Busy toddler

Our toddler at two years and two months old has so much energy, that each day we have to channel it in some new way. She does a variety of stuff during the day (reading, coloring, painting, stickering, playing with her toys, watching either an Israeli children’s programme or her favorite English/Dutch ones, strolling outside with mommy, etc.). As she is developing, growing and becoming so talkative, getting heavier, taller and smarter, mommy realizes that she has to be more creative for her toddler’s daily activities. She will soon start doing a class with her at home making crafts and doing some projects together. But for now, please see how busy Enna-Marie is these days from the following photos…

still loves wearing mommy's boots

and loves playing this as well...

helping daddy making pancakes

playing cars on an alphabet slide

rolling...

drinking some milk

playing cars again...

busy coloring

choosing which color to use

crossing...

climbing...

and she made it at the top...!

reading...


water coloring...

sorting mama and baby pencils of similar colors

Lunch date with Auntie Vanysha

I want to spend more time these days with my dear auntie 'Nysha' as her term of service here is finishing soon. Here's a photo of the two of us when we met in Ben Gurion street one Friday late morning.

then we went to the mall to have some lunch...lekker!

with mama, papa and auntie 'Nysha'

Sing-a-long with papa

Enna-Marie loves to sing. She usually sings during play time and sometimes when she's in bed trying to sleep. Currently her favorite songs are 'Old McDonald Has a Farm', the 'Alphabet song A-B-C', 'I take a bath in water' (one of the nursery rhymes we sing in Mother Goose), and prayers like 'O God, Guide Me' and 'Blessed Is the Spot'. Lately Mama started teaching her the songs 'We are the People of Baha', 'I Love You and You Love Me together we will be' and 'Toko Zani'. Here are few photos of her during a sing-a-long session with papa before she went to bed.

Maarten's Birthday

Moms gathering with Tricia Hanson

We had a great time listening to Tricia Hanson's talk about the topic 'soothing your child' during a mom's gathering held at home yesterday. Will share some notes on this later...meantime here's our group photo (L-R: Menchie & EM, Tricia, Selvi & Lillian, Parvaneh & Melody, Canan & Elfida).

feathers in the sky

Arts & Crafts Show 2008

We put some art works at the recent Arts & Crafts show. At this annual event, the friends have the opportunity to share their artistic talents with the rest of the community in a spirit of encouragement and appreciation for each others work. Here are some pictures of the pieces we put in and a few others that we took photos as well, including the Rose Garden class selected crafts and photos of Enna-Marie with her friends...enjoy!

Office dinner & Wii games...

after dinner, we played some wii games that Karina brought

and everyone was just having fun

even our dear Enna-Marie tried to win a game

getting so serious

this is everyone

us with Maarten's officemates

sitting L-R: Vanysha, Howard & Maarten; standing L-R: Payman & Riyad

Karina & Martijn work together in the same office

fifth year wedding anniversary

Yesterday, we celebrated our fifth year wedding anniversary at Tatami restaurant with our dear daughter Enna-Marie. It still feels like we got married not too long ago, but five years indeed have passed. We hope the next five years will be as happy and joyful as the first :-)! We took couple of family pictures when we got home as a memento of this special day.

two cuties at the lunch room

a two years and a month old toddler and almost a six months old baby...





one of her cutest pictures...so beautiful little girl!

Welcome back Ariana & Tara...

Auntie Farzana and Ariana as well as Auntie Sieni and Tara just got back recently from their vacation (India and Samoa respectively) and so at Mother Goose last week, we gathered, sang together and enjoyed each other's company. Later Tara and Enna-Marie found a huge empty box of a toy and decided to sit and play there.

playing pomelo...

hmmm interesting toys...I want to play with these...

catch mama...

...and here's one more...

but these really smell good...!

Weekend breakfast at Franco & Rhea's place

Winter gear...

Here's how Enna-Marie looks at this cold winter time...(this was taken at the playground in Merkas this weekend, it was sooo windy that morning that we only stayed for 15 minutes)...

My baby doll...

EM: "Hi...I'd like to introduce to you my baby doll, I named her 'Baby'".

EM: "Look baby...there are birds and flowers outside". (NOTE: she really said these words when this photo was taken...)