Outings and nighttime scratchies

Going out with Eliza is quite different now that she can walk and enjoy the exploration. Such that i've given up doing clothes shopping with i'm out with her. No way i'm bringing the stroller unless i have someone with me and if we anticipate her to fall asleep during out time out. She's not too keen on being in the stroller nowadays and would rather help me push it instead, not that she can see ahead when she pushes it.

But we do a lot of outdoor running about, going to the parks & playground, having snacks and meals together. I also find grocery shopping with her quite fun as she's very willing to sit on the trolley and hold the things i pick up to buy, at the same time, i can point out the vegetables, fruits and sea creatures to her. While she's generally quite excited about the dead fish, she is sometimes quite wary of the large live fishes swimming in the tank at Shengsiong. She doesn't quite like prawns and lobsters either. (on the other hand she doesn't mind insects which she calls 'kaka'). The other place i bring her on fridays is the library. She still can't really sit still and will run all about the library with me chasing her, even though she'll take a book, asked to be seated on the chair and promptly climb off in 5seconds. *faint*

On the mystery of the scratchy nights...
I had a difficult night last night with her keeping us awake from 115am till 330am. I drifted in and out of sleep. Tried patting her to sleep but the discomfort of leaning at the side of the cot for a long period of time made me give up the patting once i hear no movements from her, and i'll plop back to bed. few minutes later i'll hear some scratching, and probably realization that mummy is not there, and then she'll cry again. Imagine doing this at least 15times. Add PMS and a super sleepy me, i'm just so frustrated i left her to whimper back to sleep. It was disturbing enough for Ww to wake up and ask me to bring her to our bed...but the problem was she didn't want to and her frustration escalated. We ended up being very confused about what she wanted, with her being unable to express what she wants, (and me being super grumpy cos i am just too tired to open my eyes). She didn't want water, she didn't want me to put her down, she didn't want milk, she didn't want to stay in the room, she didn't want me to lie down, she didn't want her pacifier, she didn't want her bear, she didn't want to go in her cot.....After a long 2hour battle, she eventually decided she wanted milk, and fell asleep after that.
It was such a grumpy night for Eliza and me that she woke up grumpy. Why? Cos she was pushing me out of bed(!!), refusing to let me sleep.
Sigh...i wonder what to do with these night battles, and her scratchy self.

Anyway after the last night's commotion, i decided that i need to start to gradually remove myself from the putting her to bed part, and let her really be able to learn to fall asleep on her own. Pls pray i'll be consistent in this cos i'm really inconsistent. On sleepy nights when i can't open my eyes and my tiredness just overwhelms me, i'll choose the easy way out and i'll be impatient and surely grumpy, i'll do anything to get her to sleep.
During bedtime today, i told her that i'll not pat her to sleep, but i'll be right beside her, and that she needs to learn to sleep on her own, that she can hug her carebear or her bolster if she needs some comfort. And i had to reprimand her for scratching every time she starts on it because it was keeping her from falling asleep! So she tries to rub her palm, or rub her arms, or pat the bed. (interesting seeing her trying her best to not scratch!)
Let's pray i'll press on and Eliza will learn to be a better sleeper.

Cell dinner at Cheeze, celebrating Yimin's bday (will post photos on facebook soon!)


See that cheeky her


Chewing on the jelly pack...which she managed to bite through and all the juice came out.


Learning to keep her cards. Needs lots of reminders and guidance to keep her toys...but she's doing it. As in with a lot of guidance & help from me, but at least she'll do it.

Vocal Eliza

This was when she has barely said any proper words other than her cute baby talk...



Now Eliza's definately more vocal than then, still there's lots of words she's not ready to vocalize yet. Sometimes it's hard to understand what she's trying to say. Like during bedtime she was pointing to the door but i thought she wanted to go out. After lots of misses, i finally figured out that she wanted me to turn on the air-con. She must have been so relieved that i finally understood what she's trying to say. Another 6 more months to a more vocal Eliza.

Meanwhile, her signing she has learnt in signing times has helped a lot, even expressing emotions like sad, cry, smile, laugh are useful. In the past few weeks she has started to sign water and that has also helped me to understand what she wants at night, it's not always milk!

