More pictures from last weekend...

I finally got around to pulling the pictures off our camera from last weekend. We had a great time at the discovery museum. It was a cold and rainy day in San Francisco so we thought we would head there for our excursion. There's a toddler area with lots of things for Sarina to climb on and play with. She loved the "lakes" which were like big waterbeds. She also loved climbing around the tunnels and bridges.

She's starting to communicate a lot more - in particular by pointing... she clearly tells us what she wants. She's also picked up a few works; we're all very excited.

Mommy and Sarina

I couldn't help but post this photo when I saw it... mommy & Sarina (and a duck)!

Bumper Cars

This is another video from the weekend - Sarina playing "bumper cars" with a walker at the rec center. She was very excited when she suddenly realized she could propel herself around. . . and thought it was really funny to bump into daddy... listen carefully for some higgly giggles

A weekend all about Sarina

Though it was a rainy cold weekend in SF, we managed to make this weekend all about fun for Sarina. From the Discovery Museum, to the library and rec center, along with some fun outdoor walks, we did it all this weekend, and loved watching Sarina's expressions as she explored new places and learned new things. Though she doesn't talk much yet, she is definitely expressive - from (finally) making the sign for milk, to wagging her finger "no no no" when someone tells her not to do something, to pointing pointing pointing at every thing!

Here are a few pictures from my phone of the last week or so (sorry if a few are blurry!) to tide you over until Sumeet gets the ones from the camera organized. I seemed to keep taking the photo right before she smiled - so though she may look serious in these photos rest assured she's as higgly giggly as always.

The radio...

Sarina learned how to turn the radio on and off with her little pointy finger. Since then, its been nonstop radio on - radio off. She's also learned to "dance" a bit.. more or less bopping up and down to music. We also noticed that whenever she hears music, she starts clapping. Must have picked that up from all the clapping mommy and daddy do when they sing along to songs.... Here's a fun radio on, radio off session along with some dancing and clapping.

Touch Lamp

Sarina has a touch lamp in her room.... now she's learned how to use it. Here's a clip of her playing with the touch lamp that she figured out how to use.

PIctures from Sarina's Birthday Party

We finally got around to sorting through the pictures from Sarina's birthday party a couple weeks ago. Lots of Sarina's friends, family, aunts and uncles came to wish her a wonderful birthday. She got to run around and play, play, play until she zonked out for a one hour nap in the middle of the party. We finally woke her up for her birthday cupcake - which she wasn't all that into... Here are some pictures:

Just a cute picture from breakfast

Since we have been a bit quiet the last week or so, here's a picture from breakfast this morning...

Happy Birthday to Sarina....

At Sarina's birthday party this weekend, we got her a special cupcake. Her birthday cupcake would be her first real sugary dessert. I think she was quite overwhelmed with everyone staring at her as we sung happy birthday... then when it was time for her cupcake, she didn't dive in like we thought. Instead she poked at it and had no interest in eating any of it. No big messy frosting face or anything... even after she finally tried it, still not much interest other than playing with it. She did very kindly share it with Mommy.

At least one of us can resist desserts!

Walking everywhere

In just the last week walking has gone from a hobby, Sarina did once in a while, to her primary form of mobility. She now walks everywhere and is even giving running a try. By default, to go from one place to another, she prefers to walk.... goodbye crawling! Its fun to see her walking get better every day...

Sarina's birthday party

Today we celebrated Sarina's first birthday. We were a bit delayed with the holidays, travels, etc. and ended up celebrating on her 13 month birthday. Lots more pictures to come, but for now, here's a couple pictures of the birthday girl dressed for her party... she's wearing her very cute watermelon dress.

Sarina's magazine debut...

Sarina made her first publication... at only a year old she's already featured in a business school publication. Here she is in this month's Wharton Magazine

The link to the whole magazine is here: Winter 2010 Wharton Magazine (See pages 69-70)

Playing on the iPhone

Mommy bought Sarina a fun game for her iPhone called "Peekaboo Barn." Sarina LOVES it. Its a fun game where she gets to learn all about animals and their sounds. Sarina has also learned to use a touch screen and of course is going to be a native multi-touch user. She also loves using her pointy finger... in fact, whenever the iPhone comes out, she sticks up her pointy finger ready to play.

