Winds of Change

My son is now almost 4 months old and a lot has changed.
He is no longer in, what I called, "the larva stage".
He is now in a stage which I like to refer to as "the immobile pet stage".

Since he became about 2 months old, he started reacting to the environment and people around him.
He has learned to identify his mom and me and other relatives who visit us often (like grandparents and such).

I've been told in advance that there's something wonderful that comes with this post-2-month-old stage, and that is the smiles... And indeed they are wonderous.
You truly don't know true happiness until you see your own child smile back at you for the first time with a wide, unadulterated, toothless smile.
And when you do silly things and he starts laughing uncontrollably? That's just utterly priceless.

It really becomes rather addicting at some point.
I find myself 'milking' a smile or a laugh as I do something as little as pass by his crib... Peek a glance and make a funny face, just to see him crack a smile and laugh for a bit.

I even accidentally found that he's prone to tickles near the back of his neck.
If I combine silly faces, noises and tickles, then he's laughing like crazy and it's truly hilariously contagious :D

For example, here's a clip of him being histerically amused by a nylon bag:

He is still mostly immobile, although he's already capable of turning from the stomach to his back.
He's lately been trying to turn from the back to the stomach but his double diapering seems to hold him back (the doctor said double diapering is needed in order to widen his leg spread or something).
Even though still being mostly immobile, he's got a lot of energy and when he gets excited he's "running" and flailing his arms around while laying on his back.
Speaking of arms, he still doesn't seem to have much control over them, but it's definitely better than before: He's semi-able to 'reach out' and try to catch something (usually for the purpose of putting it in his mouth). But it seems to be mostly reflexes.

I can only imagine what he would be like in a year or two from now... He's definitely going to make us run around a lot.

His language skills are also slowly improving.
His first "word" was "ooh-geh" and he still uses that a lot as a sort of 'catch-all' expression (other than the obvious "uh" sort of moan).
But since then he started developing "ooh-gah" and most recently started combining it with "ga-ga" and "ya-ya". He seems to be most linguistically "prolific" during feeding time when he gets upset due to an incoming burp, so he could spout something like "ooh-geh-geh-ga-ya-ya-ya".
Occasionally he's also experimenting with other noises such as something reminiscient of blowing a raspberry ("ppfpfpfp" sort of noise). And when he has the pacifier in his mouth he can make additional noises such as "weh-oh weh-oh", "kuy-kuy-kuy" (usually when he's trying to laugh while suckling a pacifier) and "ah-vuh".
It's all very amusing :)

Part of being a parent is also doing things which you never even thought you'd ever have to do.
Like milking your own wife, or putting some special cream on your son's little penis.
But that's what really makes the parenting experience so unique.

I'm already mostly unphased by the dirty diapers at this point, and I'm starting to find that I'm less and less disturbed by the presence of shit in general. I don't know whether that's creepy or normal... I guess humans can get used to almost anything, huh? Although some people tell me that the smell is going to get A LOT worse later on, so I shouldn't get all cozy just yet.

My wife is still on her maternity leave so she's finding stuff to do. There are all kinds of activities for babies and their mothers in several malls in the area. For example, baby massage classes, dance/movement classes and simple socializing meetings for mothers living in the area.
After one of those meetings, my wife told me how we got it lucky with Oz... Apparently he's sleeping and eating much better than the other babies in the group, and he's a lot more friendly and happy in comparison. So I guess we're doing things right :D (or we just got a lucky streak... time will tell).

Hardships of Infancy

People keep telling me that it's going to get better.
People keep telling me that it's going to get worse.
People keep telling me that it's going to be worth it.
Whatever it is, it's going to be interesting.

My wife's routine day so far consists of feeding, changing diapers, and sleeping.
I can sense that it's taking a toll on her already, but so far she's holding on.

The other night my wife fed baby Oz at around 9 PM till about 9:30 PM, and then went to sleep until the next feeding.
I stayed up on the computer with little Oz next to me in the stroller (it usually helps when I roll it around to make him fall asleep).
Oz had a bunch of zits or something on his face (probably because he was sweating too much due to the heat), and I think they irritated him. So it took about another hour before he finally managed to fall asleep.
I was on the computer until about 1 AM when he started to wake up again.
It was way past his feeding time anyway, so I went over to wake up my wife.

