Category Archives: Monkey

Monkey, Otter

A photo opportunity…

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What does one do with small children to pass the time when it’s twenty minutes till bedtime and you haven’t slept in 6 weeks?

Take silly pictures of course!! (Note the funny look on Otter’s face.)

Here is Otter loving his sister. He is just fascinated by her. Every time she is around his eyes get wide, and he makes an ‘O’ shape with his mouth. She can calm him down, make him smile, keep him happy while I use the bathroom. It’s amazing.


She is justifiably proud of her abilities in the baby calming/entertaining arena. Here she is assisting Otter in the use of his alternative sucking device, known in our family as the “Bupper”.



Aren’t they cute together?

Here we three are being silly again. The photo shoot was a happy way to end the weekend. (Otter looks a wee perturbed in this shot. Maybe he is contemplating the Bush administration.)

Monkey, Otter, Pets

Of temper tantrums and bodily fluids…

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Why is it that the moment one parent leaves town, the kids go insane?

Lee is away at a Ruby on Rails conference with Devon, Morgan, and a few others representing Vonage in all it’s orangeness. My Dad was here until yesterday, so I only have two full days alone with one Monkey, one infant Otter, three dogs (I agreed to keep Devon’s dog Fitz, who lacks housetraining but normally will keep to a pee pad instead of hitting floors and carpet), and three cats. Shouldn’t be too bad right?

Let’s see… The night before I got up at 4:30 am to take Lee to the train station for his journey Monkey threw her first ‘Post little brother” fit. It was complete with screaming and crying and ended with the phrase “you don’t love me anymore, you only love Otter!” Sigh. Lee and I talked her down off a ledge, told her we did love her, and finally got her to sleep. However, Otter then kept me awake until almost 11, thereby giving me only 5 hours of interrupted, fitful sleep to work with upon Lee’s departure. I tried to go back to sleep after dropping him off, but Otter was awake and ready to eat, so it didn’t work. (It’s hard to sleep while a small creature sucks milk out of your nipple, but damn it I am going to master it eventually!)

The next sign that my week without Lee would be more challenging than initially anticipated came when Fitz decided to deviate from the perfectly acceptable pee pad behavior and instead poop on the carpet. Not wanting to risk a rental deposit of astronomical proportions, I cleaned up the mess and confined Fitz to a large linoleum area with temporary toddler fencing. She has still not deigned to hit the pee pad conveniently located near her, but at least she can’t destroy the linoleum. Sigh. (As if I was not already handling enough human waste, now I have to handle doggy waste too!)

The week continued with Monkey waking up at four am two nights ago with a nightmare, and last night having wet the bed, causing me to lose even more sleep than I normally do taking care of the baby. Of course I had failed to wash her previously dirty sheets so when I opened it at 4 am, the sheet cupboard was bare. Sigh. Additionally she has managed to use every tactic in the book to delay bedtime each night this week, leaving her very tired and cranky during the day. Joy!! (She was very well behaved today though, until bedtime, so I am thankful for that.)

Happily my dogs have not gone mad, yet, and Otter is only slightly more cranky and fussy than normal, so things are not as bad as they could be. However, why is it this crap happens when you are already taking a hit for the team?

Monkey

Monkey update

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Monkey explains her goodbye note/family portrait to her Nama.

Monkey moments…

It occurs to me that I haven’t posted many Monkey moments lately. Here I hope to remedy that and catch you all up on the doings of our dear girl.

School:
Monkey had her very first lunch detention, two days of it, for a really minor infraction, one for misunderstanding her teacher and going to the wrong area of the room instead of the right one, and the other for forgetting her first lunch detention and going to recess. She was crushed and came home sad and upset. After a generous helping of ice cream in a cone, and a discussion of how proud I am of her for her hard work in school, she felt better. She said “I hope Ms. Diamond forgets.” However, I spoke with her about how proud Ms. Diamond would be if Monkey reminded her about the lunch detention. She did, and came home bursting with pride because her sentence was reduced to one day, because she was responsible enough to remind Ms. Diamond about the detention. (Thankfully she and I were on the same page as far as rewarding that kind of responsibility goes. Don’t you love it when other adults enforce your messages without any prompting?)

She was once again given a good citizenship award this week, which the school gives out to children who lead the class and help out the other students. This is her third time, so we are still very proud, but the luster is beginning to wear off, even for her. The first one was presented with an excited “Look what I got mommy!!” and a long explanation of it meaning and process, but this one was presented with a “I got the good citizenship award again mom. Here.” as she tossed it on my desk and ran into the kitchen for a snack.

Bag sick:
Lee was shopping with Monkey in Costco and noticed large hardsided suitcases. He told Monkey they looked big enough for her to fit in and we would save a lot of money if we could fly her out to Denver in one of the cases. She looked it over and said “No Dad, that’s not a good idea, I might get bag sick.”

Irony:
Today we were cleaning the family room and she was running around in circles in the center of the room with a balloon yelling. We asked her repeatedly to stop because it was making us quite mad. Then Lee asked her to pick a few things up off the floor of her room so he could vacuum it. She came back into the room with earplugs and asked if she could borrow them. When asked why she responded with “I am so tired. I want to lie down and take a nap, and you guys are too noisy.”

Monkey on pain:
“It hurts so much, it hurts like a dog eating an alligator.”

How much does Monkey like her brother? Here are a few of the things she has said about him lately:
“Mom, I think I am falling in love with him.”
“Mom, I think I am going to Marry my brother. He is so cute!”
“Otter is finally here, he is the best brother ever!”
Mom: “Monkey, I know Otter is a little boring right now, but he will be more fun as he gets older.”
Monkey:”He’s not boring Mom! He is really fun!”

Sibling moments:
Today, while holding her little brother, Monkey was given several full on smiles and Agoos. She was so happy to have him interacting with her, and he was so happy to be held by her!
This afternoon, while Otter was resting on my shoulder, and Monkey was standing behind me and talking to him, he puckered up his little baby mouth and gave her a kiss! She was so pleased to be included in the Otter kiss club!

Monkey moments:
Lee took Monkey to the park to run off some energy the other day, here are the photos of said energy release.
Monkey on the Balance Beam:



Monkey crosses the Great Divide:


Hopefully anyone feeling deprived of Monkey stories feels more caught up now. I have been meaning to post them for a while, but baby, and sleep deprivation, have prevented me.

Congratulations to those who passed the Colorado Bar Exam and commisseration for those who did not pass. I love you all, regardless of which category you fall in, and beleive in you.