Sunday Monkeyshines

This week’s visit with the little people took place on Sunday, due to the holiday traveling. Daddy purchased a second disposable digital camera for the occasion, but exercised some restraint and only took about half of the “roll” – check back next week for the image updates.

Sunday dawned bright, clear and unseasonably warm and our favorite little monkeys strolled down Ridge Blvd. to find Daddy waiting on the steps in front of the House of Miller. Zach ran right up to the building and held the door for the rest of us, demonstrating impressive upper body strength and outstanding courtesy. Playtime then commenced.

By now we know where all the toys are (and everything else for that matter) and it is usually a race into the bedroom to be the first to get at the good stuff. Miranda found her magic wand and was surprised to find a matching sparkly tiara, which was a present from Aunt Susie. She looked like quite a rhinestone princess, but wielded the wand somewhat like a battleaxe.

This week’s visit was special for many reasons; chief among them was that Daddy flew solo for the first time in quite a while. Mommy left as planned for a little over an hour and the three of us played on and on. Zach got out the crayons and wanted to color, which is something that he has recently started to do. He said that he wanted to draw and oval and asked Daddy to help him do it (hand over hand). The result was a very beautiful and rare Zechariah original, which Sotheby’s would love to get their hands on but will be on permanent display on Daddy’s refrigerator gallery. We also opened some of the trunk full of presents that Daddy had to check on his flight back from Dixie. We found some wonderful books (including a pop-up monster book) and an erector set type toy from Aunt Lauren and Uncle Jim.

We all wrestled, jumped on the beds and made an unbelievable mess then Mommy returned and we decided that it would be a shame not to spend some time at the park. Beautiful, 60+ degree-days in late November in NYC happen very infrequently and are not to be wasted indoors. So off we went to the park on Shore Road at 79th Street. The spiral slide was great fun as always, and we had a lot of fun on the swings. Zach really loves it when Daddy twists up the swing and lets it spin, and Miranda enjoyed swinging and teasing Daddy with two oak leaves that she found. She laughed so hard that she got the hiccups.

We left the park at nearly 2pm and were ready for some lunch. After a brief stop at Riteaid to get a bottle for milk and a “mommy-pop,” (this is what Miranda calls a lollipop) we headed back to the House of Miller for lunch. Lunch featured the usual spread of fine foods, but there was some role reversal this time – Miranda was into the pasta, while Zach seemed to mainly want the fruit – go figure?

We played some more (Zach stacked 17 blocks and counted them), Miranda hid and played peek-a-boo in the tents and tunnels, and we all watched some Blue’s Clues on Noggin. It started to get late, so at a little after 4:30 we saddled up the stroller and said very loving good-byes, looking forward as always to our next installment of Monkeyshines.