Nadav's Bar Mitzvah: The Party

We stayed until the party until quite late. Mikael had a blast. He ate tons of yummy food (it was totally out of control what they had) and then did a lot of dancing and then rode the elevator up and down and up and down and then danced some more and then hung out with Tal and then rode the elevator some more and then had chocolate for desert and so on and so forth. Here are a couple of videos we took during the party; I'm particularly pleased with the second one. Nadav is the kid dancing at the beginning of the first video. I'm sure eventually there will be official pictures and video, too.


Vimeo.


Vimeo.

Mikael and the metal detector

After dinner, Mikael was a little restless, so he and the girls and I went to explore. We found a very cool clothing store with lots of very very cool people inside who were too cool to notice a scruffy parent and three rambunctious children turning the store into a playground. Mikael explored the entire store but finally focused on the anti-theft detector that was place quite close to the store front window. Here was an Interesting Challenge. It took him about 5 or 10 minutes of work to figure out how to get through, and then he kept practicing for another 15 minutes until he got really good at it. I was too stupid to take pictures of the first attempts, but here are five separate videos of the ultimate accomplishment. I could have taken 100, but I think that the five will be enough for you to get the idea. With a little work, I could have put them into one long loop, actually. That would have given a feel for the whole thing.









And here he shows he can go back the other direction.

Mikael's shadow

Mikael discovered his shadow today! Liat sent Liya an SMS congratulating us on our two year anniversary. Lucky thing because Liya and I had both forgotten. So, we went out for sandwhiches and ice cream and on the way home from the ice cream store, Mikael wanted to walk. All of a sudden, he stopped. And then he walked a little more, and then stopped again. Liya figured out what he was doing. The bright lights on the boulevard made for very strong shadows, and he was really fascinated by the funny black shape that went everywhere he did. He spent some more time playing with it, until he suddenly noticed the playground and went to climb the slide.

Liya's birthday

This Thursday I came back from work early and me and Liya walked down to Rothschild to meet Shiri. From there we all went to a nice little coffe shop on a quiet street nearby (can't remember it's name) and celebrated Liya's birthday.

 

 

 

Bimba

Now that Mikael has started walking around it's time for him to have something to help him keep his balance. Here in Israel, one version of this is called a 'bimba.' They're very popular. Liya and I got Mikael one made with a big tray full of nice wooden blocks. He likes playing with the blocks, but the wheels go too fast to use it as a walker. Savta Havva bought a really nice Fisher Price bimba that also makes noise and honks and is really very popular.

Actually, the fact that all but one of the pictures has him riding on the Bimba instead of walking with it is a fairly accurate reflection of what's going on, but he's still enjoying it so who cares.

Cute

These were also taken at Asaf and Ziva's house, although I'm not sure who took them. They are sweet, though.

 
 

Asaf and Mikael

We rarely show Mikael crying in this blog. We aren't trying to hide reality from anyone. There are those among us who think his crying is sweet or funny or even cool. However, his tears are just not the thing we're setting out to capture here. However, these pictures with Asaf are so nice, and Asaf seems to be smiling for both of them, so I put them in anyway.

 
 
 

Asaf and Ziva and Itamar and Noa and Ella

Amazingly, not only did we get a ride to a great Friday night dinner and back, our good friends Asaf and Ziva decided to come and pick us up from Tel Aviv and bring us to Rehovot for a great Saturday lunch with them. We had a really nice time and ate too much chulent and too much ice cream. Mikael had a great time with their kids.

Dinner at Benny and Sarah: Mikael and Itan

Itan still exists happily between the generations. She took care of Alit and Mikael a lot during the evening and also hung out with all of us grownups.

 
 
 

Dinner at Benny and Sarah: Asaf and Mikael

Asaf had a great ability to get Mikael to laugh out loud. That's something that neither Liya nor I can really do very often. One thing that word really well for him was to get his beard in under Mikael's chin and tickle him with it.

The last picture is in here just because it was a good picture and didn't fit other places.

 
 
 
 

Dinner with Benny and Sarah: Alit

Alit is Asaf and Gili's youngest. She really likes Mikael. She and Adan have a doll (who came with them that evening but is not pictured) whom they call Mikael and Alit plays the role of Liya while Adan plays the role of Opher. Mikael seems to respond quite well to her as well.

The picture with the toy iron (no, we didn't give Mikael a real iron to play with) is here because it was Alit's present from her grandparents that evening. She gracefully let Mikael try to break it and then try to eat it. Luckily, he didn't succeed.

Dinner with Benny and Sarah: the group

Benny and Sarah, Gili Bril's parents, invited us over for Friday dinner. That was really sweet, especially since Benny came and picked us up. It was a great chance to hang out with the Bril's and their children without the full (and wonderful in its own way) Kallir circus. There is the whole group which includes Benny and Sarah and Asaf and Gili and Itan and Adan and Alit and, of course Liya and Mikael and Opher behind the camera.

 
 



 

Hannuakah Birthday party: Playing

Mikael went to his first Hannukah party this weekend. Actually, it was a combined Hannukah and Birthday party for two of Liya's cousins. It was great timing because he's just reached the point where he can crawl towards toys that he's interested in and really enjoy the existence of all sorts of new toys that he hasn't seen before. Interestingly, though, he was just as interested in the wrapping that came of the birthday presesnts as he was in the dreidels.