Hadas

our new niece Hadas enjoyed a relaxing nap outdoors, while her brother, sister and cousin were raising hell in the pool. isn't she adorable?

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).