The Monkey Saga

So here's the Miracle of Thanksgiving story from our household. Adam has this stuffed animal, "Monkey," whom he loves dearly. Monkey goes with him everywhere etc. We think he's a squirrel monkey . This is a Before picture...before Monkey went missing a few weeks ago. Previous to this, Monkey had been "missing" for a few days, and Theo "found" him where he had hidden him. So when Monkey was missing again, just a few days later, Theo was the prime suspect. But he wouldn't crack under parental truth-telling pressure, so we just had to go though life without Monkey for a while. Every now and then Adam would say, "I miss Monkey..."

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving Mitch took the boys shopping at ALDI, among other places. There, they saw a bunch of huge stuffed animals in the Christmas toy section, and Adam started calling a monkey he saw there "Monkey's Mommy." Mitch was focused on the tasks at hand and didn't even see it, but I had seen the stuffed animals the last time I was at ALDI on my own, and had debated about getting one for Adam (but the elephant, not the monkey). Anyway, after seeing "Monkey's Mommy" Adam would mention her (although he seemed to use the male pronouns more often) often enough that the Rhodes family all got in on the story. I mean, when we went around and said what we were thankful for before Thanksgiving dinner, Adam said, "Monkey's Mommy." It was that bad. So Sara decided that if Monkey's Mommy was still at ALDI on Black Friday, she would take back the other things they had gotten for Adam and give him that instead--mostly for the thrill of seeing his reaction! :) As you can see in the Thanksgiving and Christmas blog, that was definitely a hit. Good call, Sara!

So now Monkey's Mommy was in the picture, but still no Monkey. Someone said that Adam should have Monkey's Mommy make her/his monkey noises long enough that Monkey would come out of hiding. And who knows if he didn't do that exact thing? Saturday night, after all the festivities, with MM in his bed, Adam had a hard time settling down. He eventually did succumb, and I was wiped out and went to sleep early, so only Mitch was around for the big revelation! He was getting the garage emptied out to park our car in there for the winter, and who should be hiding under the blanket in the bike trailer but...

MONKEY!

Wow! Mitch brought him in and tucked him in with Adam, and in the morning the reunions were joyful!

And that is the Monkey Saga...as it now stands!