Today the kids went to school and I took Keren for another blood test. The results from her first test were a little messed up b/c she was sick so the doctor asked me to take another one. This time I had a much better nurse and she took about 30 seconds whereas last time the woman was squeezing her finger for 2 minutes or so and Keren was screaming.
It was another hot and sunny day here and we really couldn’t do much outside. I had a haircut appointment at 12:30 and then after that Eric and I picked up lunch from one of our favorite sandwich places and brought it back home. Talia came home and I ran out with her to pick up a birthday gift that she owes one of her friends. Then we spent time doing homework and cleaning up her room a little together. While all this was going on, Ben was at Eitan’s house and then karate.
That’s pretty much the whole day. Tennis was great, as usual and I am so going to miss it this summer!!
Anyway, Eric and I have been working on a video of all the pictures we’ve taken over the course of this year and if you haven’t already seen it on Facebook or gotten it as an attachment in an e-mail, you can see it below.
This morning Eric went to take the car for an oil change and to get new brakes put in before he takes the car for the inspection it needs while I stayed home with Keren and just hung out. When I put her to sleep I cleaned up the kitchen from breakfast and then started making some salads for the BBQ we had tonight. In the end I forgot to serve the cucumber and tomato salad!! It will work out okay b/c I have to send something in with Talia tomorrow for a healthy end-of-the-year party and that’s what I am going to send in!
I picked Ben up from school and he ate lunch and watched the movie Cars while Talia went across the street to a friend’s house to play. Keren napped and Eric and I did some vegetable chopping and some prep work for the BBQ. I took Ben to the makolet to put the plastic bottles into the recycle bin and then to the park for a bit but it was just too hot to hang out there. Meanwhile, Talia stayed at her friend’s house until I sent Ben there to pick her up close to 6:00.
My family showed up pretty much on time, which was quite the surprise and we had a really nice BBQ. Eric and I have been working on a slide show of pictures from our year here and it came out really great. I showed my family and they loved it. Anyway, the food came out great and everyone enjoyed and they all took home leftovers. The kids went to sleep close to 9 tonight so I am sure I will be in for a number of melt downs tomorrow from Ben, I am glad he’s going over to Robin’s tomorrow to play with Eitan before karate!
Well, it’s over. The last shabbat of our first year of aliyah! It was kind of sad. We are excited to be going to see our families and friends that we left behind but at the same time we don’t really want to leave!!
Anyway, Friday we went to the pool when the kids came home from school. Eric’s first time there! It was extremely crowded. We took Talia’s friend Natalie (pronounced Na-Ta-Lee) and the kids had a great time.
Today Talia brought home 2 friends and we were speaking Hebrew at the Shabbat table (won’t be doing that next week) and it was really nice. The girls were hysterical. They were putting on a show for us of what it’s like in school. I learned today that the girls have to stand up every time their teachers come into the room. I thought that was nice. So one of the girls did an imitation of the Americans. She was sooo funny! She did an imitation of an American speaking Hebrew. So the kids played nicely and Eric and I had a very relaxing afternoon. Keren left them alone for the most part and didn’t ruin any games that they were playing. Ben played nicely with them.
We sent them all to the park at 4 and told just our kids to come home for dinner at 5:30. They came home and gobbled down food before running back outside. It was a very hot day today and we went through a ton of water. Every time they came running back in their little faces got pinker and pinker.
Meanwhile, Keren has been walking all over the place! She stands up and takes about 12-15 steps and then either loses her balance or plops back down. She is too funny. She is really getting into walking. I can’t wait to take her for shoes next week.
At 6:30 tonight we were invited to a seudat shlishit bat mitzvah at the shul. Ben and Keren came with us and sat with us. It was nice.
We found Talia and came home at 8 and the kids stayed up for havdallah, which was very exciting for them. They were passed out in their beds about 30 seconds after we tucked them in!
We are supposed to be having this BBQ tomorrow night as a goodbye and we invited the family and they are dropping like flies. They are all coming down with the same eye infection (I may have mentioned this before). I am either going to be sending those that do come home with food for those that will not be able to make it or we’ll give it to the woman across the street that collects food for the poor. We’ll see what’s left over.
