My Two Girls – All About Zara and Zaria

It’s the girls’ school holidays; I have been hard at work, so Daddy thought this would be a good time to go for a trip. And this is his type of holiday…

We drove off not knowing where we’re going, and ended up in Kuala Selangor for lunch, at a breezy sea side restaurant.

The girls loved the prawn cracker there.

After lunch (and a nap for me), we reached Tanjung Karang, the ‘rice bowl’ of Selangor. It is harvest season now, and everywhere, we can see fields being harvested. By human

or by machine

Girls got to walk among rice fields and got to see rice on stalks up close.

and did some ‘harvesting’ themselves.

We also went to see the rice grains getting loaded onto lorries to be transported to the factory for polishing.

And this ice cream man got all excited when Daddy said he wanted to take a photo of him. He removed his helmet, arranged his hair and viola…

This is where the rice will be transported to to be polished.

Around the rice fields, we saw cement buildings like this, and Daddy said they are ‘birdnest houses’ (buildings to house swiftlets which produce birdnest).

Sekinchan, the fishing village, is just 15mins away from Tanjung Karang, so it became our next stop. Do you always hear people claiming the fishes from Sekinchan, Kuala Selangor (the Konghao fish) are nicer compared to the ones caught from the East Coast.

I wonder if it’s becaused the fishes feed on this….

We were lucky that the fishermen just came back from the sea, and the girls get to see the fishermen getting busy sorting out their catch (not that they liked, they both complained it was STINKY).

These fishes were available for sale and drew a big crowd, but we didn’t bring our ice box (since we were not prepared) and didn’t get these super fresh catch.

We then drove on to Ijok for dinner since it was only 5pm when we left Sekinchan and too early for dinner. The whole day, we spent less than RM90 on seafood meals! What a deal.

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On Sunday, when I had to work 15hours, Daddy brought the girls out kite flying in some fields. Based on the girls’ feedback, it seemed, Daddy was having more fun than them.

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If Daddy has his way, this is how he likes to spend his weekend. I’m not really against it, but I like cool aircondition and retail therapy, and can’t live on just this. Daddy asked the girls at the end if they enjoyed their weekend, both shouted, “NO!!”. o.O”

I love the way Zaria uses words she’s familiar with to pronunce new words. I love :

The way she says milipede as Lilly-pede. (Lilly is a name Zara gave to her toy tortoise).

The way she says matchmaker (from Mulan show) as Fat maker (since the matchmaker is, well, FAT).

Credit : Picture taken from iCandi.

The way she says rambutan as Rumple-utan. (from her story book Rumplestiltskin & another story about Orang Utan)

The way she says accidentally as Accident gently.

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I like the way Zara talk back to Daddy (but not when she talks back to me).

Once Daddy kept correcting her Grammar, and she got fed up, “Don’t be such a show off, dad.”

Another time Zara wanted Daddy to bring her to my sis’ place so she can play with her cousins, and Daddy replied, “Why do we want to go there? So boring, nothing to do.”
Zara very quickly answered, “Oh, when you go to your mother’s place you happy la, got things to do la. When I ask you to go to my cousin’s place, you say boring la?

I like the way she prayed on some nights.
“I pray that my Daddy will not dilly dally when we want to go out.”
“I pray that my Daddy will not fall asleep when he’s jaga-ing (Malay : looking after) us.”

Last Friday, the last day of school term, the girls’ school had a Fathers’ and Mothers’ Day celebration. It was a small event with simple breakfast, followed by song singing by the children. The children also were called on stage to present handmade (supposedly by the children) flowers to their mothers and hand painted t-shirts to their fathers.

Photos of the events :

Zara, playing with her friends

Handmade flowers in a row for mothers

My pot of flowers from Zara

This is the only shot I took of Zaria singing. When she saw me looking later, she started crying and wanted to be with me.

Even after she stopped her crying, she wasn’t singing any more. More interested in her itch. o.O”

Nope.. still not singing

Zara and her class mates sang “世上只有妈妈好”

And then “You are my sunshine”

My flowers from Zaria

The girls then stayed back for the rest of the school hours to play games.

Visited my MIL over the weekend and told them (SIL & MIL) about Zaria’s lung crepitation, and the rash that Zaria is having (the same rash that Zara had). My SIL has a friend who is a Chinese doctor, and she told us we should let him have a look at the girls. Thinking that he’s the same type as my Chinese Doctor, we agreed.

Dr Low happened to be a specialist in Acupuncture and Osteorpathy, totally different from my Chinese Doctor who uses mainly herbs for tuning.

I thought he wasn’t very good with kids. While he was checking Zara, Zaria touched his desk calender as a cartoon drawing caught her interest. Dr Low raised his voice and said, “Eh, cannot touch my things!”. That startled Zaria and made her cry. Bad start.

One by one he checked the girls. It seems my girls have liver problem (from the blue hue in the white of their eye) and internal fever (forehead warmer than cheeks); and then the doctor checked their spines, he claimed Zaria’s spine is absolutely crooked (right butt cheek has a dimple but not left; protruding stomach), and because Zaria has a crooked 4th toe (since birth), he concluded Zaria has gall bladder problem too.

