Happy Birthday to Matan!

Today would have been my brother Matan’s 30th birthday. Even though he is not physically with us today, we still celebrated. My mother and I (and Fiona and John) went to the local nursery and bought a tree to plant in Matan’s honor in the front yard. Right now, it is very close to the Jewish holiday Tu BiShvat. To celebrate Tu Bishvat, we plan trees. I remember growing up in Israel that we frequently planted the trees with little signs to honors people, especially those that passed, so it seemed fitting that for Matan’s birthday, we would plant a tree to honor him. We chose a Holiday avocado tree. It is a dwarf avocado, so hopefully it won’t grow bigger than eight or ten feet, and it produces fruit in the fall and early winter, when avocados are not as plentiful. We are going to plant it next week when my dad can be there too.

 

To Matan, I miss you sooooooo much! There is still not a day that goes by that I do not think of you or see or hear something that reminds me of you. I really wish you were here to meet Fiona, because I know that two of you would love each other. The rest of the post is about what we have been up to in the last week.

Here is Fi, having a little tea party in the backyard, drinking Chamomile tea and eating cookies that she made in class last Thursday:

Fiona uses John’s little espresso cups to drink her tea and if you are not holding your cup by the handle, she will remind you to do so:

Here is Fi riding around on the back of the Toddler Towncar with her friend Nano driving:

 

I’m sorry all the photos are fuzzy, John took them all.

Here is, Fi sitting at the table in John’s usual seat, without the booster chair:

 

Fi grabbed a calendar and lay down on the couch to read it like a magazine:

Then she posed with her glasses:

Ever since Sophie visited, Fiona is very interested in wearing her sun glasses.

That thing she is lying on is the cushion from the bench in the front hallway. Fiona likes to remove it and put it somewhere in the living room, then pile lots of blankets on top and call it a bed.

Well, that’s my recap of the last week. You can see Fi is not only growing into a sweet and polite little girl, she is also very silly and full of fun. I wish you were here to see that for yourself.

I love you Matan!