Graduation Day

From left to right, Miri, Liat, Michal, Avital, Yochevet and Moi.
We were missing just Esty, who just had a baby, a new friend for me. Mazal tov!  

Who knew that before I even turned one I would be earning my first diploma already! I didn't even have to go to kindergarten to receive this.


Sunday was my last day of the Me and My Mommy Program at Shalva, an auspicious occasion with a parting meeting with all of my instructors and therapists. Since October, every Sunday, we went to Shalva for "spa day" as mommy called it, unless we were in the US, or there was a Jewish holiday, or I was having heart surgery. We spent many weeks and we made many friends, both among the staff and the other families there.

My first diploma!

According to the certificate, I finished my year with distinction, at the top of my class. Sure, I was the only one in my class, but I was the top, not the bottom, which is commendable to be sure. When I started in October I was just a tiny baby, 2 months old and still in that newborn coma in which we all begin. But I soon began to recognize that spa day wasn't all fun and games. There was actual work couched in between massages and bubbles. Even in the pool some workouts were involved.


But despite the work I made some good friends, both adults and babies, and it was a nice way to mark the first year of my life. Admittedly, I had many meltdowns due to over exertion, infringement upon nap time, sudden hunger pains and bad sleeps at night that left me a tad grumpy during the day. 


And then there were my inadvertent dives into the pool - oops! Yes, twice I lost my balance while on the mat in the pool and went head first into the water. I wasn't happy about either of those times, although one of them was a dive that could probably have rated a 10 in the Olympics. It was a beautiful, one-and-a-half-rotation forward flip. The crying that ensued also rated a 10 - on the Richter Scale!


Those were rare moments and because of the gravity of the situation were not captured on video. These, however, were. On my very last day, Grandma came to see me in the pool. I had saved all of my hidden talents just for this very moment. No one had seen me do this before, but I paddled on all fours in the water and even alone! THIS was captured on video. And then for the first time, I was dunked under water, this time in a controlled manner, not an accidental dive off of the mat.  And here I am in both of these instances:

Bye bye for now Shalva, see you in the fall! Shalom!

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