Inflatables

The MOSI also had some lovely inflatables. There was a play area for little kids that Mikael enjoyed bouncing around on. The nets made it hard to take good pictures, though.

Kidz-club: the roller coaster

We went back to Kidz-club today, this time with a camera. There's a lot to do there, but we spent most of our time at two key attractions. The first was the roller coaster. Seen here in real time and then in heart-stopping time lapse photography, this is not for the weak-hearted parent!

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תחתונים וצבעים

Underpants and paints

תמונות טריות מהיום.
הבוקר אחרי תהליך של פיפי קקי תחתונים, הגענו למצב שבו מיכאל ביקש לשים תחתונים בגן במקום חיתול. התייעצנו עם יעלי המטפלת והיא נתנה אישור למבצע. בסוף היום כשבאתי לקחת אותו הסתבר שהייתה הצלחה ומיכאל לא פיספס בכלל ולקח אחריות מלאה על כל עניין. אני מרוב שימחה שמתי לו את התחתוני ספייר על הראש ומיכאל בתמורה לבדיחה שלי לא רצה להוריד את התחתונים מהראש עד שהגענו הבייתה.
השכן מהקומה הראשונה, מעניק למיכאל מלא פיציפקס שיש לו במאגרים. כל פעם כשהוא שומע אותנו בחדר מדרגות הוא פותח את הדלת ונותן למיכאל מתנה. שילשום מיכאל קיבל ערכה של צביעה עם מכחול וצבעי גואש. הוא מאוד אהב את זה ומיד זה הפך לתחביב החדש. איכשהו עם התחתונים על הראש זה נראה מאוד מתאים.
מצאתי בבית עוד מכחול וציירנו ביחד.

Fresh pictures from today.

The morning after the usual pee poo and then underpants, we got to the point that MIkael asked to wear underpants to Day Care instead of a diaper. We consulted with Yaeli, the Day Care supervisor, and she gave her approval for the operation. At the end of the day, when I came to pick him up, it turned out that it was a resounding success and that Mikael hadn't missed even once and took full responsibility for the whole thing. I was so happy, I festooned his head with the spare underpants we had, and Mikael got into the spirit of the joke and didn't want to take them off until we got home.

Our downstairs neighbor (whose name we don't know) is always giving Mikael little presents from some secret stash that he has. Every time he hears us coming down the stairs, he opens the door and gives Mikael a small present. A couple of days ago, Mikael received a small paint-by-numbers set. Mikael really liked it and it has become his new hobby. With the multi-colored underpants on his head, the whole picture seemed very appropriate.

I found another paint brush somewhere in the house and we painted together.

Play-doh

I really love the mood of these two videos of Savta Rina and Mikael enjoying play-doh together.


Vimeo.



Vimeo.

מגה בלוקס

מיכאל מאוד נדלק על המגה בלוקס. לאחרונה קנינו לו קופסא חדשה של מגה בלוקס, בצורת כלב. מיכאל טיפס על השולחן וסקר את רכושו.
אני די מופתעת לפעמים לראות כמה הוא מסוגל להתרכז במשחק מסויים

Mikael is very keen on the MegaBloks. We just bought him another box, this time in the shape of a dog/fire hydrant. Mikael climbed up on the table to better survey his new posessions. Sometimes, I'm pretty surprised at how he can concentrate on a specific game.

מגה בלוקס from Opher Donchin on Vimeo.

Bath bubbles

The whole family spent the weekend in Givat Ada and Savta Havva helped out in lots of ways including giving Mikael his bath on Friday night.








From Vimeo.


From Vimeo.

Playing with toys

Mikael and Yotam play together with a toy


On Vimeo.

Mommy's hat

The pictures and videos here are combined from two separate occasions, on consecutive days, when Mikael took Mommy's hat and went to play with it in front of the mirror, once with Liya and the following day with me.

In the first video you can also catch some of his English words like 'shoes.' In the second, we had to end the video because he made the ever-popular 'camera grab.'

 

 

 

Vimeo.


Vimeo.

Gan Indigo

Mayan Shahar went to Indigo to pick Mikael up a couple of days ago and took some great pictures of Mikael playing on the slide.


















This was edited. When I first wrote it I said that Mayan Shahar had gone with Liya to the gan, but she was helping us out while Liya was working and picked up Mikael on her own.

עם שקד ויותם - מאכילים את לילה

With Shaked and Yotam all the time: feeding the dog, Layla

עם שקד ויותם - כל הזמן- מאכילים את לילה הכלבה

With Shaked and Yotam all the time: feeding the dog

עם שקד ויותם - כל הזמן - אמבטיה

לקראת הערב זוכה השלישיה לאמבטיה מפנקת. מיה ואני לא יכולנו שלא להקציף להם את השיער ולסדר אותו במגניבות

באמנטיה , בגלל הצפיפות והביקוש לצעצועים יש הרבה אמוציות ומריבות. אצל מיכאל הרצון הולך ומתגבר, או הולך ומחריף - והוא יודע הרבה הרבה יותר טוב מה הוא רוצה ומתי. הוא מאוד רצה את הקש שיותםתם החזיק ויותם, שגם הוא כבר יודע משהו על החיים הכריז - אבל זה שלי

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With Shaked and Yotam all the time: Bath time

As evening approaches, the threesome gets to take a luxurious bath. Maya and I couldn't help but soap up their hair and make cool hair styles for them. The space limitations and relatively high demand for the toys meant that we got to enjoy lots of emotions and even some quarrels. Mikael's will is definitely strengthening, perhaps painfully so, and he is much, much better at knowing what he wants and when. He very much wanted the straw that Yotam-tam was holding, and Yotam, who also knows something about life at this point, declares: but it's mine!!

