My Two Girls – All About Zara and Zaria

Today is Zara’s 1st Birthday! It has been such a pleasure having her around, and sometimes still seem a bit surreal when we look at her (after what we’d been through). Our daughter, our very own flesh and blood.

Although her birthday celebration didn’t really go that well for her, she’s still her normal self despite her tummy upset. When she gets better, we’d bring her out toy shopping (with her angpow money) and a good meal.

Here are her photos, and her mile stones month by month.

1st month

Since I didn’t have a confinement lady, I took care of her all by myself (no MIL or mum to help).
– Turned her head from left to right when she’s laid on her tummy (about 4th week).
– Smiled for the first time.

2nd month

– Could lift her head up while being carried, as well as while she’s put lying on her stomach.
– Stopped waking up for night feeds when she was 6 week old (aleluia!).
– Kicked at her baby gym
– Put her fist in her mouth to suck

3rd month
– cooed
– Sucked her thumb and upper lip (if we kept her thumb away from her)
– held things when placed in her hands
– clasped her hands

4th month

I went back to work (I took 3 months off). This same month, we moved to our new house in Shah Alam and she started having to be sent daily to King’s Wife’s place together with my maid.
– turned from lying to her back to her front
– used her hands to play with her baby gym

5th month

– laughed
– crawled (tummy on the floor)
– Passed item from one hand to another
– With her tongue between her lips, made the sound PBBBBTTTT
– Sucked on her toes
– Smacked her lips
– When we wanted to lift her up, she reached her hands out to us

6th month

– had her first taste of solid
– sat unsupported
– turned her wrist

7th month
– sat unsupported
– clapped her hands
– waved bye bye
– swam in a pool (with float of course)

8th monthThis was when I started her blog.
– cut her first tooth (in fact, 4 came out just about the same time)
– gave her first kiss, to a baby photo in a book
– stood while being supported (by holding on to something)
– cruised
– rubbed her eyes when she’s tired

9th month

– sat herself up
– pulled herself to standing position by holding on to a piece of furniture
-improved pincer grip

10th month

– spoke her first word
– took her first step

11th month

– climbed down furniture on her own
– stood unsupported

12th month

Weight : 7.79Kg (before she got her food poisoning, quite likely lighter now)
Height : 75cm
– cut 2 more teeth, and another one is peeking out from the gums
– spoke her first 3-syllable word
– said her name when she’s asked “What is your name?”

We have a little home made pohpiah lunch yesterday to celebrate Zara’s 1st birthday. It was a small affair, just our immediate family members and Daddy’s best friends (mine pulled out because their kids were not feeling well). It went very well, the lunch itself, but the star of the day, Zara, wasn’t feeling very well these few days, so was not in her best element.

She was down with fever on Thursday evening and it subsided on Friday. Then on Saturday she purged and vomited during the day; making her very whinny and clingy. Even while I had to start some of the Sunday’s lunch preparation at the stove, she ‘glued’ to me.

At 3am yesterday, she woke up and started wailing. When we asked her “Where Pain Pain?” She pointed to her stomach, and started crying again. We initially wanted to just pacify her and get her back to sleep, but she was crying non-stop, after about 30mins, we rushed her to Sunway Medical Emergency ward. The sleepy Dr on duty had a look at her and concluded she had ‘wind in the stomach’. She prescribed some anti-colic solution and sent us back. We got home at 5am. Not sure if it was the medication, or pure exhaustion, Zara slept soundly after that.

After 3hrs of sleep, it was time to get up. Although I had my maid and King’s Wife’s maid to help out, I sill had to run around to instruct them on how certain things should be done, and how they should be served. The whinny baby was joined to the hip with me throughout.

Just before I showered her, she purged, and then was very fussy, and aggitated. I tried to get her to nap so that she’ll be more rested, and will be in better spirit.

At 11:30am, people started to arrive. After my aunt, who came with the pohpiah skins and her famous home made turnips arrived, the lunch started. Zara also woke up about this time, I changed her into her new clothes, and brought her downstairs to join in the rest.

