High Holy Days-Israel 2013

September is a busy month for Israel. (please note that many of the cities I have mentioned are linkable to wikipedia for information about the city)

First Israel celebrated Yom Kippur, also known as Day of Atonement. It is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with 25 hour fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue services.

As we live in an Arab area we are not generally affected by the holiday's. But when it comes to Yom Kippur, all of Israel shuts down. Stores are closed, bus service stops, the airport closes, as a Jew you are not allowed to drive, or use any electronic devices. Jews also are required to fast for 25 hours. Needless to say there were a few emergency room visits, people passing out and hitting their heads and even a death of a child who fell into a ritual bathing pool. Yom Kippur also landed on the weekend, Friday and Saturday, so there was no days off of work to be missed for Jay. 

We knew that Yom Kippur was one of the Holiest days for Jews, but we honestly didn't give it much thought as we headed out to Caesarea to hang out on the beach for a few hours. Then we got a phone call from a relative warning us about rock throwers and to be careful. We had second thoughts about going, but figured if we saw any danger we would just turn around and come home. The streets outside of town were oddly quiet, but there were still a few cars driving here and there. When we got to the beach, there were only about 20 other people. As the sun slowly set a few Jewish families showed up and set up huge encampments. A few other Arab families were there enjoying the peace and quiet of a Friday night on the beach. Around 8pm we decided that it was dark enough that we couldn't enjoy the beach any longer and headed out. What a strange drive home! From Caesarea to Marja, it's about 20 km (12.5 miles). The drive is on a typically busy road and then into the Arab village of Baqa el Gharbiyya and then onto our village of Marja. From Caesarea to Baqa, we passed 2 cars, more than likely other Arab families. It was very eerie driving along the road with no other cars any where around us. When we got home I happened to look out our large picture window, and noticed that things looked a little different. Then I realized why. Highway 6 was completely empty. One of the busiest highways in Israel was empty of cars. Not a solitary car passed by that night. 

We did not run into any rock throwers that night, but the next day a relative of ours decided to go visit a friend in a large town south of here called Tayibe. On the way you pass by 3 Kibbutz, Bahan, Bat Hefer and Yad Hana. She had rocks thrown at her car as she passed by. Fortunately she was uninjured and was able to make it home with out any damage done to her car. 

This week marks the start of Sukkot I will let Wikipedia explain that one for you. So far I have seen truck loads of palm fronts being driven all over the place, and one of the most interesting was when I visited a mall in Kfar Saba yesterday.  There are several restaurants outside of the mall. They had Sukkot huts set up outside so that if you wanted to enjoy a meal out and still be observant, you could dine in the hut. I wish I had taken a picture, but I was too embarrassed to feel like a weird American tourist taking pictures of the natives so to speak, but here is a picture from google of a similar one. But it was covered on the roof with palm fronds. 

