The Third Coast

After party

2012-02-09T05:05:00.000-08:00

Make him laugh

2012-02-07T09:52:00.000-08:00

Woods

2012-02-05T13:36:00.000-08:00

We're out walking in the woods looking at tracks and duckies and a rushing river
(at http://mbgna.umich.edu/)

Fancy pancakes

2012-02-05T13:31:00.000-08:00

Feb? Really?

2012-02-05T13:30:00.000-08:00

Unbelievable heat wave in A2, we're out without jackets! Ella and aba were here sledding, just last week...
Daniel enjoyed his first ride on the swing.

Billy goat gruff

2012-02-01T18:49:00.000-08:00

I guess she doesn't need us anymore!

Hahaha

2012-01-31T16:21:00.000-08:00

Ella likes making Daniel smile and laugh. and he really likes her :)

Lights up on a tree

2012-01-27T06:14:00.000-08:00

Row row row your boat
Gently down the street
Merry merrily merrily merrily merrily
Lights up on a tree

Scrooge at the office

2012-01-25T05:44:00.000-08:00

Gray Scrooge sits all day in front of the window, waiting for the birds to come to our bird feeder.

The family in the mirror

2012-01-23T16:17:00.000-08:00

singing in the car

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

sledding!

2012-01-23T07:40:00.000-08:00

it's been a wimpy winter so far, not a lot of snow. close to the end of January, i look out the window and see grass. i think in a normal year we should have been buried in snow! nevertheless, we had just enough snow for sledding this weekend before it all melted

here are a few videos i took yesterday. since i don't have the time for fancy editing anymore, you'll just have to watch the whole thing uncut... (Ella, aba and grandpa sledding with Noa, Yonatan and Oz)(ima is behind the camera, but did go down the hill a few times!)Yonatan planning to jump over ben:grandpa and ellaYonatangoing up the hillnotice the kid+dad on the left almost being run over:

Dimples

2012-01-13T14:57:00.000-08:00

Three!

2012-01-11T09:01:00.000-08:00

Months, that is.

Happy 3m birthday, Daniel!

(maybe tonight we can take measurements for the record. If he's still on the same growth curve, I *expect* him to be 15.5 lbs, 25.5''. )

He smiles a lot, charms everybody at daycare, sleeps long hours at night, and as evident in this picture he's really good on his tummy. He started grabbing things and bringing them to his mouth. He really likes watching Ella do stuff. he likes to kick and punch, especially in the bath. he splashes about 1/2 of the water out of his whale tub during bathtime. basically, the thing he loves most is bathtim, but it's also the thing he hates most: he hates being taken out of the bath. he likes to do sit-ups with abba and is talking a lot like this: "aaaaiiieeeyaiiyaiayiyaaaaaaa"

update --
Height: 26"/66cm (@95%), Weight: <16.4lbs/7.4kg (@95%), Head: 16.3"/41.4cm (@50%). he's at the 50%-ile for weight-for-length.

Spiders

2012-01-09T12:22:00.000-08:00

Rabbits at the zoo

2012-01-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

Two of my Xmas presents combined

2012-01-09T12:18:00.000-08:00

Happy sunday morning

2012-01-08T08:50:00.000-08:00

A perfect moment: baby is happy, toddler and dad having fun, pancakes resting safely in everybody's tummies, bread baking in the breadmaker, kitchen is clean, pie in the oven.
(note to self: next time a moment like this happens, know someone is about to poop their pants)

tongue

2012-01-06T09:11:00.000-08:00

we went to the doctor to have Ella's geographic tongue looked at, and to hear from the doctor that there's nothing we can or should do about it. Ella also got a flu shot! the nurse was so fast, Ella didn't know what just happened and it was all done.

Doll house

2012-01-02T14:06:00.000-08:00

Ella and I trolled the 90%-off Xmas aisle today, and found this advent calendar house with little doors. It kept her busy for a long time, totally worth the $3 I paid for it! Maybe we *are* old enough for a real doll house.

Almost rolling

2012-01-01T17:14:00.000-08:00

Well not really about to roll tomorrow, but certainly going in that direction!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHeKLfKhqB0

Sent from my iPhone

Our new best friend

2012-01-01T16:58:00.000-08:00

Goes everywhere with us. Consider us mostly potty trained!

