Our Funky Monkey

The Monkey was an appropriate animal for Hudson to attach to because he is a little monkey. He climbs everything. If it's stable enough that he CAN climb it, he will. His favorites, tables, chairs, toys, cabinets, stools, boxes, ottoman, couches, pretty much anything he can get up on. If I turn my back for even a second, chances are he will either be headed to the bathroom or climbing something.

For his birthday Grandma Signe gave him this walker. It also doubles as a mountain to scale apparently...but where do you go when you get to the top? Oh that's right, onto the ottoman.

Spencer was looking at a sign while we were on vacation while holding Hudson. Hudson wanted to get out of his arms and onto the sign then he tried to climb right over to top of the sign.

Never a dull moment around here! --That's my excuse for my recent blog absence. It's always an adventure with these two crazy boys.

Oh and in all the craziness this little man decided to get a few more teeth.

Funky Monkey

Roman never really had a "Lovie" a blanket he couldn't sleep without, or an animal. He had his thumb and he is still very attached to that.

Hudson used to be a really horrible sleeper at night. He wanted to sleep in the recliner with us every night. He would wrap his fingers in my hair to make sure I was still there. We got to the point that we were desperate to find SOMETHING to replace him sleeping with us. We have some friends with a little boy that's just older then Hudson. They were having a similar problem and one night out of desperation she put her American Girl doll in the crib with their baby. He slept through the night for the first time ever. So they ordered a boy doll (with rooted hair because she was sure that was the key) for him to sleep with (so her husband wasn't so freaked out about their boy sleeping with a girl doll) He wanted nothing to do with the boy doll. The hair wasn't long enough.

A few nights after our friend told us about the doll working for their son out of desperation I started looking around for a doll for Hudson to sleep with so that I didn't have to climb into the crib with him anymore. The only dolls that we even had in the house were my old dolls from when I was younger. My mom made some "cabbage patch" type dolls for me one year for my birthday and Christmas so I gave him the boy doll to sleep with.



It helped some. It wasn't perfect, but anything helps when you aren't sleeping. Then in June we got a certificate for $10 off an animal at Build-a-bear and two certificates for $5 off an accessory. So we went to Build-a-bear and they had a monkey with a tuft of hair on the top. So we chose the monkey then let Roman choose his clothes. Roman of course chose for him to have a University of Utah shirt then a pair of pants. Roman also named "Funky Monkey." Hudson LOVES his Monkey. He can't sleep without him. Luckily he is only attached to him in his bed. He is so funny, we put him in his crib now to go to sleep. The first thing he does is grab a pacifier (if he doesn't already have one in his mouth) then he grabs funky monkey's hair. One night I went to check on and found him sleeping with his arm draped over Funky Monkey's shoulder.

They are best friends, his lovie, can't sleep without him. We need to go get "Funky Monkey II" before they don't have them anymore. Funky Monkey's hair is getting thin already because it's pulled so much but he's definitely loved.

First day of pre-k

Today Roman started pre-kindergarten at the same pre-school he was at last year. Instead of going 2 mornings a week he is now going three. He has been asking every morning for 2 week if it's the day that he goes to school yet. Yesterday I told him that today would be the day that he would get to go to school. He was so excited, then I think it all caught up to him. At around 11:00 last night he woke up and came in to my room to ask me if I would come sleep in his bed with him, he was going to miss me so he wanted me to snuggle with him. How could I say no? So I went and snuggled in the tiny toddler bed until he was asleep then I went back into my own bed. I was not worried about him starting school until that minute. I told Spencer that and I tried to go to sleep. I tossed and turned, and even considered going back into his bed with him, get a few more snuggles in but I really wanted him to get a good nights sleep. I was finally able to get to sleep sometime after midnight.

Hudson tried to wake up at 6:00 but I just couldn't scrape myself out of bed so I gave him his pacifier and luckily he went back to sleep. Roman came bounding into our room just before 7 and when we asked him to go to the bathroom he erupted into a huge uncontrollable tantrum. I finally got him to the bathroom and into his school clothes (after a few more tantrums) then I suggested we go downstairs to get some breakfast. Even worse tantrum. I finally had to sit at the table with him on my lap and encourage him to eat every bite. I finally just lost it and asked Roman if he liked it when I screamed at him? I don't know what it was about that but he found it funny and his attitude finally changed. By the time we left for school he had a smile on his face, but I could tell he was still a little anxious. He has so many questions (which is normal, but it was more then usual) I think his biggest fear was that his best friend from last year wasn't going to the same school as him this year and he was afraid he wouldn't have any friends/know anyone.

We finally finished breakfast and were out the door to school but I made him stop for a few quick pictures before we left.

We got to the school just as they were starting drop-off time so he didn't have time to be nervous about it because he was looking a little nervous in the car.

His teacher got him out and he was on his way. He had one of the same teachers that he had last year, Miss Jennifer, which I think helped because he already knew her. I was nervous the entire time he was at school. I hoped he had a good day. I hoped he was good and didn't throw tantrums at school. I hoped he had fun.

I made sure that I was one of the first people there at pick-up so that if he was worried that I wasn't there he could see my car. I watched for him to walk out and was happy to see that he found a friend, he came walking out holding a girls hand. He found his friend Emeri from last year.

He was excited to tell me about all of his friends that were in his class from last year. he had a great first day and so many things to tell me about. He drew a triangle, square, rectangle and circle and had a huge smile on his face. It sounds like the beginning of another great school year.