Kevin and Megan came for a visit, and after we were done shopping we went for a walk in the Lincoln Park Zoo. most of the animals weren't out for viewing, but the zoo was all lit up for Christmas. Yayy! there are some more pictures in the album.
it was cold and raining, so we had to bundle Ella in her winterized stroller. we had a lot of fun, but poor Ella fell asleep. she'll have to go back next year! 
Eating
After being spoiled by Safta Dalia, Ella wasn't really into eating solids (using this term loosely to describe mushy-mashed-up vegs and fruits). she would close her mouth tightly and not allow anything in. she liked playing with the bowls and when she got herself distracted and opened her mouth for a piece of bowl she sometimes got a spoonful of puree instead.
this turned out to be very frustrating, especially since she was such a good eater earlier. eventually we figured out that she likes bananas a lot, and gradually we're getting her to eat more and more!
December was the Israeli month in our building. The Naozim moved in at the beginning of the month, and Dod Assaf came to visit us for a few days. Being jetlagged, Assaf got to spend a lot of quality time with Ella at 6 in the morning :P
For some reason or other Ella finds this incredibly funny. [movie soon!]
The holidays
this is our very first family Christmas tree. in the last few years we hung up some lights and ornaments, but never had a real fake tree. this year we do! it's plastic so it doesn't need watering.
Hannukkah 2009 -- first candle with the Naozim, and Assaf. we had sufganyot and champagne. it's nice to have people to celebrate the hebrew holidays with.
Ella got a pink snow suit :)
it's nice and warm (though a little too big)
which reminds me to post her picture looking at her first snow, on thanksgiving weekend:
Ella had some fever this weekend, so we took her to the doctor. everything's fine, it's just a cold (or as the doctor said -- "we have lots of kids now with boogers and fever")
picture taken at the doctor's office, a couple of hours after Tylenol :P
Ella thinks Grady is the funniest thing on earth. he's definitely her new best friend.
We woke up Thanksgiving morning to...snow! We bundled Ella up, put on her umbrella, and Grandpa Gary took her for a walk.
Ella took her shots bravely. She weighs 20lb 9oz (9.3 kg), still off the charts. the doctor was impressed by her nice posture and her speaking skills (da-da-da). after that, we took her to school -- all the other kids were happy to have her back, and she seemed happy to see everybody :)
We survived flying back to Chicago.
The flights were ok. The first part (TA-Spain) was with a small plane that didn't have bassinets, so we had to hold Ella during the 5-hour flight + 50-min taxiing. she slept a little, we didn't, the food was terrible (breakfast included mystery gray and mystery hockey puck)(but we were just too hungry).
Everybody on both planes fell in love with her (there was a big group of old people coming back from a tour of the holy land)
i think the hardest part about flying back home was saying goodbye at the airport. it was a sad sad goodbye :(
Ella was smart enough to fall asleep right before the goodbyes. she probably knew it was going to be too hard!
at the airport, Ella asked for and got a welcome balloon.
As could be expected, the little jatlagged princess woke up at 10PM and wanted to play all night, and so we did, Ben took the first shift and I took the second shift (with a little help from safta Dalia, safta Sara, Saba and Ron on Skype).
in the morning the three jetlagged us walked down to get some good breakfast (maybe to compensate for the one on the plane?) and a walk
in the park.
it's a lovely saturday.
here is the sweater that i just finished knitting for Amit.
i made the sleeves longer than in the original pattern, and used buttons instead of the strings.
Ella's new best friend. Safta dalia and Saba oddi even made an emergency trip to ToysRUs to buy one for us to take back home :)
we spent a beautiful friday afternoon on the "Namal" - the TA old harbor.
more pics tomorrow (too tired... gotta go to bed before ella wakes up...)
but here's a pretty one from ben's phone:
coming back home is great. i love being with the family. there are so many things i love about being here that i'm not even going to count them.
but every once in a while something happens that makes me mad and makes me happy that i don't live here anymore... i wish i could just take everybody i care about and transfer with them to some island.
one obvious example is the way people here drive. the road is an ongoing battle, which no one ever wins.
so we're driving to work in the morning, traffic isn't bad at all, we're standing in a traffic light waiting for it to change. someone in a run-down car behind us honks at us right as the light turns green (dude, have some patience!), then rides our tail for not driving fast enough, and as soon as he possible can, makes a dangerous pass in a two-lane road (there was traffic coming in the opposite direction). only to (you must have guessed it) stand right beside us at the next light.
