Contact Daniel

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Here today, Gan tomorrow! (Gan = Hebrew for preschool or kindergarten)

One of 4 million meals we had in the last two weeks at home

After the God-ordained seven-day holiday of Succot that has morphed into a very unbiblical extension of summer vacation (making it more like a four-month vacation, and I'm not really exaggerating), we are just now hours away from finally, and mercifully, returning to gan, which is our word for preschool. 

I only vaguely remember that place we call "school" and the new friends I made, but somehow I will be dispatched there in mere hours, far away from my life of leisure and fun.

This will all go down tomorrow morning. With millions of children. All across the country.

The truth is I cannot wait to go back. My way of communicating this is to take my backpack and to stage a sit-in at the door. Lucas' way of communicating this has been to ask every day, "When are we going back to gan?" And then, no matter what the response, he would pine, "But that's taking too long!"

No kidding! Mommy and abba, and even Mimi and GongGong, thought it was "too long" despite the fact that they got to feed us three (to 20) meals a day and find countless sources of entertainment for us these past two weeks. Keeping in mind our attention spans range from five to 10 minutes at a time divided by three children - the math is impossible to determine how many activities per day, even per hour, would be needed to keep us from careening into inevitable meltdowns.

While on vacation we adhered to a strict wake-up time of 6 a.m. or earlier. Then we immediately embarked upon our marathon training for the next hour, running laps through the apartment all the while managing to request drinks, television, food, more apple juice and take potty breaks during our cardio routine. Breakfast was promptly demanded served anywhere between 7 to 10 a.m. depending on how many residual requests we had during that time. Usually by 9 a.m. we had exhausted ourselves and our toys for the day and still had another 10 ominous hours or so ahead of us. And usually we were still in our pajamas until Mimi and GongGong rescued mommy or both mommy and abba - still in pajamas - from the abyss of child preparedness. 

I honestly don't know why they are complaining though. Since we have been home, the entire apartment has been layered with toys and other sundry items and so no one has had to clean the floors in more than two weeks. What lives of leisure my parents lead!

Never mind that. Here is a pictorial recap of our holiday and the sheer joy and fun of being a baby, especially with grandparents who feed you ice cream.

This is how we babies roll in Jerusalem: Splashing in the shadow of the
Old City walls in the fountains, or the "water mountains"
as Lucas aptly named them

And there in the distance, the Old City, better known to us
as Nene and Dede's house

Raia was slightly hesitant about this venture

Or very hesitant?

We also climbed the Eiffel Tower! Sort of

Ice cream, before

Ice cream, after

Gymboree!!

Shooting hoops

Vogue

Vogue 2

Jerusalem Parade!

Jerusalem Parade is a great place for
babies - and swords, er, flags!

Fountains, Act 2

Strategizing trouble

Carousel!


Or horse with a knight leading the calvary?

And the rest of the army

Gymboree, act 2

Ice cream, act 2. Before and after.

"Is this my color?"

Gymboree, Act 3

And I'm exhausted!