My little bull terrier

No I did not get myself a dog because Ed is terribly afraid of them (I should have checked this box before we got married and now I can never dream of getting one!) Rather, it is my darling who looks like one now.

Last Sunday morning after a diaper change, a happy Gerard was rolling in our bed while I tried to fold his soiled diaper into a smaller piece for easy disposal. Suddenly, from the corner of my eyes, I could see him bending towards the edge of the bed and almost going to fall over. I tried to grab him as fast as my reflexes allowed but whilst I managed to prevent him falling down from the bed, his face knocked against the corner of our dressing table and immediately, a huge purple bruise swelled up the bottom of his left eye and there was also some blood as there was a bit of abrasion on his skin.

The poor boy wailed for a minute but halted when he saw his mummy even more upset and terrified. I quickly brought him to the doctor to check if his eye was ok. Fortunately, he said it was just a bad bruise and his eye was not hurt. The bruise and swelling should subside within a few weeks.

Since then, wherever we go, Gerard gets stares from people for obviously the wrong reason. The o-jiisans and o-baasans give us their sympathetic looks and sometimes whisper among themselves. Some friendlier ones offer me their "home-tested" remedies and say babies at this age are very active, so we have to be really careful.

Well, I cringe with guilt and feel heartache whenever I look at Gerard. I think it was partly my fault that I failed to look after him properly because he was technically "under my care, custody and control" at the moment the accident happened. To make things worse, I have to bring him to visit his paternal grandparents tonight. His grandma called three times since last night when Ed broke the news to her, I can already envisage a big drama is going to happen later with probably lots of crying (not me!), pitying and reprimanding. At times like this, I wish we were still in Denmark or anywhere that is far far away. :-(

My most trustworthy and priceless timer

Recently our house has a new timer, the brand is called "Gerardi". It is perpetually pre-tuned with 45 minutes countdown time and the precision is uncanny. Basically, the countdown time starts when the button is pressed (ie. when Gerard falls asleep) and during the next 45 minute period, I have to race against time to get as many things done as possible. In the meantime, chores like ironing, eating alone with no conversations happening and cleaning the floor/shelves with Magic Wipes are preferred because the noise level is kept at a minimum. Of course, surfing the internet or watching tv are are also permitted unless they involve loud music or sound. Then at exactly 45 minutes later, the ringer goes off by a contiunous stream of piercing shrieks of increasing volume. At that time, the best course of action is to rush to the timer, pacify him and if I am lucky, he will be rubbing his eyes indicating that he is still tired and then after a bit of coaxing and assuring him that I'm just next to him, I can reset the timer to another 45 or even 60 minutes period.

Unfortunately, this timer is one and only in the world and no matter how much people are willing to pay, I will NEVER sell it.