Mr. Charming

"Mommy..." The little man blows a kiss onto my cheek. "Your eyes are beautiful." "Really? Thank you, sweetie." "I mean the color." Gestures toward my eye shadow. "It's beautiful." Another tender kiss. "I also like your hair. I like it best if you do it this way." Pulls my hair back. "You mean a pony tail?" "Yes. A pony tail. I don't want you to cut it short again. Ever!" "We'll see about that." "Mommy?" Another kiss lands on my cheek. "Your ohrringe are beautiful, too." "You mean my earrings?" "Your earrings, yes. I like them. And your necklace, too. Actually everything. I like everything about you." Keep going, sweetie, keep going... "Tell me, honey. Do you also kiss the girls at school like that?" "Yessss..." "Who?" "Talia." "Only Talia?" "And Naomi. Naomi T." Says a 4-year-old. Does charm increase with age?

5 months and blooming

I have to get this out of my system because I am so excited: Yonatan learned to roll over form his tummy to his back this weekend (not really early, I know, but now he got the trick). AND his first tooth just cut through his gums, and I can already see (but not feel yet) the second one right beside it! (Whoever said you'd be less proud/attentive the second time around was clearly WRONG!) My guess is he wanted to wait for his brother's and dad's return from Israel for bigger impact. Well, it worked!

Still around

I am sitting at work listening to Galgalatz, and my heart goes out to the many people suffering from this impossible, cruel war. I have no words, only tears. As a mother, I am wondering: what will it be like in 20 years' time, when my boys are old enough to join the army?


Btw, the angel baby in the picture is our latest addition to the family: Yonatan, August 17, 2008.

Back to routine

Call it laziness, call it writer's block, call it whatever you want -- I just couldn't write these last few weeks. I guess there were too many things we had to deal with. Germany, Israel, all of a sudden a job offer, the flight back, a hectic week of getting-back-to-routine, and then my first day at work on Monday.

I started at a company in Oakland, which is really close by. My manager agreed to flexible hours, organized a laptop for me, and is besides also a really sweet person. A good manager too, for all I can say after three days. It's tough at the moment though, it always is when you start a new job. At work, my head is spinning from information overkill. I am also having a hard time getting up in the mornings. It didn't really help either that my alarm clock decided not to go off today at 5:45.

Yair stays in school now until 3:30pm. Sometimes he naps after lunch, sometimes he doesn't, but he's taking it all really well. He's happy and sweet when I come to pick him up. He's such a good boy. "Where is mommy? Has she gone to work?" he asks in the mornings when he wakes up and finds me gone. No crying, no complaining. Today at dinner, he asked me: "Mommy, how was school today?" I:"It was nice. I slept on my mat next to Adi." He (rolling his eyes, laughing): "Mommy! You didn't go to school! You went to work!"

So yes. We're back.

I know...

it's been quite a while. There's been so much going on I don't even know where to start. Shabbat dinner at our place with all the other MBA Israelis: 14 adults and six kids. Get-together at a friend's house with a real Christmas tree. Birthday party for Ariel, the expecting father from next door. Chanukka party at Libby's, with lots of delicious, home-made souvganiot, levivot (here better known as latkes), and other anti-diet dishes. Christmas shopping for my family. Interviewing with different agents and companies. One of them is a company that just got bought up by Symantec. That really made me smile. They are looking for a short-term contractor to finish up their upgrade guides, but because of our travel plans I am not an ideal candidate. However, the hiring manager mentioned they might need some help move their docs over to the new Symantec template after the release, and she would like to work with someone who is familiar with the process. Besides, I have an interview with the Tech Pubs Manager at PayPal next week. They don't have a current opening, but an interesting position for which I could be a great fit may open up at the beginning of next year, and she wants to meet me. So there's hope, it seems.

Yair throws off his diapers every day when we get home from school to put on the Spiderman underwear we bought him last week. He's usually doing fine for a couple of hours but then gets distracted and wets his pants. It has been like this for about a week and a half without any progress. He's not completely ready yet, I guess. But the time will come, I know that much.

He is still struggling with the new language. The other day at bedtime, he said to me: "Mama, I don't like kids who speak English." His German is fluent by now. Ever since August, he has been making progress at an incredible speed, without me asking him to make an effort. And because he is suddenly able to express himself without any problems in German, he grabs the phone from me whenever he realizes it's someone from Germany. Finally, he is ready to speak to my family. I guess that will be the best Christmas present of all. But English is still an issue -- and why shouldn't it. It takes time, even though I think he understands already quite a lot. Today we were listening to an interactive story of Dora the Explorer on the Internet, and when Dora shouted "Watch out!" he looked at me and translated for me. That was really cute. He also says "Done!" when he finishes something in school, and there are lots of other little words, phrases, and sentences he already knows. Exactly how many, we cannot know.

Oh, and I am beginning to feel really bad about the emails I owe people. I can't seem to find the time. Funny, isn't it, now that I am not working. Just know that I am not not in touch on purpose. Soon we will be in Israel for three weeks, and we will have to meet, so please plan with it!

Spiderman

After 800 miles, turkey, pumpkin pie, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and a glimpse at the smoke of the Malibu wildfires, we are back on Jackson Street. Yair shook hands with Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, met Spiderman (though he was deeply disappointed by the fact that his all-time favorite spoke English, not Hebrew like the real Spiderman), pocketed clothes and toys, swept leaves in the backyard, bravely endured endless hours on the road, and made new friends.

And since Spiderman remains popular, Yair got himself yet another present today: Spiderman panties. His first. Panties, that is. What an incentive! He spent his first two hours ever without diapers, going potty three times. An incredible success. The hard part came afterwards, when he insisted on going to sleep without a diaper, too. There was much crying, screaming, ranting, clamoring until he finally caved in. To be continued tomorrow... After school.

Happy Thanksgiving

We are driving down to Los Angeles today, to visit relatives over Thanksgiving.

This week has been a bit hectic, with Yair being sick and me having another job interview on the phone yesterday. But we are now up for the drive.