5 Little Monkeys

We have two books in the "Five Little Monkeys" series. Elias really enjoys these books; I, however, tend to think of them as the "Bad Parenting" series.

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed is the typical story of how 5 little monkeys jump on the bed. One falls off and bumps his head. Mama calls the doctor and the doctor says, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed." Well, Mama continues to allow each of her monkeys to jump on the bed until every one gets hurt. Once they have all fallen off the bed, she decides it is time to jump on her bed. Really great lesson.

Elias' new favorite book is Five Little Monkeys Bake a Birthday Cake. This story is about a Mama monkey's birthday. Mama is asleep in bed with some very good earplugs. Her 5 little monkeys proceed to get all of the ingredients for a cake, mix it together, bake it in the oven, and use saws and hammers to make a birthday present without waking up Mama ("Shhh...don't wake up Mama"). The cake drips in the oven, so the fire department comes. Luckily (or unluckily depending on how you look at it...maybe the series could then be over), the house doesn't burn down. The fireman and little monkeys sing Happy Birthday to Mama (Elias loves to sing Happy Birthday at this part). Of course, Mama's birthday isn't until tomorrow, so the little monkeys scheme to do it again tomorrow. I can't deny that it would be nice to sleep through some of the things Elias gets into, but unfortunately even though he loves the, "Shhh...don't wake up Mama" part of the book, it doesn't seem to carry over into real life. Couldn't we get at least something good out of these horrible books? No such luck.