Sarina celebrated her second (month) birthday today! In honor of her birthday, she got a fresh new diaper, a bath, a special meal, lots of extra love. . . and a ladoo, specially made by her Dadi, with a candle in it. She paused thoughtfully before blowing out her candle to wonder: "What's a girl who has everything she wants wish for?"
We also weighed her at home today and she's getting close to 10 lbs! Here are a few pictures of our 10 pounder's 2nd birthday celebration. She was lucky enough to have Dadi and Dadu celebrate with her.
Unfortunately, Sarina's birthday was competing with Obama's presidential address, and her attention started wandering near the end toward the TV...
I've been trying to hang out with lots of other new mommies to share stories and stay sane and busy during the day. My Thursday activity is "Noestrolls" - a 2 mile (grueling!) walk with the stroller up the hills in mission dolores / castro / noe valley. All this hard work is rewarded with lunch at Savor with the other mommies. We usually double the route by walking over to Noe first, up two huge hills, and Sarina usually laughs at mommy huffing and puffing up the hills. Here's a picture of some of the lunch crew. Sarina's friends Helen and Aliya are seen in this one too!
Sarina has grown a lot since she was born. She's getting close to 10 pounds and will soon double her birth weight. She is looking like a "big girl," and is changing every day. Yet, she is still just a little baby. Here is her foot... about the size of my thumb!
Here's a video of Sarina getting one of her many loving massages from her mommy. Smita gives Sarina a nice baby oil massage (using Burt's bees apricot oil) a few times a week and Sarina loves them... What's not to love?
Since we had a nice long weekend for President's day, we had lots of fun activities. Sarina had some visitors, we re-engaged our Sunday brunch club, and we went out ourselves with Sarina a few times. We also visited one of Sarina's friends, Kayla (one of her only friends younger than her... for now!)
As Sarina has become much more aware of things around her, she now likes watching her mobile go around and around. Here she is happily watching the horse, donkey, and elephant circle above. We think she likes the pink horse best... (I hope that doesn't mean she is going to turn into a girl wanting a pony)
Sarina, Smita and I all put on matching red sweaters in the spirit on Valentine's Day and headed down to Half Moon Bay (where we got engaged 6 years ago almost to the day.) The weather was a bit on and off (rain mixed with sunshine) but we still had a great outing. We stopped at Obester winery for their Valentine's Day chocolate tasting and then headed to the beach. We wrapped up with a drive back to San Francisco along the coast.
Sarina has been playing the cat and mouse game of her neck getting stronger and while her head gets bigger. She was lifting her head and doing the cobra, but her head (and cheeks!) have grown bigger and she now has to build more neck muscle. Here she is playing on her belly...
It's been a while since we've just put up some Sarina portrait type photos. She's changed so much that we thought we would just put up a few photos of Sarina at 6 to 7 weeks old.
We've generally been dressing Sarina in onesies and sleepers. This weekend we (meaning, Smita :) tried on some cute new outfits. Here's a few pictures of Sarina wearing stylish jeans for the first time as well of some photos in her cute little bear sleeper.
We have recently began to introduce Sarina to our favorite meal... brunch! It is near and dear to our heart - so much so that we have a brunch club! We took Sarina to Boogaloos for some fabulous traditional brunch.
We also ventured to Berkeley to the Thai Buddhist Temple for their Sunday Thai brunch, where thai brunch is prepared and served by Buddhist monks as part of their "community service". There is recent controversy with neighbors complaining about their brunches and with the threat of their Thai brunches closing down, we thought we would make sure Sarina experienced it in the event this was shut down in the future. We're glad we did - it was like a little trip to thailand!
With that, Sarina has already made her first political statement (Berkeley style!!).
Last week, I took Sarina to a mommy and me yoga class, hoping she would take after her grandmother in her love for yoga and wellbeing. Sarina did enjoy relaxing (read: sleeping) through most of the class, doing a few poses with mommy, and deciding she would be vocal when it was time for mommy's relaxation. None the less, mommy got a great workout, and met some other moms - and Sarina had yet another fun outing! There's still time to turn her into a Yogini (I just like that word)...
