Visiting with Saba and Savta

Maya cuddles talks with Saba Dov.

Nahum is working at the Technion in Haifa yesterday and today so the kids and I are without a car. (We're staying in an apartment in Kfar Saba, the village Nahum's parents live.) We spent a lot of yesterday walking around and playing at different playgrounds (they're plentiful here as are walking paths between streets). Today Dov and Lea came to visit us in the morning after we spent the non-sunburning hours at the closest park. The kids love showing off for Saba and Savta. Maya takes the cake with her goofy grins and playful cuddles but Elijah did melt Savta's heart with his kisses (one for each cheek) and big hug greeting. It was to hard to get a good picture of them all together but I did get a few with Maya and her Israeli grandparents.

I also let them watch a little tv this morning. Maya doesn't let me get away with much as she gets bored after 5-10 minutes and I have to be a responsible parent again. (The tv in the apartment doesn't have a dvd player attached and I didn't bring the cables to attach our portable player so the kids watch on the little tiny screen.)

Dov took a few pictures of us at his pool earlier this week. My phone is my camera so it's a little tricky to use for an 86-year-old. Still, I think we have a few good shots showing Elijah actually "swimming." It looks more like barely not drowning but we're all quite proud of him and he thinks he's amazing. (Shayna and Elijah took a week long swim class at the Blacksburg pool two weeks before coming to Israel.) None of them want to wear water wings as Shayna wants to be able to dive under water, Elijah just wants to be under his own power and Maya feels the same from her perch on the steps.

While Shayna is in the center of these pictures, the series depicts Elijah's new skills as he dives off the wall and swims around Shayna to the steps.

 On the left, Shayna spends time underwater without holding her nose, one of the few bad things she learned from watching Curious George. I outlawed it starting with the swim class and she proudly rose to the challenge. On the right, Shayna swims from the wall to Nahum and Elijah swims from the stair's pole to the wall while Maya climbs on the stairs.

 Maya bobs in the water on her steps.

 This is as close as we've gotten recently to getting all five of us in one pictures.

I have been practicing my Hebrew as much as I can. It takes a lot of bravery I don't usually have since I'm guaranteed to always get something wrong. Maya is starting to recognize a lot of words and even says some things in hebrew, like cat, fish, moon, and water. It's fun how quickly she picks things up; though, I hope my butchering the language regularly won't cause too many problems later on.

I'll close with this video of Shayna's and my new teeter totter trick: the teeter-totter balance beam. She and I can both make it across regularly; thought it's still a tricky trick.