My Two Girls – All About Zara and Zaria

Early last week, she started clapping her hands when we asked her to ‘clap your hands’. She will also try to join her feet together when we asked her to ‘clap your feet’.

Here is a video of her clapping hands and giving high-5.

On a different note, just brought her to see Paed because she has thick discharge on her left eye. We are wondering if she’s allergic to something in the park because the eye gets teary and then starts to have thick discharge only after we’d gone to the park.

Her weight is 7.35kg. Just 0.25Kg extra compared to last month. Looks like her weight gain is slowing down, but then again, she’s more active now.

We’d started sending Zara to play school once a week since 2 weeks ago. It’s a 1.5hr per week pre-kindergarten program which includes lots of play time (sand/water play and gym), with a bit of singing, reading, and phonics teaching.

Unlike Julia Gabriel Edu Drama class (which we eventually didn’t sign her up), I cannot be with her during lesson.

She cried the 1st lesson when I had to leave her (adviced by school to let them handle her even if she cried); separated by 2 doors, we could still hear her loud wailing. She stopped 20mins later, when they started doing sand and water play as well as painting.

Yesterday, she shed a drop or two of tears when I left her. Telling me with trembling lips, “Mummy I want to go home.” I just said my goodbyes and told her I would wait for her outside. She was ok throughout, but kept coming out when she had a chance to tell me, “”Mummy, I finish already. Can go home now?” The teacher told me she was ok in class, but every now and then, she would ask the teacher if she could leave to go to Lake Gardens to see the brachiosaurus (the teacher actually asked how Zara knows such words). o.O”

After lesson, we heard her saying to herself, “House is for mouse. Mouse lives in a house.” (they were probably doing the ‘ouse’ sound in class) and also singing some unknown songs. Looks like she’s already picking things up.

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On Saturday, we went to Lake Gardens. After which, we thought of having dinner in Hakka Restaurant.
Daddy : “Zara, we go to Hakka Restaurant for dinner ok?”
Zara : “No No. I want to go Dragon I. I want to eat the noodles there. Because the noodles there is so nice.”
Daddy : “But Hakka Restaurant is also nice.”
Zara : “No. The restaurant is too loud (even though she may not know where Hakka is, she always use this excuse to get us out of a restaurant). I want to go Dragon I. I want to eat the juicy pow. The juicy pow and the noodle very yummy one.”
Daddy to me : “Er, where is the nearest Dragon I?”
Me : “Mid Valley.”
Daddy to Zara : “Ok. Daddy bring you to Dragon I.”
(See, if I asked Daddy to bring me to Midvalley on a weekend, he’ll say I’m crazy. Whatever the daugther wants, he’ll just oblidge.)

Zara ate 1/3 bowl of plain la-mien (Chinese : Noodle) with a serving of 4 juicy pow xiao long bao (Chinese : pork dumplings). At least she ate what she said she wanted, and that made Daddy happy.

Zara wanted Daddy to show her some pictures on the computer, but she hasn’t taken her bath yet. So I nagged told Daddy : “Get her to bath first la.”
“If you start showing her now, she won’t go for her bath.”
Then to Zara : “It’s almost 10pm. Zara, you go and bath first.”
“You don’t bath, mummy ask Daddy not to show you huh?.”
“Go, go and bath first.”

Zara spoke scornfully, “Mummy, you stop it! You stop whining ok? Enough of whining ok?”

o.O”

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I was talking to Daddy casually while flipping through Donna Hay’s recipe book.
“Eh I think I’ll be fat if I was a chef, look at all the food I would be cooking.”
Zara heard what I said, and joined in, “Mummy you are fat wut.”
“Your stomach like pregnant wut.”

o.O”

I know I’m fat, you don’t have to remind mummy ok?

I like the colour of Zaria’s food, so I thought I’d take photos of her every day meal for a few days.

She has so far been given mainly home made cereals (brown rice, quinoa, millet) with vege or fruits, and occasionally, we add some Earth Best Whole Grain Rice Cereal when we need to thicken her fruit or vege puree.

