The grandfather definitely enjoys the presence of his granddaughter. He looks forward to her daily visits there. And that is it; he loves her being around, but dreads having to look after her. If the baby crawls into his room while he is busy monitoring the stock market on the TV or religiously sending electric shocks into his body using his Electro-Reflexologist, he will immediately shout, “Indah Indah, come and jaga baby!” No respond from Indah? He will leave his room and lure the baby to someone else. When nobody can be targeted to be the next victim, he will switch on the Baby Einstein video and to keep her occupied. While I reminded Indah not to show the series too often to the kid, the grandfather doesn’t really care what I said, as long as he can keep the baby from ka-chiao-ing him.

I am not much better either. It used to be stuffing her with more breast milk to knock her out. Probably my supply is not rich in the sedative anymore; she is still wide awake after quenching her thirst. Ah, but I have found another good buddy. She absolutely loves to eat the Baby Bites rice crackers, which can keep her busy for about 5min when I desperately need some peace. Imagine me in the kitchen, halfway through frying something or kneading some sticky dough with flour all over the place, and the attention seeking baby crying and standing beside wobbly, balancing herself by holding on to my legs, the easiest way out is to shove her a piece of cracker to distract her. Not the best solution, but what else can I do?

No wonder the population of juvenile TV addicts and suspersize kids keeps increasing. Poor little baby, what she wants is only a little bit more attention, cuddling, hugging, but here we are trying to seek alternative short cuts to babysit her. Time to hit the brakes again.