Radio Control Trucks and Cheerios

While home for thanksgiving, my nephew, Akash discovered a radio controlled truck in the basement. It soon provided hours of fun for Sarina as she chased after and pushed around the truck. Here, she's chasing after her cheerios in the back of the truck. Perhaps this was a bit cruel... learning about "carrot" based motivation early.

Licky Licky

We just returned from a nice trip to visit the grandparents. Sarina loved all the attention she got from Dadi, Dadu, Aji, Azoba, as well as her Booa, Bhaiya and Didi. There will be great photos from the week to follow but for now, just a funny video of Sarina enjoying a chair in Buffalo. For some reason she was obsessed with licking little emblem on the front of it. She must have done it 10 times before I even pulled out my phone to capture. Of course you get her charming smiles and raspberries too. . .

Daddy eats O's

Sarina has learned how to both eat O's (cheerios, trader O's etc) and more importantly has started sharing them with daddy! See the video below to see sweet sarina feeding daddy.

Brunch brunch our favourite meal

Sarina and the clan had brunch downtown with some of mommy's coworkers. She was very well behaved as always and had fun sitting at the table with everyone, and afterwards on daddy's shoulders, and crawling around the floor.

Her first tooth was followed only a week later by a second tooth! She now has one on the bottom and one coming through on top, and they make a little clinking sound!

Recent Playdates - a full barnyard

Sarina had a fun play date with Annika, Isha, Saachi, Ezra and Naveen recently. Since it was Halloween weekend, we got one more use out of the outfits! We had a cow, rabbit, giraffe, skeleton and a monkey! Sarina also got to hang out with Anya recently who impressed us all with her walking.

Matching Matching (Same same but different)

Sarina and I dressed up as twins on Friday. You can't tell in this picture unfortunately because we had to use a flash and it made Sarina's shirt look redder than it was. But it's close enough as they say in Thailand - same same but different. Mommy and me in jeans and a pink shirt! (and Sarina with her green blanket that she won't let go of these days)

Oh - and a newsflash for those who are wondering - Sarina sprouted her first tooth last week. It's still working its way out, but I've confirmed its (sharp) existence.

Fun with Boxes!

Mommy was thinking of buying me a new playhouse type toy when daddy appeared with another one - cardboard box! I love crawling in and out of the big box and playing "light! dark!" with daddy. The smaller box is even more fun. Yesterday, everytime I crawled in, Daddy pushed me all around the apartment. It's like my own cardboard car! Here are some photos and a video of me playing with various boxes. They are my new favourite thing.

Our little Giraffe!

I know you got a sneak preview of Sarina's Giraffe costume for Halloween, but here's the real thing! Sarina didn't even mind the costume and kept it on all day. We started the day at Nishane's 1st birthday party, and then went trick or treating on the famous Belvedere Street. Sarina met some friendly chickens as well as many other kids - but she was the CUTEST (and only) giraffe.

Highlights from Boston (late)

Apologies for being so late on this post. Between losing our battery charger, consolidating photos from everyone and life just being busy, this post got lost in the shuffle. We had a wonderful trip to Boston in late September. Sarina loved seeing all of her family on mommy's side - aji, ajoba, mangal aatya (all the way from india), shama aatya (all the way from san diego), samir, mahesh and arundhati (and littlest sohum, pappu and his family, sanjay mama's family (especially hanuman and saoirse!), tonu etc... she had the most fun with the littlest ones. Here are some pictures from the trip ...

One more...

I had to post one more swinging video... this time Mommy manages to swing Sarina, take a video, and tickle her (all with two hands.) The resulting giggles are too cute...

Swinging and Waving

Sarina recently learned a new trick... how to wave! She waves back, waves hello, waves goodbye - any waving at her and she is happy to respond. This Sunday while I was watching football, Sarina and Mommy went to the playground to go swinging; here she is having lots of fun swinging and waving back.

Eating puffs (and monkeying around)

Sarina has become very good at eating puffs (and other little things with her hands)... picking them up with her tiny fingers and getting then into her mouth. A lot of coordination to get it right. For a while she would pick up and somehow drop or lose them before getting to her mouth. She's an expert now...

Jackson over to play

This past Sunday we had brunch with the Koo's (John, Liz and Jackson.) Sarina had lots of fun playing with Jackson and showing him all of her toys. Jackson meanwhile showed off his skilled army man crawl. Here's some pics of their playdate.

Birthday at the German Tourist Club

For my birthday, Smita organized an afternoon with a group of my friends at the German Tourist Club on Mt. Tam. For those who don't know, its a German brewery in the wilderness in Marin. There are many short (and long) hikes to get there... we took a shorter one and slowly everyone piled in. Sarina loves playing on the deck and we all enjoyed some fabulous weather, food and drink.

Trying on her halloween costume

We thought we try on Sarina's Halloween costume. She's going to be a giraffe!! Very fitting for our tall girl. This is a sneak peak, more to come in a couple weeks.


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Sarina in Boston

We've managed to misplace our battery charger since our trip - thus the blog silence. However, Arundhati and Mahesh (Smita's cousins) took some wonderful pictures of Sarina in Boston that I thought I'd share for now (until we can get charged up and share more from our trip!) Here are some pictures of our favourite little monkey enjoying the festivities and attention:

Sarina and Daddy take over NYC!

Last week, I had a work meeting in Manhattan. Sumeet agreed to bring Sarina and take care of her while I was working. He did a wonderful job watching and feeding her, making sure she got her sleeps and most importantly, showing her a good time in Manhattan! He also celebrated her 9th month birthday there with her - unfortunately we don't have any pictures of it, but songs were sung and imaginary candles were blown out.

I got pictures from the adventurous twosome all day while I was working. We'll post more pictures from our East Coast trip, but for now I thought you'd enjoy seeing what I received every couple hours from Sumeet's camera phone. While I am very proud of Sumeet for being so self sufficient and such a good Daddy, I really wish I could have joined them in their escapades. . .

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.