Welcome Baby Sister Janna!

Zev is now a big brother to our beautiful baby Janna! She arrived on Monday, February 16th at 1:35am and was 6 lbs 1 oz, 18 3/4 inches. My water broke in our home at 9:30pm, we went to the hospital, I started having contractions at around 10pm, and she was born just a few hours later! From 6cm I dilated to 10cm so quickly that my doctor hadn't even left her house. The nurses were telling me not to push while my doctor (who I am forever grateful to) actually broke her toe rushing out of her dark bedroom. From what the nurses told me I turned the whole thing into a stand-up comedy routine and had them laughing like crazy between contractions. I don't remember much of this but I know how I get once I have an audience so I'm not really surprised... For more details, ask Jeffrey.

Janna is now one week old and here are a few things we've learned about her:
-She's a natural when it comes to nursing. Her first latch was great and she nursed for 40 minutes right after birth. Now she nurses about every 1-2 hours during the day and once every 2-4 hours at night.
-We are blessed with a good nighttime sleeper. Last night Janna woke up to eat after 3 hrs, then 4 hrs, then 2 hrs. I got a good 8 hours of sleep! We credit this partly to her relaxed and happy nature but also to the Arm's Reach Cocoon Sleeper . It's a baby hammock that cradles her like she's being held and swings gently when she moves.
-Sometimes Janna covers her eyes with her hands when she sleeps. It's very cute.

-Girl can eat and poop. A lot. Nuff said.
-I can make her smile by rubbing her head. It's a real smile, not just gas. I know because her eyes roll to the back of her head and she gets this heavenly look of happiness.

Zev has been gentle and sweet with his baby sister. When he sees her in the morning he says "Hi Baby Jannna!" and sometimes he gives her kisses. Still, we can tell that it takes an emotional toll on him by his 3 hr naps and 1x a day crying fit over something that normally wouldn't bother him. It's an adjustment period that I hope won't last long. Other than the crying fit he's a happy and healthy boy. His vocabulary has increased exponentially and he's saying 2-3 word simple sentences like "Read the book"
and "I did it." He says words like vitamin (he loves his gummy vites), balloon and all of the primary colors. He loves wearing his fireman's hat and saying "wee-new, wee-new" like a fire truck.

Having two beautiful children feels great and isn't as hard as I thought it would be. As Jeff said, Janna brings a sense of balance to our family. We're so excited about our present and future as a family.

Really, really cute.

I feel like we're on toddler holiday. Zev has just been so amazingly cooperative, fun, smart, active and happy lately. He wants to help and learn everything! Almost every word I ask him to repeat he does. Yesterday I told him "it's 80 degrees outside!" and after that he kept saying "ay-teee! ay-teee!" Zev's been exploring opposites on his own lately and often says them together, such as hot/cold, up/down, on/off. He loves turning the light switch on and off but can't always reach it so he sometimes uses his plastic hammer or the broom to hit the switch. Yes, he's using tools! He can also feed himself a bowl of cereal, getting much of it (maybe 2/3) into his mouth. We spend a lot of time coloring at his art easel, which he loves. He draws a lot of small scribbles, big circles and zig zags. Two days ago he picked up the brown crayon and said "BROWN!" I was stunned. He also says and knows blue and red. He says "Lellow" for yellow but I'm not sure if he knows which color it is. In the bathtub he loves getting some soap on his hands and washing his tummy, arms, legs and feet. His favorite bath toys are still a plastic cup and one or two tupperware containers. These have been his only bath toys and he never gets tired of them! Sometimes we switch tupperware to get some change but it's basically a tupperware party in the tub. Only 5 weeks until his baby sister is due. Zev's been spending a lot of time in her room playing with his basket of toys that we're keeping in there while I put her clothes away. He's getting to be such a big boy! He stays in the bathroom with me, playing in the closet or watching me while I shower. I can see him since we have a glass shower. While I'm blow drying my hair he plays with our extra, unplugged blow dryer. Zev has become quite a girl chaser recently. The other day when Ray and I were in Old Navy he was chasing a 4 year old girl (common occurrence) and when he caught up to her he showed her his belly button. It was hilarious. When our friends Christof and Alicia were over last week he was chasing after and kissing their wonderful 3 1/2 year old daughter Eva! It's very cute to watch. I'm glad we're having a girl because he really seems to like them, for now at least!
Here's an adorable video of Zev dancing, counting and blowing kisses.

New Words, Elmo and "Just a Minute!"

