My Two Girls – All About Zara and Zaria

A couple of months back, Channel blogged about Miabambina’s online shop which specialises in cloth diapers. It got me interested, I went to check out the site as well as Miabambina’s blog; asked a few questions and few days later, I ordered my cloth diapers.

I ordered 4 pieces from her (3 pieces of Drybees and 2 pieces of Bumgenious), and also included 2 extra inserts. Just to give you some information, these cloth diapers are washable and reusable. It has valcro fastener, and comes in some really cool colours and nice designs. To use the diaper, just slip in the absorbant insert into the diaper pocket. It’s pretty simple. The absorbant insert will absorb all the pee, while the diaper suedecloth inner keeps the baby dry. Because the diaper is pretty light weight,  2 hours of sunning will dry it after a wash. The insert itself takes a while to dry, that’s why I bought extra for cloudy days.

They don’t come cheap, each diaper is about ~RM75 with insert, it’s however more eco friendly; and in the long run, I will save some money from having to buy disposable diapers.

Zaria is fully on cloth diaper in the day when we’re home. She only uses disposable diapers in the night as well as when we go out (just because I don’t want to carry a soiled diaper home if she did a poo). She’s comfortable in it, makes her bum very well padded, which also makes her look rather cute!

The only problem I have with this is that Zaria is allergic to the suedecloth inner of the diaper (which is in contact with her skin), she had some rashes when we started using the cloth diaper. This was very quickly resolved with us lining the diaper with a piece of nappy liner (which cost very little).

I should have discovered this when Zara was still on diaper, then I would really save money big time! For those of you who have young babies, you may want to consider cloth diapering as well.

Zaria and her cloth diaper, in retro pink, baby pink and celery green

Oh boy, Miabambina and Ms Fairface tagged me on the subject I’m most passionate about.. food. I love to eat, I love good food, and this is one thing I’m willing to spend. I have so many things I like, I don’t know where to start…

So I’ll stick to the title : Food Around The World, literally, what more with my recent trip to Singapore, I made two delicious ‘international’ discoveries.

In Singapore, I was shopping for something to eat for breakfast on my last night, and I saw this pot of yogurt for sale in Market Square, Tangling Mall. I was more interested in the terracotta pot which was holding the yogurt, so I bought it, even though it was S$8 per pot (1 serving). I chose the one with honey, the way I like my yogurt.

The following morning, when I scoped the first spoon into the mouth, mama mia, what a heavenly sensation!! I had never tasted yogurt this delicious before. It was very creamy and smooth, and the honey taste was very distinctive (in Chinese you’ll say it’s very ‘hiong’ or ‘siang’). I normally gobbled up my breakfast because of hunger, but this time, I slowly tasted every spoon of it; letting the euphoric taste linger. Too bad, my ice box was full, or I would have bought a few pots for later enjoyment back home. This is the La Fermiere yogurt from France. If you haven’t tasted it and is a great fan of yogurt, you have to try this!! I heard, it’s one of the best yogurt in the world (from doing a google search).

Too bad, it’s not available in Malaysia, or I would have gladly paid RM20 a pot for the occasional indulgence.

The other gastronomic discovery is the zhongs from Hong Kong. A nice Hong Kong colleague of mine brought two from Maxim for me when we met in Singapore. We had one over the weekend and boy it was delicious!!

The rice was first wrapped with two pieces of bamboo leaves, then tightly bundled up with lotus leaves. The zhong has both the fragrance of the leaves. It was big enough for two big eaters like myself and Daddy, filled with pieces of roast duck (which I’m a big fan), lentils (I think that’s what it was), a nice salted egg yolk, a piece of lard (which we discarded), and a whole scallop. Oh boy.. what a treat it was.

The zhong and the momento of the orgasmic experience

Now I’m a convert for Hong Kong zhong and french yogurt! Can’t wait for the weekend to arrive so we can share the next zhong; and I’m looking forward to my next trip to Singapore for more La Fermiere orgasmic experience. Sorry yeah, these 2 items are not from my home town and I’m not sticking to the original tag.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

