You’ve certainly got to hand it to the kid for his impeccable timing.

Yakir started to flip yesterday, and he seems to have perfected the skill overnight. He’s quite tickled with himself, as are his brothers (as you’ll see in the video below).

What makes his timing so perfect? Well, yesterday and today mark the beginning of the month of Adar (Adar II this year) – the month when Purim falls.

And if you live in Israel, you would have to be hiding under a very large boulder not to know that the month of Purim has begun. Today, many children dressed up for school (in preparation for the holiday that is still 10 days away!), and they ran through the halls singing a specific Purim song and bursting into the various classrooms. My four year old tells me that even the nearby nursery school filled with 2 year olds came into his class to surprise the big 4 year olds. What a country.

All of my children came home with painted faces and with new “rules” that the students have created for the month of Adar. They flip the school rules on their head this month, and the kids get to dictate (to a degree) a number of ways that the school is run until Purim. Yes, it’s organized chaos at its best.

The story of Purim is all about mistaken identities, flipping things on their heads, misperceptions and the like. Queen Ester hides her Jewish identity from the King; Haman tells the King that the best way to honor someone worthy (thinking it’s for himself) is to parade him through the streets on a horse – and he is then forced to do this for Mordechai; Haman vows to kill the Jews and constructs gallows for the purpose, only to end up on it himself. The list goes on and on.

And so, on this day, that marks the beginning of the month of Purim, when everything gets flipped around, Yakir has learned to FLIP!

Way to go buddy! Getting in the Purim spirit already at 4 months of age: