Another milestone. At 2 years and 10 days, China Bambina uttered those words for the first time. Actually, she spoke in Chinese (Baba, yao qian). Man, I laughed so hard, and commented to the dinner table that she sounded like a real Shanghaiese woman. My wife and her sister were not amused, but hell if you can’t laugh with your own kids, when can you laugh?
Of course, I then dug down for some change so she could go ride the mechanical pony. Since I almost never got to do any of that frivolous (read costs money) stuff myself as a tyke, it doesn’t take much to talk me into a new toy, pony ride or helium ballon.
No doubt I will be hearing those three words repeated over and over like a mantra until I go meet Elvis.
“Baba” is Chinese for “daddy”, I assume?
Odd. “Baba” is Russian for “grandmother” (it’s what we called my great-grandma.) Never dared call her “yaga”, though.
make sure you teach her to say “gimme money PLEASE” and then “thank you” afterwards. politeness jacks up the profits, as i’ve learned. my little sister begs for stuff all the time and never gets it, then complains when occasionally i ask politely for something and usually get it.
Ha! I have gramma’s recipe book, with 6 different pierogi fillings, as well as recipes for Easter cheese (2 dozen eggs and 1.5 quarts of milk), and lots of other stuff I can’t pronounce anymore.
Ironic, ain’t it, using your 666th post on ‘yaga’!
China bambina has learned how to say please already to further twist me around her little finger. Just hasn’t put it together with gimme money, but that will happen all too soon.
Oh, I know! My mother was first-generation Russian-American, Poppy seed roll, mmmmMMMMmmmm… varniki for breakfast… Easter bread with a dozen egg yolks and crammed with raisins… and of course, PIEROGI!
MMMMMMM! You guys are making me hungry! My father’s side of the family is mostly Polish/Slovak, so we have all these things (pierogi, the cheese, the the easter bread, kielbasa, etc) at holidays. I can’t make a basic spaghetti sauce, but I know how to make pierogies from scratch! My mom’s side is completely German, so I have more fatty food goodness on that side!
Oh, and to keep this on track: politeness is key, and in moderation as well (I was more likely to get that ice cream cone or whatever if I only asked occasionally, not every time the ice cream man drove by).
Oh we would have DREAMED of apricot!!! (Actually, Baba did make them with apricot once in awhile.)
More often than not, she used prune paste.
Combine that with the poppy seed rolls and the babka (also covered in poppy seed), and the mushroom & cabbage soup, and the lentils, and Christmas and Easter dinners were LETHAL at Baba’s house!!
But certainly made for some fond memories.
**
No onions. Allergies. Browned in butter. Ton o’butter.
We’re talking feeding large strapping men who worked in the coal mines and railroads of Pennsylvania, and the womenfolk who took care of them. Low-fat? Low cholesterol? Bah! Baba would have chased you down the block swinging the wooden spoon at you.
Damn. Now I have to find the recipe book.
screech-owl
(who would drive to Buffalo for a butter lamb right now!)
Good lord, yes. My great-uncle went underground with his lunch bucket before sunrise; after school my mother would carry his dinner bucket down mine for him, and he came home just about the time she was going to bed.
My jeetha (greatgrandfather) fed anyone who came in the house: he’d give them a bowl and a spoon and demand, “Eat!”
Poppy seed roll, mmmmMMMMmmmm… varniki for breakfast… Easter bread with a dozen egg yolks and crammed with raisins… and of course, PIEROGI!