She looked at me still half-asleep and said "what? but I just fed him a few minutes ago".
"No, you didn't", I answered. I figured that maybe she didn't notice the passage of time.
She said "but I remember clearly.. I sat right here on the bed and fed him"
Obviously I knew she didn't because I've been with him in the living room for the past 4 hours and the last time she fed him was in the same living room at 9 PM.
"Honey, it's already after 1 AM", I told her.
"what?? are you serious?? that's too long!", she answered, and got up to feed the baby.

I think the lack of sleep is getting to her. It looks like she's starting to have trouble distinguishing between dream and reality. She even told me that it's the second time that this sort of confusion happened to her.
I'm starting to fear that her sleep deprivation may bring her to dangerous situations, such as falling asleep during feeding while holding Oz in her hands.
I spoke to a few people about this and they all said that this situation is normal and that mothers get used to it and still manage.

The next day her mother came over to try and help.
"Go to sleep", she told her. "You need to rest, let me take care of Oz while you do."
My wife would have happily obliged, but her genius mother decided that while her daughter tries to sleep in the bedroom, that's the perfect time to be making phone calls with the speaker on full volume in the living room!
My wife told her that she can't sleep like this, so instead of talking on the phone, her mother went into the kids room (adjacent to the bedroom) and started sorting through the baby's clothes and making noise closing and opening doors and messing around with the clothing.
Eventually my wife had to tell her to just leave because she was doing more harm than good.

I sure hope this won't deteriorate because there's a lot more to go through.
Oz is not even 3 weeks old yet. There's a whole lot of sleep deprivation to go...

A couple of days later the zits on his face went away.
Probably because we stopped wrapping him up all the time so he sweated less.
Slowly but surely we're easing into a routine and getting better at it.

I'm getting better at making Oz fall asleep by holding him in my hands as if to breastfeed him, except that I'm giving him a pacifier instead of... well... my breast.
I think the warmth and intimacy calms him down.
I'm also getting better at changing his diapers faster and faster, although sometimes he's still crying like crazy (but much less than before).
Even the baths are becoming more and more effective.

He's still very young, so he's not much more than a cute bag of reflexes and instincts.
I don't think he's capable of seeing more than general outlines and no farther than half a meter away.
I'm told that after about 1 month or so they begin to interact with you more and react better to what's happening around them.

Just a couple of weeks more and we'll start having an actual human being in our home, instead of a... squeaky toy with reflexes.

Looking forward to it :)

My Boy Has a Name | Circumcision

Yesterday was my son's circumcision.
Obviously, being an atheist, if it was up to me I wouldn't go along with this archaic custom at all.
But my wife succumbed to social pressure from the family and in turn I had to oblige as well.
At the very least, I had my way in avoiding the religious custom and doing the 'secular version' instead.
Which means, we did the operation at a medical clinic by a professional doctor, instead of some bearded Rabbi in a synagogue.
The main difference, other than the person who performs the operation, is that it's done using strong local anesthetic, so my son didn't feel any pain at all until after the anesthetic wore off.
And even then, he only cried for very short bursts of a few seconds at a time.
He cried a bit more later when we got home but it was also for only a few seconds.
I think it's because it was painful for him to pee.
But whatever it was, it's gone now and he's totally fine.
The doctor who performed the operation even came today for a home visit to make sure everything was okay.

We made this occasion as minimalist as possible, inviting only the closest possible family members.
It was rather exciting nonetheless (for our guests especially).
My wife's father was the godfather, and I helped during the circumsicion by giving sugar water to my son in order to keep him calm.
We recited a few ceremonial words, ate a few snacks and took a bunch of pictures.

Well, my son officially has a name now and I can declare it openly to everyone:

Welcome to the world, Oz Blumin.

The word "Oz" in Hebrew has a strong meaning (literally).
It means "might" and "strength".
It's a bit of an ironic name to be given to a kid who is most probably going to be physically small.
But maybe that's an even better reason for him to have that name.

I also have my other reasons for choosing that name, specifically it was meant to be named after Ozymandias - both for the infamous Egyptian Pharaoh, as well as the fictional character from 'The Watchmen' graphic novel.
I know that's a lot of potential to live up to, but I allow myself to aim high :)

My Own Circumcision

Unlike my son, I was not circumsized when I was 8 days old.
I was born in Ukraine in the mid 80's, and during that time there was still much antisemitism there.
So many Jews, my parents included, preferred to hide their origins as much as possible.
That included not having me circumsized.

But they did go forward with it after we got to Israel... Although it took a couple years even then.

I was circumsized when I was 7 years old.
I still remember that day.

