Apple juice and Appams

As delighted as I am to be here, there are things that I worry about. Here are a few of my worries (in no particular order):

* That Lily refuses to wear her hat. It was 35 degrees today just to give you an idea.
* That Maya has developed a prickly heat rash on her legs.
* That Lily's nappies are often dry, despite trying to get her to drink as much as possible.
* That Maya hates having suncream applied.
* That the girls' diet since arriving has been...well...inadequate.

Speaking of food, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the above photo was taken in a posh restaurant in London. Nope, this is Bangalore (or Bengaluru if I'm being truly PC), a city of both fine dining and roadside street stalls. Andy treated us all today to a delicious meal at 'South Indies' as it was Karnatakan new year (curiously, each Indian state has its own new year). Here you can see Maya tucking into an appam, a lovely thick, bubbly pancake perfect for mopping up curries. But here's the problem...Maya isn't eating any curries. Since arriving, she has eaten an inordinate amount of chapatis, rotis, appams and the like but as far as a balanced diet goes, it's not happening.

Thankfully, and predictably, there is a plethora of delicious fruit which Maya has been tucking into so it's not all bad. But for a little girl who usually eats alot of vegetables, cheese, cereals etc, her options have changed drastically. It doesn't help that at the moment we only have a single flame gas cooker, but when we move into our apartment (next week) and rent a fridge, I'm hoping things will get easier.

As far as drinks go, Maya is enjoying the apple juice we bought in a carton at a supermarket she found. Similarly to chai, imagine a large cup full of sugar being emptied in to a carton of English apple juice and you're probably a quarter of the way to imagining how sweet it is - urgggggh. There's only so much water she's happy to drink so I need to just get over the sugar issue and encourage her to drink - whatever it is!

Maya's had a very up and down day today, but the good news is that we've found a little appartment (sadly we'll be saying g'bye to our present luxury!) and I'm keen for us to all move in, get our bearings and help Maya to feel more settled. Who knows, by the end of our six months, maybe she'll even try a little curry.