Who needs a double stroller?

We leave for the airport in a few minutes, but before we go (and because, you know, I'm too excited/anxious to sleep) wanted to share this video of our latest Eitan-Shlomo adventures. 

Shlomo being the curious little fella climbed into the basket of our stroller and was just so happy chilling out there. I don't know if it's safe to take them out like this, but it's definitely fun to have them sit this way for a few pictures to torment them with later.

And a video...

Dead Sea Weekend

Typical family picture. Ami squinting, Eitan looking away, me smiling...

This weekend we had a little getaway to the Dead Sea. What's amazing is that it's only an hour or so drive from Jerusalem, but a different world entirely! Seriously- it's vacationland. It was about 15 degrees warmer then Jerusalem- averages were in the low 80's, there's beach and it's all hotels, and everyone just walks around the streets in hotel robes.

We came very early on Friday morning and we stayed at the Royal hotel- it was lovely. Even though check in is at 3pm, and we came at 11am, they apologized that the room wasn't ready! It was so sweet. They called a couple hours later when it was which was also nice. And because it's Israel, check out on Shabbat day wasn't until a bit after Havdallah. And all the food at meals was kosher, and they had a space for candle-lighting, wine and challah available. It was just really convenient. And really nice. The pool was lovely, the kiddie pool even had a tent for shade, they have a private beach, the room was fantastic.  Anyways, the food was surprisingly delicious. We kept being surprised that it was all delicious and not overly Jewishy like we'd expect from a Kosher hotel. There were obviously a few things that weren't great to remind us that we are in Israel, and not at the Fairmont Mayakoba (the ultimate standard of any hotel for us now, we're screwed...), including crappy terrace furniture, non-fluffy towels, some letters missing from signs around, etc.  But that's me nitpicking.

Kiddie Pool!

Friday we spent some time at the kiddie pool, went out for lunch, and had a dip in the lowest place on earth. We came back to the hotel with a few minutes to prepare for shabbat- which in vacationland means showering, and while trying to snap a picture, Eitan of course, threw his beloved car off the terrace. And he wouldn't let us forget it- he kept saying "dar" "dar" "dar". And being the Super Mom that I am I went into the parking lot in the bushes and found it! YES.

Shabbat day we had breakfast outside by the pool (so vacation-y), and relaxed at the pool. It was great. Eitan loved the pool, and was totally fearless! He would just turn around and crawl backwards into it- like he does to go down stairs and say "wawer", he acted like the whole thing was the kiddie pool. It was hilarious. And terrifying. And we have no pictures of it because it was Shabbat. But don't worry. Here's about a million pictures anyways.


Once shabbat ended and we checked out we caught a bus back to Jerusalem, and were home by 9:15pm. Fantastic weekend, and now we're all about getting ready for our trip home. With tiny tans to make us feel better about having up and moved to the Middle East.

Check out the hot bod behind Eitan

Love that chubby little hand over the bread basket!

Approaching the beach.

Ami floating.

 

Throwing sand

Mister Bigshot walking down the hall.

View from our terrace! 

Jumping up and down after finding the "dar"!!

On our way home. Ami's NOT squinting and Eitan is NOT looking away! 

Countdown is on!

In one week from today we're going home for Pesach! Could I be any more excited? No. Really. It's all I can think about.

Although the idea of one day of chag, with one seder and not flying across the world departing at 5am with a stopover in Europe, little monkey man in tow  is incredibly appealing, these are more:

5: New babies to cuddle who've been born since we arrived
4: Packages of online treasures that I've ordered that are waiting for us
3: Slices of oven fresh Nuthouse Pizza that we will each devour within our first hour in 20902
2: Sets of families and friends who we've been missing terribly
1: 61 inch flatscreen TV,  1 oven with actual numbers on the dial, 1 reunion with our car...so many 1s




So, as we approach the big day, I've had three songs stuck in my head, depending on the moment.






And





And today, particularly,







And last, but not least, because I can't hit "publish" on a post with out a picture without Eitan without recieving at least two angry phone calls (you know who you are people). A recent bit of Gymboree adventures. Spinny Rides!

Randoms of Late

Nothing that exciting has been going on here, but some snippets from what we've been up to, in pictures, words and video:

1. Pictures

Trying on Daddy's shoes...and falling down. This occupies Eitan endlessly.

Last week I actually asked Ami to turn the oven to "number 7 and the nuclear sign". Which I've learned thanks to many experiments and a trusty oven thermometer (amazing purchase) is really 350 degrees on the convection setting of the oven.

Still enjoying the beautiful pink tree outside our front window. It really is amazing. And little blue birds sometimes come hang out.

The Jerusalem Marathon was last Friday and the runners came right down Emek Refaim. It was terribly rainy and cold, but we did get out for a bit. A highlight was these two entertainers dancing around to motivate the runners, and I imagine also the soggy spectators.

I broke my waterbottle. It's been my second mate (to Eitan) this whole time, because Israeli tap water is so yucky, that I always bring my own Brita water. But apparently I just clean too hard, and disconnected a piece that should not be. Ami tried to fix it, but it's a no go. Will need to replace this bad boy when we go home...

