Monkeys & Snow

MONKEYS

Soon after we got Jacee home, we had to buy bedrails because she fell out of her bed a couple times. She has always slept in the upper left side of the bed. I assumed this was because she had shared a bed with several kids at the orphanage, and that became her "spot". We've been trying to get her to learn to sleep in the middle of the bed so we can eventually remove the rails. We have her move to the middle, but she always ends up back in her "spot, "crammed against the bedrail.

A couple nights ago, I decided to try a new approach. I put a pillow on the left side, forcing her over toward the right. She got a concerned look on her face and said, "No! Monkeys!" while pointing at the window on the right side of the bed. After a few minutes of discussion, I came to the understanding that when she was in Africa, monkeys would come in through the window at night, get into the families food, and make a mess. Jacee's still working on English, but this appears to be a genuine concern based on past experience. I look forward to asking her about this when she is older to see if monkeys really did come in their house.

I assured her that no monkeys could get in the house. She slept fine and left the pillow on the left side while she slept closer to the right. Again tonight we had the discussion about monkeys, but I think she understands now that no monkeys can get in the house. David had the idea to put on an ape mask and wake her up during the night, but we decided that wouldn't be a good idea.

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SNOW

This morning I told Jacee to take Chelsea (the dog) downstairs and outside. Before long, she was back in my bedroom...

J: Mom. Trees.
Me: Trees? (Then I remembered. The forecast had said there could be snow). Trees white?
J: No. Blue. (She then pointed to something that is white. Okay, so we're still working on colors).
Me: That's white. Are the trees white?
J: Yes, trees white.

I went down and looked. Yup, snow. October 10th. Crazy. And it's quite a bit of snow.
We bundled up the older girls and David took them and Chelsea sledding for a bit.
Aside from the crying spell from cold hands, Jacee enjoyed her first experience with "sah-noh."