Abbreviated Monkeyshines

I had a short visit with our favorite little people this past weekend. It seems that a trip to Atlantic City preempted the usual visit and even Zachy’s sensory integration therapy – priorities, priorities. Be that as it may, I picked up the gang of two bright and early Sunday morning and strolled them over the partially shoveled sidewalks, over the bumpy bumps (with both of them thought was great fun) and up to Daddy’s house.

We had a very nice time playing with all of our toys, though we broke out a fresh 24-pack of Crayolas and spent a lot of time polishing up our artistic skills – several priceless masterpieces resulted – Daddy is accumulating quite a collection of priceless masterpieces.

The visit was pretty uneventful – we had lots of fruit and everything-free spaghetti for lunch (Miranda opted for cheese and yogurt). We also relaxed and watched a couple of our favorite shows (Blue’s Clues and Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom) while playing with our trains and Make-a-match cards.

One funny thing of note: Daddy was casting about, looking for something new and entertaining to do with the dynamic duo (we need to get some new toys) when he happened across his vintage Duncan Imperial (a yo-yo for the uninformed). I only had to (what is the correct verb here?) yo a couple of times in front of Miranda and her eyes got as big as pizzas. She got this look of wonder that was really quite beautiful and said in a slow husky two-year-old voice, “I… WANT.. that!”

Of course as both she and Zachy found out, it takes years to become a yo-yo master like Daddy. But school was in session, so we studied “walking the dog”, “around the world”, “shoot the moon” and “rock the baby”. Mostly we just ran around the apartment dragging the yo-yo around by the string and playing a combination of “keep-away” and “I’m gonna get you.” Exhausting? Sure. Entertaining? Absolutely!

By the time 4:30 rolled around, Zachy had crashed, so Miranda and I loaded him into the cruising vessel and headed down Third Avenue (over the bumpy bumps) to Mommy’s house. Miranda made it about three blocks and she too was out for the count. Thus ended another wonderful installment of Monkeyshines.