the next day, i had to pay something at the post office. there were 4 people in line (including me). an old guy comes in, starts talking to the guy standing in front of me (very loudly, i must say -- they made plans to meet sometime for a chat). then he looked around, saw me and the other guy that were standing in line, and put himself right in front of us. i would normally just laugh about it, but i was in a hurry, ben and ella were waiting in the car, and the clerk was impossibly slow with the customers (but did take the time to dig up a phone number for someone on the phone that dialed the wrong number and got the post office), and eventually when it was my turn they said i can't pay with a credit card.
i'm so glad that 99% of the people i see during my visit are family, friends and co-workers... i can almost block out incidents like that and pretend that the people i know are a complete representation of the entire population :)
Ella weighs about 9kg (about 20 pounds). She's growing too fast for me. i already don't remember what it was like when she was tiny, and i know i'll miss her being this big when she's bigger... does that make sense?
we just got a bunch of new clothes for her (safta Dalia waited patiently till we arrive!) and they were all sized >12 months.
[ http://www.medcalc.com/growth/ ]
fyi, diaper sizes vary between countries. we used to get diapers size 3 at home (for babies 16-28 lbs), and here size 3 are too small (4-9 kg, => 9-20 lbs). of course we only looked at the number when we bought the package of diapers, and were attacked by exploding poops the next few days (every time, she got us every time). the washer had to work double shifts. i'll spare you the gross poop stories, but just say that they were some of the worst explosions we had so far.
we're now armed with a new bag of size-4 diapers.
Ella met her (second) cousin Itay today. he's a couple of weeks older than her, and i think it's the first time she met someone almost exactly her own age. (well except for her best friend, the baby in the mirror, which she's in love with).
it was pretty amazing watching the two of them get to know each other! there were smiles and amusement from the very first moment, and then they played together for a while. i must say that they were both really good about sharing.
they both really liked this little cowboy toy (it's bright, it's noisy, and it moves, what not to like?) and took turns playing with it.
after this, Ella spit baby puke all over her pretty dress (missing her bib completely!), all over her dad (probably 5 or 6 times today), and a little bit on the floor.
no, we're not rolling yet.
Ella can get from her back to her side, and if we complete the roll for her she can successfully extract her arms from underneath her body into a more comfortable tummy position - but she is yet to do the whole thing on her own. she rolled all the way once for her grandpa Oddi but nobody was able to repeat this observation.
i think she just has no incentive for rolling from her back to her tummy, she knows there's nothing fun there, hehe :)
in expense of not spending enough time on her tummy, Ella is sitting very nicely on her own. we just make sure we're close enough to catch her when she gets distracted and crashes (or we put pillows around her). i think we're going to retire the bumbo seat when we go back home. 
Ella and Ben with matching Halloween outfits, waiting at the gate.
[sorry for the twist in the timeline. i finally had a chance to download some pics from my camera]
here we wait for Ella to get tired enough to go to bed. it's 1 AM. (yes, one in the morning). her new word is "da" as you can hear (she started saying "da" on the plane, while grabbing her feet and trying to fit her toes in her mouth). there's some singing with panda bear towards the end, too.
we're flying to israel in a few hours. i'm completely overwhelmed by packing for the three of us... and can't wait to be there!
we're flying overnight, so hopefully Ella will be able to sleep on the plane. we'll deal with her jetlag later :P
Ella woke up twice last night, and then at 5:30(AM) decided that it's time to play even though it's still dark out. i'm so grateful that Ben is a morning person... i would be a walking zombie otherwise. he's the bestest dad and husband.
it's a little cold here lately, so i crafted two new hats for Ella -- the pink one is a simple cotton hat that she can sleep with. it's light and soft, the fabric is what t-shirts are made of;
the white hat is knitted from Spa yarn. it's super soft and snug. i believe that she'll be able to wear it for a while, it will adjust to her head as it grows.
[hat pattern: with #3 needle; co 120; join, knit in rib pattern (p2,k2) until 2.5 inches; knit in stockinet pattern until 5+3/4 inches; decrease one every 20 st, k the next line, repeat until there are 12 st. close.]
every night, right after Ella takes a bath, we say hellow to the family in the mirror.
