Updates on AN and BM

Human kid first.

AN is still tumbling here and there but is improving with practice.

She is now able to understand things I say. Like when I ask her to bring me her "Please, God" book (her favourite book), she'll go dig into her pile of books to look for the little yellow one and bring it to me. She'll sit beside me and participate by flipping the pages for me (even before I finish a sentence sometimes -_______-"). She likes this book and will point in its direction and look at me. I just have to ask her to bring it to me and she will, and then the reading-flipping routine starts.

She likes to stand on the high chair halfway thru meals and Mr Liow had on many occasions, firmly instructed her to sit. She understands it when we tell her to sit now, but she will try to push her luck by slowly slipping her feet under the table, onto the chair and standing up real slowly. If she's in the mood to obey, she will sit and smile. Otherwise, she'll use this as an opportunity to throw tantrums. Guess it all depends on what she wants. If she really wants to get out of the chair, she won't b as nice as to sit and smile back at me bah? hee.

AN has seen me giving BM treats and will imitate (but I don't do what she does, ok?). Her daily duties include: picking up BM's toys and treats and bringing it to them, going around the house to look for BM, going to check if their water bowl is full (by putting her hands into their bowl -_____-"), and if they pooped (she will point and let out an "ay!" when she sees poop in the toilet).

Simply put, her life revolves around BM. Sometimes the furkids just want to sleep but she will force feed them treats by putting their pigskin roll onto the flr in front of them. If they ignore her, she will pick it up and put it on their paws. If she sees no responds, she will poke the roll into their mouth to feed them. What royalty treatment! To BM, that's pure nuisance. hehe. Maen will usually walk away, irritated. Baileys will jump to lick AN in the face and AN will then start to giggle. I am almost sure that was her intention when she attempts to feed them.

She makes all sorts of funny sounds of exclamations like "ay!", "ah!", "wah!" etc. She's learning to imitate us. She wants to be part of our conversation and wants to behave like us (and BM too. I've not mentioned that she kept putting their bones into her own mouth have I?).

She goes "ay!" and points when she sees dogs on TV and on streets, "wah!" when she I feed her (I take it as a compliment that she likes my cooking.hee), "ah!" when she pushes a spoon into my face (I'm supposed to eat what she feeds me too) and many instance where we can't seem to relate her exclamation to anything in particular. To encourage her to be expressive, I've started to do things in exaggeration (she will imitate), even to the extent of dancing with her in public. So embarrassing.

She baby-talks us now. Very talkative. Although I may not understand what she's saying, if I only observe close enough, it's quite easy to tell what she's trying to say. She'll go "ay" over anything that catches her attention. If she wants that, she will open and close her palms to indicate "come".

Mr Liow hid our VCD/DVD files under the table, behind a table cloth. She saw him taking a DVD out from the file one day and kept crawling over and flipping the table cloth us exclaming "ay!" and giving a cheeky smile each time, as if to say "I know where you keep those stuff you are trying to hide from me!"

She will tell me "mam mam" or "nan nan" if she wants milk now. If I am not fast enough in giving her what she wants, she will help herself (it'll b quite obscene to describe any further).

She can sip from a straw now :)
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Furkids
I've been walking in and out of the house each day. Baileys has been desensitized, I think. He's no longer as uptight when I walk out of the house. Maen will still whine as I open the door to get back in. That's if we keep them in the kitchen/ breakfast area.

Maen completely ignored my leaving the house when I walked out with them having the whole house to themselves. Baileys 'saw me off'' but there was no barking whatsoever.

They do well with treats now. Anxious dogs can't eat right? Both forget about us when we leave the house now, if there are treats for them in the kitchen/breakfast area. Else they will linger around the gate and Maen will bark (not as 'ferociously' as weeks back tho) we do not return in a while. My last timing was 10mins.

I know Maen will bark though. For no reason in particular.

Every morning by 7am now (sometimes earlier), Maen will bark. Not as us, mind you. She barks at sounds she hears, at cars driving by (she looks out of the patio and keeps herself entertained) and whatever catches her interest.

Baileys will scratch and scratch the bb gate downstairs. Sounds really irritating when I'm trying to sleep but at least he's not barking. That's the only problem with him now (not a big problem tho).

He's such a dear boy. He housebreaks fast, since young. This Baileys was like made to fit into the Liows' family model. He knows our habits and communicates himself well to us in the way we will like to communicate. He knows what gets on our nerves and will only go that far as to tell us what he wants. He knows when never to step beyond a boundary. He waits and doesn't push his luck with us. He tells us things when he barks (unlike Maen who barks for no obvious reasons many times). He's a boy of habits and very easy to understand. I've always been hoping he'll turn into a real boy but it will never happen. :(

Maen on the other hand has an angelic face. She's an angel, if she's involved in everything we do. She's super expressive, vocally. She barks at Baileys when he's minding his own business and chewing on his own pigskin. She has hers which she hid and wants Baileys to give his up. She doesn't like me to disappear from her sight, without her (it's slowly improving now with practice). She's still like the little baby girl I used to know. I spoilt her..hmm...She HAS to sit on my laps and is slowly starting to take her place again. I have to be in control of her and not the other way round. Have to keep reminding myself of this.

They are doing great on By Nature (their current brand of kibbles). Although shedding (I guess it's part of the detox process with a change of diet), they are pooping nice firm stools and not in as large as amount as they used to poop. They are scratching tho (which is usual). Could be due to the carpet. Carpets can never be cleaned to perfection (even if cleaned, there may still be shampoo residues). One thing I like abt carpets is, they conceal dust and fur well.

Baileys seem to be putting on more flesh now and Maen losing those excess she put on at Camalot. On the whole, By Nature has exceeded my expectation of it, by far.