Chitter Chatter of ZMM

Donna Hay's Chrismas Pudding

2007-12-18T15:49:00.000+08:00

Many were interested in getting the recipe of the pudding I made, I got it from Donna Hay Modern Classics Book 2.

Click on the pix to read the details.

In my case, I made them in individual sizes.

So the cloth size should be 30cm (12inch) squares x 8.

Each pudding should be holding ~250g mixture.

Cooking time : 1hr 30mins. Reheat time : 30mins boiling (that's what the recipe suggested but I steam for similar amount of time instead).

Enjoy.

Jelly Brains

2007-12-15T23:27:00.000+08:00

Jelly Brains is the nickname we gave to our Filipino maid. Why do we call her that?

Her name is Jelly (real name which is printed on her passport). And she's absolutely forgetful.

Here are a few incidences : 1) Went to my sister's appartment, and when she were going home, after a few steps down the stairs, she exclaimed, "Alamak, I forgot to wear my slippers." (you mean you were bare feet and you didn't know until after taking a few steps?)

2) She changed Zaria's diaper during Zaria's evening bath, and left the soaked diaper on Zara's wooden toy house just next to the cot. When we were doing reading in the night, we were curious where the urine stench came from. We then discovered the the wet diaper. When we asked her, she said, "Oh, I forgot."

3) She reheated Zaria's porridge, and went on to bath Zaria, forgotten about the poridge on the stove. The pot was burnt! That night, Zaria had to eat instant cereal. Sigh.

4) She watered the plant without removing Zara's bicycle right below the plant. Drenching Zara's bicycle.

5) After I took the girls out for a walk, I called her out to bring Zaria up for her bath, while I entered the house with Zara first. She carried Zaria from her cot, went straight up to the room to bath Zaria, forgetting to lock the door.

Jelly brains or not?

Formaldehyde in Beer??

2007-12-05T10:27:00.000+08:00

Daddy had this Xi Hu beer in Hangzhou the other day when we were in Shanghai.

On it, there was this text printed : "free from formaldehyde". Daddy and I were joking about this, and thought it was just a marketting gimmick that this brewery is using to promote itself as more 'superior' than others, although the test of the beer wasn't that superior.

I wonder if people actually use formaldehyde in beer brewing.

Well google has the answer,

"It had been known that some Chinese breweries have habitually added a small amount of formaldehyde to the mash, ostensibly as a clarifying agent. Large export and joint venture brewers have stopped using formaldehyde, but the recent study indicates that the practice remains widespread." taken from this article, and you can read the whole article from that site.

So, watch out beer drinker out there.

This blog

2007-11-30T17:22:00.000+08:00

Since I'd already have another blog to chart the development of the girls, I will use this blog more as a personal blog.

For my thoughts, my feelings, for me.

In the next few days, the lay out will be changed, so what started out as a blog for my daugther, Zara, will now be a place for me for my thoughts.

Abandonned but revived!

2007-11-29T17:13:00.000+08:00

This blog has been left abandoned for quiet a while. It's time to revive it. If you have been visiting their site at my own domain, you know the girls are doing great. Zara has just celebrated her 3rd birthday, and Zaria is alread 11th month old. Seriously, time flies. Look at how big they have grown!

Moving Out

2007-01-09T18:41:00.000+08:00

1) Blogger has been giving me lots of problem esp with photos loading

2) We have new addition to the family and All About Zara just won't work any more.

So I'm moving out to wordpress (can't afford my own domain yet). Here is the new link about My Two Girls, and we have finally decided on Baby's name.

See you in there.

Updated Nov '07 :

I finally got my own domain, my birthday present for myself and have moved from wordpress to my own domain, you can visit the girls site here

The first post from that site was written in September. Enjoy..

Photos - Baby, Girls' moment

2007-01-08T12:11:00.000+08:00

Who does she look like? She has Daddy's eye lids, but my big pupils. Daddy's nose, and sharper face

Looking pretty serious here.

Zara's pretty loving towards meimei the minute they met. She wants to 'sayang' meimei every time when meimei cries or frets by stroking and singing to meimei. She likes to hug meimei for no reason. Drinking milk together in the night.

Meimei's small hands compared to mine.

Update on Zara When we asked Zara what we should call meimei since we have already shortlisted to 2 names, and we wanted her to choose one, she just said "mei mei's name is mei mei." Zara has also started to ask the Why question. E.g. "Why the korkor (Chinese : big brother) nose like that one" when she saw a picture of a boy with big longish nose. Zara's is getting better in reasoning. Daddy asked her to walk when all she wanted was to be carried when they go for their park trip. She told daddy, "Daddy carry Zara. Daddy need(s) excercise." I told her to stay away from meimei since she is not fully recovered from chicken pox and she told me, "I'm feeling better already. I eat (ate) my chicken pox medicine already." And she started calling Daddy "Dad" and me "Mum". I have no idea where she learn that (TV maybe?).