Israeli Pastimes

I have been thinking for months about this posting. And over the past year that we have been here in Israel, a few things have become very clear to me. Israel has many pastimes.
1. Cleaning.
Woman of Israel are obsessed with cleaning. At least the Arab women I know. I haven't been to any Jewish houses to witness their level of cleanliness, but Arab women are OCD about cleaning.
They typically wake up before the rest of the household and begin their daily routine. Generally that consists of sweeping the entire house, then dumping soapy water all over the floors, and squeegeeing it outdoors. Sometimes that is only done once a week. Thank goodness because it can be an arduous task. Then they clean the bathrooms, and the kitchen. You will not find nary a crumb or speck of dust in an Arab household if there is even a whisper of a guest coming over. The house must appear perfect at all times. Children will be kicked outdoors or into their bedrooms as to appear they do not belong to the household or that they are the most perfect children in the community.
As an American coming into this, I have been overwhelmed. Houses here are designed as showpieces. All flooring is tile. Which is amazing for allergies by the way. But it shows EVERYTHING. Bedrooms area always either on a separate floor, or separated by doors, like in our house. You also have a "guest toilet" that is only used for guests. It's kept in immaculate, no one has ever pooped in this room cleanliness.
Our main living room has an enormous picture window. The window guy was in horror over the thought of a solid piece of glass in the center, framed by smaller windows on the sides that can be opened. "HOW ARE YOU GOING TO CLEAN IT!!!". That was his concern. How was I going to clean it. A few other choices of ours were followed by, "it's not as easy to clean as the other style". That is ok. I want THIS style. For the record, cleaning has not been an issue. Several times a year the windows in the bedrooms, and kitchen are removed for a hose down. Those windows consist of 5-10 parts. The first part is the glass itself. Then a single screen, then the shutters. They are all completely removable for ease of cleaning. I spend 1-2 hours a day doing basic cleaning, sweeping, kitchen duty, straightening up etc. And I take one day a week to do a thorough go over on the rest of the house. Once every few months, I do a HOLY CRAP, lets get the house CLEAN. My mother would not believe this was my house.
2. A tie between Cooking and Eating.
Somehow between all that cleaning, women cook. They make dinner in the morning. I kid you not. During the school year kids go to school early. Around 7:45am. So typically they drink their Nescafe ( a hot milk and instant coffee concoction that everyone from the age of 2-190 drinks, except my kids) then they take a snack to school for breakfast (10:30 am). Then they come home starving to death at 2:30, which is when they eat their main meal of the day, which mom conveniently made as soon as they left for school while they were cleaning. In the evening they will have a light snack, sometimes boiled eggs. Pastrami sandwiches, Tea with toasted cheese sandwiches.. And they finish the night off with Nescafe.
Now, as far as I can tell, men either take a break from work at this time, head home to join in on the meal, or if you work for a large company like my husband, work provides food for you!!! He gets about $10-15 a day in food allowance. He is given a card at which he can use at over 120 locations! He discovered a sandwich shop down the street where he can get a sandwich, a bowl of fruit, and a tall glass of freshly make carrot juice for less than his daily allowance. Plus, at work they have an espresso and tea bar, and enough cookies, pastries and candy to make anyone diabetic. He as the choice of going to the buffet, but it's filled with really heavy food that is difficult to eat at noon. We don't eat red meat. Which has led to a lot of "What do you mean you don't eat no meat!" Via, My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
3. Smoking.
I swear all the men smoke here!! Arab women in general do not smoke, Jewish women do. But the men. I think they had out packs of cigarettes when you enter high school. It's like the 1950's here where teens are only "cool" if you smoke.And they smoke everywhere. Coffee shops, the paint store. The tile store, the hardware store, the fruit shops, more than likely in hospitals... OH! I am pretty sure we were in a doctors office once and the doctor was smoking... holding babies. Inside cars. On the beach. Everywhere.
4. Peeing on the side of the road. 
This has to be one of the oddest. But it happens everywhere. At first Jay thought it was an isolated incident. Until we started driving him to work along the main freeway. Then everyday along the 32km drive, we would see 3-4 people pulled over. And they don't HIDE the fact that they are PEEING BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD!. They get of their car, and just stand there peeing!! Jewish and Arab alike. Some at least stop at the bus stop and try to hide behind the shelter. But I have seen more men just whip it out and proudly pee. Parents holding their little girls, mid air, to pee. In parks too. I have gotten used to allowing Zane to pee on the nearest tree, or the farthest depending on how crowded the park is.
5. Speeding and in general ignoring any and all driving laws.
I can not even go into detail on this one. Motorcycles follow no known laws that I have ever seen. Other than stopping at red lights. Speed limits. Oh? Are there speed limits? Passing only on the left? ha! For sissies! You have to have balls to drive here. Somehow I found mine and have become the main driver. Go figure!

