Koala has been going through some stuff at gan lately.

Boy stuff, school stuff, three stuff, soon-to-be four stuff (stuff Dr. Seuss didn’t write about this one so it looks like I may do the job for him).

Anyway, on Friday I took him for a mother-son ‘adventure’ (his word, not mine) through the valley that splits Tzur Hadassah. It’s my favorite place in our area; it looks small and insignificant on the outside, but it’s an illusion… When you’re in it, it’s suddenly this untouched world of rare grass, thick bushes, climbable rocks, blue mountains in the backdrop. A unicorn might bound past you at any moment.

Quiet, serene, and the perfect place to let a boy think out loud.

We chatted about some of his gan troubles, and held a quick hippie therapy session:

“When this kid tries to hit L, she says to him, אל תרביץ לי!”
“That’s a great thing to yell. Let’s do that.”
“What?”
“Yell, don’t hit me! Just the way L does. Go, do it.”

He stares at me.

“I’ll do it with you. Ready?”

We stop walking, I look at him, and together we yell at the forest: אל תרביץ לי!!!

Koala took my hand and we climbed up rocks, took in the view, sought out flowers, discussed trees, and my little boy even broached the subject (once again) of why girls don’t have penises.

Our moods were good – his troubles off his chest for a bit, and I was finally getting some fresh air after a long depressing week.

We walked deeper into the valley, along the muddy road, which had frozen horse tracks in soft ground leftover from the week before.

‎”Hey, Koala! Check it out! those are the footprints of a horse – horse prints!”
“Yeah! I see so many!”

We live next to a horse farm, but Koala hadn’t put the two together. To him, this was magical.

“Let’s count. Wow. Horse prints everywhere.”

…15 minutes later…

“So Ima, where is it?”
“What?”
“This horse prince…”