Real-time Monkeyshines

Today, as I type these words, I have a beautiful little monkey sitting on my lap, who has just informed me that I am typing on a “puter”. The other is having his usual buffet lunch: going into the kitchen, stuffing his mouth full of everything-free pasta, and coming back into the living room to chew and watch Pinky Dinky Doo on Noggin.
We met this morning at the Sensory Gym, and after seeing Zach start his session and Mommy and Miranda off to get a muffin on a stick, Daddy went around the corner to the Bay Ridge Group to get a little dose of serenity before this fun-filled day. We all met back at the gym at 11:15 and waited for Zach to finish his work. We were just in time to see him ride the zipline and come crashing down into a big landing pit filled with plastic balls.

After collecting our guy, we all headed over to Daddy's house, stopping briefly at the toy store so that Daddy could buy some stickers for our afternoon art project. The monkeys were hungry, so we started making lunch almost immediately. Mommy left about the time it was ready and the real fun commenced. Lunch was pretty routing, though once again, the fruit (especially the assorted melon) was the big hit. We played with all of the toys, new and old, including the tunnels and tents. We made some beautiful drawings that we decorated with stickers, and nobody colored on the walls.

This visit featured some firsts. Miranda discovered the bag of tub toys that hangs in the bathroom and set about spreading them out on the bathroom floor to see what treasures she could find. Much to her delight she found floating Elmo, floating Cookie Monster, floating Ernie and floating Bert. At about this time, Zach happened by and saw all the goodies. Being a practical sort of guy, he figured that it was as good a time for a bath as any, and why not take the tub toys out for a test-drive.

So we had bath-time. Daddy was careful not to get their heads wet because of the cold stroller ride home that awaited, but the rest of both little monkeys got a cleaning.

After bath-time, we opened some more of the presents from Thanksgiving and found some Fischer Price little people, a Fischer Price little people farm set (including a pony!) and a really cool magnetic fishing set – much thanks to all! Another “first” (or maybe “change” would be a better word) was that the kids were extremely cuddly with Daddy and wanted to sit in the chair with me and on my lap the whole time – this definitely did not bum Daddy out. They have always been affectionate, but now they are behaving the same way towards me as they do with their mother. I think that they are just becoming truly comfortable with the new routine, with the “new” environment, and with Daddy. Zach no longer tries to grab all of his cars and put them in the stroller when it is time to go, because he knows that they are his and that they will still be there next time. I don’t think that they think of it as “home” yet, but they are certainly right at home in Daddy’s home.

Mommy returned after a little over three hours and found everybody happy and just chilling out. We continued playing until about four, when sadly it was time for the little people to make the trip down Ridge Blvd to their other home. We said fond farewells, traded kisses and started counting the minutes to our next installment of Monkeyshines.