I remember how we arrived to the hospital and I had no idea what was happening.
I remember my mother holding me in her hands and then giving me away to someone I didn't recognize. I didn't know what was going on but I had an extremely bad feeling about it, possibly due to my mother's worried facial expression. I immediately started crying and going berserk as I saw my mother's worried face pulled farther and farther away.

I remember being put down on an operating table, still crying and flailing my hands and feet around, something like 5 doctors leaning over me and pinning me down, while another shoves a mask on my face.

Once that mask touched my face I almost immediately blacked out. I must've been hyperventilating and inhaled large amounts of the sleeping gas at a short time.

I even remember dreaming.

I dreamed about the event that just happened to me.

Although I must have been disoriented because I remember thinking in my mind that this scary event happened "yesterday". I remember thinking to myself "wow what happened yesterday? that was scary. what was that all about? well at least it's over now."

And that was pretty much it. It was a very short 'dream' (which was hardly a 'dream' as it was mostly me talking to myself for a bit).

I remember waking up in a small bed in a hallway, with my mother sitting across from me.

I remember the first words that came out of my mouth as I woke up.

I said: "mommy, my wee wee is itchy".

She said that she knows and that it's normal.

I also remember being nauseous and had to puke for a while, and I was told that it was a side effect of the anesthesia.

I remember how some time after that I found myself with my mother in a room full of people sitting down, and some bearded guy stood in front of us as if doing some kind of entertainment show.

I remember him pointing towards different people in the crowd and asking them something and they answered him something back, and occasionally everyone would say something in unison, and he would be like a conductor in a symphony. I remember how he pointed at my mother and asked her something, and she replied "Eitan". And that was it. I got my Hebrew name and it became official.

In retrospect, of course, I realized that during that time there was a large influx of ex-soviet Jews who immigrated to Israel once the 'flood gates' were open. So it made sense to me that this event was some sort of a mass circumcision ceremony that was meant to do quick work of the many immigrants who had to perform circumcisions.

In summary, this is one experience I could very well do without.

It was rather traumatic and as you can see I can still remember it till this day, 24 years later.

I'll probably remember it for the rest of my life.

If it was up to me, I'd make circumcision as something the person himself would choose to do or not do when they become older, like 18 years old or something like that.

And then, if they choose to do it, undergo regulated surgery in a hospital or whatever.

It would probably make many Rabbi mohels lose their jobs, but who cares.
Even better, if you ask me.

At Home At Last

Today we could finally bring our little boy home.
We were both excited and my wife was all giddy on the ride home.

Well, there's not much to tell, really.
The little boy was busy sleeping pretty much all day long.
We occasionally had to wake him up in order to feed him.

My wife's mother came by to help us for a bit and on the way buy some things that we missed.
She also helped us out with our very first diaper change.
I hope we'll get the hang of it soon on our own :P

I'm currently rather worried from our first night on our own, but uh... we'll get the hang of it, I guess.
Everyone does eventually, no? :)

So, is this what it's going to be like? All of this worrying and nervousness?
We'll just have to give it a couple of more days to get a feel for it, I think.

[EDIT: The next day]

Our first night went by relatively easy.
My wife woke up a couple of times to feed him, but that was obviously expected.
I tried to convince her to use the pump so that I could feed him from the bottle and she could rest. But she refused. I suspect she may be addicted to breastfeeding him. Must be something with the hormones :)

Today we also scheduled an appointment with a doctor for the circumcision. It'll be this Sunday.
We'll be doing this with as few people as possible.
Most people in Israel perform the circumcision with Rabbis in Synagogues or at home, but more and more people choose professional doctors instead. It's usually more expensive but it's completely painless for the baby (unlike traditional circumcision).
If it was up to me, I'd forego the circumcision altogether, but my wife insisted, so... yeah.

I don't think I'm feeling "it" yet... The "fatherhood"? So far it feels more like a science project, like when they give you an egg and you need to take care of it for a while? Or like when they give you an eating and peeing doll to babysit? So I think that's what it feels like so far.
My wife thinks that it's because I'm not as active in taking care of him. After all, she's doing all the feeding and diaper changing. So far she still insists on doing it herself but I'm sure it's a matter of time before she'll demand that I'll be more active :)

P.S.
I would just like to point out, for the record...
That my baby junior sounds like a squeaky toy.

G6PD AKA "You can't leave the hospital yet" | Surviving Elementary School

I'm writing this 3 days after the birth, as we are still in the hospital.
We stayed the night at a mini-hotel within the hospital compounds.
It has hotel-like rooms, and full service for the newborn.
Today we were told that our son can't leave the hospital yet because he's still in danger of Hepatitis.

