My Glasses

I got my glasses a few weeks after Shlomo was born.  I don’t remember how my old ones broke.

Since I didn’t know what my prescription was, I had to do an eye exam.  A lot of stores will do the exam for free – as long as you buy glasses from them.  If you don’t end up buying glasses, you have to pay for the exam.

So I called a few places, found one that had reasonable prices, and went with little Shlomo to find glasses.  The problem, of course, was that I was not wearing glasses – which just made it more complicated.  We made it anyways.

I got my glasses and have been wearing them for over two years.

One day a few months ago, I took a shower.  No, really?  Yes, I got in the shower.  I locked the top lock on the front door so that Shlomo couldn’t get out and left him playing with his toys.

Shlomo came into the bathroom for a few minutes and then went back out.  About halfway through the shower it became kind of quiet – never a good sign.  I asked Shlomo to come to me, and he didn’t listen.  I asked again, and he didn’t listen.  Not a good sign at all.  I finished the shower and went out to see what was going on.

But when I stepped out of the tub, my glasses weren’t where I had put them.

“Shlomo, where are my glasses?”

Nope, he doesn’t come.

“Shloomo, Ima (Mommy) needs her glasses.  Did you take them?”  Then I saw something dark, two something darks , on the floor in the hall.  I heard Shlomo standing up and walking towards me.  I got there first.  As I had suspected, hose two something darks were my glasses.  The lenses with one earpiece attached, and the other earpiece separated from them.  And wouldn’t you know, he didn’t break it in a way that I could just put a twist-tie in and be done with it.

There is a little peg on the earpiece that goes into the part that holds the lenses.  This little piece is what you use those tiny screws to hold in.  Well, the screw and the peg that is close to it are in the part with the lenses.  The earpiece itself is whole, except for most of that little peg.  Which, of course, means that it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to fix (at least by myself).

And when I walked into the living room, I saw something else: He was playing with Jack’s medicines.

No wonder he had taken my glasses.  It was a pretty good distraction.

In the meantime, after I got over the frustration of being right after a shower (with little things like hanging the towel to dry still needing to be done), with no glasses, and the worry of whether he had eaten medicine, I taped my glasses back together.

They are still taped.  We (or rather, Yitzchak) redo the tape on them every week or two, because it keeps coming loose.

Then one morning, a few weeks ago, Yitzchak gave me my glasses, and I didn’t put them on right away, and fell back asleep.  So Shlomo climbed up and suddenly I felt something poking my face: Shlomo putting my glasses on my me.

Another time, I was in the shower and left my glasses on the toilet seat, one side folded, one side not (because it was taped and has to stay straight).  Shlomo took them, folded the second side, and put them on the back of the toilet.  Good intentions, bad results.  Yitzchak redid the tape.

But how can you get mad at a kid for trying to help?

Whose Money Is It?

Yesterday morning, when I put Shlomo in his booster to eat breakfast, he saw some money on the table.  He pointed to the coins, then picked one of them up and handed it to me.  “Ab-ba!  Abba!”

Meaning, this coin is Abba’s (Daddy’s) and either Abba forgot it, or it fell out of his pocket or wallet.  In fact, it was bus fare that Yitzchak had left for me in case I had to go somewhere, so that I wouldn’t have to use the [big] bill in my wallet (and so that I would still have bus fare if the bus driver didn’t want to give me change for such a big bill).

Little chauvinist!  What, only Abba has money??  Don’t you know that I help earn the money, and that we make all financial decisions together?  Why do you think all money is Abba’s?

I know why: Because Abba goes to the store for last-minute items.  And even though I also do grocery shopping, and run errands, Abba does it more frequently.  Abba is the one whose pockets always have a couple agurot (pennies) in them (my money stays in my wallet).  So, money is for Abba.

Sigh.  Oh, well.  He’ll understand when he gets older . . . right?

Groceries and Diapers

Osher Ad

Late yesterday afternoon, Shlomo asked Yitzchak for a nap – and Yitzchak put him into his crib.  Yes, Yitzchak, I know Shlomo wants a nap – he asked me two and a half hours ago.  But, he’s not that tired, and if we want him to go to sleep early, he shouldn’t nap now.  No matter, what’s done is done – no reason to make a big fuss.

