Month: December 2010

• On Sunday, Duhdee woke up early and went to Toys R Us to buy a gift for Monkey that went on sale that morning. As he was leaving, in the dark, he asked “Would you like me to bring home Dunkins?” Which, really? Duh! That’s like asking me, “Hey, honey, would you like to breath today?” Anway. I said yes and put in my order ((Would you believe that I’ve become so used to him placing orders for me at Dunkins that when I attempted to do it myself last Thursday I screwed it up? He was standing next to me prompting me “Do you want it toasted?” “Yes, toasted please!” “Do you want milk & sugar in your tea?” “Yes! Milk and sugar, please!” PATHETICAL!)). When Duhdee got home Monkey was in his room and I told him that Daddy was home. Monkey came running out of his room yelling “Hi Daddy! Hewwo! Hi! Hi!” but as soon as he saw the Dunkin Donuts bag and drink caddy in Duhdee’s hands he immediately switched to “Honey! Dunkins! Hurray! Yay! Dunkins!”
• Five minutes later, Duhdee had put the goods on the counter in the kitchen and we were scheming how to keep the kid occupied while Duhdee went to move the presents. Normally, Monkey will go stand at the window to watch us when we go outside. Monkey came up with his own idea however. He strolled by us, casually, holding his opened cup of Dunkins hot chocolate. He looked at us briefly and said “Mmmm, good!” before proceeding to his laptop to browse YouTube clips. Problem solved. Everyone loves a cuppa Dunkins with their morning internet apparently.
• Hours later, while we were shopping, Monkey was a little upset about going out. He had been arguing for a day in…he always wants to stay in when Umma is involved…but Umma had stuff to do and they tagged along. He settled down after a little while and at our 2nd stop of the day I was buying some…stuff…and Monkey really just wanted a hug. Actually, he really wanted me to pick him up, squeeze him, kiss his cheeks and pretend to bite his ears and, so, I did. His mood was greatly improved and I thought I could finish my shopping. But Monkey hadn’t had enough! He can never get enough hugs and kisses, which is one of many, many reasons I love him to bits. But I wanted to hurry before this good mood of his passed, it happens.  I started power walking through the aisles and he…chased me. So I ran around and misbehaved in the worst way with my laughing, happy Monkey. He chased me and didn’t get frustrated! I hid from him and he kept looking and calling out “Money!” but not too loudly and not too upset. It was fun. Poor Duhdee just stood there surrounded by…stuff ((OK, FINE! I was buying some underwears at Kohls, happy?))…and watched the fun. He was relieved to get the OK from me to take Monkey to the toy section. He’s a good sport.
• Yesterday morning, as we were walking in to school a teenaged girl stopped us and said “Did he used to go to the [Insert Old School’s Name]?” I said that he did and she smiled at him and said she remembered him. I got her name. I like having big kids to look out for my little kid. I wonder if she’s old enough to babysit…she looked old enough…hmmm…(Note to self**ask teacher to see if we can track her down**). When I relayed the story to his teacher her eyes got really big and she told us a story from last week…Monkey was in line with his class walking down the hall when he passed a woman who is a retired teacher from the [Insert Old School’s Name]. He looked at her, took a few more steps and then stopped. He turned around, went back to her and said “Hi!” and waved. Then he got back in line and continued. The retired teacher was shocked, she hadn’t recognized him until he said something to her 🙂 He is making so much progress!

Curses! Out of time again. See, we really SHOULD just follow him around with a video camera 😉

I was telling a friend of mine some Monkey stories yesterday and she advised me that we should just follow the boy around with a video camera so we could share the cuteness. She is a wise woman. I wish it were possible, I would do it in a heartbeat if I didn’t have to, you know, work.

Speaking of work. The new job is responsible for the lack of posts these days. I love it, the work is challenging and actually makes a real difference to my clients. It’s not endless busy work that was made up to satisfy a client that can never be satisfied. It’s amazing. I no longer hate going to work everyday…just some days…but that’s normal…I think. Anyway, the result of all this challenging, meaningful work is that I have so much less time for sharing all the awesome things my Monkey says and does! For that, I apologize.

OK, enough about me! No one comes here to read about my exciting life as a paralegal! Moving on now…

We are big, big Christmas people. We started decorating the day after Thanksgiving and, as of Sunday, I think we’re finished ((This is assuming I don’t see anymore Christmas decorations that I just MUST have. Sometimes that happens. Actually, that happens a lot soooo we’re probably not done but let’s just not tell Duhdee or he’ll take away my debit card!)).  Everything will stay up until New Year’s Day unless our tree decides to shrivel up into a pile of twigs and needles ((Please don’t do that!)).

Since we have been decorating we’ve been talking lights and ornaments and trees but we haven’t talked a lot about Santa yet. Monkey has been filling in that gap for us. There is a Santa that my amazing mother-in-law gave us that Monkey had, in the past, eyed rather suspiciously. You see Santa has this big fuzzy beard and, wait…let’s throw in a visual.

Here he is:

So, with Monkey’s sensory issues, you can see why this guy might be eyed suspiciously. I mean, that beard could jump out and touch him at any second! This was not Monkey’s favorite decoration but this year he’s warmed up to the big guy! First, he started out saying, “Hi, Santa! Hi!” every morning…he still does this. Then he started sometimes yelling out “Hi, Santa!” from other rooms. He’s just a friendly kid that way.  Last night he walked by Santa and said “High five, Santa” and he TOUCHED Santa! He high fived him. Unreal.

Ugh! I’m out of time…now I feel like a tease promising a cuteness dump and only getting ONE of the four cute stories from the last 3 days out. Next time, less talky, more bullet points!

Things aren’t much changed. We still don’t know why and likely never will. We’ve talked with Monkey about it but it’s hard to know what he understands. We’re trying to be careful to use very precise language so we don’t inadvertently scare him. We have discussed how sad we are. He has listened and offered no comment. I think it’s time we leave the topic alone now unless he brings it up. We’ve kept the teacher updated on what we have told him just in case she hears something from him at school.

We’ve moved on to preparing for Christmas over the last week. The house is almost completely decorated. Duhdee has a couple little things to add to the outside decorations but I’m flat out of places to hang lights. We have gone completely nuts here decorating. The last two years we ran out of time and energy and just never seemed to get it all together. This year we started the day after Thanksgiving and by the end of the weekend we were 80% done. I started my Christmas shopping Thanksgiving day too. Instead of venturing out on Black Friday I took advantage of the online sales and got the worst of it done. (Yes, worst, I hate shopping!)

Monkey, as usual, has been a huge fan of the Christmas decor. He’s all about “Santa” (last year it was just “Ta”) and the “Angel” (last year I don’t think he even had any word for it!) Earlier today, he and Duhdee were playing with an app on Duhdee’s new Android phone, that interacts with our home automation system, and turning the lights on the Christmas tree on and off. Geeks. Then Duhdee showed him that they could ALSO turn on the lights in the front windows too. Monkey took one look and said, clear as day, “Would you look at that!” which was then followed by a series of “Yay!”s which we could mostly hear over our own laughter. This boy is just full of surprises.

We’re so lucky.