People always chuckle and shake their heads at me when I compare my children (especially my son) to little monkeys. They seem to think I say it from nothing but a humorous standpoint, and that the little angels these two present to the public world couldn’t possibly be anything like a wild animal, much less an uncouth primate with climbing skills.
Peekaboo!
Boy are they wrong! These two have the wool pulled over everyone’s eyes with those innocent little smiles and puppy-dog eyes.
Why monkeys? Well, they do have opposable thumbs. Wait, that IS a word! Apparently not, according to my spell checker…maybe I made that one up.
Anyway, the little creatures cling to my neck with skinny arms and sticky fingers, one often wears nothing but a diaper, and their hair is always unruly (although they are flea-free). They also climb anything that stays still long enough, and swing from things by hands or feet.
All they need is a tail.
My son achieved his first climbing coup very soon after his first string of more than three walking steps without holding onto a coffee table. Somewhere between stringing together three steps and walking into another room, he mastered climbing on top of the coffee table…followed shortly by “falling” onto the couch across the small gap between the two.
This acrobatic trick was always followed by a burst of giggles that made any form of discipline nearly impossible. You just cannot make “No!” sound forceful enough when you’re giggling yourself (and trying not to shake the video camera-phone)!
That wasn’t the trick that earned him his Monkey Status, though. My little guy became an official Chimp-Kid the other day…
My daughter’s bedroom has a bunk-bed in it; a currently ladder-less bunk-bed. It is for company, relatives, slumber parties, etc. Meaning for a normal day or night, the top bunk is forbidden territory (yes, I know this is just asking for trouble, but I haven’t gotten around to chopping the bed in half yet, ok??). Hence, NO ladder.
My daughter earned her monkey badge a while back by climbing onto that bed, but it was expected. She was four, and very tall for her age…and had actually been allowed up there on occasion when we had extra people staying over. No problem.
Last week though, I was bopping around the house to some music, when I entered her room (she was at Grandma’s) and saw something unusual. Actually, the rarity was in what I DIDN’T see. Tiny Man had just went into that room, I was right there…and he wasn’t in there! I glanced around wondering where in the heck he could possibly hide when I heard the giggle.
The giggle from ABOVE.
Yep, the little monkey was perched on top of the bunk bed with a big grin and a Barbie doll. I do wish I had a video of how it happened, because the only thing close was his police car, a ride-in/push-around car with a dome canopy. Tall enough to reach his destination, but it ROLLS! It was pulled up next to the bed, with a smaller Lion Car next to it, and a plastic baby-wipe box next to that. Apparently he made himself a series of “steps” to get where he wanted to go.
Now I don’t feel so bad about calling the playpen his Monkey Cage when he was littler…unless maybe I jinxed myself with that one… Let’s just hope he doesn’t start throwing poop :-\
Pen Happy Hippie 