My Real Life

September 9, 2009

Real Scary Update

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 9:04 pm

First of all, I just wanted to thank you all for the well-wishes for Baby Monkey.  He’s doing fine.  As I said in the original post, he’s incredibly resilient, as are most kids.  He’s told everyone at daycare his story and is enjoying the attention.  Normally, I’d dissuade that behavior.  Right now, I’m a little too nervous to really worry about that.

Real Man and I figure we’ll sleep again after he sees the neurologist next week.  Until then, we run up the stairs in shifts as he tosses and turns in his crib at night.

Still, wouldn’t trade being his Mommy for the world.

Feeling Real Crafty

Fall always sparks my creativity. 

It is my favorite season and I am definitely happiest in fall. 

To me, autumn is a time of nesting and getting the home prepared for the long winter ahead.  Must be my grandmothers farmer genes running through me.

Anyway, as I was home with Baby Monkey today, while we snuggled watching the Disney Channel, I pulled out my knitting needles and started knitting Monkey Girl a scarf for Christmas.  I made one for my Mom last year and Monkey Girl was envious.  So, I found some neat rainbow yarn and decided to knit one for her this year.  However, I just never started it.  So, today, I began.

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Monkey Girl is a creative little monkey, herself.  Last year, while I was making a lap quilt for my Mother (I did a lot of homemade gifts last year), Monkey Girl created a quilt for her American Girl doll.

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I think she did a GREAT job!  I was really proud of her. 

She’s also sewn her own pincushion and a pillow for her doll to go with the quilt.  This summer she started a quilt for herself.  She hasn’t picked it up in awhile, but I guarantee that tonight when I start working on a project of my own (can’t say what…that person might read this blog) that she’ll ask to get it out and start working on it again.

Monkey girl has also made her own greeting cards from a kit she bought awhile ago.

Here are a few:

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She has long since paid herself back for the kit and still has cards to sell.  She wants to set up a card stand at the end of the driveway one of these weekends.  Fine with me.  My little entrepreneur.

So, I’ve definitely got the autumn nesting, crafty bug.  Although I miss her like crazy when she goes to bed, I can’t wait until she goes to sleep so I can keep knitting.  I don’t care if I look like a granny, sitting and knitting while I watch tv.  It’s one of life’s simple pleasures for me.

September 8, 2009

Real Scary

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 9:10 am
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So, Labor Day started out like any other holiday.  We slept late…wait, no we didn’t.  The monkeys were up at the crack of dawn, which means so were we.  But that’s okay.  They’re fun monkeys.

We played in the morning, inside and outside.  I cooked up some sausage for two batches of pasta and meat sauce and put it in the freezer.  We did laundry.  You know…the usually puttering stuff you do on Labor Day.

Then I took Monkey Girl for a haircut.  When we got home, we all read some library books together.  We had a date for dinner at my parents at 4:00, so around three, I gave the boy monkeys their bath and Monkey Girl took a shower.  We put on their jammies and were ready to go.  (We figured to do baths and jammies beforehand, so when we got home we could read books and go right to bed, as it was a school night.)

We hopped in the car and started driving.  We hadn’t gone far when Baby Monkey called from the backseat of the van, “Mommy! Daddy!  Look at my head!”  We turned around and his head was perfectly still, but his eyes were rapidly darting back and forth.  Rapidly is an understatement.  His eyes were moving back and forth faster than it is humanly possible to actually move your eyes.  Real Man held out his finger and said, “Look at my finger,” and Baby Monkey grabbed the sides of his head to try to stop his head from moving, which was unsuccessful, since it wasn’t his head that was moving at all.  It was his eyes, but he didn’t seem to understand that. 

I would say the whole thing lasted about 45 seconds.  Finally it stopped and Real Man and I just looked at each other.  It was pretty clear that Baby Monkey had just had some type of seizure.  Real scary.

So, we took the big monkeys to my parents and dropped them off, then took Baby Monkey to the ER.

I hate the ER.  I especially hate the pediatric ER.  There is always an adult crying and I’m always so incredibly sad for them because I know they are hurting because a child is in pain.  There is nothing sadder to see than a sick child, particularly because they are usually being so brave about it.  The pediatric ER breaks your heart, and it takes a really special type of person to work there.

We finally got a room, and we settled in.  The nurse came in and checked him out.  She asked if he had taken his cute pills, because he was the cutest little guy she’d ever seen.  About 5 minutes later, some other woman came in and said that the nurse said she had to come look at the cute guy.  10 minutes after that, someone else came in for the same reason.  So, that made him feel special.  And really…he is ridiculously cute.

