In and Out (and in, and out, and in...)

Yes, I know, Noam and I have been putting off posting for much too long. So much to tell you all! Daddy came home, which was very exciting. He brought Noam a new stuffed CAT (one of the two words we are pretty sure he says. He says CA! when he sees a cat...but also when he sees other small children, and sometimes when he sees Eema).



So that was Monday. Also on Monday we kidnapped Yaff and dragged her to the pool. No pictures from there - Eema has her hands full keeping Noam's head above water. Literally. He can technically crawl in the baby pool with his head above the water, but it requires significant effort, and Noam doesn't seem to understand why he would want to do such a thing.

On Tuesday we went back to the pool. This time Liz was our victim and we came armed with a float. Noam enjoyed floating, but his favorite part of the day was climbing IN and OUT of the baby pool. We are all about IN and OUT right now. Toys go in and out of boxes, bottles come in and out of the cooler, clothes go in and out of the washing machine. Noam goes in and out of the pool. And apparently, the toy basket as well.



This is fun, though somewhat repetitive, and occasionally leads to Eema finding things in strange places, when Noam puts something IN and loses interest before taking it OUT. On Tuesday Eema found her cell phone IN the cooler...

Closely related to IN and OUT is ON and OFF. We do this with hats for hours. Here is Noam trying on one of Eema's hats.




On Wednesday Daddy came home early and we all went out for ice cream. Extremely yummy flavors at our local gelatto place!



Perhaps inspired by watching us eat our ice cream, Noam decided that night at dinner that the time has come for him to take control at meal times, and feed himself with a spoon or fork. He was quite insistent about it, and, though Daddy immediately abdicated all feeding responsibilities when Eema handed over the spoon, there's clearly no stopping him. Below you can see the process, as well as the inevitable results (Aunt Debra T, you may want to skip this section).



Having established that Noam wanted to hold the spoon, Eema tried to help him get some applesauce onto it...



...but there are so many different ways to hold a spoon...



...and while some of these ways might not actually result in food getting into one's mouth, it is not entirely clear how much Noam cares...



..and sideways is much more fun.



An eating mystery: As we (that is, Eema) try to wean Noam off the bottle and onto the cup, a mystery has emerged. Noam will happily drink water from a regular cup. He will drink juice or water from a sippy cup. And he'll drink anything from a bottle, but he loves his milk best of all. But when presented with milk in a sippy cup, he sips...and spits. Then he screams. Very unclear.

I think that's it for now. Adventures planned for next week include Eema starting school, Noam hanging out with his new babysitter, and the beginnings of getting ready for Rosh Hashanah.

Shavua Tov

Noam and I have been a bit too busy to blog. Noam is busy with important things like trying to throw as many objects as possible into the toilet, learning to climb out of his highchair, and flinging food. Eema has been busy trying to thwart and/or clean up after the above activities.

The highchair thing is particularly terrifying. Noam slouches down in his highchair and tries to slither out that way. When that doesn't work, he pulls his legs in, hoists himself up, and tries to swing his feet over the side. This is where Eema swoops in and grabs him. He doesn't seem to understand what the problem is.

Throwing food is another story. He definitely understands that this elicits a strong response from Eema, which is overall a fun thing, not to mention the nice splat that the food makes when it hits the floor. We are experimenting with discipline, and with not laughing when he does evil things and then looks gleeful.




We miss Daddy a lot, and Noam does not seem to want to talk on the phone. However, during playtime, he talks on the alarm clock, and on the toy car keys. He picks them up, holds them to his ear, says "Hi!" and then holds it out to me to talk. But when there's actually a voice on the other end its too scary.



We had a very nice Shabbat. Yaffa stayed with us, and we had a very social Shabbat. Especially Noam, who made lots of friends at lunch!

On the Move

With apologies to Grandma and Aunt Debra W (who knew this before I did!), I have to admit that the camera is no longer adequate for capturing images of Noam. We definitely need a video camera. He just moves too fast!

We were up at 4:30 again, for another day of Eema-Noam bonding. Luckily he did some decent napping, and was mostly in an excellent mood. In the morning the Friedmans (Tzivia's parents, otherwise known as Charlotte's grandparents!) were nice enough to take us out for coffee at a local cafe. Noam always enjoys a good coffee date.



In the afternoon, lucky Noam got to play in the park for three hours (!!) with his exceptionally wonderful babysitter. For those of you who don't track the weather here in Jerusalem, it is in the 90s and very dry. But it doesn't seem to slow Noam down one bit. When he came back inside, he was in a great mood. First he played ball for a while (no, we have not been actively trying to teach him to balance a ball on his nose...)




Then he decided, perhaps inspired by his cousin Melissa the great organizer, to rearrange the living room a bit. Here's the "before" picture...



...Looking over the counter from the kitchen, where I was making his dinner, here is what I saw...



Apparently it was time for a change.




Finally, before going to bed, Noam read to himself for a bit. He turns the pages carefully, and talks quietly to himself, occasionally rocking back and forth.




