Peekaboo!

Most mornings Ami gets up with Eitan and does all the "morning stuff" with him- first diaper change, brushing teeth, breakfast. I know, for anyone that knew Ami in high school or college (or grade school, middle school too, I imagine) it's absurd that he does, but because I'm working at night now, getting up with Eitan at 6 is just not going to happen.

This morning for some reason I wasn't so tired and got up with him. I let him out of his crib and gave him his milk, and then went to get a robe or flip flops or something. When I came into the living room, I heard him but I couldn't see him. And yes, I was wearing my glasses...and yes at 6:05 am it is already sunny in that side of the apartment.

And then I spotted him. Sitting behind the pink chair in the corner of the living room near the bookshelf, playing with his truck and very busy with my laptop. Obviously, I had to run get my camera.

Check it:

And then, he came out of isolation crawling under the chair:

He's been really into getting into small spaces lately, under the table, under chairs, in corners...a few minutes later I was at the table checking my email and this little head pops up from under the chair...the grey stripe on the left is the side if the chair (with me on it) and there the little face was just hanging out...by the time I tried a shot of his feet on the other side of the chair, he was gone. Shame.

Israel Museum Outing

Last Thursday, or maybe Wednesday (I can't remember, pathetic?) we finally loaded ourselves onto the number 14 bus and headed to the Israel Museum.


It's something we've wanted to go to see since, um, the day we got here, but I guess we're so spoiled by coming from the land of free museums in DC, that it seemed like going needed to be a big deal. Or that's what I've told myself. In actuality, it would have been great to go one of those million rainy days in the winter, but be that as it my, we went, and it was awesome.

The museum was somewhat recently redone and reorganized and it was great. Highlights were a lot of the video installations, which is a surprise because I usually hate them, classic works by the artists we've all heard of, and two synagogues that were somehow transported from their former homes straight to the Israel museum. Oh, and the clothes were amazing- old Jewish wedding dresses from all over the world and such. And there was a great display of menorahs from all over the world organized by country, also very cool.

Buster Bluth Hand Chairs!!!!

What I would look like if I had horns. Hilarity by Ami Rozmaryn.

So we had a good time. Except for when we stumbled into this exhibit called "Good night" which was really weird. I got excited for a minute because they had a room modeled after the room in Goodnight Moon, but I guess I've been reading it so much that I was very quickly about to see that the details were all wrong (there was no quiet old lady whispering hush, no kittens or mittens or mouse or toy house).

And, if you go, do yourself a favor and bring your own food or snacks. Although it's terribly convenient that the in-museum restaurants are kosher, the dairy one was really not good, and the meat one very expensive and fancy (ie does not work for an outing with a certain Eitan Rozmaryn).

View out of the museum onto the city.

Next time we go we're going to spend more time at the sculpture garden which features a Calder mobile and a Claus Oldenberg (he's way famous- name that movie...) apple core, among others. It had just gotten to be too long of a day. And what's cool is if you go again with in three months you only pay half admission. So we're there!

Muscle Men

A few mornings a week, Ami does pushups. And Eitan follows along. Or makes trouble for his Daddy.

Very Intimidating!

This morning I finally got out of bed early enough to witness this little experience. Check out little Buzz Lightyear as Coach/troublemaker. Halfway through I realized I was facing the wrong side of the room with the lighting, so Part 2 is much better lit. Whoops.

Part 1:





Part 2:

From Burma Road to the Tico House

Our cousin Yakov is in town, so we're under a lot of pressure to get around and do things with him, pretending that our normal life in this country is really exciting. Also, visitors are a great opportunity to actually get out of our little neighborhood and routine and get around playing tourist (skip Eitan's music class? Gymboree? Yes!).

Yesterday we were fully adventurous and spent the afternoon at the (slash looking for) Burma Road.  The wikipedia paged linked just before has all of the legit information, but in short, it's a road that was built in the war of Independence in order to get around the siege surrounding Jerusalem. Ami's wanted to go there and look around ever since we were in the cab on our way home for Pesach, and the driver pointed it out as a great nature-y place to visit not so far out from Jerusalem.

So I can see that it would have been beautiful and full of flowers a couple of months ago, now it was kind of dried out looking, but either way, it's a historical site, is in the middle of hilly mountains, and it was great to get out of the city for the afternoon.

At the entrance to the trail is the national Machal Memorial, commemorating those that have come to Israel from outside of the country to serve.

After the afternoon hike, and before traffic back into Jerusalem got standstill, we headed back into town for an early dinner at the Tico house. I hadn't been there since my year in Israel in 1999/2000, but Yakov mentioned that his parents love it there and rave about the onion soup in a bread bowl. So before he could finish saying "bread bowl", we were there. It was amazing. It might be partially because we were starving from all the hiking (and maybe forgot to eat lunch), but the soup was perfect. And it ended up being our whole dinner because we were so full after just didn't end up eating anything else the rest of the night.

Aside from the delicious soup (get it!), the setting was beautiful, a cool night in Jerusalem outside in the lovely garden with a hot bowl of soup and lots of bread and butter. Can't get much better then that. And Eitan loved the whole scene too, as you can see by that big smile when he just started with spontaneous giggles.

