Jumperoo!!

We got Sarina a jumperoo over two months back mainly because she loves to keep her legs outstretched and likes trying to stand. Until now, it really has been more of a "stand-eroo" as she had not quite got the jumping part down. She still enjoyed playing with all the toys (and munching on the sunflower teether) but no jumping. Well, yesterday, all that changed. Mommy gave her another jumping lesson and she was off - jumping away. She's now a happy jumper... here is a video of her jumping around. She also seemed to have found something interesting on the ceiling - we still aren't sure what it is; and of course she still loves blowing raspberries. (Warning its a fairly long video - about 3 minutes)

How do I eat this cake without getting crumbs on your head?

We went to a 1 year old birthday party for baby of one of Smita's colleagues. They took this very cute picture of the two of them. The cake was amazing, but eating it above Sarina's head was certainly a challenge for Mommy.

There's few things Sarina likes more than hanging out close to Mommy in her ergo... like a little kangaroo.

Picnicking

We were out picnicking last week and caught some cute photos of Sarina hanging out in her little pink hat. We also have a great little video clip of Sarina playing peek-a-boo with mommy.

7-month birthday

Sarina turned 7 months old this past Friday. As has become tradition, we celebrate with a little song, dessert and candle. This month, the dessert was rice pudding. You'll also see that Sarina is becoming a lot more wily and finds a way to get "into" dessert.

Mmmmmm. Beets!

I wouldn't call Sarina a picky eater, but she eats what she wants when she wants and other times her lips are sealed no matters how much I sing, make spoon airplane, make faces or stand on my head. The other day she was in the mood for the beets we got from the farmer's market. Of course now everything is red...

New pictures...

We've been offline for a while, mainly because our primary home computer stopped working. We know the problem, we just haven't yet had time to get it fixed. In short order we will be back to posting photos and videos more regularly. In the meantime, our wonderful nanny took some photos of Sarina (and Owen, our nanny share partner) hanging out one afternoon. There are some adorable photos of Sarina that we wanted to share. As you'll see, she is now sitting up all by herself and enjoys sitting and playing with her toys. She is also eating lots of different foods and generally keeps adding new skills.

Swing!

We put Sarina in a Swing for the first time last week. She seemed to have enjoyed it, although it may have just been all the animal noises we were making to try to get Sarina to smile.

Lake Tahoe

We went to Lake Tahoe over the 4th of July long weekend. We stayed in a beautiful (and huge) house and were joined by our friends Sekhar, Monali, Meena and Naveen. Over the course of the weekend we spent lots of time soaking up the sun, swimming, hiking, playing on and around the lake, grilling, and of course just relaxing. It has been a while since I've been to Lake Tahoe in the summer and have a renewed appreciation for summer weekend getaways there. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Swim-Swim!

We went to Lake Tahoe for the long 4th of July weekend (more pictures to come...) While there, we took Sarina swimming for the first (and second) time. She loved it... she kicked around, splashed up some water and enjoyed the pool like she would a big bathtub. Back in high school, Smita used to be swim instructor and used to teach babies how to swim... she had all the techniques and the proper holds to get Sarina to have lots of fun swimming and playing in the water. I think Sarina will grow up to be a water loving little girl like her Mommy. Here's some pictures and video:

Rolling Around

Sarina has now mastered the art of the roll. All day and night she rolls from front to back and back to front. She has even learned the "cork screw" where where she rolls from her back all the way around and end up back on her back. She now uses rolling as a mode of transportation and rolls from one place to another... often to find her toys. A couple days ago she rolled completely across the living and dining room... Here is one of her rolling sessions:

Picnic with Terry/Beejal/Saajan

Last weekend Terry, Beejal and Saajan came to San Francisco for the weekend. We had a fun picnic on a warm sunny San Francisco day in dolores park. Their visit also brought out some of Sarina's other aunts and uncles that she hasn't had a chance to meet yet.

Maestro

We sat Sarina in front of a little piano at Anish and Pia's place. She quickly got to work banging out some sweet music. It took her e few seconds to figure out that the keys were a level below the top of the piano but once she figured that out she couldn't be stopped.

Six Month Birthday

Sarina turned a big 6 last week... that is, six months old. The three of us celebrated over lunch downtown. Smita dressed Sarina in a cute birthday dress and we headed to the ferry building for lunch outdoors. We then picked up a strawberry chocolate cupcake from Miette for her birthday treat (which Mom and Dad ate on Sarina's behalf)

Mitul and Tanvi come to visit

This past weekend Uncle Mitul and Aunt Tanvi came to visit from Los Angeles. Even though Sarina was feeling a bit under the weather, she loved spending time with them. Aunt Tanvi looks like a natural holding a baby :)

Horsies!

Sarina is a very active girl. A very popular pastime is riding the mommy and daddy horses. Here she is going for a ride...

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...