Pearls of wisdom

I usually collect pearls of childish wisdom in my email and then on occasion I curate them into one post. Here are some of Jasmin's pearls in the last half year.

יסמין החליטה שעד שאני מנקה את המטבח ומקפלת כביסה היא תסתפר...היא הגיעה לאמבט עם מעט שיער גזור...את המספריים מצאתי על השולחן בסלון עם עוד שארית שיער. ההזדמנות הפכה מיד לתספורת יזומה בידי אמא הספרית המדופלמת עם הסבר על איך גוזרים ושומרים קו ושלא טוב לגזור לבד כי זה אף פעם לא יוצא יפה. בעלת הבית הקטנה תפסה את הפרינציפ של גיזום סימטרי והתחילה מחלקת הוראות מדוייקות איפה לגזור בכל צד כדי לאזן את החיתוך הקודם...והחזיקה ראש יפה בכל הזויות הנדרשות.מקצוענית ובוגרת.

מתולדות יסמין המהממת: אני במקלחת, השארתי קרטון ביצים על הדלפק במטבח. יסמין החליטה לסדר את זה במקרר. את הקרטון פתחה בקריעה ללא נזק לביצים. העבירה הקופסא לדלפק השני גם ללא פגע ואף סדרה 3 ביצים במקומן המיועד... אלא שאז הביצה הרביעית נפלה על הרצפה. היא באה לקרוא לי ומשראתה שאני מתקלחת לקחה מטאטא קטן כדי לנקות...אבל זה לא הצליח. המקלחת שלי הסתיימה וילדה בוכיה הגיעה לספר לי את כל קורותיה...מצאתי במטבח מקרר סגור ומטפטף.שארית ביצה על הרצפה ומטאטא קטן...

Jasmin using a U shape pillow as a prop. First is earphones then breasts...or cat ears. She is very good at imaginary play.

She copies Jonathan in everything. If he fools around she joins right in with great joy. She makes the same faces as her brother, father.and me too...probably.

Jasmin must join in everything. Even if Jonathan is sick and has fever, she must join in, saying "Gam ani" me too.

גם אני לא מרגישה...יש לי חום...אני לא מרגישה את החום, כואב לי בחום

theater first class:-)

Jasmin saw that I was not feeling well, so she came to my room with a wet towel, with ice cubes in it to treat my headache. She got the ice cubes all by herself...

One day Jasmin put on my shoes and tool my bag and announced that she is going to work. she was well intent on leaving the house!

Sometimes Jasmin announces that she s a big girl. Sometimes she protests that she is NOT a big girl, but a small girl. it all depends on her purpose...

Pearls of Childish Wisdom - Bed Time

Here are some of Jasmin's pearls in the last half year. This time the subject is "getting ready for bed" and other domestic tasks.

Getting ready for bed - Jasmin knows the rules. One evening she cam into my room just when I was changing into my night clothes. Jasmin immediately decided it was imperative to give me guidance, announcing that I need to take a bath before putting on my PJ's for the night. I was roundly scolded for not doing things in the right order!

Brushing teeth - Jasmin has been thought to brush her teeth in all directions to clean her entire mouth. If I am in the bathroom when she is brushing, she immediately insists that i join  her, claiming that I too need to brush. If I say I already have brushed, she does not accept this. She needs to see me do it. if I am not in the bathroom when she brushes and I ask her if she has brushed her teeth, I am likely to get a description of all the directions (top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right, front etc) she brushed as part of her confirmation to completing the task. If she just says "yes" to my question, its most likely that she is lying to me and did not in fact brush her teeth as she was asked to do.

Jasmin spends one evening every two weeks with my parents who come to babysit. One evening my mother reported that Jasmin made sure her doll was ready for bed - Jasmin gave the doll a bath, brushed her teeth, sat her to the potty and the put her to bed covering her with a blanket. When my mother told me this i immediately asked if she had filed Jasmin, to my chagrin she did not. When I told the story to my husband later that night, his first reaction was also to ask if this had been filmed. Modern parents of the digital age of smartphones...
On another occasion I found Jasmin washing the doll with real water in my parents' back yard - she told me the doll needed to be cleaned up.

When she is asked to tidy up her toys Jasmin declares that she cannot. She then explains that she is just a small girl and cannot do it alone. sometimes I help, sometime I insist she complete the task, sometimes I just do the tidying myself real quick...

Although she does not always want to follow the daily evening routines, there is no doubt that Jasmin knows ALL the rules.   

Jasmin speech and behavioral pearls - age 3.5

Jasmin is still not pronouncing her R's and T's properly and she makes many grammar mistakes, but she can always be relied on to drive her meaning in tome and body movement...and some of the mistakes are adorable, thus her speech pearls...

