Tis the season

For holiday parties! Sarina has been enjoying eating and being merry at many holiday and birthday parties this month!! Mommy is still gaining weight faster though....

Smita

Sarina on a train ride

Sarina is in her fascinated by trains phase. Were taking a caltrain ride to check out big choo choo

Sick day

Sarina was feverish this morning so spending day with mommy. After a nice nap we hit the Japanese garden. Here she is saying hi fishes!

Hawaii (preview)

We just returned from a wonderful trip to Hawaii over the thanksgiving Holiday. We have lots of photos to sort through and lots of stories to tell. In the meantime, here are a couple photos as a preview... these are of Sarina in her almost daily routine of heading out to the beach (swimmy diapers, swimsuit, sunscreen, hat beach shoes and toys.) Clearly she has everything she needs for loads of beach fun.

Lake Tahoe

A couple weeks back we went on a little weekend getaway trip to Lake Tahoe. It was a beautiful fall weekend - lots of colors, cool, clean air and many pinecones to be collected. We explored and played around the lake, collected pinecones, went out to eat and enjoyed relaxing in the house we stayed at. We also had our friends Dan, Priscilla and Helen come along... Here are some pictures from the weekend

More Pics from the Winery

Our California girl loves the outdoors and holding a wine glass. It's of course full of water right now, not "daddy juice", but looks quite sophisticated wandering around the winery with it. Here are some photos from our brief weekend excursion to Obester winery, playing bocce ball, admiring the gardens and picking some apples. We are all excited that one of our favourite weekend destinations is only 15 minutes from our new home!

Obester winery

Sarina is enjoying "wine" tasting and bocce ball on a beautiful Saturday morning.

Housewarming / Birthday

A few weeks ago we had a housewarming party combines with Sumeet's birthday. It was a perfect, sunny October bay area day. We did a lot of grilling and enjoyed some home brews courtesy of our friend, Jon. We had a yummy birthday pumpkin pie as well...

Here's some pictures:

Halloween!

We had a wonderful Halloween weekend filled with pumpkin carving, trick or treating and welcoming trick or treaters to our house. We carved up some pumpkins; mostly mommy and daddy did the carving while Sarina supervised (munching on cereal the entire time.)

The next day, Sarina got dressed up as Elmo and hit up the neighborhood. She loved seeing the pumpkins and decorations everywhere and had fun picking out candy (though, she doesn't really know what it is yet.) She did recognize lollipop's and went for those whenever available....

Fun, fun... her's some pictures of our weekend Halloween adventures.

Sarina in daddy swing

Here's an action shot of sarina in daddys swing in our yard tonight! Sorry for the blur!

itsy bitsy duet with daddy

Sarina's favourite song when she was a baby was itsy bitsy spider. It's back! Now she's singing it. Of course she is a bit camera shy these days, so it's hard to capture the whole song on video. I managed to trick her by using my phone this time but she wised up by the end.

Three pumpkins!

Sarina's daycare has a cool pumpkin patch set up this week for the season... sarina loves seeing the pumpkins and can only really count to 3 (though she has 8, 9, 10 if you ask her for more but nothing inbetween) ... so when she sees a lot of something, it's usually 3 - e.g., THREE PUMPKINS!!

Gooooooal!!!

More pictures to come from our trip to Tahoe with the McCloskey's this weekend, but here's one of Sarina playing foosball with Helen. It's really not clear who won, (unless "winning" means grabbing balls off the table while in play in which case Sarina did)

Eating and Singing

Sarina is taking a little break from eating beans to sing happy birthday! Should be noted that Mommy taught Sarina to sing the song and she has been singing it all the time... but whenever the camera came out she would stop. Eating the beans distracted her enough to sing a bit on camera...

SOCKS!!

Sarina LOVES socks. She loves wearing them (sometimes four at a time - socks on her hands too), she loves picking out socks to wear and she loves sorting/arranging socks. An easy way to get her angry is to try taking her socks off without her permission (just ask the doctor.) This morning when I got out of bed, the first thing she said was "danny, no socks" like it was unthinkable that I wouldn't be wearing socks.

In this video, Sarina is making a little pile of all the socks from the laundry. All the while, she's singing the ABC song...
The rest of the laundry gets tossed aside in search of socks...

