mei look, so special this umbrella.”
She replied, “Don’t speak sloppy English, there’s no la in English.” o.O”

We were telling the girls about the trips Daddy and I used to take before they were born. When we went through the photos of our trip, Zaria started frowning, and she banged her fist on the album, “Why you didn’t bring me?” but then remembering, she brows straigtened and she added, “I not yet born? Oh.”

One evening, she came to me, “I love you mummy.” and kissed my lips.
“I love you too meimei.” I kissed her back.
She laid her head on my shoulder and a moment later, she remembered and asked, “If I naughty, you love me or not?” o.O”
I told her, although I don’t like it, I will still love her.
And she looked at me and said softly, “Sorry, mummy.”

One day after her nap, she wanted to get out of the room but the room door was close. Not able to get out, she started kicking the door, when I opened the door for her, she frowned and said, “I was trapped!”

That’s our Zaria, the fiery, spunky chilly padi

We see Zara growing up beautifully and we’re happy for her development. She speaks politely most of the time, using proper English, and she tries to influence people around her to do the same.

We were told in school, she will correct other children’s English, or manners. And she correct her music teacher’s English too, when the teacher uses ‘la’ or ‘ma’ in her instruction.
“Teacher, don’t speak sloppy English.”

She shows more interest in Mandarin now, and always asks me to speak to her in Mandarin. She will try to speak or reply in Mandarin, mixing in English words when she doesn’t know or forgot the word in Mandarin. E.g. “老师对不起，我没有做功课。因为我went out, 没有time做” (Sorry teacher, I didn’t do my homework because I went out and didn’t have time to do).
or “妈妈，我可以吃那个biscuit吗?” (Mummy, can I eat the biscuit?)

She’s becoming more mature in her thinking, i.e. She has been playing and walking our neighbour’s dog, and one day she came back and told me, “Mum, can you buy me a dog?”
I told her we’ll need to get a bigger house first, or else we won’t be able to accomodate a dog.
“Then from now on, you should not buy me any more things. Even if I deserved it.”
She said that way we can save more money to buy a bigger house.
When I asked her what about her birthday, she deserves a present, but should I get her one?
She replies, “No, my birthday is different, you must get me something. Maybe you draw me a card?”

She does her homework on her own after her nap daily, she puts back her things after using it. She’s doing well, really. She’s very honest even when she knows if she confessed something she may get punishment.

Of course, there are times she still snatch things from Zaria, or bully Zaria, but she always have her excuse (the same one), “I got a bit carried away.” o.O”

Her strength is defintely around the liguistic field.

When you are in Penang, you have to try the delicious and refreshing Nutmeg juice. I haven’t really tried the juice that’s freshly squeezed out from the nutmeg (which I think is also available), the one I’d tasted is the boiled nutmeg juice which is a mix of sweetish, sourish and minty. Zara had her first taste of the drink when we went to Penang 2 weeks back. She loved it, and said it tasted like fizzy Ribena.

On our last day in Penang, since I spotted some fresh nutmeg for sale in Chowrasta Market, I bought 2Kg home and asked around for the method to make the drink. (Btw, at the stalls that are facing Penang Road, they were selling at RM12/kg, but at the back of the market, it was only RM3/Kg).

This is what fresh nutmegs look like

This is what the seeds look like, the red ‘flowery’ mace and the seed can be used for cooking especially salted vege duck soup (Kiam chai ak) but they all turned mouldy and I had to throw them away before having a chance to try it on other recipe.

This is how I made mine (recipe calls for 1Kg nutmeg and 1Kg rock sugar, but I reduced the rock sugar amount).
2 Kg fresh Nutmeg
1Kg Rock Sugar

Method
Wash nutmeg and scrub off any dirt from nutmeg.
Half the Nutmeg and remove the seed.
Smash the Nutmeg.
Layer Nutmeg and sugar in slow cooker, i.e. one layer nutmeg cover with rock sugar, until the whole pot is filled (no water added!).
Turn on slow cooker to high and boil content for 3hrs, then turn power to auto and boil for another 6hrs.
Filter out the thick reddish liquid which can be stored in a container
Mix nutmeg syrup with water to get nutmeg juice drink.

After this first round of boiling, I actually put back the boiled nutmeg into the slow cooker, poured in some water, and turned on slow cooker to auto and boiled the content for another 8hrs. This gave me another batch of syrup which was a bit more diluted but nonetheless as tasty.

I love the red wine colour of the drink, and wonder why the flash being so white, can produce drink this colour.

(The very detail report is for our convenience so the next time we’re in Penang, we know exactly where to eat!)

We made our yearly trip to Penang again on October 12th to 17th. No, we didn’t stay in Hard Rock, but Bayview Beach Resort next door (making it our 4th stay in this hotel). We had to go on weekdays (and the girls have to skip school) because I joined Bayview Privilege and got some vouchers usable only during weekdays.

♥12th Oct 2009♥
Our first stop as usual was St Anne’s in Bukit Mertajam. I so love the old church building.

