Sleeping Arrangement February 28, 2006
Posted by Zara's Mama in parenting, Zara.27 comments
To follow up on this post, here is how the cot is joined to our bed after one of the railing has been removed.
Every night, I push the cot close to our bed. I put the brakes on for the cot, place a chair between the other side of the cot and the wall (to prevent the cot from even making the slightest move away from the bed frame). Then I place 2 bolsters to fill the up the gap between her mattress and our bed frame.
Put 2 more pillows to cushion the gap. (Our bed frame is slightly lower than the standard bed frame. If we got a bed frame with the standard height, it probably would have been leveled with her mattress.)
Normally if she woke up middle of the night, she would roll over, and snuggle beside me.
In the morning, all the bolsters and pillow will be removed, and we’ll ‘park’ her cot against the wall.
Another Weekend Without Daddy February 27, 2006
Posted by Zara's Mama in Zara.26 comments
This is the 2nd weekend Daddy is away (the longest ever since Zara was born). I kept Zara occupied with lots of activities in the house as well as hanging out with my siblings and family.
Top (L->R) :
1) Bubble bath, it never fails to pick her spirit up (not that she needs any).
2) Morning hangout in our little grass patch.
3) She loves inspecting the ferns.Middle (L->R) :
1) At my sister, K’s place, that’s Tasha baby (my eldest sis, T’s 2 months old baby).
2) Zara playing with Norman ko-ko’s (Chinese : older brother) musical car track.
3) Sleep over at King’s Wife’s again, playing with Samantha che-che (Chinese : older sister).
Bottom (L->R) :
1) Early Sunday morning smile
2) Played with Samantha che-che’s soft toys
3) Samantha che-che piggie backing Zara
I also went to 2 publisher warehouse sales. One organised by MPH, the other by Times. Discounts were really good. Got lots of books for Zara, and a few books for myself. My loot from MPH.
Times bookshop warehouse sales is still on till end of this week, and it’s held on the 1st floor Atria Shopping Complex. The novels are a steal (but you have to really spend time to search for the title you want), and the Ladybird series are all going for RM5. Good bargain.
Little Miss Engineer February 24, 2006
Posted by Zara's Mama in home, Zara.31 comments
Both Daddy and I were engineers before, it is not a surprise that our little girl turned out to be Little Miss Engineer as well.We planned to join Zara’s cot to our bed, so that we can have our bed back she can have her own space and yet she can reach out for me or roll over to curl beside me if she wanted to. Daddy was trying to remove the side bar from Zara’s cot, and Little Miss Engineer got so excited and wanted to help.
“Daddy, Daddy, what are you doing?”
“Daddy, Daddy, come! Let me help you!”
“Daddy, see, this screw needs tightening too!”
*concentrate*
Mummy February 23, 2006
Posted by Zara's Mama in development, language, Zara.30 comments
After waiting for 14months, I finally heard Zara uttered her first “Mummy”. Once she started using Mummy instead of Ah Meen, she calls me more often, and with a more tender tone. The wait was well rewarded.
Every morning when she wakes up and opens her eyes, her first word would be “Mummy”. When she spots me, she would be giving me this big big smile while stretching.
If she woke up in the middle of the night, she would sit up and call “Mummy”.
Every day when I returned home after work, she’ll be greeting me with outstretched arms calling, “Mummy! Mummy!”
If she cried or feeling down, she would be calling “Mummy” even though I may not be around (Tuyam would normally call my mobile and have me speak to her or calm her).
When she’s alone with me, if I was taking a bath, she will just stand behind the shower screen, peeping in and calling “Mummy! Mummy!” until I finish my shower.
If I was using the toilet (be it for a pee or a poo), she would stand beside me, grin at me, calling “Mummy Mummy” (it can be very tough doing your ‘business’ with a grinning toddler watching you). She always waits for me to finish, helps me to flush, and then follows me out.
In our long car ride home, sometimes she’ll just reach her hand out to the driver seat, and calling, “Mummy, Mummy”. Normally I’ll explain to her I’m driving, can’t hug her or give her milk.
Sometimes it goes :
“Mummy”
“Yes Zara?”
“Mummy”
“Yes Zara?”
We can go on repeating like this for a while.
