First Hannukah

HG loves listening and watching the family light Hannukah candles. She enjoys studying the candles, especially sitting in her highchair by the table with the hannukiot on it and "joining in" the festive family dinner.

One night this week Ima and HG lit candles early in the evening, and then Ima took HG to bed. Abba got home late and lit his own candles. As soon as HG heard Abba bentshing lecht she woke up and gave a little cry with a hurt expression on her face, something along the lines of why is he bentshing lecht without me?! Kind of the way she reacted to being left out of kiddush one week.

A few times now when the family lit Hannukah candles or made havdalah while she has been nursing, she has stopped eating, looked up, and waited for the brakhah to be over before resuming nursing. She seems to really enjoy brakhot and davening of all kinds.

HG has had a busy first Hannukah - parties, one wedding, a simhat bat and a one day conference on local history!

At first HG was riveted by the lectures on local history, an annual Hannukah event in the town of the Maccabees. In general she usually loves lectures. The problem was ="0" alt="" />that she enjoyed it so much, especially the slideshow of local archaeological sites, that she started talking too, and so Ima had to take her out. Then she was quiet again, but soon became hungry and there was nowhere to sit and nurse her, so Ima had to take her out again. Then she fell asleep, so Ima got to hear the last lecture. She charmed at least one of the speakers. When HG's great uncle went to ask him a question the archaeologist couldn't take his eyes off HG, nestled, in her great uncle's arms. She gave him a huge smile and he beamed back.

She really has a ball on social occasions, she still loves to meet people and enjoys being held by family and friends, crawling on furniture, smiling at everyone and exploring new surroundings when she visits an unfamiliar place.

Thursday night of Hannukah the family attended a Hannukah party in the town of her birth and she glowed, watching the party games and even joining in. One game entailed trying to drop an (unlit) candle in an empty mineral water bottle. Those participating had their back to the bottle and a candle tied to their backs. HG was exploring and swiped the bottle just as her great uncle was finally getting the hang of things... Everyone was laughing so hard that no one got a picture.

The furniture at the friends' house was ideal for her, deep enough that she couldn't fall (with her Abba sitting in front of her of course), but with nice backs that she could practice lifting herself up on. She even managed to lift herself to a stand a couple of times.

Books and reading remain a big thrill for her. This Shabbat a family friend came to stay. At first she was a little wary of him, he is very tall and wears a big black hat. At shul though he sat with Abba and HG's great uncle and she became a bit less shy, becoming interested in his siddur and by Shabbat lunch they were friends, she kept looking across the table to him and smiling. When she bumped her cheek and gave a little cry, he showed her the page from the Tikkun he was practicing from and she smiled, fascinated, looking as though she was trying to read it. A few minutes later of course she also tried to taste it. Then she held out her arms indicating that she would like him to hold her afterall.

This evening this friend and her great uncle were looking at some old maps of the area. HG indicated that she'd like to be held, and joined them in studying the maps, staring at them intently, and reaching to feel them.border

Water, water everywhere!

HG has developed a new fascination with water. Over the last few weeks everytime the person holding her (usually Ima) tries to drink a cup of water, HG reaches for the cup, lately becoming so determined to grab it, that one cannot drink while holding her.

What she does with the cup though is interesting - she tries to drink from it. This Friday night, as everyone was sitting at the Shabbat table, HG got fed up with her highchair, so Ima held her. As Ima tried to take a drink of water, HG grabbed for the cup, fortunately plastic, and with both hands, put it to her lips and tried to drink, spilling most of it on herself, but managing to drink some too.

A few days later she grabbed the little bottle of mineral water Ima was holding, and had a go at drinking that too. So later that day Ima tried her with a sippy cup, but she couldn't quite get the hang of it. She did seem to enjoy a little water in her bottle though, to help her wash her meal of stewed plum puree down.

Lately while taking a bath she has often tried to scoot down into the water and put her face down, as though trying to drink the bath water. Bathing HG has sometimes become a two parent job, one to hold her and stop her from trying to drink the bath water, and one to wash and play with her.

One of her Hannukah presents was a "fish pond" - an inflatible toy with a transparent section in the middle that you can fill with water. The section that's filled with water contains colourful plastic fish that float and move in the water. The impression it gives is of the flat surface of a little garden pond. It's kind of like a baby size water mattresss. HG loves lying on it, sitting on it, banging her hand on the cover of the "pond" to make the water bubble and the fish move, or just chewing on the plastic dragon fly that "sits" at the edge of the "pond".

First Brit

HG has a new male cousin and today she attended his Brit. meeting several cousins she hadn't met before and trying to "talk" to all of them.

What's new with us

Long time no blog! We've been busy, we've had colds, and last week our computer was in the shop. Lots of news; we'll have to focus on the main points.

