Kade and the Sock Monkey Factory

I have been super busy the past couple weeks in my one-person sock monkey factory. It is a happy, magical place, mostly, except when something (i.e. tripping over remote controlled R2D2) unexpected happens and arms, tails, ears, and bodies go flying everywhere. Luckily no important body parts (are there any unimportant ones??) were lost, and all the sock monkeys were able to be put together without any missing pieces. Here are a few of them:





Those were all custom orders! I am almost done with two more, that I haven't taken photos of yet- one for my nephew's baby shower this weekend, and one to (finally!) put in the shop. Besides that, there are quite a few more in the beginning stages, waiting to be stuffed and sewn!

Sock monkeys take a lot of work to make, at least the way I make them (I am very focused on little details, and somewhat of a perfectionist...). It's been a little non-stop over here for a while, and I began to realize that when Kade started giving me advice the other day...

Kade- "Lets buy that wooden mailbox toy with all the letters, the same one that my teacher has!"

Me- "Sorry honey, we don't have any extra money in the budget right now for toys."

Kade- "Hmm. Well, maybe you just need to make more sock monkeys then, huh!"

then yesterday:

Me- "Holy cow, that fifteen minute doctor appointment cost five hundred and seventy five dollars!!!"

Kade- "Just make some more sock monkeys, mom! Sheesh! Learn your lesson yet?"

Apparently, sock monkeys are the answer to all my problems. Who knew?! We have been talking to Kade a lot recently about how mommy and daddy have to work so that we can have a place to live, have a car, have food to eat, etc. and it suddenly clicked with Kade that you need money to buy things. Now he isn't quite as upset that daddy can't get home until close to bedtime, because he understands that daddy is working so hard every day for our benefit.

Kade is trying to think of ways to earn money himself, so he can buy that toy he wants. Yesterday when I was using hand sanitizer + magic eraser (hey, it works!) to get rid of dry erase marker stains on the whiteboard, Kade said, "hey... I bet Grandma doesn't know that trick. I bet I can sell it to her!" and then he wiggled his eyebrows and tapped his fingertips together with a very sly giggle. He wants to sell cleaning tips! So funny.

He also made me a video. It's one of his favorite things to do lately. You can tell by watching this that our house really has been a sock monkey factory, at least in his eyes. (Oh, and I don't know why the video looks so strange... I think he was using the Eiffel Tower background effect, which doesn't work too well unless you are in front of a plain wall or sheet or something.)

Anyways, here is a prime example of Kade sweetness:





Now, it's back to the factory for me! I can't wait! :)