Our Rockin' NYE

Ah yes, our New Year's Eve was rockin'. What a blast! We all (Andy chacha + Mahesh Chacha + Nirlesh chacha + Us) went to South Plainfield at a private party to celebrate.

Kids had their own fun with the food, small toys that the host provided. Sara danced a lot with all of us and slept at about 11:30 pm. We came back to our home instead of going to chacha's since we had to pick our new car from the showroom...:) all excited!

A New 'Do

I had no idea that Sara will look so cute with short hair!

First snowfall!!

It's been declared a blizzard and is apparently record snowfall for the NYC area for the month of December. The snow starting coming down around 12 PM last morning and has continued all night long (and accumulated to something like 2 feet!). I thought it would be neat to be snowed in...but I was sort of done with it by this afternoon. :) It sure is pretty though, and makes for a quiet Monday. We picked Baa just in time yesterday evening and arrived ahead of the storm. Since Sara was a little bit under the weather, we didn't play in snow this time.

Fun @ Coco Key

On Christmas day, we all (Vishal, Sara, Ashu, Chacha, Chachi, Maansi, Varun & I) decided to go to Coco Keys resort in Mount Laurel. Shipra di with kids joined us too.

The resort was small but fun. It was great to play in the water - warm 84 degrees, where we all splash around having a blast! Sara had so much fun with all the kids. She went on slides, the indoor/outdoor spa, the river and many other interesting fun rides. When we reached home, chachi made her delicious dosa. It was an awesome day. Love you all!

Merry Christmas!

I was very excited for Christmas this year because Sara is starting to understand the holiday. She was interested in the lit tree and the presents and knew that Santa had been to our house because Vishal & I had been telling her about it for a while now.

 

We all headed to Andy Chacha's for a Christmas party in the evening. At the party, Sara enjoyed some quality time with everyone especially her Maansi mausi, Aashi di & Shreya di. We had a great time - Sara got so many great presents from all and was very excited to play with her first Santa toy.

 

Few pics from today:

 

 

Shipra Di as always arranged the birthday cake for me. I spent my day with friends & family ....can it get any better than that?!

Birthday Lunch

We all including Ashu went out to lunch @ Tamarind Tribeca for my birthday today. Sara was so much fun the whole time, we all ate leisurely and enjoyed the yummylicious (as Sara says) food.

After lunch, we drove around in the city to see beautiful Christmas lighting's. Since, Sara slept in the car we decided not to stroll in cold.

Now i know my ABC!!

Sara loves the alphabet song...she keeps singing and watch the song on YouTube at least once a day. Since Ashu was here, he taught her to make a nice big building using her alphabet blocks. Absolutely fun game!!

Colorful Lights!!!

I went to Target this evening to buy some colored Christmas lights. Sara has been asking for these for many days. Whenever we drive back home from somewhere these days, I ask Sara if she wants to go straight home or if she wants to drive around the neighborhood and look at Christmas lights. Most days we drive around. :) During these drives, I began to notice that she was more excited for the colored lights. There could be an entire house decorated with icicles and other white lights and it's just not as "fun" as the colored lights or the blow up characters. I'm not there yet with the characters and don't plan on getting any of those, but I gave the green light on colored lights.

Vishal & I decorated the front of our house a little bit with the lights. I don't have a pic yet but will take soon :)

My Baby

Here's an evidence that she's a mommy-blogger's kid. These pictures were taken at her request. After decorating the Christmas tree she said, "Take a picture! Meri picture loo.....mein achi achi lagti...today's special day.....take my picture!"

Inverse Relationship

It appears Sara thinks that little people grow big AND that big people (grown-ups) grow small. Adorable! I don't remember what i asked Sara. But she replied, "Mommy, mein big ho jaogi and app small ho jaoge" Ah, if only it worked that way Sara...if only just time alone could make me smaller. :p

Santa Claus Special

To indulge Sara's love of trains, we visited the Whippany Railroad Santa Claus Special. I didn't get much educational information from this visit to the museum. But that's okay- I'd rather see these things through the eyes of my three-year-old. We enjoyed looking at the moving model trains and the engine cars, riding on a real train with Santa, playing with the toy trains.

The highlight for Sara was riding on a Real train with a Real conductor...and Santa, the engineer was making rounds too. Sara was so delighted to get a soft toy from Santa! Awesome....Retro fun!!!

  

And we're back...

