Michelle and Eshel

Michelle said to me: "Mommy, let's play cats. I'm a kitten, you're a cat and he (pointing to Eshel) is our brother kitten..."

"Eshely is such a funny little boy!"

Carmel woods

After such a wonderful hike on Shabbat we took our friends to the woods so that they too could look for the mushrooms and enjoy the flowers.




















We walked looking for mushrooms (unfortunately didn't find any, but kids and adults enjoyed the walk anyway) and then they saw it...




















everything was going well at first,

then it got a little worst....







































in the end everyone was in the puddle .... the biggest attraction of the day



just look how they love it!

Shabbat trip to the woods

On Saturday one friend said that there are lots of mushrooms in Haifa forest so we went to look for the mushrooms. In the end we found two mushrooms but the hike was much worth it... look what we found...




















Walking hand in hand...




















Find out more about crocus here















Find out more about daisies here




















Climbing old burned tree




















Saffron is here




















If you want to find out more about daffodils go here.




















Iris is here




















Cyclamen is here

We were very happy to see so many flowers. Nahal Nesher (right behind the university) is a first place that blooms in winter (I was told) because it is the sunniest cliff on Carmel mountain. The view is gorgeous




















We also found the moss covered rock (all of you familiar with Anansi story) and played out the story.




















In the end of the hike we ate a delicious Druz pita ...







































yes, a great Shabbat.

The Dead Sea

My parents took us to the Dead Sea for a couple of nights. It was wonderful!!!
Only one thing went wrong - my camera... I have no pictures of the trip. You can see the pictures mom took here.

A daunting task

Cleaning the house can be a daunting task (especially if you have kids).
I clean up one room (they help me with their little brooms and rags) and when I'm finished everyone is hungry. We go get the bread from the oven and everyone wants a steaming piece.... All the crumbs end up in the room that I cleaned, in our bed, everywhere ... I cleaned the house today, so what, that it looks exactly the way it looked before I started (about 5 hours ago...), I know it's clean! (somewhere underneath all this mess...)

dis

Eshel has a couple of words
"dis" - he points his little finger and says "dis" (this)
"mama" - everyone... me, Sasha, Michelle

big shoes

Trying on the shoes. "They are too big for me" (they are huge..) "We'll keep them 'till Sunday when I grow a little".

Eshel walks ... no more crawling

A couple of weeks ago one of my friends told me to get the camera out and make a movie of Eshel crawling. She said soon I won't even remember it. She was so right! Right after Eshel started walking he "forgot" his crawling. He doesn't want to crawl anymore....

Mom's visit

On Sunday mom came to visit. She took us out to eat and play. Sometimes I forget how fun it is when mom comes - somehow she is grandma now and I forget that she is also mom. Thanks for coming!

The sea

The sea always makes me relax. When I start feeling that something is not going right, that something is missing from my life, that I'm stuck in some situation and don't know how to get out, I have to go to the sea.
Children love the sea. They run around, dig, make cakes (many, many, many cakes), drive their trucks, and go fill the buckets with water and dump them in a hole and watch the water disappear. I can relax and look at the waves and think. (Sometimes I can even read a little).

This time it was a little wavy, but kids go up to their knees and sit in water and right away jump out and run and come back and sit and run... I had an opportunity to go swim a little and it was really fun. The water is still warm and the sun was shinning so getting out wasn't a big deal either.




















Eshel and Noga at the beach.




















Michelly can play with her truck and buckets and her imagination for a very long time. She started playing all by herself with her toys, making up stories about the toys and telling them to herself. Our new toy and love is Playmobil set. It has three princesses and two horses and different accessories. She sits in the morning and plays for hours with that (I just have to help her change the accessories the princesses have in their hands and the dresses they are wearing).

First Haircut

Michelle came up to me with scissors in her hand and said: "Mommy, I want to be like you" I looked at her hair and... I had to get it fixed.
She is very cute with her new hair style - I love it!

Last week was really rainy (how wonderful to see the rain, to feel the dust settle on the ground, to smell the lovely fresh air... everything was reborn and we were the onlookers)




















and so we met in Madatech (the science museum).
It was a lot of fun - one time we played with sound and made kazoos (a musical instrument that can be easily made here),















listening to the rulers make sounds















music boxes are a lot of fun

the other time we made a cloud in jar and then let it out and watched it fly away from us. Read stories about the weather and the rain and wondered why there is thunder.
Michelle enjoys the museum a lot and it was hard leaving (every time we came she would not want to leave).

When the weather cleared we enjoyed a walk in the zoo.




















