Oy Gevalt!

I am sitting at my computer this morning drinking my God-awful green tea and I hear my son Ben yell "Oy Gevalt!". By the way I'm drinking green tea because I have decided to cut coffee out of my life since Dr. Perricone (the infamous dermatologist) said on Oprah that if you did nothing but cut out coffee you would lose 6 pounds. He and everyone else spouts the benefits of green tea so here I am drinking this crap while my 7 year old son is yelling "Oy Gevalt!" in another room.

I still haven't found out why he was yelling it and I don't really care. I know it must have had something to do with his twin brother Max or some computer game or whatever. The funny thing to me is that of all the statements my mother (his grandmother) makes, "Oy gevalt" is the one he has adopted as his own. Grandma Florida, as he calls her, hasn't been here since November but this phrase has passed the test of time. This is the same Jewish grandmother that was sure Ben had all the characteristics of a malnourished, biafra (sp?) child when he was younger because he didn't eat enough for her taste and was on the skinny side. I told her that every Jewish grandmother on the planet thinks their grandchildren are starving, though I have actually never seen proof of this phenomenon. She even wanted me to ask his pediatrician to prescribe medicine to make him eat more. In unison now, "Oy Gevalt!"

Ben used, "Oy gevalt" this weekend when his twin was getting his face painted before we saw a clown show in New York city (it's called "Aga-Boom", and it's beyond fabulous by the way). Ben is completely against face paint while Max revels in the mere thought of it. Compounded with the red clown nose we purchased for Max (for an outrageous $3) that he proudly wore for at least 5 hours, Ben nearly went over the edge.

Have I mentioned they are Oscar and Felix? Well they are. Polar opposites, really. Max is a messy, fun-loving, roll with the punches type of kid (John Candy reincarnated, I believe). Ben is a rule-loving, neatnik, who is the first to admit he isn't funny but rather very serious (which just makes him all the funnier in my mind). My friend Carolyn and I (I put your name in Car!) are quite certain that her son, Jonah, and Max must be prohibited from attending the same college. They would most definitely be the ones in the Hawaiian shirts, drinking beer through funnels and doing shots of tabasco until they puke. Ben on the otherhand will be the one driving the campus kiddy-cop security car placing them both under civilian arrests.

Diversity, ain't it grand? Now let us join together and say, Oy Gevalt!