A Baby Really Does Bring a Family Together

Manish and I have been married for a while now, and we certainly felt like a family unit. However, having Sonali makes this bond even stronger, and I feel like we're even more of a family now. It's a very special feeling that's really hard to explain.


Sonali is also the reason my parents and sister were at our place for Diwali. My mom got here just in time for Sonali's birth and my dad came a few days later. My sister had planned on being here Diwali weekend as it was just a few days after the baby was due. There is no way I could have convinced everyone to come here for Diwali without the baby! This was the first Diwali I'd spent with my parents and sister since 1996.


Here are a few pictures from Diwali. You can see a few more pictures here.

As an added bonus, we celebrated my dad's 60th birthday as a family. Sonali's first outing was to a Jain temple in Milpitas followed by dinner at CPK for her grandfather's birthday. A couple of pictures are below, and the rest can be seen here.

All in all, it's difficult to imagine that a mere 4 weeks ago, it was just Manish and me enjoying our "unencumbered" life. We went out as we pleased - four days before she was born, we were out until 1 a.m. at a birthday party for a couple of friends. I also did not have to plan for the baby's every meal (breastfeeding is certainly an interesting phase!). Since then, we've had a house full of family. Even now, with my sister and dad back in their respective homes, we still have my mom here - and the four of us have settled into our own new pace of life. All of us also exchange several text messages a day, usually with a picture or two of the baby.

I wouldn't trade this life for the one we had before. I guess we've entered a new phase!

How is daddy going to go back to work?

Manish is planning to go back to work on Wednesday. I'm not sure how he's going to spend the whole day away from his darling daughter!

Welcome to the World, Sonali

It was a typical Wednesday morning -- well, as typical as 4am can be at almost 39 weeks pregnant. Manish woke up with Minal tossing and turning in bed. This time, though, the discomfort didn't go away, and we realized that we might be meeting our baby soon.  

We labored at home for many hours, making slow and steady progress. At around 2pm, things accelerated sharply, producing the nice hockey stick curve investors like to see. As the fast-paced action continued, we realized it would be wise to make our way hospital (though with a slightly different tone at the time - through contractions every other minute, Minal clearly ordered Manish to get into the car immediately). So, the mad dash to the hospital commenced, in hopes that we'd avoid delivering a baby in the car (despite how much fun that seems in sitcoms). Thankfully, we made it in time, and mere minutes after we got into the delivery room, Minal's water broke. The hospital room could best be described as organized chaos and about half an hour later, we met our bundle of joy for the first time.

The box score:

Name: Sonali Mili Sambhu
Time: 4:39pm PDT on October 24th, 2012 (just in time for game 1, Tigers v. Giants)
Weight: 7 lbs, 1 oz
Length: 18 inches

According to the Hindu calendar, Sonali was born on Dusshera - the day that Ram defeated Ravana and also the day that the Goddess Durga defeated the demon king, Mahisasura. It is the day that celebrates the victory of good over evil all over the country. Clearly, we have low expectations of her ;)

It's been a memorable first week for us.  Here's a glimpse of it...

A few more pictures here -- https://picasaweb.google.com/minalandmanish/WelcomeSonali

Happy New Year

We hope everyone's having a good 2009 so far. Looking back on 2008, we thought we'd make a quick video summarizing our year. Have a look.

Back to School

We've been in US now for slightly under a week and I'm definitely happy about being back. Our move into our new apartment was somewhat of a disaster - Manish's flight in from Seattle got cancelled and I ended up having to deal with cranky movers all by myself, parts of our furniture were missing and couldn't be reassembled for a while, and some of our boxes are still not here. However, we have almost settled in - and even cooked dinner at home tonight! It's really nice living in an urban area. There are two Indian grocery stores within walking distance from our apartment!

I start classes tomorrow and I am strangely excited about that. Hopefully I will be able to remember this feeling when I am sleep deprived :)

Anyway, as you can see, Manish and I are thinking that we might continue this blog. Our updates will probably not be as exciting, but who knows, maybe they will :)

A Splash of Color

When we got to Santorini, we were surrounded by muted colors. Brown cliffs, hazy blue sea. Beautiful, in a calm way. As we explored the island further, we realized that there really were splashes of color everywhere. Red pebbles on the red beach. Whitewashed churches with gorgeous blue domes. Bright buildings every now and then that looked like they should be in Venice. And most amazingly, the incredible hues of the famous sunset. One evening, we scrambled over some rocks and found our way to the top of an isolated church - where we shared the sunset with a couple from Nice. The next evening, we joined the masses in Oia for a magical, if not peaceful, sunset. Really - people actually started clapping once the sun went down. All part of the touristy fun though :) 


Soon our vacation will come to an end, and I am already starting to get a little sad about that. However, we have one last hurrah before we board the flight home. We are heading to Central Greece tomorrow to check out Delphi and Meteora. Meteroa, especially is supposed to be quite hot, but extremely pretty. 

Wi-fi at Piraeus Port

We are waiting to board our catamaran to Santorini, and I discovered that the port we are waiting at has wi-fi! Of course, the boat itself is delayed by an undetermined amount. It was supposed to leave 15 minutes ago, but hasn't even arrived yet. Latest information (that is not broadcast, but can be found out upon asking) is that the boat will arrive here in 45 minutes, and will take off again whenever it is ready to leave after that. No wonder they make Internet available for free here :)