Before the girls started their ‘treatment’, I thought I will be the guinea pig, since I constantly feel tired, I’ll let him check on me and treat me first. One looked at the age spots (or oil seeds, what do you call them anyway?) that I have around my eyes and neck, he claimed I have appendix problem. But it’s genetics I told him, all my family members have them; he said, then it meant genetically all of us have appendix problem. o.O”

So I was brought to the treatment room and was told to remove my clothes. (I made sure Daddy was with me throughout) With just panties and bra on, he started feeling my spine. According to him, I too had a few discs slightly out of place. He will do Osteorpathy on me; which is actually a massage on the spine, and also some exertion to try to align my spine. According to the doctor, once the spine is aligned, the nervous system will function properly, and I won’t have any ailments. Before he started, he pressed a few of my meridien, and asked me to rank the pain I feel. After he finished he again pressed on these meridien points and asked me to rank the pain, the pain should vanish or lessen (which is true for me for some points). After this, he poked 4 acupuncture needles to my calf to further improve the ‘alignment’. This treatment made me ~RM330 poorer, and each treatment will only make me 10% better (which means I have to come for 10 sessions and spent RM3300 to get 100% better).

It was then the girls’ turn. Zara volunteered to be first. Dr Low did moxibuxtion on her, which is to bring a lighted ‘herbal cigar’ (the girls called it Magic Wand) close to her meridien points to provide heat for 10 minutes or so.

When it was Zaria’s turn, she didn’t really want to corporate, remembering the scold she got from the doctor. She was crying, and it was difficult to coax her to lie down. To make things worse, in the middle of the treatment, she moved her leg and kicked the ‘cigar’. I wasn’t in the room (Daddy was with her, since I have to be ‘resting’ after my treatment), but it seemed the ‘cigar’ landed on her big toe and burnt it. She wailed and it took a while to calm her down. As though this incident was not enough, while the moxibuxtion was done above her belly button, Daddy was asking Dr Low some stupid questions, and when Dr Low was answering his question, he didn’t realise the accumulation of the hot ashes at the end of the cigar, and suddenly the hot ash just dropped on Zaria’s belly (I saw it this time). Zaria gave a loud scream and wailed. Since it was coming to the end, we just stroke her and calmed the traumatised her for the last few minutes while the moxibuxtion continued.

Once it was done, Zaria clung on to me like a koala, and kept saying she wanted to go home.

The girls’ sessions cost RM100 each (and extra 1 time RM20 each for our registration or the creation of our files). We are all supposed to go for follow ups, but I’m not sure if we will be going again. It seems a bit mumbo jumbo to me. What do you think?

Zara called Dr Low, Dr Harry Potter, because the ‘cigar’ to her is a magic wand. When I asked Zaria if she liked Dr Harry Potter in the morning, she replied, “No. I want to burn him for dinner.” o.O”

I came from a generation where you have pen pals (not cyber friends); keeping in touch means writing letters (on papers) to each other (not Twitting, Face-booking nor blogging) especially those who did not live nearby; and love letters were delivered by postmen.

I was going through a box of letters yesterday after the girls have gone to bed. They were from penpals, friends, and of course from boy friends pledging their undying love (but ironically, all got hitched before I did). Then there’s the many letters from me to Daddy and the few notes Daddy (who never professed his undying love, and who’s not someone who likes to ‘write’ his thoughts) sent to me (together with the grocery supplies from Malaysia) when we were apart for 1 year in different continents.

Paper turned yellow, ink smudges, the various hand writings of thoughts and events on paper. That was the generation I came from.

I was romancing this thought.

One day, the girls will go through my things, and they will find this box of letters (just like in Cape No. 7) and they will understand what I was like in the younger days; who were the friends I had, and whom I’d loved before.

And I wonder, for those who came from a generation where SMS, MSN, emails, twitters, facebook, blogs were the mediums to stay in touch, how will the kids find out of their past, of the loss love? They go through the parents’ portable hard disks? Thumb drives?

How unromantic..

The last the whole family met up was probably during Chinese New Year. Although I had met up with my sisters’ and brother’s family separately on a few occasions, it took my father’s birthday for every body to (agree to) meet up at the same time.

In the car, Zara suddenly realised and asked, “Where is Ah Kong’s present?” When I told her there was none, she asked, “Why we go to Ah Kong’s birthday party with no presents?”

Zara was extremely happy to meet up with the cousins, the aunts and uncles. Zaria on the other hand clung on to Daddy and me (she has been pretty clingy after all the attention we’d given when she was unwell), and kept saying, “I want to go home now.” after we’d stepped into the restaurant.

This is the 6th birthday ‘party’ we’d attended this year (although my dad’s party wasn’t a real party with musical chair and all, but more of a dinner), and the 6th time Zaria cried when the Birthday song was sung. It’s strange. Every party we attended, when the cake was whipped out and the candle litted, Zaria’s lips would start trembling, and the minute the first note of the birthday song was sung, she would cry. We always have to carry her out, away from the singing to calm her down. Her reason, “It’s too loud.” and she told us afterwards, “I don’t like birthday(s).”