Sticks and Stones

It's funny how 30 years after an off handed comment was made, that I still think about it.
I was around 11 years old. I was off to a friends house for a slumber party. We were friends through Church, or my old school. I can't really remember. Her name was Brenda. It was her birthday and I remember being nervous because she was having friends that I had never met before, and some that I knew. She lived in this not so awesome house with an incredibly awesome backyard in an awesome neighborhood. The trees in the area were the tallest I had ever seen inside a city.
This particular sleepover was for her birthday. Her mom sent us on a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood. The typical things, a piece of red thread, an apple, those types of things that would be easy to find. The twist was that we had to dress up in clothes from Brenda's dress up trunk. I grabbed out a dress to put on. It fit, but I could not do up the buttons in the back. I remember Brenda's mom coming in and saying, "Maybe we can find Erin a shawl or something. These dresses aren't really made for someone as... FULL as Erin is."
In other words. The dresses were made for FLAT chested girls. Not ones with boobs. It literally ruined my entire night. I was so self-conscience of my chest for the rest of the night, that I hung out at the back of the group as to not flaunt the fact that the gap at the back of the dress had to be covered with a shawl. I remember how I could not wait for morning to come and my parents to arrive to get me.
That was the last time I ever saw Brenda. I refused to go over to her house ever again.
Parents, please. Be aware of the words that you use around your Daughters, and around her friends.
Sometimes off handed comments can stick with people for a long long time. Especially when they are in that awkward stage in life where body parts are doing strange things.

The Eyeball

Today started out like any other day. Woke up at 6:45 to get Lena ready for school. Woke up Jay at 8 to get him ready for work. Did my grocery shopping. But that is where it all went to hell.
We don't have a water dispenser yet so every week I have to buy bottles of water. (Don't worry, we recycle them) The tap water here is just gross. Anyway Zane likes to cut open the plastic that holds the six pack of bottles together. For 6 months now he has done this without incident. Until today. There is and always will be an "Until today".
First he got his plastic toy knife from his toys. But when that proved to be insufficient, he got one of these out.

It looks innocent enough. But when a nearly 3 year old is using it, nothing is innocent. Everything is going fine then I heard the knife hit the tile and SCREAAAAMMM!!!
Life literally stopped for a moment as I ran to him.
Somehow he managed to whip the knife up and cut from his cheek, to his eye lid, scratching his cornea.

Now, being an experienced mother, I duly freaked out. I lost it. I got on my OMG voice. You know the one, the one that only mothers use when their child has potentially poked their eyeball out with a butter knife. As I held Zane like a pack of lions was trying to pry him from my arms. I called my husband who in turn called his brother the doctor to find out what we should do. Said brother showed up 30 minutes later to take a look at Zane and arranged an appointment with the ophthalmologist in a few hours. Being a stranger in this country I had NO idea what the F to do. I hate that and it's been one of my fears. I don't even know the number for 911 here, only that it isn't 911. I think it's like 100 or something.

So now he is sleeping peacefully on the couch where I can keep an eye on him.
I do believe this has taken a few years off my life, and a few points off my perfect mommy record.

Care Packages

We just received our care package as I like to call it. Technically it's items that I ordered from the states. I order them from Amazon, or tell my parents what to get, then they box it up and ship it to us. It's a long frustrating wait, waiting for that box to get all the way over here to our little village in Israel. But every time one of those boxes arrive, we all get giddy with excitement as to what this box will hold.
This time it was new books for Zane. Thank goodness as I am getting sick of reading Sammy the Seal, and Rumble in the Jungle over and over and over. It also had 3 new books for Lena. One of which she has yet to set down.

Also included was a nice collection of movies!!! We are so excited to watch them all. TV here is very limited on it's English channels. We have about 8-10 total, and 3 of those are news channels. We have poured through our DVD collection and if I have to watch Ice Age, Toy Story or Madagascar one more time, my head will self destruct.

OTC medication was also included. One thing that is lacking here, is the same variety of  OTC meds at ridiculously low prices (thanks Walmart). Here 16 Advil can run you $8. I had my parents send me 1,000 generic ibuprofen for $13. BIG difference. We now share with the family. 

My one wish would be real mail from friends and family. I really miss friendships and correspondence outside of emails. Christmas cards are the biggest. I know it's a little more to send a card to Israel rather than locally, but if you can spare the buck, please, drop something in the mail to us. Lena LOVES getting things in the mail. She really misses everyone and everything. Little trinkets, toys, books, stickers, post cards... you name it. 

