Flying Barrel Of Monkeys

Today was the first day of the new school year for MonkeyBoy. Nothing says “first day of school” like a goofy picture and a bad haircut. I may have to take the scissors to his bangs myself, I can’t do a worse job than the “professional” that hacked on his hair last week. Interestingly enough, I received an email today notifying me that the place I took him to went out of business. Perhaps the “stylist” was taking out her aggression about the impending job loss on her clients?

MonkeyBoy seemed to have a good day at school. But when I asked him about his day he told me he didn’t want to make any new friends and he wanted to go back to his old classroom – the “big one with the trains”. I don’t blame him, last year’s classroom was pretty awesome.

MonkeyBoy and I will be walking in the local stroll-a-thon to raise money for Rett Syndrome Research later this month. One of his little friends has been diagnosed with Rett Syndrome – it’s a neuromuscular disease in the autism spectrum that affects mainly girls. The girls appear healthy for the first 6 to 18 months of life and then start losing skills. His little friend just lost the ability to get up from a sitting position this week. Let’s find a cure before she loses any more skills!

To join us in the walk, or to donate, please visit
http://www.firstgiving.com/rallying4reagan

The day started out with a morning birthday pool party for a princess-loving friend of MonkeyBoy.

I’m trying to make all our gifts this year, but ended up buying a few things for this sweet recipient. She received a do-it-herself sticker making kit, complete with stamped images of her beloved Disney Princesses that she can color in with Disney Princess markers and then run through her new sticker machine.

After the party, we came home and changed clothes and then headed out to a fun afternoon at the circus thanks to Papop and his connections with the circus people.

MonkeyMan bought himself a combination frisbee/boomerang as a circus souvenir and he entertained us with tricks on the front lawn when we got home. A new neighbor and his son came outside to water their yard so MonkeyBoy and I went over to introduce ourselves. MonkeyBoy and the new little neighbor boy delighted in getting acquainted by running through their sprinklers, soaking themselves to the bone. Can’t think of a better way to end the day.

Lots and lots happening around here, as evidenced by the silence on the blog as of late. I am transitioning out of the traditional workforce with the defunding and closing of my department this month. MonkeyBoy will start back to preschool in a few weeks, and several of his little friends will be starting Kindergarten. I’m excited for them, but sad for him that some of the friends he’s known for all his life won’t be available for spur-of-the-moment weekday playdates anymore.

We’re also preparing for the arrival of our new family member in late fall, which includes swapping around four rooms in the house. I had an ultrasound appointment this week and the office had just received new equipment. They asked if we minded if the equipment vendor sat in to assist – we didn’t mind at all. We received an extra long peek at our little one, as the tech tried out new techniques on the machine. Baby is expressive with hand gestures – we caught a “thumbs up” and what looks like the “L is for Loser” forehead sign.

Two of MonkeyBoy’s friends celebrated their birthday this weekend and their mom asked me to make a cake for the occasion. The party was at an area sprinkler park and had a beachy theme. I was excited to be able to pull out my ball cake pan and came up with a beach ball cake. I was afraid it would roll on the way to the event, so I made a base cake of “sand” using brown sugar to support the ball.

There was a little cake batter left so I baked it up for a cake for MonkeyBoy to decorate, since he loves to help. He had great fun decorating his very own cake yesterday.

MonkeyBoy had his six month leg follow-up appointment on Friday and it ended up running long, especially since I’d forgotten to take him (I blame pregnancy brain!). Luckily, I called when I remembered (15 minutes late) and they were able to still work us in. His leg was declared “healed, looks as if it had never been broken” so that turned out well. We were near MonkeyMan’s office and decided to meet him for dinner rather than fight rush-hour traffic back home.

MonkeyBoy ordered a grilled cheese with fruit for his meal, and because MonkeyBoy likes them I asked if they would please throw a pickle on the side as they do for some of their other sandwiches. When MonkeyBoy’s food was delivered, it was missing a pickle but they did bring a bowl of chopped up vegetables. MonkeyBoy took one look at the bowl and said, “What is this? Salad? Ewww. That’s yuck!” (yes, he says “yuck” rather than the more traditional “yucky”). I was confused why the waitress would bring us this bowl of stuff until I looked closer at it.

It turns out MonkeyBoy received a bowl of pico instead of a pickle. Probably not a common mistake elsewhere, but it made complete sense to me after I figured out what was in that bowl. MonkeyBoy didn’t care if it was a regional treat, he cried until we found him a pickle to eat and then he was happy for the rest of dinner.

Just a few quick snapshots from the week. I’m working on Craigslisting things today in preparation for the big room swap of 2010. We’re moving four rooms around as we get ready for our new family member and I’d like to have it done this month so that there’s plenty of time between MonkeyBoy’s move to his “big boy” room and new baby’s arrival. I don’t want him to feel kicked out of his room, especially when we are reusing most everything for the new baby.

I’m finally feeling better, pregnancy-wise. You can tell I’m feeling better because I’m in the kitchen again. For the first 16 weeks or so of pregnancy, I couldn’t stand to be around food. We ate out a lot, because I could eat if someone would set the cooked food down in front of me but otherwise I couldn’t bear to be around it. Lord help the person who thought it was a good idea to ignore my wishes to eat out one night and instead brought a sack full of greasy meat into our house. I had to hide in the bedroom to get as far away from the smell as possible and then open the windows to air out the house. I was even on anti-nausea meds for those first four months or so, which is a lot for me since I don’t like to take medication of any kind.

I actually have a lot of energy these days. I don’t remember ever feeling good during my pregnancy with MonkeyBoy so it’s nice to finally be able to experience the pregnancy euphoria that I’ve heard about.

Today MonkeyBoy and I spent some time making chocolate chip cookies. He wants to be involved in everything that we do and is also independent and wants to do things for himself. He got shy when I broke out the video camera, so it’s a little difficult to hear his whispers. My favorite part is when he plucks off one chocolate chip, puts it on the tray, and declares that cookie “very small”.

I usually avoid the Dollar Spot at Target since we have plenty of toys and don’t need a bunch of cheap junk around. But yesterday I decided to spin through on a whim and discovered a plethora of dress-up costumes. MonkeyBoy’s imagination is really flourishing these days and I thought he might enjoy some role playing, so I picked up one of each of the costumes for him. When we got home, he spent the next few hours dressing up and running around the house. He’d pause and tell me to take his picture, then he’d run off and change again.

Our plans to attend the county fair were thwarted by torrential downpours which lasted most of the day. So we moved on to plan B – a trip to “Chunky Jesus”.

Calling “Chunky” to set up a playdate.

Meeting up with “Chunky” for a car ride.

Whacking some sharks.

Defending his air hockey goal.

Defending the planet.

Counting tickets.

Enjoying his prize.