You see, yesterday it was discovered that our son has G6PD, which is a genetic disorder common with Iraqi people (and my wife is half Iraqi). It causes increased risk of Hepatitis in newborns, and the treatment is this baby-sized 'tanning bed' which treats the illness using certain light waves. I don't know and don't really care for the details beyond that.
Bottom line is that he needs more of that treatment, and that means he must stay at the hospital for at least another day.
Unfortunately, our reservation at the mini-hotel was for one day only, and it's expensive as fuck. So this complicates things a bit.
We're still trying to decide on the logistics but I think what will probably happen is that my wife will remain at the hospital in a special shared room dedicated to mothers who have to stay with their newborn next to the nursery. I will sleep at home (about 15-20 minutes away) but will spend most of the day at the hospital with them (fathers are not allowed to sleep at the hospital except at the mini-hotel). Right now my wife is taking a well-deserved nap. We have about an hour and a half until we need to leave the room.

The memory of the birth is still fresh in my wife's mind. She told me that I was extremely helpful when I kept reminding her to breath and not giving her slack even when she moaned "I can't!". I was happy to hear that. That made me feel less useless.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around my new status as a father.
There was something about that moment when my wife got too tired breastfeeding our son, and he kept crying. So she gave him to me and almost immediatetly as I held him in my lap he calmed down and started looking around and at me, and I could easily feed him with the bottle. That was a truly magical moment. I felt like I'm doing something right. I think my voice somehow calms him down (at least, that's what my wife keeps telling me).

Yesterday my wife and I finally registered our son with his official name and ID number (the Israeli equivalent of a Social Security Number). We were hesitant till the last moment, but there's no turning back now. Our son has a name :)
My wife wants to keep it secret until the circumcision, though.

I'm looking at my son and my mind goes wild thinking about the future.
There are so many things I plan for him, and so many things I plan in case my original plans don't work out. I have contingency plans for the contingency plans. Who knows whether any of this planning will amount to anything? It's so soon to tell... We didn't even bring him back home yet.

But maybe I could use this blog/diary thing to list out the things I would want to teach my son in the future. Perhaps things that would be easier for him to learn by reading this instead of as a direct conversation with me. Difficult things, embarrassing things. But important things nonetheless.
I can't really trust myself to remember these things throughout all the years it would take for my son to grow up enough to understand it. So I think I should put these things down on paper... er... keyboard... while it's still relatively fresh in my mind.

Surviving Elementary School

Elementary school was probably the most difficult 6 years of my life. It was horrible.

I was always physically smaller than everyone in my class, even though I was a year older.

On top of that, I was an immigrant from a foreign country. Our family came here as part of the 1990 influx of Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union which broke down. A lot of Russian immigrants flooded Israel and there were quite a few cultural clashes.

I felt it very strongly on my person. It was apparent on my face that I had Russian origins, and I would get serious flak for the sole crime of having that face. Children at elementary school are brutal, and I got the bad end of it... Repeatedly. I was called "Stinky Russian" more often than not, and I guess the kids felt free to do it because I was also physically small, so they were not intimidated by me. I remember one morning I walked to school and this kid who I never met before in my life, but was much older and bigger than me, straight up spat at my feet as he walked by me.

There was nothing I could do, obviously. How could I? Why should I? I just kept on walking. Trying to wrap my head around what just happened. But there was no way to understand it.

My wife and I are both physically small, and you, my son, are going to be physically small as well.

It's inevitable. There's no way around it, and there's no fixing it. It's simple genetics.

What is within our power, though, is the way you're going to handle it.

You're going to be stronger and smarter than me, because I'm going to teach you, my son.

It took me a lifetime to learn how to handle these situations, but I'm going to teach it to you early on, so that you can put it into action, and build on top of it so that you can become much better than I ever was.

You need to understand that there are some things that are beyond our control, but other things are not. Kids will always be brutal. That is beyond our control. What is not beyond our control is how we personally handle it. And yes, it is possible to handle it. Even as physically small people :)

There are several possible reasons to why some kids are brutal, but the most important thing you need to remember is that it never actually has anything to do with the victim, except one thing and one thing only: The victim LOOKS LIKE a victim IN ADVANCE.

You see, some children have all sorts of issues. There's no point in dwelling into the reasons for those issues because by the time this is relevant, you still won't be able to grasp it. What you need to know is that these kids will LOOK FOR victims. They will look for ways to release their aggressions, and they will look for the EASY TARGETS. They will look for kids who look weak, kids who are sitting alone and look defenseless, kids who sit or walk hunched over, staring down at their feet and so on.

