Stupid Mummy

Zara is angry I left her.

When I called her on Sunday, she chatted to me, 'promised' to be a good and brave girl. Say Hi and bye nicely.
When I called her on Monday, she came to the phone, said, "Zara play ball", then quickly said bye and left.
When I called her this morning, she didn't want to come to the phone, I could hear her shouting, "Don't want mummy."
"Don't like mummy."
"Stupid mummy XXXXX" (XXXXX being my name)

Tuyam told me the whole of yesterday, she has been mumbling to herself, "Stupid Mummy XXXXXX."

Stupid is a word she picked up but I have taught her not to use, she never uses it when I'm around. She must be very angry with me for leaving her, using the word against me. *big sigh*

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On shopping and eating, I don't find it so great here. I wanted to get shoes and clothes for Zara, but I have been shopping and couldn't find much.

Food has also just been so so (even with local colleagues' recommendation), the only nice food eaten so far is the roast goose... Aaaa, I would like to sink my teeth into another piece of the goose.

Waiting

I'm away for work in Hong Kong. Little Zara is taken care by Tuyam with MIL's supervision.

Zara waiting for mummy to come home.

Here's a conversation that took place before I left.
Me : Zara mummy sit airplane go work work ok?
Zara : Cannot. Mummy go work work, Zara cry.
Me : Mummy will buy you nice baju (Malay : clothes), pretty shoes, and a big big present woh. Ok?
Zara : Ok.
Me : What present does Zara want mummy to get?
Zara : Hmm.. (deep in thought), Ribena. Zara want mummy buy Ribena.
Haha. Such an innocent request.

Daddy told me Zara has been very good whole day yesterday. She only cried after she heard my voice when I called home before her bed time. But Daddy managed to calm her down by telling her if she cried, mummy will also cry when at work, then both Zara and mummy will be crying. She stopped after that, such a sensible child.

I will keep blogging to minimal as I'll be kept busy in meetings and shopping after work.

19 Months Old

Zara turned 19th month 2 days ago. I was so busy, I only have time to write down her development (just like the previous month) today.

~ Weight 9.2kg
~ Height : 81cm
~ No new teeth sprouting. Her 4 Cuspids (canines) are still not fully sprouted.

Dexterity :
Expert in climbing and getting down furniture, but sometimes still prefer to shout out "Mummy help"
She's jumping more and higher nowadays.

Language :
She never seized to amaze us in her language development. Speaks very well for her age, and with quite accurate pronunciation. She's also talking non-stop now, we could always hear her chatter in the house.

New popular words:
Before & Because
~ Mummy give Zara grapes before
~ Zara sit on horsey before
~ Zara don't want, because Zara don't like.
~ Zara cry, because Zara angry

Very good with forming sentences now, and always picking up new words without us consciously teaching her.

She can count 1 to 6, not just saying the numbers, but actually counting items.
Knows how to differentiate a few colours, purple, green, black, orange, still mixed up with the rest of the colours.
Able to recite longer part of some nursery rhymes (Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, etc), and also started singing part of some songs in tune (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Polly Put The Kettle On etc).
She knows a baby frog is called tadpole, and a baby butterfly is called caterpillar.
Started differentiating left and right. Knows her left hand from right, and left leg from right etc(mainly her body parts which comes in pair).

Feeding and Food:
3 meals and 3 milk feeds a day.

Not very adventurous in trying out new food, but will still try with lots of persuasion and the permission given to her to spit out if she didn't like it.

Takes most vege except those extremely fibrous and bitter.

Emotions :
I have to say she's very loving, she gives lots of hugs, and kisses; although still not quite know how to share yet.
Although clingy (to me), and sometimes very mischievous to the extend of being naughty, she's overall quite an easy girl. She listens to instructions and reasons (at least to the ones given by me); knows what she can and can't do; knows what is rude and shouldn't do (like pushing people or things away); knows her manners, i.e. greet people (by saying Hi or waving her hand) and say good bye; knows when to use please, thank you, excuse me (when she sneeze).

