We are leaving for London and Eurodisney on Friday (yayayayayayayay). I really wanted N to be involved in the trip, reading up, what to do etc, and she was kind of “grey” about it. not unexcited, just not excited – KWIM? We’ve all been extremely busy, friends, pool, late nights, and when we are at home I have let her be. no nagging, no pressure, I showed her a few sites, she kind of grunted acknowledgement at me, and I left it at that. I figureI have enough things to argue with her about, and this isnt one of them.

I was at the book store and found this “kids book of London”, a really cool book, a kids tourbook, that has all sorts of missions in it (“follow PeterPans footsteps” – go into Kensignton Gardens, take 3 steps and look at the statue on your right. find the marking on the statue and follow its direction. at the 4thflower turn…etc or: Count how many mummies are in the museum of London. or: spot the following buildings on oxford st) really really cool, with all the fun historical explanations – the gory executions, the royal family, where to get on double decker buses and so on.

The kid is now obsessed. she has spent the entire afternoon with this book (I would say close to 6-7 hours), reading and re-reading, marking pages, every few minutes I get a “Mommy, in London can we…..”, or “Mommy, did you know that….”. the funny thing is, is that she isn’t obsessed with the book in a booky kind of way, when she goes oblivious to her surroundings and into her own world, she is being so active about this book that its hysterical to watch. she has now gone to google the various places to see when they are open and how much they cost and what other people have to say.  She is spewing the info at me, about tubes that we need to take and what queen lived where and why and which museum is recommended and where we can find “real live ghosts” (I had to laugh at that one!). She is so into this and so excited, that she is glowing! YAY!

the kidnapped soldeirs bodies have been returned. Although they were pressumed to be dead, no one was sure, and no one was prepared to  be the one who killed the hope.

Noam is very emotionally involved in this story (as the entire country), I stopped watching the news with her, so she started reading the newspapers. I now have to shatter her innocence and explain to her how even though she was hoping, even though she  was holding her fingers crossed, even though we set places for them at the passover table, even though Udi (one of the soldiers) had just gotten married and his wife is young and pretty, even though it isnt fair and we didnt want it to be so – the worst has happened, and they are both dead. I spent the past few days lowering expectations for her, but in some ways she is so innocent, so childish. she knows that bad things can happen to good people, she just refuses to beleive it. so sad.

a brief re-cap: N has been going to swimming classes since last June. She has a lesson a week since then. Swimming has been hard for her, first there are the motor aspects of swimming – her biggest struggle to date has been with separation of motions and that was what she worked on with her OT (when she held a pencil and tried to write all her fingers did the same motion, her entire body moved with her), swimming is all about separating motions, your hands moving separately from you legs etc. second – there was the psychological aspect of “I don’t do things that are hard for me or that I am not the best at”, and third – the emotional aspects – the ability to analyse and see into all the “what ifs” of the future, and in deep water there are a lot of “what ifs”.

All this is a re-cap, and I think that I have mentioned before that one day  she was in the water with the instructor, giving her whole “I cant breath/I’m scared/leave me alone” whine, swimming one stroke and then turning and going back to the wall, when he tried a relaxation technique on her and took her floating on him. she turned around to him, informed him that she could manage from here, and proceeded to swim. and another lap, and another. she is now one of the best swimmers in her class (they go to the pool twice a week in summer camp and I was watching them, most are still using water wings and others are doggy paddling). the next water obstacle was diving underwater, you know – picking up objects from the floor of the pool. she refused. refused and refused some more. until one day she just did it. she went right under, tummy on the floor of the pool and picked up the darn toy. and ever since she has spent her time at the pool throwing things and diving for them. the last obstacle she overcame on Saturday. she jumped in the water. Princess N, of the “this is the list of all possible dangers”, of the “by jumping I loose control therefore I don’t jump”   school of thought – JUMPED into the water. and then she ran and jumped. and then she ran further and jumped higher. and then she tried diving into the pool and did pretty well (not even a belly flop, her head did go in first!). I guess that once again she has proved to me that she is going to do things when she is good and ready to, and not when i want her to. and, like everything she does, she is going to do them well.   

hey – I just realised something. N started walking at 1 year and 2 weeks. she just stood up at crossed our friends living room. she completely skipped the 2 steps fall on butt phase, she didnt   do much       cruising the furniture. she just got up and walked and was awake until midnight that night walking backward and forward laughing with excitement. Amazing to realise that that is just who she is, and looking back – to understand that that is who she has always been.

seriously. how sad is that. I will say that I did know the answers to most of her questions, but you dont actually get points for that. oh, and she argued with me about Galileo Galilae (sp?), and she was right. I wasnt.

I have two things to say:

first – I have no idea how she knows half the stuff she knows.

second – there is nothing more shaming then having your not even 7 year old look at you pityingly, with this “look” in their eyes, and asking you if you need some bonus points so as to give you a chance to even up the score…..

*big big big sigh*