We needed to buy diapers.  A few months ago, the brand that we usually buy changed their pattern.  With that change, the amount that the diaper absorbed also changed – for the worse.  Then, almost a month ago, when we had only one diaper left, I asked a neighbor to pick up diapers for us when she went out (obviously, I said I would pay her back), and because she didn’t find our usual brand, she bought a different one.  My neighbor picked up two packages, and they worked great.  So great, in fact, that we decided to only buy this brand from now on.  The problem?  Not every store carries them.  After Yitzchak had checked three stores, I looked at the company’s website. There I found a list of stores that carry their brand.  One of them was out of the way, but close enough to be worthwhile.

The connection between the first two paragraphs?  We were running out of diapers; Shlomo wasn’t going to go to sleep at his bedtime.  So, I decided that we should do our grocery shopping at Rami Levy, instead of Osher Ad (where we usually go).  And how, exactly, do we do grocery shopping?

Well, I’ve decided that we go to the store too often, and would save time and money by following a menu plan . . . and doing supermarket shopping once every two weeks (excluding milk, which almost always expires a week after you buy it).

For vegetables, fruits, legumes, and grains (not grain products, grains themselves), we go to the shuk.  Yitzchak studies next to the shuk, so buying whatever we need from there is not an issue.  For everything else, we go to the supermarket, once every two weeks.  It hasn’t worked out perfectly – sometimes I go only after three weeks – but it’s going okay, and hopefully will get better.

We went to the store.  We did our grocery shopping, and our diaper shopping.  We did end up coming back later than we wanted to, but on the other hand, Shlomo went to sleep right away.  And we all know that either he would’ve stayed awake playing, or stayed awake in his crib complaining.  At least we avoided that and used our time for something . . . right?

Through the “Fake Shuk” (Jerusalem, Part III)

We left off, in my last post, in the middle of the fake shuk.  Now we continue, all the way the end of the street.

This is the second turn into the main shuk.

Then we pass another housewares/paper goods store . . .

. . . and a store selling nuts and dried fruits (as well as the third, and last, turn into the main shuk).

Someone else has just received a delivery . . .

A store that sells legwear and accessories.  To the left is a store selling only accessories, with a wider variety of them.

An outdoor cafe.  It seems a bit too fancy for the surrounding stores, but it is just as busy.

A store selling kippas, the religious headcovering for men.  This store carries a wide variety – wide enough that someon from almost any religious stripe can find something in their style.

And a new juice bar.  It is too fancy, and too American-style, for the surrounding area, which is probably why I have almost never seen anyone actually buying there.  Chances are, the chain (of which this store is a part) will go out of business soon.  I have to say, I’m waiting for that day to come.  Israel has its own unique flavor, and American-style stores just ruin that uniqueness.

We will turn the corner in the next post.

Of Vegetable Knives and Sleepers

Our meat [vegetable] knife broke right before Shabbat a few weeks ago.  We borrowed from the neighbors, and then returned it.  Then, last week, Yitzchak went to find another knife.  He went to the store I suggested (but not the branch I meant) and bought two knives that he thought I would like.  Well, I didn’t like them.  First of all, they were in bright neon colors.  Second of all, they were too big.  And third, they didn’t fit well in my hands.  So on Sunday, I took them back.

I went to the store, showed the cashier the knives and receipt, and told her that I was returning them because I didn’t like them.  (I felt stupid saying that, but it wasn’t me who bought them, and I didn’t want to make my husband look stupid.)  She took the knives and told me to take something for 20 shekels.  After looking around a bit, I decided to get Shlomo a new pair of pajamas – he has three pairs, they’re all getting small, and they’re not exactly made for winter.  So, I picked up a warmish sleeper in size 18-24 months.  It looked huge, but I figured that it was probably the right size.  And if not, he’d grow into it.  And it cost exactly 20 shekels.  So I took it up to the cashier, showed the receipt, and successfully made the exchange – but the receipt stayed with her.

Then we brought the sleeper home.  I wanted to measure it against Shlomo, but he wouldn’t let me.  And then, in the middle of the night, Shlomo’s diaper (the bigger size) leaked.  And Yitzchak put him in his new pajamas, because there weren’t any others clean.  Guess what?  The new sleeper is too small.  The feet are too small, and the legs are too short – when he stretches his legs, the snaps pop open.  Since it’s been worn, the tags are off, and I no longer have a receipt, we’re stuck with it.  And since we’re a bit tight this month, that’s not too good.

Oh, well.  I guess we’ll save it for a sibling.  At least one item from this age should be passed on stain-free and practically new, right?  In the meantime, he wore them not only for the rest of Sunday night, but last night as well.  Today he’ll have two other sets clean.  Hopefully, he won’t leak on both of them in one night.