I just love her to bits!

Free Rides

We just found out on Sunday that there are free kiddie rides in Giant Shah Alam.

There are 3 units at the kids' play area, and another 3 near the check out counters. I like the ones at the check out counters. Giant cashiers are not known for their efficiency. From queing to having your items scanned to paying, you probably have to wait for at least 15mins. What a good idea to have some free kiddie rides for the kids while the parents do the paying (and waiting).

The rides are old and they play Indonesian pop songs instead of nursery rhymes, but who cares, it's free!

We got Zara on a few of them, waiting quite a while for our turn because some kids just refused to get down from the rides, and went on and on.

She probably likes the duck ride the most, because it was the first ride she has.

The lion was found at the check out counter. She likes Lion, so she seemed to like this too.


Hmm.. Now, she's a bit bored.. Too many free rides already.

Note: These photos are taken from Daddy's mobile, hence the grainy quality.

Hurricane Zara

Having Zara around is fun, but it also means the house can never be tidy, every where she 'sweeps' through, either a small mess or a big mess is created.

Daddy and I sometimes call her Hurricane Zara.

The worst hit area is the living room, where she has her 3 boxes of toys, a small shelf of books, her box of CD/VCD/DVDs, her box of colouring and drawing stationary.

Depending on her fancy, she helps herself with whatever she wants to do for the moment.
It may mean pouring out a bottle of glass pebbles;
Then going to her shelf of books, digs for the one she wants, in the mean time scattering the rest on the floor.
And then she decides she wants to draw, so she reaches for her box of drawing tools and papers, takes them all out, draws a few lines on the paper
A moment later, she goes back to her box of toys, takes out her cooking set, and starts to do cooking.
A big messy trail is left behind, all within 30mins.

When we bring her up to the room, the same process happens, but b'cos she has less toys up stairs, all she gets to mess up is her stack of books.

How can I do without a maid? With Hurricane Zara sweeping through the house so often?

Zara at Play

She likes the flower making set that Samantha has given her, and she could play with it for a long time, making 'umbrellas' and 'vege', as she calls it. I was working from home, and when I went down for a drink, here was what she's made.


And here is another way she spends her days at home, playing with her balls. She says she's playing badminton, using her toy masak-masak (Malay: cooking set) spatula as the racquet. She's muttering "Oh-Dear Oh-Dear" when her ball got kicked away from her sight, and she's saying "What to do? What to do?".

It's really fun to see her play, as she talks and laughs and sings to herself a lot. That's the thing about working from home, if I hear some gigling downstairs, I can always go check out to see what she was up to.

Zara's Talk II

Last night during bed time, I got her to agree to stay in bed while I went to shut down my pc in the study. When I got back, 5mins later, she told me, "Zara no cry!".
I have to give her some hugs and praises, and told her how brave she was (the lights were all turned off except the night light, I think that was very brave of her to stay in a semi dark room all by herself). I pushed my luck further and asked her if I could go downstairs to have a cup of milk. She said, "Mummy go drink milk milk. Zara lie down."
So I went down, had a glass of milk, rinse her bottle, went back to the room, and there she was on the bed with a big grin, "Zara so bave (brave), mummy go down drink milk milk, Zara no cry."
I carried her and shouted "Hooray" gave her more praises, just to make her kembang (Malay: feel good about herself).

I was making her early morning bottle of milk in the room, and she started walking on the edge of the bed coming towards me (our bed has a thick wooden frame which she likes to walk on). I warned her, "Don't walk at the edge, after fall down huh."
She ignored and still continued to move towards me, and true enough, she slipped and got her foot stuck between the bed frame and the wall. She looked at me rolling my eyes, and she said, "Very good!" scolding herself (I wonder who used that on her before).

