Riding the waves at the beach

My dad wanted to take me already the first day we left the hospital to go see the beach. He told me later that we should wait a bit, since all the Polish advisors around him would scream at him.So he waited a week and then off we went, me, mom and dad, for a stroll along the Tel Aviv Boardwalk. Too bad it's a bit chilly for us to sit on a blanket in the sand and dip our feet in the water. I'm really looking forward to going a lot to the beach with Mom and Dad.

Fun in the tub

Here are some pictures from my first bath at home! Grandma showed Mom and Dad a few things...

Merry Christmas! Go Celtics!

I'm watching the Celtics-Lakers Christmas Day game with my dad today. Rematch of the NBA Finals in 2008, which dad and grandpa went to the first 2 games together and left Mommy home alone all the way on the other side of the world :-). GO CELTICS!!!

Coming home...

First we left the maternity ward in Ichilov and went to the posh room at "Baby Lis", the private maternity hotel. 2 days later, I finally came home.

Liav: Where did I get my name from?

My great-grandfather (Saba Poldi) was a Holocaust survivor and lucky enough to have lived a long life. He became very sick a few months ago in August, when I was still in my Mom's belly. My Mom and Dad and everyone else including him didn't know how soon it would happen but they knew that in the end he would pass away. But the whole time he kept talking about me and couldn't wait to meet me or "see me in diapers". To strengthen him, everyone kept telling him that he would be a great-grandfather soon, and that he will be able to play with me, make funny faces, do magic tricks and other things with me.

He got sicker and sicker, and the days leading up to the day I was born he didn't get out of bed for 3 days at a time except for the bathroom. He called Dad in the hospital minutes after I was born (Nov. 24th) and was so happy, the first thing he said was "I'm a great-grandfather"!

The next day, he asked my Mom and my sister to come and bring him to the hospital to see me. He was full of energy and happiness and stayed for more than an hour.. Here is a picture which shows us together and the smile I brought onto his face. It was one of his last smiles. A few days later he was ironically hospitalized simultaneously with me in the same hospital, in critical condition.

He died December 5th, 2008 in Ichilov Hospital, the same place I was born 10 days before.

My parents gave me the name Liav in honor of him. My Dad said that Saba Poldi was a kind of father figure to him, a 2nd father, father away from home.

Li - Av = Father to me (in Hebrew).

Hello world

On November 24th, 2008, at 4:45 pm I caught my first glimpse of the world outside my mom's belly. It was in Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel (pic below). I came out a bit purple and too relaxed so the doctors hooked me up to a monitor for 24 hours. I weighed whole 3kg 102 grams!

My mom had a C-section operation so that I could be born. Scary!!! But Dad was beside her the whole time, and didn't leave my side once I came out. Later he told me about the Russian doctor that was talking on his cellphone in the operating room. Lucky me...

Thank you Mom and Dad

Before I talk about myself, I want to first say thank you to the best Mom and Dad combination in the world, my parents. They went on a 4 month honeymoon to Cuba, Jamaica and Mexico before I was even a thought. How selfish! Couldn't they have waited for me?