Updates - Birth, Baby, Zara, CL, Me

2007-01-08T00:00:00.000+08:00

Birth Our 2nd daugther was born on 28th Dec evening. I opted for elective induction and admitted in the morning to be induced. Dr inserted a pill into the cervix to start things off and later put me on drips. I only got a little contraction, I could still read, listen to music, talk to Daddy gaily. When the drip dosage was increased to 100%, my cervix was barely 2 cm opened, even though the contraction pain started to become unberable. I wanted to go without pain relief for as long as I can but after 1 1/2hr, I started using the (entonox) gas. Then the midwife suggested that I go with pain killer since I got very tense every time the contraction started which would affect the cervix dilation. After talking to Daddy, I opted for Pethidine, just like I did with Zara's birth. The minute Pethidine was injected, I started relaxing and the cervix started to dilate. We were disturbed by baby's heart beat though. Every time when a contraction started, her heart beat went down, after the contraction, the heart beat recovered. Dr was called and he told us that it may be due to 1) baby was compressed in the birth canal or 2) baby's umblical cord was around her neck. The latter could be life threatening. He told us we could either opt for emergency c-sect for safest bet, but looking from the way things are progressing, he told us to hang a little bit longer. We were worried, but trusted his judgement. Soon after that, I could feel the urge to push (that's why I didn't want to go for epidural since it will numb all such sensation). Midwife checked me and found that baby's head was already crowning. Every thing started to happen, within minutes, Dr was back in the labour room, gave me an episiotomy, and the delivery began. This round, no help needed, baby just got pushed out with one push. The minute I heard her cry, all pain was forgotten, although I still felt a bit high and dizzy from Pethidine, the rush of joy was overwhelming. The little girl was 2.91Kg (Zara was 3.39Kg), and her height was 51.5cm (Zara was 50.5cm).

The room we spent 12hrs in awaiting for the birth of our 2nd daugther

Baby I worried too much. When I was pregnant, I was constantly worried that I will not love baby as much as I do with Zara. I just found new capicity to love her. How can you not love your own flesh and blood? Baby is good, she's more patient than Zara and even when she's hungry, she'll cry a little and wait for me to feed her (Zara used to cry and turn black every time we were a bit too 'slow'). She sleeps a lot still, but when she's awake, she likes to look around, checking us out. She was admitted back to the hospital for jaundice for 2 nights and now she's back home coping well. We still call her baby or mei-mei (Chinese : Small sister) since we haven't decided on the name yet. :( Zara Zara is doing very well as a jie-jie (Chinese: Big sister). We gave her a set of nice markers as a present from baby and also bought her a baloon when she came visiting, telling her she's now jie-jie to baby and mummy's assistant. She's very proud of her new titles. The first few days, she cried when baby cried for milk. She didn't want the Confinement Lady (CL) to handle mei-mei when mei-mei cried but insisted that "Mummy, sayang (Malay : pat) mei-mei. Don't want aunty (CL) sayang." She constantly wants to hug and stroke her mei-mei but unfortunately, she contracted chicken pox (probably from visiting mei-mei in the peadiatric ward) after mei-mei was discharged and we told her not to be too close to mei-mei for the time being.

Confinement Lady What's wrong with these people? They think so highly of themselves that they don't wash dishes, do house work or help out with the older kids even when they are just siting around doing nothing. I'm barely able to stand her, and Daddy is very tempted to get rid of her. She's more like a cook instead of a CL. Since I'm 100% breastfeeding, and I like to be a bit hands on (like cleaning baby's poo or topping and tailing baby) she doesn't have much to do.

Baby sleeps with me in the night, and when I naps. I wake up to feed her while the CL sleeps away. She cooks for me 3 meals a day, washes baby's clothes, bathes baby and that's about all she does. She doesn't help with Zara at all, nor anything else in the house. She sleeps when I sleeps (and sometimes before), and when Zara watches her VCDs/DVDs, she watches with Zara(but not to care for Zara, even small little things like giving Zara snacks or taking a drink for Zara from the fridge, CL will shout for Tuyam to do it). The only good thing that came out of this is she knows what I should and should not eat and make sure whatever I take help with milk production. With Zara (without a CL), my milk came on day 5. With baby, my milk came on day 4 and supply is pretty good. Me I'm doing fine but a bit tired. 2 kids vs 1 is very different.

When baby is feeding and Zara needs attention, I have to be tactful, or still give Zara the attention by talking to her or doing things with her with my free hand. I still try to spend as much time as I can with Zara so that she doesn't feel I'm neglecting her.

When baby is alert, I try to talk to her and carry her around to show her the house or look at new things.

I only get to rest when both of them are sleeping. Luckily, I can breastfeed while lying down, so in the night when baby wakes up for her feed, I just latch her on and continue to sleep while she feeds.

I'm not sure what is wrong with blogger but have been trying to post more photos but not able to after the hospital shot.. *sigh* May not be able to update or read blogs as frequently for now until things are more settled.