When we entered the church, I asked Zaria to dip her fingers into the holy water to do the sign of cross. She shouted, “NO! IT’S POISONOUS!” o.O” She waited and see what happened to us before agreeing to do it, and later, at the new church, she wanted to dip her fingers in each holy water container and do the sign of cross at every entrance.

Zaria as usual climbing here and there, and Zara told her off.

Girls loved looking at the stations of cross, and especially interested in Christ’s crucifixion.

Before crossing over to Penang island, we had dinner at Bukit Tambun but found the food quality deteriorated. Should have eaten in Penang Island instead. One meal wasted.

Our first night in Bayview was in the Superior room (free), with a super huge king bed, which the whole family could sleep on comfortably.

♥13th Oct 2009♥
I drove out to look for breakfast as it was not included for our free night stay. Except for mamak stalls, there wasn’t much to offer around Batu Feringgi. I finally found a food court in some residential area, and got nasi lemak and noodle for the girls and myself, and toast for breadman Daddy.

Girls of course wanted to go to the pool after breakfast. Zaria had all the gears ready, but she was afraid to be in any part of the pool where her feet couldn’t touch the ground.

We switched to the family suite at noon time, which has 2 rooms (1 with the super king size bed again, and the other with 2 single beds) and a shared bath room. Girls were happy to have their ‘own section’, and each happily booked a bed.

After switching room, we thought of driving out to Tanjung Bunga Papa Pizza for lunch since the girls so liked it the last time. Tried as I did, the girls couldn’t stay awake on the drive, and when we got to Tanjung Bunga, both were sound asleep. Worse still, Papa Pizza was closed (I think they no longer do lunch). We couldn’t find the char kuey teow stall behind Papa Pizza as well, and all the rest of the restaurants (The Bulgaria, The Thai restaurant) were not opened! What is this? Restaurants in Penang don’t open on Tuesday? We ended just having some road side curry puff, fried sweet potatoes and some bread for lunch, and the girls later had the cheese puff I brought from home after they woke up from their nap. Another meal wasted!

In the evening, Daddy suggested we took a drive to Balik Pulau. We shouldn’t have agreed. What a waste of time. All we got to see was the big dam, the winding roads and lots of durian orchards. What saved the trip was dinner. We chanced upon this road side Seafood restaurant near Ayer Itam called, Red Bali Seafood Restaurant, which was quite good and very reasonably priced. No food pix as we didn’t bring along the maid, and every meal time was like so kan-chiong (Cantonese : nervous), trying to coax both the girls to eat.

We drove back to Batu Feringgi, did some DVD shopping, and then walked over to Hard Rock Hotel for drinks. Girls absolutely love the sandy pool area.

That night, we got the girls to sleep in their own room. Zaria reluctantly let go of my arm when I said my good night, and Zara made me promise I wouldn’t close the door to our room. At ~3am, I heard Zaria crying, and got up. She was actually walking around the other room probably looking for us. I invited her to our bed, and then she settled down. Zara too was awaken by Zaria’s cry, but when I asked her to join us in our bed, she said she was fine sleeping on her own. What a big girl’s behaviour!

♥14th Oct 2009♥
We decided to spend the whole day in the hotel. Zara swam with Daddy, while Zaria preferred to stay in the Kids’ Club. When it drizzled, Zara too came and joined Zaria at the Kids Club for arts and craft.

For lunch, we walked over to Hard Rock poolside pizzeria with our swimming gear.

Girls immediately went to play in the water play area next to the pizzeria. 2 staff actually came over to tell us to get them out, as the play area was only for hotel guests. We tried to get the girls out but they just wouldn’t listen, and anyway, we’re paying guest as well, for lunch, and who asked them to put the play area near the pizzeria? In the end, when the 3rd staff came over, I shouted for Zara and Zaria to come back and told him, “They won’t listen to me, you go and tell them yourself.” He then said, “Never mind la, I have children myself, I know how they are.”

Btw, as guests, when you get your pool towels, you are being tagged with wrist bands, so they can identify you are Hard Rock Hotel Guests in the compound (and not like us who just walked over from another hotel). Hmm..

The pizza wasn’t really that great, girls only had a little. And I guess they were also distracted by the slides and the water play area next to the pizzeria.

When we asked Zaria to pose for the camera, this was what she did.

After lunch, they continued to play under the hot sun, and I had to literally dragged them out and go back to our hotel to shower and rest.

For dinner, I met up with my friend and her family at Mama Nyonya in town. I haven’t met her for 15years (and I found her through netlog)! Her children are already 15 and 12! It was also nice to meet up with her pop star look-a-like husband.

That night, girls slept on their own beds till the next morning!

♥15th Oct 2009♥
We let the girls swim a while after breakfast, and then we had to check out to move to the city. We had the overpriced Char Kuey Teow shop on Lorong Selamat for lunch!

