My Two Girls – All About Zara and Zaria

We’d celebrated Hari Raya and also Deepavali in the same month. For us, it’s really just a holiday break. For the girls, it was a time for them to discovered the differences in each of this celebration.

Zara drew this in school for Hari Raya. She knows there’s ketupat and the pelitas (some type of Malaysian wall candle sconces or oil lamps) in this celebration.
.

And then for Deepavali, she realises that there’s Kolam drawing every where, and she made one herself on paper.

Zaria, not to be outdone by Zara, did a drawing too. She has been very proud of her drawing, and kept showing it to us. Can you tell what she tried to draw?

Here’s her answer : “See, my birthday cake drawing. I draw (drew) decoration on the cake. They are sweets. This is the baloon. See, Daddy and mummy is (are) also there. My picture got present also.” Zara helped to write Zaria’s name, and put in the words (ok, she spelled that phonetically); she also drew Zaria next to Daddy and mummy, drew a present (which Zaria later coloured), and also some candles on the cake.

Lately, I feel so tired all the time. Even with all the supplement I’m taking, and sleeping early, it’s still the same.

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

When I call Zaria Little One, she tells me, “I’m not little any more. I’m big girl already.”
When I ask her to do something on her own like clean up or yesterday, to wear her own socks before bed, she said, “I’m still a small girl. I cannot do myself.”

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

Every week, we get Zaria telling us :
“I love you mum.” one day; then another day “I don’t like you anymore” or “You are not my daddy any more.” or “I don’t friend you then you know”

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

One day when Zaria was super naughty, since there’s no cane in the house, I took hold of a paintbrush the size of a cane (in circumference not in length), and smacked Zaria.
Later, when it was Zara’s turn to be naughty, I threatened to use the same method on her, and she said, “You smack me with the paint brush, I’ll ask Aunty Jelly to call the police and catch you.”

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

I asked Zara who was her favourite aunt, Karen yi-yi, Teresa yi-yi (my sisters), ku-ma or Ah Kim Jenny (my SILs). She told me “I like Ah Kim the most.” When I asked why, she told me the reasons, “Because Ah Kim is the most rich” Then further added “And also because mei-mei doesn’t like her. If I don’t like her, then she’ll be very pitiful.”

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

I enrolled in a baking course ran by Taylors but last minute decided to pull out because my neighbor who’s done the course before told me it wasn’t worth the money. Zara was quite keen in me joining the class, so that I can bake big cheese pies for her and also nice cakes (that’s what she said). So I asked her, “Will you blame mummy if mummy didn’t go for the class?”
Like an adult she told me, “No, I won’t because it’s your property.”
Then continued, “You just learn from books then, and also watch TV to learn.”

When I picked Zara up from school, Ling Jing, the boy Zara likes, was there too waiting for his transport. When we got to the gate of the school, Zara told me to wait and turned back, “I need to go back and give Ling Jing a hug.” o.O”

In the car we had this conversation. It goes something like this :

Me : Why do you like Ling Jing so much?
Zara : Errr….. Because he’s a bit taller than me.
Me : Mikel (who was his dancing partner in her concert) is nice and quite good looking also, why don’t you like him?”
Zara : Mikel is not so tall ok. How can I marry some one shorter than me?
Me : Oh, you like someone tall. Then you should marry mummy’s boss. (my boss is very tall, fyi).
Zara : Your boss is too tall, his head is going to poke through my car. o.O”
Zara : And Mikel should marry Chi Ling, because their skin colour is the same. (both have darker tanned skin) o.O”
Me : Then why don’t you like Ze-Wen (another boy in her class)? He’s tall.
Zara : Do you know Ze-Wen has a problem?
Me : *o.O* What problem does he has? (I thought he has learning disability or something)
Zara : You know he’s only five years old and he’s so t-a-l-l, something is wrong? o.O”
Zara : Ling Jing’s height is perfect for me!
Me : Does Ling Jing speak well?
Zara : Ling Jing’s Chinese is very good.
Me : His English is not good?
Zara : His English is ok, he doesn’t speak sloppy English (at home when she uses lots of ‘lahs’ and ‘mahs’ and ‘wut’.. Daddy will say she’s speaking sloppy English)
Me : Is Ling Jing nice to you or not?
Zara : He’s very shy. You know, WY (her best girl friend in school) also likes Ling Jing. I have to see how to get rid of her. Maybe I’ll set a trap to catch her. o.O”

I don’t think she meant the last remark, because she said it while smiling.

Like an angel hor..?

