Birthday Celebrations

Turning 1 year is no small event! Of course we needed to celebrate!! We invited friends over to our home for the afternoon for lunch and cake. Thanks to J’s parents, who arrived from Holland the night before, we could even decorate our home in true Dutch fashion with streamers and flags. The colorful flags and flower streamers made it a very festive place, for sure. Elizabeth loved all the colorful things hanging from the ceiling (so we have not yet removed all the décor). Every day she spends part of her day pointing with excitement to be sure we also see all the beautiful things to look at!

Waiting with Oma for the guests to arrive.

I realized after the fact that I didn’t get any pictures when our house was filled with people! There were about 25 people here, kids included, so it was a busy place for several hours. And it was fun! Elizabeth is truly an extraverted child. She was super excited, laughed often, and kept busy chasing and playing with the older kids and crawling all over the place. Even without an afternoon nap, she was a very happy little girl.

Elizabeth enjoyed every energetic moment of playing with all the kids at the party, but the main event really was the birthday cake. It wasn’t her first taste of cake since we had the birthday celebration for her in November with my family (not to mention the sweet treats she is given by our neighbors…which I try to keep to a minimum!). But it took her a few moments to let go of her preference to play with the candle (notice the look she gives me in the above video!) before she started eating her cake. She then enjoyed her cake with gusto!

Later in the day, two sons of our one nanny came by to visit Elizabeth and give her a gift from the family. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them play together. Elizabeth loves Hind’s family! They are a high energy family, and watching the boys play with Elizabeth helped me better understand what Elizabeth’s days are like when she is at their home. She couldn’t stop giggling! And it was obvious that those boys love Elizabeth too. It warmed my heart because it reminded me that family is much bigger than blood relations.

And then finally, after all the guests left, Elizabeth got to open her birthday gifts from us, her Oma and Opa and her aunts and uncles in Holland. She had received gifts from her PA family in November, of course.

It is never too early to start teaching a child the important etiquette of reading the card first!

With her practice in November and at Sinterklaas (post coming later about that evening), Elizabeth is now very skilled at the fine art of opening presents.

Opening her gift from J’s sister and her family while they watched via Skype.

Although she remained happy up until we put her to bed, glimpses of her fatigue peeked through at times…

And finally, her gift from us. For years, my go-to baby gift has been a quiet book handmade at an Israeli kibbutz. It was fun to be able to give this great gift to our own daughter this year! As she develops, her interactions with the pages of this book will evolve too. Several months ago I had visions of making such a book myself…but I needed to let that aspiration go by the wayside. How do people find time for such projects?!

It was a very special and very fun day! Several times I had tears in my eyes…tears of joy and happiness. We are blessed with a beautiful and sweet little daughter. We are blessed with many nearby friends who are like family to us. And we are blessed with family and friends who live far away but are near to us in our hearts. And this day of celebrating Elizabeth reminded me of all these wonderful blessings! Who wouldn’t cry tears of joy at such a time as this?!

1 Year and Walking

Elizabeth’s 1st birthday was wonderful day, and I promise to soon post pictures from the party we held to celebrate our sweet baby girl. But in the meantime, she has had her 1 year check up at the well baby clinic. She has jumped to the 75th percentile in height, but is holding steady at around the 50th percentile in weight. Her father’s genes are making an appearance!

Weight: 9.74 kg / 21.5 lbs

Length: 76.5 cm / 30.1 inches

The night before her birthday, Elizabeth took her first steps! Ever since that evening, she has been busy practicing her new skill and getting more and more confident. She is always trying to stand by herself or take a few steps. She still is quick to fall, but we see gains every day! It’s a funny thing to watch a baby develop. I know that parenting does influence children, but at the same time, development happens on its natural course. What makes a child try to crawl? OK, maybe curiosity and a desire to reach things independently. But what makes a child who crawls so well then decide that walking would be better? Nature is a wonderful thing to observe!

The other recent development we have seen in Elizabeth is her strong desire to use a spoon when eating. This could be attributed to her wishing to mimic her parents. But again…what makes a child want to do these things? The learning curve is steep to use a spoon properly. She will patiently work to get a bean on her spoon…which then promptly falls off when she picks up the spoon vertically to bring it to her mouth. So we assist her and work together with her to help her learn how a spoon needs to be held. And there are those times when she is successful, on her own, from beginning to end. Her proud smile lights up the room.

In general, she is a very happy little girl…even when tired. She is chattering more and more and is often mimicking the sounds she hears us make. She keeps busy pointing at things that excite her. And she continues to nurture a deep appreciation of music and rhythm. When she is healthy, rested and well-fed, she is happy to play independently but occasionally “checks in” by asking us to read her a book or to show us the toy of choice at that moment. But there are other times when all she wants is one of us to sit on the floor and be active with her. There are times when I feel the pull to rather do the things I think “need” to be done, but I try hard to remember that what really needs to be done is to love Elizabeth and be “present” in her life…especially during those times she is asking for me to be there with her.

