A discussion

I don't remember what it was that Mikael and I were discussing here, but this is a classic scene in our household. Mikael is (stubbornly?) insisting on something and his parents are stubbornly(!) insisting on doing things their way. Everyone is trying to avoid the foreseeable consequences. Sometimes we succeed and other times we don't:

New Year's greetings

Maayan Shahar staged a treasure hunt for the Kallir cousins this Rosh Hashanna and she had Mikael participate by sending in one of the clues:

Bike riding

We have not been keeping up with the blog and a lot of stuff has piled up. I'm going to post a few things that are lying around, but it's a little haphazard.

In any case, although he doesn't realize it entirely, Mikael is now completely capable of riding a bike. It only took him about three days, I guess in part because of all the time he spent on the wooden bikes. In any case, here are the videos to prove it:

Mikael explains his machine

Mikael has been spending a lot (as in a lot) of time with his Lego (pronounced by the Dutch as "lay-xo") and he has been getting more and more sophisticated. Here, he explains his new machine.

Mikael explains his machine from Opher Donchin on Vimeo.

For the Hebrew-impaired, here is a translation of his explanation:

"It's something that has a propeller on each side and here there is ... and the propellers are standing on one wing, and then on the propellers there is another wing."

Liya: "Ok, and how does it land?"

"It lands with a boomsa and then continues to drive on the street. "

Liya: "Ok"

"That happens when ... it start to go up and up all the way to the sky, and the propellers start ... the propellers are sort of like the wings"

Liya: "And they help the ..."

"If the propellers go this way (demonstrating), then it flies forward and if the propellers go this way (demonstrating), then it flies backwards"

Liya: "Mmmmm..."

"That way is forward (pointing and making a forward movement)"

Liya: "Do you want to show me how it lands?"

"Yes. ... No! It could fall apart."

Liya: "Ok. Good."

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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Happy birthday Netta

On cousin Netta's birthday, Mikael was asleep for the afternoon by the time we managed I managed to get a hold of Netta in the middle of her party, and Netta was asleep by the time Mikael woke up. Still, we told him about it and he sang happy birthday for Netta and also "Where's the cake," (aifo ha uga)

Vimeo.

Vimeo.

The flight

It's hard to feel like taking a lot of pictures during the flight, but we were blessed with some truly photographable moments that even I couldn't overlook. First of all, we met Melody from Los Angeles in the check-in line in Tel Aviv. She and Mikael hit it off right away and they played uga uga and sang itsy bitsy spider together and ran around a lot and squealed.

Vimeo.

Melody and Mikael had totally non-overlapping times of wakefullness on the long flight, so the next time we actually saw Melody was in the airport in Philadelphia. Her parents did a better job of picking their passport line, but they did a poor job of getting through security, so we got up with the again after security. That was lucky because Mikael was having a terribly time with the fact that we had to give our big suitcase up again so shortly after reuniting with it. Melody cheered him right up. There was more uga uga and more squealing, and we all set off hand in hand for the long walk from Terminal A to Terminals C (us) and D (them). Sadly, right as we got to terminal C, I figured out that I left my cell phone at the security check point, so we said a hurried good bye and ran all the way back to Terminal A.

Vimeo.

Then, since we had some time, we explored the kiddie area that we'd rushed past before. Mikael seemed to like it, although I thought it was only so-so. It was fairly photogenic.




The rest of the trip went unphotographed. Mikael fell asleep right after a fairly greasy breafkast of Chick-Fil-A hash browns and I joined him as soon as we got on the plane. We woke up with just an hour left of the flight, changed clothes, and got ready to see Savta Rina and Saba Emi (details already posted by my dad). However, in an exciting moment, the pilot, Greg, invited us in to see the cockpit. I was really excited: this was one of the key dad moments of my fantasy life. Mikael was sort of freaked out and a little shy. Greg was super-sweet. He even let Mikael try out his hat.

Birthday marathon, stage 2: Videos from Mevasseret

Here are a couple of videos that Liya took in Mevasseret.