I will be posting blogs for Nov/early Dec as I get time...since there's a lot that happened in our life's...we've been too busy and tired, to blog about it. But I do want it documented for us- that's a large part of why I blog. It's for our friends and relatives who want to keep up with us and it's for US. So I'm apologizing in advance for the flood of posts that's coming...but then that's how our life has been lately. :)

Bubble Baths

Sara had so much fun in HK. The first night, I heard Vishal and Sara giggling in the bathtub and found them making bubble displays.

Rituals

One of Sara's "Rituals" -whenever we are eating as a group (either out at a restaurant or at home), it never fails that part way in to the meal Sara wants to sit on my lap. Before I even say anything, she'll plants her little self down on me. We both love the cuddle time.

Speaking of Sara-rituals and cuddle time, I'm reminded that I wanted them documented b/c even though they are daily things now, one day they won't be...and I'll be a little sad about that. :(

"Mommy, mujhe aapke saath sona hai"
Like most toddlers, Sara likes to have company as she's falling asleep. 99% of the time, she requests me. "Mommy, mujhe aapke saath sona hai. Mommy, mat jao, yahi ruko." Sometimes I request a substitute and tell Sara, "Daddy aapke saath soyege". Sometimes Sara requests that we hold hands and it's so sweet. That started one night when I left too soon. The next night she said, "Mommy, I hold you hand. You stay." Sometimes she asks that we not hold hands, "No touching me" ha!

"Mommy, office mat jao, mein school jayegi and nahi royegi"
This started when I told Sara that if she will not cry in school I will not go to office that day. Its my bad, that I lied to her. She now uses this very often, and I feel sad and broken!

Genetic Indicator!

This was Sara taking a nap in the afternoon. Sorry Sara, you seem to have inherited my unattractive sleeping stance- sleeping on stomach with leg folded. But hey we sleep well. :)

My Treat

Sara is not only my Halloween treat, but my daily year-round treat. Love you my bacha!

"Mommy I love you because you're my best friend"

This is what Sara said to me as she looked at me this morning. I just stopped and hugged her almost as tightly as I can and kissed her all over.

On one hand, I don't think she actually gets the meaning of this sentence. On the other hand, I know it's not something she's copying. Oh my baby, I love love love you.

Dora & Diego Effect on Sara

Yesterday, I gave Sara the empty toilet paper roll and told her to put it in the trash. She held it up to her eye and said, "My telescope! Animal in trouble! I save you!"

So while I was working, she sat on the couch and looked through her new telescope. I said, "Help me!" and she replied, "Rescuer! telescope. I see you! I save you!" (at least she is now speaking broken english...lol)

Then she fastened her pretend seat belt (like Dora and her monkey pal Boots) and drove her pretend boat. She jumped out, ran over to me, and said, "You trouble. Hold on."

Thanks my cutest Rescuer! Go Sara, Go!

Do Letters

Sara now knows all 26 letters of the alphabet and constantly asks to "do letters." This means she wants to type, either on the computer or on my iPhone . She can actually now send a text message from start to finish with no help so if you get something from me that is incoherent, know it is a love note from Sara :)

World's Best Stirrer

Sara loves to help in the kitchen. As soon as I start cooking she wants to sit on the counter top so she can help. She stirs, pours, and taste tests.

Somebody got to help out again in the kitchen this sunday morning and was quite pleased about mixing, pouring, and watching the eggs get cracked. Such a good little helper! Here she is helping daddy to make omelette for her breakfast.

Halloween Parade@ School

Happy Halloween! Sara's school organized their annual Halloween Parade today! Sara's class went outside to participate in the parade into the playground area. Sara seemed kind of lost and as soon as Sara saw me, she started to break free from the line. Here's some photos before and during the parade! She's the peacock in the green jumpsuit.

California Pizza Kitchen

Totally awesome that we can have dinner at CPK without any reservation and no wait on a Saturday. This is the first time Sara tried pita bread with Hummus. She kept saying it "hooomus" lol :)

She read the menu, colored, and ate her favourite cheese pizza. She was so well behaved that we even got to have real conversation  :) What a great experience - yay!

Arnav's 5th Birthday Party

We went to "Jump On It" to celebrate Arnav's 5th birthday today. Sara was a little scared at first to go on slides/moon bounce at first;  but she got in the mood watching Hannu. Me & Vishal got to see our friends. So we all had a good time!