She loves pumpkin, apple, pear, sweet potato, banana, papaya; accepted potato, carrot, cauliflower, spinach, plum, brocoli. She refused avocado twice, using her tongue to push it out and turning away from the spoon.

We started with cereals (brown rice, millet, quinoa) and then later added one fruit or vege to her cereal. Sometimes we just give her 1 type of fruit or vege puree, e.g. puree pumpkin, puree papaya or mash sweet potato or mass banana. Later, we started mixing her favourite item to her vege cereal so that she will enjoy it more, e.g. brocoli + apple cereal; cauliflower + pumpkin cereal.

She enjoys meal time, opening her mouth eagerly, shouts out when the feeding is not quick enough.

From memory : spinach cereal, mash purple sweet potato, carrots cereal, brocoli cereal, plum puree, cauliflower cerel, potato cereal, pumpkin puree, carrot and apple cereal

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Besides paying attention to Zaria’s food at home, I’d also been keeping myself busy in the kitchen with some baking and others.

Let the photos say it.

Cup cakes for Zara and her friends; biscotti; ingredient for pesto; and pesto after blending

Every body is kept happy with some home made food.

Zaria recently has shown some of her ‘spunky’ side, I’m not sure if it’s her constant exposure to a screaming, shouting, demanding toddler, or she’s now just slowly ‘blooming’.

1. She now knows how to tell us what she wants.
E.g. When she sees me and wants me to carry her, she’ll look at me while kicking her legs and flapping her arms towards me and babble happily, “Ugh! Ugh!”.
She does the same when she sees a toy she wants, and her arms will be trying to reach for the item (or her stare will follow the object of desire) while doing so.

2. She knows how to fake a cry if what she wanted was denied.
E.g. When I walk on without carrying her, she’ll fake a cry, “Eh-Heh.. Eh-Heh.. Eh-Heh” with eyes fixed on me.

3. She now knows how to insist on her demand.
E.g. If I don’t give in to her fake cry, wave bye bye at her, and disapear, her tears will start flowing, and she’ll start arching her back, straightening legs, and bawl.

If I picked her up, she’ll stop crying immediately. It’s the same when the toy she wants is given to her, she’ll stop her crying, and immediately play with the toy happily. That’s one thing good about her, she gets pacified easily.

Last Sunday, Zara got a baloon twisted to the shape of a bear from 1U.
I took it out for Zaria to play at night. We were all seated on the bed, Zaria on my lap happily took the baloon from me. Zara who was reading with daddy a foot away in front of us, immediately snatched the baloon from Zaria, and said, “It’s mine! Not meimei(‘s)!”
Zaria reached her hands out, and did her fake crying (2) but Zara ignored her.

The next moment, Zaria just lunged forward; by straightening her legs and kicking very hard with her arms reaching out towards Zara, she propelled herself into Zara’s arms; but Zara was quicker, and held the baloon high up above her head. Since Zaria miss her airm, she bawled!

Both Daddy and myself just stared at each other, and said, “Wow”. I said out loud what we both were thinking, “Looks like she’s going to be chili padi. “

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Other things the little girl can do :
1) Sitting without support : she can balance herself when she leans forward, but still not very good in regaining her sitting position if she tilted to the side.
2) Twist her wrist (as though saying No more)
3) Babbling wider range of sounds, e.g. Ba Ba Ba Ba, Ma Ma Ma Ma, Mum Mum Mum
4) Signing MILK when she wants me to give her milk

She likes to :
1) Blow raspberry
2) Straighten her legs to stand (of course very much supported), sometimes preferring this over sitting
3) Burry her face on my shoulder, suck on any of my expose skin (shoulder, arm).
4) Eat – she loves her solid and milk. She’s taking 2 x 2 tablespoon of cereal/fruit or vege puree daily, and then taking 6~7 times 3.5~4 oz milk feed.

She has 2 lower central incisors now, the right one appeared early this month, while the left one sprouted last week. Her latest mischief : biting on me when she’s nursing. Unlike Zara, where I only have to tell her NO twice and she stopped biting me totally for the 1.5yrs she was nursing, little chili padi is still doing it after many times of saying NO to her. She even gives me the cheeky smile after biting, showing me her 2 cute teeth, declaring her innocence!