The doctor came in and asked a bunch of questions.  She checked him out and said she wanted to consult with another doctor.  Nothing like waiting.  I understand and am glad that she was consulting with someone.  However, not knowing is torture.

Then, the other doctor came in and checked him out.  More consulting.

Long story short, they think that the odds are that he had a seizure.  The other possibility is that he had some type of vertigo episode which would be a result of a childhood migraine (my mother and I are both migraine sufferers), however, he hasn’t complained of any head pain.  So, we have to go see the neurologist this week.  The office opens in a few minutes and I will call then.

I’m home with him today because we need to keep an eye on his eyes for today and it’s easier to do in a one-on-one setting than it would be at daycare.  However, if today is fine, tomorrow he can go back to school. 

He seems to be fine.  He was fine as soon as it was over last night.  He’s just a happy-go-lucky little monkey.  Kids are amazingly resilient.  Much more so than adults.  He never whined, complained or looked at his watch.  He said thank you to the nurses and doctors.  He was disappointed he didn’t get to have spaghetti at his grandparents and didn’t get to play at their house.  But, he rolled with the punches, smiled at everyone and made the best of his situation.

I think we could all learn some important life lessons from our children.

September 7, 2009

Real Small Town Fun

So, every Labor Day weekend, our town hosts a “Block Party.”  Years ago, when it began, it was a “Block Dance,” and there was music and free birch beer.  Now it has evolved to a petting zoo, rides for the kids, free birch beer, actual beer you pay for, hot dogs, ice cream, a raffle for gifts from local merchants and a 50-50.  Oh, and REALLY LOUD MUSIC.

The Block Party, this year, was held on Saturday night.  It was a lot of fun.  The kids love the rides and the animals.  The adults get to converse with the other adults in town, because pretty much everyone who lives here goes.  A good time is always had by all.

My monkeys certainly enjoyed themselves.  Baby Monkey wanted to ride this ride that swings back and forth, back and forth, like a big, huge clock pendulum.  Monkey Girl and her cousin, who is also in 3rd grade, were very tolerant of him, because he wanted to ride with them, which meant they couldn’t ride on the top level.  They are really, really good girls.

Monkey in the Middle took some turns with him as well.  Here they are waiting to go on the Whip. 

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I’m not sure how kids don’t break their necks on this thing.  Must be the malleability of kids.  If adults went on, I guarantee they’d all be suing.

Monkey Girl wanted to go on everything, and she did.  Multiple times.  She went with her cousins and friends from school.

Monkey in the Middle turned out to be quite the ladies man.  It seemed that every line he got in, he had some other 5 year old girl that he knew from pre-school or kindergarten wanting to hold his hand and ride with him.  On one ride, three of them couldn’t decide who was going to get to ride with him, so they smushed in four to a seat so no one was left out.  It was very cute.

However, in the end, as always, Monkey in the Middle had his eyes trained for his two cousins, who are also in kindergarten.  My sisters-in-law and I were all pregnant at the same time and so the one girl cousin was born in December, the other in January and then he was born in February.  It’s worked out really nicely, although sometimes that number three can be tricky.

Here he is with one of the cousins.  We call these two double trouble. 

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Here he is with her again and Monkey Girls first communion. 

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You can see it on their faces.  He’s about to do something and she is totally in on the scheme.  When the three of them get to high school, that place won’t know what hit it.

After the rides were starting to shut down, Monkey Girl and Baby Monkey had ice cream cones for $1.00 each.  Vanilla, with sprinkles.  Good deal and made them very happy.

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Then, it’s time for the raffle.  Throughout the week prior to the Block Party, local merchants have the raffle tickets in their stores at the checkout counters.  It is free to enter, and almost all of the local merchants donate something.  The prizes range from a free apple pie from the farmers market to a $50 gift card to Stop-n-Shop grocery store to a gift bag from the local jeweler, etc. 

So, they start calling the names.  Two members of my family won, and the prizes were both pretty ironic.  If you’ve been reading the blog regularly, you’ll remember that Monkey in the Middle just spent $30 of his hard earned money on a Thomas the Tank Engine train set addition he’s been wanting at Barnes and Noble.  Guess who won a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble at the Block Party?  You guessed it…Monkey in the Middle.  My good friend, Jean, said that I should tell him that this is good karma.  When you work hard, good things come back to you.  I like that idea.

My neice won a few free piano lessons at a local music store.  The irony?  I teach piano lessons on the weekend.  Obviously, it would have been way more ironic had I  won the piano lessons, but still…she’s in the family.

The night ended with the 50-50 drawing which was won by a boy that I estimate to be about 11.  He won $445.  Talk about good karma!

It was 9:15 when it was all over and done. We came home and put the kids right to bed.  They were zonked. 

