Well, I promised my mom (a.k.a. Grandma) that I would post a video of Sonia, but somehow I haven't managed to actually take one recently (reference my previous post about how our work / life blance is a little off these days). So, here's one from the beginning of the month where we captured the first day that Sonia successfully signed "more" (with a little coaching from Sameer). Strange how she picked up "more", "milk", and "eat" so quickly, but I can't seem to teach her "please" or "thank you." :-)
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
One crazy month
Hello to the two people left who probably are still checking this blog! It has been a tough January at the Dholakia household, as both Sameer and I had big meetings on the 22nd and worked like crazy to prepare for them. I don't think I've worked that hard since about 1995 (and maybe not even then), and it turns out that I don't like it. Sameer, on the other hand, is a closet workaholic, so actually seems to thrive on it a bit. The good news is that both of the board meetings we each had on the 22nd went very, very well which at least somewhat made up for the long hours. And I at least have had a bit of a break since then (including taking Thursday and Friday off this week for some serious Mommy-Sonia bonding time).
Anyway, despite the craziness, there were a few highlights from the month. Most notably, we made a trip to Austin to attend Patrick & Heather's wedding, and it was a great chance to catch up with all of our old friends there. We left Sonia at home with Dada (who managed to watch her all by himself for the entire weekend!), so it was like one big date night. Friday night we hit Sullivan's, which is no doubt not the cool place to go in Austin anymore, but we did see Michael Dell there and they are still serving the pineapple martinis, so I was happy. It was like we got in a time machine and went back to about 1999, and for one night it was great fun. The next day we had brunch with BJR and Lisa (breakfast tacos being just what the doctor ordered after a late night) and then went to the wedding, which was a very nice affair. On Sunday, we met Isabella R. (such a cutie!) and also got to see Ben R. and Peyton P. (and their parents, sans Andy who was at home watching Sloane). We even saw Thad, which was kind of pathetic since he actually lives near us and we had to go all the way to Austin to grab lunch together. But, best of all, they all met us at Freebirds, which was my other can't-be-missed Austin meal. Yum. I must admit seeing all of our friends and imagining the house we could actually afford to buy in Austin made for quite a bit of conversation about moving back there (compounded by me being cranky about having to work so hard). I can't imagine that we would ever actually motivate to move, but it's always fun to think about returning to the land of margaritas and queso.
Sonia is getting more fun by the day...you'll have to take my word for it since this entire month we've managed to take about 5 photos. She is picking up more signs, still doing "more", but also now "eat" and "milk" (the latter one about every 5 minutes, since she is a milk addict). Sameer also taught her to shake her head for "no" -- I can't imagine why he thought that was a good idea -- and she is now doing that all of the time, especially when you try to get her to eat anything that is not fruit or Cheerios. On Friday she and I took the train up to San Francisco (which Sonia thought was great fun) to meet Sameer who was up there for a meeting, and then we headed to the Discovery Museum in Sausalito for a quick visit. Despite being a "museum" it turned out to involve a lot of going outside, which in the pouring rain was not tons of fun. But, Sonia did have a great time in the room dedicated to toddlers, and because of the rain we had it mostly to ourselves. Sameer in his suit was definitely the best-dressed dad there (admittedly, since there was only one other dad, it was not stiff competition). After the museum we headed over to the Dodsons, where we got to hang out with the whole family plus the Glotzbachs. I'm not sure Molly's kitchen has fully recovered from 5 kids attempting to eat dinner (with varying degrees of success), but it was certainly great to see everyone and catch up in small bits in between chasing the kids. :-)
Here are a couple of pictures from our outing to the Discovery Museum...for those of you wanting to replicate my awesome hairstyle, the secret is to stand out in the rain for 30 minutes and then let it air dry.
Anyway, despite the craziness, there were a few highlights from the month. Most notably, we made a trip to Austin to attend Patrick & Heather's wedding, and it was a great chance to catch up with all of our old friends there. We left Sonia at home with Dada (who managed to watch her all by himself for the entire weekend!), so it was like one big date night. Friday night we hit Sullivan's, which is no doubt not the cool place to go in Austin anymore, but we did see Michael Dell there and they are still serving the pineapple martinis, so I was happy. It was like we got in a time machine and went back to about 1999, and for one night it was great fun. The next day we had brunch with BJR and Lisa (breakfast tacos being just what the doctor ordered after a late night) and then went to the wedding, which was a very nice affair. On Sunday, we met Isabella R. (such a cutie!) and also got to see Ben R. and Peyton P. (and their parents, sans Andy who was at home watching Sloane). We even saw Thad, which was kind of pathetic since he actually lives near us and we had to go all the way to Austin to grab lunch together. But, best of all, they all met us at Freebirds, which was my other can't-be-missed Austin meal. Yum. I must admit seeing all of our friends and imagining the house we could actually afford to buy in Austin made for quite a bit of conversation about moving back there (compounded by me being cranky about having to work so hard). I can't imagine that we would ever actually motivate to move, but it's always fun to think about returning to the land of margaritas and queso.
