Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Monkey at a Fall Festival - Parte Una

Every year our church has a Fall Festival, where the kiddos can come dressed in their Halloween finery, sweat to death in bounce houses, eat lots of junk food, and down a ton of sugar, all just an hour or so before bedtime. Swell times for all!

Last year, some of you might remember our precious 2 month old as The Angry Banana:







This year, it's The Hungry Monkey:

Sad as it is, this is the best shot. The boy was far too interested in his hotdog and processed orange cheese nachos to give momma a smile.



Here we are with the D family:



The is the calf in the children's petting zoo that decided to lay down while JK was hanging on the side of the portable fence. Except she misjudged how big her butt was (honey, we've all done it!), banged into the portable fence rather brutely, which knocked him onto his bottom, terrifying him. Nothing like a huge cow ass knocking you over into a pile of bunny rabbit pellets to put a damper on wearing a new outfit. Needless to say, the children's petting zoo was a bust after that. Although upon leaving, he saw a baby chicken and very plainly said, "Duck."

Meh. *shrug* Close enough. I still think he's the prettiest and smartest baby I've ever met!



Looking for a banana...or a compassionate somebody to help him escape the fuzzy get-up.



Help is here! Daddy finally arrives...



...just in time for Mass Melt-Down and flinging off of the monkey's head.



We'll be doing this all over again this Friday at Gramma and De-Da's church. Parte dos to come...

Saturday, October 25, 2008

De-Da

I guess Granddad is hard to say. My sweet FIL is no longer Granddad, but De-Da. Not sure where the Monkey got that, but that's what he calls N's dad now. They had some nice bonding time today when he came over to help N with some manly man home improvement work. The "quick trip to Home Depot" ended up with De-Da buying a bunch of new tools. I swear that's only reason why he helps N with this stuff...to buy cool tools.

Reading a new book "Monkeys Tumble".



Practicing his own tumbles.



"I don't want to go inside!" Does anyone else see the irony in this shot? If you click on it and make it bigger, you should get what I'm saying. LOL.



"Oh ok, I'll go inside as long as you are. I want to help too!"

Friday, October 10, 2008

Mandi, You've Helped Create a Monster!

Thanks to your post about Honeycrisp Apples, I decided to grab a few at the store to try. I got home and cut some of it up for the Little Monkey to try along with me. But those tiny little slices just wasn't cutting it. So I let him hold the actual apple, while I watched him carefully nibble little bites off.

Let's just say that I lost my apple...



Monday, October 6, 2008

Hard Knocks

Yesterday, I volunteered in Little Monkey's Joyland class at church. It was me and one other lady, who was a young early-twenty-something newlywed with no children. Between us, we had 6 babies. We were very lucky because all of our tots were the same age (13 months) and were actually very easy to care for. It was fun to see all these babies play together! Except my fellow-teacher was freaking out everytime my son would climb on this little set of baby stairs.




The wooden contraption only had three stairs on either side and the whole point was to teach toddlers how to climb up and down stairs. Even though the highest point was only about 12 inches off the ground, of course there is risk involved!

My problem is this: my son thinks he's Evil Knievel. He's very much like his father in that aspect. He has no fear. He definitely doesn't get that from me. So while all the other children were busy banging blocks and sucking on their pacifiers, my son is climbing these stairs with a puzzle piece in each hand and standing at the top dancing like he's playing Dance, Dance Revolution. I knew eventually he was going to fall. I knew he was going to hurt his head or bruise something. But I also know my son. You have to let him find out the boundaries on his own. Otherwise, he doesn't learn.

Not really sure where he gets that from...ahem.

Holding his hand the entire class time or pulling him off the stairs was not going to teach him anything. Nor was it going to help the other teacher with the remaining five babies in the room. I have no doubt that she thought I was a bad mother, not paying attention to the safety of my child. What she doesn't know is that I had a stroke everytime Monkey stood at the top of the stairs. It was a physical battle for me to NOT go over there and just remove the darn thing from the class. I was keeping a close eye on him in spite of my non-chalant demeanor. Of course, about an hour into class, he got to the top of the stairs, started dancing around and fell straight onto his head onto the floor, legs in the air, arms flailing, puzzle pieces flying all around him. Of course, I dropped what I was doing and went over and hugged the stuffin' out of him while I checked him over. Nothing broken. He was fine. Nothing more than a knot on his forehead and a little carpet burn. Poor little guy! I think it scared him more than anything. He snuggled in and boo-hooed into my neck. For about 6.2 seconds. When he realized he lost his puzzle pieces, he immediately squirmed to get off my lap and go find them. Only to be distracted by the stray Goldfish crackers under the table, which he made a beeline to go eat.