Splash

2012-01-01T11:48:00.000-08:00

Indoors pools at Dundee, with Yonatan gam Noa gam Sagit gam Oz gam Tomer -- happy new year 2012!

Mmmmmmmm

2011-12-31T17:09:00.000-08:00

Huh?

2011-12-29T17:02:00.000-08:00

Nothing beats a match of drinky knuckles. Ron, you'll have to ask Kevin for the set of rules. Other than that, the newly renovated "man cave" downstairs is pretty awesome!

Icy beach

2011-12-28T17:07:00.000-08:00

We went out for a car ride and a nap around some lakes by traverse city. Ella was disappointed that the water was too cold for swimming. Maybe next time...

Cousins

2011-12-28T08:47:00.000-08:00

Ella and Mina playing together (that lasted almost 5 minutes)

Expanding Tuta's family

2011-12-26T19:35:00.000-08:00

Introducing: Mina's bunny!

Horse ride

2011-12-26T19:32:00.000-08:00

WARNING: do not watch if you have a tendency for motion sickness.

Thanks, Santa!

2011-12-26T16:56:00.000-08:00

Santa did well with giant melman and Marty, and missed the mark with a train set (should have been self propelling) and the remote-controlled bugs (that scared Ella, then scared Grendel, which scared Ella even more). Both things were "for Ella, but if she doesn't like it I'll have fun playing with it" according to ben... Isn't it always the case with toy trains?

The ukulele may be in the latter category, at least for now Ella didn't care for it too much -- but I learned how to play "twinkle twinkle little star" already :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfDz3TR3vlA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Rainbow song

2011-12-25T11:50:00.000-08:00

Snakes

2011-12-23T02:27:00.000-08:00

We spent a good couple of hours making fimo snakes and playing with them on Friday morning, while aba packed all of our stuff into our giant car.

Daycare Chanukah party

2011-12-22T21:01:00.000-08:00

Chanukkah

2011-12-22T20:44:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap6iJJbRXP8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhfUErJvIiohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsQa6mkOex0

These boots are made for walking

2011-12-22T20:37:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUjHs0AD7gw

לבקשת הקהל

2011-12-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

Santa

2011-12-20T06:36:00.000-08:00

Family Xmas gathering

2011-12-18T01:55:00.000-08:00

Other people took better pictures with real cameras, still waiting for those. Especially for the "4-generations picture".

who do i look like?

2011-12-14T08:44:00.001-08:00

Ella, 6 weeks old; Daniel, 9 weeks old. smiling for aba.

Grandma tickles

2011-12-14T08:05:00.000-08:00

Drawing

2011-12-13T20:27:00.000-08:00

And coloring in the lines

After waiting 25 years, I finally have a partner for playing with barbies

2011-12-13T12:17:00.000-08:00

mayham

2011-12-05T21:02:00.001-08:00

strapping the tree to the roof of our car, we couldn't help but giggle as we think of this commercial.

i think their line of commercial is genius, and i especially like this one. go ahead and waste a few minutes on their other youtube videos :)

אנחנו שמחים

2011-12-05T16:57:00.000-08:00

״אמא, את שמחה? כי את אוהבת את אלה?״
״אבא, גם אתה שמח, כי אתה אוהב את אלה.״
"קיטי רוצה חיבוקי כי היא עצובה. היא רוצה להיות שמחה."

Snowing

2011-12-05T16:54:00.000-08:00

it snowed again when we left school today, so we stood there for a while to admire the snow. snow on your tong is fun :)Ella says that she wants a lot of it. there will probably still be some on the ground when she wakes up in the morning.

Tree (ii)

2011-12-05T06:41:00.000-08:00

milestones

2011-12-04T16:54:00.001-08:00

* recently ella started talking about her feelings ("i'm sad. i'm not happy, i'm sad and crying because i have an ouchy")
* blowing her nose
* understanding and responding to "why" questions

... i guess the next step will be her asking us all those "why" questions.

I'm driving to michigan

2011-12-04T12:36:00.000-08:00

Yum!

2011-12-03T21:00:00.000-08:00

Baking with Ella is a lot more fun than it used to be, now that she has all that challa-baking experience from school :)
I bet they don't let them lick a spatula of brownie batter at JCC!

