Welcome Eliora Chaya!

Well, quite a bit had happened since the last post. I'm going to attempt to recap as much as my tired mind will let me.

On Tuesday, March 31st I picked up Maayan from school and told her that she was going straight to Bubby and Grandpa's for a sleepover. She was really excited that she didnt even ask where Ari and I would be. I felt the need to take this picture since in my baby book there is a picture of my mom dropping off Lisa and Arica at Bubby's house the night before I was born.



From there Ari and I went out to dinner at Mikes Pizzeria which we hadnt yet been to. We ordered way too much but ate most of it anyway! We came home and I finished packing up my stuff since we had to leave really early in the morning for the hospital. We left for the hospital before 6 and stopped on the West Side to leave our car so that Ira would be able to use it to take Maayan to school in the morning, luckily we got a spot pretty quickly and then took a cab the rest of the way to the hospital. When we arrived we made sure to tell the nurses that I wanted a private room and I was there to have a baby (yes, in that order)- she then told me that the rates for a private room had gone up the night before to $850 a night! This was quite the shock since when Maayan was born it was somewhere around $200 a night. Of course there was no way we were going to pay that so I was going to have to deal with a shared room. Everything went well with the prep for the c-section, mainly just a lot of waiting and at 10:38am we had a beautiful baby girl weighing in at 7lbs- (well if
you want to be exact she was 6 lbs, 15.8oz, but at that point the hospital rounds up to 7.)
Ira picked of Maayan from school and brought her to the hospital. While she was excited to see the baby I think she was a little scared of the hospital and it didnt help that I had an IV which made her not want to sit on my bed or come close to me =( Rona also came on her way home from work. After their visit they took Maayan home with them and Ari went to school for a class at night. On Thursday when Ari brought Maayan to visit she was much more excited to be there and she got to hold Eliora for the first time.



Don't really remember what else happened on Thursday and Friday during the day, mainly slept, fed Eliora and talked on the phone. When Ari brought Maayan on Friday afternoon we were talking for about 20 minutes when Maayan said to Ari, "Abba, you said when we got here we were going to buy Mommy flowers" and with that they went to the gift shop and came back a while later with a balloon bouquet that Maayan picked out. Leave it to Maayan to remember--in Ari's defense she was getting a lot more sleep than he was!

On Shabbos after shul Ari walked over to the hospital (he and Maayan were at his parents, so the walk wasnt too bad) with lunch for us and he stayed most of the day. It was very nice and quiet. He left around 6 and shortly after he left I was surprised by Lyat who came to visit. It was so nice to see her and was great to have a visitor for the rest of shabbos. Sunday morning Ari brought Maayan back to Riverdale and she went over to play with Dani so Ari could come to pick up Eliora and me to come home! Of course it took longer to get out than we had expected and right
after we got home my parents arrived.



Sunday afternoon Ari and my dad went to buy some much needed clothing for Eliora as we realized that all Maayan wore when she was a newborn were onesies since it was August and 90+ degrees out. Most of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent getting ready for pesach. On Monday morning, Eliora was named at the RJC. Originally I had planned to go and bring Eliora with me but after a very rough night when I was awake every hour I decided that Eliora and I were going to stay home. Tuesday, Eliora had her first doctors appt. where she was pretty good. Maayan came along b/c they sent her home from school on Monday b/c she had fever. Both girls were fine and I came home with Eliora. Ari, Maayan and my parents went out to lunch.
Wed. night was the first seder and we told Maayan that if she wanted to stay up she needed to take a nap and she ended up sleeping for 2 hours I think. Maayan did a GREAT job at the seder. She sat nicely at the table, sang the songs that she learned in school, stood on her chair to sing the ma nishtana and really participated. We were really proud of her and its good to see that all the money for tuition is worth it! She ended up going to sleep around 11:30. In the morning my mom came over to take Maayan to shul but she wasnt awake yet so we sat and talked for a while, eventually Maayan emerged from her room at 11:45am! It was like having a teenager. We quickly got all ready and thought we would meet everyone at shul but as we got downstairs they were coming in so we took a walk around the block instead since it was nice out.
Thurs. Night Maayan stayed up late again for the seder and was really good. The seders were nice, I dont remember much else though. Friday Maayan went to shul with my mom and Eliora and I stayed home. Dont remember much about shabbos except that when we were eating lunch Maayan said she was tired and she went into her room and went to sleep, she ended up sleeping for a few hours which was so weird since she really doesnt nap much, I guess she was tired from going to sleep so late the few nights before.
Sat. night we said goodbye to Saba and Savta as they were going to be going home on Sunday morning.