It has been a wonderful year! Parenting has been a very pleasant surprise for me. I had underestimated the powerful bond that develops between parent and child. I distinctly remember realizing, soon after Elizabeth was born, that she responded to me! My presence, my voice, my songs would soothe her! And this past year has been filled with many such moments…moments of gaining more insight into how my relationship with my daughter is evolving and deepening and strengthening with the passing of each day. I am excited to experience life with this sweet girl, and I pray our relationship will continue to be positive and joyful for us both.

Christmas Tree Lighting…Live!

The highlight of this video, of course, is the very end when Elizabeth starts to sing along with the music. Enjoy!

Christmas Festivities

The Christmas festivities have begun! Granted, one could argue that it is always Christmas in Bethlehem…but the town definitely ups its game at this time of year. With three Christmas’, each one celebrated by a different Christian group (Catholic, Orthodox and Armenian), we will be able to enjoy the decorations until mid-late January! The picture above is the view just down the street from our home.

Preparations for our village’s Christmas Tree lighting service have underway for weeks. The big event was this past Thursday evening, and of course we attended! I will direct you to last year’s post if you want to get a better picture of what this event  involves. It was a fun, local event. Elizabeth loved the many lights, the scouts and their music, and the general festive air that surrounded us.

 

We met our friend Shannon by the Christmas tree to wait for the lighting. Shannon has been babysitting Elizabeth one day a week for us, and our daughter adores her!

 

 

 

The Busy Life of Elizabeth

Enjoy these recent videos of Elizabeth playing.

She quickly learned the concept of drinking and sharing tea. She also loves to press the button to make the teapot sing.

A sweet video of Elizabeth and her papa reading one of her favorite books.

This school bus, a birthday gift, is a very popular toy at present. Elizabeth soon learned the trick to make it play the song…just keep pushing on the bus driver until the bus starts to sing! As you can see, she gets very excited :)

It has only been this past week when we have noticed Elizabeth starting to be more interested in walking. Her balance is improving every day. We think she will be taking off on her own in the very near future.

Celebrating 1 Year at 11 Months

We celebrated Elizabeth’s 1-year birthday with my family during our time in Pennsylvania. What a fun celebration! She quickly learned what presents are all about and excitedly ripped off the wrapping paper to see what was inside each gift.

While it is always fun to gain a lot of fun new toys, it was the joy of celebrating this birthday milestone with family that made the party truly memorable and meaningful.

I find it hard to believe that in just 11 short days, we will be celebrating Elizabeth’s real 1st birthday. It certainly has been an amazing year filled with more joy than I had ever imagined!

1st Thanksgiving

Time is speeding by and Christmas is rapidly approaching. So please forgive the quick overview of our trip to the US for the Thanksgiving holiday as my way to try to keep up to date with our lives on this blog! We traveled to the US for the Thanksgiving holiday. Elizabeth did great on the trip. It helped that we flew through the night, so she slept a lot of the way. But she was definitely more active and vocal this time, compared to her prior two international travels. She loved the people on the plane and made lots of friends with our neighbors.

And speaking of making friends, she also tried to befriend this “man” at Ben Gurion Airport…a very large poster at our gate.

I first needed to travel to California to attend a conference at work.  J and Elizabeth went directly to my parents’ home, so we needed to say goodbye at the airport. It was my first time being away from Elizabeth for more than a few hours and it felt a very strange. I definitely missed her! But I really enjoyed spending time with two dear friends from PA who traveled to California for a road trip that ended in San Diego to stay with me. It made for very fun evenings after my conference duties ended.

Upon my arrival in PA, it was wonderful to visit with our former neighbors from Jerusalem who now live in Chicago area. Winona and her kids (Jason’s schedule, unfortunately, did not allow him to make the trip) drove all the way to PA to visit with us! It was so fun to see them again and to introduce Elizabeth to our dear friends.

It was a busy week, as is usual for us when we travel to visit family and friends. Time always goes by too fast, and I leave wishing I would have at least one more month to spend in the area to be able to spend the quality time I wish I could spend with everyone. But I enjoy and fully appreciate every little moment I do have with my loved ones in Pennsylvania.

A favorite picture of me and Elizabeth with my mother.

My niece Katelyn driving Patches, her pony. It was Elizabeth’s first pony cart ride!

Getting a tour of Grandpa’s school bus.

Playing with cousin Matthew, who you can see in the reflection of the fire place.

Elizabeth learned to climb stairs at my sister’s house on Thanksgiving evening.

Reading with Aunt Teresa.

My father allowed Elizabeth to play with a toy tractor that is a model of one of his tractors. Elizabeth had lots of fun pushing it around the basement. Grandpa provided important oversight to keep her from running into furniture.