petting zoo

a family outing to a petting zoo in the neighborhood.

"what did Ella enjoy most?" asked my mom, and i said, "when the duck stole her cracker :)"

we did enjoy other things, like feeding pigeons, chicken and roosters, petting bunnies and blowing soap bubbles. but having her cracker robbed from her by a duck (or a goose?) was the highlight of the day. Ella had a little conversation with it too, and then of course tried to feed it the rest of her crackers. (i was too busy dodging bird poop to take pictures).

The doctor fixed my broken baby!

pheeewww!!!

poor Ella.
last night Ella asked to be helped up to standing, and (didn't know that at the time) pulled her elbow. she was tired and there are at least four teeth poking out right now, so we thought her screaming is just tiredness combined with teething, and took her home to bed (with some tylenol for the pain). she woke up fine in the morning, didn't show any sign of stress, played hard with Safta Dalia, went for a walk, playground (see below), lunch...

and then broke into tears again just like last night, when we helped her up. we suspected that maybe her arm hurts, but she cried just the same if i touched her right or left arm or moved her leg. not knowing what was wrong we gave her more tylenol.

after her nap i held her hand again, and it was suddenly obvious that her left arm was bothering her. she screamed when i touched it or tried to move it, and she didn't want to use it at all. otherwise Ella was happy and playful, but her left arm was just hanging there. (how i wish she could tell me last night that her arm hurts!!!)

we asked the internet, got a clue of what it could be, and while trying to decide which ER to go to, my mom remembered that there was an Orthopedic in town - a friend of a neighbor - who is actually a hand specialist.

two phone calls later and a lot of luck on our side (she was at home!), we drove to the good doctor's home. the doctor saw us right away, and in a sleek motion (i thought she was just feeling her arm) she put the elbow back in place. phew!!! ella cried and screamed for half a minute, but it was like magic: everything was fixed! it's as if it never happened. it took her a minute to realize that it's ok to move her hand and use it again (it helped that the doctor gave her a yummy snacks to hold in each hand). we stayed for a few more minutes just to make sure that the arm is really ok.

the doctor said that that's Orthopedics' favorite condition: it's an easy and immediate fix, you see results right away without months of physical therapy, and the patients and parents are so happy at the end of the visit!

we then asked Ella: "say doctor"
- "do-tor"
"say TODA"
- "to-da"

:)

sigh of relief. (and went swimming!)

here's some reading about "Nursemaid Elbow".

TV

i missed the end of a pretty good show, because the commercial break was so long, that i forgot that what i was watching was actually interesting and walked away.

(maybe i should watch it online instead)

break the heat with water!

as many of you painfully remember, August can be pretty brutal in the holy land. we missed the hottest days of the summer by a week (the electricity usage in the country actually peaked into an all-time record) but it's still hot and humid.
the house is fantastically AC'd, but you can't really spend the entire time inside, can you?
i'm happy to report that the Sharonim are now the owners of a medium-size portable swimming pool, which they installed in the back yard under the avocado trees.



you can't see anyone in that picture, but there are quite some people in that pool!

we spent some time in it almost every day, and pretty much all day saturday. even Safta Sarah joined us!





Dori spent most of the day in his birthday suit:



on saturday evening, we met Assaf at the beach in TA for a couple of beers and a dip in salty water. Ella enjoyed the buoyancy, but you should have seen her face when she got a taste of the salty water! usually she drinks the pool (or lake) one gulp at a time. or just sticks her tong in the water. but poor Ella, this "lake" isn't her cup of tea!

in the pictures above, Ella is wearing the floaties for practice, to get used to them for when we go into deeper waters (we forgot to bring them to the beach of course).
today (monday) we (and the floaties) visited our friends' pool and had a lot of fun. we're thinking of getting ella some swimming lessons this winter so that she doesn't lose her lake feet!

mmmango

mangoes that taste like mangoes are absolutely awesome. i stopped buying them in Chicago because i got tired of the disappointment every single time. really, you buy a $1 mango and expect it to be good, but it's not even close. not even close.

i didn't know how much i missed mangoes.

mmmmmmmmmmmmm

Fun in Israel

it's time for our annual visit to Israel, and this time we decided to make it a family vacation instead of the usual "we're here for work" visit. (of course we'll do *some* work while we're here, cause we can't help it, but we're not going to the office!)

the date for the vacation was chosen well to hit the hottest part of the year in israel (we actually missed the hottest days by a week, phew).
not really.
we just had to bracket Ella's daycare's summer vacation.


it's the last time we can get by without buying three airline tickets, and we braved the looooong flight with minor incidents (ahm ahm) with a 30-pound baby on our laps. it was an adventure, but after having put ourselves in the right state-of-mind for the job it was manageable. Ella was a good girl, considering! (not that i'm looking forward to the trip back)

we were greeted at the airport by a very excited family and a thousand degrees +100% humidity. we were sweating before we even walked out of the terminal.

i'm not going to write about every single day we've been here, a lot is happening and it's all fun: we spend a lot of time with the family, cool off at the new pool in the back yard, we were delighted to meet the newest addition to the Sharonim clan, and even went to the beach. if i have the energy i might write more about those fun times when i download pictures... until then, know we're relaxing, having fun, and hoping this vacation never ends!

