Happy Donkey, Monkey Sunshine, and Butterflies to Chase

When Cal was just starting to talk well, he once asked me in the car to, "Play Happy Donkey, Mom!" I could not decipher what in the world Happy Donkey might mean. Finally I realized it wasn't a game he wanted to play, but a particular song from one of the kid CDs while driving, but I still couldn't understand which one it was. After several guesses, a couple minor tantrums and more insistence on his part, we finally figured out that it was "Humpty Dumpty!" And for the next few months, "Play Happy Donkey" became kind of our family code for playing that particular CD of nursery rhymes and songs, Calvin's favorite for the time being. Henry was maybe one year old at the time, and definitely not talking yet.

We haven't mentioned Happy Donkey for a while now, but somehow, Henry has picked up the phrase as a filler for whenever he wants to say real words but has nothing in particular to say. "Happy donkey, happy donkey," he sings. "Yous a happy donkey," he giggles and points. "Happy DONKEY!!!" he shouts just to hear his own voice. The funny thing about it is that when he first took up the phrase a few days ago, I could not place where I had heard it before or what it originally meant. And I find it exceptional that it has pretty much been out of the family vocab since before Henry was talking, but he somehow remmebered it and it surfaced in his language. Fascinating to me.

The other words that he apparently likes the sound of is a name of a teenage daughter in a family new to our ward (congregation). Both her first name and last name being with "M" and have "S"s in the middle, which apparently thrills Henry, because he was singing softly the other day while playing with his legos and when I went closer to see what the words were, it was Miss M's name, over and over and over. Very adorable.

A couple days ago, I was feeling pretty good about life and parenting and my little boys. Kinda like I was coming out of the fog - we were communicating, they were getting easier to take around to places, I could understand what triggered certain behaviors and overall we were having fun. Some time ago when I felt similarly, the phrase "Monkey Sunshine" came to mind. No idea where it came from, but I felt like it described the mix of chaos and happiness that most days are around here. Today I am not so sure we're in any kind of sunshine (Calvin fell and gouged his gum - almost broke a tooth; I went outside to check if Auntie S had left her cell phone in my car and the boys locked me out of the house...), but things are good. Looking around, there's not much I would change...

I am going to be "busy" until Monday or so, so I wanted to send you on your way with some good links...I read two posts fairly recently that were about the little moments that we hang onto when times get tough. So if you feel like chasing blog butterflies, and haven't noticed Daring Young Mom's Reasons or Pam's (JUST a Mom - one of my new faves!) post last Sunday, they are wonderful reminders of all the things that make life sweet - I call them moments of heaven that help us know earth is worthwhile.

And if you missed this hilariously familiar scenario about earth actually coming to an end, click on over to Rhythmless's place.

If you feel like being a good Samaritan, you could help me figure out why my blog looks just fine in Mozilla and rather craptacular in Explorer (the sidebar is all the way down below the posts and some of the HTML is showing, which is worse than a bra strap hanging out, as far as I'm concerned...) - any ideas how to fix it so it looks good in both browsers? Or do I just need to start singing Mozilla's praises so everyone will switch?

If all this and the other 62 blogs on your Bloglines plus your real lives don't keep you satisfactorily occupied enough for the next five days, I'm mulling over thoughts about bigotry and tolerance, how those ideas fit in with your religious beliefs and/or being an American, and especially teaching children tolerance, courtesy and love for others while maintaining personal standards of conduct. Yes, even at age three that kind of thing comes up. If you've posted about this already or have on opinion on this, tell me about it in the comments. I'd love to know your thoughts and perspectives! We'll talk more later...

Finally, here's a pic my friend (who visited from Estonia last week) took of the boys at the Einstein Statue. It's one of my favorite monuments - made from pennies donated by school children.

Have a fabulous rest of the week and a wonderful autumn weekend.

Word.