A Jewish King
We’ve begun asking our two-year-old daughter how she’d feel about acquiring a sister or brother. Last night while I was diapering her, she said, “I want a baby.”
“You want a baby?” I said.
“I want a baby!” she said.
“What kind of baby?”
“A Jewish baby,” she said.
I wasn’t sure I’d gotten that.
“You want a what?”
“I want a Jewish baby,” she said. Then amended it: “A Jewish king.”
Now I was sure of what I was hearing, but I wasn’t sure I was awake.
My wife entered as I finished snapping the child’s hippo jammies.
My wife said, “Did I just hear what I think I heard?”
“Uh huh,” I said.
Our attentiveness pleased our daughter.
“I want a Jewish king,” she said.
“Okay, honey,” I said to our daughter, “you’re freaking us out a little bit, now.”
She grinned to show she understood. “Jewish king!” she said.
Children say strange things, many of them meaningless. No doubt that’s the case here. Still, this morning I started checking real estate listings in Bethlehem. Just to be on the safe side.
Filed under: family, glamorous
Seven years ago this past September our Siberian Husky passed away. His name was Koda. Koda, as far as we understand, is North American Indian for “Friend to all” (or something similar). Six and a half years ago we decided to get another Siberian. Our daughter had just turned five. When the new puppy came home with us we couldn’t decide on a name for him. This lasted the better part of a week until our daughter came to us and said “Let’s name the new puppy Kadin”. We thought… “that’s an uncommon name” and asked why she wanted to name him Kadin. Her reply… “It’s Gaelic for ‘Friend to all’”.
Where and how in God’s name she figured that out is beyond us.
I checked with some Gaelic speaking relatives across the pond and sure enough, Kadin (with a slightly different spelling) means… Friend to all.
BTW, we’re not considering real-estate above the tree line.
Wow, my daughter (2 years) says a lot of meaningless things a day, id never pay to much attention to that because most of them are related to Sesame Street, but now im gonna listen more carefully.
His name will be David.
When my son used to ask for juice, he pronounced it “Jews,” as in “More Jews, please.” I thought that was terribly progressive of him.
With Christmas coming in about two months … it is likely your daughter may be thinking of the Jewish King that we Christians celebrate. A Jewish King who is remembered this time of year as a baby in a manger. The King of the Jews we celebrate by giving gifts. With the amount of Christmas merchandise and cards already in the stores and other outlets like daycare, I wouldn’t be surprised if she is hearing references to the King.
In Baltimore around lunch time you can hear this often:
“Jah eat yet?” translation (Did you eat yet?)
“No Jew?” translation (No, did you?)
Which shows Baltimore likes the tribe of Judah. On another note you should listen to your co-workers, I find that mine say a lot of strange and often meaningless things.
Heh–it’s weird what kids absorb. Once when I was in high school, I took a nap in our minivan while my mom went into the grocery store. As I stretched out on the floor, my 4-year-old brother got free from his car seat, grabbed a gold car wash token, and proceeded to crawl up my chest while chanting, “Bod-dee of Christ, Bod-dee of *Christ*!,” attempting to shove the gold disc into my mouth. Catholic good times! :-)
So are you just asking her or actually telling your daughter something???
Lovely story, by the way :-)
Is there something that you are about to tell everyone? This and the last post suggests something may be happening on the family front. If not I think it is somewhere in the subconcious. I know only too well the various ways we got around to telling friends and relatives about new arrivals, though we did got round to stopping at four !
Looks like someone wants Jesus :) Who was the King of the Jews and now of all.
Sounds like the best request a person could ask.
Aww.. how cute. I would like my baby to make such requests.
BTW if your baby is too little I am sure she was saying something else which sounded like ‘Jewish’ :-)
This week my two year old daughter shocked my wife and I by building an intricate building/castle thing out of blocks. No one ever showed her how. We live in Tokyo. Maybe she built it for the Jewish King.
But where would you find ‘3 wise Men’?
[...] http://www.zeldman.com/2006/10/16/jewishking/ [...]
