My Two Girls – All About Zara and Zaria

This is difficult, hmmm, I myself sometimes question why I got married to Daddy. He’s not a bad guy really, but sometimes we can be so out of sync, I just wonder.. And I guess when you have been together with a person so long, you sometimes forgot what made you come together in the first place. When I got tagged by Whoisbaby and Mott, I have to think real hard.

So what made me tie the knot with him 9 years ago? After much thinking, here are the ten reasons :

1. I was smitten when I first laid eyes on him, it was my first day at work, and my then manager introduced me to him. That friendly smile and firm handshake swap me off my feet. Remember Jerry Maquire? After a lenghty romantic plea by Jerry Maquire, Dorothy Boyd said, “You had me at ‘hello.'”.. it was something like that for me as well.
2. He’s a 6-footer. Makes me look petite standing next to him (good enough reason?). It also gives me a secure feeling.
3. He’s an anglophile, and I’m a bit of an anglophile too. We like almost the same English Pop and movies.
4. He’s good with DIY-ing. He built me an adaptor for my disc man the first month we were together and I was damn impressed (that was then.. it takes more to impress me now).
5. He eats bread every single day for breakfast (even when we’re on vacation and staying in hotels which served good buffet breakfast). I’d heard some where that a person who can eat the same breakfast every day, must be able to stay with the same woman for the rest of his life. 🙂
6. He gives me freedom, allows me to work on my studies or my career – He’s the one who encouraged me to further my studies overseas, when all my other selfish and possesive ex boy friends forced asked me to stay back (and I was stupid enough to listen to them).
7. He’s a practical person. He won’t surprise me with flowers or any of such ‘romantic’ gifts. But he’ll get me bags, shoes, jewelry that I’d picked out myself (no surprises). When I was studying overseas, instead of love letters and cards, he showed me his love by sending me my supplies of Chinese herbs, Chinese mushrooms, Milo etc (boring eh? but I’m in control of what I get. :)).
8. He takes care of himself, eats and drinks well, doesn’t smoke (I’d had my share of smoker ex boy friends). Only indulgence is the occasional beer or wine. He helps me to take care of myself too, watch what I eat, etc.
9. He gives me room to have my own friends, do my own things, go on my own trips.
10. He agreed to live in my dad’s house with my dad (a widower who would live alone in a big house if I moved out) after we got married, even though his parents were not very happy. It was 6 years later that we moved to our own house (my dad now lives with my sis).

Now… I remember why I got married to him. 🙂 Thanks to Mott and Whoisbaby.

Any of you want to be reminded of why you married your spouse? This is a tag to do!
King’s Wife?
Cocka?
Ah Pek?
5xmom?
…Choosing the ones who’d been married for a long long time…

I find I have more peace with the kids sleeping next to me.

Although Zaria has her cot (away from our bed), I prefer her to sleep with us on our queen size bed. I place her nearer to my side of the bed, and I’ll just squeeze into Zara’s bed and share hers in the night. That way, Daddy sleeps more comfortably, Zara is happy to be able to hug me like a bolster to sleep and I get to check on Zaria in the night.

Every night, I have Zaria on my right, and Zara on my left. Before I go to bed, I look at both of them soundly asleep, and I feel blissful.

At the dinner table, Zara didn’t want to eat her vege.
Daddy *coaxing her* :”You must eat your vege, so you’ll grow up properly.”
Zara : “No, I don’t want.”
Daddy : “blah blah blah. You must eat.”
After a few times of Daddy ‘nagging’ her, she finally said, “Daddy, it’s difficult. It’s difficult to eat the vege Daddy.” (her first time using the word ‘difficult’)
……………

Zara didn’t want to drink water.
Me : “Zara, please drink some water.”
Zara : “I don’t want.”
Me : “Zara, mummy tell you nicely, please drink some water ok?”
Zara : “Mummy, I tell you nicely, no thank you please”
……………