She was not as energetic as her normal self, but she still got pretty excited seeing all the people making their own lunch/pohpiah. I gave her a piece of skin and some vege, so that she can join in the fun. She however, didn’t have the appetite to eat anything, she just tore the food up into pieces, and made a mess at the table like her usual self.

When King’s Wife’s arrived, Zara was excited to see her che-ches (cousin sisters), and immediately went to them.

Samantha was happily entertaining her while Zara threw up, all over Samantha’s lap. Poor Sam’s skirt was drenched in puke. Zara was not disturbed by any of it, and continued playing once we cleaned her, and removed her pinafore.

When it was time to cut the cake, she couldn’t relate to the cake and the candle thing, but she was very excited when the Happy Birthday song was sung.

I got her a big fat carrot cake from Marmalade Cafe, thinking that this was something she can eat since it’s quite a ‘nutritious’ cake. However, again, Zara didn’t want to have any when I offered it to her and was showing sign that she was tired and needed a nap.

While she slept, I had more pohpiahs (probably 6 all in) and a big fat slice of cake. My excuse is I do need the energy to pacify a whinny kid.

When Zara woke up from her sleep, she again had diarrhea, this time her stool was totally watery. We were very very concerned. We had to almost shoo all our other guests home (by this time it was only my sis, my aunt and my in-laws around), to bring Zara to see a pediatrician.

Dr Chye, who operates in Subang, told us that Zara probably had food poisoning, but since her diarrhea and vomiting is not THAT frequent, we will just have to let her fight it herself. She was given some syrup to help with her colic pain, and then some rehydrating salt.

Zara refused to sit in her car seat after we left the Dr’s. She had big drops of tears rolling down, reaching her hands out for me. I gave in, and just a few moments after she was out of the car seat, Zara puke again, this time all over me; and then again during dinner after just a few mouth full of porridge.

However worrying it may all seem to me; she behaved normally after that, it didn’t seem to bother her if she had done a watery poo, or puke. It’s probably a good sign that it was not causing much discomfort to her (my consolation).

Not a very good birthday celebration for her, and I smelled of puke at the end of the day.

Mummy just hope she gets well soon.

After a few months of contemplation, we finally bought a spanking new digital SLR, the Olympus E500.

Why this model? Don’t ask me, I’m not the technical one who will go to the net and compare features and prices. Daddy decided on the model.

We have been using our Pentax Optio 555 since Nov 2003. It has seen us through a few holidays, Zara’s birth, and her 1st year. I have been complaining about the shutter lag of the camera (which is about 1.35sec, very slow for precious moments). Every time when I tried to take a happy shot of Zara, after her smile has disappeared, then only the shot is taken. I had lost a lot of beautiful moments.

Daddy wanted us to upgrade to another camera with improved speed. I wasn’t keen. What’s the point of owning 2 very similar cameras? I told him only if it’s an SLR, or else, we just stick to what we have now. After much research and price comparison, we finally settled for this.

The draw backs of these SLR cameras are that they can’t take Videos and they are too bulky to carry around daily (which I do with my Pentax). So I’ll still rely on my Pentax for day to day shots and videos.

I don’t know much about cameras or photography, I only know how to capture moments. I believe by owning this new toy, I will have to start learning. Daddy gave me 3 days to learn up (the use of the camera), so that I can use this new beauty to capture Zara’s first birthday celebration on Sunday.

Well, Zara was running a temperature yesterday, so I was very busy caring for her. Today, she seemed to have recovered (Dr can’t tell why she got a fever, since she didn’t have any infection or flu). If she remained alright (crossing my finger, for her sake as well as mine), I’ll have today and tomorrow to learn up the features of the camera in preparation for her Sunday’s party.

Saw some of your comments, who thought the messy eater photo featured in my yesterday post was Zara.

I had to ‘announce’ here, THAT IS NOT HER, although they look rather alike. Someone sent me that photo, and I thought it looked like the mess Zara created after dinner (many many times exaggerated). So I used it.

I won’t be able to tolerate such mess, if that was her, I would have faint spell after each meal.

Here is how dining with Zara has evolved.

0 to 5th month
When we had dinner, we let her sit in her infant carrier with some interesting things to examine. She was happy.

