Cuddling with an Armadillo

So, here's a little update on Monkey. He has 4 weeks to go in this monstrosity of a cast. He will be spending half of that four weeks like this:

He's pretty comfortable now with scooting on his hands and knees or rolling around the house. It is the funniest thing to see! So much for having a clean living room now, he's been dragging out toys and videos (which he lays out into a track for his cars). Nonni sent him 2 huge boxes of movies, so we have been watching some of those. He has even gotten pretty good at feeding himself with a fork or spoon.

His cousin loves to come over to "entertain" him. She also loves that he is pretty much a captive audience. The first time she showed up with 2 bags crammed full of stuffed animals, Troy and Gabrielle dolls, makeup, sunglasses, and tons of other stuff. They played for a while, then settled down to watch a movie.

Aunt Kim and her girls came over last week, and Kim said to Monkey, "Cuddling with you would be like cuddling with and armadillo!" Monkey didn't know what she meant by that, and yesterday, after he woke up in the morning, he said to me, "Mom, what's an armadillo? Is it like an otter? You know, like the otters on Bob the Builder." So we looked up a picture of an armadillo.

I bet the armadillo would be a heck of a lot more quiet than a Monkey!

Guest Blogger - A fourth grade update

Hi! This is Natalia. I thought I would type again because the last time I typed was like... September. In school I am learning about lots of different things. Since yesterday was Valentine's Day, we were getting things ready for our party. In Math I am learning how to multiply three diferent numbers (example- 3x20x7=420). In Science I am learning about first and second-class levers. We have been doing lots of different kinds of expiriments with the first and second-class levers. In Language I am learning about pretty much lots of different things. In Social Studies I am doing Missouri History. If you have good grades in all of your other subjects and you pass the Missouri History test by the third time, you can go to fifth grade. In spelling I do tic-tac-toe. Tic-tac-toe is where there are 9 different things you can do with your spelling words. You can choose from looking your spelling words up and writing down the syllables and if it is a noun, verb, adverb, adjective and whatever else your word could be, drawing a DETAILED picture of your spelling word, doing a grade level worksheet of different words and matching them with there definition or something, writing each of your spelling words in a DETAILED sentence, writing your words 5 times each, writing alliterations with your spelling words in it( example- Sally saw six seashells in the sand. Seashells would be my spelling word), looking your word up in the dictionary and writing down the definition, writing your words in a sentence with an adjective, and writing a letter to someone using your spelling words. In order to get 100% on your assignment, you have to get everyting right, duh, and have three of the things I just told you and have them in a tic-tac-toe order(they are on a sheet of paper, three rows of three).


My class has been writing to different states to find out some information about that state. I chose to write to California and Maine. We wrote a letter to a student in our grade in a school in the state we chose. We are expecting to get some letters back from one of the students. When we do get our letters back we are going to hang any post cards we get on our bulletin board for everyone to see. I haven't gotten any letters back from the states I chose. Yet.

I have been reading Mark Twain Award Nominees. The books I've read are The Naked Mole-Rat Letters, Gentle's Hollar, Double Identity, Do You Know The Monkey Man, The Search For Belle Prater, Project Mulberry, and Deadly Drive. Guess what? I get to go to the Literature Festival! The Literature Festival is an oppertunity to skip class and go to Warrensburg and meet some authors. Mrs. Smith, our librarian, let's us pick out a book that she will buy to get autographed(we can buy other books too, with our own money). We leave like 7:15a.m. and leave to go back to school at 3:00(we get out of school at 3:10 and driving from Warrensburg takes about 30 minutes). In order to go to the Literature Festival you can read the highest amount of Mark Twain Award Nominees(there are 20 total) in your grade, or enter by writing a story(Mrs. Smith will give you a beginning and you have to write a middle and an end) or you can do an illistration for a poem that she writes or maybe finds somewhere. So I wrote a story 'cause I can't draw. I'll let you read it!



The Secret Room


The last bell of the day rang, and I headed to our school Library Media Center. I knew that I had to get some information for a report that was due on Monday. When I reached the Library, I found that it was empty except for our Librarian who was busy putting books away. I took a seat at one of the computers and reached for the mouse. The instant that I touched it, I felt as if I was suddenly traveling through a long dark tunnel. I couldn’t tell where I was or where I was going. Then, just as suddenly, it was light again, and I was standing in a room that I had never seen before! I looked around. Right beside me, there were a bunch of kids. Unfortunately, they had touched the same mouse that I had touched a little bit ago. They were all talking at the same time.


