Anyone who remembers this story probably thinks I would be meshugganah to actually allow LO to have a fishtank. During a brief momentary lapse of reasoning at Chanukah time, I ended up buying her a small fishtank and a goldfish. She named the goldfish Havdalah since we went to the pet store and got him motzei Shabbat.
Well...Havdalah has gotten bigger and has been umm, er....dirtying up the fishtank almost quicker than I can change the water. So I decided that we should get him a larger tank. As we walked into the pet store LO ran down the aisle and she became more and more starry-eyed as she made her way down the line from small tanks to enormous tanks. We settled on a 10 gallon tank which should seem huge to Havdalah in comparison to his 2 gallon tank. I'm sure you can guess what happened next.
LO: Mama, the tank is really BIG. Don't you think Havdalah will be lonely?
Me: Um, I guess.
LO: (excitedly) So does that mean I can get another fish?
Me: (I was thinking no in my head but...) I guess so.
LO: YAY! (Off like a bolt of lightning she was to the fish aisle.)
The first fish she chose was the size of my hand and was $40. We examined several others (that were not quite as pricey) before she chose a nice little white and orange goldfish friend for Havdalah.
Me: So, what are you going to name your new fish?
LO: Can I name it something in Hebrew?
Me: Of course.
LO: I'm going to name it Batsheva.
Me: Batsheva? After PHD's friend Batsheva?
LO: No. You know, BATSHEVA. Her husband was some guy named Eria or Uriah or something like that and he got killed and then she was with King David.
Me: Um....ok, Batsheva it is.
Nice to know that my Hebrew school dollars aren't going to waste. I shudder to think of what she might name a dog if she ever manages to convince us to get one of those. (Why does "Kelev" come to mind?)
8 comments:
Just wait until she decides that kelev needs some friends.
We used to get a bunch of goldfish every year at my shul's purim carnival. One year we named one after my father... of course it was the first to die, and really upset my dad. Now we only name goldfish after biblical commentators.
I love LO's naming trends! Much deeper and more inspired than my old goldfish Joe Scandinavia.
You'd be getting off pretty easy with "Kelev" IMO. Batsheva wasn't exactly a role model of er, virtuous behavior.
"Kelev" does have a sort of ring to it.
When I was about 7, I helped our Jewish neighbors name the cat they'd bought; I came up with "Chatul"(the Hebrew word for 'cat'). Of course it sounds ridiculous if you think of the translation of you calling it: "Here, Cat. Come here, Cat." But "Chatul" did have a ring to it, and Kelev does too. Or call the future dog, Caleb, (long "a" sound): Caleb the Kelev! :)
Ah, you have discovered one of the essential unpleasant facts about goldfish...they are dirty little things until they get bigger, then they're dirty BIG things. I'm sure Batsheva will have a long happy life. I just wonder who will take care of them when you go on trips?
I so enjoy reading your blog, and thought I'd for once leave you a comment - just to say hi, thank you and shabbat shalom!
Jack - THAT is NEVER going to happen.
Annie - I laughed but that's sad!
RM - Joe Scandinavia sounds creative too.
KRG - You are so right but I didn't want to get into that with her!
Pearl - It's funny you should mention "chatul" since we've already joked that we could name the dog "chatul". (Although there are not many people that would get that joke.)
Amishav - yes they are filthy. But they make LO happy. Wait - they need someone to take care of them when we are on trips?
Art - Thanks for saying hi - glad you like the blog.
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