Zev has been trying some two syllable words recently, here are a few:
Bubble - he actually says it almost perfectly - buhhh-bul
Button - buhyah (no, not boo-yah, we'll get to that)
Water - something like wahhyeh
Elmo - did I mention Zev's current Elmo obsession? Not that he's even SEEN Elmo on TV...we don't have tv besides dvds and don't currently own any Sesame Street but through his books he has come to know and love Elmo. He runs about the house exclaiming "Elll-mo" pretty much whenever he's not busy with something. All he wants to read besides Dr. Suess (his favorite) is Elmo. I still don't get the grand appeal of Elmo, but apparently he is the perfect combination of cute and cuddly or something like that.
At first I was anti-Elmo, eager to rid our house of his presence, but now I'm happy that Zev is attached to a character. We haven't been able to find the right 'lovey' for Zev so I might try an Elmo doll if I can find one that doesn't giggle or coo. This attachment might be great for Zev to have when the baby is born, so now I'm all for it.
Other new words in Zev's vocabulary:
Rain - imitates
Sun - recognizes it in pictures
Moon - points to the moon and says the word
Dirt - loves to pick up dog hair and say "Dirt...Stella"
Book - 'buhhh' Zev loves being read to. He brings me a book, sits right down on my lap and says 'buuhhh...mohhh' (mohhh being more)
DVD - says 'DD!' Recently we've been watching The Muppet Show
Owww
Uh-oh
Bread - 'brehh'
The letter Z - 'Zeeeeee' and can point it out. He also seems to recognize and say the letter O.
Door
I'll have to ask Jeff what else he's been saying. Since my lower back muscles have been spasming, Jeff has taken over a most of the carrying, diapering and physical activity. During the day I don't carry Zev unless absolutely necessary. He's content to hold my hand or sit on the floor with me instead. I'm in physical therapy since I couldn't walk without pain and it's helping. I'm not in pain as often and my limp is getting better. I still can't walk straight but we're working on it. 8 1/2 more weeks is too long to go like this! The therapist Diana at St. Joe's in fantastic, so is my friend Sarah who does prenatal massage (and normal massage) at Tucson Touch Therapies. I HIGHLY recommend her. It is nice being pampered, but really I just want to be able to walk around the block without looking like I'm in labor.

The best new communication we have is called "Just a Minute!" created by Grandma Lynette. She taps her index finger on her wrist and says "Just a minute!" when Zev is anxious for food or whatever he's getting fussy about. He then taps his wrist with his index finger, showing he understands, and waits patiently! It really works! We use it everyday while preparing breakfast or late snack since Zev is especially hungry after he wakes up.

Some Photos

Poor Stella! Zev loves her so much! She's a very patient pooch. (reload the page if pictures aren't centered) ---update 2/6/09 We recently found out that Stella has hip dysplasia, so Zev can no longer sit on her. He's been cooperative and rarely even tries. I think he understands that Stella has "boo boo hips."

Breaking the Language Barrier

Zev is repeating so many words these days. Pretty soon he's going to be a non-stop chatterbox, I can tell already. Here are some of his latest favs:

Bed: When Zev wakes up from his nap he walks around his crib, pats his bedding and says "beh, beh." He loves his crib so much that I have to either say "Want to play with Stella?" or "Go see dada?" before he'll let me pick him up. This is from a baby who wanted nothing to do with his crib for the first year! I'm glad he loves his space so much.

Pop: Referring to bubbles and Grandpa Joe. He recently started calling Grandpa Joe 'pop pop' on his own!

Body parts: Zev can say neck, nose (sounds like oooooooh), ears (eah, eah), eye, hand (something like hah), belly (beh), hair, head (heh), arm (ahrh)

Tickle: This is the best. It started with Zev circling his finger saying "rah, rah" imitating us saying "round and round and tickle, tickle!" Then he puts both hands at the top of his tummy, tickles himself and says "tick, tick, tick!" smiling and giggling. He tickles mommy and daddy too.

Tick tock: When he sees a clock he says "tick, tick, tick" which he learned in the book Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?

Animal noises: he's added monkey, elephant, duck, cat, and improved on the others (cow says "moo" now, not "muhh" anymore. Working on chicken.

Colors: Says "red" (reh) all the time. Think I've been hearing him say blue. He also does the sign for red.

He's saying and repeating so much I can't list it all, but those are a few. Sometimes it sounds like he's saying "I do it" but we're not quite sure. He has his own language that he uses to tell stories and talk on the phone.

For the past few weeks, Zev has been eating his yogurt and blueberries with a spoon on his own. He gets about 2/3rds of it into his mouth. I'll post photos soon.

He brushes his teeth, holding the toothbrush himself as we guide his hand, every night after bath.

He loves to hold hands when we're walking.


We're enjoying this time in Zev's life immensely. I feel ecstatic watching this little wonder before my eyes. He's such a sweet, smart and loving little boy. We're very fortunate. Every night before we go to sleep Jeff and I recount some of the amazing and adorable things Zev's done throughout the day to each other, no matter how tired we are. It's not planned, it just happens naturally. I can't remember the last time one of us didn't have to tell the other about something new or funny Zev did.

I'm really incredibly tired now so forgive me if this post isn't well written! It's 8:41 and I'm off to bed. Goodnight, Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas!

Harmonica Baby

As you can see, Zev is already on his way to playing harmonica at Carnegie Hall.

Some More Photos

These are from the playground at Brandi Fenton Park following our friend Sarah's birthday party and the Tucson Jewish Food Festival. We had so much fun and learned that Zev LOVES hummus!