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.
Liya and Havva and Maayan Shachar all went together to pick up Mikael from day care and enjoyed the atmosphere there so much they hung around and played with him there for a while. It really is a nice and mellow place. They said, by the way, that Mikael was busy talking up a storm all afternoon. Mikael has been more and more talkative and we're excited (Liya) or concerned (Opher) that pretty soon the talking will coalesce into words and Mikael will be able to tell us exaclty what he's thinking and what he wants.
As Mikael gets older, there are more and more opportunities for him to express his creative urges. Liya was kept very busy here making sure that he drew on the paper and not on the floor. Of course, as soon as I showed up, I dropped the red paint and
it spattered all over everything.
There is a large green (well green and brown) park in the northern part of the city called Park Hayarkon (all right, almost all of the 17 people reading this know that, but there are a few who don't). This morning, we called Liya's brother Ido and arranged to meet him there. The kids were all together in their bimba fleet and after a grueling hike of many tens, perhaps even hundreds, of meters we settled down to a well deserved picnic. Mikael was soon full and spent the rest of the picnic trying to snag unattended boxes of food so he could turn the contents out onto the grass and then crawl in them.
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.
This Thursday I came back from work early and me and Liya walked down to Rothschild to meet Shiri. From there we all went to a nice little coffe shop on a quiet street nearby (can't remember it's name) and celebrated Liya's birthday.
I think this picture may be from Wednesday a week ago, but I'm not sure. Anyway, it's just great to get a picture on my cell phone in the middle of the day!
After the first picnic the Gotlieb's and us went on a short hike. Eran was laden down with both the girls, but he didn't seem to mind too much. He used the opportunity to complain about what poor physical shape he's in, but I got tired enough with just my one baby.
We also put Mikael in the rear carry for a while. He liked it a lot, and it's very comfortable. It's a little disconcerting not to be able to see him at all. Also, when he started to fall asleep his head kept bouncing against my back and we decided to move him around to the front.
The hike went down from the hill where the picnic site was into a nice valley and then back out again. It's certainly not going to make any book of Asia's 50 most spectacular hikes, but it was great for us. I thought about how I used to wonder what kind of people went on family hikes. I guess it should have been obvious then, too. Liya found another stone to bring back that would be a good size for Mikael to play with. It's sort of white to counterbalance the brown stone door stop he likes so much.
One great thing about having kids and hanging out with people who have kids is that you have no trouble finding stuff to talk about.
Last Saturday, Eran Inbar (and Roni and Shir) came with two cars to our home and then we all headed off (us in one car and them in the other) to Park Brittania for some picnicing and some hiking. The original idea came from Ido, but they started their day much earlier than we did. They really were on the trail at 9:00 when they said they would be. We, on the other hand, were in the cars at 12:00 after saying we would head out by 10:30. No matter. It worked out very well. They were just finishing their picnic when we arrived and so we got to picnic with them before the walk and then again with Eran and Inbar and Ronnie and Shir after the walk. This first set of pictures is from the first picnic.
While the picnic started around a picnic table laden with food, it quickly adjourned to a large mat where people just sort of hung out while kids ran around. One guy kept waiting for some kids to gather so he could tell his funny story about the horse. Yalli was mostly interested in the cars. Noa sat with the grownups and listened with a sage expression on her face.
Here is Ido holding Mikael. Ido makes fun of me that in order to get into the blog you have to get your picture taken with him.
Grover (who is basically called 'cabbage-head' in Hebrew) is seen here entertaining Mikael. Liya was busy protecting the work of art, trying to convince Mikael to pose appropriately, and taking the pictures, so not all of them go Mikael looking directly at the camera. Grover was more obliging.
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