Oo oo oo!

This post is going to be about monkeys.

I know, I was going to blog about taking Barak to shul. But I don't really feel like devoting a whole post to it. (Hey, it's my blog.)

Short version: I took him to shul on the second day of yom tov and he was incredibly well behaved. He sat nicely and/or played quietly right near me for a good half hour. It was early, and the women's section was pretty empty, so we had a whole row of theater seats to ourselves, and when he was done sitting, he quietly and industriously raised and lowered the seats one at a time, not straying from our row. When he heard the cantor start, he looked up with interest, and got into my lap for a better view (not that he could actually see over the mechitza, but I guess he was hoping). And then he sat there through the whole silent amida. No noise, no distracting anybody who was praying. If he wanted to tell me something, he whispered, and when he was ready to go, he put his mouth to my ear and told me. And then he held my hand nicely on the way out, and waved bye-bye at the invisible cantor as we left. Lots of little old ladies saw him. They all kvelled. I tried not to grin like a silly idiot. End of story. (Oh, okay, and the rabbi of that shul is my husband's boss, and he was on the bimah watching my son being incredibly well behaved. Could it have been better? Methinks not.)

In fairness, I will confess that there was much screaming and even some banana-flinging that afternoon. But he was really good at shul, and it made me very very happy. Kein ayin hara, etc. etc.)

There you go--that's the kitzer version of Barak Goes to Shul.

On to the subject of the day.

Barak is very into monkeys. Not sure why. But he definitely loves monkeys. He has a tiny little toy monkey that he likes, and whenever he sees a picture of a monkey he perks up and says, "Monkey! Oo oo oo!" Today, his babysitter took him to the little zoo in the park near us (they've got a couple of sheep, a cow or two, llamas, a swan and a duckpond). When he came back, I asked him what he saw. "Animals!" I asked him which animals. "Did you see a cow!" No, apparently not. "Monkey! Oo oo oo!" Wishful thinking...

Later this afternoon, when I was done working for the day, all three of us went for a walk and a little minor shopping. We stopped in at the drugstore to print out some pictures from the camera, whick Barak and I did while MHH was off looking at something else. On the way through the store to find him so we could go pay, we passed the big clearance box, and what did I see but one of those big Beanie Baby stuffed animals. On clearance for five dollars. And it was a monkey. I don't do a lot of impulse toy buying--our apartment is too small--but I couldn't resist. I handed the monkey to Barak. His mouth dropped open. "Monkey! MONKEY! Oo oo oo!" Oh, he was so happy. He showed me the monkey. He showed me that the monkey had hands, and feet, and a tummy. He said thank you without prompting. And he clutched the monkey all the way home. When he got to his room, monkey still in tow, he put the monkey in the stroller and pushed him around the house, and when it was time to go to bed, he took the monkey in his crib with him.

I mentioned in my last post, I think, that it usually takes Barak at least an hour to go to sleep; it also usually takes many rounds of "book!" and "water!" and "kiss!" and "Imma!" Getting Barak to sleep, with or without screaming, is a major undertaking. But not tonight. Tonight, a mere ten minutes into my book, I heard the unmistakable sounds of Barak snoring. No way, I thought, and gingerly got up to have a look. Sure enough, Barak and his new friend were snuggled together under the blanket, completely out. And no, he wasn't especially tired, or anything like that. He had just... gone right to sleep.

Okay, I won't assume that the bedtime drama is now a thing of the past, or even that this is ever going to happen again. But it would be nice, wouldn't it?