Here’s the trail of the tag 

Mybabybay loves Asam Laksa from Penang, Malaysia
JustMyThoughts loves Penang Char Koay Teow
My Lil Venture loves Laksa Sarawak
Monterssorimum loves Teluk Intan Chee Cheong Fun
Chinnee loves Melaka Wan Tan Mee
PeimunLeah loves Hakka Lei Cha
Hui Sia
Jonamum
Karen loves Pan Mee
Something about Lai loves Crispy duck skin from China
Simple American loves Cheese Enchiladas
Nicole Tan loves Char Tau Kueh
Velverse loves Otak-otak
Kenny Ng loves Jawa Mee
Fatty Poh loves Nasi Dagang Kelantan
wmw loves Kuih Tutu
Lyrical Lemongrass loves Asam Boi
Pinkelle loves Mee Siput and Keropok Lekor
Ms Fair Face loves BBQ Sambal Stingray
Mia Bambina loves Chicken & Beef Pie
Zara’s Mama discovered Hong Kong Zhong and La Fermiere Yogurt

I would like to tag :
Malaika’s Mummy
Mom of Cairo
Vien
Ah Ben
And Baby Shern

continues from here

2:30am : Still no news from MAS Lost & Found counter. Tried calling them numerous times, no reply.
Called MAS 24hrs line, to check if they can locate someone in the airport to understand the situation. Repeated my whole story for the 3rd time (Breast milk, precious, urgent, spoil if arrived late were words/phrases I have to keep repeating to add urgency to the situation). Harry from MAS checked, and confirmed MH610 already landed. He would try to call his colleagues in KLIA, and then will call me back.
3:00am : No calls from Harry. I called the 24hr line again. Rosa was the one who picked up my call. She said they are still trying to locate someone in the airport, but wasn’t able to. She kept silence most of the time when I asked her, “What is happening on your side?” “So how now?” This really frustrated me. Asked her for the manager. A Patma came to the line, and she said she’ll try her best to locate someone.
3:15am : Roslan from KLIA called, said my things were with them, but they could only deliver to me at 5am. WTF?!!! He called from his mobile so I have his number. I paced around the room wondering if I should wait till 5am.
3:30am : Decided to drive to KLIA on my own to collect my liquid gold instead. Called and informed Roslan, I could hear a delighted tone in him when he added, “So we don’t need to send it over to you?”
4:15am : Arrived KLIA. Roslan’s crew handed my things to me. “Sorry yeah miss, lots of problem today, that’s why can’t call you earlier.” I just sped off. Niah mah fu lat!! Now how do I claim my toll and petrol to the airport?
5:00am : Reached home. Sorted the milk. What was still frozen, I quickly tossed it back into the freezer. What was partially thawed, I poured out the thawed milk into the bottle and then tossed the frozen back to the freezer. Took me half hour to do this.
Wrote a note to tell Daddy and the maids I wanted to sleep in, and I wanted no disturbance. Moved a mattress over to the study (didn’t want to be awaken when the kids wake up at 8am), and dozed off.
6:00am : Daddy came over with a crying Zara. “She wants you.” Dropped her on my mattress and walked back to the room. I was too tired to argue with him or I would have given him a big knock on the head for doing this since I needed to sleep. I carried Zara back to the room and tried to pacify her as well as get her back to sleep.
6:15am : Went back to the study and when I was about to doze off. Daddy came over again as Zara woke up and cried when she didn’t see me!!!!
6:30am : Made sure Zara is asleep. Since the maid were all up, I told them I’ll be sleeping in, and moved my mattress to their room, locked the door, and slept!
10:00am : Woke up feeling like a zombie.

I’m the kind who has to take 8hrs of sleep every night.. so I’m not in my element today!

Screw Malaysian Airlines for such screw up and such customer service! Damn the new regulations and Changi not giving exemption to nursing mums!

Now let me see if I can claim back my return trip to KLIA to collect the missing baggage the airline caused!

I was on a business trip for 3 days.
I woke up daily at 6:30am to express milk.
Shortened my lunch hour to 1/2 hour to express milk.
Instead of going shopping immediately after work (Great Singapore Sales is on), I stayed back in the hotel for another half hour to express milk.
Every night, after I’d expressed milk for the last time, got the hotel to store all the milk in the freezer for me, washed all the bottles, it would be 12am.
Now, is the milk precious or not?