Things She Says Prior To The Delivery

2006-12-27T23:03:00.000+08:00

She woke up one morning and started crying, big drops of tears flowing down (not the wailing type of crying). Me : What happened? Zara : Mummy gone! Me : Did you have a bad dream? Zara : *still crying* Mummy gone to Morib. Me : Mummy is not gone, see, mummy is here. Zara : *smiled and wiped her tears* Yeah, mummy is here. Not gone. On our last visit to the Dr. Zara : Zara ask Dr Jason to take out baby from mummy's stomach. Me : Why? Zara : Then mummy can go to the park with Zara. Zara can sit on mummy's lap on the swing, then Zara and mummy can swing high high. (She missed the time I used to sit her on my lap and we shared a swing together) Earlier today. Zara : Mummy, Daddy, Zara, family. Me : Yeah, later we'll have mei-mei. Then it'll be Mummy, Daddy, Zara, mei mei. We're a family. Zara : I don't want mei mei. Zara's family only have Mummy, Daddy and Zara. When I tugged her to bed, I prepped her for tomorrow. Me : Tomorrow mummy will go to the hospital and stay there ok? Zara sleep with Daddy in the night. Zara : *started crying* I don't want mummy to go to hospital, I want mummy to stay with Zara. Me : Zara can come and visit mummy with Daddy you know. Zara : *still crying* Then Zara say hi to mummy. *started wailing* I don't want. Me : Ok ok. We talk about happier things then. What did we do today.. let's see....... Zara : *stopped her crying*

Ho-Ho-Holidays!

2006-12-27T01:10:00.000+08:00

I'm going to pop soon, and here is what we'd been doing, to spend time with Zara as the only child before the arrival of no. 2. Eve of Christmas Eve : We had dinner at Eat Work Shop, and I had my roast turkey! It was good! The owner, Marcia, even threw in the turkey wing for free! After that, we took Zara to hotels (The Saujana and The Holiday Inn Glenmarie) to check out the Christmas decorations, and she really had a good time, since these 2 hotels were very spacious and quiet, and she can run around freely. Christmas Eve : The big family dinner was supposed to be 3 tables at a Chinese restaurant. My eldest sis decided not to join us and my youngest sis got admitted for dengue fever the day before. So the dinner ended up being a small one, with only King's Wife's family and ours with my dad. Dinner was err.. cut throat price in Overseas Restaurant and not nice at all! After dinner, we adjorned to the hospital to visit my sister and open up our presents together with my sister's family. On Christmas Day : Zara was kept busy playing with her Christmas presents in the morning. We then went to have lunch with my dad, and later dinner with Daddy's friends. Whole day of eating and outing!

She and her favourite present, the singing pink car, from Chloe, our neighbour

On Boxing Day : Daddy went back to work. I brought Zara to Kidzsports with Tuyam and then to the Pet Shop, per the requests of the little girl. Bought myself the Allerhand bag (Christmas present from Daddy), and end my hunt for the perfect bag for carrying Zara and baby's things. Best of all! Zara and I are both very happy to receive these from Domestic Rat and May. Thanks Ladies!

Zara loves the doggie; I believe the Chocolate lolly was supposed to be a raindeer, but it has melted. :( Zara was however, very keen in tasting her first lolly pop.

I'll be going in to the hospital on Thursday to get induced. Today (Wednesday) will be my very last day spending with Zara before the arrival of baby. Some how, I feel a bit melancholy. After this, she will no longer be my only child, where all my energy and attention has been channeled to the last 2 years.

Wish me a safe and quick delivery, will you?

Confinement Sleeping Arrangement

2006-12-21T08:58:00.000+08:00

We had very bad experience with our first confinement lady (CL) when we had Zara. Being extremely unhygenic (picked nose then applied diaper cream on Zara; dipped a spoon into her mouth to taste her own cooking and then using the same spoon to stir the broth later), totally non supportive of my breast feeding plan (when Zara cried because of hunger, she started chanting, "aiyo, girl girl ah, mummy naughty ah, don't let you drink powder milk ah", as though I wasn't already stressed enough) and rough (the thumping sound she made when she burped Zara was heart breaking); she got the boot the 2nd day. I took care of Zara on my own (no MIL to offer help, didn't trust maid with Zara) with a few visits from the hospital nurse to teach me how to bath and care for Zara. We are trying our luck the 2nd time this round. Since I only started looking for one after I got my amnio result (into 5th month), we were not left with many choices (better ones were already hired). I haven't met the CL, don't know what she looks like, how she is. Daddy is extremely skeptical about leaving baby at night with the CL alone in a room for that one month. Since I'm going to breast feed anyway, we plan to have the CL sleep with me in our room, while Daddy takes the guest's room. The thing is where will the CL sleep? On our queen size bed with me? Err.. I don't think I want that. On Zara's bed? Hah, here is what Zara said when we tried to 'negotiate' with her. Me : "Zara let Aunty sleep on your bed, then Zara sleep with mummy on mummy's bed ok? At night, mummy can hug hug you to sleep (to 'motivate' her)" Zara : "Zara's bed is Zara's. Aunty sleep downstairs on the sofa." Me : "There are lots of bugs downstairs at night." Zara : *pointing to the guest's room* "Aunty sleep in the other room." Me : "Daddy is sleeping there already... We changed the mattress, bed sheets on your bed, then Zara let Aunty sleep on your bed can or not?" Zara : "Nooo! This is special bed *pointing to her bed*, only Zara can sleep here. Nobody can sleep" (and I was worried she won't settle in her own bed, when we moved her from her cot to the bed) Me : "Then where will aunty sleep?" Zara : *pointed to the floor in our room* "Sleep there then." So, here is our plan, we'll be setting up another single bed in our room near the cot, and have the CL sleep there for that month. Have a look at the room now, it'll turn into a dorm when the other bed is moved in!

