Like a mother attached to her baby via the umbilical cord, you are seemingly attached to your blog.

Baruch habah. Thanks for letting us know all is well.

P.S. Tell Elana and David that TorontoPearl says shalom.

glad you arrived safely.

i guess i have a different perspective concerning babies on planes, as i travelled with a 2-year-old to israel this past summer.

just be happy you did not sit in front of us. he not only cried the whole flight--he kicked as well.

on the one hand i tried to ignore people's stares or return my own stare that said "next time don't be cheap and fly first class if you want it quiet." on the other hand i do feel bad and i think that planes should have baby-only sections the way they used to have smoking sections.

Robert

That's why they invented earplugs, blindfolds, Bose noise-reducing headphones and Ambien.

As a fairly frequent flyer to Israel I have learned how to minimize the pain.

I once boarded a full flight at the last minute for which I had not reserved a seat, and ended up in the dread middle seat. In the window seat was a man with a baby, which shrieked in my ear until I finally got up and told the attendant I couldn't stand anymore and just had to walk to another part of the plane for awhile. Turned out there were a few seats near the back so I got to escape.

Robert, I sent you an email. I'm going to be in Israel next month and wanted to pick your brain a bit - when are you getting home?

I don't think there is any easy solution to the "shrieking baby on plane syndrome" for anyone involved. I've been lucky in that Jordan usually only gets upset on the plane for about 5 minutes, (right after we land and we're waiting to get off), and that's it. Long plane rides are just not something that little babies can endure and even the best parents can't soothe a child a lot of the time. But to ask everyone else to just swallow it is hard too... it's group misery. So I think this is a time for the techies out there to invent something to make it better. Cones of silence? Truly safe sleep medication for kids? I don't know but maybe someone at the Technion who's been on one too many El-Al flights will come up with something!

We considered medication for our mildly autistic 6-year old when we flew to Hawaii this summer. In the end, we decided the risks were too great for the potential benefit. Turns out he loved the flight and did okay; I don't think he really bothered anyone.

On the other hand, many years back, we flew to visit my mother and took our (then) six-month-old daughter with us. She screamed the whole time. It was the last time, until this summer, that we flew anywhere.

Where are you going to shul during your stay in Efrat?

Pearl:

I feel an obligation to keep my readers up to date on my travels. It's also a fine way for me to kvetch.

Ari:

I didn't stare at the parents, they were doing the best job they could do. It was horrible for the babies, for the passengers, for the parents.

Azriel:

Earplugs: Check
Ambien: Check
Incredibly boring, wretched in-flight Israeli movie: Check

The shrieking cut through all like a hot knife through butter.

Yehudit:

This is a short trip. We'll be back by next Sunday. Grrrrr. Feel free to pick what's left of my so-called brain.

Jake:

Agree with you completely. No easy solutions. Can't just ask parents to drug their babies. A nice little sound-proof bubble that drops from the ceiling sounds great--very Jetsons.

Kent:

I know it must be torture for the parents also, that's why we didn't stare daggers at the parents. Very thoughtful of you to wait so long.

Jeremiah:

It's the shul that David drives me to. No idea what it's called. He drives, I daven.

kent:

isn't hawaii great? i went there for my honeymoon.

you should know that the common meds parents use to sedate kids on planes can actually have the opposite effect and make them hyper.

"It was the last time, until this summer, that we flew anywhere."

after my trip to israel to israel this summer with my 2-year-old i swore i would never fly with him again--except to israel. (but we had additinional problems with him in addition to the flight.)