Zara likes to sit with her legs opened wide, and has just recently learnt that a boy’s petpet (reproductive organ) is called “penis”.
She had her legs opened wide the other day in her car seat. To encourage her to be more lady like, I told her : “Zara, you sit like that you’ll grow a penis in your petpet.”
Very quickly she responded, “Last time daddy sit(sat) down open(ed) his legs big big that’s why his petpet got penis now.”
……………

At 2 1/2 months :
She weighed 5.45Kg and stood lay at 60cm

At 3 1/2 months :
She’s not as chubby as she used to be (but haven’t weighed or measured her yet).
The 0-3months clothes fit snugly now, and she’s starting to fill up the 3-6months clothes.
She drinks 3oz ~ 4oz of breast milk three hourly, 1st feed at 5am or 6am and last feed at 10pm or 11pm.
She takes 3 to 4 naps a day, from a 15mins doze to a 2 hours nap.
She smiles a lot, especially when spoken to.
She cooes when we talk to her or when we sing to her, sometimes competing with Zara to see who is lounder.
She likes to sit on our lap or on the sofa (supported), but dislikes being placed on her tummy.
When Zara watches TV, she stares at the TV as though she’s also watching with Zara.
She experianced her first dip in the pool and a bubble bath together with Zara.
She recognises me as the milk giver. Every time when she’s hungry and I carry her, she’ll be turning towards my breast and flinging her arm, preparing to latch on.
When she drinks from the breast, she likes to latch on then pullll, latch on then pullllll, a few times before she settles down to drink. Imagine the pain! “=.=
Whe she drinks from the bottle, she just pushes the teat out from her mouth, complaining, fusing, crying. Milk is consumed by dripping into her mouth. “=.=
She has bowel movement 3 to 4 days once, and usually after her lunch feed.
She tries to reach out for things, when she does touch it, she quickly puts her fingers around the item and tries puting it in her mouth.
Daddy and I think she’s really cute. Zara also ‘thinks’ Zaria is cute; so cute that she can’t ‘help’ but give Zaria too tight a squeeze at times and just yesterday, bit Zaria’s nose, leaving teeth mark. “=.=

Look at the way she stares at the TV like Zara, as though she’s really watching TV. She was wee bit shocked being in the pool

You know I have two beautiful daughters Zara and Zaria. I also have this other “daughter”, she lives in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and her name is Hairegulihan Tuerxuntuohuti. She’s my sponsored child from World Vision Malaysia(?????).

Our relationship started sometime in 2003. I didn’t have a child and I wanted one. I went to World Vision Malaysia website, and selected to sponsor a girl from Xinjiang. They found me Hairegulihan.  I wrote to her just once, in the very begining, and sent her some little gifts. Some how after that, I got very busy, and stopped writing to her (Yeah yeah, I know, it’s no excuse).

My other ‘daughter’ – Hairegulihan

Called it good karma, I got pregnant in 2004 (after 6years of marriage), and blessed with Zara.

Every year, I get a progress report from World Vision with her photo telling me how she’s doing. There’s this hapiness that I experiance every time I receive her progress report and see the smile on her face. Happy to know that some one far away is benefiting from a small deed I’m doing.

Hairegulihan’s latest progress report

World Vision Malaysia is trying get 5000 child sponsors this year to celebrate their 10th year anniversary. As a sponsor, your contribution together with others are pooled together to be invested in long-term development programmes that will give your sponsored child, his/her family and community a brighter future.

How much does it cost to sponsor a child? RM50/month.

If you are interested, click on the icon below or check out their website to get more information. You can also choose to do a one time donation to this trusted organisation which will use your fund appropriately to help those needed.

Change a child’s life today! click ->

Daddy is very supportive of Ikea. When we moved in to our new house, we tried to get most of our furniture from Ikea. People had adviced us against getting wardrobe and kitchen cabinet from Ikea, claiming they are not suitable for our weather. Daddy, however, thought the 10 years warranty given were good ‘guarentee’ enough.

So despite the advice, we bought our kitchens (both wet and dry) cabinets from Ikea.  It was the Nexus Oak series that we got, doors were just oak veneer but we paid quite a lot for them.