Weekend Parties

2006-12-19T13:35:00.000+08:00

Tasha (my eldest sis' daughter) celebrated her 1st birthday on Saturday in Cocca Restaurant. The thing is, Zara never wanted to admit it's Tasha's birthday. When we told her we're going for Tasha's birthday party, she said, "No, it's Zara's birthday!". When we asked her to pass the present to Tasha, she said, "No, it's Zara's one!". She didn't want to give Tasha a hug, or wish her Happy Birthday. She didn't even want to join in the other children for a group photo. Hmm.. at this age, she is really not showing much interest to kids her age or younger than her. Maybe it's the competition (for attention) she finds unsettling. She stuck to her older cousins all the time, joining in their games.

Playing with her cousins; Tasha with BIL and sis; Tasha and her Tinkerbell Cake; Zara attacking the sugar flower on the cake.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On Sunday, we were invited to my neighbor's daughter, Cayley's full moon party. My neighbor's older daughter Chloe (the same age as Zara), is Zara's play mate. They seem to have this love hate relationship. They want to play with each other, and yet, they can't share toys, and sometimes even have the occasional shouting bout. E.g. "It's mine!" "I take (took) first!" etc. Before we left for Chloe's house, Zara herself was telling me, "Go Chloe's house, no fighting yeah? No snatching toys yeah? Must share share, yeah?" Daddy and I were busy stuffing ourselves silly with all the lovely home cooked food, while Zara made herself at home playing with Chloe's toys (she's been to Chloe's house a few times, and knew where Chloe's toys were kept). And true enough, to my relieve, she didn't do any snatching or fighting with Chloe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm trying to get all my cravings fulfilled before I give birth and start the herbs, wine and ginger confinement diet (blech). The next item on my list, Turkey!

I'll be starting my leave next week, back at work on April 1st. Lots to clear up before the long leave!

Christmas Spirit

2006-12-15T18:04:00.000+08:00

Most of the evenings after dinner (especially now when it's close to Christmas, and she sees Christmas trees every where), Zara will ask us to play the Christmas Karaoke VCD for her. She only selects a few songs she wants to listen to or have interesting videos. These are her demands when she's watching the video. "Mummy come, sit near near Zara, Zara scared with (of) Santa Clause (which appears in the Jingle Bell video)" "I don't want Fer lis na we dah (Feliz Navidad)." "I want Rudolf The Red Nose Reindeer only." "I want Pram-pam-pam one (Drummer Boy)." "I want the one got horse pulling carriage one." While playing one video, sometimes, "I don't want the next one, I'm scared with (of) the statue." Since I'm the one who's familiar with the VCD (which songs have which scene etc.), I have to sit with her the whole time she watches the VCD. One of her favourite video in the VCD is Rudolf The Red Nose Reindeer, and after a few listening, she started to be able to sing some part of the song. Here's her singing, with me helping out. (Half way through, you can actually hear her say, "I want birdnest." One of her favourite after dinner treat these days, which I'm making quite often for baby and myself.)

Zara is happy to have stay over Guests!

2006-12-14T08:43:00.000+08:00

Guess who stays over at our place this week? King's Wife and her daughters! Guess who's the happiest of the lot? Zara! She's so happy to have her cousins play with her, especially Sam. The house is noisier, busier, merrier. During the day, she no longer shouts for me, it's always, "Sam jiejie, come!" "Sam jiejie, play with you (me)!" "Sam jiejie" here "Sam jiejie" there. She wants to dress up like Sam, wants Sam to sit next to her when she watches her TV program, wants Sam to watch her brush her teeth, wants Sam to bath together with her, wants Sam to accompany her wherever she goes etc. Luckily Sam is a girl with full of patience, and she gives in to Zara's demand. That's also probably why Zara loves her to bits!

a glimpse of her with her cousins (she's always so affectionate with Sam)

She's going to oh-so-miss-them when they go home!

Pregnancy Update - Baby coming soon?

2006-12-12T08:43:00.000+08:00

My stomach is extremely huge, I have slightly more than 3 more weeks to go. Resting is no longer possible. Laying on the right or left no longer feel comfortable. Sitting hurt my back. Standing tires my calves. I wake up middle of the night with eyes wide opened, trying hard to go back to sleep. Baby is still active although with not much space for movement, we can see the tremors she creates when she moves, skin stretching before our eyes. I'd sorted out all the necessities for the arrival of the baby : 1) ordered my confinement herbs and herbal wine from my Chinese Dr. 2) confirmed with friend's mum who will be supplying me with home brewed rice wine. 3) signed up with Stemlife for baby's cord blood banking 4) bought a few new pieces of clothing to welcome baby's arrival (the rest will be wearing her jie-jie's clothes) 5) checked that we have enough bottles/milk storage bag to store breast milk if I need to pump out 6) bought new Dr Brown bottles for her during occasions where I cannot breast feed directly 7) rearranged the furniture in the room to accommodate the cot (Daddy has yet to raise the cot and fixed its railing) And yesterday, I'd even packed my bag for my hospital stay. So now, I'm just waiting for baby's arrival. ~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~ On the other hand, Zara has been bugging us to bring her to the beach, to Morib, to Penang, to Cowboy Town. We had to explain to her I'm too big to be traveling now, and we have to wait for Mei-Mei's (Chinese : Little sister) arrival before we can travel again. So over the weekend, besides bringing her to the mall, we let her play in her wading pool. She was very very happy, since her last dip was actually in Phuket, quite a while back.

