Eventful July so far ..

Cantaloupe turned 4 yrs this month. The day she was born is still fresh in my mind. My water broke thursday night and we rushed to the hospital at 3:00am. I saw BP tensed for the first time in my life that night. I was cool as I could be possibly be in such situations ... mom, sister were tensed. BIL tried to keep them cool with some jokes. I was wheeled to the OT around 9:20am friday morning. I knew I was going to have C-section since she was breech. Cantaloupe was born 9:42am. For the time, BP and I became parents. And I cannot believe she is already 4 years...

Parenting has been such a learning experience for us ... thanks to Cantaloupe. I have learnt to get back to sleep within minutes to attending her in the middle of night (initially it was for nursing / diaper changes, then it was to give her bottle / blanket, soon it was for soothing her as she woke from a bad dream, then sometimes it was for bathroom visits) . I have also learnt to eat less spicy food (some credit to BP as well). I am not very fussy about eating cold meals any more and I have started practising music so she starts to appreciate Classical music. Mom recently gifted her a Shruti Pettige which has really motivated me to practise classical music for an hour everyday. I have not forced Cantaloupe to sing with me ... but she sometimes sits besides me and tries to sing "Sarale Varase" and sometimes puts the "Taala" as I sing. I have noticed that she has a special liking to "Vara Veena" in Raaga "Mohana".

This year we did not have a huge party for Cantaloupe's birthday. It was a simple kid's party. We had invited about 6 kids in the neighborhood. Cantaloupe had been waiting for her birthday for atleast a month now. She wore her new Khaki Skirt / Pink tank top and looked really cute. Her friends arrived soon and the roofs started flying. We had ordered a Mango Moose for her. It is the best Moose I have tasted to date. Cantaloupe and I had prepared Fruit Bingo Cards the previous day. All the kids loved playing it. They all played by themselves for about an hour in Cantaloupes' room, snacking on items arranged for them on the table. The parents were there to pick up the kids around 8:00pm. Cantaloupe was very pleased with the way her birthday was celebrated.

We bought her a pair of skates and a tennis racquet for her birthday. She absolutely loves her skates. She has been religiously practising skating for the past week or so with BP. Last evening I saw her skate by herself a short distance. Way to go little girl !!! She also seem to have developed some liking towards tennis. It could be because she saw one of her friends' play tennis the other day. Her friends' brother takes tennis lessons and the said friend was playing with her brother. Cantaloupe wants to learn tennis to play with her friend and her brother. Got to wait and watch if she sustains the same interest.

Cantaloupe can now swim for a couple of minutes without any wings. To put it in BP's words ..."She will not drown for a few minutes when in water".

She has gelled so well with my mom...sometimes, they forget my exsistance in house when they are busy with their activities. My mom has narrated over 100 stories to Cantaloupe since arrival here. Mom and grand daughter have a strict routine of atleast 2 bedtime stories and lullaby everynight.
Before going to bed Cantaloupe and I lie down on our bed and discuss the day's events. I let her speak for most part of the time. We first discuss the positive points of the day and then move on to negative points. Its a very special time we both enjoy. I hope we can use this time to discuss many more important aspects as she grows.

Cantaloupe can now write alphabets both capital and small letters, count upto 100, and spell numbers upto 10. Her phonics skills is pretty good and she can read most (of course uncomplicated) 3/4 letter words.

She loves her sister and every morning both girls lie on our bed for sometime. Its a precious sight I love to see :)

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Junior is now 2 months old. She has gained weight reasonably and has grown tall by an inch and half in the past month. She can now recognise family members and always smiles when she sights us.
She can also read our moods.... when we try to make a sad face and talk to her,she starts twisting her lips and cries.... but when we just talk or smile at her, she makes our day with our toothless smile. She can push herself backwards when she wiggles her feet in excitement.
She always has her fingers in her mouth and lately that has caused her to throw up quite a lot. I have tried socks/mittens ,wrapping her blanket around her.... but nothing has helped :(
She got 4 shots last weekend and was down for 2 days... now she is back to her normal cheerful self.
Both girls are growing so fast .... I am just enjoying my time off from work with them. I know I will start work soon, so I am just trying to soak every moment with them.