The Gabashians

Mother and Daddy are here in town visiting from the small west coast town in which they dwell. Except for the several weeks a year they "vacation" here. At our house. Now, if you ask me, coming to my house isn't exactly a vacation, but they (Mother) want to hang with the eineklach (grandchildren) and, I have surmised, get an up close and personal view of our day-to-day life. Carpool and all. This is very nice for Mother, as she enjoys being (very, extremely) involved in all aspects of our lives and so keeps herself busy.

Daddy, however, likes to do his projects (OK, stuff we leave for him to do when he gets here because he is very skilled in many areas in which we are not), "work" on the computer, and eat. And watch TV. Now this particular habit has provided an excellent opportunity for us. See, since Mother drags him out our way for several weeks each year, he has finally had enough of our television situation, which is this: We own ONE TV, an old-school 32" one which we keep locked away, only turning it on for our children's weekly Friday afternoon viewing, sporting events, political debates, and my infrequent viewing of reality TV (ahem). Also, it is used for enjoying quality educational movies with Big Shot Husband for sharing and discussing when we're not having our two-person book club or learning Torah together.

Anyway, Daddy has become so agitated each time he visits, he finally just went and bought us a 42" plasma HD etc TV which, I have to say, I was a little reluctant about at first. You see, I am extremely resistant to change. I get thrown if my morning routine gets the slightest bit disturbed (go downstairs, grunt at children, grab phone, check email, grab coffee mug, make coffee, sit in family room, start reading paper). Or if someone wants to change a carpool with me, I get all jittery and nervous about how it will change my schedule for the week. It's just another one of my charming qualities.

However, after all was said and done, and Big Shot Husband put together the TV table for the new TV because normally super-handy Daddy broke his shoulder when he and Mother took a trip (no pun intended) out of state last weekend, and Big Shot Husband showed his true talent at assembling furniture so I will have to have him do more of it, it was time to test it out. The new TV. As we sat watching an educational show last night on PBS about turtles and other nature-oriented stuff in HD (those turtles sure look different in HD, you can see the flaws on their faces a lot more), I said to Big Shot Husband, "I am falling in love. With this TV." We sat glued to it, barely able to speak. "Thank you so much," said BiSH to Mother and Daddy. "I love this TV."

It did entail some work on my part, this new TV. It is no simple task to figure out how to not only find the HD channels corresponding to the regular old ones, but also to then change all the DVR settings appropriately. We looked through our series recordings and worked on changing them one by one. When we got to "Keeping up with the Kardashians," BiSH, Mother and Daddy scoffed and looked over at me. Daddy said, "I think you like the Kardashians because they are like the modern day Gabor sisters." Brilliant Daddy! I knew that's why I have to watch it. Research for my blog/child-rearing.

But I don't really need that TV. I have 7-year-old Eva Gabor Cake living my house. As I watched her in the bath today, I enjoyed the following commentary, "Mommy, I like the hat you're wearing today, but could you wear your black one tomorrow? If it's still raining and you aren't wearing your sheitel? And I love your cardigan with that puffy vest you wore today because it looks kind of like sleeves of a shirt, not a cardigan. And I'm not sure about that dress we picked out for my siddur party, I am not sure if I should wear it with black tights and a white shell, or white tights and a black shell. Actually, I think I want to wear a different dress, ok? I don't like puffy dresses. And I'll wear a silver headband."

Here I interjected, "What if we both wear the headband with the silver flower that we bought together? Wouldn't that be so fun?" I mean, I am not going to lie and be one of those "I don't know where she gets it, I mean I don't care that much about my clothes/makeup/accessories" moms, because, um, I do.

"Mommy," said Eva, "I don't really want to be matchy-patchy."

Momentarily hurt, I quickly snapped out of it and we went to her room to proceed in planning her siddur party outfit ("Oh, you should wear Zsa Zsa's old black patent shoes! Those are so cute and I think they fit you now!" I squealed. See what I mean?). I'm sure this outfit we put together will change 12 times between now and then. Of course I will hold her hand every step of the way because, I mean, that's what moms are for. Oh, and for instilling good values like not caring about what you're wearing and stuff like that. I can work more on that tomorrow. After I watch my new TV.