Have You Met Monkey?

He's been hanging around here lately...

In case you hadn't noticed...

It might be the bananas...

Or maybe the company...

Could be the juice...

He really is a fine fellow.

You should really meet him sometime...

We like him quite a lot.

My father ("Papa") bought this monkey for my niece a few years ago. My brother and sister-in-law told her to leave the monkey at Mimi and Papa's house to keep there.  I actually think she may have taken a pink one home:)  So, when I was pregnant, I snatched it up, and laid him on top of the curtain rods in the nursery, like he was just hanging-around.  Nik has always noticed him, but the other day, she pulled me into the nursery and pointed, and said, "unh, unh." and I determined we should take him down for some love. His little hands velcro together, so he can hang/attach to things. I often attach him to Nik like a back-pack, she loves it.  She likes to snap and un-snap his hands. She hugs & and kisses him, feeds him, gives him drinks, yesterday, she tried to take him into the shower for a bath, then into the sink and then she tried to put lotion on him. The other day, she pulled the changing pad down off the dresser, and put him on it to change his diaper.

I have to tell you what Nik did yesterday.  Yesterday, I was reading Nik a story before bed in the Family/Living Room. Lately, Nik has wanted to read her stories before bed there (I think she feels like she is nto really going to bed if we do this).  So, she was sitting her Big Girl Polka-dot chair and I was on the floor getting ready to read to her. She started signing "baby" to me, and I just smiled, nodded my head, and said, "yes, baby."  I couldnt figure out why she was signing baby to me.  I asked her if she wanted her baby, and she just kept signing baby.  I wondered if she was getting her signs confused. Then she pointed to our framed pictures on the table, where we have a picture of Josh and I coming home from the hospital, and she signed "baby" again.  I was just so amazed at this, she surprises me every day how unbelieveably smart she is and how quick she picks up on things.  I gave her a big hug, and I said, animatedly, "Yes, Yes, that is a baby that Mommy is holding. That is you, baby Nikolina," and I signed baby.  I was simply amazed that she looked at that and knew, that I was holding a baby and she wanted me to know she knew.  She then proceeded to want to hold the picture and kiss and hug it. Then she wanted all the other pictures on the table with her in the chair. So, here she was sitting in the chair with all these picture frames around her, while I read her her bedtime story.  I thought that was too cute.