Communing With Monkeys

The first birthday present Kev ever gave me was a VHS copy of "George of the Jungle" (the movie starring Brendan Frasier). No too long after that, we came across a big white stuffed monkey during our meanderings in the mall. We purchased him and immediately dubbed him George, the great white ape. Over the first years of our marriage, other monkeys joined George until we had a smallish pile of monkeys hanging around.

George and the other monkeys are still around and as toddlers, all of our kids have found George's lap a perfect spot to cozy up (although I can't find a picture of Matthew).

 Daniel-July 2002

 

Nathan-December 2004

Malia, however, is the only one who has continued to pass time with the monkeys past her toddler years. Nearly every day, she comes in to my bedroom while I'm getting ready in the morning and hangs out with the monkeys. She'll sit in their midst and just be comfy. She'll bring in the play dishes and feed them cereal or soup.  She has named several of them (the big brown one is Monkey-Arounder and the small black one is Kisser) and has appropriated several as her very own as well. She'll carry them into the living room and line them up on the couch. On this particular day, after filling every seat in the living room with monkeys, she told me we needed more monkeys.

Today she came up with a new way to commune with the monkeys. Apparently the AC was making it a bit chilly next to the vent and she decided to warm things up with a monkey blanket. Not a monkey blanket like this...

...a monkey blanket like this:

Yeah, she has a thing for monkeys.