Trip to the Kinneret

We spent the last few days of August at the Kinneret! It was our very first trip away with both Itamar and Maayan, who are 2 years 9 months, and 6 months old, respectively. Boaz's parents also joined us which was very helpful and fun too.

One little monkey jumping on the bed

Maayan with Savta

For all the photos click here.

Maayan is 4 months old!

Time flies when you're having fun! Maayan is truly an angel baby. Here are some things to note for her first 4 months:

She now takes dummy for sleeping, especially during the day. She still sleeps only on her tummy, and she loves being on her tummy for long periods of time while awake too. She started going to classes at First Step with Ayelet, just like Itamar did when he was a baby. Maayani doesn't cry after bath anymore, and she is much better in the car - she sometimes falls asleep, although she is a very light sleeper. This month Ayelet went back to work (part-time only) and Maayan stays with a nanny for 2 mornings a week, and Grandma for 2 other mornings a week.

As with Itamar, at age 4 months we discovered Maayan has a milk allergy. When she started regular formula she got red spots all over her body, and also had mucous stools (like Itamar). She is now drinking Nutramigen, and nurses around once a day.

At age 4.5 months - Maayan turns over onto her back, plays, reaches for objects, turns around in a circle on her tummy, moves forwards with her legs, plays with feet while on her back
lifts body on straight arms.

At age 5 months - Maayan turns over from back to tummy and from tummy to back. You put her in one place and find her somewhere else in a few seconds!

For all the photos click here

Itamar's first guitar solo

Here is a cute video of Itamar jamming to a children's tune called "Our car is big and green".

His version goes like this:

האוטו שלנו גדול וירוק
האוטו שלנו נוסע ברחוב
בבוקר נוסע, בערב הוא שב
מביא הוא לי טונה, ביצים וחלב

At the end of his performance, Itamar requests that we show him a video on You Tube. It is a song called "Garbage Truck" by the Biluim, and the chorus goes "Garbage truck, garbage truck, take me along with you - אוטו זבל, אוטו זבל, בוא וקח אותי איתך".

You can imagine how excited Itamar gets when he sees rubbish trucks in the neighbourhood, or any large construction vehicle for that matter. Cement mixers are a big hit. Some of Itamar's You Tube favourites can be viewed here, here and here.

Maayan is 3 months old!

Sleeping through the night! It's possible! Maayan now sleeps from around 9pm straight though to the morning, and wakes up at around 8:30 to eat. Amazing! Never thought this could be, especially after reading this book which we totally empathized with and made us crack up laughing. Maayani has started smiling and stunning us with her million dollar smile. She has started to smile back at us when we smile at her, which is very rewarding and can make your heart melt!

It is quite difficult driving with Mayaani in the car, as she gets very stressed, and we hope that this won't last too long so that we can go on longer trips together. On Shavuot we went to visit our cousins, the beautiful Klinstern family in the North, and the long trip went quite well. Ninety-percent of the time was spent with 2 sleeping kids in the car. Itamar got to see many tractors on the farm, and played nicely with his second cousins, Shir and Or.

The past month has been quite hard on Itamar. He probably began to realise that he now has to share his Mum, and it's difficult for him. His behaviour became quite worrying at kindergarten, as he expressed his emotions using negative actions - like throwing and biting. We decided that he needed a different kind of environment at this stage, and found a new kindergarten for him.

Now Itamar goes to a Montessori kindergarten which is a 15 minute drive in the morning (rather than a bike ride, which is a shame). But it's worth it! He loves the new place, and they have many stimulating exercises for him to solve all day long. There is also sand there, which means that they get dirty and muddy, and they paint whenever they feel like it. So this "messy" place is great for Itamar, and we feel a positive change for the whole family.

Now that Maayan is 3 months old, and sleeping well, Itamar has invited her to share his room with him so that he can look after her at night time. This is what their room looks like. The time has gone quickly, and next week Mum goes back to work (part-time for now).

To see all the photos and videos click here.

Time for a change

Here lives Itamar with his two servants - Bo'az and Ayelet

Think it might be time to change the sign on the door?
Suggestions for a new sign are welcome...

Itamar language age 2.5

- anachnu osim pazel klei tachburot im beyachad savta - אנחנו עושים פאזל כלי תחבורות עם ביחד סבתא

- ma ze bishvil? (what's this for?) - מה זה בשביל

- im ani (with me) - עם אני

- ani tochal (3rd person) - אני תאכל

- ani mesim (put) - אני משים

- ima, ma hazman? (what's the time?) - אמא, מה הזמן

- im bli (without) - עם בלי

- oy yored li gadol tipot (it's dripping a lot) - אוי, יורד לי גדול טיפות

- ima, ani rotse she'akof tishan al yad ani - אמא, אני רוצה שהקוף תישן על-יד אני

- ima, ma at osat? (what are you doing) - אמא, מה את עושת

- aba, ata rotse she ima sheli tiftach lecha - אבא, אתה רוצה שאמא שלי תפתח לך

- aba, gam shelcha ha-artikmel nigmar? - אבא, גם שלך האטיקמל נגמר

- ani rotse she'apkak tiye (i want the lid to be on) - אני רוצה שהפקק תהיה

Birthday on the farm

Itamar's class at Kindergarten went to visit a farm for his friend's birthday party. It was so nice! Ayelet went with him on the bus, which was very exciting (for her no less than for him!). Some highlights include riding on the tractor and collecting eggs. Itamar also got a fright when he tried to feed a horse and the horse bit his hand! Now Itamar wants to become a farmer. Let's see how long that one will last.