What you need to do is NOT BE THAT KID. The best trick against bullying is not to look like an easy target for bullying.

You need to be the kid who walks with his chin held high in pride, the kid who has strength in his stride, the kid who is always in good mood and is almost never alone. You need to be the Alpha male.

You manage this by doing two things:

1. Train your body.

2. Train your social skills.

Train Your Body:

Taking martial arts classes is paramount, especially to physically small kids like us.
The aim is to train your body to sustain damage and to also deal out damage.
Simply knowing self defense is usually good enough to never actually having to use it.

This is because, once you know self defense, your physical stance changes. You become more confident in your movements and also when you're standing up against kids even if they're bigger than you. Simply knowing in your mind that you can deal out damage if the need arises, is good enough to change your mannerism in such a way that you no longer look like an easy target. Your foe will notice this, subconsciously even, in the way you stand, the way you move, the way you speak, the way you're not deterred by the presence of someone bigger than you.

Bullies smell fear, and when they don't smell fear on you, that's usually enough to make them lose the will to bully you.

Obviously, you need to always consider the possibility that it will eventually escalate to violence, and be ready for that. Remember your training ;)

Train Your Social Skills:

One of the most important things in school is knowing how to choose your friends.

I made the terrible mistake of befriending kids who I felt were like me - humble, weak, socially awkward... This is a huge mistake because when you need to be brave or adventurous, those are the friends who will keep you down and pull you back. They will often try to keep you down at their level because they will project their own fears unto you. If you can't pull them forward with you, then you will have to leave them behind.

One of the best decisions I made during school was choosing my friends in advance.

I tried befriending kids who seemed "cool", kids who seemed popular and brave.

Those are the sort of friends you want next to you, especially during the difficult period of school.

Those kids will usually allow you access to new things and new friends to whom you would otherwise have no access to. They will defend you against bullying. They will open up your social world. Having such friends is a huge opportunity to learn better social skills. Observe them closely and learn what makes them succeed.

However, there's also a risk to having such friends which you must remember:

You need to be careful not to become their "lackey".

Whatever you do, DO NOT agree to do everything they ask you to, ESPECIALLY if it's something you don't want to do for good reason (for example, it's something life threatening or very humiliating). Standing up for yourself is a virtue which you must keep at all costs, and I mean literally AT ALL COSTS. Even if that cost is losing that friend forever. You must be willing to drop friendships if you see that they're hurting you.

There will always be new friends. But your dignity is priceless. If a friend uses your friendship as a bargaining chip, that's a huge RED ALERT for you. That immediately means that this friend doesn't truly respect your friendship, and you may as well stop being their friend right there and then.

But sometimes, they will respect you even more for standing up for yourself. Those are the friends who are truly worth having.

Do you have questions? Suggestions? Let me know!
If you have your own stories and experience from elementary school that you want to share, feel free to do that too in the comments below!
Our next generation depends on us!

Letters to My First Born | My Earliest Memories

I got the idea to start this diary blog from my good friends on G+.
The point of me writing this diary is so that in the future I could reminisce this precious time of my life I'm currently going through, and also share these experiences with my children.
And if other people find this diary enjoyable, then that's even better :)

Yesterday, the 2nd of July 2016, at 18:00 Israel time, my first born son came into the world.
My wife bravely suffered through almost 40 hours of labor, 14 of those we spent at the hospital.
Due to Thrombocytopenia (insufficient amount of Thrombocytes in the blood), my wife could not use the Epidural anesthesia. The most she got was a Pethidine dose which allowed her to sleep for a few hours before starting the active birth process. She terribly needed that sleep, since she was awake for about 30 hours at that time, due to the contractions.
7 hours later she went into active birth, with ZERO anesthesia.
Throughout our time at the hospital, we heard something like 8 other births going on in adjacent rooms. Women crying and screaming and roaring and all those things you imagine from the worst pregnancy-related horror stories.
But my wife, who I remind you was without any anesthesia, showed them how a real woman gives birth! My respect for her was already high even before this pregnancy (I would not have married her otherwise obviously). But this experience made my respect for her to increase tenfold.

My son was born with the weight of 2895gr (which later reduced to 2860gr, I was told that's a normal thing with newborns), and received the highest possible APGAR test scores (9 at first test, 10 at second test).

