Playing together

Different "games" in our family:




















They love to sit in those boxes. They sit and then they change places and laugh together.




















Playing with play dough















Building her own house (If I can't see them...they can't see me)




















What shall I eat next?

Yulia and Borya

This weekend we had company over. Yulia and Boria with their litle daughter Veronika came to visit us. Michelle was very excited and played with the babies. It is nice to have people come over to our house once in a while.















Sasha and Boria got lost while biking and came back exhausted.




















Just resting after a long morning ride.




















Yulia with Vironika















Playing with daddy

rain

On the eve of Rosh Ha Shana it was raining. The first real rain after steaming hot summer. We saw the rain coming from our window. A big grey cloud over the sea and the rain pouring from it. It took about twenty minutes for the cloud to come and wash all the dust away from Haifa. Rain felt so fresh and it was so welcome.





















Dancing and blowing bubbles in the rain

Reading

There is always a dilemma - to read or to write/wash/ clean.
A lot of times I choose to read.

What did I read this week?
The Unschooling Handbook - Mary Griffith - an excellent book for all parents who want to have meaningful relationships with their children
Learning All The Time - John Holt - I have read lots of parts from this book before but it is good to have it at home

And for Russian speakers -
Никитины "Резервы Здоровья Наших Детей" - you can find it here .I was a little scared to read this one. Nikitini were the first family in Russia who used "early development". I was afraid this book would have lots of unrealistic, all consuming programs to make your child into a wonder child, but I was wrong. They build their program on children's instincts and most of the things they write about are already a part of our everyday life.
Чарковский И. - This guy is too much for me. He teaches babies how to swim but in a very aggressive form.

laundry

While folding the laundry with me:
"Oh my, oh my...what shall I ever do without a prince?"

Michelle helps me fold the laundry by rolling it up - I just put it on the shelf rolled. Yes, it is more wrinkled this way but she feels very important and very helpful (and she is!).

Chameleon

On our way home from a park




















Fascinated by a chameleon















Yes, yes a real chameleon in the middle of Haifa















Helen and I even thought it changed color (or did we really want it to?)

best friends

At the playground they are always together - running/crawling, laughing, singing, swinging, climbing. Eshel wants to do everything Michelle does. Sometimes Michelle wants to take care of Eshel and pretend he is her baby.




















Michelle is a mommy - swinging Eshel and singing songs to him




















Everyone is happy - happy to be together




















Eshel on the slide (he climbs the slide by himself)




















Our children are so precious to us and our world changes when something happens to them.
We should never forget how dear and lovely they are.

Our life has changed a lot since Eshel's sickness. Before I couldn't really understand all those homeschooling families who can be at home by themselves all week long and meet other families once a week or even once in two weeks. Now I understand that it is good for children to be at home without meeting other children every day (like we used to, it was like a goal for me - to find socialization for Michelle). Michelle is becoming more imaginative in her play, she likes to play with Eshel (and he is becoming more and more a partner for play because of him growing and also because there is not much choice). We get to do more things together and we are more relaxed - nowhere to rush, nothing much we have to do. I think it is good for all of us to be alone. It lets us find out more about each other. I look back and I feel that by always trying to find friends for Michelle I was actually trying to help myself - to get her off my back for some time and if she didn't want to play with children I would get irritated with her. Now, when we are so much alone, she is a better player and I think when she does have a chance to be with children she enjoys it more. The only thing that we are definitely losing is her Hebrew ( the more she speaks, the better it gets, but she prefers English speaking friends). There are days now that I don't feel like seeing anyone (I don't remember me having days like that before). Eshel taught us a lot and one of the most important lessons for me was to value my time with my children more (yes, yes... even more).

At the sea today:
"The sea is so violent today, Mom. But you know,....they turn it off at night when everyone is sleeping. "

sea

At the sea today we saw a man with a fish that he just caught, Michelle said: "He is going to eat that fish? It is so salty?! "

Eshel

Eshel is so big - he can climb up the slides (even the huge ones with the tunnel), he can stand by himself for one second (not holding), he crawls very fast (not using his knees anymore, only feet), he has two "real" words (Ma - mama and Da- dady).
Michelle loves him and they play together a lot (sometimes they "fight" over toys - Michelle tries to grab something from him but he doesn't let go, screams at her). Most of all they love to crawl together making noises and laughing.
It is so good to see them grow into real friends over time and I'm looking forward to enjoying their company and being able to do even more things with them.

What are we reading?

Michelle got a whole box of new books (donations to the library that the library decided not to keep - hurray!) and she loves all of them. She makes me read Cinderella and Snow White at least twice a day and she likes the Bernstein's Bears too. Eshel doesn't enjoy reading yet, but he loves to grab the books from Michelle so it is a little tricky to read now.
I got new books from mom for the Jewish Rosh Ha Shana: Math for Humans by Mark Wahl, Learning All the Time by John Holt (I'm reading right now), The Unschooling Handbook (forgot at my parent's house this weekend) and one more in Russian about breathing exercises for children (also reading and applying at the sea in the morning).

Eshel

We are back. It was a hard time for the family, but we are back and smiling.




















What happened with Eshel's breathing?
After acupuncture Eshel didn't feel much better and by night his breathing was awful. We decided to start the treatment with an inhalation drug (has no steroids and is used for asthma attacks) called Terbulin. Eshel felt even worse afterwards - started to throw up and his fever went up immediately (was it an allergic reaction? The doctor didn't think so). We went ahead and gave him the oral steroid drug which he just threw up a second ago. In the morning I got a number for another alternative doctor and we went to see her in the afternoon. She did some massage, acupuncture but nothing seamed to help Eshel breathe and she told us to go ahead and give him the steroid treatment. At home we gave Eshel the oral drug and it worked in a couple of minutes. Eshel was breathing again! Next morning we gave the drug again. When we saw that nothing much changed we decided to stop giving the drug and go see the doctor. At the doctor's office we were told that Eshel had a virus that triggered the "allergic/asthmatic" reaction. We were also told to have the medicine on hand at all times as it is very possible that the attack can come back.
"Every child teaches us something new" - Eshel showed us that when everyone is healthy and well we forget the most important thing - we forget to love our children as they are and we complain too much about misbehavior, tiredness and the lack of time to do "our"(parent's) things. When Eshel was sick nothing mattered as much. What really mattered was him staying alive. I understood that the house was not important at all and getting together with children wasn't very important either. What is important is staying healthy.
My new plan is to keep active - to go to the sea at least three times a week, to play games there, to run around and to swim in cold water (to boost up the immune system). To keep doing the activities that we already have and to remember that doing things only with my children is something I have to value the most.

sick

Last week was eventful - gardening, book club. I was very absorbed in planning my "house" and looking for a place and getting very excited about the whole idea. Two days ago Eshel got sick. Very sick.
He was breathing with great difficulty and we decided to go see the doctor. Acute bronchiolitis. Prescription - steroids (inhalator and oral). Went to see another doctor - steroids is a must (doubled the dose)
The next day was hard for everyone - Eshel breathes with difficulty, Michelle watches movies and Sasha with high fever. Got an appointment for alternative doctor for Eshel (still not giving him anything. Always holding him, inhalator with salt water, baths with lavender oil).
Today went to alternative doctor - acupuncture. The result is still unclear. We hope the treatment works. He is breathing better, but I'm very worried it will not last.