Random Monkey Love

Who needs a boppy when you have a dog?

Just in case the other kids didn't get their germs on every part of the ball, I'll drool on it too.

Tummy Doctor

We are headed to our local (and very prestigious) Children's Hospital on Monday, December 1 to see the pediatric gastroenterologist. He'll do a full exam and then take a look at Monkey's upper GI tract. Wish us luck!

We are seeing some gradual improvement with the new meds, and are getting a little bit more sleep each night. As for Monkey, he is sad that he only gets 4 doses of Carafate a day... it makes him smell like extra-sugar Lucky Charms, and gauging by the speed at which he sucks it down, it must taste Magically Delicious too.

Celebrating 5 Months of Monkey!

Monkey is 5 months old today! Thanks to our old friend acid reflux, Mr. and Mrs. Z are feeling more like 50 years old today.

Brilliant Pediatrician wanted to see him to make sure he was gaining weight, so we had a surprise doctor visit today. With all of his clothes on (including his uber cute new shoes) he weighs 14 lbs and 4 ounces! Normally they make him get down to his disposable diaper for weight checks, so this is just an estimate. She was pleased to see that he is still gaining weight despite the stupid reflux, but she thinks it is time to make sure that the reflux is the only issue. So we will be heading in for an upper GI scan here in the next few weeks. Fun! We also came home with 2 new scrips: Carafate and Axid. We're hoping they are more effective than the Prilosec, but they're already much cheaper so that is good news.

Yesterday Mr. Z turned 30 and we surprised him at work with cupcakes! Monkey's birthday gift to Mr. Z was a very shiny balloon (with 'superior float time'), which, as it turns out, is a most excellent toy for Monkeys and has subsequently been commandeered. For your birthday enjoyment:

A Letter from Monkey

Dear Santa,

My name is Monkey. I am sure you know that I am new here and this is my first Christmas, since they tell me that you are watching me and judging me all the time. That's kind of weird, but however you want to spend your time is fine with me, I guess. Just so you don't get confused, I wore this shirt so you would know I've been good. (It says, 'Dear Santa, I've been good all year. Just ask Mommy')

They also tell me that it's traditional to for me to write you a letter with some ideas for things that you can bring me for Christmas morning. Apparently you are going to break into our house and leave gifts? I know, it sounds crazy to me too, but then most things sound crazy to me (again, because I'm new here).

So, here is my first Christmas list:

- Food and love for kids everywhere. Heifer International, Prevent Child Abuse Indiana, and the Indiana Mothers Milk Bank could all use your help more than I could use another toy.

- Bumkins Diaper Covers (size M) Lately the giant people have been reading me some very fascinating books by a man with a funny name. Seuss or Zeus or something. I was helping Mrs. Z shop online the other day and discovered that I can have pants that match my books! I think that Mrs. Z bought the Grinch pants. We don't have that book so I don't know who that is, but apparently he pretends to steal your job? This holiday just gets more and more confusing all the time.

- Evenflo Switch-A-Roo toys These can swap out the toys on my exercauser for even more exercitement. I hear that you can find them in the store at Babies R Us.

- Right now I really like fabric or wooden toys. Things I am getting into:
- Soft blocks (good examples here, here, or here)
- Stacking toys (good examples here, here, or here)
- Soft balls (a whole page of great ideas here)
- Sassy Earth Brights toys These are at Babies R Us too.

- Also at Babies R Us, they have these awesome clothes by Amy Coe. Monkeys and rock stars!! They clearly had me in mind. Mrs. Z says they should be 6-9 month size, as I am growing so fast.

So, that's it, Santa. I'm not sure what happens next, but I guess you'll just let yourself in to our house?

See you then - or not, I guess. If I'm awake I promise I won't peek. (Or at least I'll try.)

Merry Christmas,

Monkey



P.S. - Dear Santa, I hope you remember our little chat about trying to avoid toys with batteries and/or BPA. All we want for Christmas is a healthy Monkey and a happy planet! These stores have some great ideas (and in-store pick up or cheap/free shipping!) if you're stumped.

We'll leave you some cookies!

Love, The Zookeepers

The Smoking Gun(s)

So, not so much with the telekinesis (and with sound effects, too!):


Also, possibly his longest sit so far:


The push-up/faceplant combo.
You may not be able to hear this,
but he is doing his buzzing and singing with his face in the blanket.

New Tricks

As of Friday, November 14, Monkey has now mastered the following tricks:

• Rolling over BOTH WAYS
• Grabbing his toes
• Pushing his chest all the way off the ground
  
• Planting his face in the ground and pushing up his rear end
• Bouncing for minutes on end (with assistance, of course)
  
• Grabbing hair, glasses, nose rings, etc. and flinging them as far as he can
  

Photo evidence as soon as we can capture it in pixels! We have not actually witnessed the rolling over so it may have been telekinesis. When we looked away he was on his tummy, then he was on his back, and then he was on his tummy again.

Trick or Treat!

Our Friends S and Ladybug K

Monkey tail!

I was just asleep in the car. And now this.

Repeat performances of the Monkey costume available upon request!**

**As long as Dog doesn't actually succeed in eating it next time. Silly Dog. That's a fake banana!

Boo at the Zoo!

This is not happening to me.

But it's about to happen to YOU.

Chief Assistant Cookie Icer In Charge of Tasting

Read Aloud with the Hungry Crowd!

We are newly signed up for our local library's Join The Hungry Crowd Read Aloud Program for the month of November. We got an awesome Eric Carle (author of the Zoo fave Brown Bear Brown Bear and others) book bag for all of Monkey's books and a great chart to keep track of our progress. For every 30 minutes we read, we get to put a bug sticker on our Hungry Caterpillar chart and when we reach 4 hours of reading time the caterpillar turns into a butterfly!

This program runs the whole month of November, but since we got a late start (and someone was too tired to fall asleep) we read for 30 minutes tonight. All of our selections tonight were from our dear friends and family who brought books to the baby shower, and we love to read the messages they wrote in the books for Monkey. The chart has us list all the books we read, so here is the reading list for tonight:

Scuffy the Tugboat
I Love You Through & Through
Guess How Much I Love You
The Going To Bed Book
Tikki Tikki Tembo
On The Day You Were Born

In less exciting news, Monkey slept through his first fender-bender today (in the new car, of course). Everyone is fine and the car is mostly fine but we spent a very long hour and fifteen minutes trying to amuse ourselves in the pouring rain on the side of the road while we waited for the police.

On a happier note, our camera has been found!! We will post the Halloween pictures and more as soon as we get it back in our hands. Thank you to our friends for finding it!

APB - Silver Camera Missing!

Dear Internets:

The Monkey Blog has been deeply saddened by the recent loss of our camera. It was last seen on Halloween, and all the adorable pictures of Monkey in his monkey costume are still on the memory card! If you have recently found a silver camera with adorable photos in the memory, please let us know ASAP.

Until then, we will try to find some alternate means of capturing the daily cuteness that is Monkey.

Monkey on the Farm

From our trip to the pumpkin patch with Aunt B (a few weeks ago):

Pumpkin, Mrs. Z., Punkin

Hayride with Aunt B

Plotting Pumpkin Domination

Whoa! Giant pumpkins!