Proud to be an American....

Last week, Smita officially became a citizen of the United States. The citizenship process has been quite long (must be because Smita had been a citizen of the hostile rogue nation of Canada...)

Sarina and I were there to cheer her on! The event was quite grand at the Paramount theater in Oakland with almost 1,000 people from nearly 100 countries taking the oath at the same time.

Good times with Daddy

Though Daddy is a busy working man, he makes lots of time for Sarina! Here are some recent pictures of Sarina hanging out with Sarina. This is hard to capture in a picture or video, but Sarina smiles instantly when she sees Daddy smiling at her. He can be all the way across the room, but the instant he flashes a toothy grin, Sarina's face lights up. It's a bit self fulfilling too, because then Daddy grins bigger, and Sarina grins bigger and so on... and they both end up with sore cheeks from all the smiling at each other. A Daddy's girl indeed...

Don't Call Me Shorty

I was showing Sarina photos of everyone the other day, when she came across this one from Sanjay Mama's wedding. She noticed that Daddy is quite a bit taller than everyone else. Daddy claims he is standing on a bit of a hill, but none the less, Sarina took note that he looks a lot taller than Mommy's side of the family.



Since then, she has professed a preference for the Jain Family genes for height, and is now taken to wearing an outfit showing a small giraffe that says "Don't Call Me Shorty" in support of her cause. (thank you soni!) Perhaps the strangest coincidence is that since she started wearing it a couple weeks ago, she's grown to the point where the snaps barely do up at the bottom. Maybe her plan is working.

Sarina and Helen

Sarina has been having play dates with several of her friends lately. They are now getting to the point where they are curious about each other. Last week, Priscilla and Helen came over to play. Mostly they stared, played footsie and tried to size up how they could fit each other into their mouths but it seemed fun! Oh - and Sarina seems to be half naked because it was hot out that day and she'd decided she was done with her clothes.



This last photo is a keeper. Helen looks indignant that Sarina is touching her! Also, Helen looks like she's sporting Priscilla's long locks.

Bubbles!

Here's a little video clip of Sarina playing with bubbles for the first time. I think she's hooked...

A few pictures of Sarina

Here's a few random pictures of Sarina is all her wacky poses over the last couple weeks.

Scoot-Scoot...

Little Sarina is starting to enter the world of self-mobility. In the right set of conditions she will scoot herself over to her favorite toys. Whenever she does so, she always finished with a roll-over. I think its a little embellishment after showing off her new skills.

Sanjay Mama...

Sarina got to see Sanjay Mama during his recent trip to San Francisco. Looks to me like she remembers him from month one of her life...

Back to Sonoma

We went up to Sonoma with Sarina's friend Nishane (and of course Rahul and Tejal.) As the pictures show, I think Rahul was on a conference call the entire time we were there. Wine country is quickly becoming one of Sarina's favorite places to visit... Lucky us!!

Happy Five Month Birthday

Little Sarina turned a big 5 month old last week! We had our monthly birthday celebration. This time, Mommy made some YUMMY banana pie for the special day. Mommy knows that Daddy's favorite desserts are banana based... here's hoping that Sarina likes banana desserts as much as Daddy!

Visiting Los Angeles

Sarina, Smita and I went down to LA for a couple days last week. Sarina got to enjoy the sun and beaches and of course partake (second hand) in lots of great food and drink. More importantly, Sarina got to met Uncle Mitul, Beejal Auntie and little Saajan. Sarina sure loves California...

Azoba giggling with Sarina

Here's a little video clip of Sarina giggling with Azoba...

Kayla comes to visit

Sarina got to hang out with her friend Kayla Hu this past weekend (Victor and Cynthia's daughter)... they're starting to recognize one another and if nothing else happy to see other babies.

Mmmm... I want to eat your foot! ......................... Playing footsie:

All Smiles:

Visiting Aji and Azoba in Toronto!

Sarina had a great trip to Toronto last month. She was a gem on the flight there and back! (making mommy very happy!) She had a great time visiting with family and friends and misses aji and azoba dearly.