On Sunday of Chol Hamoed Rona came to get Maayan and took her out for the day, they went to a museum and then to her apt to play. It must have been quite the day b/c this is what Maayan looked like when she got home...


I dont remember much about chol hamoed, we didnt do too much since Ari had a lot of work to do for school and I wasnt driving yet. For the last days for pesach we ate at home ourselves with the exception of the last lunch when the Tarziks came over. It was very nice and quiet. After pesach was over we got the kitchen back to normal fairly quickly as we didnt have that much stuff.
Friday Eliora had a checkup to see if she was gaining weight and she gained a whole pound since her last appt. As Ari said, "who doesnt gain weight on pesach?" After her appt. Ari went to school to do some work, Maayan went to play with Dani and I took Eliora for her first trip to Target. I was a little afraid of putting her carseat into the cart since Ive never done it and it looks like its going to fall out so I just used the snap and go and I have to say its amazing how much stuff you can get into the basket of that stroller! (Yes, I have put Eliora's seat in a cart since then but it still looks weird to me). It was a successful trip and the rest of the day was spent getting ready for shabbos.

On Sunday we went to a birthday party for Netanal and Eliana Kalman where they had a moon bounce and cotton candy. Maayan had a great time!





On Monday it was back to school for Maayan! YAY! She really missed school over vacation and I missed her having something to do everyday. I really cant say that I remember what Ive done during the day for the past few weeks.

Some days Eliora and I have been out all day and others we sleep half the day and do stuff at home. Its been nice that since Ari was winding down at school that hes been home to take Maayan to school in the morning so I dont need to get up and get Eliora out early.

Things that I DO remember from the past few weeks:
Yom Ha'atzmaut--SAR had a big BBQ on the field so I took the girls to that (Ari had school). It was really nice, Maayan had a great time and it was nice to see people from work who I hadnt seen since Eliora was born.


Since this post has taken me so long, I have both Eliora's birth and her 1st month picture in the same post...kinda sad huh?



Last Monday, Eliora and I were in Target (shes been there a few times since her first visit) and I got a call from Lisa saying that she had just had a baby girl! YAY! Another niece/cousin! Eliora didnt hold the title of youngest in the family for very long. We are very happy for the Balsams but sad that we wont get to meet Merav for a while.

The Sunday after pesach Maayan started going to a sports class at the shul on Sunday mornings. They play different games and she seems to have fun. Its good b/c it gets her up and dressed on Sunday morning and by the time she gets home we are ready to start our day.

Funny story from last week that I was smart enough to write down so that I would remember- We told Maayan last week that we are moving to Chicago over the summer. We had waited b/c we felt like she had a lot of changes going on & we didnt want her to be overwhelmed. She took it very well and was really excited! She was all excited that shes going to a new school (so much so that she randomly sings/chats the words "Yay, I'm going to a new school" in the car) which we find funny b/c (a) she really likes her school and (b) she probably thinks that you go to a new school every year since she has for the last 2 years. Guess she will figure it out eventually (Though as a side note, next year will make it 4 years in a row since she's going to be in the Nursery building for only one year).
Since we've told her she will randomly ask about things that are going on the moving truck and we basically tell her that everything is going. The other day she was sitting on the toilet and I was in another room and I hear, "Mommy, are we going to take the toilet with us when we move? I told her no, that the new house we will live in will have a toilet and this one stays here. She then proceeded to ask the same question about the sink and bathtub. Then she moved on to the toilet paper. I told her that whatever toilet paper we had in the apt we would take with us but for some reason she just kept asking about it, she must think there is some kind of toilet paper shortage in Chicago.

On the whole, Maayan has been a very good big sister, very loving and very caring. She serves as a backup cry, always making sure to tell us that Eliora isn't happy when she hears her crying.



I think thats all I've got for now. I know I've said this before but this time I'm really going to try to update more often. That was quite long, is anyone still reading this?