Passover is my favorite holiday. I love the idea of cleaning the house and setting out special dishes and doing a lot of baking and cooking. I love having family around and telling the story of our ancestors. I love the time we all spend together and the yummy foods.
Hadarya's first Passover was spent at "Uncle" Eli's and "Aunt" Susie's house. We had made arrangements to be guests this year since we were going to be on vacation until the day before and all of our immediate families has plans to be other places! It turns out (due to the health issues mentioned in previous post) that my immediate family was in town and joined us too. It was a night to remember and we have photos to prove it!
Hadarya has been laughing out loud for some time. She has a great laugh, a funny giggle, and infectious belly laugh. It's easy to get her to laugh and you can do lots of things to illicit any of the above responses. Tickle her under the arms, play peek-a-boo, get items out of the basket from her stroller (over and over and over again) and she thinks it's a game; hide behind the wall and come out into the doorway;jump on the couch cushions or blow raspberries on her belly with a rough beard.
The creative minds of the Meltzer clan decided to do a shortened children's Passover seder that included props, scripts, and music. The big kids sat around the dining room table and the adults stood on the outside. I was at the far end of the room holding Hadarya while the play was being performed at the other end. She sat her in pretty dress and watched what was going on. At the point in which the burning bush showed up, Hadarya broke into spontaneous hysterical laughter. Jennifer held the bush up but had not started moving it or shaking it and huge giggles erupted from our side of the room. She laughed so hard and for so long, that everyone else was laughing with her. The photos on flicker show her big giggles and the responses of everyone else.
I feel safe to say that my daughter loves Passover as much as I do. I hope that continues as she gets bigger and gets to help clean the house!
Apr 18, 2007
Apr 11, 2007
Vacation Interrupted
On Saturday, March 25th, we took off for a long anticipated trip to Yosemite for a week. We planned this vacation 13 months ago and without a baby in our thoughts. We were eager to travel with her and explore this park for the first time.
We stopped in Los Angeles for a baby shower of some dear friends and had a ball being with them. On our way out, my sister called to tell me that my father had been hospitalized with chest pains. We turned around and returned to San Diego.
My father, who plays golf once a week and visits the gym 5 times a week, had been experiencing chest pains when he exercised over the last week. He kept it to himself until that morning when he and my sister did a 5K walk. It was determined that he DID NOT have a heart attack but there was obviously something wrong.
On Monday AM, they did an angiogram and discovered two blocked arteries. The doctors at Scripps inserted 3 stents into the arteries and yesterday he got a clearance to resume all normal activities. It was a scary time in our family. We also were dealing with health issues of my mom (bone spur, unable to walk without wrenching pain!) and my aunt (bladder cancer, 90% coverage, surgery April 13th) and my uncle (tumor on bladder probably cancer). It was a tough week.
We ended up leaving Monday night to still be away for the rest of the week, which ended up being enough time away. It was a delightful time spent as a family, relaxing, hiking, napping, reading, and just being together. It was hard because our hearts were at home with our families and worrying about how everyone was.
We took a day long tour of Yosemite that ended up being a private tour and was just amazing. We had a great tour guide, who "babysat" our sleeping beauty when she was napping during an opportunity to hike. She actually awoke when we were at the falls taking pictures and she just smiled away at Gordon... whom she had not met until the moment she opened her eyes! She continues to amaze us with her flexibility and friendliness.
It was nice to be home and be WITH our family and experience Passover and still be off of work for an entire week!
We stopped in Los Angeles for a baby shower of some dear friends and had a ball being with them. On our way out, my sister called to tell me that my father had been hospitalized with chest pains. We turned around and returned to San Diego.
My father, who plays golf once a week and visits the gym 5 times a week, had been experiencing chest pains when he exercised over the last week. He kept it to himself until that morning when he and my sister did a 5K walk. It was determined that he DID NOT have a heart attack but there was obviously something wrong.
On Monday AM, they did an angiogram and discovered two blocked arteries. The doctors at Scripps inserted 3 stents into the arteries and yesterday he got a clearance to resume all normal activities. It was a scary time in our family. We also were dealing with health issues of my mom (bone spur, unable to walk without wrenching pain!) and my aunt (bladder cancer, 90% coverage, surgery April 13th) and my uncle (tumor on bladder probably cancer). It was a tough week.
We ended up leaving Monday night to still be away for the rest of the week, which ended up being enough time away. It was a delightful time spent as a family, relaxing, hiking, napping, reading, and just being together. It was hard because our hearts were at home with our families and worrying about how everyone was.
We took a day long tour of Yosemite that ended up being a private tour and was just amazing. We had a great tour guide, who "babysat" our sleeping beauty when she was napping during an opportunity to hike. She actually awoke when we were at the falls taking pictures and she just smiled away at Gordon... whom she had not met until the moment she opened her eyes! She continues to amaze us with her flexibility and friendliness.
It was nice to be home and be WITH our family and experience Passover and still be off of work for an entire week!
Where does the time go???