Yesterday when the kids came home from school Eric took them out for ice cream to a sort of new ice cream store nearby in Matityahu. I was supposed to be resting but Keren woke up from her nap and instead of resting I wound up playing with her. When they came home Ben’s friend Matan came over while they were in the middle of the movie Aladdin. They all played nicely and then took showers and went to sleep. An ordinary day.
Today Eric and I went into Yerushalayim to the shuk with Keren. We took someone who needed a tramp and Keren couldn’t take her eyes off of her. In fact, it wasn’t until she left the car that Keren finally fell asleep. By that time we were already in Yerushalayim! It turned out to be a good thing b/c she was so out of it that we were able to transfer her into her stroller and she slept the whole time we were in the shuk and only woke up after we were already on Ben Yehudah Street. After the shuk we stopped at Cafe Rimon where I had yummy yummy waffles with whipped cream and ice cream!!!
This afternoon we went to my grandparents’ apartment and met my cousins and we all went out for pizza for dinner. It was really nice BUT there is an eye infection going around in my family and I am scared to death that my kids are going to get it also while we are in the States and we won’t be able to go to a doctor there! It started with Avi and Miriam’s 6 month old and then went to each of them, their babysitter and now Shelly has it too. The problem with Shelly having it is that she plays with my kids. So I was kind of crazy in the pizza store and now I am really worried that we are having them over for a BBQ on Sunday as a kind of going away party and I am scared that she is going to give it to my kids!!! I wish I never suggested this BBQ!!
Anyway, we got home late and the kids went right to sleep. Tomorrow it’s off to the pool after school. I can’t believe another week is almost over!
I remembered what I wanted to write about last night that I couldn’t remember. Talia and her friend were sitting in the back of the car on the way to the beach on Sunday and they were talking a mile a minute in…. Hebrew!! It was so cute. Every so often Ben would offer up a comment on whatever they were talking about as well but we were really getting such a kick out of it. Then, tonight she asked Eric if she left one of her clafs in his office. He asked her what kind of claf, the kind in a mezuazah? She couldn’t think of the word for claf in English. Turns out she was looking for a playing card that she was doing card tricks with and thought she might have left it in Eric’s office but couldn’t think of the word for it.
So today was a pretty easy day on the parenting front. The kids went to school and Keren and I went to Kiriat Sefer to go get my blood work done, finally. She was in a great mood, actually and she was adorable in the waiting room. We got it done in no time at all and then I took her to the playground for a half hour. It was about 90 degrees here today and we couldn’t spend much more time than that outdoors without melting.
Ben had his baking chug and then went to a friend’s house after that and Talia went to a friend’s house after school so I had a whole day with just Keren. We took her to lunch at the local falafel place since we haven’t done that in a while and I was in the mood for falafel. She had the chips for lunch and wouldn’t go near anything else, unfortunately. We came home and Eric ran out to get the badge that goes along with his rent-a-cop uniform. Yes, it just keeps getting worse, he now has a badge that says his name and it says volunteer next to it! Oy!
So Keren and I hung out until it was time to get the kids from their play dates. We had a doctor’s appointment for her to go over the results of her blood test that she took as part of her one year checkup. Unfortunately, her numbers were a little off which is most probably b/c she was fighting an ear infection at the time and now we have to go and repeat the test. So that means more screaming from her! I am not looking forward to it AT ALL!! The good news is that the doctor checked her ears and she is fine. The infection went away and she is good to fly.
Eric made a great tuna steak for dinner tonight. We are slowly but surely getting rid of all the food in our freezer before we go! So I fed the kids and got them ready for bed and read them a book and tucked them in. Talia and I did some homework in her room after I got Keren in. She insists on staying up in her room until 8 b/c she says that’s when most of her friends go to sleep. Lately she’s been doing work in her room. Tonight I told her that if she waited for me to nurse Keren and put her to sleep, that I would then help her with her work. So we did some work together in peace and quiet without the other kids bothering us and then she went to sleep.
Let me catch up on Friday through Monday since I haven’t posted in a while.
Friday the kids went to school and Keren went in for a nap and I prepared the house for shabbat so that we would be able to go straight to the pool after the kids got home from school. Talia of course didn’t have to go to school until 9 and instead of getting up late after her zimria she got up and got dressed and was ready for school, for once, before Ben! So I took Ben to school and Talia hung out and played on the computer until it was time for her to walk to school.
