Little Monkey and Friends

Halloween is my favorite time of the year. What's not to like about a holiday that's centered around collecting (and eating..) lots of candy? This year proves to be especially fun, as I now have a helpless victim to dress up anyway I choose.

Haaaahaa haahaaahaaahaaa!

Just wait till he's old enough for me to actually take him out trick or treating..




Abandon all hope, ye who enter the lair of the great and fierce koala bear.





Although koalas look cute and cuddly..rest assured, they are ferocious hunters and shall defend their playmats with tooth and claw! Don't be fooled by their soft grey fur and roly-poly, round little bellies. They are fierce man, fierce..and scary too....grrr...





Like most other overly-scheduled children

..errr..koalas...
Jordan celebrated Halloween with a variety of activities.On Thursday, we went to a Halloween party. Jordan arrived in full costume...



There were a LOT of kids at the party. That was a little scary at first (for mom too). But it was nice having familiar faces around, like our buddy David...
(pssst..hey kid..what are you crying about? At least you got to be a mammal.)




He was a very comforting little bee. Bees are highly developed social insects. Koalas can get shy in large groups.


Jordan regained his composure after awhile, ditched the costume, and joined in with the other reindeer games...
I think he might have had a little too much fun. I turned my back on him for a second, and next thing I know, he sets up a game of 21 at the play table.




Halloween parties are a lot of fun

..especially if you can actually chew and swallow solid foods. As Jordan was unable to indulge in most of the goods on the buffet, I pitched in and helped consume his share. I'm such a good sport. Other guests also did their part. All things considered, Jordan handled his first Halloween party like a champ.



The festivities continued on Saturday, when we hit the town of Leonia's Halloween parade. Who doesn't love a good parade? And getting to dress up your pride and joy in a furry little outfit is an added bonus. Except of course, when he tries to chew his way out of captivity.



The two monkeys take a break following the parade. Next stop - the town recreation center party.






Wow..it was a madhouse. Picture every child in town jacked up on sugar and let loose in a large gymnasium decorated to induce both fear and overstimulation. That's right, fun times, my friend..fun times.





I'll get you my furry little koala!



The old monkey introduces Jordan to a fellow primate, and Jordan attempts cross-species communication.




The craziness was enough for our man David. He caught a quick snooze on a safe perch.






That evening, Jordan made a cameo appearance at Michael's annual spooktacular Halloween Party. The old monkey dressed as Napolean Dynamite - a pop cultural reference sure to leave many of the invitees scratching their heads. I went as Pedro...or a pathetically bad attempt at a stereotypical Mexican - depending again on your level of movie knowledge. Flippin' sweet, yo. Jeff promised to work on his dance moves though.





Bright and early on Sunday, we caught a hay ride out to the GREAT PUMPKIN PATCH..

where the little monkey was promptly hailed as a king by the little pumpkins who gathered at his feet in tribute.






Hurray for the monkey!




SCORE!! Jordan lands a sweet orange specimen.




The old monkey and furball prepare for some serious carving. Oscar howls and bares his fangs in anticipation of pumpkin massacre.




BOO!! The final product! Happy Halloween everyone.

Reading is fun when you wear a chocolate brown cardigan zip up with cable knit trim.


Let's hang out on the couch and read together.


Thomas the Train is a personal favorite.

Crawling is so much easier when you have the right jeans. Do these make my butt look too big?
I'll just grab me a Bartlett pear, my yellow quilted barn jacket, and we're good to go.










Brought to you by our good friends at Baby Gap.

This Sunday, the old monkey pitched in and took over the care and feeding of the little monkey for most of the day while I indulged my inner arts and crafts nerd - at an all day scrapbook party. Yes, you read that correctly - scrapbook. I admit I am a geek. I feel no shame in owning up to that. And one day I will finish our wedding album.

But even as I happily cut and pasted, I was confident that the old monkey was doing a good job with the little guy. Having seen him first hand, I know he's mastered the art of handling all sorts of situations. And no matter how many long hours he puts in at work or how tired he is, he always finds the time to care for the monkey.

Dads are great because..


They feed you...


They burp you...


They nap with you...


They play with you...



They teach you about sports..


And the importance of lounging around on the couch..



But most of all, dads are pretty great because they love you with all their heart.

It's no fun when you're sick...

You're nose is running...







Your teeth are hurting...

