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.

Pooneet meets Aadvik!

Pooneet is in India for work and got to meet Sarayu, Eshon, and cutie pie Aadvik!!! Ananya, Amisha, and I are totally jealous that we didn't get to be there for the fun but we're so happy that Aadvik finally got some hugs and kisses from someone in our family!

Here are some pictures:

Happy Halloween!

This year, Halloween was a SUPER fun event for Ananya and Amisha. For months, Ananya has been saying how she wanted to be a giraffe, which was, for me, such a great choice because almost every option for little girls has to do with fairies or princesses. For Amisha, as it was her first Halloween, we wanted to get her two costumes because Ananya had two costumes when she was a baby. So this year, for her first Halloween, Amisha was a cow and a pumpkin.

Ananya & Amisha spent a fun-filled afternoon, in full costume, with Connor and Chloe in downtown Los Altos' Halloween festival. All the stores were open and handing out treats, candy, and toys so Ananya came home, hours later, with a huge bag FULL of treats! She was so giddy with delight, she literally couldn't stop dancing around, laughing, and clapping!

In the evening, despite me being totally sick (I'm drugged on tons of medicine so hopefully in a few days, I"ll be feeling much better), we took the kids trick or treating. Thatha and Anju Mausi came to join in the fun, and we dressed both girls up again and they went down our street. Even from our house, you could hear Ananya screaming, "Trick or treat!" Poor Amisheeee must have been wondering what on earth happened to her normal routine, as she was dressed in multiple costumes and being carried through the dark streets during her bedtime!

Then the next round of fun for Ananya was when she was done trick-or-treating, and she came home and started opening the door and handing out candy for people coming to our house! Every time there was a knock on the door, she'd literally jump up, race to the door, and squeal. Lots of excitement!

At the end of the night, we took stock of all her candy, blamed her nut allergy and took out almost all of her candy (we let her have the lollipops), and let her dance around and release her sugar high before tucking her into bed. Oddly enough, she had the best night of sleep she's had in a looooooong time.

Hope you and your family had a fun Halloween!

Our "Ananya and Amisha" pumpkins that Pooneet carved


Amisha's first Halloween as a cow and as a pumpkin




The giraffe and the pumpkin






Trick-or-treating!

~Happy Diwali~

We really enjoyed celebrating Amisha's first Diwali! After I got home from work, we all got dressed up in new Indian clothes (including Ananya and Amisha wearing matching lenghas that Shashi Dadi made for them!). Thatha, the grandparent representative this year, came over and brought a ton of adorable Diwali gifts for each of us!

Ananya and Thatha went for a walk in the backyard and picked flowers, and then we began our Diwali puja. Ananya loved singing all the bhajans she knew and I told her a very brief version of the Diwali story and why we light all the candles. After our puja, we lit candles and put them everywhere in the house...Pooneet was worried that this would be a fire hazard so for the rooms with no candles, we just turned the lights on (should be a fun electricity bill to get!). We cooked lots of yummy food - mattar paneer, bisi bele bhath, rice, kheer - and Ananya insisted that we sing a "Happy Diwali to you" song (to the tune of "Happy birthday to you"). After we put the kids to bed, we finished cooking and then had Pooneet's sister and brother in law over for a yummy Diwali dinner!

Hope you and your family had a very happy Diwali!

Pumpkin Patch

We took a trip to the pumpkin patch with Ananya's friends Connor and Chloe. What a fun day that was! Ananya picked out pumpkins for her and Amisha, she jumped in the bouncy house, went for a pony ride despite her fears, and enjoyed the haunted house. Amisha looked around, seemed mildly interested, and then fell asleep ;)

Random pictures

I was going through our other camera and realized there are some cute pictures that I wanted to share :)

Ananya with her beloved cousin, Vunshi:


Tushar & Yamini's engagement party, where Ananya was attached to Tushar Uncle's hip!




Amisha wrapping her hand over mine, as she always does when she's sleepy


Ananya and I going to Deepa's mehendhi


Amisha's first solids

7 months old!

Amisha turned 7 months old last week and we're amazed by how many new fun tricks she can do! She has started solids and just loves eating. Yay! She rolls around all over the floor and can easily cross an entire room by rolling. She has a blast playing on the exersaucer and in particular, relishes the taste of all the toys in her mouth! She laughs, giggles, and smiles a TON, coos constantly, and shouts to get your attention. She adores her big sister, loves grabbing her hair and trying to eat it, and seems fascinated by anything and everything that Ananya does. She's a total diva and needs your 100% attention...many a time, Pooneet will be playing with her and if he even glances at the tv or his iPhone, she'll scream! I keep telling people that she's the one who will rule our house ;) She loves to stand, hates to sit, loves to suck her fingers, spits out any and all pacifiers. It's fun watching her grow, especially because she is so different from Ananya! At any rate, it's been a fun month for all of us (especially since we're sleeping a lot more) and I can't wait to see what next month brings!