After the kids came home we quickly ate and got packed and ran to the pool. We were there from 2-5 and it was really great. Keren loved the water and had a blast. Talia and Ben loved the fact that they knew so many people there! I explained that last year the same people were there but they didn’t know them b/c we had just moved in. So a ton of their friends were there and they had a blast. I bought them ice cream and ices while we were there (a requirement now) and I tried to give some ice cream to Keren. She didn’t know what to do about the coldness. She kept opening her mouth and then making a terrible face when I put the ice cream in her mouth. It was adorable.
We came home and I fed the kids and gave them showers and then Eric came home. He was exhausted from his midnight flight but made it through dinner without falling asleep.
Shabbat was nice. We ate out. It was uneventful. We came home at 4 and Eric and Keren went to sleep while Ben and I went to the park and Talia went to a friend. While we were at the park Ben wanted to see if there were any swings free that he could swing on. He said to me “I am going to catch a swing” I asked him how to say that in Hebrew and he told me and it turns out that he was translating it word for word fro Hebrew to English!! So funny.
Sunday Eric took the kids to school (much to Benjamin’s dismay) and let me sleep. Unfortunately, I couldn’t fall back asleep after the alarm woke me up so I relaxed in bed with my book. While I was reading I heard little steps and then I saw Keren at the door. She saw me and came to me and I lifted her into bed with me. A few seconds later I heard Eric calling her from downstairs! He was washing the dishes and she came up to me without him even noticing. Funny. These days she is able to get down the steps by herself so it’s not so dangerous when she goes up, although we still prefer it if she doesn’t go up by herself, obviously.
I can’t remember what we did yesterday while the kids were in school but I know we did something. I think Eric fixed the screen that Keren had broken a while ago. He brought a tool to fix it back with him from America so that it wouldn’t keep breaking. Oh, we also went to the supermarket to get some milk and I stopped in for a blood test at the Macabi center that’s there. My doctor wanted me to do a routine blood workup. Unfortunately, no one told me that I had to fast for 12 hours and I didn’t read the referral b/c it was in Hebrew. So I still have to do that and I am waiting for a good day. I think I will do it Tuesday morning.
When the kids got home we were all ready to go to the pool since the kids didn’t have any chugim. We told them we were going and even said that Talia’s friend could come. I told Eric that we should probably call the pool just in case they weren’t open for some reason. Of course, when he called they said that this month they aren’t open until 4 and on Sunday’s they aren’t open at all!! Ben freaked out!! We told them we would take them to the beach but Ben was really upset. Talia was happy and she said her friend would just come with us tot he beach instead.
We had a great time at the beach. We went a different way than we usually go and it took us no time at all. The kids really had a nice time. The water was warm already and Talia and I went in really deep and swam. At the end Talia got a bite from something, we think from a jellyfish and we was not a happy camper. I gave her cream when we got home and she didn’t complain about it much after that. Keren, who has no fear, crawls right into the water. She was getting hit in the face by waves and couldn’t care less. In the end her eyes were all red from the salt water!
Last night we put the kids to sleep and then went back to Tel Aviv to meet our friend Liron who was in on business from America. We went to the port in Tel Aviv. It was really nice. We left Keren screaming in her bed with a babysitter sitting on the couch. I felt so bad. We didn’t get home until 12 and today Eric and I pretty much walked around like zombies the whole day.
This morning I took the kids to school and then took Keren to the park to play on the slide. She LOVES the slide. We came home and I left Keren with Eric while I went to meet a friend for breakfast at a nearby cafe. It was a nice, relaxing morning for me!
Ben brought Chen and her brother home from school with him as well as a friend of his that he’s been asking to come over for a while. His mother was so excited when the boys said they want to play! She couldn’t believe it for some reason. Ben has been to his house once but he’s never been here.
The kids played nicely and then Eric made them slushies while I put Keren to sleep. While the kids were drinking their slushies the kids were talking and we overheard some not nice words, words we like to call ”bathroom words.” Eric asked them to stop using those words and they basically laughed at the way he asked them!! I guess he didn’t conjugate a word correctly and they thought it was hysterical! They are already starting to laugh at us So he basically had the total opposite effect that he wanted to have.
Anyway, Eric went to lie down for a bit so he can work tonight without being too exhausted. I didn’t get to sleep and I was kind of tired the rest of the day.
