Monkey moments

How could you not love Monkey? I ask this a lot. And everyone seems to love her. She has an amazing personality, brought out, cherished and nurtured by her parents - and the day care staff.

She's adventurous and intrepid and independent. And she's caring and thoughtful and intelligent.

Here she is, climbing a tree. She only asked for help when she got a bit stuck because the railings had run out and she was struggling to figure out how to get higher - ie by holding onto the tree trunk.

As far as I know, she's only been in one fight at day care - and that's because the other child had pushed her best friend and made them cry.

Unusually for children her age (she turns 2 next month) she would refer to herself in photos as 'me' - rather than use her name. This is because she couldn't pronounce her name properly and so didn't until she could By the way, she can now, judging by the chanting of her name on Sunday.

And, on Sunday, she called me by name (mostly) for the first time. Oh, her dad has been trying to get her to call me by name for months, but this time - without prompting - it came out.

I can remember a couple of my great-nephews calling my by name the first time. Both times, it went something like this:
'Auntie Anne' - at which point my little heart sung - they know who I am! - and rejoiced. But, this was followed by... 'can I have...'

Did Monkey follow the pattern? Oh no, not at all. Her dad asked, 'What's this?' and Monkey replied 'dad coffee'. Then followed up with 'auntie coffee?' in a concerned tone, just in case I was missing out.

Bless.

She is a treasure. Happy nearly birthday Monkey!

Monday musing... seeing through Monkey's new eyes

On New Year's Day I was lucky enough to go to the zoo with Monkey, her parents, her aunt, uncle, cousin and Nana. (By the way - great adult to child ratio there - 6 to 3!)

Anyway, Monkey's 16 months old now, and she's beginning to put things together. And, I saw one of those moments. When something she'd learnt in the abstract - or pictorial - came to life and she KNEW.

She's been learning animal noises (good job by her parents). So, we spent the day hearing various rahs, and oo-oo monkey noises as she identified animals. Sometimes - interesting choices: the siamang was called 'teddy' and the sealion 'shark' (said with relish - just how her dad says it). Not bad for 16 months, and entertaining thinking through her thought processes to identify unfamiliar animals through her worldview.

Her dad said 'look at the elephant' - but Burma was a bit blending in with the background, as she was towards the back of the enclosure, having a mud bath. But then she came closer. And, Monkey got it. 'Ella!' she said, very excitedly. 'Ella! Ella!' When she was standing, holding on to the fence railings, she was so excited, she was rocking back and foward, shaking the bars.

I apologise for the photos - and upcoming lack of them. Didn't check the batteries before I left. Idiot.

So, there's no photo of Monkey standing, face and hands pressed against the glass, looking at the cheetahs RIGHT THERE, saying 'rah'. Cuteness.

It made the zoo experience very cool. Not that the weather was cool at all!

Another aside - how do children recognise all those different things as 'ducky': eg plastic rubber duck toy, picture of said toy, real duck, picture of real duck, photo of real duck, duckling... The human brain is an amazing thing.

Monkey's birthday

Just a couple of photos of Monkey at her first birthday party. More on facebook...

Happy birthday MONKEY!

Yes, hard to believe - but Miss Monkey is a big ONE today!

Even when sick she is (mostly) happy... as evidenced by the below photo, taken last week.

Things to keep a girl happy - a cell phone and a teddy bear.

Everybody read now

I come from a family of readers. My mother taught me that it's much more worthwhile to read than do housework (thanks Sara for doing it for me. It's ok, I pay her!).

I'm going to do my best to indoctrinate Monkey... I bought her this book ages before she was born. It's signed by the author... Happy reading Whoever you turn out to be...

Just to prove that my family reads, here's Grumpy (the brother-in-law) and Smooch

So, even the cat reads...

Monkey meets the Moll-ster

Monkey hasn't met a cat before - dogs yes, cats no. [That could possibly explain the 'woo-woo' coming out of her mouth... yep, possibly talking! Heard a 'daddy' as well]...

And that's when we stopped the chase so Monkey didn't head off down the stairs in pursuit of the Moll-ster. The Moll-ster managed to stick to the edges of the room, and had escape routes, so she was cool with the whole thing.