He likes to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Pat the Bunny. Interestingly, his favorite book to have me read to him these days is the bagel book. For those of you who haven't seen it, this is a book with great pictures, but it is somewhat lacking in plot and character development. "Whole bagel." "Half Bagel." Turn the page. "Light bagel." "Dark bagel." You get the idea. If not, come on over and Noam will make you read it to him three or four times in a row!

Goodnight Blog

This will be a very short post, because Noam woke up at 4:25 this morning. He went to sleep at six this evening, and I would have happily done so as well...

One quick story from this morning: Eema resisted the urge to go back to sleep, but while cleaning up in the kitchen, Noam escaped down the hall into the bathroom. I was not far behind, but Noam doesn't need much time. I came into the bathroom to find Noam standing and staring intently down into the toilet...whence he had thrown several rolls of toilet paper and some pieces of my glasses case.

Nothing more to say about that, except that I think it undermines my attempts at discipline when I laugh while scolding him.

The Man of the House

With Daddy off in America, Noam is doing his best to help out. After waking up at 5 this morning, he calmly and quietly raided Eema's underwear drawer when she fell back asleep. After waking to find the room strewn with socks and stockings, Eema decided we should switch to the living room, where she could doze off on the couch instead. Noam played quietly and miraculously avoided getting into any major trouble until breakfast time.

After breakfast, he helped unload the dishwasher by pulling each piece of cutlery out, one at a time, and handing it to Eema to put in the drawer. Admittedly, this took the better part of half an hour, but hey, we were in no rush. When we were done, we moved on to laundry.

After loading up the washing machine, we turned it on and ran outside for some fun. Noam has a complex relationship with our washing machine. Its located at floor level, so Noam enjoys opening and closing it, and he likes the loading and unloading part. But turn the machine on, and it turns into the enemy. Though we have assured him it is not in fact coming to get him, Noam remains unconvinced. Suffice it to say that it's best to leave the house, or at least the room, once we turn on the washing machine.

This afternoon, apparently sensing Eema's longing for some adult conversation, Noam decided he would read Middlemarch, by George Eliot. Since Eema is in the middle of it, Noam evidently thought this would be a companionable thing to do. Eema sat next to him on the couch and read some of Noam's books until he was done.





Bathtime this evening was sufficiently traumatic (for at least one party) that it can't be discussed in a public forum, but at least Noam had fun (he sang and made speeches), and went to bed without any trouble.





Daddy, we miss you!

So close!

Just a heads up to everyone that Noam seems to be very close to walking on his own. Today he walked through our dining area with just one hand against the wall to steady himself.
He has not, however, figured out how to climb the ladder up to the slide in the playground, though he's trying! He continues to practice on the stairs - today he heard his friend calling to him from the top, and he practically flew up the last flight!

In other news, Daddy started yeshiva this week. Noam is apparently studying hard to try to keep up.



While Daddy is away all day, Eema and Noam have lots of time to play. This is Noam's newest toy, which, as you can see, requires much concentration.




Shabbat Shalom!

Noam on Vacation

Noam is really enjoying the last few days of Eema and Daddy's summer vacation. On Friday, Noam and Daddy went to an outdoor jazz concert while Eema cooked. While Eema had adventures in her new Israeli kitchen (it took around half an hour to figure out how to turn the oven on, and another half an hour to turn it off), Noam sang along and applauded at the concert.


In other exciting news, today Noam got to see his cousin Shira Wolkenfeld. Eema and Daddy had coffee with her in the morning, and she stopped by in the afternoon for a brief visit. Noam invited her to stay and play football but she had to go!

Today was Noam's first day in Israel with a babysitter. He had a great time with her and Eema and Daddy got to run some errands without pushing a stroller. We will be inviting this babysitter back very soon!


Some other Noam developments:
- he continues to try to climb on the balcony. We continue to discourage this, unsuccessfully.
- he has a new game, in which he very carefully and methodically clears his high chair by slowly lifting each piece of food into the air, dangling it over the side while we say NO, and then dropping it on the floor.
- he imitates Eema by trying to blow on hot food
- he stands by himself for much longer periods of time, but when he wants to move, he realizes he's standing and drops to a crawl. He hasn't quite figured out that he might be able to take steps by himself too!

Reaching New Heights...

...and finding new ways to make trouble.

Where should we begin? So much to tell you all...

Let's begin on our mirpeset (balcony). As long as Noam is just crawling, it is pretty safe for him, because there is a sturdy railing. But Noam decided to drag his toy car (pictured in a previous post) out onto the mirpeset with him, and use it to climb up onto the ledge and try to shimmy up the railing. He screamed when we grabbed him and pulled him inside.

Nonetheless, we love our mirpeset, and so does Noam! Here are some pictures of the view at sundown:





Then there's the park. There are two that we've gone to recently. One is a playground near our house. There isn't too much for children his age there (no baby swings like in Bubbe's backyard!) but we've been experimenting with the slide, and that's fun. Here are some pictures of us there:




Yesterday, to celebrate Yaffa's birthday, we went to Gan Hapa'amon, a bigger, further park with nice grassy areas. Noam crawled around for a while until he found a nice muddy patch...



