My evening out

My children are on summer vacation.

And every conversation I have with another adult and every status update I post on Facebook seems to be a variation on the same theme: I am slowly losing my mind from all the time together.

Yearning for closeness

One morning last week, B.A. and I were shopping in the Machane Yehuda shuk, Jerusalem’s famous open-air market. It was early on a Wednesday, before the shuk is too crowded, and we were taking our time.

I pushed him in his stroller, loading up a knapsack with fruits and vegetables and nuts. As I checked produce items off my shopping list, I taught B.A. their names.

I held up a sweet potato before him.

“What’s this? Sweet potato!”

“Cucumber,” he replied.

“Eich omrim beivrit? How do we say it in Hebrew? Batata!”

“Cucumber.”

“What’s this? A radish!”

“Cucumber.”

And so on. He seemed pretty solid on the cucumber thing.