At age 1.5 to 1 year 9 months, Itamar has acquired a long list of hobbies. These involve playing guitar, drum, piano, recorder, basketball, soccer, ping pong, scooter riding, building tall wobbly towers, splashing in the water, sitting in the driver's seat, testing out anything with buttons, and making freshly squeezed orange juice.
The past three months were full of Summer activities. We went a lot to the pool and to the beach. Itamar played with his best friend Arthur (2.5) and learned from him to pee in the toilet. Great stuff. We also visited our friend Ziv and his dog, Boss. Itamar doesn't get to see pets very much so it was fun for him to feed Boss and play with him.
We spent a lot of time in the neighbourhood playground, running after older boys and their various balls (basket-, foot-, ping pong, etc). We also went for a trip to the Dead Sea and Masada with a conference including most of the world's population of convex geometry mathematicians. Itamar liked the hotel very much, especially wasting water at the water coolers (it's so much fun pressing the button and seeing the water come out).
At this age Itamar insists on driving the car himself and refuses to go anywhere before having 5 minutes alone with the CD player, taking the CD out and putting it back in, many many many times. We had an end-of year party at day care before the Summer break, Savta Sarit came to visit again, and we started going to swimming classes with Arthur.
Itamar also upgraded to a toddler bed, because he grew wings and managed to fly out of his baby bed - actually, he climbed and splashed all over the floor. So we urgently bought a new bed, and Itamar (with the help of Uncle Yair) took apart the old bed and built the new one. Itamar definitely has a promising career ahead of him in carpentry. So the new bed brought with it new sleeping patterns, which included many rounds of getting out of bed. But this settled after around 3 weeks and by 1 year 9 months Itamar is sleeping well again.Language-wise, Itamar has definitely had his lexical burst around the Summer break at 1 year 8.5 months. He is very communicative now and has entered the 2-word stage at around 1 year 9 months. Here is a list of words, most of which were acquired during the 2 week Summer break at 1 year 8.5 months.
Ma, Tama = Itamar
H Sha = savta (grandma)
H Aba = saba (grandpa)
H bon = sabon (soap bubbles)
E tu tu = choo choo
E pim, pip = pip (of fruit)
ayi = yair
E abo = elbow
Ama na = mum, take this thing... ??
H po = po (here)
H Oto = oto (car)
H Oto po = says shen he hears a car
H toa = liftoach (open, verb)
E tin = Justine Clarke (means: "I want to watch a DVD")
E koo = Play School (a DVD show)
H da = toda (thank you)
Shai = Shai (a girl at gan)
Ta Tan = Yonatan (a boy at gan)
H apa = Hoppa!
wow = wow
E pata = potty
H dom/adom = adom (red)
E apo = apple
E pen = plane
H shama = shama (there)
H ashu = asur (forbidden)
H boim = boi (come here)
E min, mik = milk
E pum = plum
H kum = kum (get up)
H tom = ufitom (all of a sudden..)
H adu = kadur (ball)
E abo = ball
E up = up
E be = bear
H pi = pil (elephant)
E pi = please
E up = up
E dan = down
H yim, vim = anavim (grapes)
H non = balon (balloon)
H nin = balonim (balloons)
H shin = the Hebrew letter Shin
H nun = the Hebrew letter Nun
H tun = xatul (cat) - the letter x stands for the Hebrew sound, like "h". H obada = oy vavoy (means 'oh dear') H sim = sim (put) H sheme = shemesh (sun) E sun = sun H top = tof (drum) E pop = pop H shon = lishon (to sleep, asleep) E fok = fork E poon = spoon H kak = pkak (lid, cover) H ofanan = ofanayim (bike, used also for motorbike) E bak = bike E bak = back H emen = Amen (points to wine bottle) H pa = Kippah H ta = pita E men = man E eg = egg
