Christmas Spirit

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!

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?

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

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

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

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

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? ~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~ 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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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

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! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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... ~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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.

Morib revisited

14 years ago, Daddy in his attempt to impress me, brought me to Morib for a date. There, he whipped out his Bunsen burner and brewed tea for the 2 of us at our little picnic. He did impress me (see who I ended up marrying?). Since then, we'd never been to Morib. Usually when this is suggested by him again, I would say, "Morib? What's there to do?" During our Hari Raya holiday, we asked Zara what she wanted to do, and she said, "Want to go to the beach, want to kick kick the sand." The boss wanted something, and she got it. We packed a few snacks, took some cold drinks in our Coleman, and headed to Morib, the closest beach.

Crab up on shore; Pine tree lined coast; One of the trees that provided picnic goers with shade; Our picnic corner.

I'm surprised it was a very pleasant trip. We picnic-ed at the pine trees lined field facing the beach. The weather was nice, cloudy but not hazy, and the breeze from the sea was really cooling. Daddy brought Zara out to the long stretch of beach, showed her some little crabs, let her wade in the shallow pool of water and played in the mud; while I sat on our picnic mat watching the 2 of them from a far. What a nice break..

Less Than A Month and She'll be Two

23months! One more month before Zara celebrates her 2nd birthday. We are really happy with the way she's growing. Every night after she goes to bed, we like to stare at her, and talk about her achievement in the last 23months. It's just amazing, how much she's grown. ~ Weight : 10.1kg (2 weeks ago) ~ Height : 86cm (3 cms in a month? But we do realise some of her pants just suddenly shortened) Dexterity ~ Started feeding herself with a spoon ~ Able to press pieces of play dough in a mold to get the shape and print she wants. ~ Floating in a pool with her arm floats (actually she started this in Aug but she's getting really good now) ~ Hold a pencil, marker the proper way (nobody actually taught her this), and able to draw circles or lines or curvey lines (she said she's drawing snakes or worms) intentionally (though not perfect yet) ~ Able to do the thumbs up sign to indicate "Good" and thumbs down to indicate "Bad" ~ Walk up and down stairs without holding on to the railing (but we still insist she hold on to the railing for safety reasons) Emotions and character ~ Becoming very homely, prefers to stay at home most of the time. And wanting to go home after spending some time out. ~ Started to have strong dislikes about some people. These people make her cry or fuss when they go near her. Like the case with Daddy's friend and KC. ~ Sometimes she pretends to be a baby. When she doesn't get her way, instead of telling us what she really wants, she whines. When we change her, she likes to making the 'ooh-weh' 'ooh-weh' sound, and says, "Zara's a baby" ~ She's very into manners now, so she's using Excuse me, Thank You, Sorry, You're Welcome, Please when appropriate. Language ~ Since Phuket, she started pronouncing her name perfectly, stressing the Z and the R. She's no longer calling herself 'Wawa' ~ She's using words like 'accidentally', 'uncomfortable' now ~ She's picking different words to differentiate baby and adult animals; and some cases masculine and feminne of animals. She goes like this, "Daddy horse is called stallion; Mummy horse is called Mare; Baby horse is called Foal." "Daddy chicken is called Cockerel; Mummy chicken is called Hen; Baby chicken is called a Chick." ~ She likes to pretend to speak in different voices and tones to represent the baby, the daddy or the mummy talking (just like voices I used when I read her Goldilocks and The 3 Bears) when she's at play. ~ She's able to sing a few songs completely, e.g. Old Mc Donald, Do Re Me, London Bridge Is Falling Down, Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars etc.; and recite some nursery rhymes, e.g. Wee Willy Winky, Pussy Cat Pussy Cat, Hey Diddle Diddle etc. Learning ~ I'm trying to teach her phonics, and so far, able to teach her the B sound and the C sound. ~ I'm teaching her Mandarin, so far, she knows how to say 嘴巴 (mouth), 鼻子(nose), 眼睛(eyes), 耳朵(ear), 没有(don't have, no more), 要 (want), 不要 (don't want). We don't speak Mandarin at home, so I think it's quite an achievement. :P

Tired!

