Theodore is eight months old, and I am getting ooh so busy

Theodore is eight months old. Weekdays - its work. Weekday evenings - its Theodore. Weekends - its Theodore.

Theodore is very vocal and curious now. He is 'talking' most of the time and yesterday he said 'bah bah bah bah'.

He even makes funny faces now. Apparently he started doing so after attending a kids birthday party.

I am sure he is a happy child. From my perspective, so am I happy to see him grow and grin when he sees me.

But ehhh I am so tired. We have to buy fresh ingredients for him weekly, and I puree them in advance on the weekend. I love him, but you know sometimes, you never get a break. Even if I go for a monthly facial now, I think of him while lying on the bed.

There is really a lot of work involved when having a child. Especially when you dont want to leave him in the total hands of a outsider.

Ooh haha, but I must admit we did mess up his solids a little. We decided to puree lamb and sweet potato for him. It was too heaty for him. Currently we are trying peas - I hope it is ok at eight months. Our pd recommended that each new food should be introduced for a period of seven days to test for allergy. We have decided to go for the four day rule instead... its really quite troublesome and it must be boring aint it to eat the same for seven days? But luckily we observed the four day rule, as TD showed signs of allergy to the lamb after the second day (though he really enjoyed it). We took it off his diet and he was then fine. During our parents time, they didnt go by four or seven days rule, and we survived...why are things more complex these days?

From celebration..to a hectic work week.. to an angry weekend..to realisation...

We celebrated Elton's one year old birthday at Four Seasons. Theodore had great fun and completely forgot about milk until about an hour later. He played and played, and then finally called for milk, and then knocked out.

I went back to the office to help my father this week. So much has changed in the firm. I started a schedule of feeding Teddy at 6am, pumping milk at 6:30am, again during lunch time and rushing off at 4pm to come home (pump again), or feed him if I come back in time. Then I will prepare his solids and feed him. It does sound like a crazy schedule, but wouldnt be possible without the support of my family. I have to sleep at 10pm daily in order to keep up with this..but hah so far I have not found the discipline, especially when Irwin comes home late from work.

Anger. Why. So, the carpets came back after a second wash. The plan was no carpets are allowed to be opened till TD recovers 100% fully. In-laws decided that they would like to open one as they are hosting guests. We had to convince them again not to..why take the risk when we have already put in so much effort to get rid of the allergens. The carpets were not rolled out, but TD's eczema came back just because the carpets were in the house. TD's skin is fine when exposed to carpets in my mum's house, at Four Seasons, and another friend's house..so we concluded that the home carpets can never be rid of Bobby's dander.

In laws were not entirely convinced its the carpets, and asked me to try Oil of Ulan on the baby.. I said 'No'. Then they decided that sometimes allergens will simply disappear and asked us to wait out a few days. That night, I cracked down.. I sobbed. There is no way I can sit back and watch my kid's skin deteriorate. Anyhow, we convinced them to shift those carpets out to a storage place. They agreed, and I couldn't be more relieved.

So, TD's skin had a flare up on Wednesday. Today, MIL used a lot of perfume. The perfume filled the entire house. I wonder why she decided to use so much today? She went to TD's door and said 'Sorry I cannot come in since I just used a lot of perfume'. Shortly after she closed the door, TD was scratching and crying. We quickly bath him but he was still scratching. As I watched my baby's skin getter redder and redder, and a bigger surface area than before - and more steroid all over the body...it really made me fumed. From anger, again I sobbed.

I called my Dad, brother and sms my Mum who is overseas..and told them I would like to move home till TD recovers. Obviously this is not the right environment for TD since TD never had a single flare up for the month we were there. There were a few call exchanges between Dad, Irwin and myself. The gist was, we should try to solve it as a family instead of shifting back.

Desi Lama, currently my FB friend wrote, "please don't attach too much in this world as pit of fire. we can't librate without renunciate this world. great indian and tibtan master told us very importand is renunciation." I wonder if he just read my FB status. Renunciation. I felt calmer.

I then went into the baby's room. Irwin, Sumini and I played with him for a good 20mins and laughed a lot just by looking at his kicking and jumping actions..that took all the pain & sadness away...

The Happy Baby

Its going to be a busy week. Tomorrow, Theodore will have his first try at swimming in a real pool. Baby Joshua will be there too. Fingers crossed that the eczema will stay in check since swimming can further dry the skin. He needs to be showered quickly after the swim as chlorine is drying for the skin.

After that Theodore has to attend Elton's first year old party at Four Seasons Hotel. On Sunday, he will attend Charlotte's four years old birthday party.

Oh yea, so he is very happy, and we are very busy. Irwin and I always joke about how we are 'confirmed parents' as our schedule now revolves around him, only. On Sunday I will buy some fresh peas to cook for him - oh yes, and to grab some diapers too...

I like to do Push Ups!

Theodores likes to get into this position. In the evening, when TD plays on Wai Po's bed, he likes to crawl, or attempt to crawl. He frequently gets into a push up positon! Not sure whether it is because he is very strong, or he is just confused...haha

Lets see - since returning home, his eczema is improving, but so sloowly... am tempted to move back to Wai Po's house where he gains quick recovery, but realised this can't be a long term solution! So we used Dettol to mop and clean the house again. Hmm didnt work as well. We then tried a Dettol air spray which apparently kills even the H1N1 virus! Ok, he is now on the road to recovery, but so sloowly.... he needs Wai Po's love..hahaha

More food for the chomper:

Puree Pumpkin... and currently

Blended Pear! Pears turn brown so quickly. I sliced up 2.5 pears this morning (very quickly) and then used the blender. By the time I freeze them, they were all brown (hopefully still very nutritious). Hah, many new things to learn..including the pears..