1. Hebrew words as part of a toddler's vocabulary: Granted, this may be more a product of EG's best friend being from Israel, and her parents speaking to her solely in hebrew, but when we went out to dinner at Ruby's diner, I figured out what 'Chio' meant. Apparently EG really loves hot dogs, but has been asking about them and talking about them using the hebrew word all this time. I know that all children make up words (Puapa meant pen for the longest time), but now I have another thing to think about- is it a real word, just in Hebrew?
EG: Mommy- I have a kippah on my head (pointing to the bucket she's placed there)
2. Her favorite songs are Shabbat/Passover related: Right now her favorite song is 'Yom Rishon Avodah'. While that's wonderful, it's neither a song I know that well, nor a song that Grandma and Grandpa can sing along with. If she's not singing that, it's Dayeinu, or the Hammer song from Passover. Adorable, but also not so relatable for the cousins or the extended family.
EG: Bang bang bang. I singing Mommy.
EG: Daddy go Avodah. Avodah means work work work.
3. Lots of extra days off: We get a week off for Passover, two days for Sukkot, and let's not even start the discussion about how many days off there are in the fall/autumn. Between the regular days off (4th of July, Memorial Day) and the extra days for the Jewish holidays I think that EG's school calendar has a month and a half off each year. Working for a university, the 'regular' days aren't too hard, but with all the extra days I'm going into labor without any vacation or sick leave left. When I was pregnant with EG I had paid leave for 30 days before my disability payments kicked in. Of course, it also has a wonderful side- more time for EG with her grandparents and us. That can be a really nice extra benefit.
4. Wonderful Jewish friends: I suppose that anywhere we would have gone to school we would have had/made wonderful friends, but sending EG to a Jewish daycare definitely gives us a strong Jewish connection and lots of Jewish friends. On all those random days off it's nice to know there are others we can connect with. Celebrating Passover this year was incredible with all the littles we had in attendance. With all the accidents I've been having people have been so supportive- running errands, volunteering to take EG to school and to pick up groceries for us, etc.
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