Although there can be frustrating aspects to small town life sometimes, evenings like that are definitely one of the best things about living in a small town.  Good clean fun.

September 6, 2009

Real Family Joke

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 9:03 pm
Tags: ,

I promise to never do this again. 

However, after spending the afternoon and evening with my family at my father-in-laws house, I feel as though I must post something special just for my in-laws. 

So, here you are, family. 

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As for the rest of you…trust me.  It was REALLY funny.

September 5, 2009

Real Proud

I am always proud of my monkeys, but today, I’m extra proud of the big monkeys. 

Back in the spring, Monkey Girl informed me that she wanted a Nintendo DS.  I said, “I don’t think so.  We have a Wii and a an xBox 360 and a Game Boy.  I’m not spending $129.99 on a Nintendo DS.”

Still, she persisted.  So, I told her that if this was something she really wanted, then she should save for it.  I’m a big believer in kids working for things.  My feeling is that parents who buy their kids everything aren’t helping them prepare for the real world.  You want something as an adult?  You need to work for it.  Obviously we take care of the kids with food, clothing, a roof over their heads, and we are good Santas and birthday fairies.  But, this didn’t fall into the “need” category and there were no holidays or birthdays in sight.

So, she started saving.  She already had some money socked away.  Monkey Girl has a chore chart.  Each chore is worth $0.25.  If she does all the chores in a week, she has the opportunity to earn $8.75 a week.  There are some chores that she does regularly and gets those stickers, like emptying the dishwasher.  If she doesn’t do that, I can’t refill it, so that’s a non-negotiable, but it’s on the chart.  Making her bed?  It’s on the chart, but it’s not a non-negotiable with me.  It’s her bed, it’s upstairs and no one goes there except for us.  On days she has a friend coming over, I expect it to be made.  The good news?  She likes to make her bed, so it gets made every day and she gets the sticker anyway. 🙂  However, you can see that even though the potential is there for $8.75 a week, she may not make that much in a week, depending on the chores she does or does not complete.  Again, you only earn what you work for.  What a novel idea.

When she does get her allowance, she divides it into three, unequal parts.  $1 goes to church on Sunday.  The rest is divided in half.  One half of it goes to her bank account savings and the other goes to her spending box. 

Anyway, she kicked it into high gear last spring.  She started doing every chore on that chart and asking if there were any big projects she could do to earn some more money.  So, I gave her a sock sorting project and a picking up all the sticks in the yard project.  She also started making greeting cards and selling them.  They are really nice and she charged $0.75 – $1.00 for them.

Mid-summer, Monkey in the Middle went to Barnes and Noble with his grandpa.  While he was there, he saw this Thomas the Tank Engine add-on for his train set.  It has lights and bells.  It’s actually pretty cool.  It was $30.  He came home and asked for it and Monkey Girl immediately said “Why don’t you save for it, like I’m doing with my Nintendo?”  Wanting to do anything that she does, he said “Yeah!!!” and started saving.

So, now he has a chore chart that he also can earn $8.75 with.  He’s not really even getting close to that, but he’s working hard.

So, today, the big Monkeys pulled out their money containers and started counting.  Monkey in the Middle had $32 and Monkey Girl had $65. (We told MonkeyGirl that if she saved half, we’d pitch in the other half…we aren’t complete monsters.)  So, off we went.

First we hit Best Buy.

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Monkey Girl chose a blue Nintendo DS Lite.  Real Man and I decided to buy her a game to go with it, because really, how cruel would that have been to have said, “Okay, you’ve got your Nintendo!  Now you can sit and look at it until you can save up for a game!”  She chose a Wizards of Waverly Place game.

She brought it up to the counter and was bursting with pride as she paid.

Then, we hit Barnes and Noble.

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Another very proud kid as he explained to the cashier that this was his money he was paying with.

Now we’re home and each is busy with their new purchase.  I’ve overheard both explaining to Baby Monkey that they need to be careful with the new items because they were very expensive.  I honestly believe that it gives them a better understanding of how hard you have to work in order to earn a certain amount of money.  It has also helped them to realize that when you work hard for something, you need to take care of it.  Many kids today live in a disposable society.  They are given so much that they don’t care for any of it.  I’m so glad that we are working toward not allowing our kids to have that mindset.

I’m just really proud of the big monkeys today.  They worked hard and are enjoying the fruits of their labor.

September 3, 2009

Real Expertise

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 7:01 am
Tags: , , , , , ,

Connoisseur.  The word brings to mind fine wines, cigars, gourmet foods…you know.  The finer things in life.

However, one of the actual definitions of “connoisseur” is  “a discerning judge in the best of any field.”

So, today, I would like to offer up our family’s area of expertise.  We are connoisseurs of the park.

