Fascination with Cats and Dogs

Olivia's vocabulary has increased by leaps and bounds over the past few months. Now she not only says the words but also associates it with either the object or animal or person. Lately, she's been really fascinated by cats and dogs. And I think between the two, she prefers cats. Much to my chagrin as I definitely prefer dogs over cats anytime.

She can be kept occupied for quite sometime just watching the cat or dog lying on the ground, stretching or sleeping. (That's quite an achievement by Olivia's standards as she's a bundle of energy). Watching is the only thing that she does, as although she appears to be brave, she is not. She's easily terrified by the dog or the cat as it tries to approach her or even seen to be taking a step towards her. Straight into the nearest person's arms she will go for some comfort and safety embrace!

I just find it really cute when she's that fascinated with animals and her affinity for them although she's actually scared. Scared yet fascinated.

Guess, that's just what makes them so adorable! Hopefully the next time I would be armed with a camera to catch her in action.

Goodbye 2005 and welcome 2006

It's the 2nd last day of 2005. In a couple of hours, we will be crossing over to 2006. A brand new year. Hopefully a better year than this that is going to end soon.

So many things happened this year. I would not go into the nitty gritty of things but I'm hopeful that next year will be better for everyone.

Enjoy yourselves. Make some resolutions!

Happy New Year ppl!

10 things that I am thankful about....

I was replying a friend's e-mail the other day and it suddenly struck me that this is something that I can blog about.....

10 things I am thankful about.......
1) I am thankful to God for my family and the many blessings that He has lavished upon us
2) I am thankful for my husband who has really been there supporting me all the way
3) I am thankful for my good friends who are there for me when I need them
4) I am thankful for my new CG, where I think that I can learn and grow and hopefully give something back in return
5) I am thankful for the doors that God has opened for me and the opportunities that He has created for me
6) I am thankful for the gift of Life
7) I am thankful that I can enjoy and cherish each day with my daughter, husband and beloved family members
8) I am thankful for the help that I get from my parents and parent-in-law and my maid too
9) I am thankful for God being the shelter from the storm when things get tough, especially the way this year has gone
10) I am thankful that I am able to continue to know the Lord better with each passing day

There you go... 10 things that am thankful about.....

A friend's grief

Just found out that one of my best friend's dad passed away suddenly. Still rather vague on the details but we're all very shocked. My friend is still holding up but I think that she's more in shock than anything else.

My other best friend is coming in from Singapore tomorrow morning to pay respects. Will probably go to the wake tomorrow afternoon or something like that.

Just goes to show how fragile life can be. And how things can change in a split second.

My heartfelt condolences goes out to my friend's family. I hope and pray that God will comfort them in these times of grief and be a big shield and a shelter for them.

I think the wake is tomorrow. We will have to see how it goes.

Bits and pieces

I haven't been blogging for a while. So many things have happened during the past few weeks that I don't even know where to start. Anyways, some part of updating would be that we've joined a new CG (yay!) , which is really great for us. It's a family CG with a mixture of couples, kids and singletons. Christmas is round the corner and there are just so many plans during that weekend break! We have something on every single day! I bet that by the time I get back to work, I'll be dead tired and needing another break. I'm just glad that New Year's break would be rather long too. Hope that we would not be so busy then.

Other than that, I've been rather tired and yucky (that is a whole blog entry on its own some time down the road).

I'm just so tired. Woke up this morning feeling tired and that has continued throughout the day. Sigh....

Sleeping thru the nite...

Yoohoo! Yes, as the title puts it - Olivia slept through the night last night in her bed! That was really a great feeling and I'm really proud of her. I came back late from work last night feeling really lousy after a long day and my daughter decides to reward me with her sleeping thru the night! Praise the Lord! I'm really happy with her and hope that this is the start of her "sleeping thru the night" routine. She has had a few false starts but I'm keeping my fingers, toes and ears crossed that this continues.

ha Ha.... Will keep you guys updated on her progress....

Sleeping Habits

I’ve been reading this book called “The No-Cry sleep solution for toddlers and pre-schoolers” by Elizabeth Pantley. Yup, you guessed it, am having some sleeping problems with Olivia. All in all, Olivia’s a rather easy kid to take care off but the only issue that I face with her is her sleeping habits. It’s actually not her fault as babies need to be trained to sleep on their own and their sleeping habits need to be moulded. It is my fault that she sleeps the way she sleeps now. Or rather how she needs to be put to sleep.

Since the day she was born, some of my ideals on how we were going to train her were thrown out of the window. Some for being not practical but some mainly because I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Hubby suggested the cry-to-sleep solution which I protested vehemently to and sometimes even with tears as I didn’t have the heart to let my poor baby cry herself to sleep. It just sounds so cruel! Imagine crying yourself to sleep. However, then I didn’t discover Elizabeth’s book on her “no-cry method”!. Life would have been so much easier if I did! Hubby, being the kind of guy he is, just gave in at the end of the day and let me have my say and my way.

Having been a colicky baby, we used to cuddle and carry her a lot to soothe her especially during the bouts of colic. That carried on till now and it’s a tough habit to break!. Especially at this age, (she’s about 16 months going onto 17 months) when she’s all out for playing, putting her down to sleep for her day-time naps can be quite a battle. Just imagine carrying a kid weighing about 11-12 kgs for about 1 hour and trying to put her to sleep. Now u get what I mean. During the nights, it’s a tad better as she rolls around after drinking her milk and finally settles in a comfortable position to sleep. The downside is that this can take up to about 30 minutes with some form of scolding involved.

She still does wake up in the middle of the night screaming like she’s been having a really terrible nightmare and thus, this week the experiment is to totally cut out the telly for her. No more watching television for this week to see whether this has any effect on her sleeping. Hoping with my fingers crossed and with God’s grace that some good outcome will come out of this. Am also endeavouring to train her to sleep in her bed rather than co-sleeping with us. That would probably mean about a week of interrupted sleep. Sigh… guess I just have to grit my teeth and pull through.

Wish me luck. Will be back with some more updates, hopefully positive ones!