Just an update

The update for this month

1. S has started sleeping on her own! We got her a Car Bed (Shaped liked Lightning Mc Queen from Cars) and kept it in our bedroom itself, and she's taken very well to it. Sometimes she asks me whether any crocodiles will come, but usually she falls asleep pretty fast after being tucked in and is finally getting a good night's sleep without being kicked and poked by A. In the mornings she climbs onto our bed for huggy time before the morning routine starts.

2. I got my car. Yippee. I got a Blue Renault Clio and am highly thrilled with it. Its a manual car and its quite strange to have the gear on the right hand side, but its a small car and easy to drive and park. I'm still getting used to driving on the right hand side of the road and the other day on the way back from the park , I took a turn onto the main road and was about to drive on the left hand side when I saw some cars coming towards me and quickly shifted to the right. The left hand drive is also difficult to get used to, and I find myself leaving too much place on the left hand side of the car and too less on the right (sometimes end up scraping the kerb). Am highly scared of the trams here and the 10 000 road rules so I'm only driving the kids to school and back and slowly venturing to other closeby places like the park, the doctor's clinic etc. My main three handicaps are parallel parking (can;t do!), starting on an incline (big issue here as we live on a hill, I use the handbreak everytime I start on an incline otherwise the car starts sliding backwards) and being a big scaredy cat (and driving very slowly)- I've got many honks and frustrated looks from the people in the cars behind as most of the roads in the city are narrow and you can't overtake easily. Maybe I should get an L board and people will be more patient!

3. My parents are here and the girls are loving it. S was anyway very close to my parents and A is also now becoming very attached to them. In the mornings my mom gets S ready for school, S dresses herself but insists that her Ajji brush her hair and put two rubber bands and four clips for her! My dad comes with me to drop and pick S at/ from school and listens intently to what she did that day at school. Then S afternoon nap time has been replaced with activity time with her Ajji and bedtime has my mom reading her favourite books to her. A plays with her Ajji while I drop S at school (after they leave she will have to come with me to drop and pick up S) and is totally thrilled with the small things my mom has - a clip box for S, alarm clock, powder box etc . Today after I got A back from the daycare, my mom opened the door and A ran into her arms. Sometimes I really wish we were back in India so the kids could spend more time with their grandparents. They will never get such unconditional love and affection here.

4. A's break in period at the daycare ended today. It spanned a week. The first day I sat with A inside the whole time . The teacher sat with us and tried to engage A in some play activity. The second I sat with her for half an hour, then said bye to her, waited outside for 45 minute and came back. The third day I sat with her for twenty minutes, then said bye to her, walked around outside for 1 hour and came back. The fourth day i just dropped her off and said bye at the door and picked her up after 1 1/2 hours. And today, I just dropped her off and picked her up after 2 hours. Touchwood, its steadily improving. She still howls when I leave, but I believe from the teachers that she settles down pretty soon. Today I left my key behind when I dropped her off and had to go back inside after 2 mins, and while she was howling when I left, 2 mins later she was silent. And asleep when I went to pick her up after 2 hours! Dear A, I hope you are happy and safe in the daycare and have fun playing with other children and teachers there. Also I hope your behaviour doesn't change as soon as I blog about how you are improving!

5. And finally the weather has been burning hot here. 31 degreees everday and it feels much hotter as the sun rays are more direct here and the places are not equipped for such hot weather, most of them don;t have AC/fan. I'm actually looking forward to the autumn setting in!