Tree!

2011-12-03T09:19:00.000-08:00

Nature walk

2011-12-01T09:03:00.000-08:00

First snow

2011-11-30T05:46:00.000-08:00

woke up this morning to a world covered in white. (technically woke up to feed a baby at 2:30 am).

Ella was very excited to go outside!

she'll be done shoveling the driveway in no time.

Friends

2011-11-27T21:17:00.000-08:00

Tomer is twice Daniel's age. Yeah. :)

Mac&cheese

2011-11-27T21:09:00.000-08:00

Ella was in the mood for some good Mac and cheese, so we called it a girls' night and went out to dinner. Aba and Daniel stayed behind. We had lots of fun and a coulpe of servings of Mac that I strongly suspect were born in a box. (dont think for a moment that we each had a plate of that). Ellas idea of "good" m&c is anything yellow.

Nevertheless, Girls rock!

I want to open it?

2011-11-26T05:06:00.000-08:00

Santa was away, but whoa! Looks like there's a trip to see Santa in our future...

Re: Hippos

2011-11-25T12:17:00.000-08:00

Live update :)

2011-11-25T11:22:00.000-08:00

2011-11-25T11:19:00.000-08:00

Yayy, Gloria!

2011-11-25T11:18:00.000-08:00

We're at Toledo zoo!

Princess

2011-11-24T19:02:00.000-08:00

Dog training

2011-11-21T15:46:00.000-08:00

Grady gives Ella a crash course in being a dog.

Happy thanksgiving!

2011-11-19T14:13:00.000-08:00

Smile :)

2011-11-15T20:22:00.000-08:00

Fall

2011-11-14T19:27:00.000-08:00

Caught with his hand in the pumpkin jar

2011-11-04T09:40:00.000-07:00

He wants to hold my hand

2011-11-04T08:22:00.000-07:00

Halloween Squirrels

2011-11-03T14:19:00.000-07:00

The squirrels helped reshape our Halloween decor. Seems that they like the seeds!

Pumpkins

2011-11-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T19:33:00.000-07:00

> Doggie enjoyed trick-or-treat-ing, had candy for dinner (and also hummus gam pita) and asked to go to sleep in her costume.
>
> (Costume was assembled at the very last minute... We had princess and kitty costumes ready, but then ella decided she wanted to be a dog. Three black socks later, and woof!)
>

More apples, and another visit to the farm stand

2011-10-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

we needed more apples! unfortunately it's a little late in the season, so the variety isn't as great as it was the first time around. we mostly got red delicious, which didn't last for very long, but were sure delicious as they were eaten right off the tree!they did make for a really good apple pie though.

after picking apples, we ventured to Jenny's Farm Stand to see some animals, ride horsies, and climb the hay (or straw?) mountain. i think Ella's excitement was about being able to run around and do stuff with her ima, finally! after running up and down the mountain thousands of times, we went to pick out pumpkins for Halloween carving. yayy!

Giraf

2011-10-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

מה אני עושה? אני כמו ג׳ירפה

Ella pretends to be melman in a moving box

Sent from my iPhone

swim

2011-10-07T21:00:00.000-07:00

39 weeks

2011-10-07T10:54:00.000-07:00

Apples!

2011-10-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

Ella's school met at the apple farm this weekend. We ran into Maya and her family, and enjoyed delicious apples right off the tree!

Zoo

2011-10-01T12:42:00.000-07:00

Toledo zoo was much colder this time, although it warmed up towards the afternoon. we finally had to open the box in which our warm hats were packed...

Rainbow

2011-09-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

Team work

2011-09-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

Not golden house...

2011-09-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

We're still searching for the golden house of Ann arbor. This place is nowhere near it, but their pancake is good and fluffy. After being sick for most of this week, Ella finally feels good enough to eat two of them!

The place is a little grease diner that serves your usual eggs-bacon-hash breakfast, and Korean food. Go figure.

bike ride

2011-09-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

מיה אני רוצה לשבת על ידך

2011-09-21T15:01:00.000-07:00

me

2011-09-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

Pool

2011-09-19T16:24:00.000-07:00

Mira's birthday pool party

The only thing that got Ella out of the pool this time, was the pile of cupcakes waiting outside.