Vimeo.

Vimeo.

Evening at the 'camp' site

This is the last set from the camping. It chronicles our evening, starting with a Friday night dinner complete with blessing for the pita bread and lots of yummy meat. After the kids were done eating, we kept them entertained by touring the area in the cart. Once the grownups were done eating as well, it was off to the showers and then bed. Yael fell asleep immediately, Mikael took two more minutes, and Lia had a blast running around and around the mud house and then hanging out with the grownups. Eventually, she did go to sleep and, because I'd accidentally made caffeinated instead of decaffeinated coffee, the grownups stayed up chatting until 1:30.

Vimeo.

Hai-Bar

The spot we were staying is best known for it's little zoo, called a 'hai bar' (roughly: living desert) which Mikael, Yael, and Liya really enjoyed. There was a petting zoo and a bunch of monkeys that aren't pictured. We toured the zoo towards evening and again in the morning.

The place had a cart that was for hauling luggage or equipment, but it was also useful for hauling kids.

The legend called this a 'swamp cat' which is apparently also a jungle cat.

That's a camel. Mikael really liked the camel.

Here is Mikael with his new down-over-the-eyes-cool style for wearing his hat, joining Liya and Yael in the cart.

Vimeo.

Tampa Zoo

The Tampa Zoo is probably the best zoo in ... well ... in Tampa, anyway. There were only a few things about it that we really liked, and almost none that got photographed. However, some things are worth noting:

1) The hotdog was quite good

2) The manatee exhibit was excellent

3) We enjoyed watching the penguin handlers playing with the penguins

4) Petting the rays was also kind of fun

For me, though, the best part of the experience came when me and Mikael went to feed the giraffe.


Vimeo.

Play-doh

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


Vimeo.



Vimeo.

Sabba Emi's Birthday!

Today is Sabba Emi's birthday and we sang these songs for him!


Vimeo.


Vimeo.

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.

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.

מיכאל מכפכף

סוף שבוע בגבעת עדה, עופר בגרמניה.
מעיין שחר בדיוק סיימה עבודת אומנות ללימודים שלה שבה היא הכינה ספסל ועליו חפצים שונים שקשורים לברבי. החפצים האלה הגיעו לגבעת עדה - ומיכאל מצא אותם.
מיד הוא השחיל את רגליו לתוך הכפכפים, הצטייד בסלולרי ורוד מפלסטיק וכיפכף בהנאה ובמיומנות מרשימה, בכל הבית.
בתמונה האחרונה הוא בא לעזור לסבא רמי להעביר את הבוטנים הקלויים מהתבנית לצנצנת.

Spending the weekend in Givat Ada, Opher is in Germany. Mayan Shahar just finished an art project fo school where she prepared a bench with different barbie accessories. Those accessories came back to Givat Ada, and Mikael found them. Immediately, he slipped his feet into the pink slipper, found a pink platic cell phone, and tapped his way around the house with great dexterity. In the last picture we see him helping Saba Rami move the roasted peanuts from the oven tray to a jar.

Vimeo.


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.

Yoavie

Liya and Mikael went to visit Yoavie and Shula and Liat came to visit as well.

With Yoavie eating Pasta

 

 

That's Liat on our far left (quite pregnant :) ) and the Mikael and Yoav and finally Shula on the far right.


From Vimeo.

Swim class videos

We've been making amazing progress in swim class these past few weeks. Liya came last week and took pictures of us being cool.

By the way, we're conflicted about something: next week the underwater photographer is supposed to show up and we can get copies of Mikael underwater (you know, like this) for 80 NIS. Liya is tentatively against and I'm tentatively in favor. Anyone have any experience with this?

Anyway, here are the videos. The teachers name is Moran. The other kids are Yael and Lia and Itai. Of course, we don't know the parents names. They are just Yael's daddy and Lia's mommy and Itai's mommy:


On Vimeo.


On Vimeo.


On Vimeo.