Monkeys equal terror. Apparently.

Vincent was not impressed when Mummy brought the monkeys home...

This Monday past was the first day of school for our area in the States. It always strikes me as funny to see the kiddos head back in the middle of summer, while the majority of North America waits a few more weeks. Oh Florida, you make me shake my head sometimes…

So with much pomp and circumstance, Vince headed back to daycare on Monday. His daycare is really more like a pre-school. It’s uniformed, arranged in classrooms and there’s a curriculum, so it really feels more like dropping him off at kindergarten than anything else.

He got a new blanket for his cot and today he told me it was ‘super snuggley’. We picked out some new socks, underwear and shorts. We bought school supplies. He got a new ‘dragon’ and a new puzzle as back-to-school presents. And I took him to Downtown Disney as a treat this past weekend.

Downtown Disney is kind of a Disney-lite shopping experience, where you can buy merchandise and various shops, wander around, eat, watch a movie, maybe go to Cirque du Soliel… I can pass it off as going to Disney, if I hype it just right.

So we cruised around (and might I add it was hot as balls?? It was.), checked out some toys in the shops and pondered where to eat… There are 2 big restaurants aimed at kids. The Rainforest Cafe and the T-Rex Cafe. I don’t think I need to elaborate on them much, names should be explanatory enough, no?

Anyways, the Rainforest Cafe had no lineup so that really helped make my decision. And so in we went and were directed to a table maybe about 15 feet away from some animatronic gorillas. Vince paid no attention to them at all, mainly because A) they weren’t moving and B) he was playing Angry Birds on my phone. Our drink order went in and a few minutes later the gorillas started moving (which apparently they do in 10 minute cycles).

It was kind of cute, I thought anyways. Vince looked at them, did a double take and SCREAMED.

And while screaming “I no like dis, I no like this!!” at the top of his lungs, clawed his way OVER the table to my arms and buried his face in my neck screaming and shaking.

Oh wow. Wasn’t expecting this at all. Apparently neither were all of the families dining around us. There was a lot of pursed lip headshakes and whispers. I mentally gave them the finger since my arms and hands were busy soothing V-man.

So we left. I carried him out of the restaurant, we walked about 100 feet away and he was fine. We bought a pretzel and a lemonade. Vince told me “I no like does monkeys, dey were a wittle scawee”. Oh bless him…

Monday morning and the first day of school rolled around and we got ready to pick out our underwear for the day. I opened the drawer and reached in when suddenly: “MUMMY!! I no like dees. I NO LIKE DEES!” Vince loudly proclaimed as his little finger clutched a pair of monkey underwear. “Here Mummy, der for you”.

“Oh, shall I take these away?”, I said solemnly.

“Yes”, he replied equally solemnly.

Oh lord, did I scar my child for life? And then I followed that up by literally scarring myself with another trip to the dermatologist on Monday afternoon…. which is another story altogether.

xoxo a.m.