During the pregnancy, my wife and I thought of a few names to give our first son.
Today, one day after the birth at the time of this writing, we didn't decide 100% on the name yet.
But both of us have a hunch that we will go with our first choice.
We still have time to decide, though.

As I begin writing this diary at the comfort of my home while my wife and son are still recovering at the hospital, I realize that very soon my life is going to be entirely engulfed by this strange new creature. I realize that very soon my personal memories are going to be slowly replaced by new memories of a shared new life.
So I'm going to take this opportunity and also use this diary to write my own childhood memories, alongside the memories of my firstborn (and hopefully other children to come).

My Earliest Memories

The earliest memories I have are from Ukraine where I was born. Lots of people tell me that's impressive since we moved to Israel when I was only 5 years old. But I don't know why that's so surprising, given that children's long-term memories develop properly at around the age of 3 (or at least, that's the common knowledge).

So, what do I remember from Ukraine?

I remember visiting my uncle's family (from my mother's side). At least, I think that's what it was.
I remember they had a black cat who I found intriguing. I remember how one time that cat jumped me from behind and clawed my back. I remember my dad being so mad that he literally threw that cat out the window. I'm pretty sure that there was a secondary roof below that window so the cat wasn't hurt.

I remember that later they got a small black dog instead. I think it was a Pincher. I think he was nicer to me than the cat but I don't really remember interacting with it. Maybe my family got more protective of me after the experience with the cat so they didn't let me near the dog.

I remember my mother coming home one day after a few days' absence, and introduced me to my younger sister for the first time. I don't remember that I understood the meaning of any of it.

I remember one winter's day when there was lots of snow outside. I remember that all of us - me, my sister and our mom and dad - went outside to have some fun in the snow. I remember that we had a small sledge that my sister and I could ride on. I remember sitting on the sledge with my sister sitting behind me, and then we rode on the snow downhill along the street where we lived. I remember there was a large tree at the end of that hill and I remember that we rode down and it looked to me like we were going to slam into that tree, but the sledge stopped long before that.

I remember something that looked like a long fire escape stairway on a large brownstone house. I think it was where my grandparents lived.

I remember how one day my mom and dad were talking about something, and then my mom turned to me and asked me "do you want to go to Israel?"

I remember that I had no idea what "Israel" was, but I answered "Yes" anyway because sure, why not.

I remember that we took an airplane and I was so air sick that I threw up like half a dozen times before we finally arrived.

I remember that after that we took a train and I was feeling nauseous again so I threw up a few more times. But I managed to sleep through most of it.

When we first arrived to Israel, we stayed for about a month with the family of my grandfather's cousin (from my dad's side). Of course, I had no idea who they were at the time, but they had a cozy big wooden house and lots of cool toys that I could play with.

We later moved into our own apartment in one of Israel's central suburbs.

I remember befriending our neighbors' kid who was a bit younger than me. His name was Yariv.

He was probably my first best friend as far as I remember.

I remember how we used to pick from the loquat tree near the synagogue not far from our building.

Oh how I loved loquats :)

I remember how we used to play a lot in the back yard of our building.

I remember how we enjoyed climbing the couple of trees that were there.

We always tried finding higher and higher branches to climb on that got thinner and thinner the higher we got. I remember the exhilarating feeling of looking down from an exceptionally high branch. It was like being on top of the world.

I remember that we also used to climb inside the tall hedgerow of our building which looked onto the street outside, and how we used to act like we're spies on the lookout, spying on passers-by from inside the hedgerow without them knowing. I think we even startled a few of them just for fun.
We lived in that apartment for 5 years before moving out to the other part of the city. I did not see Yariv ever since. The two trees in the back yard of the building were also cut down since then.

I remember that me and my sister used to fight a lot.

I remember how my mom always tried to make us play together. But I never liked it because I had action figures and she had barbies. I wanted to make my toys fight and do daring rescues, but she always wanted to play house. We managed to make the combination for a bit (i.e. my action figures saving her barbies from some dangerous predicament) but it didn't last long.

I remember the kindergarten and I remember how I didn't know Hebrew when I first got there.

I think I remember how during play time I tried to ask one of them for their name, but since it was in Russian they didn't understand me so I was ignored. I think it was during that year that I befriended a kid named Khan. But after that year I didn't see Khan ever again.

You see, I stayed one extra year in kindergarten due to the language problems. I got the hang of it eventually, but it meant that for the rest of my childhood I would be one year older than the rest of the kids in my class. I was a relatively small child, though, so it has mostly gone unnoticed.

In my next posts I'll write about my later years, in elementary school and such.