You're drooling like a leaky spout....




And your mom throws you in jail.




signed,

Jordan Zane "It wasn't me." Trimarchi

Recognize these smiles?





How about this one?


Proving once again that he is no ordinary baby, Jordan has decided to sprout 4 teeth simultaneously. Two on the top - which are lending him with a surprisingly Howdy Doody look..and two on the bottom..which he flashes only on rare occasions. Mental note to self - trying to keep a baby still long enough to get a picture of the mouth is hard. Newfound respect for those slightly disturbing Anne Geddes pictures.

For now, gnawing on his fatty bread seems to be relieving him of the teething pain. At 110 calories per slice, it's a good thing the monkey's got a fast metabolism.



I'm curious to see what the little monkey's smile will eventually look like when he has a full set.What I hope it will never look like..

The monkey's fighting off his first cold, had a pediatrician visit today - with shots, and still manages to smile ridiculously big for the camera. I'm never this friggin happy and I have nothing to complain about. How's this for a more cheerful post?

The little monkey is now officially weighing in at 16 pounds, 11.5 oz. His pediatrician is "very happy" with his weight gain since his mysterious loss last month. Go chunker, go!

The monkey has got a ways to go before officially hitting lardass territory, but we're working on it.

The Tivo'd Sesame Street episode we watched Saturday evening was particularly appropriate for this weekend. In it, we found ourselved commiserating with Rosita, who missed having her grandmother nearby. Jordan sympathized. However, he was lucky enough to have his Grandma H right there in the room to share in his sesame adventures.

Grandma H pitched in again this weekend, helping out not only with Jordan's care (and first cold), but also tackling long-delayed home improvement projects on her own - like stripping the wallpaper from our guest room. (Those of you lucky enough to have seen the wallpaper know that those cheerful bus scenes will not be missed.) There is no feat too challenging for Grandma H - even the dreaded task of enticing Jordan with food. As you can see, it takes a grandma's special touch to make mealtime a fun occasion. Maybe one day Jordan will be able to eat a meal without a rendition of "Old MacDonald's Farm." But in the meantime, whatever works to get him to eat is just fine with me.

Call me a sap, but when I walked in Sunday afternoon from grocery shopping, and saw the two of them in the kitchen laughing together, the look on Jordan's face and the fact that Helene got him to eat with such ease, I felt a little teary eyed. Got the old monkey to snap a pic right away, because I wanted to capture the moment of how happy Jordan is around his grandma. Grandmas are pretty special people after all. They make good singing partners, dancing buddies, mealtime companions, nap-time tucker-in-ers, lullaby whisperers, diaper-changers, babysitters, nose-wipers, play time adventurers..and above all, reminders of how important family is.

Thanks again Grandma H for always lending a hand and making my baby smile so bright.

I hate clinic days.
I Hate them.
Every. single. minute. of. them.

There's no way to describe this experience, unless you've gone through it. It's a combination of the lines at the DMV, back to back root canals, public humiliation, and waiting for paint to dry. Add to the mix, of course, a small infant who's tired, in pain, scared, and looking to you for comfort and security. And instead of providing him with that, you know that you get to put him in a situation where he is stuck with needles to drain him of blood, stripped naked, hooked up to strange machines, forced to have sticky tabs put on him then ripped off. Oh, and we get to come again every month. Hurray!

If I knew for sure there was a clear cut procedure, certainty, some sense of order or organization - maybe I could be less tense. But that's the thing - there is none of that at work. You just never know what to expect when you walk in. You may have some tests done, or not. You may wait for one hour, or two or three..or they may forget that you are out there waiting at all. You may be the first one called for a procedure, or not. You may have a dozen people who signed in after you get called first. You may watch while a 40 year old man strolls into the EKG room ahead of you, while you hold your crying baby who has been sitting there waiting for hours while you desperately try to come up with some new way of entertaining him. You may find out you have a regular $30 copay, or you may find out you owe $1,200 from procedures months ago that have only just been discovered. It's all a strange and exciting lottery, my friend. Hurray!

Today was yet another banner day at clinic. The good news is that Jordan has gained back a little of the weight that he mysteriously lost last month. A little is better than nothing, and he's getting taller as well. Good things. And he's alive.

That puts it all in perspective.

Thank God for Heather Armstrong. I now know the missing words to that horrible little Elmo song from Sesame Street that has confounded me for months.