After just 2 years, the doors started to have stains, a darkish patch started spreading like some kind of disease. Even the plinth (or the skirting) caught the stain.

Daddy started making calls to Ikea. At first, they claimed we need to bring the items back for exchange. Kitchen doors! To uninstall them and bring them in for exchange!! Daddy asked to speak to higher management, his voice was louder with each calls made.

After a few more calls, the Ikea contractor who did the installation were called in to do inspection, followed by Ikea folks, snapping photos here and there. Then, we were told Nexus Oak is no longer available, how about if they replaced the affected doors with aluminium doors (or was it glass?) or Nexus Birch (similar in price to what we paid). We made several trips to Ikea, to see how we can mix and match our doors, i.e. the current Nexus Oak coexisting with a few aluminium doors or Nexus Birch. I just couldn’t see how they will match.

Daddy made more calls, speaking to various people mainly from customer service, voicing his concerns. Eventually, they agreed to replace our doors and plints with whatever material we choose from their available series! We chose solid oak (Ulriksdal Oak) to replace the oak veneer, it’s more expensive, but the closest we can get to our original doors.

We made our decision in the little room in Ikea.
Customer Service : “Blah blah blah…. Solid Oak then?”
Me : “But they look odd, some with grooves (Ulriksdal Oak) and some without (Nexus Oak)”
Customer Service : “All your doors will be replaced.”
Me : *pupil widened*“At no cost?”
Customer Service : “Yeah, we bear the cost”
Daddy : (usually a bit slow) “How can they charge us? But yeah man, the doors will be a bit mismatch, some with grooves some without.”
Me : *nudged Daddy” “She said ALL doors lah!”
Daddy : *pupil widened (finally got it)* “ALL the DOORS? At no cost?”
Customer Service : “Yes.”

Few days later, doors and plints were sent over by the delivery guys (at NO COST), then Ikea contractor dropped by to install them (at NO COST), and the old doors and plints were packed and brought back to Ikea (at NO COST).

We got our kitchen cabinets upgraded a few days later AT NO COST!

Daddy was happily exclaiming, “See, that’s what I call customer service. And that’s why I don’t want to buy my kitchen cabinets from some Ah Chong company. With Ikea’s 10 years warranty, I don’t have to worry if anything goes wrong”

This is true, but not without some noise making though.

You know your milk is delicious when :

1) Your baby drinks it up with no complain
2) Your fussy toddler (with acute sense of taste) waits by the side when baby is drinking the milk from a bottle and excitedly says, “Meimei, you don’t want huh? Cannot finish huh? Faster give jiejie drink then.”
3) Whatever your baby can’t finish (from the bottle), you toddler grabs it and happily empties the bottle, exclaiming, “Yummy” or “So nice” at the end of it
4) Your toddler occasionally cries and asks to be fed from the breast. When you tell her she’s already a big girl, she replies, “I’m only a baby, I want to drink from mummy’s breast.”

And if you want to know, nope, I didn’t let the toddler feed from the breast.

The kids were still sleeping at 9:45am! Not being awaken. I asked Tuyam, “Kalau mereka tidur sampai 12pm, you biar kan saja lar?” (Malay : If they slept till 12pm, you’ll leave them sleeping?)

My boss commented, “Full time mum and you have a part time job eh?” when I had my 1 on 1 with him. Apparently he read this post  “=.=

Zara was so happy to see me home yesterday, she wanted to sit on my lap while I had dinner, and kept stroking my face. I was away from her for 10hours (the last I was away this long, it was when I went for my biz trip in Jul ’06).

Zaria refused to drink milk from the bottle and cried every time the bottle was placed in her mouth. She took less than 4oz while I was at work. She preferred to go hungry, and waited for me. She drank hungrily when I offered her the breast when I got home. =.=”

Work?? Pile high! 3000mails and every thing is urgent!! Well.. almost.
There’s also this new program, which I have little knowledge of and I have to pick it up and run!

