Melting Moments

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

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

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?

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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

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.

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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)

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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 : ......

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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

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

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!

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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

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.

Conversations / Keeping My Sanity

Some of her conversation with us that tickled me.

Me : Do you want to watch Chinese jiejie show (referring to 四千金 musical VCD).
Zara : Want. Chinese jiejie got hair clips. Zara's hair clip upstairs in the box (referring to the box I kept all her hair clips).
Me : Yeah. But Zara doesn't like mummy put hair clip for Zara. You always want to take it out.
Zara : Because it's painful. Mummy put hairclip is painful. Take out then must comb comb the hair.

Daddy : Tomorrow is Sunday where does Zara want to go?
Zara : ......
Daddy : Maybe we can go to Lake Gardens. Can go to the dinosaur playground, feed the monkeys. How about that?
Zara : Sounds like fun!

Zara : Don't want kakak KC.
Me : Why?
Zara : Because kakak is so uh-gree (ugly).
Me : Oh, that's not nice. If you have good manners you won't say something like that.
Zara : *spent a few seconds thinking* Because kakak is not family. Mummy, Daddy and Zara is family.
Me : But you let kakak Tuyam jaga (Malay : Take care of) you.
Zara : Kakak Tuyam is oso (also) family. This one new kakak, not family.
Me : ....

I had a short nap while Daddy looked after her, and when I woke up, she came to me and stuck her face real near mine and asked, "Mummy, Are you feeling better now?"
..She's really growing up...

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Btw, it has been crazy for me over the last few days. Sis' Filipino maid has to go back to Philippines because of family emergency, and sis needs her Indonesian maid back. So no one to baby sit Zara (although I could still send her to my sis' place, Zara just refused to let the Indonesian maids care for her) and do the housework. Guess who we enrolled for help? MIL for baby-sitting Zara.

MIL has been staying with us since Sunday. Zara refused MIL as well, so she has been climbing up the stairs to the study to come to me when MIL is not looking. And I have to do the diaper changing, milk feeding, VCD/DVD playing. She won't allow MIL to touch her, and MIL is too afraid to turn on the VCD/DVD player. Major disruption for me at work.

Another 14days before my maid returns. Hope I'll still be sane by then.

Psst, my future in-law, do you want to help baby sit Zara? I'll give you discount on the dowry.