However, when I ask her to “call me” (address me), she would say “Ah Tum” (Ah Kim, Hokkien: Mum’s Brother’s Wife). Thanks to King’s Wife, always saying “call me, call me” to Zara and only satisfied while Zara says “Ah Tum”. Now Zara links the words ‘Call Me’ to ‘Ah Tum’.
She’s 15th Month already! February 22, 2006
Posted by Zara's Mama in development, language, Zara.29 comments
Another month has passed, and my little girl turned 15th month old yesterday. This is another post to capture her development.
~ Latest weight and height unknown (haven’t been to the Paed, so didn’t get the proper tool to measure her)
~ No new tooth sprouted, with 4 upper and 4 lower full-sized (like corn kennels) teeth.
Dexterity :
Running around more.
Able to retrieve 1 cent coin from the floor (which I think can be quit tough even for adults).
For this month, she seems to prefer being carried than walking. Always reaching out her hands and says, “keh-yee” (her carry) to who ever is willing. Once you held her up, if you wanted to put her back down, she would cling to you, hold up her two feet, refusing to let them lend on the ground. *sigh*
Language :
Amazing progress. One day I took a pen and paper and jotted down the different words she used in a day, and counted about 50words.
She’s also using more non-noun words now :
Dirty, Keen (Clean), Big, Smo (Small), Up, Down, Pretty, Notty (Naughty), High, Spicy, Scah-Scah (Scared), Happy, Kai (Cry), Pus (Push), Pu (Pull)
Use Pis (Please) when asked for things, and Tats (Thanks) after receiving things.
Started calling me Mummy.
She’s also saying more phrases :
Baju dirty
Daddy work work
Uh-pen fie (aeroplane fly)
Tutc Seh-doh (touch shadow)
Able to join in song singing
Able to address people based on gender:
Adult men are Ah-Ter (Uncle)
Adult ladies are Ah-Tee (Aunty)
Little girls are Che-che (big sister)
Little boys are Toh-toh (big brother)
Any toddler or babies are Beh-Pee (Baby)
Any Malay looking ladies are Tak-Tak (Kakak)
Feeding / Food :
Still loves fish, and now starting to like crunchy stuff like crisps (she says Pok-Pok for these things, probably describing the sound of the crunch)
Taking 3 solids meals, 4 breast milk feed + 1 formula feed a day. In between she snacks on biscuits and fruits.
Emotions :
Getting very cheeky now.
Her idol is King’s Wife’s daughter Samantha.
She’s overall a very happy kid, but occasionally may get moody and throw a tantrum or get angry for the littlest reason.
Weekend Moments February 21, 2006
Posted by Zara's Mama in development, language, Zara.30 comments
While changing her clothes on Saturday, Zara suddenly said, “Ah Tu (Zara’s Ah Ku; Hokkien : Mum’s brother a.k.a King)! Baju(Malay: Clothes).” and then she started touching her cheek with her pointer.
I actually didn’t know what she was saying. King Wife was laughing and explained that she asked Zara to shame King when he was walking about bare chested the other day. Zara must have recalled the incident while I removed her clothes.
~~~~~~~~~~~.~~~~~~~~~~~
On Sat night while getting ready for bed, I saw an annoying mosquito flying about in the room. Sam was shouting, “Mosquito! Mosquito!”, and I was chasing after it. Finally I managed to slap and kill it. I showed Zara the squashed mosquito in my palm and said, “See, mosquito very naughty, that’s why mummy beat beat mosquito”. She then clapped her hands together and said, “Moh-toh-toh”.
~~~~~~~~~~~.~~~~~~~~~~~
Zara was taking her morning shower with Sam at King’s Wife’s. Half way through her shower, she just uttered, “Happy!” (she knows what it means, but never spoken the word before). I guess she was really happy to be taking the shower with her favourite Sam che-che.
~~~~~~~~~~~.~~~~~~~~~~~
A moth flew in the house and was clinging on to the curtains, Zara pointed to it and said, “Mot”. I was surprised as I never taught her the word, but remembered this was one of the many characters that appeared in her story book, Miss Spider’s Tea Party.
~~~~~~~~~~~.~~~~~~~~~~~
Kids learn very fast, and you don’t know what retain in their memory and what not.