Food: HG has started on solids. She's still mostly nursing, but we try to give her a bit of "real" food about once a day. She's been grabbing for our food for a couple of months already, so we finally relented. Last week we gave her some mashed banana. She loved it but ended up a bit constipated. This week we're trying her on pureed zucchini, which she's also enjoying greatly. She doesn't have room for more than a couple of tablespoons at a time.
Since the zucchini is runny, we have to spoonfeed her for the first time. The first time, she kept grabbing for the bowl of the spoon, but after a while she got the hang of it and now she takes the spoon by the handle and feeds herself.

Today, after having some zucchini (and liking it), she pushed the spoon away, looked at Ima and indicated that she wanted to nurse. She's never had to decide what to eat before!


Play: She enjoys playing with her big rubber ball. It's pink, about the size of a volleyball, and it has little "spikes" all over it which make it easy to grip. She laughs sometimes when we bounce it for her. Today for the first time, she played ball with us. Ima or Abba rolled the ball to her, and she rolled it back, several times in succession.

She's also just starting to throw things, especially when sitting in her high chair. For now, that means her blocks and toys, but it's presumably just a matter of time before she starts throwing food. Pleasures to look forward to.



Reading: Abba often reads her a bedtime story, usually Goodnight Moon. Tonight for a change he read her The Little Engine That Could. About two-thirds of the way through, she seemed to get fed up with it, and reached out to close the book. Abba insisted on continuing, but she got a bit kvetchy and kept trying to close the book. Then she reached forward for the stack of books, took Goodnight Moon and gave it to Abba. She seemed pleased to have it read to her. (Unfortunately, she wouldn't go to sleep afterwards.)


Standing: HG's still working on learning how to stand. She's better and standing while holding on with one hand, and she's pretty good at supporting herself against the couch. When she's next to Ima or Abba in bed, she can often climb her way into a standing position supported against them. She can't do that with the furniture yet, though. There aren't good enough handholds. She's working on it, however. Sometimes she just lies next to the sofa, peeking under it and laughing. We'd like to know what's so funny there.

Upset at missing kiddush

HG seemed to be in the mood to play, so Abba and Ima left her to play on her play mat while they sang Shalom Aleikhem and then began to make kiddush. As she heard "Yom Hashishi" HG began to screech and make her protest noises, looking up from her playmat towards the table with an expression of reproach. When Abba picked her up and held her through the rest of kiddush she smiled. She was upset that she had been left out of the family kiddush. Perhaps she was worried that Abba would forget to give her her weekly drop of wine which she always avidly sucks from his or Ima's little finger.

HG has developed quite a fascination with shoes and feet, be they her own (feet, no shoes yet), or anyone elses. If someone sits on the sofa or chair near her playmat she will crawl over to investigate, examining the texture of the footwear or sock, playing with any laces, buckles or velcro fastenings and try if she can to taste the foot. So far her parents have succeeded in preventing her from tasting any shoes or feet, but she keeps trying...

HG's attempts at walking continue. She likes holding onto Ima, Abba's or one of her "aunties'" hands and walking towards them, rather shakily, but sometimes very fluently.

She now routinely shows that she is finished eating from Ima by sliding of Ima's lap and into a stand. She then leans against Ima and gradually pushes away, trying to stand on her own, but falling. Fortunately she has only been trying this when Ima is nursing her in bed or on the sofa - ie where there is room for HG's new antics.

When practicing standing she now often deliberately sits down and then scrambles to her feet - while holding on to a grown-up's fingers of course. Sometimes she can go for half an hour or more, just practicing sitting down and getting to her feet again.

In general, she spends a lot of time in a sit, trying to work out how to stand up.

While holding on to Ima's fingers she gets from a sit to a stand via kneeling. Practicing on her own she gets from lying down and crawling to sitting and once even kneeling by pulling herself up against the arches on her playmat.

At the Mum and Tots group this week she became fascinated by red bumpy "sensory development" ball and held her own against an 18 month old who kept trying to grab and play with the same ball. HG was having such a good time with the ball that Ima decided to get her one too. HG's is pink - like most of HG's things.

At the same meeting she came face to face with Shira, a baby who is only a week older than HG. HG started touching her face(almost poking her eyes...), patting her head and studying the new baby, while Shira stared back as if to ask what on earth HG wanted with her. Eventually the two seemed to smile at each other and have some kind of mutual interaction.

This Shabbat Shira's parents hosted HG and parents for lunch. HG's Abba and Shira's Abba sat the girls together on the big sofa. This time Shira put our her hands to HG and HG took them and put them into her mouth, and then reciprocated by reaching out to Shira's face. Then she sort of shuffled into a sitting position and grabbed Shira's outstretched hand so that they were sitting side by side, hand in hand. Very cute. Of course it was Shabbat so no photos. Seems to be when HG often does her cutest things.