This is what she’s capable of doing…. (and what I’m capable of doing)

I forgot to bring their milk along to pick them up from school.
Little Tyrant : *shouting on top of her voice* I WANT MY MILK NOW!
Me : Sorry I forgot to bring.
Little Tyrant : “I said I WANT MY MILK NOW!
Me : But mummy didn’t bring.
And started driving the car away from school.
Since Little Tyrant sits in front, she started kicking me, scratching me, kicking the gear box..
Me : Stop doing that
Still, she scrarched me, smacked me, kicked me.
Me : *found a spot to stop the car* You get out of the car and take the taxi home if you want to kick me some more.
Little Tyrant continued kicking.
Me : *Opened the door* You go! You get down and take the taxi home!
Little Tyrant stunt (probably didn’t think I was going to do that).
Zara : *Crying* Mummy, what are you doing? *covered her eyes* Mummy, what if someone catch meimei?
Me : Do you want to get down or do you want to be good.
Little Tyrant : *in small voice* Be good

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

I had to go to Kinokuniya, KLCC to exchange a book I wrongly bought. Daddy dropped me off and stayed in the car with the girls. When I got back, Little Tyrant started a shouting bout.
Little Tyrant : I WANT TO GO TO KLCC NOW!
Me : Mummy finished changing the book already, now we go for dinner
Little Tyrant : I don’t want to go for dinner, I said I WANT TO GO TO KLCC NOW!
Me : *bluffing* KLCC closing already, because it’s so late, we need to go for dinner.
Little Tyrant : I throw my shoes at you then you know!
Me : *turned back and warned* Don’t do it…
Little Tyrant really took off her shoes and started tossing to the front, but because her aim is not good, it hit the back of our seat and dropped.

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

Little Tyrant was very quiet for a very long time. When we found her, she was in the toilet staring at the bubbly sink, grinning. She had poured half the bottle of Dettol handwash into the sink, turned on the tap and watch the bubble mass.

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

Little Tyrant cries for the tiniest thing, like Zara flushed the toilet for her instead, she’ll be screaming and wailing “I WANT TO DO IT MYSELF!!!!!”

And when she cries, she CRIES. Wailing on top of her voice, kicking a big fuss, lying down on floor, breaking things she comes into contact etc etc.

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

I have tried all sort of ways to discipline her, sending her to the naughty corner, puting her in the toilet to cry herself off, smacking, threatening (e.g. She’ll go to naughty school if she cannot behave). Then yesterday, I told her, “If you so yai-yai, you are not like my daughter, you are like Cruella De Vil’s (from 101 Dalmation) daughter.” I gave her the DVD and showed her the cover with a big Cruella De Vil’s face. She doesn’t like it, and normally she would quickly put the DVD down with Cruella De Vil’s facing downwards.

This morning, she picked up the DVD, put it right in front of her face (with Cruella De Vil’s face out) like a face mask, and started walking around. “Look at me!!” o.O”

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

Most of the time, she is like this…

Tell me, what can I do?

For more than a month, Daddy has not bought a loaf of bread for himself but instead he has been eating home made bread. As for the girls, they are not really bread eaters, and they do not like wholemeal bread. If I baked sweet bread, or rye, I’ll make sure they have it for breakfast as well instead of their usual Koko-crunch or toast made from High-5 bread.

Here are some of the photos of the bread which I baked from then till now, and I think I’m getting the hang of how the dough works.

My 1st wholemeal loaf.. looked horrid right? Although edible.

2nd attempt, still not so attractive, look wise.

3rd attempt, YES!

Sweet white rolls.

Daddy likes the wholemeal walnut bread, so I made it again, replacing 1/2 cup wholemeal flour with wheatgerm.

Made focaccia for dinner using a recipe from the The Pauper Chef, it came out very bland, but that’s because I didn’t put any topping besides coarse sea salt. Daddy liked it though.

This is my favourite. Love the crust colour, and the purplish hue on the bread from the rye flour.

Using the sweet bread recipe, I added ground black and white sesame for some nutty flavoured buns.

Then last weekend, I tried to make coconut buns.
Daddy loved it (but he has to encourage me, or I’ll stop baking).
My MIL, FIL and SIL said they were nice.
My dad said no standard (not enough coconut it seemed).
My sis said it’s ok.
So you know who the critic is.

One day we were talking about love.
Me : Do you think mummy love you more or mummy love meimei more?
Zara : I think you love me more, because I’m good girl and Zaria is very naughty
Me : No. Mummy love both of you the same. Because both of you are my daughters
Zara : I think I love you more than Daddy.
Me : But mummy always scold you.
Zara : *reassuringly*It’s ok, you scold me for a reason. Daddy dilly dally for no reason, just always like to dilly dally.

