I Survived!

Sorry for the hiatus. The past week has been one tough ride. I'm surprised that I even survived, and that makes me feel good.

If you do not yet know, I have been left stranded without a helper and coping alone with caring for my happily crawling-climbing baby and an elderly mom.

Two weekends ago, we sent our old Indonesian helper off. I didn't renew her contract as I thought I can't do without help for the two, three weeks that she would be away (in Singapore, when a maid's contract ends - which is usually after two years - and it gets renewed, she will normally return home for a few weeks' break before coming back to start the new contract). The other reason was the communication problems we had due to her relatively poor command of English. So I thought why not change a helper and get someone who speaks better English. However, I have to say that besides the language issue, she is overall quite a good helper.

So on the same day that our old helper left, we welcomed a new one. It was tough emotionally, as I was feeling so, so sad to see her go. Yet before I could recover from that, I had to welcome someone new. It's a really weird feeling - it's like ending one relationship and immediately jumping into another. But I had it planned this way so that there will be no gap in between the change of helpers, as I can't imagine doing without help for even a day.

Yet I soon realised what a mistake I've made.

While our old helper was not the best I could ever ask for, she is definitely an angel compared to what the new helper did and the shock she put us through (the details I shan't mention here, perhaps in another posting). We had no choice but to immediately send her back to the maid agency.

So ironically, I still end up having to cope without a helper for a few weeks until a new one comes! But it's worse as we had to scramble to put a system in place compared to if I had renewed my old helper's contract, we could plan for her absence in advance. Oh well...

Given that I have no siblings whom I can turn to for help and the mother-in-law is going for some treatments  for her knee pain and can't lend a hand, we had to find alternative solutions.

I asked around for contacts for a part-time helper to help with the house chores. I also ordered tingkat lunch and dinner (from two different companies). However, after the first day, I figured some chores can wait till the weekends when hubby is around, so decided to put off having a part-time helper. I'm still contemplating getting a part-time babysitter to have some time off to either do housechores or work.

So now, I spend the bulk of my day looking after Kenan, which honestly, isn't something I enjoy best. It can get SOOO tiring keeping an eye on a baby who is at the crawling stage. Not only does Kenan crawl around the house, he is happily climbing onto low furniture like the coffeetable and TV console. Once, I had to repeatedly take him off the TV console and he thought it was some sort of a game and kept laughing!

I'm so glad we've pulled through the first week.  I'm thankful that God has provided and my appreciation to the friends and forum mommies who tried to help in one way or another. Thank you!

"Free-Range" Baby

Since Kenan started crawling (slightly over eight months old), it's been getting busier and busier for this mommy, as well as her helper.

Recently, he has also learnt how to pull himself to a standing position and once he does that, he is all over the coffee table and the TV console. He loves to grab things from the fromer and plays with the speakers or buttons on the DVD player on the latter.

So I rented a play yard (from Rent That Toy, $25 a month) to create a confined area for him to play in.

He sure looks happy playing in the play yard. But not for long! Each time, after about 10 minutes, he would be making lots of noises to ask us take him out. And then off he goes, crawling all over the house, with poor mommy or the helper following him wherever he roams! 

Unless I find a solution quick, I'll have to resign myself to raising a "free range" baby!

Any mommies with any brilliant ideas to solve my 'problem'?