10 months old!

Time is flying by! Somehow, my little baby Amishoooo is already 10 months old! How did that happen so quickly? I totally believe that this is the best age - everything she does is so cute! She's super curious, incredibly strong, loves to kick and make noise, talks a LOT, looks at me and says "Mama" (yay!), rolls around everywhere (and by everywhere, I mean under couches, under her crib, rolling from the family room into the kitchen), is obsessed with gadgets (remote controls, iPhones, computers) and will scream if you take it away from her, loves Ananya's toys the most, wakes up talking to herself in the mornings (so cute!), enjoys eating solid food, and finally finally finally completely sleeps through the night. Life is good at 10 months old :)

Tricks: she can do nose-to-nose touches (teeky teeky), clap, hug dolls/toys, kick, wave, sit, and say Mama and some version of Dada

Food: she loves anything that we are eating and she's over the whole "baby food puree" world. She really loves butternut squash, any type of casserole, rice, dal, pasta, fruit, and she's pretty adventurous about trying new things.

Here are the many faces of our little Amishooo:

Dadu's birthday

January is a very special month for us, since we get to celebrate New Years, Dadu/Dadi's anniversary, and Dadu's birthday...so this January has been action packed for us!

We celebrated Dadu's birthday by taking lots of family photos, opening presents, having a yummy dinner, and, of course, a scrumptious strawberry cake which the birthday boy loved! Ananya really got into the spirit of things by putting all the candles on the cake, setting out the birthday plates and napkins (which I didn't even realize we still had), and insisting that everyone eat a piece of cake (so that she, too, could get in on the cake eating). Happy birthday, Dadu!

Dadi & Dadu's Anniversary!

Usually, Dadi and Dadu travel to India in December/January, but this year, they stayed here to celebrate Amisha's first holiday season and we have had so much fun with them! We rarely get to celebrate special occasions like their anniversary or Dadu's birthday together, but this year we were able to - a great start to 2012!

We celebrated their wedding anniversary (37 years!!) at home - Ananya and I baked a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (yum!) and we sang "Happy Anniversary to you"...mind you, Ananya was convinced that somehow, this celebration was really for her - so she was front and center for the songs and she ate the first piece of cake! Congratulations, Dadi and Dadu!

Family Christmas

We are so blessed to be living so close to our parents, grandmas, cousins - Ananya & Amisha are so lucky to grow up amongst all of their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. And with Amisha's first Christmas, we wanted to spend time with our family! So we had everyone over for dinner, a wonderful family reunion - Ananya and Amisha loved playing with all of their cousins, and Pooneet & I had a great time catching up with our parents, cousins, and grandmas! Hopefully this is the start of a Christmas family tradition :)



Ananya & Amisha's cousins


Pooneet's side of the family


Aditi's side of the family


4 generations


Best grandmas in the world!


Here's a slideshow of pictures from our celebrations:

Christmas Morning

The Christmas celebrations continued with a super fun filled Christmas morning! Dadi and Dadu came over bright and early to help celebrate this fun day!

Ananya and Amisha wore matching "I love Santa" shirts, and we sang holiday songs and opened lots of great gifts! It was Amisha's first Christmas so we wanted to make sure we went all out - and her grandparents totally spoiled her with beautiful gold bangles, which she loved to wear. After we opened gifts, we ate lunch and relaxed for a bit...before having all our family over for a fantastic Christmas dinner!

Christmas Eve

Ananya and Amisha had an over-the-top Christmas this year! They saw Santa, co-hosted and attended numerous holiday parties, and got to spend so much fun time with friends and family...and of course, opening tons and tons of presents!

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Ammama, Avva, and Thatha - they came over and we sang holiday songs and opened some gifts, including a boombox for Ananya and a gold necklace for Amisha from Ammama!

Ancha is a citizen!

Ananya's beloved nanny in San Francisco, Tenzin (aka Ancha), recently became a US citizen and to celebrate this amazing occasion, we invited her family over to our house for a celebratory lunch! Ananya was in total heaven because she got to spend the whole day with her dear Ancha and we were so happy they were able to visit. Congrats, Ancha!

Aloha Maui!

We admit it. We're completely addicted to visiting the islands of Hawaii. You can't blame us - it's beautiful and warm there, our kids love the ocean (as do we), we get to eat amazing sushi and seafood, and it's a short flight for us! So yes, we decided to go again after Thanksgiving and we joined some friends for a week of fun in the sun! AJ and Ray were able to fly out for a few days, and we were staying in the same resort as our good friends, Cliff, Helen, and Gabe. We spent our days on the beach, afternoons in the pool, and ate delicious meals (including a yummy dinner and fantastic shaved ice with Jess and Adam and their kids).

Amisha LOVED the ocean - she was fearless and absolutely enjoyed sitting at the water's edge, having the waves crash onto her, and splashing the water and playing with/eating the sand. Ananya spent her time making sand castles, running in and out of the ocean, and soaking up the attention she was getting from her beloved uncles. Makes me wonder when we're going to go again....

Holiday Fiesta

Soon after Thanksgiving, we took a fabulous trip to Hawaii, came back, and a few days later hosted a holiday party. It was a great excuse to decorate our house, get in the Christmas spirit, bake a ton of desserts, and kick off the holiday season!

Pictures with Santa

It's become a tradition for us that the day after Thanksgiving, we go and meet Santa Claus and take pictures with him! Ananya was SO excited to see Santa and was laughing and telling him secrets the entire time. Our little friend Amisha, on the other hand, was totally scared of him and cried pretty much the whole time. Oh well, makes for fun, funny pictures!

Amisha's first Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was so special for us because it was Amisha's first Thanksgiving and because it was Pooneet's first time in charge of making the turkey! The turkey was delicious, so many family members and friends came, the kids had a blast, Ananya said she was thankful for the turkey (I was hoping she'd say her baby sister!), and Amisha slept really well that night - a sign of a great party!


Here are some pictures from turkey day:

Christmas in the Park

Long overdue posts coming your way!

Ammama (Ananya and Amisha's great grandmother) has come from India and is visiting us for a few months - mainly to play with her great granddaughters! The kids have been having such a great time with her and we try to see her as often as possible. Amisha is named after her (her middle name is my grandmother's name) so Ammama was especially excited to meet her namesake!

One of the first outings we took with her was to downtown San Jose's Christmas in the Park - it was freeeeeezing, but so beautiful with tons of lights and christmas trees and decorations to look at. Ananya got her first taste of hot chocolate, I was randomly gifted $20 by total strangers, and we revisited the beautifully decorated Fairmont Hotel where Pooneet and I got married.