Author: Melissa

Once each day I am the funniest, most captivating person on the planet to my Monkey.  No episode of Curious George or even televised football game can compete.  He will walk away from his snack.  He will run, feet pounding across the floor, no matter what he was doing, just to cheer me on as I…dry my hair. I wish I knew what was so exciting about it but, even in my ignorance, I can’t help but enjoy it. 

As soon as I unwrap the towel from my head, Monkey is guiding me towards the bathroom telling me, “Hair!”  He will open the drawer where the hair dryer is kept and he’ll attempt to unwind the cord and plug it in (no matter how many times I tell him that is a Mama job.)  He will get my hair brush and stand, feet apart, with the hair dryer in one hand and the brush in the other telling me “Over!”   I flip my hair over, so I can dry my roots, and he will push the hair dryer and brush into my hands.  I’m not allowed to vary my routine.  If I try to set the brush down he will grab it and demonstrate how I am supposed to brush my hair and then hand it back to me.  He’s quite the little drill sargent.

The best part comes when I stand up.  Monkey will position me so I’m facing the mirror and he then stands back to jump, giggle, scream and clap as I blow out my hair.  If I turn away from the mirror, he will stop cheering long enough to turn me back.  If I try to set down the brush and just use my hands to fluff my hair, he will again intervene. 

When I’m finally done he will demonstrate how I’m supposed to wind up the cord and he’ll put the hair dryer away for me.  I never knew drying my hair could be so much fun but Monkey has certainly opened my eyes. ((This morning as an added bonus he was very verbal.  He said “funny,” “bend over,” “hair dryer,” “brush,” and “mirror” repeatedly.  All very clear.  Hubby, child that he is, was most amused by the “bend over.”  Men.))

Duhdee is in the kitchen doing prep work for our final Thanksgiving dinner of 2008.  He is making crabcake appetizers using one of these:

Monkey wanted to help so he grabbed his stool and pushed it up to the counter.  He then ran to the utensil drawer and came back, armed, to help.  He was carrying one of these:

Ours has a black handle so it looks even more like the cookie scoop.  Pretty creative, eh?  He helped Dudhee scoop a few of them.  He just loves to work in the kitchen!

When Monkey and I are horsing around he likes to make silly requests of me just to hear me say “No way!”  For instance, he’ll ask me to look in the space between the couch and the wall, over and over.  There’s never anything down there so I tell him “No way!” whenever he asks me to look.  He cracks up and then makes the request again.

Since he has a great belly laugh I don’t really mind this game so much but lately, in the interest of asking him to expand on his communication more, I’ve been asking him to say “Yes way!” as a response.  I’ve heard him say both “Yes” and “Way” so I thought it would be easy to combine, right?  Not with my stubborn kid.  The best I can get from him is a Nod and then a “Way.”  Silly little goober!

We’re all full up with sick here, this is just insult to injury, really.  So, does anyone else need a little icky eye?  Please?  *sigh*  Poor Monkey.

Yesterday morning, as we were trying in vain to get out of the house on time for school, Monkey planted himself firmly in front of The Tree and pointed over and over at the angel on the top of our tree.  Finally, I asked Duhdee to please look up the word “angel” on our handy, dandy online ASL dictionary so we could teach it to the child.

Duhdee did as I asked and when I finished brushing my teeth I found him diligently signing and saying “Angel” to Monkey whenever Monkey pointed.  Awesome.  Duhdee showed me the sign and I repeated the process with Monkey when Duhdee rushed off to do some last minute chores. 

When Duhdee and Monkey were in the bathroom brushing their teeth together I happened to look at the web browser Duhdee had left open and I saw the woman signing over and over and over.  I stepped closer and cracked up.  Duhdee has a bit of trouble with spelling, you see, and when he searched for “Angel”  he actually looked up “Angle.” 

Haha!  Poor Monkey.  We’re all set now though.

Yesterday, we decided to go on our annual Christmas Tree Hunt!  We drove out of the city toward our favorite hunting grounds armed with nothing more than hats and mittens ((Except for me who was too focused on everyone else to remember to grab my own, so I was SOL.)) to track down the ever elusive, perfect, Fraser Fir. 

Upon arrival we stepped out into the lightly falling snow and found ourselves ankle deep in dark, sucking mud.  After kicking ourselves for not going last week when the ground was frozen we set off to collect a saw.  Enroute to the saws, Monkey spied the hay ride and was immediately thrown off course.  I hurried Duhdee along so that we could ride to the top of the hill in style and comfort behind the exhaust belching tractor but, alas, the ride was full.  We promised Monkey that we’d come back and ride it later and set out hunting The Tree. 

We spent 20 minutes tromping through a cold, snowy field dismissing all that we saw.  Too short, too tall ((These words only ever come out of Duhdee’s mouth. I happen to think that there is no “too tall” when it comes to The Tree but Duhdee insists that the ceiling is only so high.  Grinch.)), too skinny, bald on one side, etc.  Finally!  Duhdee suggested we walk back down to where the hay ride picks up so we could ride to the top of the hill and look up there instead.  You didn’t think we’d find a tree in 20 minutes did you??

So we retraced our steps through the mud and snow to the hay ride pick up location only to see it disappearing back up the hill.  We missed it.  Duhdee suggested looking in the field at the base of the hill so that we would not miss the next ride.  Unfortunately, none of the trees in that area were shorter than 20′ which is considerably taller than Duhdee will allow.  So.  We wandered in the cold, muddy field until the hay ride reappeared. 

