I don’t think Monkey really understands that she won’t be going back to school for a while and I know that the moment she realizes it, she won’t be happy.  She loves going to school as much as I love letting her go.

This summer will not be like last summer.  Last summer Monkey would just stay inside until I was done working and it made neither of us happy.  To avoid that this year I have bought a wireless internet router.  It is not here yet but as soon as it is here, I will be prepared for summer to begin.  It covers up to 400 ft and it is not even 400 ft from where my office is to where I am on the porch outside.  I’m ready to move my office outside and couldn’t be happier.

I’ve already moved her swing set and outdoor toys from one side of the yard to the other.  I’ve moved myself from the back porch to the front one.  The back porch doesn’t have any cover to keep the sun from glaring on my computer screen.  The front area has a big ol’ overhang that keeps the porch area eternally shaded.

Today I enlisted Monkey’s help and we made the swing set move.  Needless to say, Monkey was very excited about it.  She enjoyed helping me out.  This also offers another benefit: Monkey’s friends can play with her.

I made sure to head over to the neighbors place and let her know that her 2 sons are more than welcome to play on the swing set as long as someone is watching them.  They’re good kids and they asked me the other day if they could play.  At least now they can play without having to ask.

So yes.  Today was my preparation day.  Monday will be set up day for my wireless router.  By Thursday, her first day of summer vacation, we’ll be ready for it.  She’ll be ready to play and I’ll be ready with my mobile office!

Why didn’t I do this sooner?

What I really, really hate are the shoes.  It’s easy enough to avoid buying shoes with a heel during the winter.  Sneakers or winter boots for kids aren’t all that bad but for some reason shoe companies think sandals need to be 2 inches tall.  For toddlers and young children.

As an adult I do like a little lift in my shoes.  I don’t wear heels but shoes that offer a little platform aren’t so bad.  We’re adults so we can make the choice to put added pressure on our joints and squish our feet for fashion.

But why should our children think they need it?  They’re children, they don’t need twisted ankles at 5.  Really.  Shouldn’t their sandals stay firmly on the ground, not inches above it?

Lets pause my thought here.

Girls like to jump, play, kick, and run as much as any boy does.  So, imagine heels on that running, jumping, kicking, playing kid?  Isn’t that a crazy thought?  Heck I haven’t mastered walking in heels, so why should my daughter be expected to?

Fashion is fashion but I think Monkey will do without it for now.

Monkey is absolutely obsessed with dancing and ice skating.

When asked, she says it is her favorite.  Dancing in general is also her favorite.  Just ask.

Monkey was mid whine when she suddenly noticed there was a ballet-type ice skating thing going on.  Sounds like the nutcracker.  The show shushed her instantly and now I have my own personal mini dancer floating around the living room and kitchen.  She’s slipping, she’s sliding, she’s spinning and she is falling.

So, I owe you one weekend filler ice skating tv special.  My budding ice skating dancer is back to  behaving.  You have bought me a few minutes.  Just enough to tide her over before we go outside and enjoy the beautiful sunshine!

Most people don’t know that my dad is a truck driver.  To his misfortune, he was stuck in Michigan for the weekend.  So I got to spend some time with him, something I haven’t done since Monkey was about 1.

Monkey was absolutely thrilled.  She had so much fun with grandPA*.  She loved having him around and cried when the day was over.  I’ll admit it, I cried too.  I never know when I’ll get to see my dad again, so it was sad having to say goodbye until who knows when.

With that said, Monkey still loves the movies.  Dad paid for us to see Monsters vs Aliens and Monkey loved it.  She sat through it, watched it, munched on popcorn, and behaved very nicely.

Which is something I couldn’t say about her when I took dad to visit an old neighbor.  There was a dead bug in the toilet, it wouldn’t go down when I flushed the toilet so she screamed over it.  Full blown tantrum.  She wouldn’t pull up her pants to leave the bathroom, but she wouldn’t go potty either.  She does not act like that in general.  The damn bug didn’t want to go down.  That is one situation I hope I’m never in again.

All in all, though, it was a good visit and I wish we could have more of them.  If anything, I know Monkey would enjoy the visits a lot.  She didn’t talk much with him but she did everything to show off.

* Yes, that’s really how she said it.  She kept saying grandma so I started emphasizing the PA at the end of grand.  So that’s how she started saying it.  Very cute.