Sonia is getting more fun by the day...you'll have to take my word for it since this entire month we've managed to take about 5 photos. She is picking up more signs, still doing "more", but also now "eat" and "milk" (the latter one about every 5 minutes, since she is a milk addict). Sameer also taught her to shake her head for "no" -- I can't imagine why he thought that was a good idea -- and she is now doing that all of the time, especially when you try to get her to eat anything that is not fruit or Cheerios. On Friday she and I took the train up to San Francisco (which Sonia thought was great fun) to meet Sameer who was up there for a meeting, and then we headed to the Discovery Museum in Sausalito for a quick visit. Despite being a "museum" it turned out to involve a lot of going outside, which in the pouring rain was not tons of fun. But, Sonia did have a great time in the room dedicated to toddlers, and because of the rain we had it mostly to ourselves. Sameer in his suit was definitely the best-dressed dad there (admittedly, since there was only one other dad, it was not stiff competition). After the museum we headed over to the Dodsons, where we got to hang out with the whole family plus the Glotzbachs. I'm not sure Molly's kitchen has fully recovered from 5 kids attempting to eat dinner (with varying degrees of success), but it was certainly great to see everyone and catch up in small bits in between chasing the kids. :-)
Here are a couple of pictures from our outing to the Discovery Museum...for those of you wanting to replicate my awesome hairstyle, the secret is to stand out in the rain for 30 minutes and then let it air dry.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Happy New Year!
We've had a great holiday season, which has been a nice break from the absolute craziness both Sameer and I are experiencing at work (we both have big meetings on January 22nd, so I wouldn't expect much blog posting between now and then). For the holidays, we traveled up to Oregon to visit Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Kevin. Sonia had a great time, clearly reveling in the joy of literally being able to run laps around my parents' much larger house. Yet another reminder that we need to move out of our 2/2 condo into something with more running room.
Another big hit was my parents' dog, Muffy, who has been perhaps permanently rechristened "Go Go". This is Sonia's most reliable "word" (meaning dog, used for live dogs, stuffed dogs, and pictures of dogs) and we heard it a lot while up in Portland. From the moment Sonia woke up she would start to say "go go?" over and over until finally we took her to see Muffy. Everytime she heard the door open she would walk over and say "go go" anticipating that Muffy had come back into the house. It was sort of like living with a catatonic patient who can only utter one phrase -- she would repeat it over, and over again, all day long. To say she was excited to be spending the week with a real, live dog would be an understatement. Sameer has pretty much acknowledged that it is quickly becoming a matter of when, not if, we will get a dog. (For the record, given where we live and how we work, no time soon.)
While up in Oregon, we got to catch up with both friends and family. We hung out with Charity and Kellie and Kellie's whole family, most notably Jayna who is just a month older than Sonia. We definitely had baby-feeding envy as we watched Jayna happily eat anything they put in front of her (Thai food!), while Sonia would eat only Cheerios and freeze-dried bananas.
On Christmas day, Sonia was a little too young to really "get" the whole presents concept, but nevertheless she cleaned up with lots of new toys and clothes. In a questionable call, Santa brought her Tickle-Me-Elmo, which has to be perhaps the most demonic toy sine Chucky. There's a possibility that it may have been accidentally left behind in Oregon. We also took advantage of the fact that Powell's Books was open on Christmas day to make a family pilgrimage there, where everyone (including Sonia) spent their gift certificates from Santa. Sonia was so excited about the store that she skipped her nap, not too surprising given that one of her absolute favorite pastimes is pulling books off of shelves. Sameer and I picked up a few books for ourselves with thrilling titles like "Coping with a Picky Eater." (It appears the likely culprit is that our child has a "drinking problem" in that she is a milk addict, so we have a whole new set of to-do's involving getting her completely off the bottle which so far is not going well, but that's another story.)
The day after Christmas our family came to visit for our big get-together. It was fun for everyone to see how much bigger Sonia had gotten since they last saw her in July, and Sonia watched with big eyes as Arthur (my cousin's son who is 2.5) ran around the living room and talked up a storm.
