A Day at the Spa

 Before I begin, I would like to say hi to my new friend Xander, who traversed from womb to world yesterday at 8:48 p.m. NY time. I was also born on a Sunday at 8:47 p.m. Jerusalem time. Congratulations and I look forward to meeting you in person. If you recall, we met in Israel when your mommy was just a few weeks pregnant and I was just a week away from being born (although we didn't know that at the time). And by the way, readers, if you think I'm cool because I'm blogging, Xander had a facebook page while in utero! Now that is impressive!

Bubbles are the best things ever!

Every Sunday is "spa day" for me. The line up includes playtime, talking time, massages, light and sound shows and pool time. As I mentioned before, my mommy likes to sugarcoat things, so she has termed my weekly therapy sessions at Shalva thus. Allow me to elaborate.


Playtime is really physical therapy. It sounds fun until Yochevet makes me work. Things like weight bearing on my extended arms and twisting and stretching in all sorts of directions. This is all in an effort to build up my muscles and help me to accomplish the many milestones that lie ahead.


Talking time is actually speech therapy with Esti. Adults are already encouraging me to speak "their" language rather than they learn mine. Speech therapy at my age involves odd things like learning to eat with a spoon, imitating strange sounds and even reaching out to touch toys. Sometimes this too crosses the fine line between fun and work.

Me having a conversation during speech therapy.

My light and sound show, ahhh, now here is something I can handle with aplomb. Michal takes me into the "white room" (which mommy has dubbed the "White House" because why can't I too become the US president??). The room, redundantly, is white - white walls, white cushions on the floor, and is adorned with disco ball lighting, a spaghetti light and, my favorite, bubbles! At this point in my life, bubbles are the most fascinating things I have ever seen. I haven't been to Times Square yet though.


Then there is my massage therapy. Mommy groans with jealousy every time I'm in that room. Avital, the masseuse, works on my sore muscles (hah, yea right, they are far from sore) and teaches new techniques to awaken my muscular system. Mommy and abba employ these methods at home on me whlile arguing over why neither one of them gives the other a massage.

Utter fascination with spaghetti lights!

I just started what they call hydrotherapy. It was a bit of an ethereal experience entering a pool for the first time. It was like reality suddenly became a very fluid concept as my mommy plunged me into water up to my neck. This was nothing like a mere bath - I was surrounded by water and there was nowhere to sit. I had memories (there's that long-term memory kicking in again) back to a year ago, floating in mommy's tummy, only this time gravity was a greater factor. But even pool time eventually became "work" as I did sit ups in the pool and held my upper body straight up upon threat of drowning. Ok, I was nowhere near drowning, I just threw that in for the drama. Tehila tried to make it fun by singing to me, but eventually the fact that I had not slept since 7 a.m. overrode all possible attempts at placation and there was no turning back: I screamed and turned red until I was placed horizontally on solid ground. Then I took an epic nap. And I slept for two straight hours from Shalva to car, from car to cafe, from cafe to home where I was placed in my bed. That was a napping record for me.

Me in my speedos. This will haunt me in the future.

I was skeptical at first, but pool time = fun!

On Mondays, I have "playtime with Ayala," our friend at our HMO's (for lack of a better translation) child development center. Again, mommy sugarcoats the event. It is actually like going to the gym, but is called physical therapy. But I do approach it as playtime. I mean, Ayala has all these fascinating toys we do not have at home. Today, however, I began to show signs of a major meltdown, so we have no successful photos of this session unfortunately.

And, yet again, a mega nap ensued, thus justifying, at least in my mind my less than stellar performance at today's play date.

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