My Real Life

So, I used to wonder what it was that little boys did in their free time.  I was a girl (duh!) and my oldest is a girl, and so I always wondered, as Monkey in the Middle grew, what it is that he would enjoy.

Monkey and the Middle and Baby Monkey love, love, LOVE to play with cars.  The more the better, as their favorite car game is:

TRAFFIC JAM!!!

You’d think we lived in the city, the way these boys can set up a jam.  Baby Monkey always gets to decide exactly what the cause of the jam is.

Today, it was a stalled bus.

Now, left on his own, Monkey in the Middle will still play cars, although, lately, chess is making a play for first place in his heart.

However, left on his own, Baby Monkey will…well…

Did you see the movie Parenthood, with Steve Martin?  Remember his youngest boy who had the bucket on his head and kept ramming the wall?

Yeah, I got one of those. (minus the ramming into the wall piece)

He frequently comes into the room like this.

Or like this:

But, that’s a post for a different day.

Another game that the boys love when they are together is “Church.”

The boys go to church with Real Man every Sunday.  They are Catholic and I am Presbyterian.  Those boys know that Catholic service, let me tell you.

Here they are, after “processing” down the aisle.

After this, they go to the piano.  Baby Monkey sits down and waits for Monkey in the Middle.  Monkey in the Middle “reads” from the Bible.  The stories are usually something like this:

“So, God said to Jesus, ‘Hey…you want some ice cream?’ and Jesus said, ‘Yeah, but only if you have mint chocolate chip.’ And God said, ‘Okay…here you go.”

He follows with, “The word of the Lord,” to which Baby Monkey responds, “Thanks be to God.”

Then Baby Monkey plays his version of “Hallelujah” on the piano and they sing at the top of their lungs.  He may not be playing the right notes, but the beat is accurate and they’ve got the words down.

It is quite a scene.

So, are they typical boys?  Sometimes.  Other times, I’d say they were interesting boys.

However, I can’t imagine loving any other boys more.