life with a monkey

monkey (n): one who behaves in a way suggestive of a monkey, such as a mischievous child

We certainly chose the right nick-name for C, because he has become quite a little monkey. I'm waiting for him to start swinging from the ceiling fan.

• He's standing alone, unsupported, for very short periods of time ~ he even did it for Dr. B at Duke last week
• He took TWO STEPS all by his little self on December 13!!
• He loves pushing things all over the house. He either pushes his police car or crawls around pushing cars and chasing them. Poor Lucy seems to always be right in his path and has to jump outta the way just before being run over.

We also discovered that he's climbing. We were staying at a hotel this week and he went missing. Now, how can a baby go missing in a little ol' hotel room, you may ask. We were wondering the same thing. We followed this soft banging noise to find C up ON the bellman's/luggage cart, in the middle of our luggage, banging on the bars of the cart! On the cart...with wheels?!?!? I kinda freaked out...just a little bit. I mean, what if he had rolled himself down the hallway, onto the elevator, and right out the front door. Ok, ok, so that's overreacting just slightly.

But, let me back up a little bit to earlier in the week. I came home from work to find a rambunctious little monkey C playing in his room. He got tripped up because he was so excited, and fell, hitting his mouth on the edge of his little chair. He started the silent scream, you know the one where he looks like he's screaming his head off, but he's holding his breath, so no noise is coming out. And, BLOOD was gushing out of his mouth. Ok, well, his lip was bleeding. But to me, it seemed like it was gushing. I put ice on it and he recovered in about 5 minutes. As for me, I'm still trying to recover. And I'm pricing pillows, lots of pillows. It can't be that expensive to cover the entire house in pillows, right?

So, back to the hotel room. I mean, what if he fell off the cart and busted his lip again. Twice in the same week? Surely, that's unheard of. But apparently it's not because I've since heard many stories of spills, stitches, bruises, busted lips....

We were back home tonight, putting groceries away, when I noticed the monkey rounded the corner toward the stairs. He stood at the bottom, looking up and down the stairs like he was really assessing whether or not he could do it. And then he did. He hiked that little leg up, stuck his hiney out and up he went. He never stopped or slowed down and he went straight to the top. [Don't worry, I was right behind him the entire time as you will see in the pictures in the slideshow...in my slippers :)] When he reached the top, he had a HUGE smile on his face and was so proud. Then he turned, grabbed the handrail and tried to walk back down the stairs. He's FEARLESS and I'm not sure I'm going to survive.

For our own future reference, here are some other things he's been doing:

• Hugs Lucy *this one is super cute*
• Shows you his tummy and feet when you ask
• When you ask him what a dog says, he sticks out his tongue and pants
• Monkey see, monkey do: He is imitating everything, especially sticking his tongue out (picture in the slideshow)

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