Ben had karate today. His friend left a little before 4 and he went. He insisted on wearing sneakers b/c he said there is a board that he has to break with his foot and he can’t do it with his Crocs. So he wore sneakers. When he came home I asked if he broke the board and he said that his teacher didn’t take it out today. Oh well, there is always next week.
Talia’s friend came over while Ben was in Karate. I fed them all dinner when he came home and then they played outside and inside and all around very nicely together. It was just a really busy and a really crazy day.
Keren has been doing this thing where we weren’t sure if she was scratching her ear or the back of her head. Eric thought it might be lice and I was convinced it was her ear that was bothering her. Tonight she was clearly trying to rub the back of her head. We looked and she has a bad rash there under her hair. It never stops with this kid. So I gave her some antihistamine that I had from something else she had and put her to sleep and I will take her to the doctor tomorrow to check on her ear and on that and also give him the blood work results that we had done on her for her 1 year checkup.
Tennis update: Tennis was great tonight!! Really getting back the game more and more as I play.
This morning I went to Petach Tikvah with Keren to spend some time with my cousin. We hung out in her apartment and then went to the mall for a few minutes so she could exchange some shoes she bought. When we walked into the mall the security man got all mad at me because I walked through the metal detectors with Keren. He started to yell at me and ask me why I did that but I though that he was telling me to go back and I started to reverse back through them and then he really started to have a heart attack and that’s when I caught on that he didn’t want me to go through them at all in the first place. WHATEVER!! My cousin was like, oh, I never go through them with Libi! She told me that she doesn’t go through them when she is pregnant. Uch, it totally killed my morning, the rude Israeli security man.
Anyway, after that we went to my grandparents’ apartment to hang out for about 30 minutes until I had to come home and let Talia and my cleaning man in. Talia got out of school at 12:45 today b/c we had her zimria tonight.
This afternoon Talia and I cleaned some more windows (now they are mostly done on the first floor) and hung out while we waited for Rinat to come (possibly for the last time!!). Ben went to Eitan’s house after Eitan finished with his swim chug.
Talia went to her zimria at 6:30 while I put Ben and Keren to sleep. The parents were invited at 8 and I had Jere come and babysit while I went to watch Talia. I totally lied to Ben and told him that I wasn’t going and that I would stay home with him. He was so upset that Talia had this thing that he couldn’t go to. I was all for bringing him at first and having him nap in the afternoon. Then it just got too complicated and Jere was coming anyway for Keren and I know how hard of a time he has staying awake so late. In the end it worked out perfectly.
Talia’s zimria was adorable and it was only 1 hour!!!! We came home and Talia had something to eat and hopped right into bed. Jere was still into her movie so she stayed a while and then went home. As I sat down to blog Keren woke up screaming! So I went in and held her and nursed her and held her a little more and she went back in okay but she just let out another little yell.
So now it’s 10 and we have a big day tomorrow. I plan on taking the kids to the pool after school and I don’t know who is more excited!! I have to make sure that everything is finished for Shabbat so that we can come home just before Shabbat to take our showers and feed the kids and get ready. Come to think of it, I better take the chicken out of the freezer now!!
Tomorrow Talia starts school at 9 instead of 8 b/c she had the zimria tonight until 9pm. So school is going to be from 9-11:45 – are they kidding?!?!
Boy did I sleep last night! It was awesome. I slept from 9:30 until Ben came up at 6:15 (he was hungry since I didn’t let him eat much after throwing up the evening before). I felt awesome and ready to start my day!
This morning after taking the kids to school we stopped off at the park at Keren’s insistence. She pointed and shrieked so we went. I met a new person who just moved in about 2 weeks ago. Not the type that I will be friends with but it was nice to have another mother to schmooze with in the park at 8:00 in the morning.
We came home and I put Keren in for her nap. She was exhausted after going down the slide a million times. Her favorite is the swirly slide. I put her on the top of the climbing apparatus and she crawls to the slide and turns around and goes down on her belly. It’s the cutest thing!
When she woke up we ran to the supermarket and then came home and had lunch. Saba and Savta came shortly thereafter and soon after that Ben came home. Ben was waiting at school for me with 2 friends, both of whom wanted to come to our house and play. It was so cute. When I told him that my grandparents were here waiting for him, though, he dropped them and ran home with me.