I breathed a sigh of relief, looked up and saw all the babies and the other teacher just sitting on the playmat, staring silently with eyes as big as saucers and mouths agape.

Someday when she has children, she'll understand. Someday she'll understand that if we could protect our children from every harm in the world we would. She'll understand that more than anything else, we hate seeing our children hurt in any form. When my child hurts, I hurt 10 times more. But if I am doing my job as a good parent, allowing my child to test his boundaries and allowing him to get hurt are some of the things that will help him grow most. Even if I have the ability to stop it, the end result of my child's well-being will far outweigh the immediate pain he might experience at the moment.

Thank you Heavenly Father for showing me that lesson today. I feel like I understand you so much more. I'm so sorry for being so presumptuous to think I know better than you.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

The Flying Monkey

I really should title this "How Daddy gives Mommy a Heart Attack". My blood pressure goes up just looking at the pictures. I swear this kid has no fear. Adrenaline junkie. Just like Daddy. Just like Daddy's Daddy.

*sigh*

There are certain expectations that come with being a W wife. Not screaming in fear whenever father and son have bonding time is one of them.








Also...

Baby, happy anniversary! The 6 best years of my life have been with you!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

A Great Way to Start the Weekend

This morning was a very special day for our sweet friend Julie. She is only about 6 weeks away from having her sweet little son in her arms. We've prayed for this little boy for a looong time and we're finally on the home stretch of our wait. Woohoo!

So today, some of us from church got together to celebrate the miracle in the R family's life. Among the many other things the ladies in our Sunday School do well, making a mother-to-be feel loved is probably one of the most special! (We've had a lot of practice in the past few years!)

The cake/punch table...



S'more cupcakes...



The very yummy brunch table. Man, can these girls cook! Seriously.



The beautiful diaper cake by Jessica R and Courtney...



Very studiously doing our word scramble...of which, the only one I could figure out without too much struggle was "olcic". Been there. Done that.



We all oohed and ahhed while Julie opened some beautiful and fun gifts...



...one of which was a GORGEOUS crocheted blanket from Alison...the softest thing ever! I think she'd make a ton of money if she started crocheting PJs just like this. I'd buy 'em!



Leave it to Amanda to start Little R's library. :-)



Our guest of honor with just a handful of hostesses. I was a dork and forgot to get a picture before everyone left. :-(

From L to R: Jessica W, Julie, Jennifer, Kristen, me. Not pictured: Sara, Jessica J, Jessica R, Courtney, Ashley, and Jenny (who was busy enjoying her little Lily Kate, barely 36 hours old!)



Jules and her Momma...



Julie we are so thrilled to see you come to this special point in your life! We are impatiently waiting to meet your little one.

Hurry Baby R! You have many little Monkey's out here to play with you and Mommies and Daddies waiting to meet you!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Happy Birthday Cousin Richard!

Birthday celebrations are a big thing in the W family. It doesn't matter when it's celebrated or how it's celebrated. It's really just an opportunity for the family to gather and make the guest of honor feel loved and appreciated. And get some good grub on!

I certainly married into the right family, as some good grub is just as important in the M family. We love to eat!!!

If you haven't been to the Grand Luxe at The Galleria, it's a must go. You'll spend an hour reading all the options on the menu, but you'll probably not be disappointed if you just close your eyes and point at something random. Everything there isn't just good, but amazing! I had a lemon merinque pie that had to have been 10 inches tall. Good stuff!

So Happy Birthday sweet Richard. What a great way to spend a rainy Saturday! Looking forward to the next time you're on our side of town. Love ya and prayin' for ya!

L to R: Me, N w/Monkey in arms (trying desperately to escape), Uncle Gregg, Richard, Gramma, Crazy Aunt Susie, Grandpa



Watching Aunt Susie eat dessert is quite fascinating. I bet she'll give me some if I look cute enough and just open wide enough!



You know, I can't seem to get a picture of me nowadays without my hair completely disheveled, lipstick gone, and a bunch of slobber on at least one of my pieces of clothing. This shot just has the slobber...I think it's a pretty decent shot all things considered. Ah, who am I kidding? That hot guy sitting next to me is what's making me look good.