Author: Kris Baker

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A Month of Me – Day 16

I think that The Lady and I may be in trouble with Mr. Guy.  Today was The Lady’s first day of vacation.  This day was way different than any day we have had in a long time!  First of all, The Lady was home all day.  I can’t remember the last time that happened.  I think because we were home all day Mr. Guy thought we might do some laundry and clean up some.  I have lots of t-shirts that need to be washed and put back on hangers.  There is monster fur on the floor that needed to be vacuumed.   The refrigerator needs to be cleaned out.  There may be some things in there that are orange and blue that aren’t really supposed to be those colors.  We need to get rid of them.  We could have done any or all of these things today, but we didn’t.  The Lady and I had a real vacation day!  We took a nap and The Lady showed me how to play games on her iPad.  That was lots of fun!  But it was kind of strange.  We had just finished lunch and we started to play the games.  I looked at the clock ten minutes later and it was time for Mr. Guy to come home from school.  I don’t know what those games do to the clock!  It happened again tonight.  We finished dinner and ten minutes later it was midnight. The Lady said she doesn’t understand what the games do to the clock either.  Maybe we’ll have to play again tomorrow to see if we can figure it out!

Mr. Guy snuck up behind us and took our picture.  I think that was during some of the time that disappeared while we were playing!  Boy were we busy!!!

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A Month of Me – Day 15

Since we had a big adventure yesterday, today we stayed home, but I still got to do some new stuff.  First, I got to wear one of my new t-shirts that we got at Target a few weeks ago.  The Lady picked this one out because she likes the guy on the front.  Well, its not really the guy that she likes, she likes how he is built.  Wait, I don’t think that sounds right either.  I give up.  The guy on my shirt is a Lego guy.  I found out today that The Lady has lots of Lego guys.  Some even look like the guy on my shirt…if you get all of their parts in the right places.  They are astronauts, people who go to outer space.

Mr. Guy told me that when he was growing up, people flew in rockets into space all the time. He remembers when a guy named Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon for the first time. That was way back in 1969.  That was a long time ago!  I’ve seen the moon when I have been outside at night in my backyard and it does not look big enough for a rocket ship and a man to stand on.  Mr Guy says the moon is really a long way away.   Really it is big.  It took three whole days for Astronaut Armstrong and his friend Astronaut Buzz Aldrin to get to the moon. That is why it looks so small from here! Mr Guy even got to meet an Astronaut once. That was Astronaut Alan Shepard. Astronaut Shepard was the first American to go into space.  He went to the moon once too! Astronaut Shepard wrote a book about his life and was in Dallas signing copies of it for people. This is how Mr. Guy got to meet an astronaut.  He went and got a copy of his book!  Mr. Guy read some of it to me tonight.  He says that over the summer maybe we can read the whole thing together!


I wonder if the guy on my shirt is Mr. Armstrong or Mr. Shepard.
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A Month of Me – Day 14

Saturdays are usually chore day at our house because its the only day that Mr. Guy and The Lady have to clean and do laundry and buy groceries.  Today was different.  Since The Lady is all done with school, she can do all of those things on Monday.  So, today wasn’t chore day; it was adventure day!  That made me happy so I decided to wear my “happy” shirt.  And it is yellow!!!  In all of my wondering this week about how my blue and orange fur would look with the color yellow, I forgot that I already had something yellow!  I don’t think it crashes clashes.  Yellow is a happy color just like my shirt says.  It makes me happy and going on adventures with The Lady and Mr. Guy makes me happy!  Today I am a happy little monster!


Lots of times when we go on adventures that require flying on an airplane, we have to get up very early.  No airplanes today.  We weren’t going too far from our house so we went in the car and we didn’t have to get up until eight o’clock!  This little monster got lots of sleep last night!  We were going to a place called Heritage Homestead to meet some special friends of The Lady and Mr. Guy.  It took us about an hour and a half to drive there.  

The first thing we did was eat lunch.  The restaurant was super busy so we had to eat sort of quickly.  The Lady did not take time to take any pictures at lunch, but Mr. Guy and I did share a piece of orange cake.  I think it was made of carrots.  After lunch, we went to see all of the fun stuff.  Heritage Homestead is a craft village where people make all kinds of things.  
The first thing we saw was a blacksmith.

