Happy Sabbath To You Too!

Sylvie-Faye is quite the character. Lately she's been spewing out a few phrases that I'd like to be able to blame on other children or television or....just anything else besides the ugly truth - it came from me.

Here comes the big defense: Sometimes both girls scream and we're in the car, which is small and it echoes and they won't stop, so I have to resort to shouting "Shut up! That's enough! Shut up right now or I'm pulling over and you're getting spanked". Not only does this work, but unfortunately it's the only thing I've found that seems to work. My girls know I mean business, so when I threaten to pull over and spank, it's gonna happen no matter what. Now, you may be thinking, "Well, why don't you just say 'be quiet' or something like that?" Believe me. I've tried. 'Be quiet' doesn't work. 'Shut up' does.

SO, the other day Sylvie-Faye said, "Shabbat". I said, "What did you say?" She became sheepish and mumbled "Shabbat". I was mortified. I thought, "Oh no, my sweet little toddler is saying horrible things". I hyperventilated a little bit and felt really guilty. Then I stopped and thought for a second and said, "Wait a minute. What did you say, Sylvie?" She said, "Shabbat, mommy!"

"OOOOHHHH!" I replied. "SHABBAT. Now that's different. That's not shut up. That's shabbat, which in Jewish means happy Sabbath. Now THAT's okay to say". So now when she says, "Shabbat" I just reply with, "Happy Sabbath to you too, my friend". Man, that girl is smart! I did not know she was learning Jewish too! Wow!