Videos

I'm sorting out some of Eliza's videos taken since she was an infant. I'm not a very video-taking person...mainly also cos when i do turn it on, the exciting part is over...or when i ask Eliza to do something, she'll stare blankly at me cos i'm using the camera. Also, i'm usually quite lazy to watch videos (needs time!)..photos easier to see...faster.

Still videos are fun....can see Eliza in action. Here are some...

When apples are still quite a novelty for her....
Look out for her expressions....working her eyebrows..


She was still so young and immobile....so while i was on my laptop at my bed, she's busy entertaining herself.


I like this...one of the rare times she wakes up in such a good mood. Singing away...

Photos

Days of Eliza

The airport is a fantastic way to run out all the energy she has...only thing is that she'll walk our direction and suddenly turn back...sometimes even waving bye to you while walking the opposite direction. So you can imagine how long it takes for her to get from point A to B.
She's being kinda cheeky here.


Family photo!
Taken from my hp at T3 while watching airplanes.


She doesn't want me to take photo of her sleeping.

Ok...it's really interesting, the way she sleeps. Sometimes she covers her ear too...as if we're too loud or whatever.

Her daily dose of Baby Signing time.

We always tell her not to go so close the tv and the limit is between the table and the sofa...she's a little close....but she usually gets the point.

This is not new....arranging stuff.
She took out the chairs from the storeroom (which i had left open) and started arranging the chairs in one line. Interesting....


Running with Lion in tow. (she's pulling Lion's tail)

She'll usually take the cards and do the actions the card shows. If it's run, she'll demo running. Other favs are cry, stand, sit, laugh...those action ones. If it's the animal set, she'll make the appropriate animal sounds, her fav being the cat, of course.

Sticker fun!

Eliza has recently developed a liking for peeling stickers...and sticking it wherever...like on herself

The scratch i made :(
She was playing on Kilppan (our red sofa) and as usual, she was facing backwards at the edge. I was trying to catch her when she lost her balance sitting so close the edge that my fingernail scratched her face. Super heartpain. I immediately went to cut my fingernails after that. Hope it doesn't leave a scar on her pretty face.



Hiding behind her aeroplane float....emphasizing the scratch i made. :S


Can you feel her utter excitement? We just went swimming in the morning with this...and it's fun playing this at home too.


Took her to SunPlaza park yesterday for a walkabout after going to library...yays another park to explore. She saw the cat and was naturally fascinated by it.


What a tiring day. It's time to sleep!

The mystery of the scratchy sleep

I can't seem to remember when this itchiness or scratchy habit seemed to have started. But it seems like it has been quite a while.

I've almost ruled out eczema cos i don't see any rashes or whatsoever. And the itchiness is always very serious during bedtime when she's about to fall asleep (which is why i always feel like she could sleep faster if she doesn't spend 15-30mins scratching till she's so tired she finally falls asleep); and somewhere 3 hours after she falls asleep. It lasts anytime from 1-3hrs for the latter. Not too fun when i'm trying to get some sleep or some 'me-time'.

The creams doesn't help. The medicine for allergies doesn't either. Maybe the 'flu' one, sometimes, but i can't let her take it forever. Helping her rub doesn't help too. I'm trying to figure out if it's the food she eats, ie eggs, chicken, fish etc. But it's a long-drawn process. I'm still too haphazard to get down to plan on that.

There are good nights are are bad ones. So sometimes i am confused. On good nights i forget about it all till the bad nights comes and i go trying to figure out why.

So far one of the better ways is to snuggle with her. So that when she's so frustrated with all the scratching she whines and finds me beside her and everything's fine for her, even though that can happen a lot of times. Only problem with sleeping with her is that her kicks are quite dangerous and i dunno where it can fly. So she's all over the bed and if her leg is on the wrong side (like at our faces), it hurts. Normally i'll turn out so that even if she kicks my back, it's not as painful as if she kicks my face/eye etc.

Sometimes i wonder if it's neurological...cos when she was younger she'll have this jerk in her sleep that wakes her up...even till she's 5-6mths. Sigh....i just hope one day she'll outgrow it.

