Happy New Year, Israeli Style

Happy 2008 to all of our loyal readers out there! Some quick catching up before I get on to the wild New Year's celebration. On Friday, when I took Simon to school, we left Eli with Marcia and Simon wanted to know if Eli was going to go to the park with the feeding the ducks because Marcia had told him that he took Eli to Park Ra'anana to feed the ducks last week. She promised him that she would take him too one of these days and apparently he asked her if she knows how to drive and he said that she could drive my car to take him to the park. It's a really long walk and I don't think she'd want to do it with the double stroller, so we'll have to figure out a time when I can drive them at least one way.
We had Lauren and her friend Tova stay with us for Shabbos. I still feel like it's my year in Israel after high school so it was so weird to be the one hosting people who are here for the year! It was fun to have them and they did a lot of entertaining of Simon and Eli. Eli really appreciated Lauren acting like she could actually understand whatever he was saying. We went to the Nussbaums for lunch on Shabbos and when we came home, David worked his nap-time magic and actually got Simon to sleep so we all got a nice long nap until Shabbos was over. David drove Lauren and Tova back to Jerusalem and picked up Sheryl and Bill with the hopes of them coming here for a little bit before going to the airport, but there ended up not being time so he drove them straight to the airport. I was sad to not see them again, but they did send David home with a big bag of leftover groceries, so while that wasn't a great substitute, it was still nice.
Nothing too exciting happened on Sunday. I was trying to figure out how to entertain the kids in the late afternoon when Tali called to see if we wanted to meet them for an early dinner at La Trattoria. Of course we did, so off we went. We had a very nice dinner--Eli and Simon shared a big bowl of spaghetti and ate very nicely. Simon and Boaz had a few fights over the various cars they had brought with them, but for the most part they got along well. All 4 kids loved looking at the fish in the fishtank. David met us there and we all walked home together.
Yesterday morning David took Eli to Bettina's and I took Simon to school. On the way to Bettina's, David passed a rug store that was having a big sale and he bought Simon a rug that is a city with roads similar to one that he had in Boston. He left it at Bettina's and told me to give it to Simon when we go pick up Eli. When I picked up Simon at school we had the following conversation:
me: There is a surprise for you at Bettina's.
Simon: what is it?
me: something that Dad left for you there.
Simon: is it Eli?
me: no! it's something for your cars...
Simon: is it a road?
me: that's right!
Simon (in a sing-songy voice): I guessed it! na na banana!!
I asked him where he learned that na na banana (pronounced the Hebrew way by the way) and he said "from that girl who lives in 3" meaning the girl who lives across the hall from us whose name he couldn't remember.
Last night, I went to school (how terrible to have school on New Year's Eve??) and then met up with David and 4 other couples at a bizarre place in Tel Aviv. It was meant to be a karaoke bar/restaurant, but only the waitresses were allowed to sing for some reason and they mostly sang Hebrew songs. They also had 2 big movie screens at either end of the restaurant that mostly showed what was basically soft core porn. It was so weird!! Also, we were the youngest people in the place by far which made it all even weirder. We had fun regardless! We gave David and Debbie a ride home, but we almost were all stuck in Tel Aviv because we couldn't figure out how to get into the parking lot where I had parked. We walked around in circles for a little bit and then I went into a convenience store to ask how to get into the garage. I asked the check-out girl who actually I'm pretty sure was a man given her voice and she helped us out. We got home at 1am and then David had to drive the babysitter (very hard to get a babysitter for New Year's Eve despite the fact that so few people celebrate it here, so we had the sister of someone who David works with) back home to Holon which is 30 minutes away!
