Reflections on traveling with a toddler...

So, we survived the trip! The plane was not so bad, thanks to Benadryl, but they did lose our gate checked stroller in London (how do you do that??) which we didn't get back until our way BACK through Dulles going home. sigh.
3 days in a car with my good-natured kid? piece of cake. seriously. the 4th day was pretty bad however. We arrived in Washington State at my Parent's with a trashed SUV (crackers and dried formula everywhere) Naked Child (well, she had a diaper on. I didn't have the will to dig out clean clothes from one of our 7 suitcases after her diaper exploded in Eastern Oregon), and two parents with only one nerve left after nearly being blown off the road in Wyoming and nearly being blocked from our end destination by state-wide flooding in Washington. WOW.
It was pure joy to see my parents interact with their only grandkid (for another 6 weeks at least) and be so silly and permissive and un-parent like! Sigh. and I never had to worry if I wanted to leave the baby home, because you know G-ma and G-pa WANT to keep her there!
I've many thoughts about America in general, but I'll save those for another post.

On going back to America

Life as an ex-pat isn't easy. In fact, it's darn hard a lot of the time. Don't get the wrong idea, I love living in Israel, am glad we emigrated here and are raising our Kid(s) here, but sometimes you simply long for the familiar. Like Wal-mart, Target, Safeway (or any real grocery store), Starbucks, etc. And it's hard to be separated from all of your family. Most people who move here have at least some family, but we really have none, and it's been an uphill battle to build a support system here. I still don't have a good babysitter in walking distance. My best option just got engaged, so she's off in la-la land for a while.
But we are going back to the US for a visit in one week. I'm going a bit berserk thinking about traveling in my 3rd trimester with a one year old (Thank G-d the Rabbi is coming!) but I'm really excited just to be "home" with my family for a while. I know it's just a different set of difficulties in America (no kosher meat, or Jewish Milk, having to drive again, instead of walk everywhere, etc.) but at least I will be dealing with people in my native language (and hopefully theirs). And everything is so cheap there (except Jewish stuff, which is very cheap here) that we will be testing the limits of our suitcase allowance with shoes, clothes, Ziplock bags, crystal light, sponges, kitchen knives, high-threadcount sheets (220 is really high here), and anything else I can think of that is really expensive or unobtainable in Israel, but cheap in the US. In exchange I will be bringing Olives, Pomegranate products, Za'atar (Israeli spice), scarves, etc. for family and friends.
So, here's to the exchange of consumer goods, but also to the joy of having 4 generations living on the farm again (however briefly), my daughter being charming to all our friends, getting to feel my BFF's baby kick her tummy, because it will probably be a while until I get to meet him in person, hugging my other BFF because she's going through a tough time and Skype just doesn't cut it, watching my parents play with my daughter, their first grandchild, going as a family to the aquarium for the first time, and everything else. Oh, and if you believe in Prayer, think of us as we drive across the country in Early January with our one-year-old who's longest car trip to date has been 2 hours. Yeah, we're nuts.

I can't believe how much I neglect this blog. People still read it though, so here's something new to look at.
Did you know we have a ZOO in Jerusalem? Seriously. It's built into one of the valleys outside the main city, and it's pretty darn awesome, for Israel. Shevy had her first trip there yesterday and was captivated by it all, and not scared in the petting zoo, like many of the kids are. Go my kid! do I get a mommy prize because she didn't freak when the goats nibbled her toes? OK, maybe not.
Here are the highlights:

Monkeys fail to impress her. She was more interested in the cigarette butts on the ground.


She liked the fish in the Tiger exhibit quite a bit. This means a trip to the Seattle Aquarium in January!
The goats totally cleaned all the crumbs from the stroller, and from her clothes.


We both liked the leopard. Her dad loves the big cats, so we couldn't neglect them!
But it turns out the Bears were her favorite. I thought she was going to pull herself over the fence to get at them!