Stories about the Monkey

I spend a lot of time complaining about the "malo" things the Monkeys does and not much time on the sweet things about her. This past week as been full of cute stories, so I thought I'd share a few.

Last week I was deep into one of my "see Amy, you are creative" projects and was cutting some fabric on the living room floor. The monkey was sitting on the floor next to me watching Brother Bear. I heard her making sniffling noises and I looked up to see what she was doing. She had tear after tear streaming down her face and her eyes were glued to the TV. I noticed that on the screen, one of the characters was crying and singing a sad song. The movie had brought the Monkey to tears. The Kangaroo and the Hawk have NEVER gotten emotional over a movie and seeing her so deeply affected by it was precious. I held her close to me and told her it was okay. Once I started talking to her though, she began crying right out loud. I'll have to show her Steel Magnolias and see what happens.

Then there was the pinching incident in the car. We were driving home from our camping trip and the Monkey had gotten angry at the Hawk (probably because the Hawk's shirt had brushed up against her car seat). She began pinching the Hawk one time after another. He started screeching "Ouch, she's pinching me." I ignored it, as I do most of their fights, until I heard the sweetest tone come out of the Monkey's mouth. Her voice was very quiet but high pitched and she said slowly "he pinch me," and began softly crying. Dad and I just started cracking up. She sounded so innocent and abused. After I was done laughing I turned around and told her "that's what you get for pinching him."

As you know, the Monkey has started school. (No, I haven't gotten any notes yet. I have no idea how she's doing.) One thing she doesn't like to do is talk (or babble) about it. On Thursday I was trying so hard to get her to tell me just one thing about her day while she was eating lunch. Well, she didn't like that. While I was in the middle of asking her a question, she stuck her hand in my face and said "bop, I ee," (translated: Stop, I'm Eating). Again, very cute!

And my last story breaks my heart. We were at the Kangaroo's soccer game on Saturday and the Monkey got mad at me, once again, for something stupid. I think it happened when it was time to turn around to the field directly behind us and I turned my chair before she turned herself around. Anyway, I told her to stop crying, only angering her more, and she smacked the innocent little girl that just happened to be walking by her at the time. I did scold her for doing it and attempted to get her to apologize to the girl, with no success of course, the Monkey is only 3.

Well, a little later, the Monkey noticed the girl had Play-Do and she wanted to play it with her. Usually, when other kids are at games, the parents encourage them playing together, but not this time. The Monkey was nervous to walk over to the girl and try to play with her, but I encouraged her and was able to get her to go over to the little girl. Since the Monkey doesn't speak well yet, she just stood next to the mother waiting for her to ask the Monkey if she wanted to play. The mother ignored her and the Monkey eventually walked back over to me. So, I sent her back over, telling her to walk over and say "will you play with me" (knowing that the sentence was a bit too tough for her to say, but hoping that the mother would notice her this time).

After the Monkey walked over, the mother looked at her and said "what" with an awful sarcasm to her voice. The Monkey walked back over to me with tears in her eyes. I wanted to go smack the mom in her face and say "excuse my daughter for not having as perfect behavior as your daughter, but she did spend the first 33 months of her life fighting for anything she could get her hands on in an orphanage and struggles at controlling her anger. Give her a break, BRAT." But I didn't. I just told the Monkey that I'd buy her some Play-Do the next time I go to the grocery store.

That incident is exactly why I don't want her in a main stream preschool yet. She will eventually bite someone or hit them at school and as soon as the parent finds out, then she won't be able to live it down. Parents of "normal" kids (meaning kids that have lived in a "normal" home since birth) don't understand her behavior or why she acts like she does. Parents of special needs children will expect the other kids to have behavior problems and she only has 8 kids in her class with 2 teachers, it's great and I know she'll get so much help before I have to toss her in with the "normal" kids. How can anyone be mean to this sweet little girl?

That's it with the cute Monkey stories. I wish she were home right now because I'd give her a kiss and hug.

This weekend was our 11th wedding anniversary weekend and my 34th birthday (yuck!). Grandma and Grandpa came up on Saturday to watch the kids so we could go on a "date." One thing we learned was that after 11 years, we've become very boring. We went to dinner and then drove to the movie theater but couldn't bring ourselves to spend $9 per ticket to see Will Farrell (as funny as he is). So then we walked around the mall and after admitting to each other that we HATE window shopping and really only like going to Kohls, we went home. We even got home before the boys were in bed.

Which reminds, I've got to tell you quickly about my husband. I love pineapple upside down cake and wanted him to bake me one for my birthday. I told him NUMEROUS times "do not buy the pineapple upside down cake mix, it is gross. Buy a yellow cake mix ONLY and it better not be generic either." So, off to the store he went and when he got home, this is honestly what he said, "look Amy, they had a pineapple upside down supreme cake mix, so I bought it, I think it will be really good. I was proud of myself for finding it." I responded, "are you kidding? That's really what you bought? How many times did I tell you NOT to buy that and ONLY to buy a yellow cake mix." So on our date, we stopped at the store for a yellow cake mix. He's always complaining about no one listening to him..........

My birthday was great though. We took the animals bowling and then went to Sonic. The boys have been begging to go to Sonic all summer (one just opened by our house a few months ago) and I decided we'd go yesterday. Last time we'll do that. First of all, Wendy's is much better and second, who wants to eat in the car, especially on their birthday. Here are a few pictures of the weekend.

The Hawk took this picture which explains the lack of a full head on Dad.

Have a great week!