First weekend in India

We woke up at 8 today and all went swimming at 9. We met a really nice lady by the pool with a little boy a little bit older than DJ. She is from Australia but has been in Gurgaon for five months now so was able to answer a lot of my questions and give me advice about a few things for which I was really grateful.

We had arranged to have lunch with Penri's boss and his family and left home to meet them for 1 p.m. We had a really lovely lunch and Dylan was mostly well behaved. Penri's boss has a little girl who is a couple of months older than DJ so they had lots of fun running around chasing each other.

After lunch we did some shopping and took DJ to the kids play area in the mall. He LOVED it! After being without his ride on cars for a few weeks now, he loved being able to ride around in the Little Tikes red and yellow car (like he used to have in our garden in Luton). It's so funny because in the play area there are two red/yellow cars and two pink ones. When Dylan got in to the play area, there was a pink one empty, which he happily got into … until he saw the red one! Then he started crying because he wanted the red one. The ladies who work in the play area moved one of the children out of the red one so DJ could have it. He was completely spoilt as they spent the next 20 minutes pushing him around in the car!!! He had an absolute blast and was so tired by the time we got in the car and started to come home.

When we got back we went straight to the pool for a quick swim, then home for showers and changed for bed.

On Sunday I was woken up by Abi at 5 a.m and she didn't want to go back to sleep. Dylan and daddy slept till 9.30 which makes a change. Normally it's Dylan who wakes the entire household up! We went out to the mall at 3 and shopped till 6.30. This time it wasn't my decision to go shopping; it was Penri's. There were a few bits and pieces that he wanted to pick up. The mall was absolutely manic – there were SO many people and all the shops and lifts were cramped. I've never seen it like that before and it wasn't a great experience … I prefer it when there are less people and it's easier to manoeuvre our double buggy. Everywhere we go, Abi causes a stir and people are always asking if they can take her photo. The funny thing is that in India, the men are just as excited about babies as the women are, which is really strange. You don't get men in England cooing over babies like they do here; I mean, some men do but here it's pretty much every man and woman who we talk to!

Anyway, after the shops we came home and you can probably guess where we went … swimming! The pool on our compound is really nice although it's not deep at all. I can stand and walk all around the pool carrying Abi without my head going under the water which is good because it means I can take both children swimming by myself as I can follow DJ all around the pool without having to swim after him. After swimming, we had dinner and went to bed.

So, we have been in India for one week today and it has overall been a really positive experience. I think once all our stuff arrives from UK, it will be better as it will feel more like home and it will be better for Dylan to have all his toys and other things to occupy him.

Also, once we have a cleaner that will help a lot! At the moment, it takes me so long to sweep and mop all the floors in the apartment – they need doing at least once every day and it is very time consuming. That, in addition to keeping the house tidy and doing all the additional chores washing clothes, dishes etc takes up a lot of my time and I feel bad for neglecting time with the children to do it all. It's so much harder with Penri's new working hours because he needs to sleep in the morning to leave home late morning and doesn't return until late in the evening (normally between 9.30 and 10) which means I am looking after the children 24/7. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love it and feel so happy to have the opportunity to be at home with them (as some people don't get the chance to), but anyone who has kids will know that by the time it gets to evening, you are just so exhausted! And then if you don't get a good night's sleep, the next day is very difficult. Dylan has stopped napping in the day time now so by 5/6 p.m he is really tired and I just have to keep him occupied and happy until about 7 (otherwise he'd be waking up before 5 a.m). Overall though, we are getting settled and getting into a routine. If anything, it's Abigail who is waking me up through the night.

Anyway, it's all fine and the children seem very happy and are enjoying being in our new home and they both absolutely LOVE the swimming pool. Can you imagine going swimming outdoors at 7 p.m in UK? Or 7 a.m for that matter? I love the hot weather! :)