5th to 6th month
She’d started solids, and able to sit supported.
When we had dinner, we put her in the high chair, one hand supporting her back, the other spooned food to our own mouth and hers.
We gave her something interesting to hold, she would bang the something on the table or chair noisily, and she was happy.

7th month
She’s able to sit on her own.
We just had to give her some sound making toys, or something extremely interesting to occupy her during dinner time. She would sit in the high chair making music by banging the items on the table or chair, or dropping them on the floor (to hear what sound they could make).
We had to take turns to eat, because feeding her, controlling the noise she was making (when other diners threw us glances) picking up the things she dropped was a full time job!

8th – 9th month
She started cruising.
She was not keen to sit still. If she had to, she would be dropping things on purpose, fretting to get out of the chair, or kept demanding for things beyond her reach (like the mobile phone, soya sauce bottle we placed out of her reach on purpose)!
We had to take turns to eat. Feeding her, picking up things she dropped, as well as pushing things further away from her reach was a very full time job and require a higher skill level(I wish I was an octupus)!

10th month
She started walking, and climbing.
Trying to keep her seated on the high chair is a big chore. She’s not that interested in her food, preferred to be on the floor walking. If we had to keep her in her chair, she would try to climb out of it, danger was not a concept she understood.
Definitely, there’s no way we could have a peaceful meal together. We had to take turns to bring her for walks, or if she still had not finished eating, we had to use 1 hand to force her down on her chair, and the other hand to spoon food into her mouth as well as push things out of her reach.

11th month
She started having a keen interest to participate during meal times.
She would sit in her chair, demands for her own set of cutlery (if none, she’ll just climb out of the chair skillfully and grab the nearest set), and then using the fork, spoon or chopstick she will reach for other people’s plate. She will also use her hand to grab rice from neighboring plates.
So, to prevent her for robbing people’s food, we let her have her own plate and spoon and put some rice in her plate. While we’re feeding her her actual food, she’ll pick up and push lumps of rice into her own mouth with her hand. Sometimes, even offering her food to us (which we have to pretend to eat or she’ll get crossed).
We could finally eat together again as a family. The after dinner mess however is another problem.

This is an exaggerated pic (not her), but it’s close to how she looks like after dinner… I wonder what is in store for us for the coming months.

My best friend will be coming back to Malaysia for holidays, and being very practical, she asked what kind of birthday (very belated) and Christmas present I would like her to bring back from New York for me. Would I like the Philosophy skin care and the latest Jamie Oliver cook book (both I used to love)?

I don’t need Philosphy skin care now since I always have the motherly radiant, as I go for those quick and easy just slap everything to your face/eye kind of skin care. No more time for exfoliating or doing mask.

The only cook books I purchase now are related to cooking or baking for babies/children, but I already have 5, do I need another? So this year, I asked her for a book which gives you ideas of games and craft you can play and do with a toddler or a child.

I noticed that being a mum now, I seldom buy or ask for things for myself, everything I buy or want, somehow will be related to Zara.

Just like recently, I was contemplating between an LV bag (the Bucket, I love it), and a digital SLR. It costs about the same. One would fulfill my own vanity or desire, the other would allow me to capture beautiful moments of my child. Which do I choose? Tough choice!
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We just went and bought the digital SLR today. Daddy’s anniversary, Christmas, valentine’s present to me. Bye Bye LV, maybe next year, I’ll ask Santa again for it, just maybe.

Zara signing ‘MORE’ in the attached photo:

I first heard about signing with babies when I was searching for some books in Amazon.com, and stumbled upon books on this topic, so I looked up websites and did some research.

Why do you sign to babies? “It is a fact that infants develop the fine muscles in their hands before they develop those required for speech, so they’re equipped to communicate with you before they can speak“, there are some very good websites who give you some insight to this.

I for one, got very frustrated when I could not understand what Zara was crying or asking for. She was 7 months then. At the period where she could not speak, but already had her demands(by crying).

I went to the ASL (American Sign Language) Site, looked at the video on how to do certain signs, and started signing to Zara. I tried to do the essential one like milk, drink, eat.