Jordan is a fan of the Elmo. He has a "Shouting" Elmo for playtime.




A "Tickle Me" Elmo for crib time..




And a strange little Elmo wannabe..

a fake Elmo..

Ladies and Gentlemen... meet "Felmo"



Elmo is not happy about this blatant trademark infringement, and is hard at work outlining his litigation strategy.

Could it be that the little guy just wants to eat what
we eat? Is it really that simple? Maybe. In an attempt to think outside the box, I decided to let Jordan try eating what I was eating for lunch today. He was watching me so closely as I ate, it seemed like a logical thing to try. And I felt a little adventurous, after reading some headlines. Thanks for the tip, Nataliya.

Today's lunch? A nice hearty lentil soup..fat free, unfortunately..but some of us aren't blessed with Jordan's trim waistline. I wish I could say the soup was as lovely as the picture you see above. But, pressed for time, I went the easy route, and chose this one.

And he liked it.

In other news, thanks to Grandma H and Michael for babysitting the little guy and giving me and the old monkey a chance to get out. Props to Grandma H for the very cool anniversary present. The show was awesome!

Summer seems to officially be over, judging from the grey curtain that has draped itself over everything outdoors. But, looking on the bright side, I got to dress up Jordan in a very cheery yellow slicker. How often can I do that? Here Jordan does his best Gene Simmons impersonation.



Oh..wait..


I forgot I have a thing for yellow rain slickers..as Oscar found out way back when..

Preliminary test results are back, and all looks good. No signs of rejection. Jordan celebrates with a round on the play mat.

And in this picture, you can see the myriad ways in which I am a bad parent...crib full of stuffed animals presenting potential suffocation hazard, blanket draped around child (ditto), stinky diaper pail too close to crib (presenting unappealing smelliness as child drifts off to sleep..) Ah well, we try. But I did manage to get a good picture of the little guy as he sleeps.

The biopsy this morning went ok, as far as procedure. We got Jordan in on time, he tolerated the anesthesia well, woke up without too much delay, and doesn't appear to be suffering any effects right now. It took a long time, in part due to some "computer glitches." Those were the hospital team's words. Tip - don't use the word "glitch" of any kind around nervous parents anxiously awaiting news about the 8 month old baby whom they have turned over to your precious care to perform a heart biopsy. No one wants to hear the word glitch in those circumstances. Probably any circumstances that involve being in a hospital, for that matter.

And here's another mental note to myself. Next time, decline the invitation to actually be present while they put your child under anesthesia. Watching that little episode was a big freaking mistake. There is nothing endearing or calming or comforting about watching someone put a gas mask over the face of your child, or the panic striken look of horror that comes over him as he fights to get it off. They said it gets easier as they get older. More words of wisdom to hold on to for future reference.
But, unlike his nervous and high strung mother, Jordan is a trooper, and even managed to give the nurses some smiles and "daa-daa" sounds when he was sufficiently awake. We'll get the actual results of the biopsy tomorrow, at which point I will finally be able to take a deep breath and relax. At least until the next time.

On an unrelated note, Happy Anniversary, to my first Monkey - you're the best husband, father and friend I could ever hope to know. Your strength, humor and courage inspire me every day to be the best mother I possibly can be to our son.

The song's stuck in my head.

Little guy has a biopsy tomorrow. Will be able to think more clearly after that.

At the park, Jordan butts heads with his friend, Grace.




Shares a snack with dad while waiting in line...


And rides the merry-go-round for the first time.

So, I experimented with the avocado this morning. Mashed it up, and served it to Jordan.


The verdict..


Actually, the kid did an impressive Linda Blair imitation and threw up projectile style. Boy, that was fun.

I prefer to see him looking like this..

Before Jordan, there was another monkey in our house...
His name - Oscar. Legend has it, he comes from a breed of fearless dogs known as Brussels Griffons. Anyone who knows Oscar, however, could understandably question that heritage.
Compare... The breed standard.


And our monkey.


Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - as Oscar has proven to us.







We wondered how Oscar would make the adjustment once Jordan was born.















It took some time...














But, our two monkeys have become friends














Which is a good thing, considering the alternative.

Oscar has now assigned himself the job of greeting Jordan every morning when he wakes up, as well as after every nap. He is a busy dog, indeed.