Flying With A Toddler

3 flights and 10 time zones in 3 1/2 days and we marvel at our daughter’s ability to adapt and go with the flow. Hadarya did great on the way to Salt Lake City; playing nicely with the 2 other kids, sitting on the floor in the middle of the aisle, and sharing all her new toys. We were pretty proud of her. She perked up in Salt Lake City and ran and ran and laughed and played…even took to standing in the stroller where Yiftach caught her just before she pitched over backwards; all within my view! My heart stopped beating for 30 seconds as I watched in slow motion. We quickly remembered that the stroller we bought had a flip handle so you could view your child while strolling instead of not seeing them until it’s too late. 4 laps around the quiet end of the terminal put our baby girl to sleep before our 12:01 flight to JFK. She slept through the beginning of the flight but woke up after the announcements crying in her sleep trying to get comfortable. She asked for “nigh-night” several times and pointed out of the plane. Try explaining that to a less than 2 year old!

Our longest flight was the one to Tel Aviv which was 10 hours, 20 minutes flying time. We were the last passengers to board the plane, not realizing that 1. they close the doors 30 minutes before take-off for security reasons and 2. we had to go through another security checkpoint before getting on the plane. That included dumping out all the water I had just filled in my container and Hadarya's too! We were very lucky that we had 3 seats with no one in the middle and Hadarya got her own seat. She slept for almost 1/2 the flight and then awoke ready to play. Her favorite toy by far was the seat belt! She did really well with all the new toys we gave her, eating snacks, and being entertained, despite the fact that we did not have our Elmo DVD on hand. She ended up a happy kid with 2 tired parents but we made it to Israel in one piece.

The hardest part was the passport control. We had no stroller as they decided our gate checked stroller was really luggage and it got checked through. Our superb daughter handled it better than her aba and had a ball running through the terminals to get to baggage claim...a lot of them mind you! Then we got to the passport control: long lines, sweating, with people cutting, holding a toddler who is over tired with a diaper bag on my back for about 45 minutes. Yiftach goes through on his Israeli passport and has a fast pass that put him through in 20 seconds. He was beginning to get nervous as we took so long. What a relief when we finally got through! I totally wanted to cry from the sheer emotional toll of being overtired and having to wait sooo long. BUT again we made it through and that feeling as we came through customs with throngs of people waiting and staring at those who come through the doors was overwhelming. WE WERE IN ISRAEL!

Then Noam, our cousin, was at our side and his amazing graciousness of picking us up and taking us to Jerusalem began.