8:00pm : Arrived Changi airport for my 9:20pm flight MH610
8:15pm : Checked in my suitcase, and was told MH610 has been delayed to 9:45pm. Suitcase tagged with MH610.
8:20pm : Before passing immigration, I asked security check point if I could carry my 2litre of frozen milk with me on board. I was denied entry, even though it mentioned “special dietery requirement” is excempted. They let me get out to ‘sort out’ my problem.
8:30pm : Got some masking tape from the shop, and taped up my cooler box and cooler bag.
8:45pm : Checked in my cooler box, and cooler bag. I was told flight MH610 has been delayed infinitely, and we would be put on MH608 departing at 9:30pm instead. Both my cooler box and cooler bag were tagged wtih MH608 tags.
9:00pm : Rushed through immigration, and went to the gate.
9:30pm : Started boarding the flight.
10:00pm : Flight took off finally.
11:00pm : Arrived KLIA. Went straight to claim my baggage.
11:15pm : Suitcase appeared.
11:45pm : Still no sign of my cooler bag and cooler box (anxious).
11:50pm : Was told no more items left in cargo, and I should proceed to Lost & Found to lodge a complain. (fuming)
12:00am : Have to tell the guy the content in the cooler box and cooler bag, and how important it is. He told me there’ll be no more incoming flight from Singapore. Have to tell him Susu Ibu is Breast Milk in English, to help him type that in to the report to indicate the urgency, and see if Singapore can help me to store the milk back into the freezer. I also took the Changi baggage handler number from him.
12:10am : Boarded my cab. On the way home, called up Changi baggage handler, phone was answered in 3 rings. The guy who took my call told me that at his end, he couldn’t see the cooler box or bag, he told me to call MAS counter in Changi. Called MAS counter in Changi, Nur who answered (picked up within 3 rings as well), told me she’ll help me trace the bags, and will call me back.
12:20am : Nur told me bags have been located, they have been mistakenly (she didn’t use this word, but how else could the bags ended up in the wrong flight) loaded into MH610, which will depart at 1am or later from Singapore.
12:35am : Reached home. Called Nur again, and she confirmed MH610 would be departing at 1am. Called MAS Lost & Found counter, it took me 6 attempts, infinite rings, before I reached a Roslan. He’s aware of my situation (probably became the big talk among the boys, this susu ibu thingy), and said he’ll send the bags immediately when the flight arrived.
1:00am : Called Nur in Changi again, and she said MH610 has taken off.
1:40am : Waited and Waited and Waited.

…. to be continued

If you walked passed my house and hear sound of crying, you can be quiet sure it’s Zara’s. The Two and The Half cries more than her Four Month Old sister in a day!

She cries in the morning when she wakes up and doesn’t see me next to her.
She cries when she wants to wear her choice of clothings but we give her another set.
She cries when she recently had her Hep B vacination.
She cries when she wants to come to the study to play with me but I disallow because I have to work.
She cries when she wants Daddy or me to bath her, but both of us are busy and we ask the maid to do it.
She cries when she wants a sweet drink during dinner and we refuse.
She cries when she is not able to yank a toy out from the toy box.
Basically, she cries when she doesn’t get what she wants; when she’s in pain, frustrated, or just moody.
When she cries, she wails, with big drop of tears flowing down, wetting her face, and the top she’s wearing.
She cries more, when her face is wet, and she demands to be wiped; and it normally takes a while to calm her down.
Zara was a high need baby and now a high need toddler.

Zaria on the other hand, cries only when she’s frightened (by a loud bang, or the unfaimiliar whirring of the blender; or by a bad dream);
When what she is holding is snatched away;
When I abruptly end a nursing session and she hasn’t had her fill of milk;
When she wants to sleep, but she’s not comfortable enough to fall asleep.
When she had her vacination on the same day as Zara has hers, she made just an Argh sound, and that’s it. No tears or wailling like her sister.
And when she cries, she’s easily pacified : the toy returned to her, the feed continues, or just picking her would normally do the trick.

When Zara was younger, I was able to capture lots of crying photos of Zara (see here, here, here, here, here). With Zaria, as she deosn’t cry often, it was tough, but I’d been waiting. Last 2 days, I managed to capture these shots and that’s about it:

She was unhappy when her book was taken away; She wanted to be picked up after lying on her stomach for too long; She wanted to sleep but she was hungry and Zara was making too much noise in the room

I stumbled upon a blog entry by a Filipino who’s immigrated to US where she shared the method to make salted egg at home since it’s not easy to get them from where she lives. I wanted to give credit to this person, but I can’t seem to find the link now.

Anyway, after checking out the steps and realised it wasn’t difficult, I was very interested to try it out.

2 weeks ago, when we went to the market, we saw a man selling duck eggs (which was uncommon), and an elderly lady buying the eggs in bulk. I overheard her talking to her companion that she’s in luck as she will be able to make salted duck eggs now instead of salted chicken eggs. I walked forward and chatted with her, checking out her method and confirming the information I saw earlier (from the net) was correct.  So we went on to buy 10 duck eggs and a pack of coarse sea salt home.

