סיפור טרי מהבוקר - התמונה שלא צילמנו

A fresh story from this morning: the unphotographed picture

אתמול התארחו אצלינו דונחין מבשרת - תמונות יופיעו כאן בעתיד.

הם השאירו אחריהם תבנית מלאה עוף טעים מאוד שמילכה הכינה.

לעופר אין אלוהים כשזזה מגיע לעוף. לארוחת בוקר, בעוד אני מאכילה אותי ואת מיכאל בקורנפלקס מלא עם חלב עיזים אורגני, התיישב עופר לידינו עם פולקע עוף מטפטף וריחני. מיכאל מיד דחף את קערת הברנפלקס וביקש עוף כמו לאבא. אנחנו זורמים עם הילד והיגשנו גם למיכאל פולקע עוף מטפטף וריחני. שניהם יושבים ואוכלים עם הידיים. עד שמיכאל נזכר פתאום שיש לו קקי. קקי אומר לרוץ לסיר ב30 שניות הקרובות.

אז אפ על הידיים בריצה לסיר, תוך כדי השתדלות לא להלחיץ את הילד.

ומכאן אתם יכולים לדמיין את התמונה, שלא צולמה, של מיכאל יושב מרוצה על הסיר , במכנסיים מופשלות ובידו פולקע עוף מטפטף וטעים .

Yesterday, the Mevasseret Donchin's came for dinner (we'll have pictures 'real soon'). They left behind a whole baking pan of very excellent chicken that Milka made. Now, Opher has no god when it comes to Chicken. For breakfast, while me and Mikael are eating whole wheat bran flakes with organic goat milk, Opher comes and sits next to us with a chicken drumstick dripping juices and quite odorful. Mikael, of course, immediately pushed the bran flakes away and asked for chicken like Daddy's. Since we do our best to go with the flow, we gave Mikael his own drum stick, dripping juices and odorful. Father and son sit at breakfast eating chicken with their hands, until Mikael suddenly remembers that he needs to go to the toilet. That means we need to run to the potty within 30 seconds, and so you can imagine the picture, that I didn't take. Mikael sitting on his little potty pot, happy as a clam, with his pants around his knees and a tasty, dripping drumstick in his hands.

Mommy

Today, definitely for the first time and without any question, Mikael said 'Mom.' He said it clearly and distinctly and appropriately on four different occasions throughout the day. I'm sure everyone understands how much we've been waiting for this moment. We were certain it would come before puberty, but we were starting to be a little worried.

Succesful night weaning

It may be a little early to crown this as a success, but Mikael is being night-weaned. Liya and I have changed places on the bed, and when he wakes up in the middle of the night, I'm the one who has to go to him (if we're still up) or wake up and comfort him (sometimes with a little bit of a nudge from Liya). The truth is that it's been much smoother than we thought it would be, and the nights have been fairly quiet. During the day, he's much more focused on Liya and a little more dependent than he was, but even that seems like it will work itself out in short order.

Mikael's shadow

Mikael discovered his shadow today! Liat sent Liya an SMS congratulating us on our two year anniversary. Lucky thing because Liya and I had both forgotten. So, we went out for sandwhiches and ice cream and on the way home from the ice cream store, Mikael wanted to walk. All of a sudden, he stopped. And then he walked a little more, and then stopped again. Liya figured out what he was doing. The bright lights on the boulevard made for very strong shadows, and he was really fascinated by the funny black shape that went everywhere he did. He spent some more time playing with it, until he suddenly noticed the playground and went to climb the slide.

Swim class

Mikael's first official swim class was this morning. Smadar, the teacher, is seen helping him swim towards the ball in the video. We're only allowed to have one parent in the pool at a time, so I was in the pool mostly this time. I think it should be my turn all the time, but Liya (reasonably) thinks we should take turns.

We're very excited about swim class, actually.

Kids! Do not try this at home!

There are a few pieces of advice that you find quite consistently on all the internet sites that talk about kids and bike safety:

1) Don't start before the child is one year old

2) Always use a child seat. Never have a kid on a bike in a backpack.

3) Always use a helmet.

We're planning to be good about this, really. We just bought a new (used) bike and they didn't have bike seats in the store and we're going to get bike seats and a helmet on Sunday. In the meantime, though, we wanted to go to our first swim class this morning and we decided to try Mikael out on the Brompton with the Ergo sling. It was great actually. We even got support from Maarten Frens who lives in Holland where they know everything about bicycles.

Anyway, this totally non-educational video is too much fun to waste.

Trip north: standing

Mikael has been beginning to stand on his own for brief seconds here and there. He was practicing by the swimming pool and we caught it with the camera. What you see are 'before' and 'after' pictures where the key issue is the location of the right arm: using Liya's leg for support of standing and waving it in the air completely on his own two feet.

 

 

Bimba

Now that Mikael has started walking around it's time for him to have something to help him keep his balance. Here in Israel, one version of this is called a 'bimba.' They're very popular. Liya and I got Mikael one made with a big tray full of nice wooden blocks. He likes playing with the blocks, but the wheels go too fast to use it as a walker. Savta Havva bought a really nice Fisher Price bimba that also makes noise and honks and is really very popular.

Actually, the fact that all but one of the pictures has him riding on the Bimba instead of walking with it is a fairly accurate reflection of what's going on, but he's still enjoying it so who cares.

Dinner at Mevasseret

Mikael sat at the table like a big boy this visit and also showed off his new ability to climb stairs. This scared Yoel and Liya silly, but I thought it was very cool.

 

 

 

 

The tricycle

Either Mikael spent a lot of quality time on the tricycle or else Maayan Shahar just happened to get a lot of quality pics. The last two are funny because the second to last reminds me of my dad and the last one reminds me of me.

First tooth

Ola found it and Ola took these pictures. Here is Mikael's official first tooth. May there be many more, or at least exactly the right amount.

 
 

Standing

Standing is probably the thing that Mikael loves most these days. Everything in the world, including his parents, is primarily judged in terms of its ability to facilitate standing.

There are also two videos at the end. He can walk clear across the room, but of course, he stopped as soon as we turned the camera on (and restarted as soon as it was off).

 
 

Standing?

Mikael is no capable of using my hands (or other peoples) to lift himself into a standing position. I think that Feldenkrais teachers and Liya's 'first steps' class at Diyada warn us that this is not something we're supposed to encourage too mcuh. We need to let him develop at his own pace. On the other hand, he really seems to enjoy this, so I'm not sure exactly what I think about it all.

 
 
 
 

Almost crawling

Mikael is crawling! I saw him crawl for a few steps and ran to get the camera and then, of course, he didn't do it again. The first video shows him failing to even attempt crawling. The second one he seems interested in crawling, but doesn't have the coordination quite down yet. It's a little long, so you can feel free to fast-forward. In both he shows of his new motor skill: slapping things to express his joy. He also smiles a lot which is very rewarding.

Hannukah party: With Savta Hava

Of course, one of the best things about family gatherings is all the special attention Mikael gets from Savta Havva.

 
 
 
 

Hannuakah Birthday party: Playing

Mikael went to his first Hannukah party this weekend. Actually, it was a combined Hannukah and Birthday party for two of Liya's cousins. It was great timing because he's just reached the point where he can crawl towards toys that he's interested in and really enjoy the existence of all sorts of new toys that he hasn't seen before. Interestingly, though, he was just as interested in the wrapping that came of the birthday presesnts as he was in the dreidels.