Kids were fascinated to know how different animals and insects dress up to look scary or poisonous (like this insect is dressed up like a bee)















found a big lizard enjoying the last days of hot sun




















Watched a snail go over a sharp cactus and not get hurt (remembered the nail bed in the museum and how we could lie on it)




















and, of course, we just couldn't resist touching the snail and watching it's tentacles go in and stretch back out.

It is great to be able to do different things every day. To get out when the sun is shinning but it is not hot and to be inside when it is raining. We have been waiting for this rain for a long time and we were excited to see so much water pour on us.

Human Happiness

I wrote somewhere that I am listening to a course on line. It is a psychology course from Berkley called Human Happiness. You can listen to it here.
Enjoy.

Eshel turned 11 months on the twenty first. We went to the zoo with our friends. The weather was nice (not too hot) and the kids enjoyed each other's company.




















Looking at the meerkats (you can find out more about them here )
One time we watched the zookeeper feeding them - um...what can I say? -cockroaches are disgusting!















Thinking with Lemurs.
In our zoo there is a special time when visitors can participate in feeding the lemurs. This time we fed them some seeds.

Start of communication

All of a sudden Eshel participates in our life more. He draws when Michelle is drawing, he laughs when everyone is laughing, he climbs on chairs - he knows that he needs a little chair to climb on a big one, and one day I found him sitting happily on a table!
He knows his boundaries very well - he checks that the chairs are stable before going on (and if it doesn't look safe he screams for help). At the sea he knows how deep he can go, otherwise the wave will come and splash him in the face (I actually want it to happen to him to clear his nose and airways, but he runs away most of the times).
Eshel started to "talk". When I have time to sit quietly with him we talk - I can really understand what he has to say (and it's not about his immediate needs anymore). He loves to play finger games (Michelle does too - she teaches him) and to listen to Michelle sing.
Every period has it's beauties and I would call our period now as a start of communication.

Shabat with daddy

I was very tired and just felt like sitting at home (and listening to the new course I got from UC Berkley - more on that later) so Sasha went to BaLeGan with the kids.















going on the train

There is even a video of them on a train ....



riding cars (here they are called bimba)















swinging















and pink houses, of course















yes, I agree, it was a great day!!!

Tandem Nursing

The end of tandem nursing for us.
It is both sad and relieving that Michelle is weaning herself. She can go without for a couple of days, then asks to nurse again and forgets a minute later. When others told me "when you're ready, it will happen" I didn't really believe them. I couldn't imagine Michelle not being so close to me. Now it seems perfectly right that Eshel is nursing and Michelle is not. I think it has to do with the fact that she is (all of a sudden) a person (not a part of me any more, like she used to be). She knows what she wants, she wants a lot, she is very independent and we both enjoy it.

All Creatures Great and Small

All Creatures Great and Small by James Harriot

It's one of those books that makes you sad when you finish reading it. All of a sudden that life that you were a part of is gone and you are left to live your own....
It's a great read for all who wished or wish to become veterinary doctors and it's just a great book.

movie

"Mom, we're watching a movie"
I come to the room and find all the stuffed animals and Michelle sitting in a row and looking into a mirror. Michelle tells a story to her friends and looks at their reflection. What a great movie!

Chen comes to visit

We had Chen over. It was great - we miss them very much!

Kids got along very well (so we had time to chat...)















doing puzzles together















and playing dolls




















and ball.

Then it rained and we got




















umbrellas and opened all the windows. Smelled the rain and laughed...




















but Eshel got wet... and cried.

Went outside to breathe fresh air.




















And took a big long bath to end the day















The day was wonderful!

A day alone with kids

We had a wonderful day all by ourselves. First we found this




















right outside our house




















we watched it for a long time.

On our way we played and replayed Cinderella. (Michelle loves all the stories about princesses and she dresses up. Then we play together. I am usually a prince and Eshel is a horse or a foots man)

Then we ate...




















ice cream.

On the promenade we picked some pine nuts (for Chen from Shilat) and Eshel found a...




















mud puddle to dig. Got all dirty and it was time to go.

In Gan Ha Em Michelle went on the Merry Go Round




















as you can see she was happy.

Eshel

Eshel wants to walk holding my hands all the time. We walk and walk. Sometimes, while crawling, he puts his head on the floor and looks between his legs at the other side of the room ...and laughs. He loves to climb stairs and gets very upset if I try to take him away.




















Eshel climbing up ...running away from me.















Sliding down together




















Eating together with Raz (using a spoon!)

sea

At the sea while talking about the water and different animals
"Mommy, you know, some people also live in shells"

Nahal Alexander

We visited this track.
It was very hot and moist and we decided to see the turtles and go home.




















That's how the soft shelled turtles look - not very appealing




















We looked, gave them all our food and went home.