June 30, 2005
The Dentist and the Concert
We noticed that we were suddenly hearing a lot more pigeon noises on one of our balconies, so we went out to investigate. We found two baby pigeons. We always knew when feeding time was because the babies would start screeching. The babies just learned to fly so they no longer live on our balcony.
Baby pigeonsTiffany had another dentist appointment in Herzliya to fix a cavity, so we arranged to have Tyler's first dentist appointment at the same time. He was a little scared, so Scott had to hold him on his lap for much of the appointment.
Tyler's first dentist appointment
The dental hygienist was great with Tyler. She had this fun puppet to help Tyler learn how to brush his teeth. She also made the kids balloons out of latex gloves.
Practicing brushingBrooke felt like she was missing out on all the attention that Tyler was getting, so she insisted on sitting in the dentist's chair too.
Brooke wanted a turnHere Dr. Baron is checking Tyler's teeth. Dr. Baron is an American living here in Israel, so it is nice that we have a doctor that speaks English fluently. He also gives great restaurant recommendations.
Getting checked outWhile Tiffany was getting her cavity filled, Scott took Brooke and Tyler to a nearby playground. Of course Brooke wanted to do everything her older brother did, so Scott helped her climb to the top so she could go down this big slide.
I want to slide tooHere is Brooke on her favorite piece of playground equipment. Every park here has at least one rocking animal. Brooke is an expert at climbing up, rocking and then climbing down.
Giddyup horseyOn June 29th, we got to go on a real date. Scott had gotten free tickets to a music festival, the Orange Music Experience. We got a baby sitter (the same one who let Tyler eat as much chocolate as he wanted, but this time with rules about the amount of candy to be consumed) and we went out for the night.
The event was down at Haifa port, right next to the container ships and cranes. They used shipping containers to set up the areas for the performances and concession area. We had a great view of Haifa, which was neat, because we are used to our view looking down to the port and the Mediterranean. They had even covered one area near the water with sand so it looked like a beach.
The festival was sponsored by our cell phone provider, Orange, so we got extra benefits in addition to the free tickets. By sending an SMS to a special number, we got a free gift, a backpack.
They also had good food; we especially enjoyed our chocolate souffles. Unfortunately, they weren't included with our tickets.
The music started out a little weird with an instrumental band from England and then a folk singer also from England, Emiliana Torrini. Emiliana had a song in one of the Lord of the Rings movies, but her performance at the festival was pretty strange. During the show, we sent SMS messages to another special number and the message would scroll by on a video screen.
The band we enjoyed most was Bjorn Again. They look, sound and perform like ABBA. They sing only ABBA songs, so it's was great to hear familiar songs. It was really fun.
The headline act of the evening was Earth, Wind and Fire. We enjoyed it, but by this time it was about midnight and we were exhausted, so we went home. On the way back to the car, outside the port, there were vendors selling cotton candy, so we had to have some for the way home.
Two days later we watched through our telescope while the crews cleaned up the site and moved the shipping containers back into place.
Tyler-isms:
"My foot is out of gas, so I can't hop." - We aren't sure why it was so important to hop.
Brooke-isms:
"Nana" - Banana
"Up" - when she wants to be picked up.
"Down" - when she wants to be put down.
"Blankie" - Yes, she has a favorite blanket.