No time for talking... eating Dhokla

This weekend, Mommy made Dhokla for Sarina to eat. Sarina is normally fairly chatty when eating, but not this time. She loved the Dhokla (and was probably quite hungry) and had no time or interest in conversation. Just dipping Dhokla in chutney and eating... then repeating Dhokla after Dhokla

Dancing machine

Sarina recently got a fun play kitchen. She's clearly going to be a renaissance woman as she doesn't do any play cooking, but rather the parts of the kitchen she enjoys are the radio and telephone. Here she playing the radio on her kitchen and having fun dancing away.

Bi-see-cul?

Sarina got a new helmet to ride her tricycle! Now if only her feet reached the pedals...

Farm visit

Last weekend, we took Sarina to a farm in Half moon bay. She got to play in the petting zoo with rabbits, baby goats, ducks, chickens, etc. She loves all these animals... from a distance. When up close, they are all a little scary. We also attempted a pony ride (but quickly aborted when Sarina wanted no part of it.) She did love the train rides and in particular the hay ride. We all called it a "hay choo choo" and she still talks about "hay choo choo" almost daily.

On the way, we also stopped for breakfast - of course Sarina loved her big girl glass and munching on a bagel.

Hummus and Rice for lunch

Here's a little video clip of Sarina having some lunch. One of her favorites, hummus. She never forgets to also share lunch with Jalapeno, her monkey (she calls him aah-aah - as in the sounds a monkey makes.) She's also quite good now at dipping crackers and scooping out the hummus...

Q, R, S... yah, yah... V

Here's a little video of Sarina singing a part of the alphabet. The parts she forgets often gets replaced with "yah, yah" as seen here.... She sometimes even sings the alphabet song replacing every letter with the word "no." Another version for another day...

Daddy and Sarina tofu game

Here's a little (ok, a little long) video of Sarina and Daddy playing the tofu eating game. The game involves daddy trying to take Sarina's tofu... usually out of her mouth. That leads Sarina to hurry up and eat her tofu before daddy gets it.

If you listen carefully you can here her say, "no daddy, its mine"

fun, fun, fun!

Watching choo-choo's

One of sarina's favorite things these days is watching trains, or choo-choo's as we call them.

They are a little big and scary though so she prefers watching from the safety of the car.

Here she is watching a choo choo go by at the train station.

More Buffalo pictures

Here are more pictures from our trip to Buffalo. We did lots of outside playing and Sarina had a lot of fun with her Dadhi and Dadhu. We also took a trip to Niagara Falls and her Aji and Azoba came to visit. Fun filled week!

Beans and Chips (take 2)

Sarina was sporting two very cute ponytails when she came from school today. Here she is at dinner tonight - all smiles!

Dadhi and Dadhu

We just returned from a trip to Buffalo to visit Dadhi and Dadhu (Sumeet's parents.) We all had fun and got to spend a lot of time at home. This time, Sarina was all about her grandfather - every morning she would wake up and say "Dadhu, Dadhu..." More pictures to come, for now, here's one of my favorites...

Frequent flyer

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Look who's on an airplane!

Alka Auntie comes to visit

Sarina has a really nice time showing Auntie Alka around her new house! Here she is happy as a clam with Alka.

peek-a-boo

Here's a photo of Sarina playing at her favorite playground.

Coloring at my new table!

Aji and Azoba gave Sarina a fun new activity table and chairs. Here she
is coloring (one of her favorite activities) on her new table. (The
flower was drawn with a little help...)

off the grid... but getting back

Our apologies - we haven't been blogging in a couple weeks. About two
weeks ago, we moved into our new house and that process has been all
consuming. Also, in part of that process it took us some time to get
our computer, internet, etc. all set up again.

In any case, we're starting to feel more settled and even Sarina is now
getting accustomed to her new home (and her new room!). We'll have more
pictures to come, especially with Aji and Azoba (Smita's parents;
Sarina's grangparents) over the coming week.

For now, here's a photo of Sarina on her swing freshly installed on a
great big tree (complete with tree fort) in our front yard.

Our Green Machine

One of Sarina's favourite meals is Palak Tofu. I serve it up a couple times a week since she loves it and it's so healthy. Sarina is getting better at feeding herself with a spoon - although you wouldn't know from this video below! As you can see, she prefers not to have help... as long as food gets in her mouth, I am ok with it even when she turns into a green monster.