I’m the ‘bad’ guy who disciplines Zara at home. I use scolding, occasional smacking and when she’s really naughty, I’ll be putting her in the naughty corner.

There are times when I try to ‘discipline’ her and she ends up putting a smile on my face (although I try not to let her see that).

We were walking to the park, and she was irritated with something and started whining. I yanked her hand and stopped, stood still and looked at her. She took a glance at me, smiled and said, “Haha, I’m so grouchy..” Immediately, she stopped the annoying behaviour and walked on. 

She was touching the ‘untouchables’ in MIL’s place (glass deco items),  she refused to listen when we told her several times not to touch them, and eventually broke a piece of the glass wear. I told her, “Maybe I should put you in the naughty corner!”
She gestured to the living room corner which was filled with deco items and said, “No, the naughty corner got too many things, I cannot go” o.O”

And there was this time, she was crying for no reason for a long 15mins, so I sent her to the naughty corner. Daddy came to the rescue after a moment, and told her she could come out of it. With tears, she replied, “Cannot! Mummy put me here one!” and then looked at me arms stretched out, “Mummy, I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
To her, since I’m the one who placed her there, I have to be the one who forgive her.

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There are times, when I see myself in her.

I’d heard her said this to the maids often with a very serious face, when she disapproved of their smiling.
“It’s not funny!! It’s not funny you know! You don’t laugh!”

And she’s ‘scolded’ Zaria for crying, “Mei Mei, you don’t cry! You stop crying! Mummy is working you know. You don’t disturb Mummy.”

I’d heard her said this to her Mr Blue, “Look at me! You go shopping you must hold hands yeah?! You don’t hold hands after you get lost! Then you have no more mummy!”

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And recently, she started talking back.
I had been ‘scolding’ her the whole day since she was whiny and cried for the smallest reasons. At night, when I was brushing her teeth and snapped at her again, she told me, “Mummy, you are like a wicked witch la. You always scold me la.”
I didn’t know if I should laugh of be angry with that statement, so I remained straight face and told her, “Mummy scold you sure got reason, ok? Mummy don’t simply scold you.”
End of conversation, for now.

On Friday :
Daddy and I travelled 1hr 15mins to Midvalley (rain + Friday evening == jam) and had dinner in Isthmus. Price is on the steep side, but food is hmm.. so so. Don’t think we’ll go there the second time (we try not to step into Midvalley if it’s not absolutely necessary).

On Saturday :
Brought Zara to Julia Gabriel to attend the Edu Drama class. This is her trial class. She was a bit shy, and was more interested in the masks hung up on the wall of the classroom than listening to the teacher. Not sure if we’ll sign her up for this yet.

Confirmed with my colleague in Singapore that it was indeed a very good concert. I convinced Daddy, and managed to get him to drive me to Midvalley and got these with 15% discount:

On Sunday :
I bought more duck eggs from the wet market and did another batch of these :

Bought a good block of Parmessan, some portabella mushrooms and yellow oyster mushrooms from Village Grocer. Cooked for Daddy and myself this for lunch (I swear it tasted better than it looks) :

Baked two dozens of these and sent some over to the neighbours (we have great neighbours, let me blog about this one day) :

And of course, I played with the girls

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I was going to the toilet frequently since the start of Friday, and had burning sensation when I pee. Went to the doctor and confirmed I got Urinary Tract Infection! Dang! The 3rd time I’m getting this since I got married (and the last round, I had to be hospitalised for 5 days because of high fever). But I think I’m getting better already after I started on the antibiotic.

BabyShern, May adn Sasha in her Tag & Such blog (btw, why nowadays people always have more than one blog huh?) presented me with this cool badge :

Thank you thank you thank you. It’s such a great honour. I wonder if my old calcium deficiant bones can still rock, but I’ll try!!

