Monkey Boy

From the time that he was a tiny babine, I've always thought that JT looked like a monkey. He had dark hair and dark eyes and he browned right up his very first summer. But for his chubby cheeks, he was always a slim and lithe baby. And as my baby became a boy, he still looked like a monkey to me. He jumps about and swings from the monkey bars at the park down the street. And if it looks like a monkey and sounds like a monkey........you get the idea.

Maybe because I called him monkey boy or maybe for some other reason, he's always liked monkeys. One of his favorite baby stuffies was a tiny monkey and a few years ago he made a stuffed monkey at Build-A-Bear that he continues to adore. So when he saw a beguiling brown monkey at Animal Kingdom, I knew that it was coming home with us. JT carefully counted out his saved dollars and the monkey promptly joined our family.

As we packed up tonight, there was some debate: should the new monkey go in the suitcase or would it be safer for him to travel on the plane with us? As if there were any choice, I thought to myself, as JT and the new monkey lie next to in another in bed, looking remarkably alike. Then JT made the final call: both the monkey boy and the boy's monkey will be sitting next to Mama on the plane ride home tomorrow.

He's 7 and I feel that these moments of his childhood are fleeting. When I get frustrated or when I'm tired of being the on-call single Mama, I remind myself that his life is flying by. Soon stuffed monkeys and pirate toys will be flung aside for video games, cell phones, and the trappings of adolescence. I don't want to wonder where the time went without knowing that I made the most of that time. I want to be a Mama of quality and quantity of time. So tomorrow I'll have a little boy and a monkey by my side. And I'll be happier for it.