She was leafing through our wedding photos, and then she pointed to Daddy and said, "Daddy so cute!" Then I asked her, "What about mummy?" She looked again and said, "Mummy handsome!" *slap head*

Zara's Talk

On Sunday, I prepared her for bed, and told her she'll be going to King's Wife's place on Monday.
Me : Zara likes our house more or Ah Kim's house more?
Zara : Ah Kim's house.
Me : Why?
Zara : Ah Kim's house got Mr Bean (we don't subscribe to Astro and hence no Mr Bean cartoon at home).
...
Later in our conversation.
Me : Tomorrow Zara bring dinasaur sweet (just bought her some gummies in the shape of dinasaur) to Ah Kim's house, must share with jiejie yeah?
Zara : Give Sam jiejie dinasaur sweet. Give jiejie Alicia dinasaur sweet.
Me : Yes. Clever. Must share share ok.
Zara : Ok.
Me : Can share with Navisha jiejie (King's Wife's neighbour who likes to hang around with her girls) or not?
Zara : *tears started flowing down so suddenly* Don't want. Don't want give Navisha jiejie. Zara don't want.
Aiks.. it was time to pacify her and end of conversation.

We had string beans sprouts (Kuai Dao Miu) for dinner yesterday, while Zara had her own dish. After dinner, my niece Samantha took a bowl of string beans and started eating in the living room.
Zara saw what Sam was eating, so she asked for some, "Sam jiejie, give Zara beans please"
I took some from Sam and started feeding Zara, "Zara likes the beans?"
Zara said, "Like!" Then she added, "Jack bean stalk!" and laughed at her own joke.

(Tuyam told me this happened just now)
Zara was messing around her box of VCDs/DVDs, trying to take out some of the title sleeves.
Tuyam : You don't do that. After mummy scold you.
Zara ignored Tuyam, so Tuyam repeated herself.
Zara stopped what she was doing and stared at Tuyam, "Zara angry!"
(She's very good in bullying the maid, but with me, she will never use such tone and said such things.)

I was trying to test the water to check if Zara was ready for my upcoming business trip.
Me : Zara, can mummy sit airplane and go work work? (That's what we say when Daddy is away for his business trip).
Zara : Cannot. Daddy go only.
Me : Why cannot?
Zara : Mummy stay you.
Me : *don't understand* Huh? Mummy don't understand Zara. Can mummy sit airplane and go work work or not?
Zara : Cannot. Mummy stay you.
Me : *still don't understand* Why cannot, Zara sleep with kakak, ok or not.
Zara : Cannot. Mummy stay Zara.
(oh.. I finally got it. She meant "Mummy stay with me" when she said "Mummy stay you".)

Thumb vs Pacifier

Zara is a thumb sucker since birth. We did try to give her the pacifier in the very beginning but she used to spit it out, and stuff her hand into the mouth instead (before she found her thumb). She has a permanant bump on the thumb and sometimes when she sucks too hard, a little cut is found.

Last week, I found her thumb was even bleeding a bit from all the sucking, so I took out the pacifier and tried to offer it to her. She did suck on it, like trying out a toy. Here is a video captured with her using pacifier. She had her hand placed below her chin all the time, afraid of the pacifier falling, a sure sign that she's not a pacifier user.

5 minutes later.. it was back to the thumb (photo below taken on a different day).

Ranting

Every thing looks nice but tastes yucky.
~ That's how my appetite is nowadays. I'm always hungry, and always want to munch on something. However, everything that I put into my mouth, tastes awful, it gets worse later part of the day. Morning sickness? Mine is evening sickness.

Nice things smell awful.
~ I bought the Anaku body shampoo for Zara to use because I loved the baby scent. Now, I can't stand it. If I had to bath Zara, I'll change it to soap. If Tuyam used this to bath Zara, I can't even stand the smell of it on Zara.