I cannot believe it's been 3 weeks since I've written about my darling daughter.... there is so much to tell and so much has happened in the last few weeks. I will do separate short posts on the highlights. Suffice it to say that we have been without Internet (can you believe that?) while we were on vacation and off of teaching. That was almost 2 weeks of the time.
Sunday was the 6 month birthday of Hadarya. It is almost incomprehensible that we've been blessed with this beauty in our lives for a 1/2 of a year. She is such a big girl now compared to then... we remembered her BIRTH day all day long and silently prayed for her birth mom's health, happiness, and strength. She gave us an amazing gift that we will forever be grateful for.
Hadarya Tali weighed 17 lbs. 12 oz on Monday at her appointment. She was 25 1/2 inches tall. She has the rolls on her legs and arms to prove that she loves to eat and does not miss a meal! She enjoys green beans, peas, peas with brown rice are a favorite, winter squash, and carrots. We are going to venture into sweet potatoes and butternut squash later this week and next. She does not refuse the rice cereal but loves the oatmeal more for breakfast.
Her favorite toys are her fingers that feel so yummy on her two teeth just bursting to break through her upper gums on the side. She is going to be a fang girl! She also LOVES her jumperoo (thank you JEFF!) and can bounce bounce bounce for a long long long time. If she is on your lap, she likes to pretend that you are the jumperoo and she jumps expecting you to lift her like the toy. She also loves anything that fits into her mouth...Mr. Giraffe (thank you Tamar, Joel, and Aidin!) has been a long time favorite that she can hug and chew. She also has begun to love Eli the Elephant because its trunk fits nicely into her mouth. Her other favorite toy are some soft, edible like keys on rings (Yeah, Eddie, Jeanne and Jacob!).
She has rolled over from her back to her tummy 4 times and that is enough for her. She showed us she can do it and she is done. She does play on her tummy and has begun scooting backwards. She sits unassisted but will fall backwards if she looks up at you too high! She loves her "older" toys from this new perspective. She is also able to sit in a "big"girl stroller and loves looking out at the world.
Hadarya is curious, interested in people, and very social. She has begun to exhibit a little bit of being left behind anxiety when she is separated from Ema and Aba. We are hoping that she will be able to deal with that better and better!
She continues to sleep through the night, but has begun to wake up around 4 AM and would prefer to snuggle with us instead of staying her own bed! But it's hard to complain when she goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 every night. Nine uninterrupted hours of sleep is pretty good! The napping patterns are not so consistent between all the different people who take care of her during the week. We hope that things will settle in more this week with us back at work.
No matter what...our lives are forever touched by this darling who has settled deep in our hearts.
Sunday was the 6 month birthday of Hadarya. It is almost incomprehensible that we've been blessed with this beauty in our lives for a 1/2 of a year. She is such a big girl now compared to then... we remembered her BIRTH day all day long and silently prayed for her birth mom's health, happiness, and strength. She gave us an amazing gift that we will forever be grateful for.
Hadarya Tali weighed 17 lbs. 12 oz on Monday at her appointment. She was 25 1/2 inches tall. She has the rolls on her legs and arms to prove that she loves to eat and does not miss a meal! She enjoys green beans, peas, peas with brown rice are a favorite, winter squash, and carrots. We are going to venture into sweet potatoes and butternut squash later this week and next. She does not refuse the rice cereal but loves the oatmeal more for breakfast.
Her favorite toys are her fingers that feel so yummy on her two teeth just bursting to break through her upper gums on the side. She is going to be a fang girl! She also LOVES her jumperoo (thank you JEFF!) and can bounce bounce bounce for a long long long time. If she is on your lap, she likes to pretend that you are the jumperoo and she jumps expecting you to lift her like the toy. She also loves anything that fits into her mouth...Mr. Giraffe (thank you Tamar, Joel, and Aidin!) has been a long time favorite that she can hug and chew. She also has begun to love Eli the Elephant because its trunk fits nicely into her mouth. Her other favorite toy are some soft, edible like keys on rings (Yeah, Eddie, Jeanne and Jacob!).
She has rolled over from her back to her tummy 4 times and that is enough for her. She showed us she can do it and she is done. She does play on her tummy and has begun scooting backwards. She sits unassisted but will fall backwards if she looks up at you too high! She loves her "older" toys from this new perspective. She is also able to sit in a "big"girl stroller and loves looking out at the world.
Hadarya is curious, interested in people, and very social. She has begun to exhibit a little bit of being left behind anxiety when she is separated from Ema and Aba. We are hoping that she will be able to deal with that better and better!
She continues to sleep through the night, but has begun to wake up around 4 AM and would prefer to snuggle with us instead of staying her own bed! But it's hard to complain when she goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 every night. Nine uninterrupted hours of sleep is pretty good! The napping patterns are not so consistent between all the different people who take care of her during the week. We hope that things will settle in more this week with us back at work.
No matter what...our lives are forever touched by this darling who has settled deep in our hearts.
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