One Book Read By A Monkey

When Sebastian was a newborn he had a lot of gas related crying. One night, home alone with him I became desperate to distract him from his discomfort. I pulled this book off his shelf at random and made up a toon to the rhyme (I think Ms. Boynton would be proud). I put hand motions to the toon and sang this book over and over. He loved it from start to finish. It completely distracted him and we went on like this for a good 30 minutes or more. Nearly, 3 years later we still read the book from time to time and I retell him the story of how it made the painful toots go away. More than anything I think it stopped the crying which reduced the air gulping, thus reducing the toots. Whether magic or science, this book saved me from the deep end as a brand new Mom with a sad newborn.

What the Monkey Reads on Muirs Chapel

Sebastian gets read to a lot...at least two books a night. We decided, in hopes to encourage a life time of reading, that we would start a list of every book he has ever read/been read. Unfortunately, the library does not keep a list of every book checked out so undoubtedly after 3 years we will already be missing some.

For this purpose we found a handy website! Isn't it great that there is a website for everything out there?! I am hoping to slowly add comments about some of the books and do mini reviews or share some funny/tender stories about a few of the books that we have really enjoyed as a family.

Follow this link to see what our Monkey has been reading on Muirs Chapel!

Christmas on Muirs Chapel Road

Attached are a few highlights from our first Christmas in our home. One thing that occured to us as we decked the halls with bells of holly is that we need a bigger Christmas Tree. Now that we aren't confined to 966 square feet of apartment and our 8years of ornament collecting is starting to show it's true girth, it is painfully obvious our 3 foot tree is too small. However, this year we just weren't willing to trade it out our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.

That Funny Monkey

Sebastian is at the center of most of my amusement. He says the funniest things and has the most interesting insights. He really changes the way I look at the world. I can remember when he was about a year and a half laying in the grass with him in our new back yard. We are both looking up at the sky and I turned to him and say, "That sky sure is big, huh Monkey?" He continued to look up in amazement at it all and says, "No Mommy, 'is' blue." We were both right, of course, but he was seeing through his own eyes and that was a pretty defining and special moment for me.
Last night, we were all eating dinner and talking once again about what animals liked to eat (mice eat cheese, dogs eat dog bones, horses like apples, etc. . .). I take the opportunity to explain to him that his baby brother will not eat food at all. He will only drink milk and maybe water sometimes. Sebastian processed this and then put his head inside his tiny hands and started to cry. When I asked him why he had his sad face on he commented that he wanted the baby to be eat and that the baby could have some of his food. It was tender. I then explained to him that the baby wont know HOW to eat. Well, this only seemed to deepen the sadness for him. He told me HE will teach the baby how to eat. He then began to name all his favorite foods, "bock bock (i.e. chicken), broccoli,noodles, etc. . . "Dis, Mommy is what I will teach baby to eat." "Dis is mine good plan."
Now if only I can convince him that my plan is not to starve the baby and that when I leave the room he won't have to feed the baby his dinner or save scraps of food to sneak to him when Mommy and Daddy aren't looking.

I was on the elevator and...

Because some of my most interesting non-Sebastian events occur on the elevator, I thought perhaps it needed its own space.

I feel silly back-tracking my elevator stories, so everyone will have to miss the time a few months ago I was stuck in an elevator for an hour with an elderly couple, the man of which kept threatening to pee in the zip lock sewing bag belonging to his wife, and the man from Africa who described several ways to cook fish.

Soooo . . . here we go. Today: I was on the elevator and . . . the doors opened on the bottom floor and I was looking straight at a nicely dressed elderly woman who looked a lot like someone's sweet, cookie baking grandma. Now let's not forget I am 7 months (just a few days from being 30 weeks) preggy and my tummy is unmistakably housing a 17 inch long, 3+ pound baby. With that remembered, envision me stepping toward the doors to exit the elevator. While I am doing this, the woman steps onto the elevator trapping us both inside the doorway of the elevator. A dangerous place to be, indeed. Now rather than backing up, the woman says, in her sweet, come-get-the-cookies-they-are-fresh-out-of-the-oven voice, "Excuse me." This is followed by her proceeding to continue through the elevator doors pushing me back into the elevator and smiling at me. Did I miss the elevator memo that says STOP letting the folks ON the elevator off first?

This whole experience was later washed away by a sweet man who offered to follow me to the 5th floor and help me unload 6 boxes from a wheelie cart that I was pushing from the 1st floor because the boxes were "too heavy" for my boss . . . Did I mention that I'm 7 months pregnant? Anyway, I was feeling impish, so I declined his offer and told him that I was going to leave the cart in the office while I left for the day, and my boss would get to unload the boxes.

Bobbijean the Blogger

I recently watched an entire movie about a woman and her blog. I have several friends who blog and have finally embraced the fact that I am no good at Family News Letters or personalizing each Christmas card satisfactorily. The books I make of Sebastian each year using Shutterfly are too expensive to mail duplicates out to all those who might care, thus is born my very first blog.