Putting her hand on her waist or lifting an accusing finger and declaring "Now I am talking.."  עכשיו אני מדברת... this one to definitely come from the kindergarten teachers...although my husband claims that the hand on waist is from me...

a Potato is an "yum yum apple" and interesting combination of similar sounds and connotation, particularly ironic as Jasmin does not like potatoes (other than in the form of French fries, but then the name of the dish is "chips")  תפוח אדמה...אצל יסמין זה קפוח הם הם הם

If she bumps into anything or falls down Jasmin will use slang and declare that she has received a big bump... קיבלתי בומבה
Bomba is Hebrew is slang for bumps but also for any big hit, usually in a positive way - almost like English speakers should say that something is a blast!
When she si really hurt by the mishap she will come wailing and wordless. If she says KIBALTI BOMBA then all is well.

Wagging her fingers at items of people when she is angry and scolding with "Nu nu Nu" is still a stale and very Israeli too boot, but she has also elaborated her "anger" reaction by imitating her mother and declaring with a frown when she is "angry with you". אני כועסת לך! אני כועסת לך מאוד מאוד! A small grammar mistake in formulating this sentence combined with the frown is absolutely adorable!

In a streak of total independence we lost Jasmin one morning for  a few minutes, only to find that she had crept into someone’s back yard and was pooing…squatting and all, not getting herself dirty – and why did she choose that location? Because the toilet of the coffee house nearby was closed…so she found a solution and went about her business. I found her with mixed feelings, a woman had seen her and scolded me that Jasmin was taking a dump in her back yard… but  on the other hand I was proud of the child’s independence and problem solving…and yet I was embarrassed. I picked up Jasmin’s poo and took it to the trash. No long term harm done…

I hope than when Jasmin is grown and reads this, she will enjoy the "adorable factor" of all this pearls – and look back with fondness (and not with embarrassment), as I am sure I will do.


 

Who Went Missing?

Jasmin is a very independent child. She manages also rather well and understands things after being shown only once (ok, maybe twice...but not more). An she can navigate too...its a shame that she sometimes takes off without notifying anyone...and then she wonders why we have "disappeared" and scolds too...

We went to see a movie today. It was the first time Jasmin went to the movies. She was soon fed up with sitting and took off to the ladies toilet. After seeing the way once, she took off there and back, with me just running after her, only to see her go in the other direction. Jasmin has no problem finding the correct theater, or differentiating between the boys and girls restrooms... I did not get to see much of the movie, and Jonathan could not really tell me the story either. :-(

After that we went to the play area in the shopping mall. At a certain moment Jasmin decided to go towards the toilet. There were many people and I found myself just seeing her go into the restrooms and hence I chased her there. but she was not to be found. She went back to the play area, where I was originally sitting, but she did not find me there, because I was chasing her to the restrooms. For what seamed like my biggest nightmare and an eternity of time, I went in and out of the restrooms and to the different compartments and yelled her name. People were getting interested and offered me assistance, wanting to know what the lost child looks like.

Its not the first time Jasmin takes off without a word, She is also very fast! Just two weeks ago, we were in a playground in the vicinity of the sopping mall and Jasmin decided she wanted to play n the shopping mall. and off she went! This time we had a much larger area to cover, and my husband chaned her and lost track of her. Luckily I recalled how she loves the play area in the shopping mall and decided to look for her there, and that is also where I found her. Pheeeeww!

And so, to get back to our story, Jasmin and I, in a fully crowded shopping mall , due to the Easter and Passover holidays, were chasing each other around the area between the restrooms and the play area... (Jonathan was buyign a drink and also joined me in the search).  Eventually, after a minute or two...or five... (but who counts time at such a time) I found her just coming towards the restroom, which I was just leaving for the third time...and as I was about to say something about her leaving my side without notice, Jasmin made an angry face and scolded me soundly. "Where did you disappear off to?" she yelled, so I retorted with the same question, but Jasmin was not convinced.
"You really should no go and disappear!", she repeated. and then she added that she was very angry with me, for god measure.

I must admit that this escapade made me think that indeed it is not certain who went missing. Jasmin wondered off, true, but she also know exactly where to come back to. Maybe if I had not gone searching, she would have found me sooner. With Jonathan, who is 7 years old, this is how we behave, waiting until he comes back (well, if we know where he is going to - he needs to say something before taking off). But Jasmin is just 3! Its interesting that she knows very well that one should not just "disappear"and get separated from the others, after all she scolded me for getting lost. Still she does not adhere to the rule herself! I guess she just trusts that we will follow... after all, that is what parents do.