[...] A Jewish King Oct 17 2006 [...]
In any case, you better get workin’ on it Jeffrey. ;-)
Why must some people take a subtle reference and beat people over the head with it? Like a comedian who feels he must explain his jokes…
Wow. Your kid’s 2! Wild. Congrats (no one congrats anyone other than when the kid’s born). Time she does ‘a fly.
Hah, this is rather funny!
Out of the mouth of babes…
Our two-year-old has started ‘reading’ to us – picks up a book if one’s handy, otherwise she’s perfectly happy reading me her toy tape measure. We thought it odd that when she’s ‘reading’ she says words, interspersed with nonsensical sounds.
Until we realized that, when we read aloud, that’s what she hears . . . a few words she recognizes, and a lot of sounds she doesn’t!
He shall be Levon, and he shall be a good man (in tradition with the family plan).
Don’t get me wrong. It’s a cute story, you love your two-year-old daughter (as I do my own) and don’t mind sharing your personal, er, glamorous life with the world. Fair enough. Still, I look to you for your ideas on the web, not your world or your views of the world at large. (That’s just me, and I don’t speak for your readership).
You have a ‘glamorous’ filter on your blog, if you want to call it a filter, by me clicking that option in your main nav. Would it be possible for you to separate your non-glamorous posts in similar fashion? This way, I can welcome your sage-like web wisdom onto my screen and live my otherwise heathen life in peace. Thank you.
P.S. I still owe you a beer the next time you are in the Motor City.
Gosh. I remember when our daughter was two. She said strange, wonderous things that didn’t seem to make all that much sense. Now that she’s ten, she’s saying strang, wonderous things but they are starting to make sense. Or, maybe it’s just us?
“Still, this morning I started checking real estate listings in Bethlehem. Just to be on the safe side.” … would that be bethlehem, pa just around the corner from where you live or bethlehem, pa just around the corner from where i live? a jewish king is allowed to by land in your bethlehem, but definitely not in the bethlehem near to where i live!i remember the amazing things that my daughter said when she was 2 … and now that she’s 20, she still says amazing things … just makes us love ’em even more …call on your next vist to israel.
Maybe it is a Jesus thing, with Christmas and all coming along?
Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
I hope she finds Jesus :o) Bless her
[...] A Jewish King Kids say the darndest things. [...]
Of all the writings here, yours and the Siberian Husky story made the most sense. Kids have an intelligence that far surpases our own (not experience, but intelligence) and they may be able to tap into something that we’ve had clouded over since our own youth. The world has a way of doing that.
There still is that collective conscious, whether we choose to have access to it or not. And maybe there is no choice but to have it.
Now go play and make another genius.
Love people like you that can turn a daily situation into a quite hilarious and short post. Have had a good laugh (sad as I don’t do that too often this days)
Don’t worry, English kids are all mad as well
Hi,
Just got this in my RSS reader and got the following at the top:
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looks like an error in the RSS feed…
sounds like something from one of my other favorite blogs.
http://www.flagrantdisregard.com/
Gosh. Has it been two years already? Seems like yesterday.
I doubt it’s meaningless.
Classic post..may you should write a book about funny things kids say
Sometimes I’m not sure who’s getting more out of the teaching moments I have with my two-year-old.
Recently, when I heard him fizzle out after getting about half-way through singing the alphabet, I smiled encouragingly and sang the rest of it for him.
He clapped his hands. “Good job, Dada!” he said, beaming at me for doing so well with such a difficult task.
Kids say the most unusual things. Most of which are a result of the things they hear on television or in our own conversations. My 2yr old mephew has made a new game out of repeating as much of what he hears at the dinner table as he can. Although most of the things he says are cute and funny, He has brought shock and even panic to the table. Sometimes we are not as aware of what we say in front of children as we should be. “I want a Jewish baby” is most likely something she heard on television while you were out of the room. Or perhaps you should seek an exorcist!
Thanks,
Brian
So are you just asking her or actually telling your daughter something???