This time we were ready.  Monkey was so excited that he nearly mowed down the other little boy who was trying to get on the trailer.  Oops, sorry!  Merry Christmas?  Ugh.  Everyone got situated, the tractor belched out it’s foul stench and we were off!  Monkey was thrilled.  We rode all the way to the top and he wore a huge grin the entire time.  Then we reached the top and stepped off.  Monkey sat down on the ground in protest.  He didn’t want to get off.  When that didn’t work.  He cried.  Big, fat, tears slid down his cheeks as the tractor drove away.  ((OK, so maybe, in the true spirit of things I should have just let him ride back down, right?  But that is hindsight, at the time I could no longer feel my fingers and I thought one of my toes had possibly fallen off so, yeah.))  I made him wave bye-bye and dragged him into yet another field of trees. 

Never fear, however, it was not all in vain.  After three or four more circuits of that field, a few tears and a lot of mud Duhdee decided he’d solved our dilemma.  What we needed to do was go back to the field we’d started in.  When my eyes bulged out of my head, he asked me where I’d suggest going.  I totally get a millon gold stars for only thinking, very quietly, in the deep, dark recesses of my mind “HOME DEPOT“.  Don’t you agree?  What I did was say, cheerfully, “OK!” And we set off down the hill, through the mud to the exact spot where we’d started an hour before. 

Once again we walked through the cold, snowy field but this time it was a Christmas MIRACLE.  The trees were not all objectionable anymore.  In fact, they all looked perfect.  I pointed out tree after tree after tree saying “How about THIS one?”  Duhdee only looked at me like I’d lost my mind a few dozen times.  Finally, we narrowed it down to two trees that might be a little short but, seriously, I didn’t care anymore.  I told him to just pick the taller of the two.

Once he’d determined which of the two trees was condemned he pulled out his borrowed saw and cut that sucker down.  When Monkey saw Duhdee kneeling on the cold, wet ground working he decided to finally stop crying and help.  He first tried supervising while staying on his feet but the view was not very good so he finally got down on his knees and peered under the tree to offer his best advice on the proper cutting technique.  He did a great job too, the tree was cut perfectly…except for the one spot where I pulled on the tree and I shouldn’t have so it was slanted.  Oops.  But other than that, and Monkey cannot be held responsible for my ignorance, it was a job well done.

We hurried back to the barn and gave up our tree to the wrapping machine.  While Duhdee tied the tree to the roof, Monkey and I sat in the truck sipping hot chocolate with the heat on high.  Gradually we were restored to good humor and by the time we got home I was even in the Christmas spirit again.  Truly a Christmas Miracle in and of itself. 

This morning, Monkey woke to a completely decorated house.  He loves the tree.  He is obsessed with the angel.  He wouldn’t even eat breakfast, he wanted to stand and touch the tree and tell us how soft it was.  When we finally were able to get him ready for school, only a half hour late, he cried big, fat tears once again as we left the tree and walked to the truck.  I promised him it would be there when he got home.  I do hope this wears off by mid-January so we can take it down!

And, in case you’re curious, we’ll totally go cut our own tree again next year too.  What can I say, we’re gluttons for punishment when it comes to making “memories.”

Yesterday afternoon I grabbed a yogurt. Monkey first tried to tell me I didn’t want one at all but when I insisted that I did, in fact, want one he decided to supervise. He began by just watching me eat but when I was nearly finished he instructed me to put it down on the table. As soon as I did so he signed “all done” and told me “no!” I wasn’t even supposed look at it after that! Whenever he caught me looking at him, as he pilfered the last of my snack, he’d tell me no. When I told him “Dude, that was mine!” he just laughed.

Punk.

Last Saturday, Duhdee and I went to his highschool reunion and Monkey stayed with his Grammy and Grampy.  This is the report we received.

Hi there,
            Just thought I would enlighten you on the experience we had taking care of Monkey on the evening of your reunion.  Simply “Amazing”.
             First he and his cousin played quite nicely in the playroom and there were no disagreements.  We checked on them every once in a while.  I was cooking supper in the kitchen.  Once it became suppertime, I informed both of them and shut the light off in the playroom.  Monkey seemed to be looking around for his parents but I just led him to his chair in the kitchen and he was fine.  He ate 2 hot dogs and a scoopful of Mac n cheese.  Grammy was a little apprehensive with his cousin watching his eating habits but she did fine also.  
             After dinner, Grampy took his cousin and uncle home and Monkey and Grammy played with his train set.  Grammy got down on the floor and got the train set together in record time.  He got into the middle of it and we played with the trains all the while watching whatever football games on the TV.  After a while Grampy came home and got to appreciate Monkey’s ability to keeping the train on track and also knocking it off track.  He also handed the train to me and made me switch all of the cars around in their position.
             We then got changed for bed around 8:30 and laid down on the floor but he wanted to go back into the living room and play with the trains some more.  So being a typical Grammy, we spoiled the little Monkey.  Then I could see that his ability to play with the train was getting a little tired so we went into the bedroom and lay down.  He got a backrub which he seemed to enjoy.  Then not sure if he slept with the light on or off, we played a game of shutting the light off and on.  He kept on telling me which to do.  So I left the room and we could hear him playing with the toys a little.  After a few minutes I went back in and laid him back down with his covers on and shut the light.  I left the door open and the light on in the bathroom because I didn’t need him to be scared of the strange place he was in.  Just after a few minutes he was out like a light!!
             We were quite surprised and happy to have him at our house.  Grampy said it was the best birthday present he ever had.  Monkey has matured so much in the past few months and was just such a pleasure to have him here.  More than willing to do it anytime when Mommy and Daddy need to go somewhere.

Neat, eh?