Brunch with Mommies and Babies...

We had a brunch gathering with mommies and babies last Tuesday at Katharine's place. It was nice to see everyone again, most of whom just came back from their vacation. I enjoyed the food, especially the banana cake that Tiffani made...yummy! I took some pictures of the cute little ones...

Shiori and Enna-Marie

Shiori and Enna-Marie playing and sharing

Melody Yazdani

Enna-Marie and Naim reading a book with Mommy Carole

Salim Safajou

Nafis Aboonour

Enna-Marie meets Mr. Froggles

This evening a special friend came to see Enna-Marie. That she wasn't too pleased with his visit you can see in this video...

Dinner with the Stats Department

This weekend we invited the friends serving in Statistics to our home for dinner. It was nice to spend some time and enjoy some food together. Enna-Marie especially loved so many friends coming over and play with her. Highlight for her was the singing of songs together, and with Howard, Milena and daddy playing guitar :).

Enna-Marie, Faraz and Swee...

Riyad, Vanysha and Milena...

Mommy Menchie enjoying the evening, while Enna-Marie munching some cheerios...

Singing time, this is Howard singing for us...

Maarten also played some songs from Ruhi Book 5...

Group photo...

My first dancesteps...

Mommy plays this great CD "BeBop your Best" from Red Grammer for me all the time, and I love it so much that I can't help but dance to the music. OK, ok, its not real dancing yet, but at least I'm trying! :)

Our Little Explorer...

At eight-and-a-half months, Enna-Marie has turned into a little explorer. She now crawls through the living room with ease, and pulls herself up against the box, the table, the couch and the TV stand. Last weekend we started our baby-proofing efforts, but it seems we may need to have another round. It seems she's already hooked on the tv-series Friends... Everytime we watch an old episode, and the opening tune comes on, she turns her head towards the tv and is glued to the screen until the tune finishes! Afterwards, she' goes back to play or crawl. She also loves it when daddy plays guitar and sings, and as you can see in one of the video's, she's already practising herself! Well, she's actually saying the "ba-ba-ba-ba" which she just learned today.

What she doesn't like so much is the little toy car that winds up and then drives off the table. Every time it 'crashes' she gets scared and starts to cry... Or the little monkey in Baby Einstein... it has the same effect on her...

What she's practising now but hasn't mastered yet is standing unaided! She's halfway there, but will probably fall a few more times before she's mastered that skill!

In terms of food, she started eating cheerios and oatmeal cereals, mozarella cheese, and plain yogurt (this she really loves), apart from the regular meals mommy Mench prepares for her (carrot, sweet potatoe, white potatoe, squash, green bean, egg, chicken, turkey, rice cereal, banana, juices, etc.)...

Climbing up against the TV stand...

Hmmm.. which toy should I play with now?

AHHHH.. It's that baby-einstein monkey!!

Santana is back...

Santana has been back in Haifa for a week to arrange their shipment to Estonia, and finish up a few things after they left so suddenly at the beginning of the war. Last night we got together for dinner at May and Martijns' place. Sadly, that was also Santana's last night here in the Holy Land.
















Here's a beautiful family picture of Santana, Evelin and Rocco that we'd like to post here. They are now happily living in Estonia and we hope to visit them someday. We miss them so dearly. Last 17 August, Rocco had his first birthday...Happy Birthday Rocco! Wow, one year has passed so quickly! We remember bringing mommy Evelin with daddy Santana to the Rambam hospital here in Haifa, and afterwards he was born...!

My Friend Naim ...

This is my handsome friend Naim, he is turning 4 months old. He and his mom Carole visited us recently at home...it was nice playing with him. I even shared my book as he enjoys seeing different colors already.

Adieu to the Meetun's Family...

Our friends Nancy, Ramraj and baby Leah have left the World Centre and are going back to their beautiful home country Mauritius. Here are some photos of one afternoon get together at Minoo's place couple of weeks ago. Minoo by the way is expecting a baby, so cheers to another addition of babies to our community here.

