My little talker

Nathaniel is starting to babble a lot more these days... I had to get this video from behind a door... the moment he realized what was going on he stopped talking.

Visitors from South Dakota

My mom's brother is visiting this week and we have been having a lot of fun with them. The arrived late Monday so we didn't see them till Tuesday. The cousins were so excited about Nathaniel and each wanted a turn holding him. Here is Jasper and Nathaniel.


Wednesday we met them downtown for a picnic lunch in the park blocks with Stevie. They enjoyed the farmers market and a street artist made the boys balloon swords. Very cool.

Thursday we planned to do the visitors loop out the gorge stopping at Multnomah falls and looping around Mt.Hood. We all piled into there RV which was quite exciting. We stopped at crown point and then the falls and did the mile hike up to the top. I ended up carrying my nephew most of the way - up and down :-( I'm feeling it my legs today... Then we stopped at the Bonneville Dam and watched a boat go through the locks. By the time we were done there it was already 4pm so we headed home. We will see Mt. Hood next time they come.

Little Slugger

Another cute picture

Memorial Day

We had a relaxing Memorial Day which started off with a nice nap... the boys continued their nap while I had a coffee date with a friend. Around noon we headed over to a friend's house (new friend from Moms group). Since we normally meet up on Mondays with Momma's and Babies it seemed natural to see them today although the Dads were their too. Very interesting mix of people. We had a great time and enjoyed a BBQ. We took another picture of Moms and Babies and then thought it would be fun to see if Dads and Babies could arrange themselves in birth order for a picture. I must say it took a little longer than it did for the Moms but hey we are used to talking to each other :-)

What a big boy!

Nathaniel has always had fairly good neck control. He always likes to take a look around before going down for a nap.

He has also started sucking on his fingers over the last couple weeks... the middle two in particular but all four taste great together too.

3 Month Picture

Here is Nathaniel's 3 month picture. Doesn't he look all grown up?

Beautiful Weather

We have been enjoying a lovely week (weatherwise) in Portland. On the homefront Mom is extremely tired. I feel like we took 3 steps backward this week in terms of sleeping and feedings :-( Yesterday I started to get concerned that maybe my milk was drying up so we went to the Dr. this morning. Apparently Nathaniel has just been snacking. So now we have a plan to make sure he is eating a full meal. Hopefully this will translate into better sleep too. This afternoon we were out in the garden again planting cucumbers. We have been spending a fair amount of time at the club too, getting our exercise in. I can't seem to kick these 5 pounds :-(

Zoo

Monday was a busy day. Nathaniel and I met a good friend from high school at the zoo with her two kids. We were actually ready for the zoo at 8:30 but I guess it doesn't open till 9 so we met at a park by the Rose Gardens up there. The kids played, Nathaniel took his morning nap. Mandi and I enjoyed the sunshine and our friendship. Then off to the zoo. It was so crowded. I would say "it was a zoo" but you might say really? what did you expect? Anyway, lots of field trips first thing on Mondays. I ran into a gal I met through Mom's Group and another gal from church. Yes I'm just like my mom and seem to run into people I know at large venues. I think I'm getting off track here. This was actually Nathaniel's second trip to the zoo. The first was pretty cold and he slept in the stroller most of the time about a month ago. This time Nathaniel was wide awake and taking everything in. I carried him in the front pack so he could see well. We actually only made it through the Pacific Northwest exhibit, the Giraffe, and fed the birds before it was 11:30 and time to go to our Moms Group. Nathaniel was totally exhausted from all the stimulus and slept most of the afternoon.
PS. I think the zoo in TelAviv is better. I wish Nathaniel could see that one! Maybe someday.

Friends in Israel

We miss you Tom and Mor!

Queen of Sheba

Saturday I went to the spa for my Mother's Day treat. I chose the Chocolate Papaya Mud Wrap.... sounded interesting. It was not what I expected but still delightful. I kept imagining the Queens and Princesses of old who probably had similar treatments with spices and oils. Listen to this description: This unique treatment, world-renowned for its beneficial properties, pulls out impurities and nourishes the skin and body. Our encounter begins by lathering a fusion of warmed mud, chocolate and papaya. Your relaxation continues while the therapist gently massages your scalp and temples. We then complete this experience by gently working Shea butter into your skin, leaving you with a tranquil, refreshed feeling.

