A year of day care comes to an end

As difficult as it is to believe, Ariel's day care ("ma'on") is reaching the end of the year. Check out the difference between last September, on his first day at the ma'on, and Friday, when they held a sort of end-of-year party:













The child on the left is a baby, not even a year old, unable to walk. The child on the right runs and jumps and climbs stairs. He also is now legitimately bilingual, understanding probably hundreds of words (and speaking a good number of them too) in both Hebrew and English. Quite a difference!

Anyway, the music/rhythm teacher, who visits each week, played songs about the summertime, handing out props for the kids to play with, as the parents watched with glee... and snapped a million pictures. After the songs, we all went out to the backyard play area for some cake. Ariel, as you can see, thoroughly enjoyed his slice.

For the record, he has also enjoyed his "teachers" -- especially Rada, a Muslim woman who is totally smitten with him, and Leah, who has comforted Ariel through a number of bumps and arguments over toys and has taught him to call out to turtledoves. He has gotten very attentive care and plenty of nutritious food, and he has learned a lot. We're going to miss ma'on!

Fortunately, the summer vacation for day care is a little less than a month... then Ariel gets to start a new year, which, we know, will probably fly by just like this one did!