Up up up aypaym

I am home. I had such a good time with Nana, Poppy, and David, but it was so nice to give my Abba a big hug when he met us at the airport. It was a long flight, but I was lucky and had an empty seat all to myself. I shared it with Elmo. I watched Dora, Diego, Clifford, and Curious George on the videos, and slept for over seven hours. Ima was impressed. I think that mean she had a booboo where I pressed on her for seven hours. Not sure.

Here I am in the Newark airport waiting for our flight to Tel Aviv. It was delayed an hour. I met another boy my age named Adiel, and we played with our toys and had races back and forth. We had fun and our Imas and Abba's got to chat too.

Eleven hours later, here is our aypaym. Ima took the picture after we walked off the plane and while we were waiting for my stroller and car seat. Our plane is the one attached to the building.

And here I am with my stroller and car seat, after my long nap! Abba, here I come!!!!

Next time we go to Merca, Ima and Abba said that I will have to get my own seat for real..... because I'll be a big boy then.

Last days in Merca

I went with Ima and Nana to Downtown Miami (where the signs all say DWNTWN -- hey, I'm trying to learn to read here!).We went on a train (the People Mover) and then went to the Historical Museum of South Florida. Here I am with an old cannon, playing in a real trolley from a long time ago, and playing my favorite game of "in" and "out." I put all the toy foods into the washbasin, got in, and then threw the toy foods out! FUN!!! Ok, I put two toy oranges in the cradle with the teddy bear, but the other foods in the washbasin.

When we got home, I said my first three word sentence that didn't have the same word repeated three times (like up up up aypaym!). I said "Mima, Ayyeh in." Which means Ima, Ariel wants to come into the room with you. Of course, Ima was in the bathroom, so Ayyeh didn't get in. No no no. I also say "Ayyeh" when I want to do something myself now. And I can repeat pretty much anything -- except balloon -- so my list of words is a bit outdated. I do say lots of new words and phrases on purpose though: wait, okay, in, on, out, off, hug, again, "baby cry," and eyyo (hello) are a few of my new favorites. I can also say "Diego" for "Go, Diego, Go."

Dayday, as you all should know by now if you've been reading my blog, is one of my favoritest people in the whole wide world. He lets me play outside with the hose! Here we are taking a break from spraying the hose on me, and then there's a picture of me IN the laundry basket taking water OUT of a big bowl. My favorite game meets water!


And here I am with Nana, Poppy, and Dayday just before leaving for the airport. Thank you for exhausting yourselves chasing me around. I had a blast! Come visit me soon!!!! I'll share my cookies.

"Bye bye. Hug. Mo hug. Ayyeh aypaym. Mima. Up up up. Home. Abba."

Bath?

My new favorite game is "IN." I like to go in things. Of course, sometimes I want to go "in" to the backyard, which is really "out," but everyone understands what I mean. I also like to go "in" the sink for a bath! I just fit (Nana's sink is Ariel-sized), and I can play with bubbles and spoons and measuring cups, and fling bubbles at the clean dishes (that's Nana's favorite part). Then I get all clean and no one's back hurts! It's a good thing.

After my bath I curl up on the couch in my pajamas. Sometimes I get to watch Sesame Street or Diego or Elmo's World. I think a toddler (or a toddler's frustrated parents?) might have invented "Cable On Demand." Because I say "ELMO" and there it is -- on demand!

Good night!

Sammy lets Ariel get closer!

My Nana says that Sammy isn't the brightest cat in the world. That's ok -- he LOVES me! And that makes him very very very smart. Ima even held Sammy on my lap so I could "hold" him! It was such fun!

This spoon is called a fork

When I want to eat ice cream or Cheerios, I ask for my "poom." But that's not what I really want. I want the one with the spikes. The one my Ima says is called a fork. That's ok, I'll still call it a spoon. And as long as I can get the ice cream (ok, the Tofutti) into my mouth, does it really matter if I use a fork?

Oh, and my tummy doesn't hurt anymore. I've stopped screaming incessantly. Ima and Nana figured out that I'm lactose intolerant. I drink special milk and take vanilla flavored "crackers" and then I can eat whatever I want. Yum.

Playtime!

Nana and Ima braved the Aventura Mall just to take me to this fun play area. Ok, they braved it at 1 p.m. when all the kids were in school and people were supposed to be at work, so it was sort of empty. I only had to share with a few kids, but they thought I spoke Spanish. I didn't, so I ignored them and went down the slides and played mostly by myself and with Nana and Ima. After about a half hour, Ima said I was "cooked" and so we left.