Work work and work
~ My boss changed me to another project team. It means more work, more morning and night conferences with the US folks, and the start of traveling. I'd turned down a trip to Houston and a chance to meet Simple American (excuse, "medical reasons"), but I believe there'll be some traveling within Asia which is quite difficult to refuse.

I'm tired
~ My work day sometimes start at 7:30am (meeting), and I continue working till about 7pm. On the same day, sometimes I get a 9pm or a later call.
~ Zara would be crying when I have to leave her at 9pm. I have to pacify her and then pass the crying child to Tuyam (Daddy is pretty hopeless when Zara starts crying)
~ Zara will stay up until I lay next to her. Normally I'm too tired and just doze off with her.
~ At 6am, she'll be waking me up to make her "bottle milk", like a zombie, I do just that, see that she finishes her milk, and try to get both of us back to sleep, even though it's just for another 1hr or 1.5hr.

Yesterday
~ She cried when I have to attend my call at 9pm. Nobody was able to pacify her, she was wailing, "mummy, mummy". So I had to carry her in the study, hooked on my headset, listened to the conversation at the other end of the line (and hoped they won't call my name), and pacified the crying girl.
~ When she stopped crying, she started yakking away, about this wooden man figurine that I have in the study, here is part of what she said (She was repeating the same thing over and over for 30mins about the 'boy' being broken, because she bang it on the floor). I was really worried about her, chanting away like that.



(If you can't see the player, the wav file can be found here)

Speech Development

Zara's speech development is just so amazing. There are things we didn't consciously teach her, but she just picks up along the way. She also pronounces most words very accurately, just like an adult. At times, she surprised us with how her little mind words, stringing those words together. Here are some of what she's able to say.

In the mornings, when Zara wakes up and hears the sound of shower in the bathroom, she'll point to the bathroom. "Daddy taking shower in the toilet." Points to me, "Mummy lye down on the bed". Points to herself, "Zara sit down on Zara's bed (her cot)."

Daddy wanted to shower Zara, and told her, "Come Zara, Daddy bath you."
Zara exclaimed, "Oh Ma (my) God!" then, she continued to say, "Don't want Daddy do. Want mummy do." and she ran towards me.
(don't know if she knows what Oh My God means, but she uses it so appropriately)

I took a tub of yogurt to the car thinking of having it in the office. In the car, Zara spotted it and said, "Yogurt! Yogurt!" wanting some.
Tuyam took her Petite Miam (yogurt for kids) out, and asked her, "You want mummy's one or this one?"
Zara said, "Zara wants this one (pointed to her Petite Miam). Mummy's one not so nice. Zara's one nicer." (I was surprised she knows how to use the word 'nicer'.)

We were in the car and Zara suddenly just said, "So hot outside. Wind blowing blowing. So nice." (She saw some branches swaying in the wind under the hot sun.)
I was surprised at her remark, but I responded, "yeah, nice right, the wind blowing?"
Zara continued to say, "Nice. Wind blowing Zara's face. Wind blowing Zara's hair. In kakak's room." She was referring to the fan in Tuyam's room.

She recently is also able to differentiate: market for wet market (where we "buy fish, buy vege, buy manana/banana, buy papaya"); supermarket for grocery shopping (where we "buy vitagen, buy cheese, buy bread, buy pear"); and restaurant (where we "eat dinner"). She pronounces market, supermarket and restaurant perfectly.

Here are few of her common vocabulary blips. She sometimes call a porcupine pineapple, a guinea pig guinea pork, sun as sunflower (she knows what a sunflower is before she knows what sun is). And of course she can't differentiate Me and You, she's always asking people to "Carry you" when she meant "Carry me".

Encounter with a handsome boy

Here is another shocker.

Last Saturday, we went to Bangsar Village to do our grocery shopping (good for gourmet Cheese, and good European styled bread).

