March and April 2000

First the words, then the pictures.  Sophie got her first two teeth (the bottom front teeth) at the end of March.

Around Purim we spent nearly two great weeks in Israel. Sophie met and enjoyed ALL of her Israeli cousins, plus Savta and Saba Kropf. She stayed up for most of the plane flight there, flirting with our neighbors and being fascinated with all the little lights and movement in the plane. She slept only a few hours that day but was very good-natured (as always) on the flight. Lack of sleep made the jet lag even harder for us. We rented a car so we were able to travel around and visit two of Judy's old girl friends, both of whom have new infants, and her "adopted" Kurdish family on a moshav south of Tel Aviv. That was a highlight as Noel went to the Kurdish synagogue service where the megilla was read (Purim service), and we all enjoyed the "oriental hospitality" of the Ezra family. We spent a lot of good time in Efrat, where Noel's sister Julie lives with her husband and six children. We were there for Purim and for the bat mitzvah of Julie's daughter Leora. All the kids vied for Sophie's attention and she loved it. Finally we visited Judy's sister and her family for several hours before leaving for the US. On the flight back Sophie slept nicely and had an 18-month old neighbor to interact with.

At that time of our Israel trip we were introducing some new foods to her, and since then she has really branched out. She really likes to eat whatever she sees us eating and she prefers if we cut up little chunks for her right off our plates. Her favorite foods right now are tofu (well spiced, naturally), cooked carrot chunks, mashed sweet potato, cheerios, graham crackers, (healthy) cheese doodles, bananas (preferably whole), and she loves chewing on apples. She has just started drinking diluted orange juice from a sippy cup.

4/12 She now weighs 18 pounds, 14 ozs (8.6 kilos, 50th percentile), her length is 28 1/4 inches (approx .75 meter, 75 %), and her head size is 46 cm (90th %). So she is really a big girl. Sophie can crawl now, though she usually does so in short spurts of only a few feet. She loves to pull up on anything handy so she can stand. She bounces happily and dances in a standing position, sometimes only holding on with one hand, and occasionally even showing off with no hands for an instant. She claps regularly when she is happy, two nights ago she even clapped in her sleep during a happy dream. What fun to be woken up by that sound! Her latest trick is waving with one hand. She sometimes waves at herself in the mirror, and the other day she waved to a little boy her age in the supermarket.

Sophie is enrolled in a "class" called Music Together. Judy and Sophie went for the first session April 7th.  We sit in a circle and sing, make hand motions, play instruments like rattles and drums, and get up to dance around. It is a social/musical program held at a music academy in Croton. She now picks up the rattle on her own and shakes it to music at home.  Sophie is becoming much more friendly with dogs and cats, and she loves it when we make all kinds of animal noises. She loves us to read books with her, and she turns the pages of her board books at the appropriate time. Of course any kind of paper or plastic bag is very attractive for its crinkly noise and enjoyable feeling in the mouth.

Unfortunately all of us have been somewhat sick since we got back from Israel on March 28. Sophie had an ear infection plus a cough, so she has been on antibiotics. Since then she also caught some sort of virus with attendant high temperatures (102°F) and a little rash one day. Judy has had bronchitis and is on antibiotics. Noel also has had a chest cold and a virus but so far is fighting it off on his own. Sophie still goes out dancing with us and prefers to stay up until we go to bed. Last weekend we traveled to Washington DC for Judy's stepmom's granddaughter's bat mitzvah, plus a Hungarian music and dance party. We had a good time, but traveling in our bedraggled state was hard.

4/23 Her top two top front  teeth came in within the past two weeks so now she has the four front teeth..  When she reads Pat the Bunny she responds to each page appropriately - puts her nose up against the mirror and chuckles at her reflection, puts her finger through the ring, etc.  She waves to herself in mirrors and always perks up to see her picture on our computer "desktop".

Yael and her baby daughter Yuval (pictured with Sophie in the background), who was born in October 1999.  Yael and her husband Beni have two sons, Daniel and Noam, who aren't pictured here.  Yael was Judy's housemate for three years while she lived in Jerusalem in the 80s.  She now teaches dancing to children in Bat Hefer, a town near Hadera.  She is French, and it is thanks to her that Judy's French improved so much while living with her.  Judy also visited Yael's parents in Draveil (near Paris) in 1989, and they were regular guests of Judy and Yael's during the time that they roomed together.  Yael and Judy discovered international folk dancing at about the same time, and danced in the same performing group, too.  Great dancing and partying buddy!  

 
The Noishtatel family:  Orly, Alon, and their three sons, Dror, Lior, and Daniel.  Orly and Judy met when living in the dorms at Hebrew University, and Judy often visited Orly's family in Nahariya in the north of Israel during the time she was living in Jerusalem.  Orly also visited Judy in the States a couple of times, and even got to meet Judy's mom before she passed away in 1988.  Orly is such an incredible person, so wise, so funny, so real and down-to-earth!  I'm really glad that we're still in touch after all these years.

Purim at the Blobsteins in Efrat:
 
Maayan and Elie dance with their two grandmothers; Shoshie and Sophie give big Elie a hard time.

 
Sophie trying on a tiara à la Queen Esther; Leora and her friends at her Bat Mitzvah party

 
Noel and Sophie resting after the festivities; Shoshie and Tzion also take a quiet break.