Of Babies and Men

It took a few minutes but Lucas finally forgave mommy for
being an absentee mother in the recent weeks

Cheers mommy! Now everyone has their proper sippy cup :)

When mommy left for the hospital the first time she was gone for two weeks and only saw us one time. Then three days after she came home, she returned to the hospital only to be AWOL for yet another six days. She was shocked by what she saw back at home.

When she left we were yet babies, but when she returned we had become little men.

Mommy was speechless when she saw us with our elongated feet and chunky hands. Even Lucas' disastrous haircut has made a comeback! Mommy still can't ascertain whether our sudden morphing into little men is because we are monstrous compared to little 4-pound Raia or whether we really grew that much in the last four sketchy weeks that she was gone more than she was present.

Mommy was welcomed home in high style this weekend (previous video). And she was impressed with our new skill set of self feeding ... or not (following video).

It has been exactly a week since Raia apparently entered the world. I have yet to see conclusive proof of her existence, but that is the storyline nonetheless. As for Lucas and I, our lives have returned to normal with mommy actually making frequent appearances at home, including in the morning when we wake up. Mimi and GongGong are still here and they have been our substitute parents in the last month. They have established a new routine of letting us play outside after school and feeding us treats that had been banned in our home up until now. It is a very dangerous proposition to allow grandparents to parent.

We have bonded a lot with abba in mommy's absence. He treats us as his dessert. Ooga means cake in Hebrew. 

But apparently no one else's life has returned to normal. "Normal" has been redefined now for an estimated month or so while Raia continues her development ex-utero. She needed about 9 more weeks in the womb, so she'll be taking those in an incubator now in the NICU at the hospital downtown.

I always thought "kangaroo" was a marsupial from Australia.
But apparently it is also a method of holding babies!

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I've Come a long way (as a) Baby!

That really is me behind all that chocolate

Remember this? Yes, it was the infamous pudding incident at Shalva, or non incident since I patently refused to touch the pudding placed before me. Actually, I was disgusted by the very thought. The videos don't lie.

As you can see, I have learned a lot at school in just a short few months. One of the most exciting lessons has been: How to become a big mess and enjoy it!

I am no longer averse to touching food. Or even swimming in it.

It started innocently enough

Note the progression

And joy!

In case you couldn't tell who that was behind a veneer of cocoa,
 my name in brown and white

Being coy and messy simultaneously

A mother's worst nightmare

 Thanks, Shalva! Sorry, mommy!

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Holiday Pudding

I only have feeding issues if you don't feed me 

Here I am upset because someone is making me reach for my spoon

I acquiesced. Once.

Much better

Not funny!

I just started school and yet, thanks to the glut of Jewish holidays we get in the fall, I'm already on vacation! Here are some videos of some more of what we learned in school, and as you will see, this was certainly something unconventional: being encouraged to get messy!

As you will see in this series of three videos, I am not one of the babies in the world (and that would probably include nearly all babies in the world) who like to get their hands dirty. The play by play speaks for itself, but as you will see, I had no problem eating the chocolate pudding - as long as it was off of someone else's fingers. When I first plunged my hand into the pudding, I quickly realized my mistake and tried to shake off the ick. To no avail. As you will also see, the teachers very wisely stripped us down to diapers before we began this exercise.

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Learning to Share

Sharing, I've been told, is an integral part of life and of living in a community be that family, friends, school, society and so forth. And so this week, I had a few preliminary lessons in sharing. For starters, I shared my lunch with Lucie.

Lucie and I waiting expectantly for more chicken.

American and UK baby websites generally recommend no solids until six months and then just fruits and veggies. Meat comes in at eight or nine months. So what's a new mother to do when in Israel, doctors, nurses and the stranger butting in off the street are all shocked when she hasn't yet fed her five month old hummus and chicken? I remember hearing my mother snort with derision at a nurse who recommended pureeing "whatever you eat for dinner" for the six-month-old baby. 

Mommy: "ANYthing?" 

Nurse: "Yes, anything. Hummus. Chicken. Fish."

Mommy: "Fish? I didn't like fish until I was 25!"

Gross as it sounds, she finally did puree some chicken, which I shared with Lucie. Mommy did also venture out into some Middle Eastern cuisine. She'd exposed me to Italian while in NYC, so thought it only fair to balance my other half with some tehina as you can see here: 

Then I learned to share toys and floor space when I met a new friend - or an old acquaintance. Yosia and I were born in the same hospital just two days apart. We even bunked on the same floor! I was born two days ahead of him, but he has done everything he can do to catch up ever since. In fact, now he is about three times my weight! 

Playtime!

Not too sure about this...

Play it cool and everything will be okay...

Okay, okay you win!

I also shared my nasal congestion and an eye infection with mommy this week. She insists that does not rate as "sharing." But it's the thought that counts, isn't it?

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