breakthroughs

we had two major breakthroughs yesterday.
in the effort to keep baby happy and content, we've started to run out of ideas. there's a good number of things she likes doing (besides eating, which is #1): staring at our faces, sitting on her bouncer and playing with us, or looking at her aquarium on her own, looking at her mobile, or sitting in her bouncer half asleep while ben's foot is in charge of the bouncing... but she would only do any of those for a limited amount of time, and then she gets bored, and starts to cry expecting us to solve her discomfort or entertain her otherwise (see baby loop post...).
when everything else fails, ben just holds her upright, facing forward, and walks around with her so she can "look at stuff". if you don't have a baby around, try holding a 12lb (5-6 kg) bag of potatoes like that for a while. it's a muscle builder.

well, FINALLY, Ella warmed up to her swing, which puts another weapon in our arsenal.*

and yesterday while shopping at Meijer's, and Ella wanted to be held and look at us and wouldn't agree to stay in the stroller, she finally warmed up to the baby carrier. (we did use it once before when she was too little to argue). now that she can hole her head, she can face forward and look around, and she likes it much more. and we like it much more, because it's easier on our backs and arms :)

* if anyone is looking for a good useful present for us, a battery charger (that takes all sizes of batteries) is a good idea. both the swing and the bouncer are battery-operated ;)

sleeeeeep

if you need something to help you sleep more calmly, here:

Phil's new home

Phil the philodendron has outgrown his home, and it's time to help him move to a new, larger apartment :)


(before)


the roots have completely filled the old pot. definitely time to move out! scrooge is trying to help of course.

after: Phil is happy in his new stylish pot.

i also gave him a little bit of a haircut, because he's trying to make his way down the hall to our bedroom with his long tentacles :P

note

i'm still behind in writing about Ella's first weeks, i saved some space for them below and will update when i actually get to publish them. sorry. as i said before, parenthood means that you don't always have time to do.. well.. anything :P
and a reminder - the link to the photo album is on the right.

June 25 - schedule

we think, hope, that our little munchkin is converging into a reasonable schedule. in the last few nights (maybe we have grandma Sandy to thank?), she went to bed at 8-9PM, slept till 3am woke up for a late night meal and went back to sleep until 7AM.
sometimes the 3AM-7AM stretch was shifted by a couple of hours (i.e., 1AM-5AM) but she still went back to sleep right after eating, without complaining or fussing or wanting to play. we're cautiously happy about that.

in the meanwhile, we're trying to figure out a daily routine, that will allow us both to get some work done (suggestions are welcomed!)
we tried taking Ella to work again today, but unlike the last few times (a week ago) when she was content if she was dry and not hungry - now she needs to be entertained if she's awake. smart little girl :) we can't carry around her mobile/bouncer/bookshelf with us, so our options are a bit limited at work. still we both got a couple of hours of work out of the day.

June 24 - baby talk

our dealing with Ella's crying, in the first few weeks, was much like a nested if loop:

usually one of those things was broken, and we could find and fix whatever was wrong... recently, another thing was added to the loop: boredom. she's an active baby, that needs to be looking at something, smiling at someone, or talking about stuff whenever she's awake. it's adorable, but hard to maintain :)

lately she likes to interact with her mobile. we didn't hang it on her cradle because it would throw it off axis :P but we were able to improvise.
she spent about 20 minutes talking to the mobile, trying out her vocal options.



sadly, grandma Sandy had to go back home to grandpa, Grady and the cats. come again soon! PLEASE!!!

week 7

june 23
trying to get Ella to spend some time on her tummy is hard - she gets upset pretty fast. we try to keep her entertained with the help of safta Dalia's art.

we took advantage of Grandma Sandy's patience, and left them together alone again :)

