general cuteness that should be posted...

 
 

babysitter tales....

so as long as mikael was on his little playmat, and i was with him..all was good. even if all i was doing was snapping pictures...he was happy. then when i moved to the couch, and he stayed on the playmat...all was still good. he entertained himself with all kinds of fun toys that make noise and rattle and he occasionally spun himself around to sit up. the problems arose this afternoon when for a quick second, i airlifted him to join me on the couch. we bonded for a moment..and then, silly me, I thought i would put him back on the playmat where he would go back to entertaining himself. HA! he had a taste of the good life, high up on the couch, with someone whos sole purpose, apparently, was to entertain him. so for the next 45 minutes...entertain i did. until finally, to the tune of twinkle twinkle little star, he peacefully fell asleep.

 
 
 
 

Reading is Fundamental...and cute.

 
 
 

daddy O.

kid playing on dad...what could be better...for both kid and dad. opher actually read in his new book about how monkeys rear children that while the mothers role is that of nurterer the fathers role in a kids life is that of play. he might have made this up..since neither Liya and I are reading the book with him..but it all sounds ok so we went with it.

 
 
 

family time

with mike in serbia montenegro for a few days i drove to tel aviv to spend time with the O. Donchin Family. a few nice days at home, while O Donchin and L. Kallir Donchin ran around and kept themselves busy being parents and mature adults. I did 4 loads of laundry, got manicure and pedicure, and babysat Mikael. quite fun actually...since he was 'under the weather' so they say, besides baby gym class we didnt venture out in the two days i was there...so he modeled all kinds of 'im to cute for words' sweat suites and pyjamas and did his usual baby thing.

 
 
 
 

baby gym class!

 
 
 
 

Uri buri

One of the main reasons to go to Acco was to have dinner at Uri Buri, a fish restaurant with some really excellent food. Mikael had already had his solid food for the day, so he had to watch us eat. At first we put him in a high chair. That was a first for him. A questionable prize awarded for his new found sitting abilities. As you can see in the pictures, he can sit quite nicely in the high chair and even seemed to enjoy it for a while. However, after a while he got tired. It took us a long time to get him to sleep, but that actually made the meal a more leisurely affair and we got to spend a lot of time enjoying each course. Finally, he did fall asleep on me, which is always so nice.

Acco

We took Maarten up to see the North. We started the trip with a Friday evening walking around Acco.

Food!

Mikael ate real food for the first time today. He's been ready for a while, we think, but Liya was waiting until I got back from the US, and then we were waiting until we got organized with organic vegetable deliveries. Now, we are signed up for a weekly crateful of vegetables straight from the organic farm. This week, we got carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, but also anona and clementines, and kolrabi. It's actually a lot of fun. Anyway, Liya and I were going to cook up some carrots and mash them in order to feed Mikael after Liya got done with work. Unfortunately, even before we got home, I was eating a guava and Mikael just sort of grabbed it and started sucking on it. I felt very bad about leaving Liya out of the 'first food' party -- and I felt even worse after he spit up guava smelling goop, but it was all completely unintentional. After Liya got home, we steamed up some carrots and then mashed them, and he seemed very happy to eat them. To us, it seems like a big first.

The new cot

Mikael has a sort of love-hate relationship with the new folding cot I bought in the US. Basically, for short periods of times he loves it, but if he's in there too long, he hates it. It's great for naps during the day, though. Here he is demonstrating his ability to sit up (especially if he can grab something for support) and playing with the hanging elephants that come with the new cot.

Maarten Frens

My friend Maarten Frens from Utrecht in the Netherlands came to visit for some work and some weekend. He has two daughters (9 and 11) and is great with Mikael. It's funny to look at who Mikael is really comfortable with and what sorts of aspects of people he really connects to.

First steps class

'First steps' is a class that Liya and Mikael have been taking together where they learn about movement and balance and sensation and all kinds of exciting new possibilities the world has to offer. Liya says that it's a lot of fun, and I should definitely go visit sometime. She also says that Mikael is the star of the whole class. They call him, she says, 'the prince.'