Wednesday, November 11, 2009

"The Most Famous of Which is: Never Get Involved in a Land War in Asia."

Okay, it's not strictly a quote about Germany, or have anything even remotely to do with the Deutschland, but it's an awesome quote from my all-time favorite movie. (Poofahs if you know it, extra poofahs if you can quote the end WITHOUT googling it.) And I've been feeling very quotey lately, so I couldn't resist.

Some almost-the-end-of-the-week-at-least-if-you-live-in-Israel highlights:

1. Thanks to all of you who shared Wet Cell Phone Stories. I trekked back to Orange today and whaddya know, my phone is fixed! And I never paid a cent. At least, I don't think I did. That's the tricky thing about hora'at keva. You never quite know who's taking your money, when they're taking it, and how much they're taking. I guess it's good practice for having teenagers (what do you think, Baila?), although Yaakov, at the tender age of 3, freely digs through my wallet in search of "tzedakah."

2. There were some Philippino workers in the apartment today, doing the annual "bedek habayit" and fixing up everything that has broken in the past year. Let me just say that there needs to be a special ulpan for understanding Hebrew by way of Manila. Did not understand a blessed word. Just kept nodding my head and hoping that was the right reaction.
("I am going to remove all of your windows now and throw the glass panes off your mirpeset."
"Okay! [nodding enthusiastically] Sure!")

3. I gave Leezy baby clothes and I got dinner. I've got LOTS of little girl clothes in the machsan - if anyone would like to trade clothes for food, let me know.

4. Today in gan, I noticed that every kid had made a "Beit HaMikdash" which was proudly hanging under their name on the bulletin board. Well, every kid except one. Which child refused, you ask? That is correct - Yaakov. "I didn't want to," he said. (All the other kids are doing it, you say? Yaakov's reaction - Your point? I guess that attitude will come in handy when all the other kids decide to do the proverbial jump off the Empire State Building, or in Israel terms, jump off the top of Dimri Towers.) He's his own man, that's fer sher. If you recall, he was similarly unpersuaded when it came to toilet training. So what if Mommy, Daddy, Lala, and half of my friends who are quite a bit younger than I am are using the toilet? I like diapers!

Or maybe he's just refusing to rebuild the Beit HaMikdash until Mashiach comes.

11 comments:

Shira said...

Oh, my favorite movie, too!!! Mawwige...

MOMZWIFEOFDADZ said...

But only slightly less well known is this: "Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line! [laughs maniacally, then falls over dead]

Dadz said...

IT'S ACTUALLY THE LEIBTAG FAMILY'S MOST FAVORITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME.

TO LOYAL READERS: I THINK GILA CAN RECITE THE WHOLE MOVIE LINE-BY-LINE!

Risa said...

since nobody has mentioned the name of the movie yet, it's the Princess Bride. (One of my all time favorites!) I guess Yaakov is a non-conformist or Saatmar chasid.

OneTiredEma said...

Um. Isn't English an official language of the Philippines? Due to the US mucking about there in the past 150 years?

Baila said...

We love that movie in our house, but don't quote it. Except for the whole "prepare to die" thing. The girls do that one alot.

And yes, Gila,definitely good practise for when they are teenagers. But better practise is opening your wallet taking every last red nickel that's in it at any given time and flush it down down the toilet.

Gila Rose said...

Shira - this is bc we are the same.

Momz - come on, let other kids have a chance once in a while!

DADZ - I WAS DECIDING BETWEEN THIS AND "106 MILES TO CHICAGO." BUT PB WON OUT.

Risa - you get the poofahs for mentioning the name!

Tired - that is an interesting point. I'm surprised he couldn't tell I was an English-speaker, what with my Hebrew-by-way-of-Baltimore. Next time, I skip the Hebrew thing and try some good old English. Easier on both of us.

Baila - well the flushing things down the toilet definitely sounds like something Yaakov would want to do.

OneTiredEma said...

PS Good for Yaakov not doing the project. Marching to his own drummer! Sticking it to the Man!

He's going to make an excellent revolutionary someday.

kathleen said...

Although the entire post was good, I had to really laugh about Yaakov being unpersuaded about potty training. My son will be 3 next month and even switching to cloth diapers and trainers hasn't persuaded him to give them up yet. I figure he'll just start going in the toilet one day. Is that what Yaakov did?

Gila Rose said...

3 next month you say? Why, you have plenty of time in Yaakov's book! He was a ripe old 3 years and 2 months before he was trained. The literal kick in the pants was that it was end of June, and he needed to be trained by school, so I kept him home from gan and said, that's it, we're making on the toilet. In 3 days, he was trained. The final motivation was "if you make on the toilet we'll buy you kippah and tzitit like Daddy."

The same kippah and tzitzit he now refuses to wear. [Sigh.]

miriamp said...

My daughter is 4yrs and 2 months, and still not really trained. (And no, she's not the oldest, and late trainers though they were, the older 5 were all out of diapers by 4!)

Polly pockets worked really well, but I ran out before she was convinced she could do this all the time. I need better prizes or something, because I can't offer yarmulke and tzitzits as an incentive, and she's not starting school (ie Kindergarten, we don't usually do preschool because we're in the states and school is expensive) until she's practically 6 because of the magic of September birthdays and school deadlines.