Visiting Buffalo

Sarina, Smita and I visited Buffalo a few weeks back to spend time with Dadi and Dadu (Sarina's grandma and grandpa.) Here's a few pictures from our visit:

Yummy butterfly

Sarina loves nothing more than to explore the world with her mouth. Here she is working incredibly hard to get a little lick of a toy butterfly hanging above her. So much effort to get that that thing into her mouth...

Learning to High-5

Here's Sarina playing with Aji last week. She is carefully mimicking Aji's open hand and learning how to copy her hand gestures. She will be high-5-ing in no time...

Not even 5 months old and already travelling in First Class

Yes, she is certainly a privileged baby...

bed time with daddy

I got to sneak a peek at bed time last night of daddy and sarina reading stories together. I couldn't decide which photo I liked better so here are two. If you look carefully you'll see the book is called "I love you Daddy"... too cute.

New Toys!

Daddy bought Sarina a fun new toy - a jumperoo! Though Sarina hasn't discovered the full functionality (especially the jumping part), she is clearly intrigued and enjoying having something new to explore. She especially likes things that spin...

Home Sweet Home

Sarina seems especially happy to be looking out the window today as though she missed her 16th Street activity. She also has learned that we have terrible phone reception in our apartment and has placed her tiny cell phone on the window sill hoping it will ring.

Sarina's newest expeditions

Sarina had a big trip to the east coast which we'll blog on later, but before she left, she had a few visitors and a few little trips! See photos below of SF expeditions as well as a little trip to Cavallo point, and uncle Ashish and Ajay holding Sarina.

SQUAWK!

Sarina has started to find her voice and "vocalize" ... squawks and screams seem to be a daily occurence now. Here's a little video of her playing with her toes and squealing!

Sarina in all her glory

Sarina's 5th month of life has brought smiles, giggles and squawks. She's addicted to holding her toes (they will soon be captured on camera going in her mouth)and loves to be charm everyone around her. Here are some recent pictures of the smiley Jain.

Sarina's 4 month Birthday!

Also much overdue, but we wanted to share Sarina's 4 month birthday celebration with you all! Daddy bought Sarina some beautiful (and tasty) cupcakes from a special bakery. See below for a couple photos and a video.

Back after a LONG hiatus

Smita and I have been traveling on the East Coast visiting Sarina's grandparents and have been delinquent updating the blog. But we're back! Sarina is getting more smiley, giggly and overall a lot more interactive.

Here are a few pictures of her sitting, munching on her fingers, and smiling in her new bumbo chair:

Giggles Paisano

In playing with Sarina this weekend we heard her first giggle. She gave us a loud cackle and laugh when piling on a kiss-attack. Smita's readings told her the four month milestones include rolling over and giggling. She hit them both a week early...

Easter dinner at Alex & Harriet's place

Alex and Harriet were kind enough to invite us over for Easter dinner last week. Little did we know that Harriet had cooked up a storm and we were up for a fancy Easter feast. Sarina enjoyed her first easter... chocolate bunnies, celery crosses and all. She also finally got to meet Aunt Harriet and uncle Alex...

OH BOY... Look who learned how to roll-over....

I'll give you a clue.. it wasn't Daddy... he claims he already knows how.

We both happened to be watching this morning as we were giving Sarina tummy time, when BAM... she rolled over. I think she was as shocked as we were. Luckily, we happened to have the camera running and captured her first roll-over. After that first one, she quickly turned into a roll-over machine and rolled over a few more times.... Here's a video of her first (and second) roll-overs...

lil'jain and moo-moo

Sarina loves her little cow toy. Our friend Seema, named her cow friend moo-moo (formerly known as Mr. Cow). Here's a few pictures of Sarina and moo-moo.. Sarina loves to kiss moo-moo (ok, she likes to lick his nose - that is sort of a kiss, right?) In any case, the two of them sound like a hip-hop duo... I can see it now, "tonight at the colliseum, Lil'Jain and Moo-moo... (with opening act Lil'Kim and Nee-yo)"