Here is how I made them :
Boil a pot of water with coarse sea salt (or any other types of salt) until the water is saturated (no more salt can disolve in the water).
Leave it to cool.
Place the 10 unwashed duck eggs (the elderly lady from the market told me it’s important not to wash the eggs, or the process will fail) into a glass jar (I used the Old Horlicks bottle which can probably hold 20 eggs)
Fill the salt water to the brim of the jar.
Screw on the lid, and leave it aside.

You are supposed to take one out to try at day 14th to check if the egg is salty enough. If it’s not, leave them soaked for another week and pick one more egg to try. Repeat until you are satisfied with the saltiness.

We tried ours yesterday (Day 14th). It was good! Not too salty which is the way I like it, and the yolk is perfectly oranged.

Today, we had 2 more for dinner, steam egg with salted egg yolks. Delicious! (Err, Zara won’t touch the yolk, she’s not a yolk person, so she took only steam egg without the yolk. Suits me, since I love it and I can have her share.)

Maybe I’ll make some organic salted eggs the next round.

Pst, anybody has homemade century egg recipe?

Thavara peeks through the windows of the school, wishing she was inside, sitting on a wooden chair and reciting her lessons.
Unfortunately, her family is too poor to give her an education.
Every day, together with her family, she scavenges the streets and dumping areas for food.
Thavara is not alone.
Close to 120 million children around the world are like Thavara – they do not receive an education due to poverty.
For most Malaysians, it is difficult to imagine how much education can mean to a child. Without education as a stepping stone, poor children grow up bound in the vicious cycle of poverty.
You can help change that.

The 30 Hour Famine is a global movement against hunger and poverty.
It is an experiential, lifechanging camp aimed at spreading awareness about global poverty and raising funds to improve the lives of needy children and communities.

The 30 Hour Famine brings together people from throughout Malaysia to experience the life of a person living in poverty and hunger.

For 30 hours, you enrich your life by doing something practical for those in need. Only 30 hours in support of changing a child’s lifetime,
30 hours in exchange for a stable and bright future for a child,
30 hours to give a child like Thavara reality instead of empty dreams.

Besides doing a good deed, it looks like a lot of fun to me.

This year World Vision Malaysia’s 30 Hour Famine theme, ‘hungry for HOPE’, was born out of the desire to brighten the future of children like Thavara.
With the support of corporate sponsors, celebrities, participants experience an amazing time together, bound by a vision to help those who have been neglected.
Fancy being involved in something special this year?
Why not fast for those who are hungry for hope?

Date : 15th – 16th Sept 2007
Time : 12pm (Sat) to 6pm (Sun)
Venue : Stadium Putra, Bukit Jalil, KL

To participate, contact World Vision Malaysia at (03) 7880 6414 or click ->

Note 1: Text and photos from World Vision Malaysia and nope it’s not PPP (it’s a sin just to think of getting rewarded for this).
Note 2 : I’m nursing and can’t join this event. Hopefully you can join in and participate and blog about it.

We talk to Zara a lot since she was born, pointing out things to her and naming them, speaking out an action, even though she was still a baby.

“Mummy is changing your clothes now.. Put your right hand in, put your left hand in.”
“We are in our room now. See, that’s the light switch. Now press on it. See, the light is turned on.” etc etc.

And then for the first 18months, she went to King’s Wife’s place at least 3 days a week, she has her cousins talking to her. 

Now that she’s older, we still talk to her a lot and we encourage her to describe things to us.
If she says, “Mummy, Mr Blue (is) very happy.”
(Don’t let it end) “Tell mummy why is Mr Blue happy.”
“Because me just feed Mr Blue.”
(Corrected her) “I just fed Mr Blue.”
*repeated “I just fed Mr Blue.”
(Don’t let it end yet) “What did you feed Mr Blue?”
“Me give Mr Blue some macaroni and cheese.”
(Corrected her and make sure she repeated after me. Then continueed to get her to talk) “Who cooked the Macaroni and Cheese for Mr Blue.
Zara replied.
Probed further “What did you put in the macaroni and cheese”
Zara replied.
…… depending on how much time I have and what I’m doing, the conversation can go on, but normally we don’t let her conversation end at the very 1st line.

Nowadays, she talks a lot, and she describes things she’s doing aloud.
“Mummy, you wearing stripey baju (Malay : clothes) today huh?”
“Kakak, you put the cup here? After the sofa wet, Daddy come home scold you then you know.”
*sniffing the air* “Somebody frying fish. Maybe it’s spicy, I don’t know.” etc etc.

