Monkey Business

I realize that I write an awful lot about my older son, and not as much about the little one. That's not because I love him more, although that's what Jabber told me this afternoon. (See, here I go again.)

Part of it is just the fact that he's verbal and provides so much more entertainment, and I suppose the other part is that I've got more years of stories about him. But, in the interest of fairness, I will now tell you five fun facts about my youngest son.

1. He has very strange eating habits. For instance, today we were out in the sandbox, which had numerous containers filled up with rainwater. Great for mud-making, you know. So Monkey takes a fistful of mud and begins to eat it! Now, most kids will get a mouthful of sand, spit it out, and that will be that. Not Monkey. He actually enjoys eating mud.

He doesn't enjoy eating asparagus, we found out yesterday. He does, however, enjoy carrying a stalk of asparagus around the house taking bites out of it, which he then spits on the floor. When I try to take the asparagus away from him, he has a mini-tantrum. So instead, I just follow him around picking up bits of half-chewed vegetables. We need to get a dog.

2. He has had about 412,000 head injuries. At first, we contemplated making him wear a helmet all the time, but lately we have been thinking about an entire suit made of bubble wrap. Just this week, he got two goose-eggs on his forehead from falling on the sidewalk and a cut down the side of his face from when his big brother dropped him on his head. Unfortunately, he still has not had the sense to grow some hair to cover up the evidence.

3. He has recently learned to talk like a duck. This one doesn't require much explanation, but it may help to know that his grandpa, my dad, talks like a duck so much that my children refer to him as "Papa Duck." I'm not sure if Jabber actually knows his real name.

4. He is an exuberant colorer. Crayons, fingerpaints, Sharpie. There isn't an art material Monkey isn't willing to give a try, and unlike his brother at this age, he doesn't like to conform to the "only on the paper" rule. Yesterday we colored at the dining room table. Monkey colored on the dining room table. His favorite colors are bold and dark, and he covers the entire page with color. Yesterday he was in love with the color black.

5. He really enjoys having a bucket on his head. Yeah, just about any kind of bucket will do. He could be having a complete melt-down, but pop a plastic bucket on his head, and he's instantly giggling. He navigates the house pretty well with his head covered, too, and it actually keeps him from getting some more head injuries.