Overtime-Monkeyshines

This week’s episode of Monkeyshines got off to a bumpy start – literally. The gang was about ten minutes late to the Sensory Gym because of an accident – apparently, Zach was playing chase with his Step-Grandfather and ran into the futon. He sustained a 1cm (I measured) vertical cut through his left eyebrow and the pediatrician had to be called, to see if he needed stitches – she said that they don’t stitch eyebrows. I felt bad for the little scar-faced guy, but was grateful that it did not happen on my watch. He seemed to be in good spirits by the time they arrived and had a good (if rather short) session with his therapist Luz.

This was a week of “firsts” and the first “first” occurred right after we got back to the House of Miller. Zach wanted to get started playing and seemed to think that Mommy needed to go, in order to enable this. He picked up her coat and handed it to her, inviting her to leave so that he could get started. When she did not go immediately, he shoved it at her twice more until she did go, then set about business.

Another “first” was that Miss Miranda earned her first time-out from Daddy, which she did not like one little bit. Zachy was playing nicely in the bedroom while Miranda had been eating her lunch. Upon finishing her meal, she marched in and tried to insert herself in his game by grabbing. Normally Zach just walks away when this kind of thing happens and lets her have her way (mostly to keep her from crying which he hates), but this time his game involved his cars and his marbles (precious objects) and he “said” no to her and would not let her play. Miranda got pissed off and began hurling toys (and some other things) around to demonstrate her ire. This infraction (throwing things in anger) is what earned her a time-out (we do this because this form of discipline works so well in Hockey). Afterwards, she sobbed on Daddy’s shoulder for a few minutes until she recovered enough to return the goofy faces that Daddy was making at her. It was obvious to Daddy that this little one was overdo for a nap and she retired to the couch with her Reggie-blanket and a bottle of milk for a two-hour nap (1:30 – 3:30) after which she was her usual jolly self.

The final "first" for this week was the dreaded dual-poop, which occurred during music time. Both children went strangely silent and appeared to be concentrating fiercely on my guitar playing, which was very gratifying until I realized (smelled actually) the real reason for it. No one was hurt, diapers were changed and windows were briefly opened to ventilate the room.

Daddy and Zach had some special time while Miranda napped, coloring at the easel - we worked on our shapes (exploring polygons) and colors. We also had a fine time playing Blues Clues and Ride the Daddy. Of course the amazing marble machine was running continuously throughout the entire eight-hour visit (stock tip: invest in Duracell).

I won’t bore you with the lunch and dinner menus – they were fairly typical, but I added raisins, tossed salad and everything-free chocolate chip cookies to the “staples list”. Although I overcooked the steaks for dinner (we ate mostly French-fries and ketchup – it’s a vegetable right?) and they were kind of tough, suffice it to say that nobody went hungry and everybody got two balanced meals and a whole bunch of healthy snacks – thank God they love fruit!

After bath-time (the marbles even took a bath with us) we settled down (all three of us) in Daddy’s thinking chair to watch our Chicka-chicka Boom-boom videos and have some nice quiet time. It was a very sweet and loving evening. Mommy came back just before eight and we said a fond farewell at 8:15, until our next adventurous Monkeyshines time.