David had a conference - the Israeli Society for Neuroscience - so we all took off school and headed down to Eilat for 5 days. We went to Coral World and hung out by the pool. We were lucky enough to have a babysitter, since David’s host at the Weizmann was also at the conference with his teenage daughters. The girls had a great time and David enjoyed the conference very much. I, on the other hand, was pretty much in survival mode since we had to deal with a 3-day migraine (David), up in the night with a fever (Zoe) and a very messy and persistent bout of stomach flu (Naomi).

Categories: Kids

The drive was mostly uneventful, if long. The girls were mostly entertained by the DVD player. They still managed to ask about 500 times “Are we there yet?”, especially Zoë, who has acquired her Mom’s car sickness propensity. The drive through the desert was so beautiful!

Categories: Kids

The Department of Neurobiology went on a two day retreat, which involved one day full of talks from every unit (20 talks in total!) and a second day tour of the old city of Jerusalem. We stayed at a great hotel/kibbutz not far from Muli’s house. The tour of the old city was fascinating! This is a great group of scientists that I am learning about.

Categories: Dad

Tonight we had a very pleasant dinner at our neighbour’s house.  Daniel is here on a Fulbright fellowship. They have three very nice kids—Eveatar, Coloniet, and Talia—that the girls love to play with. Koti is expecting their fourth any day now (see we are not the only crazy people in the world :).

Categories: Kids

Well no day is really typical as there is always something to deal with–one sick kid or another, a bike wheel that has a flat (but that could be a post all on its own), an errand to run, etc. But on a typical day we all get up around 6:30, get breakfast on the table, which usually consists of cereal and milk. We try to make oatmeal sometimes, but who has the time really? The kids then get ready–dressed, brush hair, brush teeth, wash face, pack backpack with water and lunch (Abby and Zoë), which Mom or Dad has just finished making. Abby and Zoë can head out on their own around 7:40 since Abby has gotten a key to the gate. There are crossing guards and they can make their own way to school–a huge difference here: many kids, even in grade 1, walk by themselves to school! Miriam and Naomi need escorts. Miriam’s school is about a 15 minute walk and Naomi is about a 10 minute walk (each at the respective speeds of the child).

Once the kids are at school, Trudy heads off to ulpan from 8:15-12:45 and I go to work. Actually, I do some of my best work at the Aroma Cafe. I try to get a swim in during the day and am some times successful.

The kids meanwhile have lots of activities. Abby has school from 8:00-1:30 including Math, Hebrew, Gym, Art, English, and a weekly trip to a local farm on Monday. After school she has a number of different activities: Soccer, Lego, Ceramics, and Painting on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. After that she comes home and works with Yael (a teenager that is helping Abby with her Hebrew and sometimes babysits for us).

Zoë has two after school activities—Soccer and Ceramics. She goes to an afternoon program every day until 5:00 where she has other activities, gets help with her homework and plays lots of games.

Miriam spends the morning at the Gan and then in the afternoon has some other activities in the same building. She really enjoys colouring and seems to be picking up most of the Hebrew she needs to get by.

Naomi goes all day to the maon (pre-school) inside the same compound as our apartments. Her productive Hebrew is probably the best of all the kids. She knows most of her colours, produces simple sentences and loves to say “col-hacavod”, which is an idiom meaning “all the respect” and is commonly used where we might use “great job” or “excellent work”. She is supposed to nap for an hour or so, but she really does not want to…She gets fed several meals a day and seems to be enjoying the experience.

Pickup runs between 4:15 - 5:00 and goes all sorts of ways. Today I took the car and picked up Miriam, then Zoë, and then Miriam and I walked over to get Naomi. Other days, we try to walk, but its about an hour of moving kids from one place to another and we only have one stroller. After pickup we try to get them out to the playground for some fresh air, but they often end up watching 30-45 minutes of TV (at least it is in Hebrew!).

After dinner, we bathe them and get them into bed. On Monday and Wednesday, I don’t get dinner as I have Ulpan from 6:00 - 8:30! By 8:30 they are finally in bed and then Trudy and I do the dishes and get ready to start the entire day all over again tomorrow. Yes, it is as exhausting as it sounds!

Categories: Dad

Today I spent an hour at Miriam’s Gan (literally “garden”, but means kindergarten) helping plant some flowers and vegetables. Miriam was so excited and so cute about the whole thing. She drew some great pictures to put on the sign labeling her flowers. We also got to open the new library where she gets to take one book home every week. She is really enjoying her experience and I even caught her saying a few words in Hebrew.

Categories: Dad, Miri

Not wanting to be left out, I started an evening ulpan class twice a week from 6-8:30. I’ve had two classes so far and it is going very well. the teacher is still trying to figure out what people know and guage the level of the class. We are all making progress, at different rates, on our Hebrew.

Categories: Dad

Even though the summer is over and the weather is getting ‘cold’, we just can’t stop going to the beach. BTW, by cold, we mean a high of 29° C. We arrived late morning and stayed until after sunset, eating dinner in one of the restaurants on the beach. One of the strange things about the work week here in Israel is that there is only one day off for the weekend. Friday is becoming a second day off, but for now, the kids still have school for the morning. So, it just seems so strange at the end of a long day at the beach to think ‘tomorrow we go back to school!’. I’m sure we will get used to it by the time we are ready to leave. In the mean time, we still hope to make it to the beach a few more times.

Categories: Kids