Once I had the surprise project completed, I started to relax and enjoy the time.  Monkey was probably just happy to have me stop shushing her.  There were lots of play time, some frustration, a little attitude from Monkey when she didn’t want to behave, a visit to the “Easter bunny” who was performing photo ops at our local Walmart, multiple trips to town so we could escape the house, and an overall good week.

I’ll admit that I won’t mind when she gets back to school and I’m able to have some quiet around here but I also enjoyed the time together.

I didn’t succeed in getting her to pick up her toys, but I was able to persuade her to help organize the movies.  Maybe next time we can get to those toys? (probably not, lol)

I haven’t completely forgotten, though.  While no truly laughable phrases (out of the ordinary) has passed from Monkey’s mouth to my ears, we’ve had our fair share of issues.

Have I mentioned stress lately?  Spring break is coming up for Monkey and I’ve just decided to consider some time off for that period of time.  She’s home for a week and the last thing I want to do is spend the day sitting here, trying to work, while she puts the average form of misbehavior to shame.

Actually, that makes me think of some things I’ve read in the past on parenthood, opinions of some other mothers that are either much like me or nothing like me at all.

I know what it’s like to be a teenager.  People often mention that parenthood with a teen is 10x harder than parenthood with a preschooler.  No doubt, I have to agree.  I was there, I know the stuff I did.  Don’t you think I already know I’m in for it?  That doesn’t make what goes on now any less bad.  A misbehaving (or mouthy, in my case) child is still being bad, no matter what age they are.

I seriously think Monkey can ignore me just as easily as I ignored my parents when I was a teen.  That seems to be trait that crosses the age barrier.  While she might not be sneaking out of the house while I am asleep, I’m not stupid enough to think that isn’t a possibility as she gets older.  However, I would like to sweat the small stuff now so I can worry about the big picture at the appropriate time.

Make sense?

Ahhh… the life of a mom who is just getting started.

Who doesn’t love a little Dr. Seuss?  Yet another book that was mine.  My mom loved all of those Dr. Seuss books and bought them for me.  Monkey gets to inherit them (and the love for his series of books, too).

This is probably one of my favorites.  I love it when I get to the page where one of the creatures shares the same name (her last name, actually) as an old school buddy of mine.

If you follow me on Twitter then you already know that Monkey cracked my computer screen Thursday morning.  Moments after taking the Day 3 picture, actually.  I’d forgotten to take it the night before so I was making up for it that morning.  Then I turned, noticed a line in my screen, felt it, realized it was a crack, put her in a long time out (one that she wasn’t allowed to leave until the bus came for school).

I was so peeved.  She told me that she’d drawn on my screen with a crayon, while I was getting dressed, however crayon would wash off.  This is a full-blown crack in my screen.  Needless to say, that was one night I let Granny read to her.  Then the next night too.  So there are 2 missing days.  Tonight was Day 6.

That brought me to a whole new level of parenting.  What do you do when your young child does something very, very, very bad (like busting a computer screen)?  I was short on punishment ideas.  She’s only 4, it’s not like I can ground her from going to her friends house.  Ultimately it ended with time out and a strong warning to never go into mommy’s office area again.  That resulted in her getting frustrated and purposely going through my things anyway.

She was in mega-monster-evil-monkey mode.  That passed on to the next day when she climbed up on anything climbable.

She’ll be good for long periods of time.  No time outs for ages because she just doesn’t do anything very time out worthy then suddenly she’ll pack all the bad into the period of a week and all hell breaks loose!  It’s like these moods come in stages.

So, ultimately, I’m curious what you would do if your child completely destroyed something very valuable.  What punishment system do you have in place?

How could you tell this was taken my 7mp camera, not my phone?  Oh… because the photo quality has mysteriously improved.

Monkey’s school sends home a new mini book each week that we can read together.  This happens to be the book they sent home this week.  I asked Monkey if we could keep it short, since mommy feels like she’s been run over by a car –ahem- and this is what she came up with.  When I started to protest, this is what I was met with:

“But MOOOOOOOMMMMMMMYYYYY, it is short!”

Animals on the Go! it was then.

On the first night I gave in to Monkey’s demands for Li’l Wolf Saves The Day.  This is one of many books that were originally mine.  Well, she has since added her own little “touch” to each book.  Going through I found she’d drawn little people randomly on each page.  She told me that was supposedly her in the story.