Ben and I made challot and we made cookies too. I promised him that we would bake today since yesterday he missed his chug. I gave 2 challot to my grandparents and my grandmother was THRILLED! I was psyched b/c I have tried to make the same cookies now about 3 times and each time they have come out completely flat. They taste delicious but they are flat as pancakes. It’s a recipe that my mother-in-law gave me and it’s so frustrating. HOWEVER, today we made them and they came out so nice! They taste awesome and look awesome. Take a look:
My grandparents came with the chicken and I bought the burgers and we had a BBQ for dinner tonight. I was running around like a maniac doing a million things at once – cleaning the windows with my grandmother (she doesn’t like to sit around and we cleaned some of the windows today!!), BBQing the food, baking the cookies, baking the challot and making sure the kids were okay. I mean, she helped with some of the stuff but there was only so much that my grandmother could do. Needless to say, it was a really tiring day but it sure flew! Now I have a clean sliding glass door and 1 clean kitchen window! I think I’ll clean some more windows now that I am on a roll tomorrow with the kids. They seemed to have enjoyed it.
My grandfather was in an amazing mood. He got such a kick out of “Karen” as he calls her. He just couldn’t get enough of her. He and my grandmother were fighting for her attention. It was funny.
Right before they left I put up the soup and the fish for Shabbat. I am not making much else because we are invited out for lunch. I am taking out the chicken from the freezer from last Shabbat. My grandmother left Ben a piece of BBQ chicken since it’s his favorite. He actually ate 2 pieces of chicken tonight at dinner!!
Anyway, that was our day in a nutshell. It was really, really hot today but I think it’s supposed to cool down soon. Oh, that’s one difference between Israel and America, here the weather takes a back seat to the rest of the news and when they do finally get to it they say the weather today is… wait for it…. “NICE!” So if you think “nice” is 70 and your neighbor thinks “nice” is 80 who will have the “nice” weather and who will complain that the forecast was wrong that day?? It cracks me up. In the States they go on and on about the forecast and then they repeat it every 15 minutes. I guess they have more important things to worry about here!
The day did not get off to a good start and continued it’s downward spiral until bedtime.
This morning we walked to school and Keren screamed the entire time that we were walking. She just did not want to be in her stroller and although it was a beautiful morning, she totally ruined the walk for me and for the kids.
When we got home she wasn’t in the best of moods and I really didn’t know what to do with her. In the end I wound up nursing her and putting her in for a nap at 8:30 in the morning!! She slept for an hour. I had another lousy night of sleep and I thought she would sleep for longer and I tried to sleep but she woke me up after I had just fallen asleep. When I looked at my watch and saw that it was 9:30 I thought that I had slept through my alarm and the kids were still home. I was so disoriented.
Anyway, she was in no better of a mood after she woke up so I plopped her in the car and we went to the fruit store, the playground and the change place to exchange money. That put her in a much better mood. She loved sitting in the wagon at the fruit store and she loved swinging in the swing at the park.
At 11, on the way home, they had the countrywide siren signaling that we all had to go into our safe rooms and lay down on the floor with our hands over our heads. I was on the road so I just listened to the radio which repeated directions over and over again. It was kind of an eerie siren. It was weird. Ben had said that they were practicing for it and they had to make a train to their safe room. Talia also said they were practicing for it at her school. My neighbor told me that her daughter came home today and told her that Talia had a bunch of the kids convinced that there was a bomb headed straight for their school and it was going to hit their school. She said they were freaking out. She is so not my child!
I put her in for another nap at 11 and had to ask my neighbor to come over so that I could run and do carpool today b/c she was still asleep and I didn’t want to risk having a monster on my hands if I woke her up. So my neighbor was nice enough to come and sit here. Unfortunately, when I got to Ben’s school his teacher said he just started to complain that his head hurt and he felt very warm to me. So I dropped his friends off at the baking chug and took him home with me and gave him some tylenol for his fever, something to eat and a cold compress for his head. He took a short nap on the couch and then about 5 minutes after Talia came home (soaking wet from some water pipe that was open from some workers that were working near her school so they decided to run through), threw up on the floor on his way to the bathroom. EWWWWWW. How many times must I clean up vomit this year?!?!?