...which he proceeded to dig in, until he found an old plastic water bottle top...



...which he then tried to eat.



He was unconvinced when we told him it was yucky!

Speaking of eating, Noam likes to eat out with us at Cafe Ne'eman. Eema and Daddy have coffee. Noam could drink from his bottle, but instead he insists on drinking from our water glasses. Then he takes the straws and tries to eat them.




Finally, we have the steps in our building. In case it's not clear from our descriptions of the wonderful view, our apartment is on the top floor of the building. It is three and a half fairly long flights up. To manage this with Noam, we leave his stroller locked to the railing at the bottom of the steps, and just carry him up and down. If one of us goes out alone with Noam, this means putting him down on the floor for a moment while we lock or unlock the (folded) stroller). Today, however, while Daddy (and later in the day, Eema) was locking up the stroller, Noam decided to get a head start on the stairs. And up he went, all three and a half flights. We could tell he was getting tired towards the end, but he consistenty refused any help (frighteningly reminiscent of Aunt Debra T as a baby...).

Having reached the top, he screamed when we wouldn't let him go back down the stairs to start over!

The good news is that with all this climbing, he worked up quite an appetite for dinner, and now he's fast asleep!

Machaneh Yehuda

Today was Noam's first trip to Machaneh Yehuda, the big "shuk" or market in the center of Jerusalem (and it was Eema's first trip there in at least 6 years!) We had a great time shopping, especially at the spice place, where we did lots of taste testing and bought all sorts of yummy things.

Funny story from today:

Daddy, Eema, and Noam went to the local coffee shop (well, one of about twenty) to buy ground coffee for our french press. While Noam made new friends and Eema chatted with some old friends, Daddy was left to decide how much coffee to buy. He remembered that 2.2 pound = 1 kilogram. Well, he sort of remembered. That is, he remembered that the number 2.2 was involved somehow, but he got a little lost in the details.

Having concluded that 2.2 kilograms = 1 pound, Daddy ordered some coffee.

Daddy, Eema, and Noam left the coffee shop with approximately 4.5 pounds of ground coffee.

Grandma, we hope you come visit soon, because otherwise we are going to be drinking coffee for a long, long time!

A Few of His Favorite (and least favorite) Things

We have spent the past week or so walking around Jerusalem, running errands, familiarizing ourselves with our new neighborhood, and trying to find elusive items like grounded adaptor plugs and organic whole milk. During this process, we have learned some new things about Noam.

1) Noam likes gelatto. Or at least, it is interesting enough to him that he sits up and takes notice. Maybe he's just not used to food on a spoon being that cold. Or maybe its because it was chocolate. Whatever the case, he sort of entered a brief trance-like state after each spoonful.

2) Noam likes french fries (in Israel we call them "chips"). He grabbed some off the table today as we ate lunch out in town, and polished them off before we could think about whether this was a good idea. Though at this point we pretty much let him eat anything, as long as he eats (see #1).

3) Noam is very definite about what he does and does not want to do. Actually, we knew that already. But its become more evident as his use of signing expands. As many of you know, we've taught Noam some sign language, and he can say "all done" with his hands. He used to say "all done" only at the end of meals (or rather, after he had finished four or five bites and was ready to play). Recently though, he has started telling me, after screaming for ten minutes and refusing to go to sleep, that he is "all done" being in his crib, or (as soon as we put him on the changing table) that he is "all done" getting his diaper changed.

We'll post more pictures soon!

Settling In

Just a quick note on our progress thus far. We had a wonderful first Shabbat in Jerusalem (thanks to Yaffa, who hosted a big lunch in our honor!), and we have now acquired cellphones (they are being delivered tonight) and internet service (just about an hour ago). We found the local organic supermarket, bought some toys for Noam, and located our nearest gelatto store.

Noam's accomplishments include a new tooth (so we're now up to four, though the two on top are still just peeking through) and many new friends. He also stood by himself today long enough to throw a ball across the room. Once he let go of the ball, he realized he wasn't holding on to anything and sat back down!

More soon.

Love,

Sara & David

Dear All,

We made it to Jerusalem! It was quite a trip. All you people in America - plan your visits now, because traveling for around 17 hours with Noam is definitely not our idea of a good time (and Noam didn't have such a great time either).

However, our trip was basically okay. Through a miracle, we were able to get all our bags checked (those of you who saw our bags understand the miracle involved) and we even found them all on the other end (though it took an hour). We arrived at our beautiful apartment yesterday morning, met our extremely nice landlords, and have been unpacking and settling in ever since.

Some exciting developments in babyland (aside from the jetlag, which is not at all exciting and makes us wonder why and how anyone ever travels across time zones with small children):
- The people across the hall from us have a baby a little younger than Noam, and Noam was thrilled to meet him! They also have a CAT.
- Our landlords left a great "walker" type car toy. Lots of fun, and it allows Noam to walk across the floor without us having to hold him up (not that he's always willing to, but that's another story).

- Toys from home are still important. Noam was very happy to see his own toys when I unpacked them - it was very cute to see!

More soon.

Love,

Sara & David