Stern Grove (a year later)

Sarina went to Stern Grove last year for the first time. She's already old enough that she is getting into the annual traditions now. She's now a regular at the grove - another favourite Sunday afternoon treat. This particular Sunday was Hawaiian music, which we enjoyed with Andy and Courtney and a huge crowd on a beautiful day.

Of course none of this mattered to Sarina as long as she had a) Daddy b) doo-doo and c) a monkey

Daddy's favourite Meal!

Sumeet and I used to have a brunch club... our membership is down to us and one toddler now, but she seems to enjoy brunch as much as daddy. Here she is on the weekend enjoying a leisurely sunday meal...

July 4th in Sonoma

We went up to Sonoma for July 4th. It was a beautiful day and we got to enjoy some sun and outdoor time. Sarina of course loved running around, seeing the flowers and animals and spending a long weekend with mommy and daddy. On this trip, Sarina also enjoyed drinking water out of a fancy wine glass!

Lowes and Slurpees

We are starting to prep for our move. Sarina's been quite patient (all things considered) with us, wandering around carpet stores, hardware stores, etc etc. Yesterday, after moving boxes around and shopping at Lowe's, we thought Sarina deserved a treat. We always feel bad that she can't have ice cream ... so we got her an icy cold, very red Slurpee... she loved the sugar rush and was covered in sticky red liquid for the rest of the day.

Croquet anyone?

We went to a fun bbq to welcome in summer a couple weeks ago and Sarina tried her hand at Croquet. .here she is on a Sunday afternoon playing!

Sarina's 18 month photo shoot!

A few weeks ago we did another photo shoot with one of our favorite photographers, the talented Vero Suh. She same over and spent an hour with us taking pictures as we went out to the park for the afternoon. It is so fun for us to see her photos and slideshow come together. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do! (click the play button below when it appears...) If for reason you don't see it correctly below, you can also see the slideshow here: http://www.verosuh.com/gallery/sarinajain10/

Cereal... by herself

Sarina is ALL about feeding herself these days. She wants to feed herself and is getting better with utensils. She also really likes cereal for breakfast (Especially when daddy is having cereal too.) Here she is feeding herself cereal....

Fun concert day

Last weekend the three of us went to a concert at AT&T park (the baseball park where the Giants play.) At the concert we got to see Natasha Bedingfield, the Fray and Counting Crows. More importantly we got to enjoy the great weather, listen to fun music, dance and see some friends. It was a super fun day... here's some pictures. Some video clips to come too.

Welcome to the Foxes!

Today is Sarina's first day at daycare. Mommy stayed with her for two hours this morning and Sarina had so much fun... it was sad for Sarina and Mommy to say good bye but I am told she's doing ok without me and having a ball in the outside area. "outsiiiiii " is sarina's favourite place to be - good thing we live in California!

It's not clear if Mommy or Sarina (or Daddy!) will have a harder time with the transition (I think Mommy is probably the saddest today). But we all agree she is going to love it in no time and will love having so many toys and kids to play with...

Here's her welcome sign from this morning:

Hide and seek / peek-a-boo

Here's a little video of us playing the "Daddy hides around the corner and sneaks around and surprised me game." I put the camera on the side table so you can see her expression waiting and then the surprise. Fun!

What's in the mailbox?

Is that daddy's hand and finger in the mailbox? This sounds like the recipe for something very funny...

Sarina having fun in the back seat

Here's a little video clip of Sarina having fun in the back seat...

New car...

We bought a new car (now that we are moving to the 'burbs, we had to become a 2 car family) and bought a very logical car for a growing family - a convertible! It at least has a very usable rear seat. We also bought and installed a throne (i.e. car seat) for Sarina this weekend and have been enjoying the fabulous summer weather in the new car. Here's some pictures with the car and some pictures of Sarina on her throne sporting mommy's sunglasses.

Fast asleep

Sleeping in her new car seat in the new car. Looks like the car seat works...

In a box

Sarina got a new car seat. But more importantly, she got a nice big new box to play in!

I'm at the beach!

Big scream and big laugh while playing in the sand on the beach.

Mommy's day off

Sarina and mommy had a really fun day together. In the morning, we met up with Auntie Cynthia and K-bao for a fun morning of playground activities. In the afternoon Mommy took Sarina to the Bay Area Discovery Museum - one of her favourite places to explore. Attached are some pictures from our trip.