The rest of the day was spent making toast and tea, running carpool (for Ben’s friends since it was my turn even though he was sick), and taking care of a pretty cranky Keren. Luckily, Talia was in a pretty good mood today and she was helpful and happy to just hang out and not do much before and after her last art chug of the year.
I am hoping that tonight is uneventful. I plan to be in bed by 8:30 and asleep by 9. I have to go clean up now in order to make that happen. I really hope that the nausea that I am feeling right now is just psychosomatic!
Here is some video of the kids playing today. It was the highlight of our day:
This morning after taking the kids to school Keren and I packed up for the beach!! We picked Jere up at her house and the 3 of us went. We went to Hertzaliya Pituach instead of the beach in Tel Aviv. It is supposed to be a nicer beach but I am happy to be in Tel Aviv and it’s a shorter trip so I don’t know that it made much sense to go there. Also, there are a ton of steps to walk down and a ton of beach to walk on before getting to the water. Anyway, we had a great time. The first thing that Keren did was crawl straight to the water and she didn’t stop until she was in!! She spent most of her time in the water and so did I! At first Keren didn’t seem as happy as she usually is to be at the beach. I figured out that she is usually at the beach with Talia and Ben and she usually crawls around and follows them and climbs in their hole, etc. So I dug a hole and she climbed right in and she was thrilled! Then I buried her in the sand and she LOVED that!! I wish I had my camera there but I didn’t want to schlep too many things with us since it was going to be me carrying all the bags.
We came home at 1 with just enough time to get rid of the evidence (if the older 2 knew we went to the beach while they were at school I would have a mutiny on my hands) and take showers. I ran the shower for us and Keren peed all over the bathroom floor just before she was ready to come in with me. She hated the shower, which I find funny since she crawled in with Ben yesterday, clothes and all.
This afternoon Ben had Eitan, Chen and Ofek over after school. Chen and Ofek left after an hour but Eitan stayed until I took the boys to karate. They played really, really nicely the whole time! It allowed me to put away some laundry and even make dinner! One of the best play dates so far.
Talia called me after school today to tell me she was going to her friend Rachel’s house and to make sure it was okay with me. I really wanted her to come home so I could put Keren in for a nap at 3 and not have to wake her while I took the boys to karate but I also wanted her to have a nice time at her friend’s house. So she went there and I wound up waking Keren up and taking her with us to karate carpool.
When Ben came home he finished watching the end of the video that I put on for Keren. He loves her Baby Einstein videos for some reason. We ate dinner and then I finally called the house that Talia was at to find out where in the world she was. It turns out that she stayed to play with her friend and then went to her friend’s English chug with her b/c they weren’t finished playing!! Then she went back to her friend’s house. So I told her she could eat dinner there but that she had to be home at 6:30. At 6:25 she called asking me if I could pick her up. I said no, she had to walk home!! The other kids were all ready for bed and nice and clean and we were reading books. So she asked if she could stay longer. I told her to get her little tushy home right away!!
Tonight I played tennis and had a great time. Jere came to babysit with her dog. I don’t mind that she brings him but he stinks up the place and then I have to vacuum the rug after they leave.
Some funny Ben stories:
The first story is a little gross. Just a warning: This morning he went to the bathroom and he was crying that it hurt him when he made. So I told him that sometimes that happens when you make and it means he might have to eat more fruit, etc. I told him that his tushy might be bleeding a little when I wipe him so I would be gentle and not to be alarmed. So he said to me, “oh, then I will need to use one of those sticks?” I had no idea what he was talking about but after a minute I realized he was talking about a tampon!!!!!!!!!!! I told him that it’s just for mommies and he wouldn’t need one even if his tushy WAS bleeding!!
Second story: He was looking at the hairs on his legs telling me that he had a lot of them. Then he mentioned Eric’s hairs on his legs and said they were black and he had more. I told Ben that one day his too would be dark and that he would have a lot more hair than he has now. He said, “why, because they get dirty?” So I told him why. Then, if that wasn’t funny enough he proceeded to tell me that his friend Chen has a ton of hair on her legs and she also has hair on her back (he showed me where on her back). I asked him how in the world he managed to see her back where she has the hair and he said “when we play doctor and I check her back”. I just hope that those teachers of his are keeping an eye on the two of them!!
So he basically had the total opposite effect that he wanted to have.