Erin Dacca

P.O. Box 5220

Zemer-Marja, Israel

38828

864 days

2 years, 4 months, 13 days
That is how long it's been since I last updated this blog. And in that time a whole boat load of things have happened. 
First, Zane is a toddler, no longer that super cute giggle monster that I last wrote about. 
Lena is a pre-teen. No longer the toothless wonder that was last seen on here.
And biggest of all, we are living in Israel. 
We left Canada July 15, 2012 and aimed our ship for Israel. We took a detour along the way and visited my parents in Reno for 6 weeks. Jay decided to come straight here and started the construction on our house. It was very difficult for him to be separated and for me to attempt to choose things over the phone and internet. In the long run, he just waited until I arrived. It was so much easier looking back on it, but horrible when dealing with jet-lag and a super cranky 2 year old. 5 months later we moved into our beautiful home! (We live on the second floor.) 

There is actually a lot still to be finished, but it has been an amazing experience to be able to choose every detail of your house and it be be exactly how you want it. 

Here is what the munchkins look like now. All growed up! ;^)

Adventures of Super Zane!

Well, this month has a been a big one! Rolling over both ways was a great way to start it off! 

This boy is a like a machine. I swear he is going to be crawling any day now. He just wants to get up and RUN if he could. He is so curious and wants to explore everything. 

I go two deals of a life time this month. The first one is my Zooper Boogie Stroller. For those of you who don't know, it's like a 4 wheel drive suburban of the stroller world. While we purchased a car back in November, I still walk a LOT. And being that we live in Canada, there is what we call snow. Now, an ordinary stroller will not work in the snow. Trust me. I see mom's struggling daily trying to put their tiny 4-5" wheels through the fluffy, and often slushy white stuff. 

The Zooper Boogie has 12", yes, 12" air filled wheels. I have no problem getting through the snow. Zane sits up high and can see out when I don't have him buried under 4 layers to protect him from the wind. It's a nice smooth ride for him. Plus, it has a HUGE basket underneath, so I can run to the grocery store with it. =) 

I did have to re-organize our storage locker so I would have a place to store it, because it takes up some serious space. 

Oh, and the retail price PRE TAX is $460. What did I pay for it you ask? $50 thanks to craigslist and a dad who just wanted it out of the garage! 

My second deal was the nothing wrong with it, high chair found in the what the heck do I do with it pile in the basement. Everyone drops things off down there by the recycling. Things like old couches, broken TV's, you name it. Well, I was headed off to Walmart to look at a booster style seat for Zane as he drives us up the flipping wall wanting to participate in dinner. I spied this on the way to my car. I grabbed the other seat, just in case, and it will now be returned.

Despite all our attempts to not let Zane have any solids until between 6-9 months have been obliterated. The boy MUST have food. He freaks out when he sees us eat and wants what ever it is in his mouth. 

We have moved on from the rice cereal. 

I started with Banana's. He loves sweet potatoes. And I just tried some yogurt, which he LOVED. Today I got some pear to make, some avocado and some applesauce. 

Lena never did the baby food thing. She just wasn't interested in food until later. Which was fine. But Zane has his own agenda!

I have some great pictures of him using one of these, filled with banana. Kept him entertained for a good 30 minutes. He had to be taken out and hosed down afterwards. But it was oh so much fun! 

New Year! 2011

Happy New Year to everyone out there.
Just before the new year rolled around, Zane got his two lower teeth in. But, on New Years Day, he learned something big. He could roll from his back to his tummy, but struggled with rolling back onto his back. So we were over visiting with family when Zane was lying on the floor and low and behold, he did it! It surprised him at first, but he did it! He actually gets stuck a few times still, it is a new talent after all.
Another thing is that he really really lets us know when it's nap time now. It seems to be going on a schedule that he made up and he does really well if we assist him in sleeping longer than 35-45 minutes. A good 90 minutes to 2 hours really does him good.
He has decided 9pm is a good bedtime and I am sticking to it.
Lena is doing really well. She is struggling with her teacher this year. A woman who it seems would rather sit at home with her Tim Horton's than be at school teaching. The kids are suffering for it and we mean to put a stop to it. We are going to schedule a meeting with the principal this week to try to get her transferred to a new school. Not even into a new classroom, but as far and away as possible from this school.

Videos

Fast forward to about 1minute in.

4 Months

We are one day shy of being 4 months old, and guess what I woke up to this morning. A tooth!