How time flies, my 3 months maternity leave came and went, WHOOOOSH…. just like that.

So how did I spend my time at home these 3 months? What have I achieved?

I moved to wordpress, did some blogging, watched a few DVDs, read a couple of books. I looked after the girls (bathed them daily & fed them),  brought them out couple of times in a week, played with them at home, brought them to the park every evening etc.

Books read and movies watched

Achievements :
~ Toilet trained Zara. She tells us when she wants to poo and pee, and with our help, do it on the toilet bowl. We only let her wear her diaper when we go out (just in case we can’t find a toilet) and in the night for ‘accidents’ (but she wakes me up when she needs to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and never wet her diaper the last 2 months)
~ Almost back to my pre-pregnancy weight, 2Kg more to go
~ Successfully breast fed Zaria exclusively (except the time she was in hospital for jaundice she had to be supplemented since I didn’t have milk stored)
~ Stock up on breast milk : 100oz (close to 3 litres) of frozen milk, almost enough for Zaria’s 5 days feed, just in case I have to go for any business trips.
~ Hired and trained a new maid

Play time – KLCC Water Park

Play time – Kidzsports

Play time – Park

Watched Her Grow

On Monday, it’ll be BACK TO WORK. Bummer!

Michelle and Shoppingmum wanted to know this, so they tagged me.

I absolutely love travelling. Before the kids arrived, Daddy and I made sure we went on vacation once a year. We like outdoors and nature and love to go to places which offer this. When I went on business trips, I tried to find time to visit National Parks nearby. Been to Maldives; Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia; Turkey; many national parks in Northern California; Great Wall of China; French Alps and Riveria; Scotland; around Athens and Eastern Europe and would like to see more! Since the kids arrived, we only went to places and countries nearby. I hope when they are older, we could either bring them along or leave them behind to visit these places : (in sequence of desire) Grand Canyon, Meteora, Santorini, Mykonos, Ayers Rocks, Niagara Falls,  Mongolian Grassland, Bhutan, Sahara Desert. Wonder when it’ll be but one thing for sure, I need to start saving now.

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**Start Copy**

Proposition : Where do you want to go Next, OUTSIDE OF YOUR COUNTRY, for tourism, work , study, whatever.

Requirements: Find some info about the place, itinerary etc, pics if possible so you get MORE Traffic coming in, and maybe some people can find somewhere to go to. Excludes your NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOUR, ie Singapore,Malaysia,Brunei, a country that borders yours.You must register for MyBloglog so we can blogwalk ah…..get it?

Quantity : FIVE PEOPLE.

Tag Mode : Chain Link. 15 of them.
You leave 15 people and their DEEP LINK of their Blog Name and TAGGED POST and hit out for five more. So it will look like

Azrin going Down Under
MaRLinda in Disneyland Paris
Athira Baby and her Balamory Antics
Msau to Japan
Shoppingmum to Europe
Angeleyes off to Bora-Bora
Giddy Tiger snorkelling in The Maldives
Jess to Europe
Michelle go around the world

**Add in the blog you got the tag from and tagged post.** (In this case, for example, you should add “Zara’s Mama wants to experiance nature around the world“) 

Extra Rules: you cannot Tag another person who has performed the Tagging Rights to Travel. Check yr commentators.
You MUST PASS this tag within 7 days of receiving it , or lose a day’s worth of Blog Revenue or $10 to charity. Can?Makes it interesting anyway. So no Lazy Tags running about, and yeah, eventually, there will be less than a 1:3 chance you can’t tag that someone. And pay those people in the list a visit, you never know if you can pinch / recycle some ideas for your next entry!

**End Copy**

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And I tag :
King’s Wife (Bags shopping?)
Sasha (Persia/Iran? So you can buy more of your sharp sharp shoes?)
Sesame (I know you’d seen lots of places, with Gavin now, where do you want to go?)
Mom2Ashley (diving paradise?)
Chooi Peng (quick, last trip before you deliver)