Almost a week has passed since our maid has gone home. We're using my sis' Indonesian maid, KC. Our initial plan was to have her take care of Zara and at the same time help out with household chores. However, Zara totally didn't want KC to handle her. I think the reason is KC didn't speak English, and Zara has no way of communicating with her (Tuyam is able to communicate with Zara with her limited broken English). She doesn't even want KC to sit near her while she watched her TV shows. She only wanted my sis' Filipino maid, Elizabeth. Kept sticking to her and every time KC goes near her, she'll be shouting, "Don't want kakak. Aunty Aunty (calling for Elizabeth), come!" There's lots of interruptions for me while working at my sis' place. Sometimes when Elizabeth needs to cook or clean the house, Zara will be coming to me, asking me to play with her; Or running to me for help when KC tries to give her some water or play with her. Oh boy, tough for me. Why is it always the wife who has to endure this while the husband continues with his usual routine when the domestic helper is not around? I'll wait to see if Daddy is going to help out during the weekend, or he's still going to enjoy his weekend like he usually does, in front of his newspapers, 'making love' to his amplifier, and working on his hobby. World War Three will erupt if he thinks I'll have to do all the work, while it's status quo for him!

Short Updates

No Maid Tuyam has gone home to Indonesia for a month for her Raya holidays. Oh boy, this mummy with big stomach has to take care of Zara most of the time. I'm having my sister's maids to help out in caring for Zara (and I work from my sis' place), but since Zara is still not quite used to them, she keeps coming to me for things and for a cuddle. 28 more days to go before the maid comes home (if she did come back). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New Phrases Zara is using words and phrases she learns either from the TV or from us. Here are some new ones. Me : "Zara did you touch Rusty (our cat) just now?" Zara : "No way! Zara didn't touch Rusty." In the car, Zara : "Mummy, Zara want eat pop corn" Me : "Mummy forgot to bring." Zara : "Say Sorry girl girl (sometimes we call her girl girl)." Me : "....... Ok. Sorry girl girl, mummy forgot." Me : "Mummy loves Zara so much" Zara : "How much?" Me : "..... Very much." While swimming, Daddy : "Wow, Zara can float now!" Zara : "Pefect!" After dinner, Daddy : "Good girl, you finish your dinner." Zara : *grinned* "Excellent." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yakking On days when she's in the mood, she yaks non-stop. Here is a conversation taken yesterday when she was telling my nephews what she was going to do to get ready for bed: "Mummy change this baju (Malay : clothes) for Zara" "Dirty already mummy." "Must take off and Zara put in the laundry bag" "Then kakak will wash wash the baju with the hands." "Zara brush teeth, and don't let the water run (the latter phrase is from Barney)" "Then change Pajamas" "Then mummy spray rose water on the face (when I apply my skin care in the night, I spray some rose water for her as well)." "Zara smell so nice" "Then read books, then bed time." She was saying this without pausing for a reply or response from us. My sis Filipino maid said she talked like an old lady.

Phuket - II ~ Sigtseeing, Beaches, Others

Sightseeing I'm into my 7th month already, and hence I can't go on a speedboat. No island excursion for us this round. We hired my colleague's friend's taxi for a day trip around Phuket island on our 2nd day. When we asked what Zara wanted to do, she said, "Zara want to sit on elephant.". Our first stop was to a place near by for Elephant rides. To our disappointment, Zara refused to take the elephant ride. She said, "Zara scared. Elephant so ugly. So black, and hairy." Since we were already there, we bought some bananas to feed the elephant (yes, just ONE elephant available), and even that Zara didn't want to feed. She kept asking me to do it. So much for Elephant ride! Next stop, we went to Khao Rang, highest point in Phuket town to have a panoramic view of Phuket island. It was nice and breezy, and Zara just slept on her pram throughout. Then we had lunch in town, at this local shop serving Hokkien mee (fried and soup). By far, this was the worst meal we had in Thailand! After the crappy meal, it was shopping time, where we visited the Phuket market and then Robinson Departmental Store. We then headed to Cape Promthep (southern tip of Phuket), best for sunset viewing. Beautiful place, and if I wasn't pregnant, we probably would have gone all the way to the tip of the cape (some hiking required).

She had a good nap on her pram, then she started monkeying around. The last pix showed her interested in wanting to pat and hug all the elephants surrounding the alter.

Zara wasn't interested in the view at all, she was more interested in the Elephant statues available at the prayer alter nearby. The driver then took us to Chalong Bay to dine in the famous Kan Eang Restaurant. Food was really good, and Zara was occupied throughout playing 'cooking' with the cucumber slices, and chives sticks.

Kicking some sand at Chalong Bay before dinner

The Beaches We stayed in Surin area, waves are a bit rough there and not suitable for swimming. However, during low tide, it's pretty pleasant to stroll on the beach. The beach side is lined with local restaurants, where you can covered your feet in sand while you have your meals, and the price is relatively reasonable (much cheaper than the ones on the street in Surin town). Too bad, we only discovered this towards the end of our stay, and had 2 very good lunches there ~extremely delicious fried rice and fried fish.