Rosh Hashana in Kiryat Ono

When I was little, we used to come visit my family in Israel. We would stay with my grandparents in Tel Aviv, in the apartment where I live today. Often, we would take the number 55 bus that wandered through the Ramat Gan and Givatayim and eventually found its way to Kiryat Ono, where my Dod Ilan and Doda Aliza lived. Doda Aliza, my Mom's sister, has passed away and Dod Ilan lives down in Arad, but his daughter Orna bought the house in Kiryat Ono. Mikael and I went to visit that side of the family on the second day of Rosh Hashana. We got to see Anat, also, the sister in that family who is (always was) my age. Her husband, also called Ofer, and their three kids were also there. Sagi spent a lot of time with Mikael and really enjoyed hamming it up with him. Tal, Orna's youngest daughter also played around with Mikael a lot. Simba the dog was very gentle and the whole family was impressed when Mikael stuck both hands into Simba's mouth. Later, they found a stick that they both wanted to play with. Simba was much gentler than Mikael, who, once he got the stick tried to bang Simba on the head with it. He desisted quickly, though. There were also stairs to climb up and down, cake to eat, tea to drink, a remote control to break, and a very cool telephone that played songs when you pressed its buttons. Me and Mikael both had a great time!

 

 

 

 

Mikael and Sagi from Opher Donchin on Vimeo.

From Indigo

Indigo sent us this sweet Rosh Hashanna e-mail.

It starts with a children's song that's really popular right now at Indigo (clear the way / I'm a bull with horns on my head (two finger at the forehead) / I'll dip my head low (dip head) and ... / ole! The crowd goes wild (clap)) and then gives a list of some of the different things that all the kids are busy doing. Mikael is described as 'exploring the territory' and 'excelling in gentleness.'

Opher

הורים יקרים

לכבוד השנה החדשה: הצצה לאינדיגו

שיר השור
(שתי אצבעות משמשות קרניים)
"פנו דרך שור אני
על ראשי קרניים
את הראש מרכין אני (מלשון רוכן. מכופפים ראש)
הקהל מוחא כפיים
אולה אולה אולה.... (כפיים.)

שיר שעושה שמח ושכולנו באינדיגו שרים אותו כל יום כל היום ובמיוחד אביגיל שזכתה בתואר זמרת החודש ושעסוקה בימים אלה בבישול דווקא עם חברתה מבקרת הטלויזייה והוגת הדעות אמה. שימו לב הבנות מבשלות אוכל לאו דווקא אורגני...

בזמן הזה מתכנס מועדון המעריצים של הצמד עמית וקלרה (הגיטרה).
מתארגנת להקת הרוק הצעירה ביותר בישראל שמורכבת מיאן, עמיתי-תי וזיו.
בן כנראה יצטרף אליו כשהוא יגמור לאכול את הריפיל השלישי של ארוחת הצהריים.
שירי מבלה את זמנה בחקר ההליכה ואחר כך מפנקת את עצמה בבקבוק ובשינה טובה.

עילי ואלינור מפתחים רומן. אלינור לא מסכימה לשבת ליד אף אחד חוץ מליד עילי, ועילי בתמורה צועק אחריה לכל מקום: לינור לינור לינור. . .

רומי רוכב בשמחה על סוס עץ ומחזר אחרי הנסיכה אלהיה שלא שמה לב שהאביר על הסוס עובר כי
היא עסוקה בבלונים הנהדרים שלה.
ליה מטפלת ביוסי התינוק ומקשטת את האינדיגו במדבקות ומיכאל חוקר את הסביבה. שניהם מצטיינים בעדינות.
אורי לומד לגזור, צוחק עם הבנות ומחזק את קשריו עם רוי שמחפש הרפתקאות, שופך את תיבות המשחקים ומנסה להתחיל עם אביגיל.
ליהיא ושירה נהנות מסיפור טוב ואפילו כבר יודעות לספר אחד כזה.

אז שתהיה גם לנו שנה של גילוי ולמידה
שנה של שינה טובה, אוכל מצויין והרבה פינוק
שנה של משחקים, סיפורים והרבה יצירה
והכי חשוב, ששנשמח ונאהב ושרק נהיה לנו בריאים.



אוהבים צוות האינדיגו תשס"ט

Painting

There was a question about the painting, so I'll translate what Liya wrote about it for the Hebrew-impaired:

My talented younger sister painted this painting. In the painting she's blowing bubbles with Mikael. The painting is made in chalk colors.

Videos from the party

A couple of videos from the party: Mikael in the pool and at the piano. The piano is definitely a must-see. He spent a lot of time bouncing up and down to the music and expressing himself at the keyboard. We wish we knew more about encouraging all this intense musical interest.


Untitled from Opher Donchin on Vimeo.


Untitled from Opher Donchin on Vimeo.

A pool in our home

Liya bought a little baby pool and installed it on our porch. It's a little bit strange, but Mikael loves it. On the other hand, after he threw the lasagna into the pool, the water got a little bit greasy. It's important to get the water out regularly and clean the thing.


Untitled from Opher Donchin on Vimeo.

Playing with paint

Here are a couple more videos from that afternoon. Yalli and Noa are certainly much older than Mikael, even if they aren't a lot bigger. In fact, they're almost exactly a year older. Maayan-Shahar (the video artist) pointed that it's confusing because they look sort of the same, but Yalli and Noa are just so much more developed.

See saw
Uploaded by opherdonchin

Mr. Potatohead

I'm playing with different video hosting sites. Here you can compareDailyMotion and Vimeo where what we've had up until now has been Google. The quality is much better, obviously, but the uploading isn't as convenient and Vimeo doesn't allow private videos. Please feel free to let me know what you think.

Mr Potatohead
Uploaded by opherdonchin

Mikael playing from Opher Donchin on 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.