Ramblings Only

- she has settled down into routine much quicker than I have. She loves her school and her friends. It is amazing how they get accustomed so quickly. 

- her eating issues are better. An empty lunch box still makes for a good day for me. Even for her teacher I guess. She gets a lollipop for finishing her lunch, which she gets to eat after my approval. 

- her screaming has reduced too. In Germany I had to struggle to keep her quiet. Now she is much much better.

- her hitting has reduced. May be she was missing company of kids her age. There were moments when I couldn't spend 15mins without an episode where she hits me or pulls my hair. Not anymore. Also when she eats well she is in a better mood and hence wouldn't get upset. It is all a big vicious circle.

- I thought she might have forgotten reading, with no regular practice, but she has picked up where she left off quite fast. And this weekend this reminded meal much of myself, I had to capture it. Just how many summers have I spent buried in books!

- she has resumed gymnastics, and swimming, again better integration than I feared. 

- she has lost that sweet tooth phase where anything and everything that went into her mouth had to be sweet, thank god! Paruppu saadham and thayir saadham in lunch box are emptied, which makes me happy. I give her Mac and cheese one day, and paratha one day, so there is some variety, even though her teacher keeps asking me to give some other food like sandwich so she would eat. 

- I thought she cannot get any cuter but she surpasses herself every year, atleast in my eyes. She talks as if she is an adult. Her English is still oor English, and she still has to understand more English words. She is more fluent in Tamil than English, which I like, but I don't want her to feel left out in school.

- character wise, I feel she is a lot like me, very perceptive of her surroundings and people around her. She has lot of feelings. She wants to be hugged and cuddled a lot, physical display of affection means a lot to Taureans, I can see it. 

She is losing her shyness slowly, today she went to the neighbor aunty's home on her own, after weeks of hi byes.

- she seems like a normal kid mostly. I think sensitive kids, fall in a different spectrum, not sure how she will turn out. For now she only enjoys talking and arguing, so we think she will make a good lawyer. ;--p she enjoys music. Her girly interests are waning. Yesterday she said she wanted animal undies not the princess ones. Ok!!

- ok I accept this. She gets along better with DH than myself. JSK and I, well, fight a lot. She knows that too and makes fun of it. Well if disciplining her is fighting so be it. She is the little 'helper' in the house. She likes to be appreciated just like any other 4 year old I guess. She gives me tablets, one a day, iron etc. she helps with cooking, cleaning etc. 

- small things that were tough a few months ago are easier, touch wood!, brushing , bathing, sleeping, coming from school, getting in car etc. makes life so much easier. She is generally a tough kid I think. Power struggles. She cannot accept that fact that we are her parents and we know more than her. She apes the way we talk to her be it patronizing or stern. She sincerely wants to contribute to anything DH and I talk about. She loves reading maps. She enjoys giving directions to us. 

Mia -

- got my carpool sticker and after more than a week of driving to and for with it in the carpool lane, I have to agree it is less stressful and saves atleast 30mins a day. So totally worth it. I get on the freeway, move to the carpool lane, enable TACC and zone out. Mostly it works well. I am listening to audio books nowadays. It is amazing how much time I have when I don't spend too much time in chit chat on social media. Big win for me. 

- I turned on smart preconditioning so Mia gets the temperature just right when it expects me to drive back home. Especially in this weather, it is nice to get into a car that is not a burning 98F. 

- 7K miles and counting. It is good to know all the driving is essentially free of cost. Though some may argue I have already paid for the gas. 

- May be I will jot down some things is like in my everyday driving. 

   - I like how it automatically detects my phone when I enter the car and automatically transfers calls to speakers and vice versa when I get out.

   - the volume lowers automatically when I open the door, how thoughtful!

   - my calendar pop up every morning with my schedule for the day, love it

   - the volume goes up to 11. A geeky thing to do. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_to_eleven

   - tacc is pretty smooth. I keep playing with it everyday. Sometimes I get scared and step on the brakes. Sometimes it gives me a collision warning when it is on autopilot. dude!

   - blind spot detects are super. Now I don't have to look back for anything. 

- DH drives Mia only on weekends and believe it or not he is still scared and needs to get used to it. The other day he asked me get down and see of he has parked correctly. Only Tesla owner to do that I say, maanam kappalla going. With all the parking sensors giving you info in inches on all sides, why do you need to look!

I like adding pictures. so here is a quick wishlist I snapped from forums today. Funny?!

Super stressed at work. Ciao!