On Zara's Speech Again

2006-12-08T09:17:00.000+08:00

Zara has been calling Daddy other names other than just Daddy. When we are going home from my sis' place, she would announce, "I'm going home already, to see my Old Man, Bob The Builder." When she has shouted for Daddy many times and got no response from him, she'll start using his name (first and last name together), "XXXXX LOW! XXXXX LOW!" Just like I would address him when I don't get any response from him. ~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~ She started to have some sense of time, and started using words to describe the past. However, she's still confuse with the usage, and it's cute to see her attempts. E.g. "Just now we went to Cowboy town, the pony kick kick Zara right?" (although it wasn't just now but some time back.) "Last time Zara saw reindeer in Ikea, and point(ed) to Mummy and Daddy." (although it was something that happened the day before) Me : "Zara you shu-shu (Chinese : Pee) is it?" Zara : "No, I didn't. I (am) lying down only" (she was on the bed trying to get herself to sleep). Me : "How are you today? Do you still have runny nose?" Zara : "No I didn't (don't). I'm feeling better already." ~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~ She likes to help Tuyam with her pronunciation or us when we can't find the right word to use. Me : "Remember in Phuket, you saw the lobster in the restaurant, hmm.. what are those things on the lobster's head? *using my pointer to make the 'horn' on the head* antenna?" Zara : "Mummy, it's fillers mummy! It's fillers." *grinning happily* (Is it really called fillers? I actually don't know, but that's what Daddy told her during the trip and she remembers.) Tuyam : *Pointing to a bee picture on her book* "See this 'beh' flying flying." Zara : "Bees lah. Kakak, Bees" ~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~ Yesterday, she was crying so much for me before her nap. Wanted me to give her milk and nap with her. After her nap, when she was in a better mood : Me : "Why did Zara cry just now? Kept asking for mummy?" Zara : "........" (she always doesn't like to talk about embarrassing stuff, and crying is one) Me : "Tell mummy, why did Zara cry just now?" Zara : "Because mummy pregnant (I started wondering what has this got to do with her crying) . *She paused then continued* (obviously trying to find the right words) Zara wants to sayang sayang (Malay: TLC) mummy." ~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~ On a loving day, Zara : "Zara is mummy's 宝贝 (precious). And mummy is Zara's 宝贝."

Mixing Too Much with Boys

2006-12-06T16:17:00.000+08:00

Little Miss Engineer has been mixing too much with her cousin Norman and playing a lot of his toys when she's stationed there at my sis' place. She gets very excited as well when Daddy has to do some DIY stuff at home, she calls her Daddy, "Bob The Builder" (and other names, which I'll talk about it later); and herself, "Little Bob The Builder"; and starts singing the Bob The Builder Song when Daddy takes out his tool box. She knows the name of some of the tools used like hammer, screw driver, spanner, screw, saw; and always keen in lending a hand to Daddy when he has to work on something at home.

'Drilling' my dad's table; All geared up to be Bob The Builder; Working on her own 'project'; Helping Daddy to put up the storage box for her toys.

My sis' maid was so curious that I allow her to play with such toys and even thinking of getting a tool set for her for Christmas. This is an exploring stage for her, so I just let her play with whatever toys that interest her, be it boys' or girls'. That reminds me, I have to start doing some baking, to expose her to some of the girlish' activities.

Weekend Short Takes

2006-12-04T13:22:00.000+08:00

Daddy installed the Ikea chest of drawers we bought for the girls' clothes in our room, and a new toy storage bench for Zara's toys, with lots of ~~interruptions~~ help from Zara. Now the girls will have proper place to store their clothes (I used to store Zara's clothes in Ikea bought boxes), and later, a proper play room (we planned to convert one of the rooms to a play room so that Zara can stop ~~messing up~~ playing in the living room). ~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have a big family dinner at Eat Work Shop on Saturday, in honour of my nephew, Nick, and niece, Ally, who got 5As each for their UPSR (Primary 5) exams. Zara was happily occupied by her favourite Sam jie-jie and Norman kor-kor (her 2 younger cousins), and I have Tuyam (who rarely goes out with us) to run after her. It means I could stuff my self silly with all the sumptuous food (And Eat Work Shop does serve very good western cuisine).

She kept sticking to Sam jiejie

Zara with her favourite 2 younger cousin, Sam and Norman; Sam with Tasha; The dinner table; The 2 As scorers with the dinner sponsor, my dad.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Daddy insisted that we go visit an Ostrich Farm (he thinks I'm still super mobile in my 9th month pregnancy) on Sunday and decided to go to the one in Klang.