Then we went to the supermarket (again) and I got to ride in the supermarket car (again) and drive the cart (again). We go the supermarket a lot. I don't mind -- they give me balloons at the checkout, I get to look at balloons through the whole store (yes, the WHOLE store!). I scream "llyaum" "llyaum" (I sound Welsh) every time I see one. Ima asked me to say "ba" and I said "BA" and then she asked me to say "loon" and I said "yoon." She asked me over and over, and I said "ba" "yoon" "ba" "yoon." But then she said "Ariel, say balloon."

I said:

"llyaum"

In Florida!

I'm really enjoying my trip to Florida. Florida is in Merca. In Florida there are stores, tropical storms, toy cars, bristle blocks, cats who actually let me pet them, and my favorite person in the whole world: DAYDAY! Dayday is Uncle David. But I can't say David. I can only say Dayday. And I shout it -- all the time -- looking for "Dayday." Here I am with Dayday playing with my new BUS! I love my bus. It has three "men" - one driver, one boy, and one girl. But I call them all "men" and also use them to drive boats and cars made out of bristle blocks. Ima showed me how to do that. It's fun.

Here I am with Dayday at the Fishing Hall of Fame: And here we are pretending to catch fish in the children's room. It was also fun to steer the boat!
I've done other things in Florida too. Nana lets me play with playdough, and paint, and things. I like to paint pictures of "aypayms" -- both of my pictures here are of airplanes, if you can't tell (I made Ima write my name on one airplane picture in gold paint, because it was shiny). I like to point out the A in my name. I also like to mix paints to see what happens, which Nana says is ok because I'm learning things about the world and because the paints only cost a dollar. I don't know what a dollar is, but it must not be a lot! I have a lot of fun making messes -- and then Nana cleans me up in the kitchen sink, because I'm just too messy to go up the stairs to the bath!

I think I'm pretty good at painting, don't you? Maybe I'll be an artist one day!

Bubbie and Zayde Ser come to visit

My Abba isn't with us, but Bubbie and Zayde still came to visit! Here's Bubbie playing Bristle Blocks with me while I drink from my new Tigger cup.

And here we are making a block tower while Dayday watches!
And here I am spouting my wisdom -- showing Bubbie how I can make water come out of my cup by turning it upside down. I'm learning about gravity.
And here's Zayde on the phone with my Abba. I also like to talk on the phone to Abba. I say "eyyo" "eyyo" "ABBA!!!!!!!!!" and the mostly say "yeah" and "no" when Abba asks me things. Zayde said more than that!
Bubbie is really good at building Lincoln Log trains. She makes them and I throw them off the tracks. We're a good team!

Florida cats are different

I like cats. But cats usually don't like me so much. Except for Sammy Cat. Sammy Cat is Nana and Poppy's cat, and Sammy Cat LOVES me. He lets me pet him, make nice, play with his toes, give him hugs, and even lick his ears. Yeah, well, I wanted to know why he did it all the time! They felt funny on my mouth! He lets me kiss him on the nose and almost let me ride him a few times. I try to feed him crackers, apples, cheerios, my pacifier, and my milk. He only likes the milk.

Gizmo is the other cat. He pretty much keeps to himself... Nana says he's smart. I don't know what she's talking about!

I can fly a plane!

Nana was so happy to see me when I got off the aypaym with Ima. Ima was also happy to see her too, and to hand me over to someone else for a while! I don't know why -- I really only fussed a little on the plane, and I enjoyed my own seat on each flight. I even slept some. Abba was right though -- Ima packed way too much stuff in the carry on bags! Here we are in Nana's office downtown. We also went to the Main Library to get a bunch of books for me to read while we are here. I really like Airport and Goodnight Gorilla.
Just after we arrived, we went to Walmart to get a toy bus for me (and some other things, like socks, but they are kinda boring compared to a bus!). I decided to try to ride even though this toy was still in its box. I was a bit distraught when pulled off the toy, but then we found my bus, and I didn't mind so much!



In the house, I like to sit in funny places. I like the cat's bed, because it's soft and fuzzy. And besides, the cat usually isn't in it! I also like to sit on the stairs with my Nana. THe stairs are also soft and fuzzy because they have carpet. I like carpet. I ALSO like to sit in my Nana's special chair, with a blankie. This is my favorite place to drink milk and to watch cartoons.






You'd think I didn't have enough toys -- but I do. I also like to play with cans of cat food. Don't ask me to explain why!

In the supermarket, I can drive the cart. Why don't they have these in Israel? It was so much fun!

I went to the Discovery Museum with Ima and Nana. They have a special area just for tots (that's me), and also an airplane exhibit. That's me driving a car, playing with beads and flying a DC-9 (I think).

I also like to play Koo-Koo (peek a boo) with Nana and Poppy. There aren't any pictures of that though. Use your imagination. If you can't see me, it's peek a boo!