My kids would love a dog. My sister-in-law likes to spoil the kids. The immediate unexpected answer to the request for a dog creates an interesting start. There are a lot of different scenarios that could unfold when a monkey arrives. This is how mine unfolded.
Once upon a time there was a little girl named Catherine and a little boy named Charlie. They really, really wanted a dog. Their mom said, “No, dogs are too messy.” Catherine and Charlie asked her their dad. He said, “A dog? No dogs! Dogs cost money.” So, Catherine and Charlie called their Aunt Theresa. Aunt Theresa thought a dog was a bad idea too. She said, “Your mom and dad are right about dogs. I’m sending you a monkey. Monkeys are a much better.”
In a few days a large crate showed up on the doorstep marked “Monkey Inside, Open Immediately.” The crate moved around and make monkey noises. Catherine and Charlie looked at each other and giggled. They quickly found some tools and opened up the crate. A small, brown monkey burst out of the crate and ran inside the house.
Catherine and Charlie ran after the monkey, but he was hard to keep up with. He climbed up the banister by the stairs and jumped on the chandelier. He swung around while Catherine and Charlie watch excitedly. They had never seen such a cute monkey. After the monkey swang for a few more minutes, he ran right into Charlie’s room and started jumping on the bed.
Then, they heard their mom calling. “Catherine, Charlie, what’s going on up there?” They heard their mom starting to climb the stairs. “Quick,” Catherine told Charlie, “hide the monkey!” Charlie put the monkey in the closet. The monkey made monkey noises. Catherine and Charlie immediately started jumping around pretending to be monkeys which wasn’t hard for them at all. They were very good at pretending to be monkeys.
When their mom peeked in the door, she smiled and said, “you little monkeys having fun?” They both smiled and made extra loud monkey noises to disguise the monkey noises coming from the closet. As soon as their mom walked down the hall, Catherine and Charlie came up with a plan. They built a small bed for the monkey in Charlie’s closet and got him some bananas. The monkey liked his new bed and his new friends. He wanted to stay. Catherine and Charlie liked their new pet.
The next day, the doorbell rang. On the step was another box. Catherine opened the note attached. “I hope you are having fun with your new monkey! I thought you might like another one too. Love, Aunt Theresa.” The box shook and when Charlie opened the box, another monkey burst out of the box and ran upstairs. He climbed up the banister and leaped onto the chandelier. Then he ran into Charlie’s bedroom where he joined the other monkey who was already busy jumping on the bed. The monkey noises coming from the room were really loud. Their mom shouted upstairs, “are you two behaving? No monkey business up there.”
The monkeys continued to screech and Catherine and Charlie knew their mom would be coming upstairs any moment. Charlie had an idea, “they can wear disguises. They can wear my clothes.” Charlie gave one monkey his Spiderman shirt and the other one his Toy Story shirt. Catherine pulled some hats out of her dress up box. She put them on just as her mother walked in the door.
“What is all the noise up here?” their mom asked. She noticed that they weren’t alone. “Hi kids” she said looking at the monkeys in the clothes and hats. Catherine and Charlie couldn’t believe their luck. Their mom thought the monkeys were kids! The monkeys responded with monkey noises, “ooh, ah, ah.”
“Oh, you guys are playing monkey too, huh? That’s been popular lately. Maybe that’s where all my bananas are going. Well I let you get back to playing. Just remember, no monkeys jumping on the bed.”
Catherine and Charlie’s jaws dropped. Their mom had seen the monkeys and they weren’t in trouble! They couldn’t believe their luck.
As time passed, Catherine and Charlie played a lot with their monkey friends. The monkeys were excellent playmates and kept them busy all day long with all kinds of fun games. Catherine and Charlie loved their monkeys, but they felt bad that their mom and dad didn’t know about them. It was also getting hard to explain why they needed so many bananas. So, they decided to tell them that they were keeping pet monkeys.
When Catherine and Charlie told their parents about the monkeys, their mom and dad just laughed. “Oh, kids, we knew all along, but we figured real monkeys couldn’t be all that different from you two monkeys so we are letting you keep them.”
So Catherine and Charlie and their monkeys lived happily and noisily ever after.
I love the No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed book and that inspired the detail about the beds. Well, my kids jump on the bed all the time as well so that was part of it too. Curious George is also a popular character around here. If you have children who are willing to sit for a longer read aloud, Mr. Popper’s Penguins is worth considering. It describes what happens to a family when Mr. Popper is gifted a penguin. The book is a classic. The movie was fun too and much more current.
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