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" :)