coachyulia: I Love You - You're Welcome

Here is my oldest, Eli Tzvi, born 5 1/2 years ago with his amazing Mercedes looking dimple, almost 9 pounds. Every day he cracks me up, his latest is when I tell him "I love you," he tells me "you're welcome eema (mom in Hebrew.)" I remember being in awe, in disbelief how an actual child came out of me, it was mind boggling. I looked at him and said, I am going to get to know you and you are going to get to know me. It has definitely been a journey, as life should be, easy would be boring. My mom says we all get different homework from God, and my family life is definitely mine.

At 8 months, we see his dimple and it is definitely his signature feature, but he is also always laughing, always kind, always helpful, and the best big brother anyone could ask for. I feel blessed to keep on reminding myself to stay present to the wonder of our children. They are unique souls with a message, and sometimes we have to take a deep breath, get out of our own head, to really hear them. He is one year old and standing below, I think he looks very different than my baby. You can tell they are all siblings for sure.

His hair started growing, it is our tradition not to cut it until three years old, he is two in the picture below. He was so full of energy then and now. Until three years old he had a pacifier and it was the only way for him to relax and nap. Full of life, full of passion, full of play, and after he started walking, every step was a boo boo, he inherited the Klutziness from me.

I am the athletic one of our family, love to take the kids to the park to run around. He learned to ride his bicycle early, and because of school having no training wheels, we took ours off at age 4. He is competitive, I am happy that he is the oldest and the tallest, taller than most 6 and sometimes 7 year olds. He likes to remind everyone he is the tallest, fastest, and best, I am OK with confidence.

His hair grew so long right before his third birthday that now when my daughter sees pictures she thinks it is her. I was ready to cut it, he loves to run and sweat, his birthday is the hot month of September in LA, so I was happy to have his neck open and him to feel light. Although I always loved rock and roll and long hair, I got satisfied in the first three years. Now I get to enjoy it with my baby, I wonder how long it will get.

He is four years old and dressed up as a dreidel for his Chanukah play in school, he did a great job. From a very young age he loves to play by himself, create stories, play characters. Now with his sister they have a blast and love to play dress up and pretend. I love when kids use their brain and creative juices instead of just being overstimulated by electronics. However I do love mommy relax time when they are watching a show, but no iPads for me and probably not for a very long time.