So in short, Burma road, go in April, and Tico house, well, go immediately!

Pool Club!

With the weather heating up around town, I knew we'd need some water activities to keep us cool this summer. Unlike DC, there aren't any "splash parks" here, playgrounds with fountains and sprinklers for kids. Instead, what I hear, is that Israeli parents just take their kids to regular like, sculpture fountains and let them just go wild. So, that wasn't going to work for me...

After getting back from Pesach, I started researching nearby pools- the hotels have them, some are for guests only, and others accept visitors for day or monthly, but they're for the most part, absurdly expensive. It seems hotels aren't really interested in crowding their pools with locals, I get it.

So, although I'd heard mixed things about our local community pool here on Emek Refaim, I figured it was our best option. It's two blocks away (an on the way is my favorite mushroom bureka bakery, score), has a heated and covered olympic size lap pool with a few lanes, and a baby pool and a kids pool (a little deeper then the baby pool). It also has an attached gym if I am ever so inclined to get on a treadmill. No, it's not as luxurious as a hotel, you have to bring your own towels and the chairs are plastic, but, you know, we'll deal.

Apparently it gets very crowded in July once school is out, but I'd imagine in the baby pool we'll be fine. So we did it. For the price of one month at a hotel pool, we're hooked up for the summer. The pool is going to be our home away from home.

Eitan loves it. He likes to hang out mostly on the steps of the kid pool and walk back and forth and splash.

So, if you're looking for us this summer, that's where we'll be!

TV in Israel

Because I'm with Eitan during the day, and working Monday-Thursdays in the evening, there's not much time for TV watching. Now, we always watch "our shows" from home online, through slingbox or some streaming websites, but just sitting down and turning on the TV, well that doesn't happen.

But, on the rare occasions where I have attempted to just chill out and turn on the TV, or tackle a project wanting something int he background, I've come to the following conclusions about Israeli TV.

Plus: There's a whole lot of America programming happening. Like I can go through a bunch of channels in a row only hearing English. Which is nice for me, and there are subtitles, so maybe I'm learning a bit?

Minus: All of the channels and programming have different timing. There's no consistency (that I've seen at least). There are not 30 minute or hour blocks. Some things will start at let's say 10:40, others 11:05, and on another channel 10:25, and it varies from channel to channel, day to day it seems.

Plus: Commercials! There are no commercials in the middle of any program, only extended commercials between programs. It's sweet.

Minus: The shows are outdated. Like a couple years old, if not more. Some, like talk shows (they have the Daily Show, Ellen) are a few days or weeks late, others Oprah are really old. In Israel, Oprah is still running...

Minus: Weird shows! It's really weird. With all of the channels and shows that are on in the US, it's like they picked the craziest ones. The show "the middle" is on, like every day, One Tree Hill also, always on, and the new 90210, always on.  I know there are shows that we'd like on, Parks and Recreation, Grey's, and I think even Mad Men, but we haven't been able to figure out when they're on, and besides, the whole working at night thing gets in the way....

Also, I know Israel is a secular country- and I'm all cool with that and everything, but it's weird that TV commercials advertise shows in hebrew for Shabbat. It's just weird for me! Just today while flipping through, and finding E!, there was an ad for a Kardashian Marathon, get this, on Shavout. They didn't even just say "next Sunday", but Shavout! Sounds So wrong!

So all in all, it's not worth turning on the TV here, for us anyways. I can barely figure out how to turn this one on (you have to push TV, power, and THEN "hot" and power. I can't get it straight and am always turning the tv to a snowstorm. I'm happy to stick with US tv online.

Next time you visit, I'd recommend coming with your computer/kindle/ipad loaded!

Nothing to do with this post. Just a cuddle captured by Nina's Iphone.

Jerusalem Botanical Gardens

So last Friday we took a visit to the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens. We're trying to do all of these outdoorsy activities before it gets brutally hot. Which it kind of was already on Friday, but it's just going to get worse...







So we cabbed over there and were greeted with this beautiful entrance, a windy path road down filled with flowers.

As we walked around we saw lots of different trees and plants, but spent the most time in the North American area hanging out with familiar trees.


We discovered a little stream that Eitan just became enthralled with. The thing is, he wouldn't let us hold his hand, and it was rocky and slippery and he almost fell like a million times, so I put the kibosh on the whole adventure and he FLIPPED OUT. Like the worst meltdown of his life. All he wanted was to go in the water, and not just that stream, the main pond in the front of the gardens, smaller little ponds scattered around, waterfalls, whatever. Of course, when we got home and it was time to take a bath he was having none of that, but wow, maybe we should start bathing him outdoors.

So even though our little outing was cut short due to a toddler freak out, it was still beautiful, and we recommend you make a visit. Plus there's a branch of the famous Caffit restaurant over there, so go for dinner and a walk on a breezy cool Jerusalem night? We might just have to go back and do that ourselves.


Of course, we didn't leave before Ami got up in the flowers to take some pictures.