"Read it Properly"

I think I'm 2 weeks behind in posting--sorry!! 2 Shabboses ago, we went to Jerusalem. We had dinner at Eliav and Dina's--the food was great but the children were NOT very well behaved. Simon was so tired and spent the whole time saying that he wanted to go home and go to bed. Eli was a little bit better, but he was also way overtired. Simon had walked the whole way to Eliav and Dina's pushing Eli in a little umbrella stroller. Of course, the way home that was totally uphill, he didn't walk at all. We were staying at the Osbands' apartment and Simon really wanted to sleep on a bunkbed. I put Eli to bed in the other room and then told Simon that he could sleep on the bunk bed but he had to sleep on the bottom because I was afraid he'd fall off the top. He sighed and said "well if I can't sleep on the top, then I guess I should just sleep in the room with Eli." When we got up in the morning, we walked to Yemin Moshe where Judah and Karen were staying. We hung out there and then Eliav and Dina came for lunch. Simon and his girlfriend Ayelet played very nicely together. And Eli only hit Ami a couple of times. Mostly he liked going up to him and saying "baby!" In the afternoon, we went to Gan HaPa'amon and met my friend Debra from school and her husband and 2 kids. Too bad our kids didn't express much interest in each other because they are around the same ages and probably would have had fun together--next time, hopefully!!
On Sunday, I told Simon that I was going to pick him up early from gan because we were going to the dentist. I was expecting a fight about that, but he was ok with it. We were both getting our teeth looked at by the dentist who is also our friend Benjamin. Simon wanted me to go first--I needed x-rays because I have the worst teeth ever, so Simon got to be the helper and press the button to take the pictures. He thought it was cool and I think he was even a little disappointed that he didn't need pictures taken of his teeth. He sat very nicely in the chair and let Benjamin look at all of his teeth. I did have to give him my sunglasses to wear because he didn't like the light in his eyes when the chair went back. I used to have to do the same thing when I was little! Truth is, it still makes my eyes water, and dentists (as well as eyebrow-waxers) tend to think that they are making me cry, but really, it's just the light. Simon has good teeth and has to go back in a few months to get them cleaned. He got to pick out a present for being so good. Of course he insisted that he needed something "for Eli" too. He picked a deck of cards for Eli.
I don't really remember the rest of the week...this past Shabbos we went to Beit Shemesh for our cousin Ami's Bar-Mitzvah. We stayed with Ilana (my friend from high school who I hadn't seen in years until this year) and the boys hit it off with her 4 kids. We did lots of walking to and from the shul and Dodi and Marc's house for the various parts of the Bar Mitzvah but it was very nice and we had a great time. Eli woke up at 5:30am on Shabbat which I think is a record for him. It made for an exhausting day, but I eventually got a nap for a little while in the afternoon. Simon had a bit of a tough time in shul because he kept getting beaten up by a 2 year old! After lunch, I left with Eli and Simon waited for David to daven mincha first. Simon didn't want to leave because he and some of his cousins were setting up a bowling game with some empty bottles of soda. Simon was helping to collect the bottles and one kid asked him for one and he said, very importantly, "no, we need this for the bowling." Then he paused for a second, clearly feeling bad that he said no, and said "you can play the bowling with us if you want."
Last night, David was reading a book to Simon and he was purposely saying some of the words wrong. Simon stopped him and said "no, read it properly, Dad." We'd never heard him use that word before!
Also, now that we've finally started to use Skype, Simon is very into it and always wants to call people. This afternoon we talked to Ducky and Papu, but while we were waiting for them to sign on, Simon was playing around with the computer and he found the part on Skype where you can click on a flag to tell it what country you want to call someone in. He said "let's call someone in Israel" and started to look for the Israel flag. As he was scrolling down, he stopped right at Brazil and said "oh, that is Marcia's flag. Let's call Marcia!" This was just a couple of minutes before she got here, so when she did get here, he immediately asked her "do you have Skype so I can call you?"
Ok, that brings us up to date for now. I have 10 million things to do between now and 2:30am on Weds night/Thurs morning when we are being picked up to go to the airport for our trip to NY/NJ/Boston/Florida so I may not post until we get there. Wish us luck on the flights...oh, I should mention that Simon threw up tonight. Please pray for my sake that he isn't sick because that's really just what I need!!! He was eating something when it happened, so we're hoping that he just choked on it a little bit. He said he didn't choke, but I think he might have said that because he thought he'd get in trouble for choking. He knows that choking is a "bad thing" but I think he doesn't differentiate between that kind of "bad thing" and the kind of "bad things" that get you in trouble like hitting.
As long as this post is fairly random, here are some more random words that Eli says:
-not nice
-flower
-flag (which doesn't sound AT ALL like flag, but he gets very excited whenever he sees a flag)
-airplane (if you ask him what an airplane does, he makes a flying motion with his hand and says "wsssssh.")
-heart
-belly
-tushy
-Simon (finally!! like flag, it doesn't actually sound like he's saying Simon, but in context you get that he is)
-backpack
-bo-ee (means "come here" in Hebrew--don't know where he picked that one up)
-bite...no, no, no (this is usually followed by trying to bite and then laughing)
-when he wants to be picked up, he says "up-a" and lifts up his arms and opens and closes his fingers in a very cute way
-sometimes when he drops something he says "oop-la"