Practice SAHM

I took leave till wed cos my mil has gone to her quarterly Genting trip. Tried to plan to meet any friends but P started work already & B was stay really too far away and after some planning i realized i couldn't really handle the distance alone. Mainly cos we need to take bus/cab and that's not easy to handle with a toddler and 2-3 meals in tow. If i'm out so long i usually bring along the stroller so that she can sleep in it..and that makes going up and down the bus with bag & toddler quite challenging. I've thought of it many times but don't think i can handle that, especially if she's gonna be difficult at that point of time, of which i really can't predict.

So i've been planning my recipe list to cook meals for almost everyday, well..i started on monday afternoon with Jap curry chicken rice. It's those instant sauce kind and i just need to add the chicen & veg. Easy! Just a lot of washing after that :S

So i'm doing the usual homely stuff instead of any shopping trips or lunches out. I'm finding it slightly more challenging with an active toddler who doesn't always want to sit on the stroller and when let loose is a free chicken wandering around on high speed. Which means that when i'm out with her, i can't really do a proper wandering around see see look look kind of shopping. I'll leave that for other times when i'm out without her. With her, i start planning for places she can enjoy...even at the mall. Toy R'us is great and that only problem is her taking one or two toys and leaving them few metres ahead wherever she's heading to. After picking up the toys after her, i decided i had to make her keep the toys instead of leaving a trail behind her. It took quite a bit of repetition (i felt so naggy!), and bringing her back to the 'crime scene', for the message to get through. At least she's quite cooperative..she helped arrange some back...the wrong way round though.

SWIMMING!
Monday was a holiday for Ww. So we went swimming! Finally Eliza was able to play with water since she fell sick in March. No photos though. We were too busy with loads of things to change in and out of. You can see the glimmer of excitement building up inside her the moment she set eyes on the water. This little girl doesn't give up...the cold doesn't bother her, water getting into her eyes bothers her a bit and she jumps back, raring to go. The water is 0.45m deep so it's just nice for her to walk in it. However, if she trips, into the water she goes. It happened once or twice and shocked her a bit. Still, it didn't deter her much. I tried to hold her slightly, in case she falls, but she keeps shoving my hand away. We tried the slide and she loved it. :) Will go again when we can!!

On eating....
I'm trying to let her try more foods beyond her usual porridge, and that's not quite a problem cos she has been quite happy to try all the stuff we eat. And if she doesn't like it, she'll shake her head and refuse to open her mouth. It doesn't really happen often since most of the food we eat really do taste good. haa...
Only challenge is to get her to her porridge on top of the extra bits and pieces from our meal if we eat together. My first task when we sit down in a restaurant is to feed her first...once the food comes, her porridge is history. So i'll add the meat/egg/etc on top of the porridge to encourage her to eat those with her porridge. Why i don't let her always eat the food we eat as a meal is because she eats so slow and i chop it up and prep it so slow!!! argh. I'm now always the last to finish if we eat in this way.

More photos in the next post. I finally uploaded the photos taken since may 2. Now with a larger memory card, i don't upload my photos so regularly. I love my Fuji Finepix F200 :) i only don't like the video taking part...it's quite a low resolution one compared to my Lumix. But at least it doesn't take up so much space. I realize i don't upload much of her videos...one fine day..one fine day!

Stories of Eliza

We love retelling things Eliza has done and Ww sure gets loads of it when he comes home from work. I hear them from my MIL most of the time, of what funny or intelligent things she has been up to in the day.

Stories of Eliza:
Heard from my MIL - I recently bought yoghurt for Eliza's bfast and told my mil that she could use that as her bfast. So the next morning while my mil was preparing the cereal, she passed that little packet of yoghurt to Eliza. Obviously, she isn't going to just hold it in her hands. She was squishing it, and trying to get some reaction out of it. And sure she did...i think she pressed it too hard and the yoghurt came spurting out. She was a little taken aback and went to the kitchen to tell my mil. My mil came out to look and ask her what has she done..it's a mess! And Eliza, feeling bad about the mess she made, covered her face in the sofa and cried! Poor little girl...she must have known it's not something she should have done!

Heard from my MIL - that Eliza pointed to the air-con to tell her to turn it on, and she also pointed to the fan, in a way of telling my mil to turn it on as well! and when the air-con/fan was turned on, she'll lean at the cot, with arms spread out wide and look as if she's enjoying the breeze from the air-con/fan.
Also, recently i've started to be more consistent with creaming her with the moisturizer, i'll put some of her palm and ask her to rub her arms with it. So at bedtime, she also asked my mil to do the same. Kids learn fast.