Surin Beach in the afternoon and evening (it got dark at about 6pm+ daily while we were there)

We took a tuk-tuk to Patong beach one evening to do a bit of shopping and to dine at the famous Savoey Restaurant (another orgasmic dinner, but Zara was chanting "Want to go back Hotel" throughout dinner because she couldn't stand the loud live performance there, so even though the food was good, we couldn't slowly savour it).

Patong beach seems to be nicer (wider, longer stretch). But that area is really too congested for my liking.

Sunset at Patong. The 'boss' demands to be carried most of the time or to 'ride' on her pram.

Others We wanted to spend most of our time at the resort, hence we didn't go out much. We have most of our lunches at Surin area. Most of the time during lunch, Zara fell a sleep, so Daddy and I could munch and enjoy our food at our own pace.

On our last night, we wanted to do a last round of shopping and went to Canal Shopping Village at the Laguna area. There were really not many shops. A waste of time (for shopping). Luckily, we found a nice restaurant, and had a very good dinner, at least our trip wasn't fully wasted.

Waiting for lunch to be served at the beach front restaurant. She wanted Daddy to get her the Pooh bear from Robinson, but of course we said NO. Snoozing at the beach, while Daddy and I had our lunch. Time to go home, and feeling happy.

Thailand is always my favourite destination for a holiday. Glorious food, cheap shopping, and best of all, good service and friendly people. Oh well, our next trip will probably be in 1.5yr time, when no. 2 is old enough to travel.

Phuket - I ~ Hotel, Pool, Pampering

We took an early flight to Phuket on Thursday (5/10). A Phuket colleague of mine arranged for a taxi to pick us up from the airport for a fraction of the price that the hotel would charge if we booked the car from the hotel.

Being nosy on the plane. Enjoying a cool towel and welcome drink in the resort

The Hotel Twinpalms Resort is a small boutique hotel located in the quiet beach of Surin. Just like its website, the place is beautiful. We got really good rates from the internet after doing some shopping around, and I don't believe you can get anything near that kind of accommodation (and service) in M'sia for that price. We stayed in the deluxe room on the ground floor the first night. Zara liked the room very much, it has a roomy balcony, and a few steps away from the pool. Since there was no bath tub provided, I asked for an anti-slip mat for Zara. I was delighted that the hotel instead loaned us a Winnie The Poo bath tub, together with a set of complimentary baby toileteries (which included bottle and nappy wash). Now, how many hotels would give you some thing like this? So far in my experience, none (not even our famous Pangkor Laut or Tanjung Jara resort).

Horsing around in the room, and the resort

For the rest of the 3 nights, we upgraded ourselves to a Grand deluxe room (err, because the cheaper rooms were no longer available in the bargain website I booked the room from) located on the 1st floor. The room was bigger, and it came with a bathtub. Zara of course enjoyed the new bath tub very much.

Big tub fun, and exploring the resort

The Pool Twinpalms has 1600sqm of water surface, the pool runs across the middle of the premise, with rooms surrounding it. Some of the rooms even have direct access to the pool (i.e. the room is directly connected to the pool). Zara went swimming every day, spending about 1 to 2hrs at the pool. There's no baby pool available, but they have shallow slope leading to deeper end, so she spent most of her time walking up and down the slopes. We don't have to hold on to her, she paddled about herself, even when her feet could not touch the ground. We just have to be nearby to assist her if she has her head accidentally dipped in the water.

The Pampering This is more of relaxing trip for me. Daddy has been great, taking care of Zara most of the time since he knows I'm too big to be running after or carrying Zara.

I also got a surprise gift from my best friend in New York. She bought us a spa voucher in Twinpalms without me knowing, and I was very surprise to see this in our room when we checked in. Our anniversary isn't until end next month, but this is such a nice gesture from her.

On top of this, the booking website also gave us a 2hrs spa treatment voucher for booking more than 3 nights stay. Daddy is not a spa person, so I got all the pampering in the spa, making use of these vouchers, while Daddy looked after Zara in the room. I had such a good back and shoulder rub, oh, it was orgasmic! (Thanks Ping!) And then, what's more blissful than lounging at the poolside sala, sipping herbal tea, while watching the kid and Daddy play in the pool.

(Thanks Daddy, for allowing me this luxury by looking after Zara.)