Now with Zaria, I don’t have the luxury. Her chatter box jiejie is always nearby. When I’m feeding Zaria and want to talk to her, Zara will come and ask me questions, or just talk to me, especting a response.
When I sing or talk to Zaria, Zara will be near by adding in her comments, or in turn asking me questions, also expecting a response.

Our new maid who is looking after Zaria while I’m working is very quiet (another gold in the mouth type). She walks around with Zaria in her arms queitly, and when she plays with Zaria, it’s just rattling a toy in front of her, without uttering a word.

Zaria doesn’t get as much “talk time” as Zara did and still does. It’s too early to tell, but I wonder if she’ll be talking later than Zara because of this.

Went to our neighbour’s son, Zackary’s birthday party in Kidszone, Plaza Damas on Saturday. I realised when Zara is eating with friends, she’ll just scoop up whatever that’s placed in front of her. When she’s with us, it’s a different story all together.
Zaria didn’t miss out the fun too, quietly observing what’s happening around.
My mum’s death anniversary, and the family met in the cemetary. This is Zara’s first visit to the cemetary (spot her Phua Chu Kang’s boots).
Zara was saying a prayer, but I really don’t know what about.
Later when we asked her why we went to the cemetary, she said, “Mummy’s mummy die already.” When I asked, “Where is mummy’s mummy now?” She replied, “Under the grass now.”

Zaria trying out Bebe Pod (a “Help Me Sit Seat”). Of course we didn’t buy that for her.
Zaria swimming in a pool for the first time 2 weeks back. She was such a natural, paddling here and there on her own, no need to have mummy near by.
Zaria absolutely love to lick the lollipop liked teether. We keep it in the freezer, and on a hot day, we give it to her as a treat, she’ll be happily licking it away.

4 people tagged me, eastcoastlife, Samm, Dancing Queen, Chooi Peng, interested to know the meaning of my girls’ name?

So why Zara and why Zaria?

It’s quite difficult for Daddy and I to agree on things 100%. When we were looking for a name for Zara, he wanted names like Catherine, and I wanted something more exotic which ends with an A (Eliana, Alina, Carissa etc) . We agreed Sarah is a nice sounding name, but since it’s pretty common; I picked Zara instead, a twist from Sarah and it means “princess”.

Daddy wasn’t quite convinced, until he met Zara for the first time in the delivery room; the spunky kid, who was partially delivered, head out, shoulders still stuck in the pelvic, screaming her lungs out. When Zara was placed on my tummy with umblical cord still intact, Daddy whispred in my ears, “I think the name Zara will suit her.” So Zara it is.

For Zara’s Chinese name, Daddy didn’t mind me making the shot, since he’s not Chinese Educated. I had a dream which repeatedly mentioned Jun Jan (It might have been due to Lin Jun Jie’s song getting lots of air time on radio during that time). When I woke up, I told Daddy about it, and he said Jun Jan sounded nice. So I started looking for Chinese words that sounded like that. It was 君倩 (pronounced as Jun Qian but spelled as Jun Jan in her birth cert) finally, which means gentlemen, noble for the first character, and winsome for the 2nd character (a winsome girl who’s noble).

As for Zaria, we wanted to look for a name which start with Z and end with A and only 2 sylabels. After a long hunt, we narrowed down to Zaria and Zonya (Simple American reminded me they are actually 3 sylabels). Since Zaria also means “Princess”, and both Zaria and Zara are names of young royalties in Europe (Zara Phillips and Countess Zaria), it makes more sense to choose Zaria.

Again, I was given the honour to choose a Chinese name for her, I chose 君洁 (pronounced and spelled as Jun Jie), which is noble, pure and chaste; with pronuciation not deviating too much from Zara’s Jun Jan.

Both girls have the same initials : ZLJJ. I hope the similarity in their names will bring them closer together as sisters.

Here are other bloggers and the meaning of their kids’ name.

1) Msaufong – Meaning Of SQ & Kiki?s name
2) Miche – My ACB
3) eastcoastlife – Choosing Jaymes?
4) Shopping Mum – The meaning of Justin and Isabell
5) Judy Chow – Terry
6) Shannon – Rachel
7) Samm – Gordon n Malcolm
8 ) Sasha – lil J
9) mott – 2 monkeys
10) Fatty Poh – What’s in a name?
11) Binky – The meaning of Ian
12) Dancing Queen – What’s in your child’s name?
13) Chooi Peng – Meaning of KW’s name

A lot of people have been tagged, so I’m not passing this to any one.