Moving Forward: Beautiful Israel

Vacation is a lot of work with two small kids but oh so worth it when you see their eyes light up with a new experience. Okay, Shayna does that mainly. (Elijah lights up when people talk to him but that's pare for his age group.)

We've been enjoying lots of Saba and Savta time at Lea and Dov's complex. There's a playground across the street which Dov takes her to and we play in their swimming pool ever other visit. Shayna walks into their aparment and says one of two things. "Oh, there's Saba Dov," or "Where's Saba Dov?" She reaches up to hold his finger when they walk down the cooridor and he melts each time.

We've been to the beach twice and have two more trips planned. The first time her eyes just about popped out of her head when she spotted the Mediteranean water stretching off to the horizon. In her accessable memory it was the first time she'd seen the sea (we went sailing last summer so she saw and enjoyed it then but that's more a memory in pictures). She loved the waves washing over her feet and the feel of her body when I held her in the water letting the waves float her up and down. Nahum and Shayna built sandcastles until it got cold enough that she was shivering as she dug. At which point she cried as Nahum took her away from the beach to go home. Discovering the world with your 2-year-old is such a beautiful, simple thing. Elijah alowed me to play a little with Shayna by taking a beach nap between two towel, other than that it's not the greatest spot for an infant. This afternoon we'll go meet some friends of Nahum's and their 3 kids at another beach. With more arms to hold Elijah, I hope I can swim a bit.

Beach visit 1.

Burrying her foot and building "sand castles" with Aba.

Can anyone guess what this is?

Beach visit 2.

Elijah was mildy interested but reallly looking forward to his sling nap.

We didn't pack her enough food so she got ice cream for dinner of which Elijah sampled and enjoyed.

We took a 1 1/2 hr drive to the south just outside Beer Sheva to Kibutz Hatsarim to visit Nahum's Aunt Edna (Shayna is named after Edna's mother and Elijah's middle name Yaakov is after her father), her husband Uri, and all of their family. Shayna and Elijah were again traveling saints and Shayna continues to fall right in with whoever we're visiting. She adored playing with the kids. Since her Hebrew understanding is improving, she knew a little of what they were saying but she only speaks in English so they new nothing of what she was said. Still they had a blast. The youngest is 6 so being older they doted on Shayna and she ate it up.

Riding with Uri. She loved that little "motorcycle."

She does that everywhere we go. If Nahum and I are relaxed, she just follows suit and treats the new people like old friends. Her attituded has made visiting with Nahum's brothers' families easy and fun. She has 5 cousins there ranging in age from 10 to 17 and she adores playing with all of them.

Running with Ben. He's played with her enthusiastically since we stepped off the plane.

As long as it's after 6am (we have an earlier riser), it's so fun to hear her door open, her little feet pad into our room on the tile floors, and she says, "it's Ima," or "it's Aba," then climbs into bed to lay between us. She finishes with a, "wanna go to the park?" She loves living so close to two little parks here. The parks are more varied that the cookie cutter ones we find in most places at home and also more challenging so she loves it. She'll also just sit on the swing with one of us pushing her for up to 1/2 an hour.

It's been a delight to watch Elijah develope here as time is measured with a vacation start and end date in place. He has become so much more observant of and fascinated by the world around him. He loves being on his belly and lifting his head to look around. Even his vocabulary of baby noises has exploded and I'm starting to catch onto what some of the noises mean. His most obvious is a little squawky yell that says, "i'm awake. come get me." Then he just lays there and waits for someone to get him. I've never seen such a patient baby and he's been like that since the day we brought him home. If he's not 20lbs yet he will be by the time we get home on his 4-month birthday. Luckily, he's also very strong and the increasing head control makes it easier to carry our little "beefcake" around. He continues to shows no interest in rolling but loves to stand and sit on our laps while he tries to control his heavy head long enough to make eye contact and grin. He can scoot from one end of his crib to the other so there's no more leaving him on elevated surfaces unattended anymore. He's still easily overwelmed by toys (the flashier the freakier) but delights in watching people and all things outside (trees swaying in the breaze, flags flapping).

We both find so much joy in our children that every little thing they do makes us smile, even when it shouldn't. (We also have a sweetly mischevious 2-yr-old.)