That’s right.  We make it our mission to play on every piece of play equipment in the county.  If it hasn’t been climbed on, swung on, slid down, or jumped on my my monkeys, then quite frankly, it ain’t all that.

To our minds, parks must have certain elements in order to make the cut to be on the monkey’s list.

1.)    A park must have more than one slide and at least one of the slides must be different; whether it twists or has bumps or is through a tunnel.

Case in point:

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This is currently the park that is tied for first place in the monkey’s expert opinions.

Note the abundance of slides.  Also note how none of them are your garden variety, straight down at an angle that almost makes it impossible for you to actually go anywhere, particularly if your skin is touching the slide, slide.  They are side-by-side, twisty, and the one in the back has some bumpy things on it.  (Ouch!)

A good park must also have good climbing material.  Rock walls are big winners, but if there are bars to climb, that’s acceptable as well.

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Here’s a closer shot of the “rocky mountain” at the park pictured above.  Big fun. 

Suspension bridges are also pretty cool.

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Hard for adults to imagine, but apparently, running as fast as you can across the bridge while your brother or sister tries to stand still and not fall off the bridge is something that can inspire many belly laughs.  Try it sometime.

Even if the park is not so impressive, it’s value jumps by having three items:

1)      Ruins of an historical building that they can either climb on or be photographed beneath.

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2)      A waterfall that used to power a mill.

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3)      A “secret” path that leads you to another park. 

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(*Note the sibling hand-holding.  They got so excited to see this new park at the end of the trail, they grabbed each others hands and started running.)

However, at the end of a long day, sometimes just visiting the park at the end of your street will make you just as happy as a fancy park.  Four swings, one slide, two climbers and a set of stairs. 

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Sometimes even connoisseurs like a hot dog and a beer.

September 2, 2009

Be the Real You and Let Others Be Themselves

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 7:19 am
Tags: , , , ,

I realize that the grammar in that title isn’t perfect, but then, I’m not perfect either.  And that is the point of this particular post.

I’m going to take a break today from family stories to share with you something that I think is a really important message.

Yesterday was the opening convocation of our school district.  No kids, just hundreds of teachers coming together to begin the work of the school. 

As is tradition, our Superintendent got up to give a speech.  Usually, he gives a long (but quite motivational) speech to the teachers, but this year, he decided to let someone else do the talking for him.  He showed us a video by a man named Ken Robinson.  The whole gist of the video was about how we need to inspire our students to creativity.  It was excellent and quite timely in an era where No Child Left Behind is squashing the creativity right out of our children.

My favorite part of the video was when Ken Robinson told the story of Gillian Lynne, a world famous choreographer.  Have you heard the story?

I’d like you to take a moment and watch the following video.  No, please don’t watch all 20 minutes of it (unless you want to…it was actually quite good).  Move to the fifteen minute mark and then watch the story of Gillian Lynne.  The story only takes about two to three minutes, but it’s an excellent story.  I think the moral is something that we all need to remember in our dealings with children and with other adults. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

We are all individuals.  We all need to be able to play to our strengths, whatever they may be.

So, again, for today, just give it a shot.  Check out the story of Gillian Lynne.  I guarantee it makes you think.

September 1, 2009

Real Miracle

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 7:04 am

I love kids.  I love my kids, in particular.  All three of those monkeys fill me up with more love that you could ever imagine.  Unless you are a mom.  Then, you’re feeling me.

However, I want to talk today about little kids.  Toddler aged kids.

I’m always amazed at toddlers.  I could sit and look at Baby Monkey all day long.

Look at this hand.

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Now, look at this hand next to mine.

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It’s so tiny!  But, it works.  He can pick up things, play his drums, count to five, pick his nose…okay, perhaps the last one is more gross than amazing, but still.  I’m just always amazed at toddler parts. 

They are so tiny, yet they work.  These little bodies contain actual human beings with personalities and thoughts and emotions.  Their little legs run and jump and play and keep their bodies upright.  How can something so little work as well as a full-grown body?

And their legs.14Check out that leg. 

Don’t you just want to bite it?

These little people never stop moving.  They are busy constantly.  It’s almost impossible to find a picture of them being still.

And when they sleep?

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I’ve died and gone to heaven looking at that peaceful face.  I’m sure his brain is just as busy as it was hours before.  Imagining all the noise he can make and all the trouble he can find.  But for now, he’s peacefully sleeping and I can just stare at him, without getting whiplash. 

Yep, there’s nothing like the miracle of a toddler.  All that bravado, personality, emotion and wonderment inside a tiny package.  If you are lucky, it all works the way it is supposed to and life is sweet.

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Imagine how amazing he’d be if he’d just go on the potty.

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