Zara was angry with me for something I said in the car (actually, it’s just a small matter, we said we’ll go for a holiday without her, and she got so upset), and when we got to the supermarket, she didn’t want to hold my hand. She even said, “I don’t love you any more. You are just a piece of junk.” (if you are asking whether I’d used such words to her, NO, I never did).
She was walking in front, and I was just following behind. When she took a turn, she got blocked by some dry grocery sacks (where I was tall enough to see her, but she’s not tall enough to see me). I just stood still on the same spot to see what she’s up to.
Then, she turned back and couldn’t spot me. I could see her turning white, then red, she took a few steps forward, then backwards, terrified, she started shouting, “MUMMY! MUMMY!” and then started crying. I raised my hand up and said “I’m here.”
It took her a while to calm down, she kept asking me, “Where were you? Why I couldn’t see you.
I told her I was right behind her and because she was angry, she couldn’t see me.
She said, “I was so angry until my eyes got fire, and I cannot see clearly. Now I’m happy, my eyes got water, wash away the dirt and everything, and then I can see clearly. o.O”

Zara went to the shop with me and when we got back, she swung the car door too hard, and knocked into the pillar in our porch. The car door has a slight scratch. Of course Daddy wasn’t happy. He brought it up again after a day :
Daddy : So, what did you break today?
Zara : Nothing.
Daddy : The rate you are going, one day you wake up and you’ll find the whole house collapsed.
Zara : Dad, I don’t want the house to collapse.
After thinking for a moment..
Zara : But the house and the car is not connected wut!

I was so against going to Bagan Lalang over the weekend because it’s Raya, as the bathing facilities are all operated by the Malays, I was certain we would have trouble cleaning the girls. But then, it was 3 against 1, so…..

Thank goodness it was a cloudy day, where the sun wasn’t glaring, and the weather not too hot. You should see the grin on Zaria’s face when we arrived, as though she’s reached the land of sweets.

They started by playing with the sand. The sand is so clean, so white right?

I remained under the shade on the mat reading, while Daddy brought the girls out to get dirty.

Zara loved the water.

Zaria loved the mud.

When I joined them a little later, they offered me mud pies.

My own feet getting dirty.

Zaria looked like she pooed in her swimming costume.

And I was right, all the toilets were closed, at least at our side of the beach. Imagine all this dirtiness and we only had 1 med size coleman filled with water to wash them? The mud was clinging on to their hair, their skin, their nails.. Ewww.. But, since I’m used to working with limited resources, I managed to get them cleaned.

It was ~4pm, and Daddy thought we should take a slow drive to Tanjung Sepat for dinner. When we arrived, and parked our car, we saw this :
Piglets roasted for someones wedding.

So many piglets slaugthered to have their wedding. *cruel*

At 5pm, many restaurants were already full. We chose our usual hang out. Ocen Seafood Restaurant (no, I didn’t spell it wrong. See for yourself), waited almost 15mins for a table, and another 30mins for our food.
I don’t know if the name was supposed to be Ocean with a missing A, or the restaurant was actually named after Or-Jian (Fried Oyster omelette) their famous dish…..

Zaria waiting patiently at Ocen.

After dinner, we took a stroll out to the Lovers Bridge.

It was another hour + slow drive to get us home.

Zara loves cabbage. We normally fry cabbage with dried prawns and she’ll pick up all the dried prawns and put aside before consuming the cabbage. One day,
Me : Aiyo, just eat the dried prawns la. You won’t die, it’s just a small one.
Zara : I’m not a seafood-tarian you know. I don’t like seafood. I don’t like prawns, I don’t like crabs. I’m a vegetarian. I like cabbage.
Me : But you eat fish right? Fish is also seafood. You cannot be a vegetarian if you eat fish.
Zara : That one I just force myself to eat. Because I want to have brains. (we had been telling the girls, eating fish will give them brains because of the DHA)

On another ocasion, when we asked her to eat some pork dish specially cooked for the girls, she said, “I’m a vegetarian, I don’t eat pork.”
I replied, “Who said you don’t eat pork. You eat charsiew (BBQ pork) , you eat juicy pow (Xiao Loong Bao).”
She said, “I only eat low quality pork. All the low quality pork no pork taste. Good quality pork we eat at home got pork taste. I don’t like.” o.O”

Another totally unrelated topic, I asked Zara if Daddy and I can go on a holiday without her.
Zara : “That’s not fair! You go for holiday you must bring me and meimei”
Me : “But Daddy and mummy also should go for holiday on our own right? To pak toh (Chinese : Date) and spend time together.”
Zara : “No. You should bring us.”
Me : “Next time when you get married, you also will go for holiday with your husband alone right? You won’t bring mummy right?”
Zara : “When I get married already, after a while, you will be dead, that’s why I can’t bring you on holiday.”
Ouch!

Have you heard that the winners for Alliance You:nique Picture Card’s Sweet Family Moments contest are out?

It was difficult to decide on the Grand Prize winner, so they decided to have two winners. And these are their card designs :
from HOOI SIEK YI (761019-XX-XXXX) and

from LIEW WEI YIN (781004-XX-XXXX).

The list doesn’t end there. Find out from their website to find out who the 2nd (10 winners) and 3rd place (20 winners) winners are with their winning designs, and the same time, you may want to book mark that site or join You:nique’s Facebook Fan page to get informed of their next upcoming contest.

You:nique : Great Rebates; Great Rates; Great Rewards; your card, your choice; your design.