2. Words

Our across the hall neighbor has an aide, who's name is Nina. She's Russian, and her Hebrew, well, it's even worse than mine (even though Ami overheard me on the phone for something yesterday and told me he was very impressed with my Hebrew. So that's nice). Every time she hears us going out the door she'll run to their door, and bring out some candy or chocolate to give to Eitan. I keep telling her no no, he doesn't need it, but literally, she shoves past me and hands it directly to him. WTF? So now I'm working on the art of leaving SO QUIETLY. It's not working. I swear she has her ear on the door. It's very sweet of her, I know, and she must be lonely with just her and the old lady around all day, but just say hi! I've told her, just come and say hi, no need for cake or candy. But she says all children need it. And when I try to take it away from Eitan when we get outside, well that's just mean and he freaks out...ideas? Any Russian speakers that want to come help us out?

3. Video

This is already an old video, from Purim a couple weeks ago, but I forgot about it. Bust-a-move Eitan. He only remembers to "dance" if you tell him to. Sweet boy.




Bust a Move Eitan from mimi rozmaryn on Vimeo.

A taste of Italy on Emek Refaim

Gelato!

Enjoying a warm few days, we had a hankering for some ice cream. To my dismay, most of the shops here haven't started stocking ice creams yet (I'm talking to YOU Big Apple pizza).

So we stopped at our local gelato stand. After trying (nearly) every flavor, I decided on one scoop of french vanilla and one of caramel. Ami wanted to try the whisky, but he was still meat from an earlier Shawarma, sucker!

Here's the best bite we captured.

Short story. He liked it.

Til next time...

Headlines

So...although you'd never know it walking the streets of Jerusalem, this country's been in an escalation with Gaza since Friday. I'm certainly not the most politically involved person here, even in this house (yes, Eitan is way more into the news then I am. I kid. But Ami is.), but going about routine in this city feels a bit off considering what's going on a couple hours south of here.

Long story short, with links to articles I've been reading; on Friday, Israel completed a targeted assassination of a bad guy who was not only involved with Gilad Shalit's capture, but also currently planning future attacks on Israel. As a retaliation, more bad guys in Gaza have been shooting rockets into Israel. Hundreds of them. Primarily these rockets have been headed towards Beer Sheva and Ashkelon. The good news is there's new technology called the Iron Dome which intercepts rockets, but it's not 100% effective.

School's been cancelled in those regions, which means parents have to stay home with their kids and life pretty much has got to suck big time there. Sirens warn 45 seconds before a rocket hits, leaving a few moments for people to get to shelter, that's a good start but 45 seconds? 45 seconds. It's nothing. Especially if you would need to grab a baby and get there. Or two babies. What do you do? There's a bomb shelter in the basement of our building, which is good if I wouldn't plan to go anywhere more then 45 seconds away from home. Which would suck big time because today we ran out of both milk and diapers.

There was a ceasefire brokered by Egypt, which seems to be a bit tenuous now. 

Okay, so that's a wrap up of what's going on. What's odd, really really strange, is it seems I am the only one around here somewhat consumed by it. People are going about their business as usual, and while I'm certainly not fluent in Hebrew, I haven't overheard one conversation in my daily outings about it.

I might be a bit more sensitive then the average Israeli who has been raised with rockets as a reality, but, I still can't grasp the normalcy of it all.

My sister travels to her army base through Beer Sheva, and I worried the whole Sunday morning until she texted that she was on her base. I'm not worried about her on the base, it's the to and fro that make me nervous. I'll probably go through the same stomachache on Thursday when she comes back here for Shabbat, even if everything is quiet until then.She told me about a girl that was supposed to join her team in the infirmary this week, nothing out of the ordinary, just someone new to the team, who lives in Ashkelon, and was too scared to leave her house to travel to the base and is official AWOL from the army despite everyone knows exactly where she is and why she's not on base and she's been in touch.  My brother lives in Tel Aviv, just a half hour drive from Ashkelon where rockets have been hitting as recently as this morning. Heck, I stayed in Ashkelon just a few weeks ago while on Birthright. This stuff freaks me out!

And then, I guess at the same time, I live my normal life here as well, but clouded with a bit of Jewish mom worry. I still am out and about (enjoying the beautiful spring weather), taking buses, sitting outside at sidewalk cafes, because, thankfully, nothing really feels different here in Jerusalem.  And since we got here, always walk by various memorials marking different bombings on our street and around town a bit anxiously, both thankful that we're able to walk on the street safely now, and proud of us for actually coming here this year to do it, but at the same time both aware and worried that this carefree-freedom can end.

So, one day at a time. Right? For now, trying to both embrace the Israeli spirit of continuing on, and not getting bogged down by what is really a reality, and at the same time, trying to keep myself here- checking the news sites to be informed, and to really really appreciate the people who are living in the middle of this all.

Spring is Here!

And not a minute too soon. It's almost like Purim came and said to the weather, hey, what's the deal? It's March, get with the program. And it's beautiful.