Jenny's farm stand

2011-09-18T09:23:00.000-07:00

Charlie's farm

2011-09-11T22:08:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful day at the farm!

Hay (or straw?) ride to give treats to the cows.

running around with aba.

Ella's first lesson in corn hybrid seed production

bonding with Charlie's wife

swim class

2011-09-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

after spending the summer in the lake, one of the things Ella kept asking for (instead of going to daycare) is to go to the "sea". there's a kids-oriented swimming pool a couple of minutes drive from home, so we decided to try it out. the place concentrates on swimming lessons and there's not much free swimming though.

we tried a free swim class, which Ella and aba seemed to enjoy. the problems started when our half hour was over, and it was time to get out of the pool and let the next class begin... Ella did not want to get out!
it took a lot of explaining that it is no longer our turn, and now it's someone else's turn, and that we would come back some other time. when we finally managed to change out of swim suit she found the toy corner and didn't want to go back to the car... playing guitar and singing the ABC's was quite fun though. :)

Maya

2011-09-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

Ella made a friend at school -- Maya -- she is a 4.5 years old Israeli girl. I think Maya enjoys having someone who understands her language, while Ella has a little crush on her. They are not in the same class but they get to see each other at the playground every day!

School day 2

2011-08-30T06:15:00.000-07:00

Ella aba and Tuta walk in on the second day of school. Ella is a bunny today...

M

2011-08-26T08:23:00.000-07:00

I bet you can see this scoreboard from space. Just drove by as they were painting it.

Michigan apples

2011-08-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

Everything is big in Michigan.

First lunch at the new house

2011-08-26T08:15:00.000-07:00

Picnic style! The only cups we could find were fancy wine glasses.

(Safta Dalia, Ella, and grandma Sandy)

My tent

2011-08-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

Every day is a beach day

2011-07-31T18:46:00.001-07:00

יש לי יום יום ים

יש לי ים יום יום...

Making the most out of living 5 minute walk from the beach. I think i had a little too much sun today though...

Sent from my iPhone

Beach ready

2011-07-30T07:39:00.000-07:00

Seesaw

2011-07-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

big sister to be

2011-07-07T11:41:00.001-07:00

with a little more practice, we may not need to change a single diaper!

Tricycle!

2011-07-06T08:42:00.000-07:00

We took Ella to the toy store to try out bikes, thinking that we'd get out of there with a simple scooter like the one she tried out in California. It took us a good half hour to get her from the front to the back of the store (she had to check out all the toys in between!), but then she was very excited to test drive every single bike in the bike isle. The scooters were not on display so we couldn't test drive those, and we ended up getting a shiny tricycle (that will probably last till the end of the summer before her knees hit the handlebar) and a helmet.
Now getting her out of the store was mission impossible, after she discovered the auto aisle next.

anyway, after daycare we ran outside with the new bike for the first time. i think she would have taken them to bed with her if we let her!

After two laps around the park she got a little tired and changed strategy:

ABC solo

2011-07-05T08:37:00.000-07:00

songs in her repertoire:
* ABC
* Twinkle twinkle little star
* Ring around the rosie

Chicago Brauhaus

2011-07-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

To celebrate what is probably grandpa and grandma's last night in Chicago before we move, we ventured to Lincoln Square to a German restaurant "Chicago Brauhaus".
(Thanks Nicole for the recommendation!)
Everything we ordered was delicious!

Ella took over my Goulash Soppe ("I-wannnit!"). i need the recipe.

The rest of us had the Schnitzel, the Brauhaus Special, Sauerbraten, and Kassler Rippchen.

Of course beer was not excluded.

I think the potato dumplings are kartoffelknödel, which we were introduced to a few years ago when we had a great afternoon with Birgit. Actually, everything reminded us of that day in Frankfurt!

We made sure to take some videos and pictures to share the fun...

zoo

2011-07-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

Ella's cheese face

Ella and grandpa comment that the rhino is "all dirty now. it's all dirty now. yucky yucky".

Grandparents!

2011-07-03T05:06:00.001-07:00

Ella was giddy with excitement when grandma and grandpa popped their heads in :)