Zane decided that 7am was a fun time to start singing and sucking on his fingers. I tried to ignore him and pat him back to sleep, but he wasn't having any of it. So I stuck my knuckle into his mouth to see if he was still hungry. And what do I feel? Something sharp poking back at me! A tooth broke though the bottom right side!

At this rate he will be crawling next month and walking at 8 months! 

And now it is Tuesday. He had his appointment this morning. He weighs in at a whopping 18lbs! My goodness! No wonder I can hardly hold him any more, and all his clothes are getting too small! He is also 26" long. 

We went to visit Santa yesterday. Lena and Zane sat on his lap. Lena asked for binoculars. Zane, just sat there. =) 

I looked in his mouth today and it looks like he is following his sister and will soon be getting a twin tooth with in the week. The tooth next to the one that just came in, is just under the skin. 

Just a few more days until Christmas! This time last year Jay and I were holding our breaths waiting to tell Lena that after 7 long years she was going to FINALLY be a big sister... although at this rate, Zane is going to be bigger than her! 

December 2010

Here we are at the end of the year already. I can't believe that one year ago, I found out I was pregnant with Zane! Amazing how time goes by so quickly.
Like how it's been a MONTH since I last posted on this blog. Shame on me!
Since my last entry, Zane has figured out how to roll over! At 3 months and 10 days old too!
He is doing really well, he is about 15lbs and close to 25" long. BIG boy! I am constantly finding clothes in his drawers that don't fit any longer. Which is so different from when Lena was a baby. She stayed in the clothings sizes for so long! She was still in 0-3 month at this point, where Zane is quickly heading into 6-9 month already! I have been pulling clothes out that I thought he wouldn't fit into for another month or more, and BAM! They fit or are on the small side already! I know have to find him a new snow suit for when we go outside to play in the snow! His is just too small now. Good think I am a deal hunter!
He is talking up a storm, his newest babble is diittthhhh. He loves to have conversations with anyone who will sit and talk to him.
He is super ticklish, and we have tickle sessions quite often with him! Unfortunately he got my skin and ends up with bright red stops from where we have been munching on him. His cheeks are constantly red right now. whether it's from all the kisses, or the cold weather, we aren't sure. So he gets lubed up with a heavy lotion several times a day, or they end up chapped.
He is finally doing better in his car seat. Thank God since we bought a CAR!! Yes, nearly 2 years car free, we got a car. WHEW! He still has his moments of a scream fest, but is doing much better, falling asleep or trying to eat his lion. =)
I have lots of pictures to download including a cute one where daddy stuck Zane in a basket.
So I will share those soon!

Giggle Monster Video

Ok, so Cousin Alaa stopped by the other night. I think all our cheeks were going to fall off by the end of the evening. So here are a few video's of Zane, laughing his bum off!

Giggle Monster

I think he is close to the 15lbs mark, about 24" long. And he is quickly out growing his 3-6 month clothes! One day a shirt fits him just fine, the next week I put it on and the sleeves are starting to inch up his arms! I tried to put a pair of pants on that he wore at 4 weeks. HA! What a joke! They fit him up to his knees anyway!
He yells as us when he wants attention and someone to banter with. It is a YELL. Not a scream. But an AHH!!! Like, HEY! Someone pay attention to me! The minute you look at him, he smiles, laughs and will start chattering!
Jay is the best at this so far. I get smiles and agoo's. But Jay gets full out conversations. Alaa, he makes Zane laugh until it looks like his cheeks are going to fall off!
He still loves his pouch to be carried around in, but there have been times where he does an ET impersonation. He stretches his neck out and looks around and up at the tree's. Trying to gather it all in.
One thing that I just adore is that when we wake up at 7am for the day, he is full of smiles. It's like he is so happy to have another day in front of him!
He loves his dog Chip. It's his best buddy. He loves to suck on his hand. The silly boy will not take a pacifier. So different from his sister that constantly had that thing in her mouth for 2 1/2 years. He has also taken to sucking on his bottom lip. And can mimic you when you blow raspberries.
He still hates his stroller and car seat most days. Screams like his arm is being pulled off. Which has made for some interesting drives and trips out of the house.