Big day!

Look closely at our ears :)

My new favorite color

Yesterday, Ananya decided that she no longer liked the color pink and
said, very emphatically, that her new favorite color is red.

Christian the Lion, Ananya's BFF

A few months ago, I made what I thought was an off the cuff remark about how, when Ananya sees her beloved Ancha these days, their reunion is like that lion in the video who joyfully reunites with his owners after over a year of living in the African jungles. Ananya wanted to know what I was talking about, so we found the video on YouTube and an OBSESSION was born. Ananya cannot get enough of Christian, the story, the video, the Aerosmith song that accompanies the video. She talks about Christian, loves anything to do with lions now, sees lions in the zoo and thinks they are Christian's friends, sings the Aerosmith song constantly, and insists that you watch the video with her whenever she is watching. She hugs as "like Christian hugs the owners", talks about how, if her hair is out of control that she has "crazy hair like the owners" (gotta love the '70s), and role plays with herself as Christian and everyone else (including little Amishoo) as the owners...which then means that she basically jumps on you and hugs and kisses you (and yes, she does this to Amisha). She wants Christian to come over to play, asks Pooneet when we can visit Christian in Africa, and even asked me yesterday "Mama, can Christian come to Dada's birthday dinner?"

The actual video (it really is an incredible story):


Ananya watching (and making everyone around her watch as well):





Ananya singing while watching (and insisting that Ammama and Avva watch with her):

Pooneet's birthday!

Our Superhero :)


Yesterday was Pooneet's birthday and we have had a fun time celebrating this day...or rather, days...with him! He's always so low-key about his birthday, which is why I love making his birthday celebrations multiple days and lots of fun! We kicked off the celebrations with a weekend of nonstop fun - dinner with friends, brunch with his sister and brother in law - and then spent all day Monday saying "This is the last time you can before it's your birthday!"

On Tuesday, we spent the day in Napa on a mini-getaway. We visited several wineries, drank lots of wine, and ate a scrumptious meal at Bouchon. After we came home, we went out to a birthday celebration dinner with my parents and Avva...where Amisha had the time of her life. We had to remind our little Amishoo that it was Dada's birthday and not hers! She sat in the highchair between Dada and Thatha, spit out her baby food, and proceeded to eat rice by herself the entire night which made her so excited that she was excitedly yelping and kicking her feet and making us all laugh so hard :) We came home, Ananya and Pooneet wore birthday hats, we sang "Happy Birthday", ate a yummy cake that Ananya and I baked, and Pooneet and Ananya opened his presents (including P's first superhero cape!) while Amisha tried to put the wrapping paper in her mouth. Happy birthday, Pooneet/Dada!









Video of us singing to the birthday boy:

We have a crawler!

It's official: On Friday, Feb. 3rd, after months of practice (and I do mean months), Amisha all of a sudden and totally randomly decided to crawl! Yay!!! wobbled a bit, but then totally got the hang of it and now she's crawling everywhere! She was so happy crawling that we managed to watch it ourselves, capture it again on video, and have her crawl on Facetime with Dadu and Dadi in India. So exciting! A huge milestone for us all!

Roadtrip fun

Here's a video of the two little Goels, having so much fun in the car together on our way up to Tahoe. Needless to say, the ride was smooth, uneventful, and fun for the two of them keeping each other company :)

Tahoe

We went up to Tahoe with some friends for about a week last week. There wasn't a ton of snow, but there was more than enough to go sledding, have snowball fights, and make snow angels...in other words, not enough for the adults but plenty for the kids! It was Amisha's first time in the snow and both girls had a great time! Ananya loved sledding, running around the house, and eating snow, which she said tasted like watermelon. Amisha loved rolling around the different rooms, eating completely solid food and spitting her pureed baby food, and playing on the beach. And Pooneet and I had a wonderful time, as always, relaxing, enjoying the scenery/fresh air, and laughing nonstop with our friends :) We were definitely reminded that we really need to go more often!

Ananya sledding:


Ananya singing in a made-up language to Amishoo:


Tushar teaching Ananya how to skip stones (ignore the background talking):


Here are some pictures from the trip:

Day at the Zoo

On the last day of 2011, we drove up to Oakland, met up with Tushar, Yamini, Sid, Sarah, and Avani and had a fun-filled day at the Oakland Zoo! We saw AMAZING animals - lions, giraffes, zebras, elephants, gibbons...it was such a gorgeous day, awesome animals to see and learn about, and fun times with some of our closest friends. Great way to wrap up 2011!

Fun times

Here's a picture of Amisha and Pooneet snuggling and watching cartoons:



And here's a recent picture with Avva and Thatha:

Korean BBQ

We celebrated a recent and super exciting 49ers win with dinner at Korean BBQ with our favorite Korean, Eemo (aka Jean), and Steph, Dan, and baby Leah. It was Leah and Amisha's first Korean BBQ experience and the girls both handled themselves pretty well :) Jean and Dan did all the cooking, the rest of us did all the eating...needless to say, we can't wait to go there again!

Tchoi Family Visit

My dear friend Cami, her husband Won, and their adorrrrrrrrrrable daughter Karis visited us over the holidays! Steph, Dan, and baby Leah also came over for an afternoon of fun - lots of playing and taking pictures and oohing and aaahing over all the girly cuteness!

Here are some pictures from the fun day!

Star Swimmer

Ananya earned a red ribbon in swimming a few weeks ago! This means that she can swim by herself for 6 feet, put her head under water and hold her breath, and paddle with her arms and kick with her legs. We're so proud!