Bedtime & Naptime always starts with a book read. So one afternoon naptime she was signing to my mil for a book. and when my mil asked her which book she wanted, she said 'kaka', which is the insect book borrowed from the library. 'kaka' means something's dirty or it can also mean insects. My MIL was quite amused by her...especially with her book reading hobby.

New words spoken:
- Card
- Ant

Sleeping and scratching

Last week i had bad nights with Eliza when she stirs from her sleep at 1-2am. On 2 occasions, she woke up and took a long time to settle. And somehow, i decided to be more firm on bedtimes and the way i put her to bed.

Is it sleep training? I'm not sure, i tried not patting her to sleep and letting her zz on her own, with me in the room. Actually i was quite fed up with her scratching like mad when she's not feeling itchy (at least that's what i think since she could go on scratching the bed). And bending over her cot to help her scratch/rub and pat her to sleep is really quite difficult since the cot is lower. So i told her that she needed to just fall asleep on her own. It was quite a struggle on the first two days but she somehow slept quite well through the night and was still in her cot the next morning (usually she'll wake up in the middle of the night and me in my super duper sleepy state will just carry her over to sleep with us cos i'll barely wake up if i do that).
The next two nights was about the same just that she took longer and longer to fall asleep....like 1.5hrs!! it drove me nuts....cos i wanted to get out of the room already.

I also switched off the bathroom lights which i usually kept on so i can see her and so that i can go brush teeth, take out contacts etc after she sleeps. This is one thing i should have done long time ago...it kinda helped, i feel.

I'm still trying to adjust the putting her to bed part. Some parents can easily leave their toddlers in the bed/cot and let them fall asleep on their own...oh so nice. But i couldn't put myself to let Eliza cry so no choice. Somehow even when trying to inch further away from Eliza while getting her to sleep, she'll always ask for more hugs & kisses. And when i do hug her she'll really hug me back and sometime pat pat me on my back....which is kinda odd but really sweet and cute.

Super fun times and Sleep

I remember a few months ago, finding that at her turning of age, she has become loads of fun to play and be with. these few days has been no exception. Actually, we have been quite humored by her and her little crazy stuff she does. Then again, we found her to have quite a sense of humor...even on things she doesn't know what she's laughing about.

Memorable stuff:
Our study room fan no longer have any ability to oscillate....except maybe when it's in the mood. one day when Eliza pressed one of the buttons, it did and both Ww & I roared in laughter at her 'magic fingers'. She, hearing us laugh so heartily, joined in to laugh as well. It's not the tickled laugh laugh...it's more like a copy us laugh laugh. Anyway, she's soo cute.

She'll also sign cry and look forlorn to my mil when she wants something but can't get it...and yet isn't too cranky about it. It's amazing what 1.5yr old do.

She has this thing about ticking....or pretend to almost touch Ww's armpit (cos Ww's very afraid of being tickled there) and she'll give him that cheeky look and pretend to almost touch it....which of course exacts quite a dramatic reaction from him. Ok, i admit...i kinda taught her that.

Or sometimes she'll like pretend to scare us with her toys, or cheekily poke my cheeks with her toy dolphin. Gosh i wonder where she got that from?

New words spoken:
- Ice (it just comes from the rap Ww's always rapping to her "Ice ice baby"...he does it and she'll go "ice ice". sounds quite like it)
- E (come from the the "Pat a cake" nursery rhyme....the part where i say "...mark it with an E (E for Eliza mah)" )
- Moon
- Amen (i'll say "in Jesus name we pray..." and she'll echo Amen)

New words signed:
- Tree (took me a review at BST to realize it...she does it without the other hand)
- Sky
- Balloon
- bubble
- Play
- Help me
- Thank you
- music
- cry
- feel
- happy
- laugh
- hot
- cold
She's really into signing please these days, especially when she wants something or wants help with something. She'll even say please to other kids who doesn't understand what she's signing about. Hope this is not just a phase....but it's really nice that she's learning so fast!

It's late and i'll blog about sleep another day...it's something i'm trying out with Eliza for a better night's sleep....but it's late and I am the one who needs to go to sleep. nitez