Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Death by Monkeys

Last week my husband took a few days of his block leave to go visit his family in Tennessee...which left me alone with the kiddos for four days. Not that long, right?

I know now that when people talk about having their child run circles around them it is not a figure of speech. They literally do run circles around you.

Sometimes they run one big circle while spinning in smaller circles...in the living room. While the younger brother, who is not yet walking, clings to your leg and test out his new razor sharp bottom teeth on your bare knee.

I eyed the clock.11:30 am...too early for naptime. "Do you want to watch Dora or Deigo?"

"Monkey!" came the insistent reply. Monkey being, of course, Curious George.

"What about Toys? Do you want to watch Toys? There's a monkey in Toys." I thought maybe mentioning Toy Story 3 might at least briefly distract my little diva from her recent fascination with monkeys.

"NO! Monkey." (pause) "Wheaze?" How can one resist such a sweet please???

I sighed, picked up the little teething monkey clinging to my leg, who had subsequently gone from using me as a teether to screaming at me, and turned on Curious George 2 (the movie) for the umpteenth time that week.

"'Ar? Wheaze? 'Ar? Chair?"

I looked down to see a Raisin Granola bar in my slightly bigger monkey's hand (I say slightly because there is only about a five pound weight difference despite there nearly 15 month age difference).

I set down my son who promptly commenced to screaming, put my daughter along with her current favorite book "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" in her highchair and broke up the granola bar in to pieces for her.

"Monkey! Oo-Oo-Ah-Ah! Swing! Bunny!" I heard my Miss Monkey Toes giggling and rattling on about the movie over Mr. NOT so Smiley Monkey's screams. "Bunny, Mama? Bunny"

"Yup, that's funny." I replied, understanding that, in this case, 'bunny' meant 'funny' and was not referring to a cute little rodent of the long eared variety. I picked up my screaming son again and settled in on the couch to nurse him.

"Bup? Milk?" came the query from the direction of the highchair.

Of course, I forgot to get her something in her cup. And seeing that it was almost noon I might as well get her some lunch too. Which is nearly impossible to do when you've got a screaming chimp...er, um...little boy clinging to your legs.

After getting the little Diva's lunch deposited on her tray I once again sat down with my little man to nurse him. One of the lines from Toy Story 3 popped into my mind.

"Death by monkeys"...sounded about par for the course. Death by the two cutest little monkeys who had been cursed with their father's boundless energy.

And this was only partially through Day Two of my husband being gone.

I am pleased to say, however, that the children and I made it through the four day separation alive with only a handful of melt downs (the children's - I saved my melt down for after my husband got home), a slightly bruised tailbone and a pulled neck muscle (those were mine). I even got a week's worth of laundry folded. And the house mostly picked up. And the dishes done.

I'm quite proud of myself, really!


Three Little Monkeys Sleeping in the Bed

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