Giraffes, Glida, Obama

Obama's in town today; turn on the TV and every single channel is covering the President's visit. It's a big deal! We were tempted to walk downtown to try to catch a glimpse of him, but we figured it would be pretty nuts; lots of streets are closed, security is high, and all day we've been hearing the thwacking sounds of helicopters overhead. So instead of heading into the heart of the city, we took the bus further out of town, to the Jerusalem zoo!

This was Alexander's and Benjamin's first visit to a zoo, and we had a good time. Though it's hard not to have mixed feelings about zoos (the sight of a tiger sleeping off in the corner of his cage looked somehow sad to me), there's no doubt that it's cool for kids to see such a variety of beautiful animals. Of course, the highlight of the trip for Alexander was seeing the giraffes (his favorite animal), but he was also really into the monkeys and elephants, and the fish that were swimming in ponds throughout the zoo. Still, I'm willing to bet the best part of the day for him was when he got to eat most of the ice cream cone Eric bought for me. The Hebrew word for ice cream is "glida." Lately, Alexander has learned how to say both "glida" and "oogah" (which means "cake"). It seems pretty clear to me that despite our efforts to give him treats in moderation, Alexander definitely has a sweet tooth (which he certainly inherited from his parents)!