I'm back.

So we left for New Jersey on Sunday. Avi was doing a lot better after some children's Tylenol and his medicine, so we left at about 1:30. I had just compiled a bunch of children's albums on an MP3 disc (Sesame Street 35th Anniversary 3-CD box set; Elmo and his Orchestra; the Sesame Street Road Trip CD; the Muppet Show 20th Anniversary CD; both Peter Himmelman kids CDs; Free to Be You and Me; and some assorted other MP3s) -- and that seemed to work for about 11 hours of travel fun. Av was very good at keeping himself amused with the music, the numerous toys we gave him, and -- interestingly enough -- analyzing his own hands. He also napped quite a bit of the way.

Not only have gas prices risen quite a bit, but I hadn't realized how much the tolls on I-95 in Maryland have as well! It's now $2.00 to cross the Baltimore Harbor, and $5.00 to cross the Susquehenna River! I don't even know how much the New Jersey Turnpike was since we were using EZ-Pass. (To EZ-Pass's credit, the wait at every single toll was less than 90 seconds.)

Travelling on Sunday was quite tough for a few reasons. The winds were gusting up to 40 M.P.H. I guess since I'm so used to driving a more aerodynamic car than the mini-SUV, I felt it a lot. Also, it was the end of Spring Break for a lot of people, and the NJ Turnpike was jammed between exits 5 and 8. Even the service areas had long lines for the restrooms! We decided to change Av at one of them and then quickly bail onto local roads to get to Princeton, my old stomping grounds. We had some unfinished shopping, so we found a Target in Princeton. We broke for dinner at the Olive Garden. Av was a champ, flirting as he usually does with all the waitresses, and behaving himself pretty well at the table.

After dinner, it was back up Route 1 to get on the Turnpike further north. The traffic, at that point, had thinned out enough to make for a comfortable trip. We arrived at my brother's apartment around 9pm or so.

The apartment was new to us, as they had moved since the last time we had visited them. It's a 2-bedroom, 2 bath apartment which houses my brother, his wife, and their 2 daughters (ages 5 and 2). With the three of us staying over -- and my parents being around as well (they were staying at a nearby hotel) -- it got pretty crowded pretty quickly. Don't get me wrong -- it's really a beautiful apartment, and the location is fantastic. It's just that they're expecting another kid in October, and I can't fathom what it will be like with so many people under one roof. I'm sure they'll make it work as they have thus far...

We got to see my grandfather after all. My father had been giving me continuous warnings about our visit with him: "Don't be shocked at the way he looks." "Keep in mind he's been battling cancer." "He may be grumpy; it's just the chemo talking." "Don't stay too long -- 30 minutes will be just fine." I was expecting that my grandfather would be completely debilitated through all of this, expecting the worst because my Dad had told me to. We made the trek on Monday to Connecticut, and Grandpa Lou looked -- well, exactly like he has looked for the past 20 years or so. Still smiling, still delighted to see us, enamored by his great-grandson. My Uncle and Aunt from Atlanta were there as well. And instead of leaving after 30 minutes, we stayed for about 2 hours.

In the picture, you'll see Grandpa Lou on the left. Yes, he's wearing a light blue sweater over a blue and red striped shirt. But he's friggin' 94 years old; he can wear whatever he wants. Yes. 94. You can't tell that in the picture. Nor can you tell that he's in his third round of chemo. What a guy...

Next to him is my Uncle Paul -- my Dad's younger brother. This was their first time seeing Avi, and they had a lot of fun with him as well. They're the kind of Aunt and Uncle who you actually want to visit; not the type you feel obligated to because the family connection obligates you to. Only problem is that they live in Atlanta, and we don't see them very often. They have three sons, the oldest of whom is trying to make it in the independent film circuit and is living in the East Village in NYC. His roommate was just on SNL this weekend for the first time (as an extra) so everyone's excited...

The cute one with the bottle is Avi.

And I'm the one with the head that looks much wider than everyone else's. I'm actually crouching down a bit since I tower over my grandfather and my uncle, and I otherwise wouldn't fit in the picture.

So -- they you go. four generations of "Shiny" in one picture.

Monday evening was the first Passover Seder, which was held at my brother's apartment. It was definitely designed with his kids in mind. They had their own parts, and we all had fun watching them experience the whole retelling of the Exodus from Egypt in this special way that my brother is able to bring to them. Avi was more interested in throwing parsley and carrots on the floor. For a while we stayed with the Seder, but eventually we decided it was getting too late for him, so we spent a lot of time trying to get him to go to sleep in a place which wasn't the norm for him. The food, however, was quite good -- quite good for Passover food, at least. And it gave us several creative ideas for the rest of Passover, during which we pretty much have to negate a lot of the protein we're used to due to soy products being prohibited for eight days...

Tuesday -- we slept a lot. Good napping day. And we went to Pier A Park with Avi. It was windy and cold, but beautiful nonetheless. I'll have to post some pictures eventually -- it's a great view of the entire Manhattan Skyline. (Okay. Just posted one of Avi running amok in the park. You can almost see the Javits Center in the background across the Hudson River.)

Tuesday evening was the second Seder which was at the synagogue - also led by my brother. Crowded, noisy, etc. We hung out upstairs in the babysitting room for a while. We tried to leave Avi up there, but he started screaming when we left. Poor guy was simply overtired, and his sleep schedule was all thrown off throughout the trip.

And today - we left New Jersey. And drove. We stopped by my former place of employment at Princeton University to see if my former supervisor happened to be there; he wasn't. We had a bread-free meal at Denny's -- and introduced scrambled eggs to our son. At least it gives him another option to Kosher for Passover "Crispy-Os" which have the consistency of starchy Froot Loops and the taste of packing peanuts... From there it was back home.

And we're back to work tomorrow. Ugh.

Sorry this was so long; but it's not like it'll actually make the Crazy 40, right?