{"id":7659,"date":"2021-12-04T22:49:01","date_gmt":"2021-12-04T20:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/?p=7659"},"modified":"2021-12-04T22:51:14","modified_gmt":"2021-12-04T20:51:14","slug":"welcome-to-the-world-baby-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/2021\/12\/welcome-to-the-world-baby-boy\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the world, baby boy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My wife, Jody, and I joined a club that we really wanted entrance to \u2013 the grandparents club. Our daughter, Merav, gave birth to a healthy baby boy a bit more than two weeks ago. I gave a speech at the brit milah ceremony. Here\u2019s what I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If I were to tell you that I fell in love with this little guy in the first minute I met him, you\u2019d say that that was a clich\u00e9. But sometimes cliches are true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is something about a newborn that is hard to resist. Even more when that newborn is your first grandson and your daughter and son-in-law\u2019s first child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s difficult to describe exactly the feeling. We don\u2019t know<\/em> him yet, nor has he expressed a strong personality yet (although he\u2019s got a good set of lungs on him).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it\u2019s not his witty jokes, his seamless repartee or his physical actions that led to this love affair. It\u2019s a visceral, subconscious feeling that seeps over you with an intensity that\u2019s different than even having your own children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe that\u2019s because with a grandson you can simply enjoy<\/em> him, knowing that at the end of the day, someone else will be doing the feeding and changing and not sleeping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even that doesn\u2019t explain entirely this love. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Is it his sweet baby smell?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it those little baby noises he makes that are so adorable (until they transition into full on crying)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it his lips \u2013 oh, those beautiful lips \u2013 that are so perfect?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is it his skin that is so incredibly soft because it\u2019s brand new? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or is it simply the fact that Merav worked so hard to carry him, to nurture him inside of her, to grow him for nearly 40 weeks with all his toes and fingers and body parts (now minus a foreskin, of course), and to take care of his every need for the rest of his life! <\/em>(An exaggeration, but only slight.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regular readers know I am not much of a religious person these days, but the first thing I thought when I saw him was, \u201cHe\u2019s a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another miracle: that Merav and Gabe found each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merav moved with us from California to Israel when she was one year old. Gabe didn\u2019t come from New York until he was a teenager. Somehow, they found each other and they\u2019ve created an entire world with their own circle of friends and now a new human being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The baby\u2019s name is Ilai Ze\u2019ev. (That\u2019s pronounced \u201cee-lie,\u201d accent on the second syllable.) My son-in-law Gabe explained the meanings of the names at the brit milah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ilai stands for greatness and strength, Gabe said. (It literally means \u201csupreme.\u201d) His middle name honors my father who passed away in 2009. I am so thrilled and delighted that this name will be continuing on in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My father\u2019s name in English was Walter but his Hebrew name was Tzvi Ze\u2019ev. His parents added Chaim when he contracted polio at age 17 and they were told that adding a third name \u2013 meaning \u201clife\u201d \u2013 would be a good omen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was \u2013 he recovered and was able to live a full life, even if he could never run or play sports again the way he did when he was an active teenager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ze\u2019ev is Hebrew for \u201cwolf\u201d \u2013 it\u2019s an animal that runs in packs. \u201cMerav and I take community very seriously,\u201d Gabe said in his naming speech. \u201cWe have incredible friends and family. We wish for Ilai Ze\u2019ev that he grows with the same support system we are so lucky to have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My father was a complicated man \u2013 aren\u2019t we all? \u2013 but I can say with certainty that I wouldn\u2019t be half the person I am today were it not for him. He was a writer, a radio disk jockey, a connoisseur of classical music. His creativity, his love of politics, science, literature and culture \u2013 those are all things that I received from him in abundance. I hope that this little baby boy picks up some of those attributes by sharing a name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My father didn\u2019t have the ability to play ball with us, but he was passionate about reading to his own children and then to his grandchildren. He would have loved to have met his great grandson. I am so sad that he didn\u2019t make it this far, but I know that his spirit will live on in little Ilai Ze\u2019ev. And I will take up the mantle and read to him the way his great-grandfather surely would have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ilai Ze\u2019ev is fortunate to have five great grandparents still alive. And the sixth is here in spirit through his name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merav and Gabe: You have brought an incredible gift into the world \u2013 another human being who will be so loved by all his many relatives and your many friends. You are going to be incredible parents \u2013 no, you already are<\/em> incredible parents \u2013 I\u2019ve seen that in just a week with this little guy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Savta and I (still getting used to that) are so happy for you, so excited for him, and so over the moon in love.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I first welcomed Ilai Ze’ev to the fold in The Jerusalem Post<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My wife, Jody, and I joined a club that we really wanted entrance to \u2013 the grandparents club. Here’s what I said at the brit milah ceremony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,3],"tags":[450,451,250,452,453,315],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7659"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7659"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7667,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7659\/revisions\/7667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}