20 months of Elsa!

Elsa is just so much fun. She loves the outdoors, going for walks and eating lots of foods. Arne takes lots of great pictures and videos of her for me. She is a pretty messy eater.


Even with the mess, it is great watching Elsa eat her "ninis" - her name for tortellini or really any pasta.



In the mornings, Elsa has taken to dressing herself. Some days she goes to MINI in her swimsuit. Other days she wears 3 pairs of pants. This day, she just wanted to wear tops.



Elsa loves her MINI daycare and does lots of fun things like riding her trike.


She also really enjoys dancing and did some dinner dancing when out with Arne and his parents.



Elsa is very creative and always seems to have a plan. Sometimes it is just moving food from one bowl to another. Other times it is creating a super high chair for herself.


It is so nice at the end of a long day when Elsa peacefully sleeps.

India Travels

At the start of March, I headed off to India for a 9 day work trip. I had a wonderful time visiting 4 of the Cadence sites, in Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Delhi, and seeing more of the amazing subcontinent.

In Hyderabad I had a Sunday to tour around and see sites. I had last been in Hyderabad 6 years before with IBM. There was a great view from Charminar of all the traffic. I enjoyed all the honking and crazy driving.



That night I enjoyed a sunset over the lake from the rooftop bar.



Next stop was Bangalore, which was filled with traffic! I loved the intersection of cultural artifacts and new construction.



One of the fun things here was running into an old Intuit coworker at our hotel. The most fun thing was enjoying the pool and spa.



The last stop was Delhi. I liked that at each of the sites I was given a "cabin" with my own name tag.



I was last in Delhi 15 years ago, visiting my cousin Alex. The area (and my finances) have improved immensely. I stayed at the Oberoi a wonderful grand dames of a hotel with a butler on every floor and an amazing Spa. I enjoyed the view from my room.



My last night I headed out for some shopping at local markets and a view of the India Gate up close (I also saw it from the roof of the hotel.)



It was an amazing trip. I was so lucky to have Arne home with Elsa and FaceTime to talk with her everyday.

Washington DC Trip

The first weekend in February we headed out to Washington DC for work and stayed with Arne's brother Erik nearby in Takoma Park, Maryland.

We spent most of our first day resting and recovering from travel. That evening, we visited our friends Glenn & Nancy who recently moved to DC from Palo Alto. It was fun to watch Elsa and Gavin play together again.

After a great Sunday breakfast (Erik made us 5 amazing meals during our stay), we spent the afternoon at the zoo with friends. Elsa loves the elephants - she calls them lelos - and we loved the lack of crowds (it was Superbowl Sunday).

On Monday, we went to the Capitol to visit the mall. The Museum of the American Indian had great food and a good kid's play space for Elsa to explore.
We then headed over to the Conservatory at the US Botanical Gardens. It was quiet, relaxing and beautiful. There were many amazing plants and flowers to see.

At the end of the day, Elsa was exhausted and it was time to head home.

Erik was a great host, showing us just how wonderful DC can be in the winter.

18 Months Old!

Elsa is 18 months old! It is amazing how fast a year and a half has gone by! We had a good visit to the doctor, where we learned Elsa is now 33 inches long, but still only 23.5 pounds (she actually lost 2 ounces in the last 3 months). Here she is waiting for her appointment:



This January she has had a lot of fun going on outing with her Daddy.





Elsa says 'cheese' and grins for the camera.



We went to the beach at Fort Funston on a sunny Saturday. Elsa played in the sand.



So did Summer.



But most of all, she enjoyed trying to run into the water!



Daddy carried Elsa up the hill.



Karna is amazed and awed by her daughter. Arne says "so far, so good".

Happy Holidays!

We had a wonderful Christmas Holiday season.
Elsa went to her Dad's holiday party and got to be an office helper - she sure looks good with the phone.

A few days before Christmas, Elsa's cousins came over to Palo Alto, so I could go to a spa with my sister and sister-in-law. Elsa enjoyed sitting on the big stools.

She also shared her favorite book with her cousins.

Christmas eve we headed to Berkeley and got all dressed up for a Christmas eve service.

Elsa was an angel in the Christmas pagent.

It was fun to see all the girls participate in the service.

My family joined us for the outing and then we all headed up to Arne's parent's house for a holiday dinner. Elsa even had her own little table.

On Christmas morning, Elsa really enjoyed all the presents, particularly those belonging to her cousin Sonja!

She also got a wonderful baby doll she calls Bobby (or maybe it is Bahby) that she immediately knew she had to feed.

We then headed to my Mom's house for a Nisewaner brunch and presents.

Aunt Sherry hosted all the Nisewaners for Christmas dinner.

We had a very full Christmas, with lots of cousin time and lots of fun!

Holiday Photo Shoot

Today, Arne's Dad came over to our house for a Christmas Card photo shoot. We are so lucky to have him and his many cameras.

As we got ready in the morning, Elsa had fun dressing up in Mommy's pearls. She is wearing one of her cousin Sonja's dresses and new shoes.



Daddy enjoyed making faces with Elsa.



We tried pictures outside and at a certain point Elsa got very unhappy.



And pictures inside. Elsa really enjoyed the pictures after we blew bubbles.

We moved a mirror, and Elsa enjoyed seeing herself.

Summer was very patient with everyone. Although she did not make it into the final picture, we did get some wonderful shots of her with us.

It was quite a successful morning.