For RM15/adult, it was more of a 'mini zoo' than an Ostrich Farm. We saw some sickly ponies, bald ostriches, skinny horses, ugly pythons and other small unhealthy looking animals in a smelly and muddy environment. Zara wanted to leave the minute we stepped into the 'farm', claiming it was "So smelly!", and she refused to walk about, saying the ground is "So dirty.", and complaining the ostriches are "So ugly." In and out, it took us less than 30mins. Daddy said, "Give me another hour, and I'll bring you to the one in Semenyih, which is supposed to be bigger and better." But I said that's enough of Ostriches and smelly animal dung for a day. So we went home instead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~

For dinner, we went to Benkay Japanese Restaurant in Nikko Hotel, since I got a RM50/- off voucher.

Dinner was absolutely lovely. Zara ate some softshell crab maki, a whole prawn tempura, and a bowl of chawan-mushi. It always gives us a good feeling to see her enjoying her food (which is rather rare).

After dinner, we spent sometime enjoying the Christmas Deco (We forgot to bring the camera, what a waste). Daddy purposely drove passed the busy Jalan Bukit Bintang to look at the Deco put up by the malls and the hotels. However, the decorations were pretty lame.

Melting Moments

2006-11-28T22:44:00.000+08:00

Knowing someone loves you and cares for you, especially your 2 year old is oh.. so.. precious. Here are some precious moments of mine. Zara : *fussing and did not want Daddy to brush her teeth for her* I want mummy do! Mummy! Mummy! Mummy do. Me : *from the bed room, giving excuse* Zara, mummy stomach painful, cannot brush your teeth. Let Daddy do. Zara : I want to go out, I want to go out Daddy : Brush your teeth first. Then you go out. Zara : I want to go out, give mummy medicine. (She probably thought the Multivits that I get her to feed me nightly will help with my (fake) stomach ache.) Me : Mummy cannot carry you so much because mummy's stomach so big, carrying you will make mummy's back painful Zara : *points to my massage oil* Mummy give you (me) the oil? Me : What oil? Zara : The oil to massage mummy. I want to massage massage mummy's back. (Daddy gave me a massage once for my shoulder ache, and she was 'helping' out. So she thought she could help relieve my back ache with a massage.) Me : I love you Zara Zara : *big lovely grin* I also love you mummy

2yrs old - Updates

2006-11-28T00:02:00.000+08:00

After a week of celebrations (another birthday song singing just within the family, a trip to Kidzsports and Gymboree) and not being well (sore throat from all the nasi lemak and little fish, fever, cough, flu), finally the birthday season is over. :P Here is just for my record, her 2year old development. ~ Weight : 10.2kg (taken during her fever) ~ Height : 86.3cm Emotions and Character ~ I'm not sure if it's a two year old thing or it's because our 2nd one is coming, she's extremely clingy to me. She prefers me to tuck her to bed, even for her afternoon nap (she'll cry if I don't do it but I just ignored it), she only wants me to bath, she's always asking me to look after her instead of working, "Mummy look after Zara, don't want mummy to work" ~ She's expressing her love, by kissing us or by saying, "I love you Mummy" (almost every night before she goes to bed), "I love you Daddy" (occasionally). ~ She is becoming a handful especially when we go out shopping, and she goes wild running here and there, climbing this rack and that. ~ She loves going to the super markets (Giant is her favourite because of the free kiddy rides) ~ Very stubborn, especially if she has set her mind on something (e.g don't want to take bath, don't want to have her meal). However, my ultimate weapon, ignore her or send her to the naughty corner, or sometimes smacking (I'm really trying to avoid smacking her, but there are times when she's really unreasonable even after much coaxing, and I sometimes blame it on my raging hormones.. I know it's just an excuse). Language ~ She is doing very well in this respect ~ She's making up the lyrics of songs she knows spontaneously, e.g. when I can't find my car keys, she'll go "Where oh where is mummy's car keys, Oh where oh where can it be?" (singing to the tune Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog gone) ~ She started picking up Malay and Mandarin words; speaking to Tuyam using some Malay or to us using some Mandarin. E.g. "Kakak, this one very sedap (tasty)"; "Kakak, Zara tak mau (don't want)"; "Zara is mummy's 宝贝 (precious)"; "Mummy, Zara 不要 (don't want)." Toilet training - I wonder when she'll be potty/toilet trained ~ She's getting adversely affected by the smell of poo and urine. Especially her own. She vomited once when I got her to pee in the shower cubicle before her bath and she smelled her own urine; she also vomited when I got her to flush her stool away and refused to do it again (normally I flush her stool even when she did her business on the diaper) ~ She once said, "I don't want to poo poo already. Poo poo is so smelly." when trying to control her bowel movement ~ She knows to be a big jie-jie (Chinese : big big-sister), she has to stop wearing diaper, but she doesn't want to use the toilet bowl or her potty because she said, "Shu shu and poo poo is so smelly." (Tips anyone?) Food ~ Very fussy with what she eats and has very acute sense of taste. Just a speck of coriander on her steam fish, and she'll spit out that piece with the coriander mixed with it. ~ Doesn't eat a lot of things, and doesn't eat much, and it's making us worried. We're trying to psycho her into saying if she doesn't eat, she'll be very thin like her mama (Chinese : paternal grandma), and won't have muscle like daddy or have body shape like mummy, and it helps sometimes, saying she wants to have body like mine (Ha! Wait till she's older, but now, I'll just savour this). ~ Loves ice cream, sausages, chocolate, pop corn, cheese. For real meals, she likes rice or porridge with ikan bilis (Malay : little fish or anchovies); macaroni and cheese; garlic bread. ~ Have 3 or 4milk feeds : 6oz in the morning upon waking, 6oz in the afternoon before her nap, 4oz in the night before bed, and sometimes 6oz in the early mornings which started recently (she's preparing me for my night feed)

