Flying Barrel Of Monkeys

With the house on the market, we’ve had to take down gates, remove doorknob covers, and open the house up to MonkeyBoy. He is loving the freedom. He now helps himself to food in the pantry and delights in playing in the master bedroom. Up until last month, we still had the Pack ‘N Play in the master bathroom and he would play in that while MonkeyMan showered in the mornings. Now MonkeyBoy drags an assortment of toys into the master bedroom, climbs onto the bed and makes himself comfortable watching PBS in the morning while MonkeyMan readies for the day.

MonkeyBoy is also delighted to be able to come into my craft room, since it’s now safe for him to enter. He has discovered my boom box and enjoys popping the lid to put a CD in. He got very angry with me this morning when I replaced the Muppet CD with another one of my choosing. He ran around crying and screaming “No! I don’t like that one! I want the Fozzie Bear!”

While on the cruise ship, he perfected opening doors serving as “doorman” in my parents’ suite. So he’s excited that he gets to use that skill here at home now, since we took the doorknob covers off of most of our doors. This weekend, he learned how to undo the locks on the backdoor and let himself out onto the back porch. He was very pleased with this skill and kept running back and forth between indoors and out.

He’s also pushing his limits by riding his vehicles in the house. He’s almost figured out peddling and and can go round once or twice before he gives up on his tricycle and Big Wheel. He looks so cute that it’s hard not to laugh and reprimand him for riding in the house. We keep a couple of the vehicles indoors by the front door just because it’s easier to get them out and use them, but if he keeps it up we might just have to move them into the garage or out back on the porch.

Last weekend he was invited to a “prince/princess” themed birthday party for one of his friends. Since he didn’t have any appropriate attire, I decided that I’d make him a crown and cape. He’s been a fan of capes ever since he was itty bitty, and would take bibs out of the bib drawer and put them on backwards like a cape anytime he’d see Super Grover on TV. I was mighty disappointed when I put the crown and cape on him and he yelled “No!” and threw them on the ground. I think he wore them for a total of 11 seconds at the birthday party. But that evening we went to the circus and he decided before we left that we needed to take the items with us. He wore the cape the entire time, and now wears it daily around the house. He gives me his monkey apron to wear around my neck and we “fly” around the house with our “super capes”.