The life of Channah

So along with growing like a weed and being super excited to be a big sister, there are actually other things going on in Channah's life.  For starters, she has discovered the new love of her life- Goomey.  Basically a giant piece of elastic that girls hold around their ankles, knees, hips and who knows what else and bounce over, under around and through.  You might know it as Chinese jump rope or as Israeli jump rope.  I know it as our new constant and eternal companion that must be driving my downstairs neighbours crazy (although they say they do not hear it!)  Basically, if she is not sitting on her tush doing something like homework, she is singing some sort of random chant and bouncing around the living room.

For those who wonder how she stays so thin, take note.  Go to any sewing store, buy about 8 feet of elastic, tie it closed and bounce roughly ten thousand times a minute.  If there is no elastic available, feel free to use the lines on the floor tiles as a great and ever present substitute.  No tiles?   Use your imagination.  Find a shadow, a crack, heck even a blank piece of pavement and bounce like a tigger.

Her reading is coming along beautifully.  I love watching her sit in the big chair with  abook the size of her entire torso and sound things out.  The questions are adorable "Ima, what sound do three dots on an angle make?  No, wait, I mean in a triangle."  We bought her a book of fairy tales in Hebrew and she sits with it for ages trying to figure out the stories.

She has also taken to leaving us "love pictures"- sort of a hybrid between the mass quantities of artwork we used to get, and love notes.  It will be a picture with a bit of real effort, and somewhere on the page wwill be a picture of Channah with a little speach bubble and her saying she loves us (in Hebrew).  It is totally heart melting.  

One of the other things she loves are jump rope (as we will not let her do it inside, and she can not go out after dark she resorts to imaginary jump rope.  More bouncing.  And not just bouncing, she gets her arms involved as well.  Seriously, we are thinking of hiring her out as a personal trainer to people who can not afford gym memberships.

Her favourite toys are stillplaymobile, lego, polly pockets and the ever present barbie, but they have been joined by some new things like an abacus (she loves math and thinks it is a game most of the time),  card games like uno or slamwhich, and battleship.  Thank goodness she has mostly outgrown candyland- I am not sure either of us could take much more of that one.

She also just got access (on occasion) to a computer built for her- well protected, kiddie game access only, and only used right now in the living room, with our supervision, for a little while a few times a week.  Yeah I know that level of parental control can't possibly last, but i nthe meantime we are trying to teach her responsible computer use.

The big news in her life is that next week is her Chumash party at school.  The girls will sing and dance for the parents and be rewarded with their very first chumash form their teachers.  I have no idea what else is involved as this is a first for us, but I can promise that there will be lots of new pictures and probably a new video posted here next week.  The girls have been practicing for weeks and I am very excited to see what they have in store for us!

As always pooh bear is being well looked after and is looking a little loved for his age.

Other than that, not much to report.  She is an amazing, happy little girl, always ready to help other out where needed.  She is generally good natured, enjoys school (and even generally homework) has lots of friends (and a more active social life (made up of playdates and birthday parties) than we do.  Her teachers love her and have told me her Hebrew is beautiful (we have got her in speech therapy to raise the level of her specific vocabulary a little, but it is a common need for anglo kids born here so I am not worried and she is progressing incredibly well).

I was talking to a new olah this week and she asked me if I thought we made the right decision.  All I have to do is look at Channah and how well she is growing and thriving here and I know I have no question in my mind that however annoying the health-care and random strikes may be, however pushy some of the people or however many people we miss, we have made what, for us, is the perfect decision and opened up worlds for her that she would not otherwise have known.

I only hope that we are as lucky with thenew addition as we have been so far.