it’s Motherday today so mission number one today is to make sure Pami, my wife, has all the peace she deserves. Benji is therefore going to spent the entire day with his monkey dad. Right now he’s up in our bedroom together with me, jumping from my shoulders to the bed and the dresser. He’s leaping 7 feet with ease with these jumps and does it at a speed most people without monkeys would not be able to comprehend.
Remember how Benji used to have nose bleeds? That stopped a few months ago. We used humidifiers for a while but that didn’t really seem to make that much of a difference. I guess the nosebleeds just slowly went away.
By now we have locks on nearly all drawers and cabinets. In the bathroom the baby proof locks we first used didn’t really work out very well since he was still able to pull certain small items out so I ended up installing magnetic locks with seal the cabinet doors completely. It’s truly near impossible to monkey proof an entire house because monkeys truly like to get into everything. Everything you said? Yes everything! As I mentioned to my wife earlier this week, eventually there will be nothing left to break in our house and that’s how our house became monkey proof. Oh yeah and Benji is now also able to open up doors. He’s figured out that if he hangs on the doorknob and swings left and right that many times the door suddenly unlocks. He’s not an expert at it yet but he’s getting better at it.
New since this week is that he no longer wants to sleep in his sleep cage. He’s a big boy now and big boys sleep in their own room of course. It was a little getting used to for us monkey parents because he would basically sleep in the same room in a sleeping cage (basically a large bird cage) right next to the bed. He used to jump right in to that cage after his last bottle. I always had to hurry up and prepare his bed (put a blanket in it) or he would just jump in it to go to sleep. He still sleeps with his plush monkeys and has a collection of 3 now.
Today I just ordered his first monkey diapers. I just learned through a video about the tail wrapping diapering technique which seems better (and easier) then cutting a hole in the diaper. The problem with the hole in the diaper is that it could potentially leak if his poop is not solid enough = gross! For those who wonder, yes diapering by itself is super easy but diapering a monkey can definitely be very challenging. He definitely doesn’t like the diapering process but has never tried to take his diaper off. The goal of diaper covers is to prevent monkeys from trying to take their diaper off. I just felt it was time for him to get accommodated to that process so it won’t be a big deal once it truly becomes necessary.
Benji also still likes to play with the cats but the cats don’t think it’s all that funny that he bites their ears while jumping on them. When he’s really tired he’ll cuddle up with Jack (one of our older 3 legged cats) and that’s the only time they truly get along. He truly has too much energy for them.
Yesterday was also the first time it was really nice weather outside which allowed me to spent some time with Benji outside. While I’m pretty sure he would stay with me, I now keep him on a leash when I go outside. During the time I spent with Benji, he nicely stayed put in my neck while holding onto my hair. I worked in the yard, walked with him, and even sat down in the grass but Benji decided he wasn’t going to budge. I do think he enjoyed the outdoors although big birds do scare him.
Diet wise a lot has changed as well over the last few months. We still feed him 4 bottles a day but he also enjoys his solids a lot as well. This morning I cut up apples, grapes, corn, carrots, and I also gave him 2 peanuts and a monkey biscuit. While he always has water at his disposal, he actually prefers chocolate milk or pepsi. We try to keep the Pepsi away from him as much as possible but he’s sometimes with his head in our glass before we know it. He also eats from my plate at dinner time and truly enjoys noodles or meat like chicken. Yes he makes a mess but that’s something you can expect from a monkey.
Oh and he lost a tooth last week! I didn’t even realize that monkeys also have baby teeth at first.