Happy 5770! Happy Autumn!

Here is a quick video of Eliora walking around the table and going for my computer - she will do anything to get to the computer. Sorry it's so dark, but I wanted to post something showing her cruising ability. She is crawling on hands and knees now as well as pulling up and cruising on anything nearby. We've had to baby proof a bit more and rethink some other things in the house. I've just come to accept that this will be an ongoing process for a while as she becomes more and more mobile.

Rosh Hashanah services were quite different this year since we also have Eliora to look after. We didn't stay for quite as long as previous years, but we had a very nice celebration nonetheless.

It's amazing that fall is here, it's 5770, our nephew Skyler is 8!!!, Adam and I have almost been married for 2 years, and Eliora will be 1 in two months! So much to celebrate! So much to look forward to!

And recently...

So, two weeks back from the beach now and we've been rather busy. Adam has been really busy at work and I have been busy with the baby and playgroups. Elie has been busy as well. She cut her first tooth on my birthday and then the second one followed just a few days ago. Teeth make for a cranky baby (just a little), but it's fun to see the changes in her and how she adapts to these strange things growing in her mouth. Once they're fully in I'll snap a picture to post. She's busy moving about crawling and climbing up on things and doing all things baby. We have a new playgroup on Wednesday mornings and I hosted the first meeting this past week. It was a bit crowded with about 8 mother - baby pairs. But, it was nice to meet new people and hopefully this will continue to be a good playgroup. Adam and I are off for a lunch date today while Gale and Peter come over for a little bit. Adam is also taking Labor day off tomorrow so it will be a nice 3 day weekend. We are hoping to make it to Raleigh to see a Chocolate exhibit at a museum. Should be fun!

Outer Banks 2009 (228 photos), by Helene Singer

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Beach Etc.

We had a fantastic vacation at the beach. Elie did really well in the car for the 4 hour drive (which turned out to be a bit longer since we had to stop more for Elie). We went to lighthouses, the Wright Brothers Memorial, the aquarium, and Jockey's Ridge park where you can walk on the dunes -that was exhausting carrying the baby and walking in loose sand! Luckily Aunt Rachel was there and she happily carried Elie out of the park.

We had plenty of time to relax on the beach and in the house, cook meals, go out to eat, do a bit of shopping, and celebrate my birthday! Rachel and Adam were very sneaky with Birthday plans - Rachel decorated the house after Adam and I went to bed, Adam and Rachel baked a cake while I had some time to myself at the beach. I got wonderful presents and phone calls from family. It was a fantastic celebration of the last year of my twenties!

Since the beach, Elie has been sleeping better and getting more and more adventurous. She is oh so close of crawling for real, but still prefers the commando crawl after a few attempts at crawling with her belly off the floor. She is pulling up to standing and starting to cruise on furniture, opening drawers in the kitchen, finding power cords (our outlets are already covered), talking, and getting into pretty much everything! Tomorrow we have her 9 month well child check-up... no shots at this one! But, we will find out how much she has grown and make sure all her little systems are doing well.

I am working on sorting out pictures from the vacation (about 400!) and then I plan on uploading them to a snapfish album so I can just send out a link for people to enjoy them. I hope to get that done early in the week. I have a new playgroup this week as well so I am looking forward to meeting yet another group of moms. I am hoping that this group will stick around. Maybe my old Tuesday playgroup will pick back up once the weather cools down.

Adam is almost done with his first "on call" week at work. It hasn't been too bad, but he's gotten lots of pages and a few in the middle of the night, which is quite startling. At least he only has to do it once every 6 weeks.

We are certainly enjoying being back home and knowing that we aren't traveling again until November for Thanksgiving. But we are looking forward to my sister Lara and her little one (5 months now) Vivienne coming for a long weekend in October. I am hoping for great weather and lots of walks and outside time to exhaust the girls so we can relax together at night. Lots to look forward to and more updates to come!

Videos

July 2009

We've been pretty busy lately. We had a trip to Florida at the end of June for our niece's Baptism. Lots of fun! We've been home keeping busy with the baby, the house and getting rest. We had fun on Adam's birthday playing in Elie's new baby pool... and getting eaten up by mosquitos. Anne & Bob came for a visit and I made my first challah ever with them - was very messy with lots of laughs! Someday I will attempt again. Now we are getting ready to go on a week long vacation to the outer banks! Aunt Rachel is coming with us to make it even more fun... and give us an extra pair of hands with the baby so Adam and I can do things like go swimming at the same time. And in the past week, Elie has learned to crawl "commando" style, sit up by herself from laying down on the floor, and wave! It was quite a week of learning and we are looking forward to watching her learn to do even more! Here are some fun photos from the month...

Watching daddy open his birthday presents

Very cool baby pool and lots of mosquitos (not pictured)

mmmm.... food!

starting to crawl

first time in a real swing

A new syllable... and a new roof!

The past few days have been rather stressful as we had our roof replaced. It was quite loud and Elie didn't really care for all the banging, and neither did I. Yesterday we spent the day at Aunt Gale's house and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Today I ran some errands after Elie managed to nap during the banging and when I came home they were done! Here is a before and after:

Before

After - much lighter!

And, just in time for father's day this Sunday, Elie has learned to say da-da... and da-do-de-da. Of course this isn't directed at Adam, and she says it to everything - happy or upset. It's really cute to see her so excited about acquiring language - of course she doesn't know that's what she is doing. Here is a video to enjoy of her talking to her toys and deciding what to play with next! She does love her exersaucer!