8 month photos with Ami Bruce

About a month back we had some photos taken with a photographer at our place in San Francisco. She is the same talented photographer who took Smita's maternity photos. She captured some great portraits of Sarina just as she started to crawl and stand....

Sarina and her Friends

Sarina has had lots of time to play with new people over the last couple weeks. She took a trip to Obester winery with Helen (Priscilla and Dan came along to drive her down and make sure she didn't taste too much wine); a short play date with Colin (that she slept through!); Jenn and Ashish's baby shower (she was disappointed that baby V wasn't ready to come out yet)... You'll also see photos of playdates with baby Naveen and baby Isha.

I can tell she is going to be a social butterfly already...

Crawling machine

Sarina's two favorite activities these days are 1) Crawling and 2) Climbing onto anything that gets her to a standing position. Here she is doing her hallway crawl early this morning... of course she crawled over to munch on her favorite toy - My blackberry!

The incompetent juggler "act"

Sanjay Mama made a surprise visit this week and stayed for several fun filled days. The other day, he tried his incompetent juggler act with sarina's big blocks and it illicited many many loud giggles, cackles and screeches. For the record, he can actually juggle quite well but doing it right never seems to be as funny as blocks tumbling and people stumbling.

Wine country trip

Sarina, Smita and I took a trip up to Bodega Bay and then to Russian River over the labor day weekend. We stopped into Bodega bay for breakfast - its a cute little coastal town about an hour and a half north of San Francisco. It was a bit chilly so we moved on to Western Sonoma and visited some of the areas we haven't to date spent a lot of time exploring. We visited some of the wineries in Forestville and Guerneville. Both areas were great, very mellow and low key with some fabulous wineries.. one of which is now on our favorite list.

Playing with her wooden Dowel

As we've all learned, often the simplest toys are the most fun. One of Sarina's favorites is a wooden dowel. She loves munching on it, banging on things with it and tossing it around. Now that she is crawling, her new game is drop the dowel on the ground and crawl after it.... then repeat until she finds something else more interesting. In this case she got distracted by the camera strap... Fun Fun Fun.

Helping with the laundry

Little Sarina found a way to be a special helper with the laundry. Looks fun!

I LOVE pears

One of my partners at work has pear trees and brought in some amazing (and very ripe) pears to share. I brought a couple home to share with Sarina as pears remain one of her favorite foods. She helped Daddy eat a raw pear and in the video below patiently watches and waits for her bite completely fixated on the pear at all times.

Mommy's day off!

I had the day off today, so I kept Sarina at home and we had a fun day together! After waking up at 5:30 (no need for an alarm clock these days) we both had a couple hours to play and spend a little early morning time with Daddy. (Sarina loves watching him brush his teeth)

Next, Auntie Cynthia and baby Kayla came over to play. Sarina had been looking forward all week to seeing Kayla! Kayla was happy and playful as always, and Sarina wanted to do everything she was doing. (even eating peas until she realized they were peas...) Later in the day, Sarina and I went out for a great walk around the neighbourhood, and to the playground, where Sarina played happily on the swings. (until she was mobbed by schoolgirls pawing her saying "she's sooooooo cute" at which point we fled fearing for the germs that they were bestowing on her) After that, we went home, splashed in the bathtub and waited for Daddy to arrive home early, so we could go to happy hour. Sarina had a nice nap during the beginning of happy hour and Daddy and I enjoyed a nice beer...when she awoke, she sat happily in her highchair, talking away and eating her dinner.

All in all a perfect day for mommy and sweetie.

Getting her toys

Why have one toy, when you can play with all of them... Here's a little video clip of Sarina crawling over to her toy basket, and tipping it over to play with all her toys. Sarina then gets some kisses from her little kissy bear (where she now anticipates kisses.) Cute little video with lots of her new skills.

Watching the pigeons

More standing - this time caught on video! An entertaining little video of Sarina standing staring out the window, talking (dadadada) and daddy making motorboat sounds trying to get her attention. Enjoy!

Inflatable bowling balls, baby chicks and great food

You may wonder what these all have in common... they were all present at the birthday picnic Sheewon did for Andy. Sadly we did not get the birthday boy in any photos. Sarina bundled up for a cold day in GG Park and had a great time.

Standing now

Look who is a stander now. Sarina discovered that she can stand using her arms up against the window or the couch to keep her steady. The window is still one of her favorite places to hang out.. she used to love being held in front of it, then sitting in front of it and now standing in front of it.