For the rest of the holiday season, I decided to celebrate by coming down with a nasty cold, which had me sleeping most of the hours and had my husband dealing with Sonia and everything else so much to the point that I think he may be up for sainthood. We rang in the New Year at home, sober (unless Nyquil counts), having watched a Netflix movie and gone to bed before midnight. Nice.
On the development front, Sonia is starting to get more communicative, which is great. In addition to endless pointing (has no one told her that pointing is rude?), she has somewhat expanded her vocabulary. In addition to "go go", she pretty reliably says "da da" for Sameer, occasionally says "ma ma", and now says something that sounds like "may may" for milk. Yesterday for the first time she repeated back the sign for "more" (of course requesting more raisins, her current favorite food), which was pretty great to see. Perhaps her funniest "sign" is that she mimics Sameer who must constantly say "Daddy" and point to himself, so Sonia now says "Dada" and points to herself. Too funny. So now we are working on learning "Sonia", but that is kind of a mouthful for a 13-month old.
Below are our photos from December, and then below that a recent video of Sonia that proves that she does in fact eat sometimes. Lately she is refusing mac n' cheese, but has decided that she likes spaghetti with tomato sauce, which is as messy as it sounds.
Another big hit was my parents' dog, Muffy, who has been perhaps permanently rechristened "Go Go". This is Sonia's most reliable "word" (meaning dog, used for live dogs, stuffed dogs, and pictures of dogs) and we heard it a lot while up in Portland. From the moment Sonia woke up she would start to say "go go?" over and over until finally we took her to see Muffy. Everytime she heard the door open she would walk over and say "go go" anticipating that Muffy had come back into the house. It was sort of like living with a catatonic patient who can only utter one phrase -- she would repeat it over, and over again, all day long. To say she was excited to be spending the week with a real, live dog would be an understatement. Sameer has pretty much acknowledged that it is quickly becoming a matter of when, not if, we will get a dog. (For the record, given where we live and how we work, no time soon.)
While up in Oregon, we got to catch up with both friends and family. We hung out with Charity and Kellie and Kellie's whole family, most notably Jayna who is just a month older than Sonia. We definitely had baby-feeding envy as we watched Jayna happily eat anything they put in front of her (Thai food!), while Sonia would eat only Cheerios and freeze-dried bananas.
On Christmas day, Sonia was a little too young to really "get" the whole presents concept, but nevertheless she cleaned up with lots of new toys and clothes. In a questionable call, Santa brought her Tickle-Me-Elmo, which has to be perhaps the most demonic toy sine Chucky. There's a possibility that it may have been accidentally left behind in Oregon. We also took advantage of the fact that Powell's Books was open on Christmas day to make a family pilgrimage there, where everyone (including Sonia) spent their gift certificates from Santa. Sonia was so excited about the store that she skipped her nap, not too surprising given that one of her absolute favorite pastimes is pulling books off of shelves. Sameer and I picked up a few books for ourselves with thrilling titles like "Coping with a Picky Eater." (It appears the likely culprit is that our child has a "drinking problem" in that she is a milk addict, so we have a whole new set of to-do's involving getting her completely off the bottle which so far is not going well, but that's another story.)
The day after Christmas our family came to visit for our big get-together. It was fun for everyone to see how much bigger Sonia had gotten since they last saw her in July, and Sonia watched with big eyes as Arthur (my cousin's son who is 2.5) ran around the living room and talked up a storm.
For the rest of the holiday season, I decided to celebrate by coming down with a nasty cold, which had me sleeping most of the hours and had my husband dealing with Sonia and everything else so much to the point that I think he may be up for sainthood. We rang in the New Year at home, sober (unless Nyquil counts), having watched a Netflix movie and gone to bed before midnight. Nice.
On the development front, Sonia is starting to get more communicative, which is great. In addition to endless pointing (has no one told her that pointing is rude?), she has somewhat expanded her vocabulary. In addition to "go go", she pretty reliably says "da da" for Sameer, occasionally says "ma ma", and now says something that sounds like "may may" for milk. Yesterday for the first time she repeated back the sign for "more" (of course requesting more raisins, her current favorite food), which was pretty great to see. Perhaps her funniest "sign" is that she mimics Sameer who must constantly say "Daddy" and point to himself, so Sonia now says "Dada" and points to herself. Too funny. So now we are working on learning "Sonia", but that is kind of a mouthful for a 13-month old.
Below are our photos from December, and then below that a recent video of Sonia that proves that she does in fact eat sometimes. Lately she is refusing mac n' cheese, but has decided that she likes spaghetti with tomato sauce, which is as messy as it sounds.
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