New Hairdo...

Enna-Marie's hair is getting longer, Mommy Menchie tried to put some clips on her and here how she looks:

Trip to Rhodes Island (Greece)...

Sunday 13 August

After a short flight (only an hour and five minutes, just enough for a sandwich and a drink) we landed at Rhodes airport. After we collected our luggage and stroller for Enna-Marie we got on the bus that took us to Rodos Palace. Rhodes looks a bit like Israel, except that it is more mountainous and less Middle Eastern...

Our hotel room on the eleventh floor was quite nice, overlooking the swimming pool and with a view of the mountain. Since we arrived quite late in the afternoon the swimming pool was already closed by the time we were ready for a dip, and so we decided to try the pool at the Sofitel Capsis hotel next door. Not a great success though as it was very windy outside, and already quite cold. So we decided to wait until the next day for a more relaxing swim.

In the evening, we missed the belly dancing entertainment, but we were just on time for the disco dancing.

















Monday 14 August

This morning we took a taxi to the old town and had a wonderful time sightseeing (taxi costs 6 euros all over Ixia city, additional 1 euro if you call/request one). Rhodes old town looks a bit like Akko, except that it is much cleaner and much better maintained. Imagine if one day old Akko would look so pretty as well... We took lots of pictures, looked at different shops and enjoyed being tourists. We had a Mousaka and Gyros for lunch in the Rustico restaurant in the middle of the old town. Very nice atmosphere, and very good food!

In the afternoon we decided to just stay by the pool and relax. After Enna-Marie's first swim in the Medditerranean last week this was her first time in a pool. The water was of course a bit colder than in the sea, but after just a few objections she really enjoyed herself in the water.

In the evening, there was a show especially for the kids.































Tuesday 15 August

Today we joined an organized tour (a bus full of Israelis) to explore the east coast of the island. It was 38 degrees and so perhaps not the best day for such an outing, but we survived it, and also Enna-Marie did not seem to be too inconvenienced by it at all...

We started off at the valley of the butterflies. There is one kind of butterfly that is indigenous to Rhodes, and they're basically all in this valley. Apparently in the past people had complained that there were hardly any butterflies around, but that problem appears to have been resolved.

Afterwards, we drove to Lindos, a village half way down the island. Here we walked for just a bit in the narrow and crowded streets, bought a few souvenirs, and fled into a cafe to escape the scorching heat and enjoy a refreshing ice coffee... the best one we ever tasted!!

In the afternoon we visited an old fisherman village for lunch, got our feet wet at the beach, and ended the day visiting a ceramics factory where we bought few souvenirs to decorate our home.

We did go to the evening's entertainment although we were all exhausted from all day's trip, but we didn't stay long.

















































Wednesday 16 August

Today we decided to enjoy the hotel facilities, in particular the lobby area of the hotel, which was a wonderful playground for Enna-Marie - she made some new Greek friends Georgio and Georgina, and the swimming pool. We spent much of the afternoon just being lazy and just going in and out of the pool. We met a Dutch family (there were quite a lot of Dutch tourists in Rhodes esp. in our hotel). Late in the afternoon we visited Mrs. Ursula Muhlschlegel, the wife of the late Hand of the Cause of God Dr. Adelbert Muhlschlegel. The Muhlschlegels pioneered to Greece in the late 1970's and Mrs. Muhlschlegel has been living in Rhodes for the last twelve years or so. It was wonderful to see her, a very energetic, lively and hospitable lady, and also to meet a few friends who used to and are still pioneering in Rhodes, Vessal and Daniel Maani, and Bijan Rohani and his daughter Nura.

There was another cabaret-comedy show in the evening...the entertainers were Italians, it was just an okay show.






























The Food in the Hotel

What we consider to be one of the highlights of our trip was the delicious food in the hotel! A great variety of meats, fish, pastas, rice, salads, soups, fruits, pastries and desserts.