(Borrowing the pom-cha-cha rabbit from eHon)

And now, my turn to pass on the badge! There are lots of wonder mums, super mums, multi-tasking mums out there who rock. It’s hard to choose, but then I’m always amazed how these full time working mums can cope without a maid, and yet they still rock! So, this is to :

Michelle
Mom2Ashley
Jessie
Vien

Zaria was taking her nap in the noisy living room.
We were playing different types of music so Zara could dance to it.
We had Jackie Cheung blasting one minute, Eva Cassidy singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow next, then Carly Simon’s Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Zaria slept through the noise, not even a stir from her.

We then changed the CD to Vivaldi’s Spring.

We saw Zaria responding to the tune. She opened her eyes, listened a bit, blinked, then rubbed her eyes, and she started turning around, trying to find the source of the tune (the speakers) sleepily. It seemed she’s remembering the tune, which I played to her weekly (I have 7 sets of clasical tune which I alternated daily) with an mp3 player since I was four months pregnant with her. She rolled to her stomach and liistened without moving for half a minute before wriggling about again.

Ever wonder if a babies could recall things that happened when they were in their mother’s womb? I think they can based on this experience.

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Our paed gave me a sample tin of Neslec 1+. I thought I shouldn’t waste it, I let Zara have it on Sunday. After she’d taken a few sips, I stopped her and asked, “This is a new milk mummy is giving you, nice or not?”
Zara replied, “Not nice, old milk nicer. Old milk creamy creamy. New milk taste like mucus.”
I thought she was trying to be funny, “Taste like mucus meh?”
Zara replied, “Yeah, salty salty one.”
I took the bottle from her and had a sip, “Let mummy try.”
True enough, the milk is a little salty just like mucus.

I think milk companies should hire Zara to taste their milk since she has such acute sense of taste and able to describe the taste using lay man terms. >.O

Simple American has given me this meaningful tag. 

A blogger with the tag, Idham has pledged to contribute RM127 to the Darul Izzah Orphanage for every completed meme, how can I not do this? This meme MUST be completed by August 26 2007.

What do I have to do? I only have to complete 17 (yes, only SEVENTEEN) sentences from the list below, and then I drop Idham a comment to say that I have completed the meme . So I just fill in the blank info for the list below and Idham shall contribute RM127 to the Darul Izzah Orphanage! Easy Peasy. Here it is:

1. A person is only as good as  ….
2. Friendship is always at its best, when the friends stick around even when you are in difficulty.
3. To love is to give, and never expect anything in return (I’m talking about motherly love, girl/boy kind of love is different).
4. Money makes me …
5. I miss …
6. My way of saying I care is by spending time with a person.
7. I try to spread love and happiness by loving my children, and hope they will be happy, and affect people around them.
8. Pick the flowers …..
9. To love someone is to accept the person as it is (something which is very hard for me to achieve).
10. Beauty is …..
11. When I was thirteen, what I remember the most was trying to adjust to an all girls’ secondary school. (Where are the boys?)
12. When I was twenty one, I remember having a horrible boy friend and gosh, am I glad those days were over.
13. I am most happy when I hear my girls’ laughter.
14. Nothing makes me happier than … (see 13)
15. If I can change one thing, I will change my age of having my first kid. So I can have more energy to play with them, and I could enjoy their company earlier.
16. If smiles were equal to blessing then I’m very blessed as I get lots of smiles from my girls.
17. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could afford holidays all the time and not worry about work or money?
18. If you want to be … then you have to ….
19. Money is not everything but …..
20. The most touching moments I have experienced is experiencing the birth of my girls; nothing can describe the emotion I feel when they were placed on my tummy/arms after they were delivered.
21. I smile when I know my kids love me and need me.
22. When I am happy …. (see 13, 14)
23. If only I don’t have to ….. 
24. The best thing I did yesterday was to bring the girls to the park, and then let them have some fun.
25. If I ever write a book, I will give it this title, “My Two Girls” (what else?).
26. One thing I must do before I die is to visit the Grand Canyon
27. Doing this meme, I feel like I’m doing something good.

And now I pass this on the following people. You too want to help the kids at the orphanage right?  And of course you the other people, you can volunteer to take this meme on if you so please. I tag:

Michelle
Milkmaid
Yvonne

Hope you can do it since it’ll help some orphans.