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" :)

Wedding in New Jersey

We went to Harin and Neelam's wedding in New Jersey this weekend. Harin is one of my friends from growing up in Buffalo. We all had a great time and Sarina was a trooper flying all the way to the east coast and back for a weekend. It was of course great to hang out with the "buffalo boyz" and spend time with everyone's growing families. Sarina also got to see her Dada and Dadhi (grandparents) who came up from Buffalo. Here's some pictures from the wedding...

Feeling better, enjoying the sun!

Sarina has been battling sickness for over 3 weeks - and FINALLY felt better on Sunday. She was all smiles and really excited about everything. It also happened to be a very beautiful day in San Francisco. Sunny and warm. So sunny, she needed to put on mommy's sunglasses.

Playing in her Tunnel

Here's a short video clip of Sarina playing in the tunnel that her cousins, Akash and Neha got her for her birthday. She's learned many animal names now and has fun crawling through and pointing out the animals (often by making their respective animal sounds...)

Tricycle riding

Here's a short video clip of Sarina riding (or, um, being pushed) on a tricycle by her favorite tricycle engine... Ravi Mama...

Some pictured from Benjamin's birthday

Last weekend we went to Benjamin's (Sarina's cousin) birthday party. Here's a couple photos from the party. Sarina had a ton of fun riding around on Benjamin's tricycle and playing with Ravi Mama...

Sarina in the park

Sarina loves being outdoors and now loves walking / running by herself. This is a picture of her walking around freely in San Mateo Park cute as a button and color coordinated. Pointing at Daaaaaags (oof oof), clapping her hands and bopping to music and generally walking and running in the grass and pavement.

A couple photos playing with the iPhone

As I was taking some photos of Sarina playing games on the iPhone, she gave us some good smiles.. Here they are ...

Appearance on my corporate blog

Sarina made a cameo appearance on my firm's blog yesterday. She's BIG time!

CMEA Blog appearance

Playing with wood chips

Here's another little video of us playing in Monterey. Here we stopped along our walk and Sarina had lots of fun playing with the wood chips. She kindly shared her wood chips and shares some of her little, I'm mildly amused laughs.

Nose poking

Somehow Sarina got on the "Adult" side of the barrier fence (that is the computer/office area) and Smita on the "play" side. They quickly engaged in a very fun game of poke mommy's nose through the fence. Sarina found this hilarious... (I think it was Mommy's sound effects that did the trick)

Singing...

Here's a little video of Smita singing to Sarina... Smita has been singing to Sarina since she was a wee baby. Now that Sarina understands and communicates more, she participates in songs and of course always tells Mommy she wants more singing. Here we're hanging out on the coast of Monterey, singing and pointing at our her bellies...

Walking (and running)

Here's a little video of us out for a walk in Monterey. As you can see, Sarina often prefers walking (and sometimes running) by herself rather than being pushed in the stroller. One of her favorite hobbies continues to be spotting dogs. She's always excited to see a dog and yells out, "daaaaa," "daaaa" She also usually barks at them.. something like "whooo, whooo." All lots of fun and very cute. (Sorry for the wobbly video, I had to keep running to keep up with her!)

Sarina's trip to Monterey

We went off to Monterey this weekend and had a great time enjoying the great weather and all the fun Monterey things to do! We stayed at the beautiful Monterey Plaza Hotel and had fun running around the back ocean terrace and watching the otters and sea lions swimming in the Ocean. We also visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium (two times!) and explored the town. Sarina's favorite things to do were go on long walking (and sometimes running) trips along the walking trails. Here's some pictures.. videos to come.

One more beach video...

One more video from playing on the beach we wanted to share. Sarina LOVES playing in the sand.. on the beach and in the sandbox. You'll notice the very sudden end to the video when a handful of sand goes in her mouth... I think she's finally learned that sand doesn't taste so good.

Up in the Air!

Daddy has been letting Sarina "fly" since she was just a wee tike. She's turned into an adventure lover as a result and is bound to turn out to be a thrill seeker. No fear!

Everyone asks how I'm possible ok with my husband throwing my daughter up in the air... my response is that he loves her at least as much as I do and would never ever let her get hurt - and he has good hands!

Here she is getting some air...

Beach Hike Videos!

We took Sarina hiking last weekend to Tennesee Valley. We kept hoping she would take a nap in the stroller while we pushed through the lush valley, but she was up staring at the scenery and very excited to arrive at the beach! She loved walking around, checking out the waves and playing with (eating) the sand.

We have taken a lot of videos as of late - here are another two little ones. During the second one Sarina walked straight into my phone :) Extreme close up!

Laundry Surfing

Here's a little video of Sarina hanging out in the laundry basket (like the loves to do)... here she plays a little game of sky surfing where she balances with the basket in the air. After the first session she shows the sign language sign for "more"... which in this case means, do it again!! She's very good at the more sign for everything from things she wants to keep playing to asking for more food of a certain kind she likes.

Smart little girl

Over the past few weeks, Sarina has started to get very good at communicating. We've been teaching her baby sign language and she now is very good at the signs for milk, more, food, help, etc. She also understands more and more including the parts of her body and some animals. In particular, she is quite good at spotting dogs and monkeys - she identifies both with her version of their names and sounds. For dog, its "dah" and the bark is "whoo whoo." And Monkey she gets "haaa haaa haaa." In this video she is waving, getting her body parts and she finds a monkey on her play tent. Getting very smart!

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.