Me: "We can't have a real monkey. Why do you want a monkey anyway?"
Miss N: "(A)Laddin has a monkey!"
Me: "Yeah but his monkey was wild and probably diseased. You don't want a diseased monkey."
My Aunt: "Why don't you ask Santa for something from another movie...like 'Beauty and the Beast'?"
Miss N: "Yeah! I want a beast!!"
Aunt: "I was thinking like a teapot but what the hell, I'm not Santa this year."
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This is a conversation my aunt and my daughter had earlier this week after my daughter told anyone who would listen that she wanted a monkey from Santa Claus. She first said this in mid-November and I figured it would pass and some other nifty toy would catch her fancy so I ignored her request for a monkey. Then after Thanksgiving her mom told her to think about what she wanted Santa to bring her (for real) and she stood firm on her demand for a monkey. Last week she started telling EVERYONE we came into contact with that Santa was gonna bring her a monkey; Starbucks baristas, Target cashiers, kids in the waiting room of the doctors office. I am not sure if she seriously wants a monkey or if she just figures that if she sets the bar that high and makes us feel bad enough for not getting her one, she can get whatever else she wants, (she's 2 but she's also my kid and I was known to do stuff like this at her age). And you know what...it just may work. I'm on the verge of taking her into a Toys 'R Us (or a Babies 'R Us cuz I hear they have a game of Scrabble made out of all chocolate and I want it) and telling her to pick something, ANYTHING for Santa to bring her that isn't a monkey. I know you're thinking, 'Can't you just get her a stuffed monkey?' and no, I can't cuz she specified she wants a real live monkey (I blame the zoo for this). On the upside, she has now convinced my 3-year-old nephew that he would also like a real live monkey so my sister now has the same problem as me. One friend suggested I should tell her that Santa doesn't speak English very well and her request for a monkey got lost in translation (I like this train of thought but I'm gonna save it and whip it out later on in her childhood when I really need it). So here we are a week before she's gonna go see Santa and tell him what she wants and hoping she sees a commercial for something we can actually get her or comes into contact with a friend who has some super cool new toy that she would also like to have. Time is running short on this one. Good news is that the tree is up and she does not seem at all interested in pulling any ornaments off of it or messing with it in any way. One battle down, one to go.
