Itamar's 8th month was our first month in Israel. During these past 4 weeks he has changed so much, that it feels like we have a completely different baby! Itamar met most of his family already (from both mum and dad's side) and has settled in to his neighbourhood in Ramat Aviv - near the Tel-Aviv Uni campus. Apparently, there has been a wave of births on our street, so the local park is always full of mums with babies. Itamar has yet to explore the wonders of the holy land... we will leave that to the next month and beyond. Here are some videos of where we live.
Developmentally, Itamar is a very different man now - as can be seen from the photos and videos. Until the 21st of the month, he still did not readily roll over from his back to his tummy. But by the 25th, he started sitting up by himself, and loving it! By the end of the month he was already standing up in his bed - and smiling very proudly every time.
As soon as we arrived here we were told that you should never sit a baby up until he can do so alone. They are supposed to crawl first and only then sit up by themselves. This was quite a surprise, since in the US nobody told us anything about such things. We were letting Itamar sit since he was 5 months old, rather than letting him spend time on his tummy. Apparently it can lead to bad posture and delayed walking. So in Israel we discovered that everyone has something to teach you, and they are always willing to do so (even if you don't want to listen :-) But this has many advantages too.
Itamar finally met Ziv and Tamar - their mums went to high school with Ayelet in Melbourne.
Itamar started going to a new day care here, and also had a virus with a fever. He was very lively and happy - even with a slight fever of 38.3C. However, the illness made him regress to being quite spoiled. He wants to be held a lot lately and is a lot harder to put to sleep. We are hoping that this is just a phase and that he will go back to being his regular calm self. And finally, at the end of this month, he sprouted another tooth. That may explain the mood swings - who knows.
Itamar is now officially a toddler.
Weight at 7.5 months: 9.1kg
Language acquisition (in this order): ba/be, nga, da/de, ma/me, fe/ve.
All the photos are here.
Also, this month Itamar was sick quite a few times. One of the lovely 'benefits' of Day Care, and unavoidable if Ayelet is going to keep her new job. 
Some highlights from this month are going to the pool with our friends Ariel, Lena and Tomer, and also going to the beach for the first time. Itamar seemed to enjoy the sandy beach more than the salty waters of the Mediterranean. We have to work on that... 
Language: Lots of babbling, with the most dominant sounds being the bisyllabic "da-dn" and "ba-bm". Very cute. 