Back at the Library, our Librarian was staring at her clock. She was supposed to have a class there fifteen minutes ago. She walked down to the third grade classroom and no one was there. She knew that they went to recess before they came to Library, but they usually got there on time. Our Librarian went back to the Library, where she saw a very bright light. She ran into the Library. There standing right in front of her were fifty-three children. They were silent for a few seconds, then they all started talking at the same time. Our Librarian told everyone but Anna to stop talking. Anna told our Librarian what happened. It seemed to be that almost everyone in the school was in that room at that moment. She walked out the door leaving the kids in the Library. She walked down the hall, looked into every room and there stood the teachers trying to figure out where their students were. Our Librarian told each teacher what happened and what students were in the Library. When she got to the fifth grade classroom and was telling the fifth grade teacher what students were in the Library from her class, everyone that were missing was in the Library except for one person: the same person that last discovered the secret room- me.


Back in the secret room, I was sitting in a chair. I hadn’t figured out how the other students got back to school. I was tired and hungry. I looked around one last time. There was a door! I walked up to it and turned the knob, then right before I pulled it open I heard a voice. I turned around quickly, knocking my elbow into a table. I fell to the ground and started crying. I was scared and my elbow hurt. I yelled for help and the voice came again. I couldn’t understand what it was saying. I heard the voice again. I figured out what it was saying. “Hello Sarah, how are you?” said the voice. I screamed and ran for help.


A couple of hours passed and the teachers were still looking for me. They even called the police to come help. They kept the students occupied by giving them a few bags of chips, soda, and a movie. One of the teachers found a small piece of paper that said, “REMEMBER- Find information for report due on Monday!” but that was it.


I stopped. The voice had gone away! I ran back to the door that I found a little bit ago. I turned the knob and the door opened. Inside was the school Library. I made it back to school! Why didn’t I think of that earlier? I ran out of the Library to my classroom. No one was there. I ran to the main hallway. Standing right in front of me was a police officer.


“What are you doing here?” I asked


“Looking for Sarah.” replied the police officer, not even looking at me. “I am Sarah,” I said
Everyone in the hallway looked at me.
“Sarah!” they all shouted.


The yelling was so loud, everyone in the school came running, even the students. “Where have you been?” asked Mrs. Chouser, principal of the school.


“I was stuck in a secret room. There were lots of other students in there too. All I did was touch a mouse on the computer in the Library.” I said.


Then some of the students said, “Me too!” and “I did too.” and “What mouse did you touch?”


“Okay, okay. We need everyone to be quiet. Everyone go back to your classroom.We’ll get everything organized and cleaned up. Sarah, I’ll send a note home with you to give to your parents.”


As I walked home that day, I just remembered. I didn’t get any information for my report.

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Did you like it? I thought of it myself. So here's how I found out I get to go. On Thursday the 14th during our Valentine's Party, Mrs. Harrison, my teacher, called three people to her desk, Katie, Landon, and me. Then she said, "You guys are going to the Literature Festival." I almost peed my pants! I really wanted to go to the Literature Festival and my dream came true! Well I guess I'll go. Bye!

Mama called the doctor and the doctor said...

So, Monkey is just that: a little monkey. He's also kind of a daredevil monkey. Luckily, he's also pretty coordinated. But his coordination couldn't save him from disaster on Friday. Monkey is now sporting a lovely almost body cast in this spring's hottest color; red. No, Monkey did not fall off the bed, even though that would be entirely possible, he fell off a bike. And broke his femur. Which is hard to break. At pre-school. I was there. I felt bad. Now I'm feeding him goldfish and chocolate milk. Cuz I still feel bad. Doesn't he look like he feels bad?

He was wiggling around so much his face is a blur, and he is wearing Brian's boxers since nothing else can fit over the cast.

After visiting the ER in Sedalia, they transfered him to Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, just in case he needed surgery. He didn't, but the Orthopedic Surgeon put him under in order to set and cast him. They were even able to leave out the stablizing bar they usually put between the legs. His cast goes almost up to his chest, right under the bottom line of words on his T-shirt.

Please, please, keep ME in your prayers. This is going to be a long 6 weeks! I'm just sayin'.