Welcome Shahar Unger!!!

Dear family and friends,

We're thrilled to share some happy news with you all!

This morning, around 11am, Shahar Unger (שחר, free translation: Dawn) has joined our family. He burst out to this world - less than 3 hours from first contraction to first (baby) scream, and made all of us extremely happy. We came back home from the birthing center (not a hospital, but on that in another post) after a few more hours.

Shahar weighs 3.260kg, modest compared to all his sisters, and since labor he mostly sleeps. Anat is expectedly tired, but is feeling well and happy to be home with the most beautiful and perfect baby boy we could ever ask for :-)

Hugs and kisses,

A decade of parenthood

Dear family and friends,

This brief posting is meant to convey one thing - happiness.

I realize it might come across as somewhat corny, but I'll take that risk :-)

There are certainly also negative things going on in my life - my back is giving me a lot of pain, not allowing me any regular and fun exercise; my general health is not at its best; Anat is weak and tired of the pregnancy (getting there, real soon now...).

However, these are minor compared to having Maayan, Hadas and Noga and living our routine family life. The love and affection I get from these 3 princesses is something I can't explain in words. Cuddling with Maayan when she goes to bed, hugging and kissing Hadas when she wakes up, caressing Noga (well, when she allows me, she's now literally a teenager...) and chatting with her about this and that - all these little things make me very happy.

Two days ago, we celebrated Noga's birthday and 10 years of parenthood for us.

These have undoubtedly been the best 10 years of my life!

Giora

To Circumcise or Not To Circumcise?

Dear family and friends,

As I previously shared in this blog, we're expecting our 4th child, due in early September.

And since this is going to be our first baby boy, we're facing a dilemma. Putting it simply:

To Circumcise or Not To Circumcise?

I guess y'all know that we're Jewish, and that in Israel the definite norm is circumcising. In a way, not circumcising a boy might later alienate him socially.

But, since the religious motive is irrelevant to us, and since there are good reasons not to circumcise, we're not at all sure we want to.

We started talking to people about the issue, and did some reading.

We value your opinions, and we're keenly interested in hearing them - either in person, in a personal email or in a comment to this post.

Thanks a lot!

Anat & Giora

The photos are finally out!

Yes, it's been a long long while since we've published any photos. Bad us.

Now, thanks to Anat, there are quite a few of them, showcasing our life in Haifa, Israel, during 2009 and 2010.

See http://picasaweb.google.com/AnatGiora

Hugs,

Maayan, Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora

En Route to California

Dear family and friends,

I'm sitting in a plane now, on my way to California. Yet another business trip, this time only one week long.

The journey is very tedious (it's been 24 hours since I left home, and two hours before I'll land in San Francisco), and the schedule I arranged this time is particularly hectic. If all goes as planned, I'll drive from the airport to the Google campus, work a few hours, then attend a private session in Palo Alto (attempting to improve my posture and alleviate my back pains), and then straight to Yosemite with my friends Dan and Tamar... Pretty crazy. Hopefully I won't be too tired to enjoy hiking.

If it was totally up to me, I'd skip business trips entirely. I don't like being away from my family, and this time, with Anat halfway through a pregnancy, it's even harder than usual. But I feel that as part of a job with Google, an occasional trip (say once a year) is necessary. As such, I'd rather travel now and not closer to the due date, let alone shortly afterwards.

With the risk of repeating a posting of mine from October, I'll mention that visiting the US is very strange for me. On one hand, I'm technically a visitor now. On the other hand, it feels very much like home (most precisely, another home). I don't feel a foreigner, which I did when visiting many years ago, before living here.

I'm used to the welcoming pros (variety of people and ethnicities, polite behavior when standing in lines), and the familiar cons (try and get a decent fresh vegetable salad at JFK...).

I touched quite a bit on identities during the present journey. In the train to the airport in Israel, I was chatting with a young women, who immigrated to Israel (made "Aliya") from Uruguay when she was 20 yo. She told me about a drastic identity switch she underwent. Later on the plane, I conversed with the woman who sate next to me, born and raised in Israel, who's been living in New York for the past 10 years.

I can identify with that my identity with that, since my identity also underwent a change, even if subtle, when living in the US.

Giora

Expanding the Family...

Dear friends,

It is our great pleasure to let you know that we're expecting our 4th child!
We were certain that like all previous cases in our family, this was going to be a girl. But, in an unexpected turn of events, this is going to be a baby boy :-)
Anat is feeling well, and naturally is very tired. Most importantly, as far as the ultrasound can tell, the embryo is healthy and is developing as expected.

Noga, Hadas & Maayan were very happy to hear the news. Well, we suspect Maayan (3 years old) doesn't really understand the implications, but she declared she was happy...

Since tonight is the Passover holiday feast (ליל הסדר), may we wish all of you who celebrate it - Happy Passover!

Anat & Giora

My Aching Back

Dear family and friends,

This blog is for sharing what's going on with me, both good and bad, so I decided to share that the past few months haven't been entirely pleasant for me.

I mentioned a few months ago that my back pains forced me to stop playing basketball. Ever since, not only did the problems not go away, but the pain has gotten much worse, and is a constant part of my life. I'm still fully functional, but most of the time I am in pain. Not a terrific feeling, as you can imagine.

I'm getting treatment that is aimed at taking care of local symptoms (such as Shiatsu), but I think that I need to try and handle the root cause, so that back pains will not recur. I believe the root cause of my back problems lies in my bad posture. Sadly, not many treatments claim that they can change that, and one which I've tried in the past (Alexander Technique) totally failed to help me.

In my quest for anything that would alleviate my pain I came across Esther Gokhale's fascinating book, "8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back" (see also her web site at http://egwellness.com/, and an introductory video). If only for the intellectual insights, I warmly recommend taking a look at the book and the method's premises. I went through her workshop, which was held in Israel, and started following the advice offered by the Gokhale Method. So far I can't say I feel substantial improvement, but I'm still hopeful that I will...

Giora