While I was claiming for parking at the information centre, Zara suddenly let go my hand, and ran towards a boy shouting, "Handsome boy!".
She stopped right in front of a startled little boy aged about 7yrs old, who was quite good looking. She grinned broadly, touched the boy's face, waved her hand and said, "Hi! Handsome korkor."
The boy looked surprised, but politely waved back at her and walked on.

Zara continued staring at his back profile. When he reached the exit and turned back to look at Zara, Zara waved back, "Bye! Handsome kor kor." And started giggling, like a love struck teenager.

Daddy and I just looked at each other utterly shocked at her behaviour! Mind you, my little girl is only 18mths old.

Weekend knick knacks

We brought Zara to the football field in our residential area on Sunday morning. Nobody was playing foot ball, so we got the whole field to ourselves. It was wonderful, Zara was so happy to be running in such a big flat grass field.

She was happy chasing after her ball, throwing or kicking the ball.

Daddy kicked the ball into the goal post and Zara shouted hooray (trust her be the goal keeper huh?)

Happy, Sweaty Zara.

For lunch, I made Pumpkin soup using the recipe from River Cafe Cook Book. However, because I didn't have any chicken stock, I used the Maggie chicken granules (the one without MSG); gosh, it was so yucky (maybe because it's change of taste bud for me as well), all I could taste is the chicken stock taste, blech. Daddy walloped his bowl without complaint though. The avocado, zucchini and turkey breast sandwich was oh, so good.

As for Zara, she has been crazy about cheese. On both Sat and Sun, all she wanted for breakfast and lunch was, "bread and cheese". Offered her anything and she turned her face and said, "Don't want". So it was bread and cheese for her.

On Sat morning, she even woke up and I think she was trying to tell me what she dreamt about (but of course she's too young to know what a dream is). She told me first thing in the morning when she opened her eyes, "Got big big cheese." before she smiled and stretched.

Anybody knows any good but not too salty cheese to go with bread or cracker for the little one? I'd been giving her Kraft, Baby Bell and the smiling cow cheese spread. We give her some of our gourmet chedder as well, but it's too salty and I always feel guilty after giving her some.

Pregnancy Update, Weaning, Zara Jiejie

Hui Sia asked why I don't mention much about the pregnancy in my blog. Actually I wanted to wait after the 1st trimester before I include updates of the pregnancy since things can still be very uncertain.

We went to see the Dr 2 weeks ago for my first check up. By right at 7 weeks, the baby's heartbeat should be visible. However, the Dr couldn't find one. He told us to return in 2 weeks time. You can imagine how worried we were.

Yesterday we went again. This time, the heartbeat was visible (at least to the Dr). From the size of the baby (slightly more than 1cm), Dr thinks that I'm only 7weeks + pregnant. Still very early in the pregnancy.

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Weaning Zara wasn't difficult. After I knew I was pregnant, I increased another feed of formula to Zara. I still let her nurse 1st thing in the morning and before she went to bed. I think my milk supply reduced a lot, because she still asked for a bottle after nursing.

A week later, the nursing time also reduce, sometimes she just politely pulled down my t-shirt when I offered her the breast and said, "Close. Want bottle milk.". At this stage, I found that the taste of the milk has changed as well, from something sweetish it has become a bit sour, probably due to the pregnancy hormones, nature's way of weaning a child.

By the time she turned 18mths (3 weeks later), she totally stopped wanting the breast. Happy to just have the "bottle breast", as she calls it.

I was expecting engorgement, and some discomfort, but maybe because the weaning process was spaced out, I do not have any of this. The amazing thing is, the breasts immediately shrunk 2 cups smaller! Just like that. (If only the tummy can shrink in this manner.)

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I've started telling Zara about the baby as well. She likes to bounce on my tummy, and I'd told her she can't do that anymore because there's a baby in my stomach, and the baby will feel the pain if she jumped on me. She seems to understand it.

Now, if she forgot and started bouncing on me, I'll tell her, "Zara cannot jump on mummy". She would quickly stop, kiss my stomach and say, "Got baby inside".