Here's Why

People keep asking us: "Why India?"  Well that's a bit of a lie- that question comes in second place. The most popular question is "How do you plan to educate the kids?" I can't help but get the Al Bundy look when I hear that one. 

I will let you figure out how we will educate the girls on a trip around the world that begins in one of the most culturally rich countries. So there. 

I will however entertain the next question:

WHY INDIA?

Some people add an "Oy Vey" to the question - you know- just in case I didn't pick up on the sarcasm in their tone of voice. (For those of you who did not live in the Jewish state of New York- that is a technical way of saying "Oh God" with a big dash of guilt thrown on top.)

I guess these are some of the things that pop into their minds.

Indian cities are a great place to view wildlife. Okay- maybe they are slightly over populated and just a bit dirty. Not recommended if you need to keep track of your kids though.

Just a tad over quota. At least you meet really interesting people. 

Is it considered child abuse to make Naia and Amit - ages 6 and 4- use diapers again?

On the brighter side- squatting makes it easier to empty your bowels. 

I am looking forward to this:

Just kidding. This is called a chillum. If you like pot- you will really love this. It is a pipe that packs a huge hit. I almost died my first (and last) time. 

Really- I am a simple gal. Just looking forward to some good ole family time. (If we find a nice Tibetan nanny along the way, I will not complain either). We are not going away to escape or because we think an adventure will enlighten, improve, change us (although it might). We are doing this trip to have a way to spend time together as a family.

Stay tuned.

Will You Sublet our Placenta?

Packing up house is no joke. The tough thing for us seems to be that the majority of stuff can only be dealt with at the last minute. We are storing a lot of stuff in our basement, some things staying in the closets, and many things being thrown away. Please do not tell the girls that I dumped many of their toys. One of the main drags- emptying the kitchen....I am furiously trying to cook all of our beans and grains - I hate to waste food.

Itay called me today and suggested that maybe our subletters want us to leave us some of the food we have in the freezer. I think he was joking. Then one of us remembered The Placenta. OH NO! The bloody placenta (literally). Why do I even have placenta in my freezer? As a vegetarian, each time I see it - I need to remind myself that it is not meat that someone snuck into our house and forgot. It is there because having babies does crazy shit to you. When Amit was born at home 4 years ago, we agreed to keep the placenta and plant it in the garden under a new plant or tree. After all- there is a whole movement of placenta-saving-cooking-drying out-pulverizing-stuffing into capsules and eating movement out there. People pay others to come to their house post birth and make these pills for them. It is a profession. Planting ours seemed totally benign.  Did we? Of course not. We are dreamers and planners and rarely do we actually accomplish what we envisioned. We just wrapped it up and stuck it in the freezer to be planted at a later date. Then comes Avigail - born at home- placenta saved again to be planted. Regardless that we had done nothing with Amit's placenta, we decided that throwing Avigail's away would be sacrilege. 

Now these really nice and straight laced lawyers are moving in. I think they would be really freaked out if I ask them to babysit our placenta. It might foil our plans and we are thisclose to leaving for India.  

My options:

1. Do an internet search for "Placenta storage facilities" - they must exist in Park Slope. Maybe even at the Food Coop. 

2. Throw it away. No chance - I am not ready to part with the placenta yet. Did you know that it is the ONLY organ a vegetarian can eat. Any takers?

3. Ask my mom and dad to babysit the placenta (they might accidentally eat it. Or pretend that it was "misplaced" during passover cleaning)

4. Leave it in the freezer and say nothing (might get eaten, or worse thrown away)

5. Take it to India. Just kidding. 

6. Ask a friend to babysit it (hint hint)
7. Plant it in the garden finally. No- that would require actually being proactive and getting bitten by mosquitos. Two of my least favorite activities.
8. Put it on Craigslist. Free placenta anyone? I might have half of Brooklyn interested. 

I know! I got it - we will eat it for dinner tonight. Anyone want to come over for dinner?

A Few Birds with One Stone

As we are nearing our D Date (have you heard- we are off to travel the world for a year or two or more) - the amount of things to do is dizzying. Of Course. The height of this madness sure to be the day we need to move. Itay will conveniently drive the girls to the Cape while I finish all the last things. Sweet. But until then, we are trying to keep the family sane while being productive. Keeping the family sane entails trying not to change too much of our surroundings while still trying to pack up a house. Interesting task. Sunday afternoon project- Itay has amassed a huge pile of paper to be shredded- and decided today that we could shoot a few bits with one stone.

Birds are:
- Destroy papers with sensitive info
- Entertain girls
- Use up art supplies no longer needed and that we do not want to store

Stones:
- PAINT - tons of it
- Ok- some face paint too as you will see

The Arsenal

Genius plan:
Put the girls on the deck with all the papers. Give them a bucket, water, art supplies, and tell them to go crazy.

So happy

Painting Each Other

They did.

We ate dinner, drank wine, and laughed at the folly. Then the funnies part was that Amit- covered in face paint could not get it off. She will probably be covered for the rest of the week. It is pretty funny.

Itay gets in on the fun

Looking forward to many more moments together like this.

India - here we come!