On Being a Mom: The One Monkey Rule
Simona, like all three year olds, is quite imaginative these days. She makes up stories, songs, and all sorts of fake friends, words, games, etc. It’s usually pretty funny, and overall, I enjoy listening to whatever might come out of her mouth next.
About two months ago or so, Simona started stopping to pet her “monkeys” that live in the trees between our house and the playground. She always invites me to pet “Bilowa” or “Minkowna” or whatever name she makes up on the spot, and if I don’t pet the precise leaf she indicates, she’ll correct me and show me exactly where “Bilowa” is.
Cute, until you realize that there are about 30 trees between our house and the playground. And that by the time we are on the way home, we are all hot, fussy, tired, hungry, and ready for lunch & naps. Stopping to pet monkeys gets quite tedious, so I’ve had to limit the number of monkeys we can pet on the way home. Recently, a fellow mom walked home with us for lunch. Along the way, she and her daughter got to help pet monkeys, so eventually I told Simona that we would only be stopping for one more monkey. Since I told Simona that in German, I translated it into English for my friend’s benefit, so she’d know she wouldn’t have many more to pet.
She just laughed and said (in her wonderful British accent), “Brilliant, isn’t it? Did you ever envision being a mum would involve implementing the ‘One Monkey Rule’?”
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Update: Some June pictures are up. Pictures from Simona’s birthday & our trip to Iowa will be up soon, and July pictures will follow hopefully soon thereafter.
