sleepless baby

This is Ella, sleeping in till 10AM the morning after the busy weekend in AA.
unfortunately, she only took one short nap later that day.

A2 weekend

if one of us was offered a faculty job at the university of michigan, we would take it no questions asked. not that UofM is the best university in the universe, it's just that we love Ann Arbor so much. Ben spent more years there than he would like to count. i spent two summers and a winter semester break there, and fell in love with the place... actually, i was a bit spoiled having AA as the first place i got to spend significant amount of time in in the US. it's not like any other "suburb" i've been to since.

to complete the list of places we wanted to go and things we wanted to do, we would have had to either move back to AA or make our visit 2-weeks long :D but we did our best.

we had a rough time pacing ourselves, foodwise: beer+dinner at ABC, breakfast at bigboy, lunch at Haifa Falafel, beers on the patio at good time charlies, frozen yogurt, Buffalo wild wings, cinnabons... we were so full that we didn't get to go to big10 and tim horton.

at Arbor Brewing Company (ABC). Megan and Kevin making Ella smile :)

we also went for a walk in the park - the weather was cooperative, the mosquitoes - not so much, but we got to see the wildlife :)



the highlights for me were ABC, which i miss so much, and going out on a date with ben while Kevin and Megan stayed with Ella. we went to the Earl - i heard a lot about that place, but that was the first time ben took me there.



i think Ella enjoyed the trip, at least most of the time. there were lots of new things to see. she slept well in her new "baby cage" (so well that we had to wake her up in the morning when it was time to go!). the car ride wasn't fun' of course, but we're getting used to it.


next big trip: Cadillac/Canada with the Sharonim!

flying baby

this is what we do to get Ella used to being on her tummy.
she still hates being put on her tummy, and if she's there she would usually just bury her face in the blanket and scream. this way, she has something fun to look at (her dad). hopefully she'll get used to the idea in time, or she'll be flying before she can crawl...


we just got a present from safta Dalia, that we hope will make tummy time more fun as well. we'll keep you updated about how well it works!

afternoon walk

when we run out of entertainment and Ella's bored with anything we have to offer, or just doesn't want to do anything but look at stuff while being held, we take her out for a walk in the park. in the Baby-Bjorn.
i probably mentioned it before, she likes looking at the colorful mosaic on the wall under the bridge on the way to the park - but i didn't have pictures to show. so this time i took the camera with me.
here are some shots!



the whole thing is tiles with tiny pieces of mirror.
i must admit that i was inspired by Karin to take some artistic pictures :P

feet

playtime and grabbing stuff

Ella started reaching for her toys on the weekend of July 4th. she's been getting better and better at it, and it's amazing watching her learn this new skill. if you're very very quiet, you can hear the neural pathways building up in her brain :P

Jealousy

we spent a lovely afternoon with the O'brienim. They recently bought a house in the suburbs, complete with a back yard, basement and a garage (hence the "Jealousy" title of this post :P)
we got there early afternoon, and they had to kick us out in the evening or they would have had us as their new back-yard squatters.

i must say that Pat is a very skilled BBQ-er, and Karin is a fabulous photographer, and i don't know what we would have done without them (we learned to follow their advice blindly when it comes to life's important decisions). Thanks O'brienim, for having us over and for everything else!

[more pictures] [Karin's website]

Indie Cafe

i'm so happy to have found this place in our neighborhood. until today we didn't really have a favorite noodle/thai place around us, probably because we have Noodles Etc at work and we used to eat there at least once a week, which took care of our thai craving (well, mainly MY thai craving. ben doesn't mind eating pbj for dinner every day).

anyway, we discovered this place today, just a few blocks from us. the atmosphere is very nice, lively, the place was pretty full but we didn't have to wait.
we ordered Crab Rangoon, drunken noodles and green curry.
unfortunately, Ella had other plans for us, so we had our dinner packed to go and took it back home with us.
it was delicious! the crab rangoon was amazing. (Nicole, FYI!!)
ben loved the curry, he said that it was finally spicy enough (even when he asks for "extra spicy' at Noodles - it's not enough for him). i really liked the drunken noodles, but i would have preferred thin noodles and not wide noodles.

yum!

Indie Cafe Thai & Sushi [yelp]

Ella saves the planet, one wet diaper at a time

we got a package of "earth friendly" diapers . they cost a bit more than her usual diapers, but supposedly they are bio-degradable and made from materials from renewable resources and not oil-based plastics.

personally i wouldn't go out of my way to "keep oil-based plastics away from babies delicate skin".
however, we do feel bad about adding all this diaper volume to landfills, especially since diapers will stay there for very long time. cloth diapers are out of the question since we don't have a washing machine (we love the earth, but not that much)
so we're trying these earth friendly disposable diapers.

after a few days of alternating between these and pampers, we conclude that the earth-friendly diapers aren't that bad in absorbing wetness, but they're not really getting the job done when it comes to number 2.
so for now, at least until we finish the 40-diaper-bag that we currently have, we use the "industrial strength" diapers in early morning and afternoon, when we expect big messes, and save the earth in between.