(also: Ella's up to lots and lots of new things. she's saying more words than i can count, she repeats words when we ask her, she remembers people's names and uses them, she knows what all the animals say, she walks, runs, dances, spins, climbs stairs, stands on one foot, helps us in getting her dressed, opens bottles, makes beautiful pictures with her crayons, and the highlight of the week - she actually told me "i pooped" a few times right after she did. i swear she's only 15.5 months old).

Nights at Palomar

i had an awesome time observing at Palomar 3 of years ago, and even took some pictures, but i'm not THAT good!
(maybe i need some practice, a new camera, a good tripod, and an automatic trigger).

until then, here's something i think a lot of you would enjoy:



details here.

milk and cookie

Ella discovered the wonder of chocolate-chip cookies. We can't eat a cookie without it being confiscated and demolished by the little cookie monster! it seems like the apple (or cookie) didn't fall far from the Koester tree.
(and thanks Nicole for the recipe!)(well... for poinint out the recipe on the back of the bag and giving me a tutorial)
 
 

Picasso

Ella helping Picasso
 
 
 

on a clear day...

you can see Michigan!
 

Aug 9, 2010 - showing israeli genes

as part of her "terrible twos" that started terribly early, Ella sometimes knows exactly what she wants - and occasionally can communicate it.
this evening was one of these occasions.

she asked me to come with her (grabbed my finger and pulled me - but we're working on saying "bo'ee"). she showed me to the refrigerator and indicated that she wants me to open it (pulled the handle, but we're working on "open"). usually when she does that she just stands there looking at stuff. i would then offer something, like "do you want yogurt? do you want tut (strawberry)?" and she nods when i hit the thing she wanted.

this time i didn't ask, because i was about to make dinner.

she looked and looked and than pointed at a box.
i asked her: "this is what you want?"
she nodded.
"ok then. let's go to your chair".
she walked over to her chair, i sat her in it, gave her a spoon, and she dug in.

Aug 8, 2010 - new beach

new home - new beach!

the park is just as close to us now (but not as awesome), and the beach is even closer. a short walk and we're there, kiddie pool and all.
after standing in the pool for a little while, Ella surprised both of us, and all of a sudden decided to step out of the pool -- and into the lake! sand, waves and everything!

i'm glad the water is shallow, we could walk in a fair amount and still be less than baby-shoulder deep. (yes, she kept going!) we also had our two very own lifeguards (the beach wasn't very busy at 5pm)

again, the building behind Ella is our home.

Aug 3, 2010 - moving day

moved out and in and settled in before Ella's back from school? not so much.

it was a long and exhausting day. the movers only got in at 11:30am, and with the elevator from hell it took them a long time to translate the content of our apartment to their truck, but in mid-afternoon our old apartment was all moved out, vacuumed, cleaned, patched and inspected. (but it wasn't vacated - there were still some unwanted residents in it...)

moving into the new home seemed easier, but since we were time limited (we could only have the freight elevator until 5:30) everything happened too fast; i didn't have time to send every box to it's place, and there's some minor damage to some of the furniture. i guess that happens when you hire someone to move you.

we spent the next few days unpacking a few boxes each night, trying out the awesome laundry facility, and cooking in our own kitchen again. yayy!

Ella seems to be getting used to her new home. in a last moment decision (on the morning of the move), we opted to give Ella the master bedroom with the adjoining bathroom and the huge amount of space. the idea was to keep her toys and books there, and claim our living room back. it's working out well so far! we enjoy playing in the "playroom", and like the idea of having the entire bedtime routine done in Ella's room and not in ours. and really, we don't need all that space in our bedroom anyway.

all in all it's working out well for us. getting in and out / up and down the elevator is a breeze. no more waiting for 5 minutes for the elevator to come. no more broken leaky laundry room. no more traffic to deal with. no more cockroaches! even the scroogim feel at home already.

so even though moving was a huge pain, it was worth it.



(pictures to come after we're done hanging pictures)

at the beach

Aug 1, 2010

we took a break from packing and headed down to the beach with the Naozim. We camped ourselves close to the water, and built a roof over Ella's pool with the strollers and a blanket.



slowly getting used to the cold water, ben and Ella had fun splashing and jumping up and down in the water.
(note the building directly behind Ella is our old building)




although we didn't really use the beach that much, i'll miss having it. we do have a beach just as close at the new place. but it makes me a little sad that we won't be a short 5-minute walk from a morning like that with our friends. from now on we'll have to coordinate such excursions much in advance, and it will involve some of us driving across town.

bye bye north side

 
i like this picture of Ella walking around in the park. (July 25, 2010)

sharing

July 26, 2010

Peter shares cheerios with Ella on the ride home.

seen on the road

moving ads are on buses all over town. this one seemed very appropriate.


"the exterminator is now my facebook friend. time to move."