Could we be teething?

Or maybe just hungry? Nathaniel was going to town on his little Tigger rattle. I wonder if he is starting to get some teeth?

Father's Day

We were totally exhausted from a long night with Nathaniel and welcomed a quiet morning with brunch up at a new cafe on the corner.

Then off to a BBQ at my parents house. It was a beautiful June afternoon (complete with sunbreaks and downpours). It was so fun to be with my family! We got Dad a new 'Small Potatoes' sweatshirt and matching t-shirts. Here's some pics

Sick again?

I feel like we have been sick off and on for the last three weeks. I've heard kids get sick alot but are we going to be sick for the next 5 years? I don't think I can handle that! Our little guy has had a runny nose and a bit of a cough this week. We've been trying to take it easy and stay close to home so he can recover. He is doing better now. Ken still has that terrible cough that just won't go away. Between the two of them I'm hardly getting any sleep! Which reminds me maybe I should be sleeping now since both of them are napping.

Gotcha Daddy!

Our little guy has been a little sniffly and cranky the last two days :-( Yesterday I tried to put him down for bed around 8:30, before I could leave the room he opened his eyes and start to cry. I immediately picked him up and sat with him in the rocking chair for another 15 minutes. He sounded asleep so I attempted to put him down again. About 5 minutes later he was crying so I asked Ken to take a try at getting him to bed. Ken went upstairs and a few minutes later I heard "help, mom! HELP!". Having no idea what the emergency was I flew up the stairs to see Daddy holding a smiley little boy who had just regurgitated sour milk all over Daddy. It was quite the site. Needless to say both boys needed a bath. Welcome to parenthood.

Waking up

We wake up happy at this house! I heard Nathaniel talking to himself the other morning so I grabbed the camera before going in to get him. He was delighted to see me and show me his new trick... I can hold my feet mom!

4 Month Picture

Our little guy is growing fast!

Date Night

Ken and I were able to have a few hours off this weekend. We took Nathaniel to Oma and Poppa Jim's house and headed to the movies. Terminator was the pick... hey I was excited to get out to a movie regardless of the show. Nathaniel was a superstar for my parents while we were out. He loves them so much. He loves to giggle at my mom. Anyway, while we were out Nathaniel was inducted into the Future Wood Cutters of America club. Yes, my dad (Poppa Jim) loves to go up to the mountains and cut wood. He had just finished getting a load of wood and had fun telling Nathaniel all about it.

Visitor

We had a fantastic time with Doron while he was here. It was a short trip (for us) but so fun to see our neighbor from Israel. We met up with him on Wednesday and Thursday nights last week. We drove around town taking him shopping... things are much cheaper here in the USA and then we went out for dinner. Nathaniel hadn't had a decent nap so he was a bit fussy and I ended up standing for most of the dinner :-( Good thing they weren't busy. Anyway, we snapped a few pictures while we were out. Nathaniel had a little meltdown at the end.

4 Months Old

Our little guy is becoming more and more talkative... and wiggly. We love him so much! We have our 4 month appointment this week... which means more shots :-(
He loves to read as you can see here:

And he loves to sleep:

Hot weather

Last week was so hot!!! We are thankful for a little cooler weather this weekend. We did a lot of yardwork last week (including fixing a broken sprinkler system!). Nathaniel loved watching all the work being done from his little exersaucer. We only put him in it for 10-15 minutes at a time since he is still pretty little, but it looks like he likes it!

Junior Rose Parade

Wednesday was the Junior Rose parade. My friend Bonnie and I took her kids a few years ago and decided to make it a tradition (I missed last year, but was back for more this year and even had a little one to parade around.) We went with a Noah's ark theme. Actually Bonnie did all the work in making it look like we had an ark. Nathaniel and I were going to be Bears. He was the baby bear and I was the Momma Bear. However, we have had an unseasonable streak of warm weather (even during the Rose Festival!) and his bear outfit was going to be too hot. So sad... it was really cute. So he ended up being a tiger in his little striped onesie and I had my Momma Bear hat. We enjoyed the parade and even knew one of the spectators (my mom!).

That heat sure took it out of us. Nathaniel took a nice long nap when we got home

Pool time

Well last week we had our first pool experience. I brought the camera expecting a big reaction but found that Nathaniel was content either in or out of the water. I think he was more interested in a nap in mommy's arms. The big kids around him were splashing all around and he didn't seem to mind. Hopefully he keeps his contented spirit :-)

No Crying !?!?!

I have been working on establishing a morning nap for Nathaniel for about a month now and this was the first morning we had no crying what-so-ever! After being up for an 1.5-2 hours I've been putting him down in his crib, turning on the music and giving him a pacifier. He typically cries through the first 5 songs and then finally agrees that he is tired. I've always waited in the room by his bedside till he falls asleep so I can re-insert his pacifier if it falls out. On Tuesday this week he was fussing and I thought maybe I should just let him fuss and if he takes the pacifier out oh well. There was about 12 minutes of crying and then he put himself to sleep. Wednesday I tried the same routine and it took 7 minutes of crying before he put himself to sleep. Today... about 5 mintues of wiggling around but no crying. Do I get another Mommy Merit Badge? If this can be done in the morning I wonder about bedtime??? I might save that battle for another day when we are feeling better (we've had a cold all week and it just won't go away).

1 year ago today...

We walked off a plane in Tel Aviv and began an exciting adventure living in another country.

My favorite places:
Jerusalem: The Garden Tomb outside the city
Dead Sea: En Gedi Nature Park
Golan: Nimrod's Fortress
Haifa: Wendi's house and the beach
Ceasarea: The beach

Food I miss the most:
Shwarma
Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice
Watermelon
Doron's BBQ
Shabbat Dinner at the Shermans

I had no idea how hard it would be.... and now how sad it is to be away. I love home and love being back in Portland. But we think about Israel often and have very good memories. We are hoping to have a visitor next week, one of our neighbors will be on a business trip for a day or two in our area. We are looking forward to having dinner with him. Anyway, it's hard to imagine it has been a year already. In some ways it seems like yesterday... but we have a four month old and we didn't even know about him a year ago, so it can't be yesterday. Okay so you can tell how much sleep I've gotten lately by my babbling. Time for my morning nap with Nathaniel :-)