Since her birthday last year, she has this thing about birthday song and cake cutting. We just hope she’ll out grow this when it’s her 3rd birthday or it won’t be fun having the birthday girl cry when her own song was sung.

Some photos :

Ah Kong and Zara cutting cake

Zaria cried and just clung on to me

Norman monkeying around with Tasha

Norman monkeying around with Zara

The beautiful girls

The very sociable Sam was too occupied with games

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Not by me, but by 2.5yrs Zaria.

Because of her fall, and the various visit to the doctor, Zaria could do a review on doctors.

She calls Dr Patrick Chan (the chest pead in case you are interested) from Gleneagles, “Toy Doctor”; because he has heaps of toys in the waiting room.

She calls the dentist, “Auntie Dentist”, and she’s the only female doctor she’s seen recently.

And here is her review.
Meimei: “I like boy doctors. I don’t like girl doctors.”
Me : “Why?”
Meimei: “Because girl doctor the whole thing is (was) so painful.”
It took me a while to get it….
The dentist caused her pain (although she was cool throughout), but the rest of the male doctors only listen to her breathing… but I was surprised she used the phrase “the whole thing”.

Like an old lady this one.

Zaria had this cough that has been going on for a few months. Many GP and paed trips, many bottles of Augmentine later, it got well for a few weeks and then back again. Lately, when she coughs, it’s as though there’s a lot of flam in her lungs.

I took off to bring her to see an ENT or a chest physician. When I arrived at the hospital, I was told for her age, it’s not recommended to see an ENT or chest physician instead she should be seen by a paed. As her regular paed was on leave, I let another paed see her.

After hearing her lungs, the paed said, “Her lungs are crappy.”
CRAP! That was my reaction.
Apparently, it’s crepitation. The lungs may be infected (flam caused), causing this ‘crappy’ sound in her lungs.
That explains her on off fever of 38 degrees and above, her cough with the sound of flam.
When the doctor told me she either has to 1) be admitted and go on IV-antibiotic or 2) be treated at home but any worse and she should be brought in again, I felt as though my heart was sliced.

She has been prescribed with Singulair, Zithromax and other cough mixtures.

Is this really very serious? Should I trust this new paed?

So I went to see our regular GP in the night, and showed him the med the paed recommended. He listened to Zaria’s lung and said the same thing. The lungs are crappy (is this the right term?), and the med prescribed should all help her.

Am I satisfied with what the GP said? No. This morning, I brought her to see a Chest Paed recommended by Mom2Ashley.

It seemed it’s quite common these days in kids her age. Just stick to the medicine, and it should work in 5 days. The Paed claimed Zaria has quite a lot of dust in her nostrils too, so he recommended that we change our bed sheets and wash our aircon filter every week, and also get rid of the rugs in the house.

When should I be worried?
If only she became breathless or develop a high grade fever.

So at least tonight, I’ll sleep in peace.

As a mother, I wish that her disease became mine, so that at least I know for myself if it’s serious or not; and I could suffer her pain or discomfort.

Caught her falling asleep after the trip to the chest pead

As for Zara, her rash has gone away after a week; a week of skin recovering; and then it got very dry and itchy; so much so that she scratched until it scarred. I finally succumbed to steroid cream.

I pray all these crappiness will go away soon.

“Ohh KAY” That’s how Zaria says her ok, she emphasises the KAY, and say it with a lot of authority.

We went passed a barber, and Daddy jokingly said, “Come, I bring you go in to cut your hair botak.”
Zaria’s reply, “I don’t want to cut botak, I want to cut bootiful, Ohh KAY?”

We had dinner with the in-laws, after dinner Zaria wanted Daddy to carry her. Daddy pretended, “Daddy very tired, can Yeh-yeh or Mah-mah carry you?”
Zaria’s reply, “They carry, I (will) vomit, OUURK *vomit sound*, Ohh KAY?”

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Lately, don’t know why she’s becoming a tyrant, especially to children around her age or those younger than her.

When we met our neighbour with her 1 year + daughter, Abby, I asked her to go play with Abby, and her reply, “I (will) beat her.” o.O”

Yesterday when Leena came with Shern to collect the cot I was selling, I asked Zaria to say hi to Shern, she replied, “I (will) kick the boy.” o.O”

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She recently calls me by my name, adding Mummy in front, “Mummy Ehk-nes.” Especially when she didn’t get a response from me when she just calls me “Mummy.”
I.e. “Mummy…” ….. (no reply) “MumMY Ehk-nes!! MumMY Ehk-nes!!” until I reply.

And she likes to interupt participate when we’re talking.
“Mummy, sooosh..” “Soosh, don’t talk.” “Mummy Ehk-nes, don’t talk, ohh KAY?”

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That day, Zara did something wrong, and I asked her to say sorry to me.
Zara said it irritably, “Sorry Mummy.”
Zaria corrected her, “When say sorry, must say nicely, like this (in a small sweet voice) Sorry mummy. ohh KAY cheh?” o.O”

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We saw a lady who was wearing a black burqa in the clinic, and Zaria immediately pointed at the lady and shouted, “Mummy, why the auntie wearing mask?” Loud enough for the whole clinic to hear. o.O”