Akshra loves cheese. She can eat an entire meal if we keep promising to give her cheese (and actually deliver on the promise) every few bites. It is quite an amazing sight. She clearly gets the look, feel and taste of cheese and there is no fooling her. If we tell her we are feeding her cheese but give her regular food then she gets terribly upset. She needs her cheese.

Out of nowhere Akshra has just started sleeping throughout the night. Our lives have suddenly become so much smoother in that aspect. I've started waking up early again around 5.00 am and enjoy my time alone. Akshra is much happier during the morning as she's had a full night's sleep and Puja is gaining back her sanity slowly. I guess wonders do happen -- we just need to be patient.

The lights went out the other day just as we were about to enter the elevator with Akshra in her stroller. We got lucky because we were as usual running a bit late throwing the garbage out and forgetting the customary key. We were very happy that we were not in the elevator. Although it seems that the generators came up almost immediately and the elevators reached the lobby safely still it would have been an unnecessary scary moment.

In what was probably the happiest few minutes of my life I saw Akshu eat a donut peach last evening. She was eating it as if it were the greatest thing on earth and it probably was as far as she is concerned. You don't want to spend time thinking about such a moment when it is happening but you want to keep a memory of it. Something living and alive that you can go back to. It was beautiful the way she held the peach in her small little hand, sometimes holding it with two hands and how she squeezed the juice with her toothless gums and then she would raise her eyes to the heavens as if thanking them for this amazing gift.

Akshra is 10 months old today and has already started her eleventh month. This has been a tough month for her and us. It is as if something just changed in her. As if this was the first real spurt of growth -- of humanization. She is far more demanding and clearly has a strong sense of choice. It was a month when she cried a lot more -- probably more than all previous months combined. It was also a month when she was more fun than ever before. She responds very clearly now and repeats almost every word we say and sometimes even sentences. She also seems prettier than ever before -- a face much more defined. She also grew almost 2 inches but didn't really gain any weight -- which makes her look much thinner than she used to. Also, she actually lost about a pound when she got that crazy fever for almost a week. She went to Florida and she went on her first picnic. A lot happened. A great month for her in terms of photography. I took some of my favorite photos of her during this month.

So, yesterday Puja stayed at home hoping to help Akshra through the day and also to catch some sleep as she didn't get a wink the night before.

Akshu's temperature rose again just before noon and Puja rushed her to the doctor's. Third visit in 5 days. the doctor looked at her and could not figure out what to do. She did a urine test as well but thankfully there was nothing in it. So Puja was back home with no real answer to why Akshu was sick. We went back to the antibiotic and Tylenol and Motrein.

Akshra then did what she hasn't done before. She slept. She slept for 3 and a half hours from 6pm. We were having dinner and didn't quite know what to do without her. Everything seemed quite and unreal. We then watched the remaining half of the movie (Last King of Scotland) that we started watching yesterday. No interruptions. It was strange. We missed her.

Akshra woke up early this morning, earlier even for her: at 5.00 am. I woke up around the same time and tip-toed out of the room even though I knew she had seen me.

When I was making tea I heard Puja yell my name and I immediately knew something was the matter. She came running with Akshu in her lap telling me that what had to go to the hospital. I saw Akshu's swollen top lip and I knew that her old blisters had flared up again and we had to rush to a doctor.

We got an appointment at 9.30 am and we were there in no time. It felt like such a deja vu. We were here just a couple of days ago!

A different doctor this time (Akshu has met almost all doctors at Riverside Pediatrics and they have about 12) but more or less the same procedure. Take the child's weight and height. Check the child's ears and throat and then give them some antibiotic if anything seems visibly wrong with the child. What hacks!