Our Aliyah - Day #1

Sunday, September 7th - Go to JFK. See Friedman cousins who did a wonderful job shlepping bags! What would we have done without them?? Kalman and Eli stop by to say goodbye along with Mr. and Aliza Starshefsky. Catch the end of the goodbye ceremony and eat Israeli flag cake - Jonah was excited there were blueberrys on it. Head to the terminal and board the plane. We are in row 57 ......last row of the plane. But seats recline so that's a relief. Jonah complains because he doesn't have window seat or even a window seat row. But the one across from us seems empty so he takes it. Keeps checking to see if the TV's are on yet. They were showing a little slideshow with pictures from Israel. Sammy is already being crazy and not wanting to sit still. So I chase after him for awhile. Flight was supposed to leave at 2pm. We boarded maybe 15 minutes before then. And then we sat and sat and sat. It seemed like the back section was pretty empty but at about 3pm it started filling up. Apparently "Final Boarding Call" doesn't really mean final boarding call. People are still in the aisles putting away their stuff, getting settled - and the plane starts to move. No, please be seated everyone or anything of the sort. Just starts driving.....
We sat on the runway for another half hour or so. There were lots of planes in front of us waiting in line. Jonah was getting impatient. Our seats were strange. We had 4 but the rows were 3, 3, and 3. So we had the 3 seats in the middle and one on the side (next to 2 boys). Our middle row was the last row and the single seat was the second to last row. The back 2 side rows were empty. So Jonah took over one and I sat with him. Sammy was crawling all over us trying to get to the window and stepping on Jonah so he went with Shauli to the other window seat. That's where we did take-off.
Jonah was happy once the TV's were on and he went from movies to TV shows to games. He was very independant sitting in his own little row.
Sammy on the other hand. Also somewhat independent but that meant he just wanted to run all over the plane and smile at everyone. His favorite game was running up the aisles and down the aisles. And up the aisles and down the aisles......... and falling. Again and again and again.
Both boys stayed wide awake until about the last 2 or 3 hours of the flight. Oh joy. Then Ifinally convinced Jonah to lay down across his seats. And although I tried again and again and again to get Sammy to sleep, he refused. But I handed him over to Shauli and BOOM he was out. Does Shu have the magic touch or was he just so tired that he finally fell asleep?
Then I finally went to sleep for the first time that flight. And after about a half hour, they woke me up for breakfast. Yum. That's what I want to eat at 10:30pm........
And I guess that counts for Day 1..........

STAY TUNED................................