Happy Holidays - And Beware of Babies Wielding Staffs!

"You shall take in your hand this staff, with which
you shall perform the signs.” Exodus 4:17

Lucas took this literally, for himself. Note, this particular
staff has never turned into a snake despite repeated attempts.

Seeing as we are mere hours from ushering in Passover, I will review what we learned this year in our respective schools. Most importantly, we learned that the Ten Plagues are called Eser HaMakot in Hebrew. Another, more familiar, day to day translation of makot is plural for smack, or hit.

Hence, the story of Passover and by extension Easter, is all about ... fighting.

Of course!

I understand many of you may have assumed that Passover and Easter are about deliverance, freedom and salvation. But as babies and boys, we see the inherent battles in any situation, mostly because we like to rumble. And in the spirit of Passover, we have acted no differently. When you strip these stories down to the bare bones, they were all about the fight!

Passover

Egyptians vs. Israelites

Slaves vs. Pyramids

Moses vs. Egyptian Slave Driver

Moses vs. Pharaoh

Man vs. Red Sea

(All Ten Plagues) vs. Man

Easter

Romans vs. Jews

Jews vs. Jews

Man vs. Grave

God vs. Death

All of the above

God vs. Satan

Immediately upon learning of Moses, Lucas adopted for himself a staff, ala Moses (Moshe), which he wields wildly and has carried with him (or tried to) everywhere for the last two weeks. His teacher created a special place for it at school where it was unreachable by children during the day. Certain restrictions were put on this staff (mateh in Hebrew) not the least of which was to not poke his sister's eyes out and to not sleep with it. Ouch.

So affected was Lucas by his newfound Moses persona that he announced that he was going to Egypt to DO the Eser HaMakot. I kid you not. And I agree wholeheartedly that a reenactment would be stunning, replete with special effects and lots of drama, especially on location with pyramids and sphinxes! But mommy and abba dissuaded us from said journey fearing that perhaps it could pose a bit of a threat to the tenuous peace in the region.

While we learned the Exodus story at school and at home, much of our riveting education has come from Prince of Egypt, the movie. We relate to it well, especially the scenes where Ramses and Moses join together as brothers and practically bring down the Egyptian empire, unintentionally, with their naughty games like chariot races through construction sites. Such role models they are!

"Behold the power of God!"

Another thing we learned is that on this night, Passover, we should put blood on our door post lest the angel of death visit the region yet again. Apparently that is no longer practiced, which is cause for fear as far as I am concerned as the eldest baby in this family. When mommy and abba posed the question to us of where (on earth, or why or how) we would get blood for such an act, we thought hard and came up with a good substitute: ketchup! Needless to say, this night has been different from any other night.

All the fighting has been so invigorating and such a celebration of the Exodus and Easter miracles.  Sometimes we get so worked up by all of this miraculous business that Lucas will dramatically slam his staff to the ground and declare: "Behold, the power of God!" 

...as splinters from the wood splay in different directions threatening all in his immediate surroundings and both mommy and abba yell, "No playing with the staff in the house!" Oops.

If you're going to get carried away with anything, it might as well be the power of God. Right?

And so from the basket of little Moses to the the modern life of iPads, the drama of the Exodus lives on for us babies! Happy Passover and Happy Easter, everyone!

Three baby siblings, like Aaron, Miriam and Moses,
conspiring to reenact the Exodus

Raia mostly just laughed at our shenanigans, but I
have no doubt she'll catch up with us some day.

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Prepare the Way!

Easter Me at the Armenian Convent

Just because the holidays are over doesn't mean the excitement is. Very soon, my computerized, Skype-generated New York grandparents, Mimi and GongGong, will emerge from mommy's laptop and materialize in real life right here!


I, as a grand baby, and recipient of 75 percent of their luggage content, will be on hand to welcome them into the country. They have both vowed to suction their lips onto my cheeks and not remove them for approximately three weeks. I don't know how we are going to fit into the crib together, but I'll let them figure that out.


We will surely have an unpacking frenzy tomorrow night and I'll be so excited that sleeping won't be an option. But in the meantime, before we irrevocably switch gears, allow me to wrap up our Easter/Passover extravaganza with some last photos. In my previous post, I alluded to Easter being the annual Jerusalem Armenian reunion. Well...

The centerpiece :)

...I, in all modesty, was the equivalent of the main course at this week of reunion-like gatherings. On Sunday I became the literal centerpiece, when after a day of being stroller-ized, mommy set me on the table for a little stretch. That immediately turned into tummy time. Then, for added fun, Skype time with Aunt Beanie and Cugina Cristina! Thankfully Armenians compete with Italians in their deafening loudness, so no one seemed to mind us yelling across the table.

That day, we had a nice Easter lunch with Dede and Nene (my Jerusalem grandparents) at the only restaurant in West Jerusalem not kosher and/or closed for Passover (whew). And then we headed to the Armenian convent for one last processional to wrap up our week of holiday fun. 

Easter dinner with Nene

Easter processional in the Armenian convent

He had a particularly nice Easter bonnet

Armenian Easter time in the convent with Dede

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