We've been taking Sarina on many of our favorite bay area adventures over the last week. Last weekend we went to Berkeley where we got some pizza, walked around telegraph avenue visited Pyramid brewery. Then, mid-week, the three of us also went wine tasking in Sonoma where Sarina got to enjoy the pretty scenery inside and outside the wineries. We also took Sarina on her first hike; we hiked the very mild Tennessee Valley trail to Tennessee Valley beach. Some photos are below...
Little Sarina turned 6 weeks old yesterday. We weighed her at home and discovered she is now a whopping 8 lbs 10 ounces! That's more than 3 pounds gained since she was born! Her cheeks continue to add some cute mass that we smother with even more kisses..
We've noticed that we can tell a lot about how Sarina is feeling through her eyes. Her eyes give us a clue about how she is feeling and what she is going to do next... sometimes they surprisingly fast. Here are a few photos to illustrate....
[Smita Writing] Aji and Azoba returned back to Canada on Sunday. There are very few times in one's life that you can feel like a child again. For me, the 5 weeks that Aji and Azoba were here brought that back as they came with the intent to take care of me as much as Sarina. Both of them worked tirelessly over the last 5 weeks to make our lives easier and make Sarina feel secure and loved.
Some people say mom's are like superwoman... grandmothers, then must be super-duper-woman, because my mom managed to take all the household activities, fed me fresh food every meal (apparently no leftovers were good enough for the new mom), swooped in at any (and every) hour to take Sarina when I needed rest, made me feel like I was a fantastic mom even when the baby was crying in my arms, and still she found time to do her personal yoga practice almost every morning.
My dad started on the sidelines, helping wherever he could in the apartment, shopping, cooking, but made a big transition part way through his trip to participating in Sarina's care. At some point we discovered he had a secret talent and patience for burping (the baby!), at which point, he was in charge of all burps. He also discovered he could put her into a peaceful sleep by singing mantras and she'd accompany him on his daily walk. He got VERY close to doing a diaper change. He'd get her to the changing table, get everything set up and then call in reinforcements for the cleaning part. :)
We all miss you, Aji and Azoba! Here are some photos of your last week, and a video.
Last week was Sarina's one month birthday... We had a little birthday celebration for her. I couldn't resist posting this video highlighting our wonderful musical harmony in singing happy bird-day to you. Sarina can now get used to a lifelong of "unique" singing using this same tune for "happy graduation to you" and "happy everything else" for the rest of her life. A couple photos as well...
Here are a handful of photos of Sarina as she crosses her one month old mark. She's been up to her usual antics... eating, sleeping, getting baths and massages, and going out for excursions. Certainly living the resort life.
This weekend, Sanjay Mama (Smita'a brother), Naoka Mami (his wife), and Hanuman Dada (his son, and Sarina's cousin) all came to visit from Boston. Sarina loved meeting her extended family and we all had a great weekend of games, walks, grandma cooked meals and of course the occasional ice cream...
A couple days ago Smita was watching a slide show set to music... Spontaneously, Sarina erupted in dance! The video is below (sorry for the sound... I'm not the only one who accidentally puts their finger on the microphone). We've nicknamed this Sarina's "froggy dance"....
The wonderful women I work with were very gracious and threw a joint baby shower for Jill, who I work with, as well as a baby welcoming shower for Smita/Sarina. They had the party at Carol's place... here are some photos from the evening. Thank you for the kind celebration!
We all had a great long weekend... we took a trip to Sausalito and spend an afternoon on the embarcadero and ferry building. Sarina got a new bathtub for her four week birthday! She likes this one much more and now actually enjoys bathtime. Here are some photos from the weekend and the last week or so....
In honor of Barack Obama's inauguration, Sarina woke up in anticipation hours ahead of Obama's swearing in. She watched the TV remote carefully to make sure we didn't channel surf on her and demanded she be propped up so she could watch the speech.
A very attentive Sarina gets to hear the story, "Bear Snores On" by her Grandpa (Azoba.) She happily listens to the story and even makes us believe she is looking at the book. Although Sarina listened and stayed alert through the whole story, it sure knocked me out; the book can now be called "Bear (and Daddy) Snores On" (Please pardon the annoying echo for the first 9 seconds... I'm still getting used to where the microphone is and where my finger shouldn't be on this camera.)
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