Monkeys in the house!!!!!

Today is Saturday, February 27, 2010. We got back to South Africa late Tuesday night. All of our luggage arrived with us. The girls were pretty good on the planes. We were able to get bulkhead on the long flight and that always helps. At least we don’t have anyone in front of us that the girls can bother. And there is a little more room. Sofia slept a few hours. Sienna slept almost 7 hours. On Wednesday, they didn’t go to school because I knew they would be tired. I went into the office for about ½ day and Mavis watched them.

Thursday and Friday we were back to normal at work and school. Everyone was happy to see them at school. All the little kids ran up to them and surrounded them. They were trying to hold their hands. Sofia didn’t want to stay and cried quite a bit on Thursday. She was better on Friday and just teared up a little. Thursday afternoon after school, the girls and I went to the nearby movie theater to see Princess and the Frog. It is pretty cheap to go to the movies here. I think I spent less than 10 dollars and bought our tickets, popcorn and juice. They enjoyed it. They had already seen it before leaving the US.

Today, we didn’t do much. I just wanted to stay around the house and rest because we are all still pretty tired from the time difference and long trip. It was rainy most of the day. We only went to the grocery store, the Mica (like Home Depot) and got gas for the lawnmower. We came home and were in the back part of the house. I heard a bang and went into the living room. I didn’t see anything so I went back into the back. The girls were being quiet and playing. Then I heard a “ooo oooo ooo”. I went to the kitchen and there were 3 monkeys in the kitchen. They were eating our bananas. They dropped one and left a big mess of peels. They ran out. I called the girls to come and see. The monkeys hopped out the top part of the door (the door has two parts- you can close the bottom and leave the top half open). They sat outside on the wall and clothesline watching us. The girls were so excited. The banana they dropped had already been bitten into so I took it outside and put it on the ground. And one of them came and got it. He sat there eating it on top of the clothesline pole just staring at us. I went to get my camera and they were already trying to come back in the house for the apples and other fruit. For the longest time afterwards, they sat in the avocado tree near the kitchen and just watched us. I guess they were waiting for us to leave so they could come back in.

I guess I will have to be careful from now on and not leave the door open so much. Now that they know they can get in, they will be trying to get in all the time. One of them was pretty big. When he stood up, we came to my waist. The other two were smaller. Of course they had the blue balls. And Sofia was talking about their “blue toys” hanging on them.

They girls talked about it the rest of the afternoon. Sofia said “Mom, I guess we need to put a sign on the door saying- NO BANANAS, DON’T COME IN MONKEYS”. It was so cute.

Sofia seems like she is getting sick again. She is losing her voice a little and her eyes look a little red. I just hope she doesn’t get sick like last time. Maybe it is just the traveling and germs she picked up on the airplane.

Apart from the monkeys, the ants are just horrible. I constantly battle them. They go everywhere. They are only the little ones. And they usually are sparse and not the long lines. But they drive me nuts. Then on Thursday night, we had a long millipede in the house. I was trying to get it before the girls saw it. But Sofia kept stepping around it and she didn’t know it. I finally had to tell her to look down and get back. I think she jumped 3 feet in the air and started screaming. She asked why the “worm had spikes on it”. I took it out and tried to squash it but it was pretty tough. Not sure if I killed it because the next morning it was gone- but that could have been because of the big ants took it away. They devour anything left outside. Already today when the banana peels were on the ground, they had started running towards them.

Then on Thursday at work, there was a little baby snake in front of my office door. It was so tiny we couldn’t tell what kind it was. But it had me worried because if there is one baby, there are probably more.

The girls have been carrying around their Billy Ray Cyrus CD cover for the past couple of days. They are so funny.

Other than our excitement around the monkeys and other critters, life is back to normal here. The girls have had their KFC already. They love the popcorn chicken. They play with their Barbies and have been dressing up like princesses. All is well. We miss everyone back home.

In the States

A brief break in my blogging while I was in the States. Gary, my dad, passed away January 30th and the girls and I had to rush back to the States. We stayed there until February 22nd. He will be so greatly missed. May you rest in peace!