It wasn’t easy to let Zara associate the signs with the words, even more difficult because my maid was her main care giver during the day. Although I’d instructed her to sign to Zara when Zara was offered milk, a drink of water or food to eat, I could not ensure she did that since I was not around to check on her. When I signed to Zara during the time I took care of her, she seemed to look at me in amusement, not taking my ‘signing’ seriously.

The initial attempt failed.

As Zara grew older, she’s more firm with her demands, she gets a bit frustrated when none of us are able to tell what she’s saying or asking for. So I tried signing again. This time, I didn’t get my maid to help, because if she did it wrongly, it’ll only confuse Zara more.

I’d used a few signs with her, two of the signs she picked up quickly are more (2 hands come together), and no more (turn the wrist with palm stretched out). Her version of more is pointing her finger to her other palm (like doing dim-choong-choong ???). She tells me she wants more by doing this action, e.g. she wants more bubble blowing, food, reading, singing, etc.

Her signing came to very good use the other night. After breast feeding her from both breast, she pointed her finger to her other palm (she wants more), then pointed to my breast, and turned her wrist with palm stretched out (but I have no more milk), and then started fussing and repeated the gesture (my milk supply reduced because of the time of the month).

I quickly made her 2 additional oz of formula milk. Although she eventually just took a few drips (yes ‘drips’, not even ‘sips’) of milk from the bottle (she only has tasted formula milk on 2 or 3 occasions, so probably not used to the taste), she seemed to be happy that I understood her, and went to sleep blissfully.

I’m still in the midst of introducing more signs to her. Hopefully, it’ll help more with our communications.

Zara spoke her first 3 syllable word 2 weekends ago when I was reading her bath time counting book to her which has a page filled with butterflies.

She immitated when I said butterfly. Her version sounds something like “putter-pie”. Now, she kept mumbling the word putter-pie, as though to practice her talking skill.

She’s picked up quite a few words the past 2 weeks, like :
Kai Kai (go out) – tai tai
Walk Walk – woh woh
Park (Play ground)- Pak
Bath – But
Duck – Tuck Tuck
Mr Blue (her softtoy) – Boo
Car – Uhhhhh Uhhhh (with 1 arm raised and moving horizontally depicting a moving car)
Aeroplan – Uhhhhh Uhhhh (same as car, but she’ll be poining her finger upwards)
Daddy – Pa Pa
Zara – Sa-ah
Apple – Ah-Per
Full (??) – Ba-Ba

However, she’s still not calling me mummy, mama or anything yet. And sometimes still confuse me with herself. When I asked, “where’s Zara’s nose?”, she’ll point to mine; but when it’s “Where is che-che’s (Samantha’s) nose?”, she’ll point to Sam’s.

Maybe she thinks both of us are one entity, that’s why when I’m around, she still clings to me like a koala.

Over the weekend, we were shopping for a dress for Zara. We were looking for something which she can wear for her birthday, Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year (4 in 1).

When we had to change her into the clothes we’d selected for her in the shops, we saw her reflection on the big mirror, she’s so skinny and long (or was it some tricks they do with the shops mirror?), I don’t know why we never really noticed this before (oh well, we know she’s quite lean, but never knew she’s THAT thin)! We found that most of the clothes meant for her age were way too loose for her, although the length suited her.

We eventually bought a dress for her from Zara which didn’t look too ‘baggy’ for her.

When we went home, and I hung her dress in the cupboard, I spotted the dress she wore on her full moon (a gift from Aunty Abigail, and unfortunately, worn only once). Just out of curiosity, I took the dress out and compared it with the one we just bought. Guess what? They seemed to be almost the same size.

I got Zara to change into the dress! She could fit into it (meant for 0-3months), and looks even nicer than the time she wore it 11months ago! So maybe, we’ll let her wear this dress on her birthday instead.

Her Full Moon 11 months ago

11 month later, it still fits her!

We finally got streamyx for the house! They finally got ports here (the new housing area).

How this will change me :
1) I will work from home more, probably twice a week at least
2) I don’t have to stay up in the office to read blogs or to blog, I can do it at home now!
3) There’ll probably more ‘rows’ with daddy, on who get to use the line more….. errr, maybe we should look at getting a router or a hub.

It won’t be good news to Zara, as mummy will try to sneak to the study to log on more often….