A big leap forward in D's vocabulary today.

Today was what I'd have to call a banner day in terms of Dante's speech development. He used over 10 new words today that I'd never heard him say before. They were coming so often I had to write them down so I wouldn't forget them.
We went to see my father and where there for over two hours with my sister Gala. By the end of the visit Shlomo gave Dante a big hug and Dante - who'd been hearing the word all morning - called him Saba (grandfather in Hebrew). At Gala's the day before he had said 'fire' when we were sitting in front of the furnace and said it multiple times today. He said 'Shoes', 'Wheel' for his stroller and his cars. 'Dog' which he'd been trying to say up till now but kept coming out as god. 'Chicken' (!) at Yehudit and Noa's as well as 'Yellow' for the first time (he's been signing that word for months), 'Sea' 'Ma-im' (water in Hebrew) when I gave him his bath and maybe coolest of all, besides Saba, he said 'Par par' (butterfly in Hebrew) which up till now had just been Bee, for any kind of bug. They were coming out of him so fast at Yehudit's that they were almost one on top of each other. I'm smiling writing this.

Our trip to Israel

Dante and I have been here since last Thursday and we have been having an awesome time! Before I get into the trip just wanted to mention that so far today his new words are ; Zebra and Help (which we started working on with him last week with Julian). Anyway we stayed on Friday night at Rona and Alon's house with their kids. I went to see my dad on Saturday morning and that was pretty hard. I'm looking forward to seeing him again. We left on Saturday afternoon with Rona and the children to go the Clil where my sister Gala lives with her husband Edo. Clil is just gorgeous. It's in the mountains near Naharia and they live on a hill that overlooks the coast. You can see Haifa in the distance and the ocean on clear days and the sunsets are spectacular. It rained the night we got there and you could see amazing lightning strikes out in the distance. Clil is just the most laid back place. It's like the woodstock of Israel in my mind. Super laid back, bohemian, artisinal and beautiful (maybe that's not such a good description of Woodstock). Edo and Gala have Grapefruit, Pomegranate, orange, lemon and Olive trees right on their property, besides huge bushes of Lemongrass, Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, Goldenseal and tons more I'm not even aware of. Within a few minutes of arriving Dante was running around having a blast playing with the other kids like he'd been there forever and the two cats and little kitten. We went to a chicken coop that had a goat running around and the next day we went into Akko and explored the old city and market before heading back to pick up Gala from work. The pix here are a few of the shots I took and a video. The rest are here; and you tube.

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More Pix from Halloween

Here's more pix of Dante and Lulu at Thompkins Square Park. Even though Dante refused to wear his dinosaur costume, his flapping wings and dragging tail put smiles on everyones face

New words

Yesterday D and I were reading a book and I asked in Hebrew what a cow says. "Moo" than this morning what a cat says in Hebrew again " Meow"

Dante's Halloween costume with Lulu

This was a super hit. At one point on Saturday when we were walking around in Tompkins square park with Dante and Lulu - 6 - yes - 6 - different people with cameras were taking pix of the two of them at the same time.