Headache

2006-11-23T13:49:00.000+08:00

I have slightly more than a month to go before No. 2 arrives. There are 2 things which I'm cracking my head with. 1st : No. 2's name Daddy and I can't decide on a name for No.2. We wanted a two syllables name which starts with Z and ends with A. That doesn't leave us much choice. Daddy doesn't like my choice of names, and I don't like his choices. Anybody has any names to recommend? (Some jokers have suggested Zebra. Well, even if they named their kids Hippo or Oinky, we still won't name ours Zebra) 2nd : What are we to do with Zara when I have to be in the hospital to have the baby? When Zara was born, Daddy was in the hospital with me the 2nights I stayed there. Now, Zara has never slept without either one of us at her side. I'm not sure what we are going to do when I have to be admitted this time. 1) Have Daddy stay at home with her, so I'll be alone in the hospital? 2) Have her stay with us in the hospital together? We asked her if she would be ok to sleep at home with Kakak when mummy goes to the hospital. She said, "Cannot. I want to sleep with mummy only." The only person she's willing to sleep with without mummy is Sam, her favourite jie-jie. She said, "Can sleep with Sam jiejie, mummy stay in hospital." For those who have two kids, what do you do with no. 1 when you were in the hospital giving birth to no. 2? ~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~ Zara is getting more and more clingy even with Tuyam back. They can play together, Tuyam can feed and change her; but when it comes to nap time, Zara would be whining for me, "I want mummy to sleep with Zara." When it's time for her evening bath, and if Daddy wanted to bath her, she would say, "Don't want Daddy. Want mummy do only. Mummy do, mummy do." followed by crying if we don't oblidge. At night, only I can sleep next to her. If Daddy stayed on too long at her side after saying good night to her, she would say, "Daddy sleep there (pointing to Daddy's side of the bed)." or "Daddy go down (from my bed)" If Daddy lied on her bed. Yesterday, when Daddy got her things ready and wanted to brush her teeth (most days I do the brushing), she told Daddy, "Daddy brush la. Use Zara's toothpaste, use Zara's tooth brush. Ok? Daddy brush la, use Zara's water to rinse mouth. Zara don't want". I wonder how I will be able to cope with a clingy 2 year old, and a new baby.

Negotiation Skill & Reasoning

2006-11-21T23:44:00.000+08:00

Today is Zara's actual birthday, I'm supposed to write about her monthly development, but I'll do that later. I want to write about her negotiation skill and how good she's getting at it. Zara : Mummy, I want to watch TV. (she started using lots of "I" instead of Zara now) Me : No, bed time already, go and brush your teeth and change to your pajamas. Zara : Mummy, one time only. Me : No, it's bed time. Zara : Mummy, please. One time only. *puting out her pointer to show ONE* Me : Ok then. One time yeah. Zara : Ok. *happily sat down and wait for me to put on her program for her* After finishing Me : Ok, time to get ready for bed. Zara : Mummy, one more time. Me : No. Enough already. Zara : Please. Last time. Last time only. Me : No. Just now you said one time only. So, you already watched one time, so get ready for bed now. Zara : Last time please. *looked at me with Bambi eyes* Me : Ok ok.. one last time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~ She had fever yesterday, and started recovering today. Zara : (for lunch) I want to eat nasi lemak (Malay : Coconut rice) with little fish. Me : No, you still have a bit of fever, cannot eat nasi lemak with little fish. Zara : I'm feeling better already. Me : No, not today. When you are all well ok? Zara : Little bit only. Please. Me : No. (not this time) ~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tuyam got her a set of toy bathing set from Indonesia which came with hair dryer, shampoo, comb etc. After opening up Tuyam's present, she wanted to try it on Sam, and 'wash' Sam's hair. Sam oblidged, but after the N-th time, she wanted to stop. Zara : Sam jie-jie, I want to wash your hair. Sam : No thanks. Zara : You must wash your hair. *pulling strands of her own hair to show Sam* After sticky. Got cockroach in the hair. Got bugs. Got lizard. I wash for you, ok? Sam : ...... ~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~ When she asked for me, and I'm in a meeting, she would wail and cry for the whole duration of my meeting. So I asked her : Me : Why Zara always cry when mummy is in a meeting. Zara : Because Zara loves mummy. Me : *melted* Mummy loves you too, but why you cry? Zara : Because Zara don't (doesn't) like mummy to close the door (I always close the door to the study when I have a meeting just in case the people on the other side of the line can hear her) Me : Oh.. But mummy needs to close the door because mummy needs to talk to uncle and aunty on the phone. It doesn't mean mummy don't love you. Zara : *look at me like she understood* Me : Mummy will always love you ok? Even when mummy is upset or angry, mummy still love you. Mummy love you very much. But mummy just can't carry you or have you sit on mummy's lap when mummy have meeting ok? Zara : ok. (not sure if she understood though, but she loves being re-assured that I love her)

