Night (or early evening) out

This is going to be a short post. It's after 10pm and our car service is picking us up at 6:45am tomorrow to go to the airport to go to California. We have been telling Eliana for the last week that she'll be going on an airplane soon, and tomorrow's the day. I still have to determine whether my suitcase will, in fact, close with clothes for Eliana and me for two climates--Northern California, then a week in Hawaii!

In fact, we told Eliana that her friend Lucy had also gone on an airplane, to see her Grandma Diane, who Eliana has met and likes a lot. Tonight when I asked Eliana who she'd see in California, she said, Nene and Bampi! I asked who else, and she said, Grandma Diane! (The right answer was Uncle Larry, and Tanya...)

But briefly, I wanted to share some pictures from our night (or early evening) out this past weekend. It was the post-Christmas weekend and things were a little slow, so we decided to take Eliana on an excursion on Saturday..out to dinner! I had read about delicious Middle Eastern food a short subway ride away, at Tanoreen. So we decided that if we left at 4:30, we could get her back roughly in time for her bedtime. We hardly take her to restaurants, so it was a treat, for all of us.

She did well, and we're not just saying that because we're her parents. For some reason, the high chair was a little low. Nevertheless, Eliana got right into being at the table, especially since we'd brought some crayons along:





After not too long, the food came. Eliana got a plate like the rest of us, and tried everything:



She likes hummus a lot. The roasted eggplant was the best, and she had some of that too..this girl doesn't mind spicy food. The restaurant owner came to our table at one point and asked whether Eliana had eaten anything, we said that she had tried everything.

Meanwhile Abba tried to grab a bite between feeding Eliana:



At a certain point, Eliana wanted to walk around the restaurant. She saw a Santa Claus doll on display and wanted to "have it." We explained that we had to leave it there for the other customers.

Well, after more than an hour, she melted down a bit. We can't blame her, it was close to her bedtime. So we bundled her up and took the subway home. She even got her own seat:





So that was it, our daughter did well with dining out.

Eliana is still very interested in letters--now she knows E for Eliana, L for Lucy, A for Abba, R for Renee, M for Mommy, B for Baby, C for Carol, and S for Shiloh. She seems very curious and interested in them.

We lit the menorah with Eliana during Chanukah--when we lit the candles, she asked if she could "have it." We had to explain that it was hot, and it was to look at. Also, she didn't understand where the candles went as they melted. This morning she asked us, where did the candles go?

This week she started asking, "What are you doing?" The funny thing is, that's the question we often ask her..now she's asking it back to us.

I'll stop here, and share more from the West Coast.