Israel and the Water

Israel was phenomenal this year.  The family time was great, both the time the four of us spent together as well as all the time we spent with Nahum's immediate family.  Both Fridays there, we had big Shabbat dinners with Nahum's parents and both brother's families at our apartment in Ra'anana.  We did 8 total trips to the beach with 5 of those being family trips.  Both kids loved the sea and the sand.  We also swam at Saba and Savta's complex's pool a few times, saw some of Nahum's good friends with their families, and spend much time playing outside at the little parks near our apartment.  Nahum spent four days visiting three universities. I finally bit the bullet and drove in Israel and I actually prefer it to driving here now.

This year, while Shayna still loves cousin Ben (almost 12yo), she fell in love with cousin Adi (19yo and in the military).  Shayna acted like a little baby and played with, talked to, and cuddled with Adi whenever she came down from Carmiel with her family.  Now all she talks about is Adi coming here to visit or Shayna going "on a big airplane to Israel and see Adi."  Elijah was his usual hammy self and basked in the attention any and everyone gave him.  His love new love is elevators with their buttons that magically open and close doors.

Adi, Shayna, and Yelka.

Nahum and his kids in the Mediterranean.

I think the water is the main area of personal growth for Shayna while we were there.  She has much less fear now and is oh-so-close to being comfortable with her face in the water.  We brought here inner-tube suit so she could float and paddle around on her own, both at the beach and pool.  At the beach we'd take her out past the little breaking waves to where they just bobbed gently up and down.  She'd float next to which ever parent was with her excitedly paddling around and up and down.  I brought my goggles so would dive under her or pop down to the bottom to bring her sea shells.  She didn't collect these but rather threw them to make me dive to retrieve them again.  She seems to long to be able to swim under water.  To encourage this, I'm going to "lose" or "forget" her float suit but bring her goggles to the pool as the suit gets in the way of her being able to get fully into the water which she's totally comfortable doing.

Playing catch with another boy and Aba.

Elijah is an amazing little water baby.  I can feel him pulling the water around with his hands and legs/feet as he directs where he wants to go while I'm holding him.  I didn't think a baby could have such a powerful stroke.  He also learned to blow bubbles in the water (at the pools where it's still water).  At the beach, the sand and the people where his favorite.  He was go up to all the older ladies that were relaxing in chairs and just start talking and then run off to dig in the sand some more.  He enjoyed the water too but needed a lot of help staying up right in the currents so mainly just ran and splashed in the shallows.

Elijah making friends with one of the workers at Saba and Savta's complex.

Elijah's language skills are the current development that I'm basking in.  He had his first two-word sentence while were were there, "blow bubble," in response to the bubble jars I bought Shayna.  "Cracker", "bubble", and "Mama" are still the most distinct words he says but he also says, "doggie (but sounds like daddy) arf, arf", "see" and "see ya", "cheese" for taking pictures, "Baba" for Aba, "Ayna" for Shayna, "birdie", and "ah-hu" for yes and "uh-hu" for no.

Shayna blows bubbles for Elijah on our balcony.

I've got to get ready to go to Shayna's first dance "performance" as she been in a 2hr dance camp/class all week.  I'll do family and friend stories next time.

Our last day at the beach. Sunset. Playing in a salty, sandy puddle.