Zara's 2nd Birthday Party

2006-11-20T13:08:00.000+08:00

We have been planning for Zara's birthday party for a while, and when we asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday, she recalled my friend's daughter's 1yr old birthday party in the hotel and she said, "Like mummy's friend, party in hotel. Got clown one. Got many balloons one." ~~We were kiam siap (Chinese: Stingy).~~ We did the finances, and thought it would have been better to keep the money saved (from having the party in a hotel or restaurant) in the bank for her. Instead, we have a small party at home, invited just our immediate family members. None the less, it was fun, and the food was good.

The guests : My friend's kids' Jensen and Yen Mae, who dropped by in the afternoon to drop off their presents for Zara. Eldest sis' daughter, Tasha. Youngest sis' son, the shy Norman.

We had Nasi Lemak for dinner, prepared by Tuyam and my sis' maid KC. Daddy said this can beat any best nasi lemak in town, I would have to agree with him. It's absolutely delicious. Zara loved it as well, although all she took was nasi lemak with ikan bilis (Malay : little fish or anchovies) and fried chicken. I ordered a cake from A Piece of Cake, with Zara specifying the design, "Want got cow girl one. Got pony one. Want dog dog" This is the cake that comes with a cow girl riding on her pony with her pet dog.

The beautiful and yummy-licious cake; The kids were all waiting to attack the cow girl and the pony while Zara munched away the candies on the cake; Zara busy stuffing herself with the sugar beads and stars on the cake; The cow girl and the pony after the kids' attack.

For the album : Our family; My dad with all his grand children; With my in-laws; Zara with her cousins

A very happy birthday girl: She loved the part where every body sang Happy Birthday to her; she was scared of the fire from the candle so she stood far away from them while trying to blow them out, and eventually just shouted for help.

She had a good time and slept only at 12am, 2hrs passed her bed time.

A Famosa revisited

2006-11-16T23:50:00.000+08:00

Tuyam is back! Hooray! Things are back to normal now. Zara missed Tuyam, she was touching and kissing Tuyam upon seeing her when she arrived yesterday. Tuyam said Zara has grown taller, and Zara is speaking faster with a lot of more new words which she's not familiar with. None the less, they are still able to communicate, which is important to Zara. I'm able to concentrate on my work now, which is absolutely piling up! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We visited A Famosa again 2 weeks ago. It was Daddy's company's trip, and family members were asked to join. This time we stayed in the Condo within A Famosa, a spacious studio just for the 3 of us. This 2nd round wasn't as fun for us, it was overly crowded (lots of school organised tour groups); and maybe the novelty has worn off. Zara had most fun at the Monkey Island (probably since we didn't go the first round), and watching the cowboy show (which was a yawn to me).

The carnival

Zara having fun at the carousel; and the elephants having fun teasing Zara.

Animals at the Animal Safari

Monkeying at the Monkey Island

*YAWN*

Short Takes & Blog Break

2006-11-07T10:48:00.000+08:00

I have 9 more weeks to go before I pop. Put on 9Kg so far. Baby is doing fine, kicking and moving a lot, especially when she hears her jie-jie's (Chinese : big sister) voice. Zara is reaching Terrible Two and becoming a bit of a handful, very demanding, very whiney (very tiring for mummy). The arrangement with MIL coming to stay with us and babysitting Zara didn't work out. By day 2, she totally refused 'Mama' (Chinese : Paternal grandma), and worst thing was, she started crying from morning till night, unless she's at my side. Can you imagine how tiring it was for me, especially if I needed to work as well? I took a day off on Thurs and Daddy helped out by working from home on Fri, that made me survived the week. When we asked Zara why she didn't like Mama, she told Daddy, "Mama no fun". I think Mama is over protective, not allowing Zara to do lots of things in fear of Zara falling or hurting herself, and then there's also this communication problem. Mama speaks Chinese, Zara speaks English. but she learnt fast, by Day 3, she started saying "Bu Yao" (Mandarin : Don't want) every time Mama came near her. Now we're back to my sis' place. Zara has accepted one of the Kakaks to play with her (although she still refuses to let the Kakak change her diaper, bath or feed her), so it's easier on me, and she's also very happy to have my nephews play with her when they come home from school. My maid will be coming back next Wednesday. Thank goodness. This morning, when she woke up, Daddy told her, "You be good girl ok? Kakak jaga (Malay: look after) you and you let mummy work." Her replied, "I don't want mummy to work work anymore." Ha. I told Zara, "Then you have to ask Daddy to work harder and make more money so mummy don't have to work." By 11pm every night, after doing a bit of house work and packing Zara's things for the following day (when Zara has gone to sleep), I can feel my shoulders and back aching. And that's when I tried to catch up on some work which I couldn't finish up during the day because of the interruptions from Zara. Work is piling up.. So I'll be taking a blog break. See you all again when my maid is back.