Zara’s Weekend Fun – Photos February 20, 2006
Posted by Zara's Mama in Zara.32 comments
Daddy wasn’t in town this weekend so it was just Zara and I. These are photos showing what we did over the weekend.
Top (L->R) :
How Old Are You Tag February 17, 2006
Posted by Zara's Mama in misc, myself.28 comments
Egghead, and Fantasyflier tagged me on this to find out which era I was from, here is the content of the tag
1. Name one of the actor of the old days that you missed the most
~ Danny Chan (陈百强)
2. Name a cartoon of the old old days
~ Smurf!!
3. Name a singer/group of the old days
~ Liu Wen Zheng (刘文正)
4. Band of the old days
~ Anzenchitai (安全地带).
~ When I started listening to English songs, I just love Depeche Mode (still do).
5.TV Series of the old days
~ 星星知我心 (Xin Xin Zhi Wo Xing – some sob stories), 网中人(Man In the Net – Chow Yuen Fat debut!). Used to watch with my mum, dabbing our tears occassionally, and sometimes she got so carried away, she totally forgotten about preparing dinner!
6. Actress of Old Days
~ Cherie Chung Chor-Hong (钟楚红)
7. Fashion of Old Days that you miss the most
~ I remembered the beggers out fit, the shoulder pads, but I don’t really miss them, I think they were ugly (although back then, I too wore them to be fashionable).
8. Movie of Old Days
~ An Autumn’s Tale (秋天的童话)
9. Music Video of Old Days
~ Must be Micheal Jackson’s Thriller, I guess. MTV wasn’t popular for Chinese songs yet.
10. Coolest Song of Old Days
~ That’s What Friends Are For (Elton John and Friends)
Come to think of it, I was so Chinese huh? In fact, I was so Chinese that my siblings teased me and called me a communist (They were all sent to English schools while I went to a Chinese school).
I’ll have to list 3 people to pass this tag on (you are not obligated, just do it if you feel like it).
– Twin (must be very young huh you, even though you have 2 kids?)
– Mr Cocka Doodle (which cockeral era did you come from)
– YL (you must be very very young)
Normally I will tag Helen but I’ll spare her so that she can concentrate on finding out the true identity of this man.
Invasion of the Purple dinosaur February 16, 2006
Posted by Zara's Mama in development, parenting, Zara.51 comments
I had lived in the same house with King’s Wife and her daughters for about 5 years. When my nieces started watching TV, King’s Wife bought loads of Barney VCDs for them on purpose to drive us up the walls.
You can imagine the house was always filled with songs from Barney, and the silly sounding laugh of Barney every time my nieces conquered the TV (which was almost ever day!). Everybody was singing “I Love You, You Love Me.. yada yada “.
When all you get on TV was Barney, you lost interest in TV itself (no wonder I really don’t watch that much TV, must be the post-Barney syndrome), and any appearance of him made you want to tear your hair and punch the wall.
For Zara, in the beginning, I only showed her Baby Einstein (she almost always falls asleep with this) and Wheels In The Bus.
One day while shopping in Singapore, I saw Barney’s VCD going for S$1.99. Wow, what a great deal isn’t it? So I bought 2. Since I bought, I might as well play it for Zara, give her a variety of programs to watch.
Big mistake! Now that she knows she can make her own decision (for choices like Bottle or Breast, Bread or Yogurt), she wants to decide what she should watch too. Every time when I asked her to choose a VCD to watch, she would go to her stack, pick up Barney, and shout “Money! Money! (her Barney)”. Even when I play another program for her, she would continue to hold up the Barney VCD, and chant “Money! Money!” It is very difficult to get her to watch another program now.
When Helen’s old house was invaded by termites, mine was invaded by the purple dinosaur. I can foresee it is here to stay for at least another 5years!
And guess who is going to inherit King’s Wife’s numerous Barney VCDs? Yikes!
Horsing Around February 15, 2006
Posted by Zara's Mama in parenting, Zara.37 comments
Which kid doesn’t like horsey rides? Zara loves it, and she’s looking for all kinds of things she can ‘ride’ like a horsey.
My bolster, her bolster
Daddy. The funny thing is she will sayang (Malay:pat/stroke lovingly) the ‘horse’ head’ first before she rides on ‘it’.
And finally..
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Russ our cat. We actually have to stop her from crushing the cat.
What is your superpower?
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