TV will rot yout mind? not necessarily!

we both don't like the idea of sticking your child in front of the TV and going on your business. i realize that it can buy you some very needed moments of quietness to do stuff (like blogging :D), but most of what you find on TV and DVD is mind numbing (with the exception of spongebob, hehe)

anyway, when i was still pregnant i had this idea, i think it's a real startup idea that someone can make lots of money off of.
since Ella (and naturally many other kids in the US) will grow up far away from her grandparents, aunts/uncles and cousins, and not see them on a daily basis, putting these people on TV doing something constructive is (1) a way for Ella to become familiarized with their faces and voices, and (2) something worth watching on TV.

out pilot show is Safta Dalia reading the story "Ayelet Metayelet" (Ayelet going for a walk). we shot the raw footage when my mom was visiting, i think it was her last day here, and it's been sitting on my computer ever since. i just finished editing it last night, and today Ella watched it over and over and over!!! she seems to like it a lot. i hope we can make more videos like it - story telling, live music, anything we can think of.

my assistant

Gray Scrooge at the office.

bath time

one of her (and our) favorite times of the day, is bath time :)
careful, don't get splashed on!





Gray Scrooge just wants to make sure he's still part of the family...


p.s. sorry our video camera is so crappy.

p.p.s - watch this!

hanging out

(don't wait for anything crazy to happen at the end, it's pretty much the same for 71 seconds)

Sleepy baby

(long exposure in the dark...)

we're trying to let Ella sleep without being swaddled for the first time. she went through a couple of phases that had her waking herself up -- at first she used to punch herself in the face, and later on when she gained control of her arms she started rubbing her face cause she had a (probably itchy) rash. so we had her swaddled in one of those special blankets that keep her arms tucked in.

let's see how tonight goes.

she's been pretty consistent about going to bed at 9 and waking up in the morning. i hope she'll sleep as well tonight... sweet dreams, little lady bug


Next morning update:
the experiment is a no-go. she woke up at ~11:30, we rocked her back to sleep. then she woke up again at 2:30 and it took a bit more than just rocking to get her to calm down again... we swaddled her for the rest of the night. poor baby. i suppose we'll wean her from being swaddled more gradually, somehow.

secondary bouncer, and Ella finding her hand

it would have been so much easier if Ella liked her pacifier. we tried several different brands, and only rarely she would keep it in her mouth for more than a second. she just pushes it out of her mouth. (although, it seems like she likes it in those rare occasions. sucking calms her down.)

she likes sucking on my fingers, or her own fist. we're working on helping her find her hand, and it seems like we're almost there. her aiming isn't perfect yet. but she's a smart gal, she'll get there!




we got this new bouncer today, it's gonna be the office/travel bouncer. from now on when we take her to work with us she'll have another thing to play with and sit on... not only her parents' boring plots (and code) to look at.

she likes looking at shiny things, including mirrors. when she looks at herself in the mirror she's a bit confused, but in a good way :)

hold me, entertain me, or else!

The last few days Ella has been needier than usual. at first we thought that it's because of the vaccinations she got (the dr told us she may be crankier than usual), but it's been long enough after...
last week she used to be happy just sitting in her bouncer and looking at her starfish for a while, or swinging in her swing. this week, she really really wants to be the center of attention all of her waking time. preferably be held by one of us. OR ELSE. if we just put her down for a minute she starts yelling.

i think she's starting to learn the power her crying has on us.
(in the picture: ben spent a good fraction of yesterday holding and shaking this frog toy in front of her face.)

i spent a few hours "wearing the baby" in the baby-bjorn carrier. yeah, walking around looking at stuff. new favorite: the colorful wall under the bridge on our street, and our own little art museum (see picture --->)

hopefully, just another delightful phase!

doing stuff

July 6th 2009

test

Ella's 2-month checkup at the doctor's office

13lbs, 13oz. (this is about 6.26 kg).
24.5" (about 62cm).
Ella is heavier and taller than more than 95% of the babies her age. the doctor said she's just perfect!
for the first time we heard what it sounds like when Ella is in real pain - she got some vaccinations by injections, and her screams were heartbreaking :( she calmed down pretty fast and fell asleep on my shoulder, then slept in the car till we got back home.
now she's talking to her starfish again, seems like she mostly forgot all about it.

(the blue thing on her thigh is a snoopy band aid they put on her after pricking her with the needle :( brave little munchkin!)

daycare on the horizon

we had a meeting with a potential day-care a couple of days ago. the place is in Hyde Park, just a few minutes from work - so we can drop her off before going to work and pick her up on the way home, and also come and visit her if we feel like during the day.

the care-taker seemed like a warm, child-loving person. she has 6-8 kids that she looks after with her assistant. besides the usual activities (nap times, snack times, playing, books, music...) they take them out to the park, and the older kids get to go to the museums, aquarium, zoo...
we're still trying to decide when to start daycare. for now we take turn watching over the little munchkin, each of us trying to allow the other at least a few effective hours of work each day. we'll probably start gradually, 1-2 times a week at first, and then gradually work up to full time.

one issue that i had was that the person who is the main care-taker of the little ones (like Ella) speaks only spanish, and i was worried that hearing three languages on a daily basis will be too confusing for her.
i asked some parents of bilingual kids, and almost everybody says that a third language shouldn't be confusing, because infants learn language through an entirely different process than adults. she will learn that "Mayim" "aqua" and "water" are just three ways of describing the same thing, much like "pretty" and "beautiful" are two different words with similar meaning.
what do you think?

in the clear

we called the doctor's office about Ella's rash/baby-acne, and they sent us to get some ointment to put on her face. while she didn't like the actual application of the ointment, she did like the end result - her face cleared and stopped being itchy almost right away, and now, only 3 days later, it seems to be all clear. hooray for modern medicine!
the moral of this little story: call the doctor, even when the baby-instruction-book says that "it's normal and there's nothing to do about it".

before	after