SF Visit

We drove up to San Francisco a few weekends ago so that Ananya could spend some time playing with her beloved Ancha. They had so much fun together and I keep telling people how Ananya's reunion with her was like the famous YouTube video that shows the lion reuniting with his caretakers after 5 years...amazing! The love, the connection - it was instant, Ananya was completely and instantly comfortable, and watching the two of them talk in Tibetan and play together was really special for us all.

We then headed to lunch with Sid, Sarah, and Baby Avani who has grown so much and is totally adorable! Combined with amazing 70 degree weather, we had a wonderful day in SF and can't wait to go back!

Here are a few photos from our day:

Babymoon #2

During my last pregnancy, Pooneet and I and some of our closest friends went on a babymoon getaway to the island of Nevis in the British West Indies. For this babymoon, I couldn't stand to be too far from Ananya, so Pooneet and I decided to do a weekend getaway to Napa.

Our goals were to sleep a lot, eat fabulously, and visit some wineries. We totally accomplished all of these goals - only ate at Michelin-starred restaurants, I got a ton of blissful sleep (it's amazing how sleeping without a baby monitor feels so good!), and we were able to visit multiple wineries (Pooneet loved wine-tasting, I got to drink water...fun). We also took a tour of a castle, witnessed a proposal (she said yes), and saw Thomas Keller! Even the smallest member of our family had a super-fun weekend! Ananya stayed in Cupertino with my parents and had a blast visiting her cousins, playing with Kittu Thatha who was in town, and turning the house upside down!

Fantastic, super-relaxing weekend away...it'll be a looooong time before we can do that again, so it was definitely needed and appreciated!

Here are some pictures from our weekend:

Christmas 2010

We had a very merry Christmas this year - it was the first year since Pooneet and I got married that we were in town for the holidays, so it was a great opportunity for us to relax, create some family traditions, and have some Christmas fun with friends and family!

Pooneet, on his own, picked out our perfect tree and the 3 of us decorated it with all our our ornamens, lights, and tinsel. We put out our stockings and then told Ananya all about Santa Claus. The night before Christmas, she left out a plate of cookies and milk for him, and was amazed how, the next morning, the milk was gone and all that was left of the cookies were some crumbs! She had a BLAST opening all her presents - though she's still at that age where opening the wrapping and seeing a box may be more delightful than the actual gift inside!

Here are some photos of Ananya with her grandparents before they traveled to their amazing holiday destinations of India and Vienna!

Fun Days

Ananya had a fun wrap up to 2010...she attended several birthday parties (where she got to play with cool toys and wear balloon hats), got a haircut (where the haircut lady basically told me I had been cutting her hair the wrong way for the last year!) and a blue lollipop, and learned how to play and do a crazy dance to the harmonica.

Here's a video of Ananya's crazy harmonica performance for her grandparents:



And here are some photos of her fun times:

Last days in SF

We moved out of San Francisco in early November and took advantage of our last few days by doing all the things we loved to do most - going to Crissy Field, eating sushi at our favorite restaurant, enjoying all our neighborhood haunts, and taking Ananya on her first cable car ride!

Here's a video of her cable car ride:



And here are some pictures of the views from our home, sushi dinners, and our last few days in SF:

Livermore Temple

In November, Avva and Thatha took Ananya (and a very sleepy Aditi) to the Livermore Temple, for a morning of poojas, prayers, and showing Ananya where all her favorite gods live. Ananya especially enjoyed doing the namaskaram at the end of each prayer and hearing the priests ring the bells.

Happy Holidays

We took Ananya to visit Santa Claus this year, as we have done every year so far. Her first year (6 mo. old), she was fascinated by Santa, last year (1 1/2 years old) she cried her heart out and refused to sit on Santa until Pooneet and I joined in (so Pooneet ended up sitting on Santa's lap!), and so we were definitely a little nervous about what our experience this year would be like.

But this year, Ananya loved Santa! She happily sat in his lap, said "Merry Christmas" to him, and when Santa asked what she wanted for Christmas this year, she replied "Candy!" (poor deprived child) and so he gave her a candy cane and she couldn't have been more thrilled :)

Happy Holidays to you from our family!