When we arrived, girls were asleep, and gosh, Zaria was such a tyrant when she got up. I.e. throwing the spoon when Daddy tried to feed her some ice cream, pushing the plastic chairs in the coffee shop, and the final straw was lying on the greasy floor and picking up the ice cream that dropped with her spoon earlier and then put it in her mouth! I raised my voice, gave her a smack, carried her to the toilet at the back (risking she could very well lie down on the toilet floor) and lectured her. I got a few stares from tables around, but heck! She decided to be behave when I told her I would have to close the toilet door and leave her there for a few minutes if she didn’t.

I was actually boiling mad when I ate my char kuey teow!

We got a Junior Suite in Bayview Hotel Georgetown. It was just a suite with a small room and a big living room (whatever for! I want a bigger room anytime!) The bed was just king size. I joined two of those semi-circle chairs together and told Zaria that’s her lily pad bed, just like Thumbelina, and she bought it (just for the first night though).

After a nap for everybody (did you notice every day we have to nap? Not just the kids, the adults too), we decided to explore George Town on foot!!

We took a slow walk from the hotel along Penang Road, all the way to Komtar, then to Lorong Abu Siti, have dinner in our favourite restaurant Nyonya Breeze, then walked back again to the hotel.

We stoped and rested on benches along the road (how come in KL there’s no such thing?) when the girls needed a rest. We pointed out interesting things or building to the girls, chi-chatted, and on a balmy evening, it was quite a pleasant walk. My 2 girls were great, they walked and walked (we left the stroller back home, btw), and when they were tired, they asked us to carry them.

Once, Zara said she was tired, and asked me to carry her. She’s already 18Kg, I can only carry her piggy back style. After 2~3 minutes or so, I told her my back was hurting as she’s very heavy. She told me, “Never mind mum, you can put me down. I’m not tired any more.”, and she walked the rest of the journey. Such a considerate girl.

That night, Zara, Daddy and I slept on the King bed, and I put Zaria on the make-shift ‘lily pad’ crib. I should have taken a photo but didn’t. If you wonder how the lily pad crib looks like, I actually park 2 of such chairs together to form an oval shape crib.

Credit : picture taken from Cococozy

♥16th Oct 2009♥
We took another walk around George Town after breakfast. Because of the late morning heat, this time we didn’t go that far. We stopped for tea and toast at Toh Soon (yummy!), packed Char Siew Rice for the girls from Jit Seng (girls gave thumbs up); had char kuey teow and Hokkien Mee along Penang Road (so-so). Zara started asking question, “Why we always eat only?“

When we got back to the room, girls took their naps while I went to Liang Xin Reflexology on Penang Road, near the hotel, for a 90 minutes message. Boy, it was gooood. The masseur’s strong hands kneaded all my tiredness away (doing every thing for the girls without the maid did take a toll on the body).

In the evening, we drove out this time and decided to try the char kuey teow my friend recommended, at the junction of Anson Road and Siam Road. At 6pm, the place was already packed! We ordered a big plate to share since we planned to eat at a few more places, and didn’t want to fill our stomach up at the first stop. OMG! It was scrumpilicious! And so much cheaper than Lorong Selamat’s!

Zara tried ours which was spicy, and asked for a plate for herself too. We ordered another one for the girls without chilli, and they really liked it (actually, this was their first taste of char kuey teow).

After that we went to Lebuh Kimberly for more food. I ordered a bowl of duck porridge, and then we all had dessert from the Tong-sui stall. Porridge has this strong pork intestine smell (Buek!), but my almond milk was good. Daddy bought some ham jim peng (Cantonese : some fried spice dough) from a stall, and he loved it.

Then we drove to New Lane near Sunway Hotel, a super busy place with lots of stalls, but we just ate some Apom and red bean soup.
I jokingly asked Zara, “What do you want to have for dinner? It’s 8pm now, dinner time.”.
She arched her brow and went, “Huh? I had fried kuey teow already wut.”
“That was snack, now it’s dinner. In Penang, you must eat and eat and eat.”
She frown and said, “People in Penang don’t sleep one is it? They just eat and eat and eat? I don’t want to be a midget, I want to go back and sleep.
Hehe.

Our highlight of the night was supposed to be the Tang Yuan stall directly opposite Traders Hotel. We were saving our stomach for this. Alas! The place was closed for that night! Sigh. Zara is the happiest, “Now we can go back to the hotel!”

That night, Zaria said no to the lily pad crib, so 4 of us squeezed on the king bed.

♥17th Oct 2009♥
Girls preferred to stay in the room after breakfast while I went to do some shopping in Chowrasta Market. I really should have skipped breakfast and eat at the market. There was so much on offer and they all looked good! I did pop by Toh Soon for a cup of tea first though. Bought some fresh nutmeg, some dao-zhang from Cintra Street, more DVDs (btw, the vendors in Georgetown are not as honest as the ones in Batu Ferringgi), and then walked back to the hotel.

We started packing and checked out. Lunch was again Char Kuey Teow at Lorong Selamat. This time Zaria behaved but vomited instead. She said I fed her too big a bite. o.O” I think the next time we go there, they will pay us and beg us to go else where!

On our way home, girls were rather glad, and they started telling us what they missed most. Zara was her cosy bed, and Zaria was all the jigsaw puzzles she’s left behind.

Until next year.