Currently viewing the category:
"The Monkey’s Vine"
My oldest daughter, The Monkey, is in the hospital. We have been here since last Thursday, so 12 days now. My husband is at home with our little ones and a family friend is helping him watch them during the weekdays so my husband can continue to work while I am away.
My son is having a hard time with me not at home. Mostly at night. He likes to call me and we sing songs together. My husband informs me he dances while we sing. I can only imagine, which makes me giggle. We have tried to Skype and use FaceTime on our iPhones but the hospital wi-fi does not allow for this. My husband brings the little ones to the hospital every few days to visit, it’s nice.
My husband went grocery shopping and the babysitter told him, “Ooh your gonna be in trouble this is not organic. I have been here when Robin came home with groceries and she buys healthy stuff.” I was laughing hysterically when my husband told me. He did his best at the local grocery store. I think. I usually shop at Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, or Sprouts. The wife is away so of course the house is going to play. Anything to make life a little easier right now is what I am all for.
My husband and my youngest daughter have become incredibly close. This makes me happy. Pumpkin was such a Mommy’s girl for so long. She has figured out that she is wrapped around Daddy’s finger and now it’s all over. My son, Bub, is still a Mommy’s boy. I don’t think this will change, at least not anytime soon.
The Monkey and I are having nice alone time. As she has gotten older she tends not to be cuddly anymore. She tends to not like hugs but still likes to be kissed on the cheek and she blows us kisses. She has never been one to like her hand-held… until now. She melted my heart. The first day we were here in the hospital she was getting an i.v. and she reached over with her left hand and held my hand. My eyes filled with tears of joy. She has now done this several times throughout the hospital stay and each time is as special to me as the first time just a couple of days earlier. It’s the little things that melt my heart.
Growing up I was lactose intolerant. If I had a speck of lactose from chocolate or milk in something that wasn’t baked in I was up sick all night with tummy troubles. The only thing I could eat that contained milk was hard cheese. I have an older sister that is four years older than me. She remembers this and how we would do a candy swap after trick or treating every year. I would always be upset because I would get less candy after the swap because almost everything was not allergy friendly for me. I would be left with what had no milk. Everyone seemed to like to hand out chocolate at Halloween. My sister was always so sweet about swapping me.
So my sister text me this year that she has non-dairy, allergy friendly candy this year to pass out. She has called me every year to tell me this. She is very proud that she is a house that only hands out milk-free, allergy friendly candy. My youngest daughter had some food sensitivities for the first year herself. In that first year it caused us to be much more aware of what we eat. Not such a bad thing to know what you are eating. But, I can only imagine a life long true food allergy or multiple food allergies. Amazingly, I noticed a lot more allergy friendly foods being available in supermarkets. We had fruit snacks to pass out ourselves. They had no artificial colors and none of the 8 common food allergies. I felt good about having these to hand out. However, we did not get a single child trick or treating.
In our town there is a community event that takes place at a local park that everyone including us went to. But the candy was there just incase someone didn’t get the memo on the top-notch event to go to. Local businesses including the one my husband works for sponsor the event and hand out candy. It is great times had by all.
My oldest daughter was dressed as a hospital patient this year for Halloween as she has been in the hospital for ten days now with tummy troubles herself. She had surgery on Sunday to revise her J-tube and place a G-tube (again). My son was Buzz Lightyear which I was surprised to only see one other last night. My daughter was a giraffe and she was the only giraffe I saw there. My friend and her son trick or treated along with us and her son is just a couple of months younger than my daughter. He was a sock monkey. He was also the only sock monkey I saw. I saw a bunch of pirates, must be the recent movie release of Pirate’s of the Caribbean. We all had great fun taking the kids trick or treating and I can’t wait for next year to do it again. Next year we will still stay with having allergy-friendly candy to hand out just incase someone knocks on the door.
What do Dr. Seuss, Ed Emberley, Betsy Cronin and Betsy Lewin have in common? They are my oldest daughter’s all time favorite authors. My Monkey loves to be read to. If she is upset we can cheer her up by reading her one of her favorite books. We read to Monkey often. She is the best to read to as she holds a sincere smile the entire book. And then you get to the end of the book and she eagerly signs for more. If she has her way she would have someone reading to her 24 hours a day.
We are a family that reads to our children. They are read bedtime stories every night without fail. This is something we find important to do. In an age where technology is taking over I still believe in the good old paper versions of books that sit on a bookshelf or between bookends until they are picked for the read of the moment. I do own the kindle for myself and enjoy being able to do a quick download of the new releases I want to read myself. But for my children I want them to have the pages to turn and the pictures to follow. And when we pick up books from the library I want them to know the smell. The smell of the years of page turning that has occurred.
We are a home of many books. This is something I am proud of. Here is a list of some of the titles that are favorites of ours and picked often by my three children to read:
Dooby Dooby Moo by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
A Treasury of Curious George by Margret and H. A. Rey
Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs By A. Wolf As told to Jon Scieszka
Giggle, Giggle, Quack by Doreen Cronin
Subscribe