Photos and Videos

Maayan's first 2 months

Maayan's second month has been both enjoyable and challenging for us. She has a very good schedule, nursing every 3-4 hours and sleeping in between. It seems that she is enjoying herself very much so far. She doesn't fall asleep on Mum anymore, and has learned to put herself to sleep quite well. She still has periods of crying in the evenings, where she lets us appreciate her miniature lung capacity... this girl is a screamer! She also performs her loud screams after the bath, in the car, and conveniently at the supermarket check-out. She wants to let us know that she is tired and needs to "check out" for a while. She likes to fall asleep in the ergo, which is quite handy for us when we need to take her out during the day.
Maayan's nights are very good for her age. Since around 8 weeks, she has started sleeping for 6-8 hour stretches and waking up at around 5am, then going back to sleep until 8:30am!
Maayan has started to get some really good tummy time action, not complaining too much and even lifting her head up a bit.

Photos and videos here

Maayan's first 6 weeks

Maayan at 1 week


Maayan at 2 weeks


Maayan at 3 weeks


Maayan at 4 weeks


Maayan is 1 month old. Here is Itamar at 1 month


Maayan is 6 weeks old.

We officially have another baby! Maayan's first 6 weeks have been a time to get to know her personality, and we can so far conclude that she is, as Tracy Hogg puts it, an "Angel Baby". As a baby, Maayan doesn't like dummies and is not such a fan of sucking (Itamar will probably be weaned from dummies on his Bar Mitzvah, and on to cigarettes :-) She nurses very well and is providing Ayelet with a great "second chance" at breastfeeding. Maayan loves to sleep!! For the first couple of weeks, Maayan was very good at sleeping during the day in the pram, an then always falling asleep on Mum at night after nursing. So Mum was her bed for the first 6 weeks or so. Hoping to change this habit soon, and to get a proper routine started. At first, Itamar didn't show much interest in his new sister - more in the fact that he has to share his Mum with her. Using the dummy a lot more, doing pipi in inconvenient places, etc. To get around this issue, we bought Itamar a skateboard that attaches to Maayan's stroller and he loved it! This is his pride and joy, and allows him to get attention and at the same time it allows walking from day care with two kids under coltrol :-) Very cool invention (see photo). He is very tender with Maayan, touching her carefully and saying "Maayani!".

Maayan has a tendency to wail at the top of her miniature lungs when she gets tired or has gas, and this really stresses Itamar out. When we told him she is crying because she has bubbles in her tummy, he translated to Hebrew: יש לה סבון בבטן (she has soap in her tummy). Also when Maayan cries, he says to her in Hebrew: לא לבכות מעייני, אני פה (don't cry Maayani, i'm here). Very cute! Regarding language, Itamar is bilingual, but only speaks in Hebrew, even with Ayelet. If she insists then he speaks to her in English, but his Hebrew is way way more advanced than his English right now. He is aware that Mum's books are in English and Dad's books are in Hebrew, and he can translate things - mainly nouns. His syntax is much more advanced in Hebrew.

Our first 6 weeks have been (surprisingly!) lots of fun, and not so difficult (with a lot of help). We celebrated Passover with family, went on a few trips together with Maayan in the Ergo (see photo), and started getting used to life as a real family. It looks like Maayan is a very good girl, and if she keeps going at this pace, we think we can expect neat and tidy textbooks at school, and many followers. She already has been asked for her phone number from our neighbour's baby so...

For all the photos and videos click here.

Maayan has arrived!

On March 2nd, Maayan came into the world! She was born at 12:10pm and weighed 2.36kg. The birth was a very good experience and it went very well, even without epidural(!) She is a good kid, causing no problems for Mum, right from Day 1.

Maayan's first moments right after popping out:

From the beginning, Maayan looks very much like Itamar did as a baby.

In preparation for his new "toy", Itamar had a Big Brother celebration at day care, and he brought photos of Maayan to show his friends. He also brought his friends yummy chocolate balls (which were prepared the night before the scheduled induction by his excited mother). Maayan started nursing well from the beginning (after a few pointers from lactation consultants), and enjoys sleeping most of the day, waking up to eat every 3-4 hours. These are two things we learned after Itamar's birth: (1) prepare for breastfeeding before the baby comes, and (2) Don't try to wake a sleeping baby to eat every 3 hours like they tell you at the hospital. Let them sleep, and they will wake up when they are hungry.

Here are all the photos from Maayan's first week with us.

Appropriately, the name of the blog has now changed, so we include here the original name, just for the record:

Itamar's Adventures - הילד העברי הראשון שלנו

Two years old

Photos and videos