We had so much fun together. My favourite moment of the day was however, when my little tofu eater tried to stuff all of the tofu I gave her for dinner into her mouth / cheeks and then tried to say "more" in her very sweet voice, but could barely talk. I couldn't stop laughing!

Sarina at the Discovery museum

Mommy took Sarina out to the discovery museum today. Splish-splash..
and she found a fish!

Buried in blocks!

A little photo of Sarina buried in the box of duplo's this morning...

Fun with a new block sorter

We came home today and discovered that Sarina has received a present in the mail from Uncle Mitul and Aunt Tanvi. They sent her a fun block sorter and she was of course excited to open up a package from the mail.

We got it open and Sarina started playing and soon figured our what to do... Here's a little video of her playing with it. You can see the joy on her face every time she gets a block to fit in the right hole. She also says some of her favorite words and you can hear them in this video: "More," "No," and "Mommy"

Thanks Uncle Mitul and Aunt Tanvi!

Feeding mommy

Here's a little video clip of Sarina turning the tables and feeding Mommy some Cantaloupe. Of course, Sarina generally gets fed by Mommy but she has always enjoyed returning the favor. She's now getting better at using a fork and spoon on her own and tries to feed herself (and others) with her utensils. You can also hear her saying "more." This was one of the early baby sign language words she learned but is now speaking the word more instead of signing it.

Another Discovery Museum Trip

We became members of the bay area discovery museum since Sarina enjoyed it so much last time we were there. We went back again and Sarina had a great time in the toddler rooms and the outdoor play areas. Here are some pictures playing...

Oh Canada!

Sarina Sumeet and I went to Vancouver a couple weeks ago. Despite the typical (usually raining)weather, we had a super time. Mommy got to visit some of her favourite restaurants, and we loved the views from our hotel room. I also thought it was funny that the attractions I never found interesting when I lived there were seen in a whole new light by Sarina (especially if they involved ducks, dogs or other animals...) Here are some photos from our trip:

Sleeping Beauty (and monkey)

Planes Trains and Strollers

We went to Vancouver last weekend but have not had a chance yet to upload all of our pictures! Here is a preview of our little traveler from pictures I took on my phone... she's getting to be a good little traveler...

Dancing Queen

Tatiana took some great videos of our dancing queen last week. She still loves to bust a move when no one is looking and is a world class clapper. She even claps to "music" when she hears cellphones ring! Here's our cutie dancing away to some music by herself and with the boys (Owen, and Steven, who is our nanny's grandson) Note: Incase you can't read Sarina's shirt, it says "Mommy Rules" :)

Wedding in New Jersey

We went to Harin and Neelam's wedding in New Jersey this weekend. Harin is one of my friends from growing up in Buffalo. We all had a great time and Sarina was a trooper flying all the way to the east coast and back for a weekend. It was of course great to hang out with the "buffalo boyz" and spend time with everyone's growing families. Sarina also got to see her Dada and Dadhi (grandparents) who came up from Buffalo. Here's some pictures from the wedding...

Feeling better, enjoying the sun!

Sarina has been battling sickness for over 3 weeks - and FINALLY felt better on Sunday. She was all smiles and really excited about everything. It also happened to be a very beautiful day in San Francisco. Sunny and warm. So sunny, she needed to put on mommy's sunglasses.

Playing in her Tunnel

Here's a short video clip of Sarina playing in the tunnel that her cousins, Akash and Neha got her for her birthday. She's learned many animal names now and has fun crawling through and pointing out the animals (often by making their respective animal sounds...)

Tricycle riding

Here's a short video clip of Sarina riding (or, um, being pushed) on a tricycle by her favorite tricycle engine... Ravi Mama...

Some pictured from Benjamin's birthday

Last weekend we went to Benjamin's (Sarina's cousin) birthday party. Here's a couple photos from the party. Sarina had a ton of fun riding around on Benjamin's tricycle and playing with Ravi Mama...

Sarina in the park

Sarina loves being outdoors and now loves walking / running by herself. This is a picture of her walking around freely in San Mateo Park cute as a button and color coordinated. Pointing at Daaaaaags (oof oof), clapping her hands and bopping to music and generally walking and running in the grass and pavement.

A couple photos playing with the iPhone

As I was taking some photos of Sarina playing games on the iPhone, she gave us some good smiles.. Here they are ...