Monday, February 06, 2012

It had better go well, is all I'm saying.

Yesterday and today, Iyyar did great. Not just good, or ok, or basically fine. Really great. Like, normal happy kid.

I asked him why. He said, joyously, "A kid played with me!"

Ah.

Michal has been saying that I need to find him playdates. And I agree with her, but the logistics... the logistics. We live at the bottom of a Huge Huge Hill. I have four kids who get home at 3 different times. I don't have a car. Everything is at least one and often two buses from here. If I am going to take a kid for a playdate, I have to bring multiple other children with me for dropoffs and pickups, and haul a stroller on the bus, and sometimes Iyyar flips out on the bus and that can range from not fun to downright dangerous. Oh, and have I mentioned that I'm due in about two weeks? Yes?

But Iyyar was SO happy that the other kid played with him. He was such a delight yesterday and today. The difference was so huge. And then when I asked him which kid it was, he said, "He's the kid who speaks English who has a brother in the other gan."

OH.

Because that means that he's the kid whose mother is the fluent English speaker who came to Israel aged 3. Who invited Iyyar to play a few weeks ago and I declined on the grounds of logistics.

So tonight, I told Mr. Bigfoot, "If anything ever happens to me, and you end up raising the kids, and one day Iyyar wonders how much Imma really loved him, you can tell him that when he was five, Imma took him and Avtalyon and Marika on three buses halfway across Jerusalem and up and down massive hills on both ends of the bus route while 38 weeks pregnant [okay, almost] so he could have a playdate because Imma thought it would help him grow up to be a happy well-adjusted human being."

Just, you know, telling it like it is.

So the date is set for tomorrow afternoon after gan. We're supposed to get there at around 3 and I need to leave at 5 to get home before the witching hour of child collapse. Barak is going to go hang out in the bais medrash with Abba. There is a Moshiko on the way. Also, Shaarei Tzedek is on the way, which could be handy if I go into labor while pushing the stroller back up The Hill.

Stay. Tuned.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fingers very tightly crossed.

And you are a most wonderful Imma indeed.

~ Jasmin

Deborah said...

Did you survive? Am assuming so since there is one more post to read. How interesting that a peer to play with could make such a difference.

miriamp said...

I get "homework" to make my kids playdates too. And I am so bad at it, but my logistics missus are nowhere near yours so I'm feeling awfully guilty right now.