The kids didn't seem to care that we had such a late night and they woke up at 7. When Simon and I picked up Eli, Bettina informed us that he had a terrible day. He was really crabby and cried at everything and kept hitting everyone. She thought that he wasn't feeling well and maybe had an ear infection because he also wouldn't eat anything. He definitely wasn't acting himself, so I thought it would be a good idea to take him to the doctor. Of course we don't have a doctor here and we still only have our tourist insurance which doesn't have any pediatricians in Ra'anana. Rather than drive far to go to some random pediatrician who takes our insurance, I called my friend Abby's dad who is a pediatrician. It was 2pm and he said he had to leave at 2:30 so could I come right then. I anticipated Simon slowing me down, so I said to Simon "we have to go take Eli to the doctor right now and we are in a big rush. I need you to hurry up and be a good boy...if you do, I will give you this (and then I held it up) entire huge box of Mike and Ike's." His eyes lit up and he readily agreed. Poor kid ate Mike and Ike's for lunch (and he noted that they were just like what Danya had when she was here only there were way more in the box), but he was very good and cooperative. Eli did not appreciate being seen by the doctor and it turned out that he doesn't have an ear infection. However, I'm glad we went because he had slammed his finger in the cabinet door on Saturday night and I knew it was hurting him but I thought it was getting better, but it turned out that it is infected. Dr. Goldberg did something to let out some of the pus and he prescribed an ointment for it. He said letting out the pus should make it feel much better and Eli did seem in a better mood after that.
We only had about an hour before Simon's Hebrew class, so we went to the park for a bit. The kids had fun and Simon taught Eli how to go down the slide. Then Eli literally spent 30 minutes going up the stairs and down the slide and then up the stairs and down the slide, etc etc. He was actually walking up the stairs holding on to the railing which is a new thing for him instead of crawling up the stairs.
We took Simon to Audrey's and she greeting him with "mah shlomcha? (how are you)" and he immediately responded with "b'seder (fine)" with a great Israeli accent! Eli and I hung out at home and played until it was time to pick up Simon and then we came home and I made the kids hot dogs for dinner. Simon hadn't really eaten anything since his snack at Gan, so he literally inhaled 2 hot dogs in about 30 seconds!
Eli's day continued to get worse as he slammed his head into the corner of a kitchen cabinet (he's got to stay out of the kitchen). He did one of those cries where he held his breath for so long at first that I really thought he was going to pass out. He did fall into my arms a little bit limply once he stopped holding his breath and I got really scared so I hung up on Sarah (and freaked her out, I think) and took Eli across the hall to the neighbors, my thought process being that if Katie thought something was wrong with him she could also tell me where the emergency room is! She took him from me and he burst into tears which I took as a good sign and it also made all the color come back to his face. Then she asked him if he wanted chocolate and he broke out a big smile and held out his hand, so clearly he was fine. I think he just scared himself. I had totally run out on Simon when I went next door so after a couple of minutes I heard him saying "Mom? Mooom? Where are you?" He found me pretty quickly and we all hung out at the neighbors for a little bit and then when we got home David was already here. He said he knew where we were because he heard lots of English coming from the neighbors apartment. Eli was fully recovered and the boys had a fun bath and then played a little and went to bed.
Hopefully Eli will have a better day tomorrow. He'll probably be happy because his girlfriend Marcia is coming in the afternoon.
One thing I forgot--when we got home last night, I went to give the boys kisses and Simon woke up and asked me to lie down with him for a minute. I did and the shadows in the room made it look like he was making a sad face so I asked him why he was making a sad face and he said "I'm not. I always have that face when I am sleeping." Then I told him that I love him and he's very special and he said "is Eli special too?" I wasn't sure what answer he was looking for so I said that Eli is special too. Then he said "ok, goodnight, you can go now."
Last comment for tonight--there's an Israeli girl in Simon's gan named Agam who doesn't speak English. Her mother told me that she has a doll named Simon. Every night she tells "Simon" a story and in the middle of the story she stops and says "Simon! shev yafeh...sit nicely!" So clearly she is getting that straight from Frieda, but at least she is learning some English! Apparently another girl, Talia, learned to say "no no no!" from Simon. I'm glad he's sharing his knowledge with his friends.