Basically they had me lie down in a tanning bed sort of machine, blended a mixture of chocolate, papaya and mud and massaged it into my skin, then turned on the steam so I felt like I was in a sauna and massaged my head. Then they turned on the sprayer which rinsed me off and then gave me another massage with a nice lotion. It was very nice and relaxing.

A Masterpiece

This picture is a little late but I wanted to post it anyway. My sis-in-law spent who knows how many hours making a quilt for Nathaniel. She even re-worked the quilt when I finally decided on the colors for the room. We love the quilt...the labor of love... Thank you Aunt Bethany!

Mother's Day

I had a really nice Mother's Day. Ken made it really special for me. Nathaniel brought me tulips. How did he know I love tulips??? He also scheduled me for a day at the spa to get a nice back rub. We went out for bagels in the morning before church and had a nice family walk around noon. Then we headed over to my parents house for a BBQ. It was nice to have a relaxing day.

Sleep at last!

My sweet little boy slept from 8:30pm till 5:45am! What a blessing! We have started swaddling him at night and I think that is making the difference. He is a lot less fussy when I hand him off to Daddy we hardly hear a peep out of him! And he has been sleeping longer. Daddy loves to get him in the morning. Nathaniel is all smiles when he first wakes up.... and now that we are getting more sleep we are too.

A night out

Ken was anxious to see the new Star Trek movie this weekend. We called my Aunt Laura to see if she was up for watching our little man for the evening. So on Saturday afternoon we headed to the movies. We had a great time. We actually splurged and got a bucket of popcorn and soda. Meanwhile back at home Nathaniel decided to be Mr. Fussy Pants for Aunt Laura. It sounds like he gave up after 40 minutes of crying and just fell asleep in her arms for the next 3 hours. Gotta love those snuggles!

MOY Award!!!!

Wow! After 3 sleepless months my loving husband nominated me for a Mother of the Year award. How sweet! Copy/Paste the link below to see the honors.

http://news.cnnbcvideo.com/?nid=vmWD3ISGZfUhuCyyRWegIDIzOTM2NQ--&referred_by=15553651-TDyUKgx&p=moveon

3 Months Old

Wow. Up till now, when asked, I've been saying how many weeks old Nathaniel is... but I think it's time to switch to months. He is becoming more and more interactive and I love it! I've been singing the Alphabet song to him everyday... I tried to rattle off the Hebrew numbers too but got stuck at 8... for some reason that one was always hard for me to remember. Maybe my friend Laura can help? I have a couple of board books in Hebrew too so he can remember where he spent the first 32 weeks of life.

My sweetie

This is one of my favorite outfits. I must confess when we first recieved it I couldn't tell what it said. I thought man, we've only been gone from Israel for 3 months and I can't remember my Hebrew! I recognized "Shali" which is "My" but the other word didn't sound familiar. Turns out I never learned the word "Matak" which is "Sweetie". I don't feel so bad afterall. Anyway, we love the little outfit and miss our friends in Israel who sent it to us! Hope to see you guys soon!

Family picture

We have thoroughly enjoyed the tulips in our backyard this year. I love how they are in crates in the ground which make them low maintenance. We decided to take a couple of pictures as a family... it's a lot harder to get all 3 of us happily smiling at the camera at the same time.

Sleepy Day

Today we are catching up on our sleep :-) We were up briefly for showers and lunch and went back down for naps again. I'm excited to report Nathaniel is sleeping in the pack n play and not on me! This week I've tried putting him down and rubbing his tummy while he drifts off to sleep listening to lullabye music. He's been down for almost and hour and half! Besides what else is there to do on a rainy day? We planned to finish planting our garden and washing the car... both outside activities.

Last night we started watching the movie "Masada". We thought it would be interesting to watch since we visited this site a couple of times while we lived in Israel. It is interesting... a bit slow going (there are 2 three hour discs!!!)... and bad acting. But it's been fun to watch and see the changes in the surroundings since the film was made in the 70's.