CLAPPING!

we were playing with ella, admiring how she puts a ball through a hole, and encouraging her by saying "yayy!" and clapping every time she put the ball in the hole.

then suddenly she put her two hands together... and she put her two hands together again... and before we knew it she was clapping with us!
WOW!!

that was the fastest i've ever seen her to learn a new skill.

after repeating that for a few minutes (ella takes ball -- puts ball in the hole -- we say yayy and clap -- ella claps with us) we remembered to turn the camera on. i'm so excited!

Shedd Aquarium

Jan 3, 2009

It's always fun to go to the aquarium, and now it's even more so when we see things through the eyes of little ones. This sunday we met the Naozim and Nicole and Peter at Shedd -- FUN!!!
Ori was extremely excited to see all the fish and called at them "GIM! GIM! GIM!!!" (shord for "dagim" = fish). Peter seemed like an old pro at the aquarium, and ella couldn't figure out what's more interesting: the fish tanks, the explanation posters, or all the little kids running around her.
i think we're gonna get our membership's worth this winter :)

photoshoot

it's probably not the first time that i mention what a great photographer our friend Karin is. here are a few photos she took of Ella when we visited them this weekend.

Happy New Year!

Dec 31, 2009
we celebrated with Nicole, Dan and Peter.
it was a children-oriented party, the countdown was at 8pm and noise was not frowned upon.
after dinner we went back home, and tried to get a good night of sleep. ('tried' being the key word).

Nicole, Dan and Peter with traditional miso soup, crab rangoon, and an extra-dirty, extra-olive martini.

you can't even tell from the pictures that ella had just banged her head in the table... she sneezed and hit the table. poor thing. she didn't know what hit her, literally! she looked at us for a few seconds, very confused ('wait, what was that? sneezing is supposed to be fun!') and then started to cry, and then got distracted by something, and all was forgotten.


ella loved her party hat.


ima had to try the hat on too...

and of course, the best use of such a hat is as a musical instrument.




the three of us having a drink for the new year (at 8pm): champagne - formula - champagne.

party girls!

a new and exciting skill

Ella is getting really good at picking tiny objects and putting them in her mouth. so far it's been baby snacks; we should really keep small objects away from her. luckily she can't crawl yet, or the scroogim would lose their dinners.

zoo, take II

Dec 29, 2009

I spent a beautiful afternoon at the zoo with Ella, Smadar and Ori. as i mentioned before, most of the animals are wintering away somewhere. but the cats were out and about. this guy who was walking out in the snow roaring, gave us a good show.



this time Ella stayed awake for most of this visit.



it was coooooold, one of those beautiful sunny days where the clouds don't serve as a blanket and the little warmth given by the sun quickly escapes.



[picture of me & ella from smadar's camera]

when the sun disappeared behind the buildings, the lights on the trees turned on. this time ella was up for the sight and was very excited by the pretty lights.

Christmas 2009

we spent christmas with the family in Cadillac. ella had fun sitting/lying/rolling on the floor, and so did grandpa and grady.



on the night before Christmas ella must have been too excited to sleep (or maybe she wanted to catch Santa). she woke up every two hours. needless to say that we didn't get much sleep either... i heard that there's such a thing called "conservation of energy": the more energy your child has, the less energy is left for you. it must be true, as she was wide awake and happy on Christmas morning, and we were... well... tired.

Opening presents on Christmas morning: luckily Santa was informed of our whereabouts -- Ella got plenty of cool presents from him! and so did everybody else.
Ella gave everybody presents that she made herself. she liked opening the presents and play with the ribbons.