Mornings and evenings are still a bit chilly but the days are filled with lots of warm sunshine. It's delightful. Sure, it will probably rain a few more times (yay for rain, remember?), but the spring is for sure here and making its mark all over the city.

Including our front window.

Friday, March 2nd:

 Sunday, March 11th:

 

Wild, right?

And it's the same all over the city. In random traffic circles, corners and parks, flowers are in bloom and the grass is SO green (thanks to all that rain, I'd imagine!)

Here we saw a flower bomb in a traffic circle on our way home from the playground yesterday, I decided to pull over and let Eitan check it out for a few minutes.

 

 Spring, we are happy to have you! Please stick around for as long as you like!

Purim in Pictures

Because each is worth 1,000 words, right? Or maybe because I'm a little lazy tonight. You can decide...


Wednesday: Breaking the fast on homemade hamentaschen (even though it wasn't Jerusalem Purim yet)

Appreciation!

Tasting...

Loving!

Thursday: Purim in non-walled cities! Seudah at the Horn/Lawrences in Neve Daniel

Their grandparents also had Seudah together just a few thousand miles away.

Eitan refuses the defining elements of his costume. His costume was a  Texas Tuxedo, Daddy as a  sheriff.

Friday: Purim in walled cities! Seudah at the Maller's in Nachlaot.

Eitan gets conned into wearing his whole costume for 5 seconds! Sheriff and Cowgirl!

Only picture of the three of us. And no one's drunk here...believe it or not.  Poor Eitan. These are your parents...

Hamentaschen Hunting

Even likes the icky Israeli Hamentashen

As I mentioned in my last post, here in Israel hamentaschen are called auznei haman. It's weird. They're also not good. And I have done extensive research. Yesterday I went on a hunt for some good hamentaschen.

On Rosh Chodesh a couple of weeks ago I went to a bakery on our street to get some, and was surprised with the flavor options they had: hazelnut, date and poppy, weird, right? Where's the strawberry, apricot? Huh? So I got the hazelnut. They were eh. The cookie was hard and the inside also was like a triangle of this nut paste, not what we are used to. So I figured that was just a weird place- or that as Purim got closer, more options would emerge (it was like that with Sufganiot and Chanuka).

A week after that I stopped into Neeman (the chain, not the Emek Refaim one for those keeping track) and saw a couple more flavors; chocolate (getting better) and halvah which was a chocolate flavored cookie with halvah filling. Better, but still with hard cookies, and left me really wanting some fruit filling.

So yesterday I was optimistic. I went to the other Neeman, Marzipan and peeked around in other neighborhood shops. Not a fruit filling to be found. At Marzipan, the guy was actually shocked when I told him we get fruit fillings at home. It's like I was telling him we have pizza for dinner at the Seder.

 Here's the breakdown:

• Chain Neeman: Eh
• Bakery on the street that starts with a T that I can pronounce: Eh
• Emek Refaim: Okay, softer cookie, soft filling
• Marzipan: Delicious cookie, soft (!), more interesting fillings (still no fruit) but still not like home

  

Rosemary Hazelnut and Chocolate from Emek Neeman

Marshmallow Chocolate Chip from Marzipan

I was left with no choice, but to save Purim for our family and buck up and make my own.

I am not a baker really, and here, all the more so, with all of these delicious bakeries all over with tons of kosher dessert treats. And I don't have my kitchen stuff, no mixer, no rolling pin, no cookie sheet, and an oven that goes from "1-10" instead of displaying actual temperatures. Really. 

But I needed to provide for my family, and shoot man, I did. Ami's favorite hamentashen are cherry. I looked far and wide for cherry pie filling, and got some!  This is a particularly large challenge because Ami's mom makes the absolute best hamentashen- they're soft, perfectly shaped, just enough filling, and there's no way mine will be half as good in the best of circumstances. I mean, she's named after this holiday's heroine! Of course hers are the best. Given what I'm working with here, I'll take an A for effort. 

Here are some shots of how it all went down. We'll be chowing down on them at the end of the fast tonight.

Number 1 Assistant!

Rolling Pin Substitute

Batch Number 1

CLOSE UP! Cherry Goodness!

Purim Prep

Purim Madness has hit. It's really not at all as crazy as the week before Chanuka, but it's here nonetheless. Bakeries are filled with "auznei haman", haman's ears, such a weird name for a cookie- they're really hamentashen! Many stores have pre made mishloach manot for sale, and there are tons of pop up costume shops all over. Really, every store has turned into a costume shop.





Oh and the Shekel store! Well that place was an absolute madhouse last night- people were buying little bags for their mishloach manot, small candies and treats to fill them, and random stuff to make costumes out of. It was really mayhem! Like Target on black Friday. Don't worry, I got what I needed.


Stay tuned for updates on this crazy week of Purim outside Jerusalem (Thursday), Purim inside Jerusalem (Friday) and all of the costumes and fun that goes along with that.

Here's a preview of some of the sights around the neighborhood.

Purim Greetings out front of a local bakery

Even the Burger shop is in on it with a play on words

After I gave him a taste! This baby is too much!