Is it too early for me to start with the "When I was a kid..." stuff? i.e. When I was a kid, we learned about animals with wood blocks. And when I was a kid we had to actually press buttons - there was no such thing as touch screens, when I was a kid computers made one sound, "beep" and had one color, green... etc., etc.

Expert Walker

In just a couple weeks, Sarina's wobbly walking has become much much better. She can now easily walk across a room or even go from one side of our home to the other. These videos are a week old now, but still have Sarina doing some more expert walking. In the second video, Sarina also shows her exciting clapping.. its more of an excited arm wave and some excited screaming!

Tofu eater

Here's a little video of Sarina munching on big tofu chunks. I (Smita) am especially excited because she's a picky little eater and I'm always pleased when I find anything she'll eat! Who would have thought she just wanted to pick up and eat really big chunks??

I love peek-a-boo

In just a couple weeks, Sarina has gone from just learning about peek-a-boo to it being her favorite game. Anytime she sees a curtain, blanket or in this case, my babeball cap, a game of peek-a-boo erupts. Here, while in Mexico, she took the hat off my head and started up some peek-a-boo fun.

Playing in the sand

Here is a little video of Sarina discovering sand for the first time. Suffice it to say the little monkey had sand everywhere for a week. We're at Nikki Beach (a restaurant attached to the hotel) Notice the dance club music playing in the background...

Wibbly Wobbly Woo...

One of the songs we like to sing to Sarina goes something like "wibbly wobbly woo... an elephant sat on you....wibbly wobbly wee... an elephant sat on me." It goes on and on with anything that rhymes together.

Here's a little video of our wibbly wobbly girl. Right around her 1 year birthday (Dec 24th) she started taking a couple steps at a time. She's now taking 5-10 steps and can make it across the room. She's certainly quite determined and despite all the falling on her bum, she keeps getting up to practice her walking over and over again.

This video also shows her birthday present - the fisher price house in the background.

More Puerto Vallarta pictures

Here's the rest of our (condensed set of) puerto vallarta pictures. More fun and frolicking in pools and beaches. We did a day trip to Yelapa and also did a tour into the jungle to get to some waterfalls and other sights. We also did a lot of eating (especially breakfast) and otherwise had mexican food every single day...

Holidays in Puerto Vallarta

For the Holidays, we traveled to Puerto Vallarta and spent eight days relaxing and enjoying the warm weather. It was also Sarina's first birthday and she got to celebrate turning one with a big vacation. We had a fabulous trip filled with lots of swimming, playing on the beach, sight seeing, hiking and eating tons of mexican food. Sarina did great and had lots of fun in the pools and on the beaches. She of course loved the long outdoor walks and hikes while mommy and daddy checked out the sights. She also picked up a liking towards spicy mexican beans! We have lots of photos... here's the first set:

Peek-a-boo

This weekend for the first time, Sarina initiated a game of peek-a-boo. We've been playing this game since the day she was born, but of course, we were doing the hiding and peeking. It took us a minute to realize what she was doing (playing peek-a-boo with us), but when we did, we all had lots of giggles with Sarina.

Fun with Aji and Ajoba

Sarina had a wonderful time with Aji and Ajoba in Whitby. They came up with lots of fun games and toys and Aji made Sarina some special daal and poli. Here are some pictures of her escapades...

More fun in Buffalo

There were so many good pictures from our trip to visit Buffalo, I had a hard time paring them down. We celebrated her 11 mos birthday there along with Neha's 11 year birthday! Enjoy. (btw, this is Smita posting for Sumeet)

Playing in Buffalo

Yes, we are woefully behind on posting pictures and we have so many great ones from our trip out east last month. Sarina had SO much fun playing in Buffalo with everyone and everything. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of all the fun she had...from remote controlled truck chasing, to stair climbing, to playing cards, carum etc, she thoroughly enjoyed herself!

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.