June 21: more baby clothes, and Father's Day
Ella is pretty big for her age (in a very lady-like way, of course!) and after sorting and washing the 2nd batch of baby clothes that her safta Dalia brought from israel, we realized that we're not in sinc with the seasons. the clothes she wants to wear now (i.e., the ones that aren't too small) are labeled "3-6 months". by that age it would have been fall, and therefore most of these clothes are long sleeved shirts and long footed pants! while we do have some short sleeve shirts and onsies that fit her,
so we decided we probably need some short pants. summer can be brutal in chicago :P

that means that Grandma Sandy and us had fun at Babies'R'Us shopping for more baby clothes! someone had to stop us after a while so we don't end up buying the entire store. and, hurray for the clearance isle :)

having grandmas over is so great, we actually get some time for ourselves. we hand Ella over to grandma in the morning and get a couple of extra hours of sleep, and tonight we went on a date and had a couple of beers at Hop Leaf (and mussels. mmmmm!!!)

all in all, great Father's day :)

June 20: summer!
it's 88F (31C) out today and sunny, a perfect summer day (though some would say it's too hot). we walked to Gesthemeny to ask the experts there about repotting Phil and the orchid, which finished flowering for this year. Phil graduated to the next size pot, and orchid can be trimmed down and may flower again next year. i admit that i'm not taking as good care of my plants as i used to since Ella was born...

June 19: first day without mom&dad, and the grandma lock
Sandy came to spend a few days with us, so first thing we did is leave Ella with her for the day and go to work! it sure was strange not having her around. walking down the street without a stroller, and actually getting work done at work!
after a few hours i missed ella too much :)
ella and grandma had a good time. it rained all day, so not a good day for a walk in the park, but they got lots of playing time.

June 18: first words
until now Ella mostly said "ah ah ah". on thursday morning, just after being changed, Ella was (as usual) talking to her butterfly, and said "echo", and then "aba".

The first week

I totally recommend Northwestern for delivery. Starting from a couple of hours after giving birth, and fir the next 48 hours, the three of us stayed in our own private room, that has a bed for mom, a fold-out bed for dad, and baby crib. The grandparents spent the days with us taking turns holding Ella :)
Everything seemed to be going just great. Ella's checks came out perfectly normal, and breastfeeding seemed to be natural for her!


going home

On the third day it was time to be discharged and leave the hospital. Ella's pediatrician came to check and release her, and my doctor came to check and release me, we got a load of supplies (diapers, etc) to take home, and a tiny hospital volunteer came to show us how to lock the baby in the car seat and accompanied us out the door.

At home, safta Dalia and gramma Sandy waited anxiously for us all :) it was Thursday, and soon enough we had to say goodbye to Saba Oddi.

boom trach
Ella's bowel movements have a way of announcing themselves very loudly (well, she's taking after her Sharon unclus!). one afternoon saba Oddi read "a tale of 5 baloons" to her, i wish i had that on video (sorry for the non-hebrew readers, it just doesn't translate well):

פגשו הילדים את אבא של רון.

שמח רון ואמר:
אבא - נפל את הבלון הצהוב!
שיהיה גדול - כמו הראש שלך!
גדול - גדול כמו.. כמו... השמש!!
אבא ניפח את הבלון... ניפח... וניפח...

ופתאום בום! טרך!

and at that exact moment, Ella shot one so loudly... it was just on cue. that's why we call her poops "boom trach" ever since.


weekend
Gary, Kevin and Erin joined us for the weekend. everybody's favorite pass-time activity was "holding the baby". except for me, i tried to also get some sleep...

Ella made sure she tries on all of her newborn outfits by having us change her clothes every time we changed her diaper. the way to do that, for the record, is to pee all over EVERYTHING as soon as the diaper is off.
(hey, we're new parents. of course most of our stories are going to involve poop)
more weekend pictures here

first doctor's appointment
we took Ella to see the doctor, at 4 days old she weighed 8lb 1.5oz (0.5oz more than when we left the hospital - babies lose some of their birth weight, mostly fluids).