Results

Well I owe you all the results of my trip. I think It was extremely successful and the kids were great.
I believe all the planning that my husband and I did really paid off.
Kids slept a little, ate and played on the flight to Israel. They got really antsy with about two hours to go but made it smoothly until landing.
I got them to go to sleep (finally) by having them fall asleep on the floor under the bassinet and then moving them to a seat. The hype was mostly self-induced because we were anxious that they needed to sleep.
But I realized that I can't expect them to sleep as much on the plane.
For what we were asking them to do they were great. Oh and the baby was great too.
The hardest part about the flight there was managing the luggage strollers and children in the airport. The kids ate and slept Thursday night when we arrived at my brother’s and sister-in-law’s house. I kept waking up thinking I heard them but of course they were sound asleep. That got us off to a great start. We were able to enjoy a full day of activities on Friday and got us onto a normal sleep schedule.
Friday - Day 1:
Ramat Gan Zoo
We borrowed my brother’s car and managed to get lost while trying to drive like aggressive Israelis. We met up with my sister and family at the zoo and had a blast. The kids enjoyed themselves!
In the evening the kids went to the park. After dinner it took a while to get them to bed but again they slept thru the night.
Saturday (Shabbos) - Day 2:
Quiet day at brothers house. Kids slept late and got to eat and play a lot. It was such beautiful weather! We hung around the house most of the day, rested, and got ready for a busy, busy week.

Saturday night we took a cab/mini-bus to our hotel in Jerusalem. We tortured the kids by taking them out for late-night pizza. We enjoyed but the kids were cranky by the time they got to bed.

Sunday through Wednesday will be posted in next blog post. I don’t have time to write up all the details but I wanted to give you all SOME of my experiences…

My Dreaded Flight

Tonight is the night I have been dreading for the past few months. My husband and I are taking our 3 children, ages 4 and under on a 12 hour plane trip… 12 hours!!! 12!!! Are we C.R.A.Z.Y.?

So as we embark on this long trip, we have prepares out kids in a few ways:

1. We explained that the airport has lines, lines, and more lines and we need to wait on them. Hope this is a lesson in patience.

2. We told the kids several times that we will be sleeping on the flight (overnight flight) and we are going to dress them in pajamas for that purpose. We are bringing along their “kikis” or blankets, and their letter “A” and “K” pillows.

3. We brought medicines—not to drug the kids, but to have on hand:

a. Benadryl for nausea

b. Tylenol for regular pain

c. Orajel for teething (2^nd tooth coming in any minute)

4. We gave each kid her own carry-on so they have coloring books, crayons, silly putty, snacks, and treats.

5. We uploaded music to our ipods for them to have and got a DVD player and DVDs.

6. We told story after story about plane rides in the hopes that they will understand what we are about to embark on. Somehow Kayla thinks that “no bad people” go on planes. From her mouth to G-d’s ears! I hope that’s a good assessment of El Al.

7. I tweeted constantly about strollers, car-seats, tips, and ideas when flying and finally decided to bring 1 double stroller, 1 snap n go with the infant car seat, and 2 boosters with a back. Thanks to all who contributed to that conversation.

8. And finally, I am sure no matter how much preparation I have put in, I will be completely overwhelmed by tantrums and overtired children in the airport. Hopefully they will sleep on the plane (did I bring too much entertainment for them to actually sleep?).

9. If I have low expectations, I am bound to be impressed by our successful journey… right???

Only time will tell. Here’s to hoping we don’t get thrown off the plane for unruly conduct by the “bad people” and the flight attendants.

WISH ME LUCK!

….results to follow….

My impressions of Google Wave so far (day1):

It seems like a nice collaborative tool. I could have used it in grad school while I was working on my year-long project with a team of students and a few organizations.

It doesn’t work in explorer, which I am ok with since I use chrome but I see that they want you to really make the commitment to google.

It is hard to find contacts. If the concept is social networking and collaboration, there should be twitter-like activity where you can follow contacts even if you do not know their email addresses.

I see now that you gain wave contacts by being involved in waves with other people who have those connections. It's hard to find people on wave!

Wave should import your contacts from other email services.

Wave needs what we iphone users call push status notification. I can’t tell when someone has edited or added to a wave.

I wonder if there is a way to “stay online” like with g-chat without keeping the whole browser open. I have to explore… which leads me to my last point…

As with all social media and new technology… you learn by using it and experimentation. Don’t try to “read the manual” or get it all from the youtube video with Dr. Wave. It won’t help.

I assume if I use it, I earn wave invites. Not sure if that is the real system, but I would like to extend invitations as so many people are pining to discover what I have been privy too.

People: I’m not sure if this is the wave of the future…!