Sumeet's first Father's Day

Sarina has come to learn that daddy's favourite desserts involve bananas, and so she decided, to surprise daddy with a homemade banana pudding pie for father's day. Daddy had only asked for one gift on father's day - for Sarina to feel better - and she gave it to him by end of day. Despite being a bit tired as she was getting over a fever, Sarina spent most of the day playing with her favourite daddy, including rolling over every which way, giggling when daddy lifted her in the air, and catching the bubbles he blew towards her. Below are a couple pictures of the festivities.

Random set of pictures

We have been out and about a fair bit these last couple weeks. With birthday parties, casual get togethers, picnics and visitors, the three of us have been little social butterfly's.

Over the last couple weeks, we've also introduced solid food to Sarina (some of which she is starting to enjoy!) . Here's a collection of pictures from the last couple weeks.

Butternut Squash

After a few days of rice cereal, we started Sarina on a new food... butternut squash. Mommy lovingly took raw organic butternut squash and cooked and pureed it for Sarina and made lots of little containers for future use.

Butternut Squash was a hit... Sarina is much happier eating it over the tasteless rice cereal. Here's a video of her first time eating it for the first time...

First Solid Food

We started Sarina on solid foods last week. Her first food was rice cereal... I tasted it, it isn't very tasty so I can see why she isn't so excited by it. Good thing is that food eating is progressing well... more to come. Here is a video of the very first time Sarina tried solid food; we used a silver bowl and a silver spoon as per tradition in our families.

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: