September 30, 2004
Brooke's Birthday and the Beach
Brooke is growing up very fast. She took her first steps a few days before her birthday. She is also outgrowing her car seat. Now we just have to figure out how to fit her new car seat into the car.
On the 28th, Brooke turned one year old! She really enjoyed her birthday. We piled her presents on the couch and she promptly climbed up onto the couch to get them. You can see her waving her birthday cards in the picture below.
I like presentsWe were worried about Brooke climbing around on the couch, because she has no fear of falling, so we moved the presents to the floor. Brooke was then able to open her birthday presents with a little help from Tiffany and Tyler.
Unwrapping presentsBrooke got two sets of Peek-a-blocks. They are clear blocks with moving pieces inside. She loves shaking them and knocking down towers that Scott builds out of them.
Brooke's Birthday BlocksAnother favorite toy she got for her birthday is a set of plastic fruit and vegetables. Each piece of food has a couple parts which can be velcroed together. You can then "cut" the food apart. Tyler loves cutting the food apart and Brooke loves putting the food in her mouth.
Yummy plastic foodOf course Brooke also got clothes, a book and a wooden puzzle for her birthday.
Her birthday would have been incomplete withoug a chocolate cupcake. This was Brooke's first substantial taste of chocolate.
Happy 1st Birthday, Brooke!Brooke didn't want to try the cupcake at first. We managed to get a piece in her mouth. After that, she decided that she liked it and kept eating it.
Brooke's first chocolate cupcake
We have had several holidays in the past month. Yom Kippur fell on a Sabbath, so we didn't go to church because the entire country shut down. There were no vehicles on the roads except emergency vehicles, and children played on the streets. Bicycling on the highways is a popular pastime on Yom Kippur. We had a short spiritual message adjusted to Tyler's attention span and had a relaxing Sabbath.
The next weekend was the start of Sukkot (Feast of the Tabernacles). People build little huts called Sukka and they eat their meals in them. You have to be able to see the stars through the roof, so they are covered with branches and leaves. It is to remind people of the children of Israel wandering in the desert. Tyler and his pre-school class built a Sukka and ate snacks in it. Our apartment building had two of them, but we didn't eat any meals in them.
Our English-speaking Israeli friends in our apartment building invited us to go to the beach with them one evening of the Sukkot holiday weekend. Brooke loved crawling on the sand. She barely ate any!
Brooke on the sand, not on the blanket!
Tyler loved playing in the sand. He played in the sand until it was too dark to see. However, he refused to go anywhere near the water. We then walked along the boardwalk with our friends and chased Tyler and his friend Amit.
Sand is funTyler seems to be left out of most of this update, so we thought we would talk about how he is doing at pre-school. He loves pre-school now. At the beginning of the new school year, he would refuse to go and burst into tears. He always had fun once he was there; his teachers would tell us that he stopped crying the instant we walked out the door. Now, he runs inside without saying goodbye.
Tyler's teachers now talk to him only in Hebrew. They tell us that he understands everything they say. However, he responds to them in English. We have noticed though, that more and more Hebrew words are slipping into his vocabulary. Our least favorite word sounds like "die" and it means "stop, that's enough." You can imagine what it sounds like when he is yelling at Brooke to leave his toys alone.
Tyler is a little confused as to why he goes to school. He mixed up our explanation of why Scott goes to work with our encouragement for him to have fun at school. He told Scott one day that he goes to school so that we can keep our car and home.
Tyler-isms:
"I like the chocolate squares." - The box of breakfast cereal had a picture of a chocolate bar on it. Tyler was very disappointed that squares of chocolate did not pour out of the cereal box.
"constructions" - assembly instructions
"stick lights" - street lamps
"You don't spill on your nose?" - After discussing why Scott and Tiffany don't use sippy cups.
"She can't talk yet, Daddy." - Confused why Scott was asking Brooke questions.
"We have to wait 'til the whole flamly's here." - When Tiffany sang "Happy Birthday" to Brooke before Scott got home from work.