My Silly Monkeys

When I was little, I desperately wanted a monkey. Every holiday, every wish list, birthday, Christmas, whatever...

1) A monkey

Oddly, my parents never bought me one. I think they got me a stuffed monkey one year for my birthday, but a real monkey? Nope, never happened.

At one time, I fantasized about becoming a truck driver, like Greg Evigan on "B.J. and the Bear." Not because I liked trucks, and not because I liked travelling long distances, but because B.J. McKay owned a monkey (okay, maybe it was a chimp. But to me, it was the coolest thing ever), and in my little mind, if B.J. McKay had a monkey friend, then ALL truck drivers must have monkey friends, and, therefore, if I were to become a truck driver, then I, too, could have a monkey friend.

Given that I have difficulty parking a minivan, it's probably best that the whole truck driving thing never panned out. But the lust for a monkey? That never passed.

Until.....

I have these two glorious little children. They climb -- oh, how they climb! On tables, on chairs, on couches, on me, on each other -- if there is a surface that can be climbed on, they've climbed it. And they pick -- they pick on each other, they pick on me, they pick up random things that they have no business touching -- sometimes it seems like they have eight hands each!

They giggle, they screech, and, on at least one memorable occasion, my daughter, as an infant, sneezed mid-diaper change and managed to shoot poo all the way across the room (the words "shock" and "awe" come to mind).

In short, they demonstrate monkey-like behavior on a daily basis.

They are my silly little monkey friends.

And they are exactly what I wished for!