It was kind of scary watching the blacksmith.  He put pieces of metal into a big fire.  The metal got so hot that it turned bright orange.  That may be one kind of orange that I don’t like!  The blacksmith guy liked it though.  While the metal was orange, the blacksmith guy used his tools to twist and turn and fold the hot metal into hooks and all kinds of neat things.  I liked watching him, but I don’t think I would want to work with the metal and the fire.  I would be scared that my fur would catch on fire, and I don’t think it would turn more orange if it did.
Next we went to the gristmill.  I didn’t know anything about gristmills, but there were people working there who explained what a gristmill is.  They take grains and grind them to make flour.  
I liked this place because it was about making food.  I like food!  I like to make it and I like to eat it.
We bought some oats for our breakfasts.
The next place we went was to the fiber building.  That was a place where they had lots of sticks and string.  The people there twisted the sticks and string just like the blacksmith did except they did not use any fire.  The Lady knows how to twist string with sticks.  This place had string in lots of colors.  
Hey look!  They have string that has blue and orange and yellow all at the same time!  It matches me!
I have an idea!  The Lady can get some of this string and use her sticks to make me a hat!  I bet she can make a hat with some air holes for my horns!  I bet our friend Ms. Joni would like this place.  She is one of The Lady’s friends who likes to play with sticks and string.  I think you should come visit us in Texas, Ms. Joni.  Or, maybe we can find a string store when we see you this summer in Pittsburgh. If The Lady won’t make me a hat with air holes for my horns, will you?
I learned that some of the string comes from plants and some of it comes from animals like these.
I think that they should be called string monsters, but they are called sheep.  That doesn’t make any sense.  They were fuzzy, but they didn’t have any colorful sheep like make the string at the string shop.  I want to see a fuzzy rainbow sheep!
This place did have lots of flowers in all the colors of the rainbow.
Look!  More yellow with lots of orange!  I think that I am beginning to like yellow too!  Not as much as blue and orange, though.
And they had great big shade trees.
Since I don’t have a hat, I sat in the shade of the tree so that my head didn’t get baked.  Mr. Guy was wearing his hat so his head didn’t get baked.  That was OK because I don’t think that hat is the right hat for me. 
The last place we went was to a house where people take mud and make dishes with it.  They put it on a merry-go-round and instead of getting dizzy it becomes a bowl, or a vase, or a cup.  A cup!  They had made lots of cups.  Maybe the Dallas Stars should come here where they could each get their own cup since they didn’t win the big cup.  If they really, really, really, just want one great big cup, they can get one of those here too.
After we saw all of this neat stuff, it was time to say goodbye to our friends and head home.
I had a super fun adventure day!  I saw lots of things that I have never seen before.  I am looking forward to more adventures and more new people on our summer adventures!

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A Month of Me – Day 13

Thank goodness it’s Friday!  And it’s The Lady’s last day of school for this school year.  And it’s the end of another school week for Mr. Guy.  Mr. Guy and I spent some time in the garden this afternoon looking at the baby magnolias that have been born.  I forgot to take pictures of them.  I will try to remember to do that tomorrow.  We talked about our day.  We shared a Diet Coke.  I like the message on Mr. Guy’s soda bottle.  And, Mr. Guy told me that tomorrow we are going on an adventure so I need to get to sleep early so that I am all rested up!  I hope I have lots of interesting things to tell you about when I get home tomorrow!

For now, good night!

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A Month of Me – Day 12

Today was the last day of school for The Lady!  Yay!  She came home early to finish grading her last exams so that she would be completely done for ther semester. Mr Guy came home at the usual time; it is not his last day of school.  Just like last night,  they left right away.

The Lady was playing music for something called graduation.  I learned three things today! When someone goes to school for a while and finishes lots of classes, they graduate. That means there is a big ceremony for them. They give everyone who has finished a fancy piece of paper called diploma. It is a paper that says they are finished. And you can get more than one of these diplomas. All this school stuffl is too hard for this blue and orange monster to figure out. It seems to me that finished means done, all done, forever. The Lady explained that there are lots of levels of school. You can get a diploma for each level! 

Second, I learned that The Lady not only sings, but she plays a musical instrument called a clarinet. I knew she played the piano. I often spend my days in the office where the piano is and have heard her play. She doesn’t play her clarinet much at home. Last weekend I heard something funny.  I think she might have been playing it in our library. But I was not in there and did not see it so I wasn’t sure what those sounds were. I know now, but I still have not seen her clarinet.

The third thing I learned was that when you graduate, you get special clothes! They are not t-shirts.  I like my t-shirts. They are called rigamarole or something like that.  The Lady has a black robe with funny looking arms and something she called a hood.  This all sounds like something a nerdy superhero might wear. The Lady let me try on her hood. It did not seem like much of a hood to me. I could not put it on my head! It went on my shoulders. 


The Lady said that the color of the hood tells people what you took all those classes in while you were in school.   Hers is pink because she went to school to study music. Pink really clashes with my orange fur!   I don’t think I want to study music!  Mr Guy said his hood was lemon yellow because he studied to be a librarian. I asked what that meant. He said that a librarian is someone who works in a library and deals with lots of books. That sounds fun!  I like books. The other night, when I was thinking about getting a rain hat, I wondered how yellow would look with my fur.  Someday maybe I can go to school and learn how to be a librarian like Mr. Guy and I can get a yellow hood and have a yellow hat too!  Then I would definitely look like a nerdy superhero!

For now though, I guess I’ll just have to be a furry blue and orange monster with lots of t-shirts and no rigamarole.

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A Month of Me – Day 11

Today was another busy day for The Lady and Mr Guy. Like every weekday, they left early to go to school. Mr. Guy surprised me and the four legged monsters by coming home in the middle of the day. I think he was skipping school!  He wasn’t here very long. He came home to let the four legged monsters outside for a few minutes because The Lady was giving tests and couldn’t come home as early as she usually does. Mr. Guy hurried back to school so that he would not get in trouble for skipping school.  He might have to go to the principal’s office or something.

At almost dinner time,  The Lady came home. When Mr Guy came home a little later then  they left again to get dinner.  The four-legged monsters and I just popped open a can of something.  They were both too tired to cook and The Lady had to go to choir re-her-sal. I did not know what that meant. The Lady said she likes to sing. She sings with a group of people at church called the choir. On Wednesdays they practice so they will sound good when they sing on Sunday mornings. I don’t think I have ever heard The Lady sing. Someday I will get to maybe.

While the Lady was at rehearsal, Mr Guy came home because Offspring No.1 is not home and Mr. Guy did not want to leave me and the four legged monsters home alone for even more hours. We all watched TV, something we don’t do very often. The Mr. Guy went to get The Lady. When they came home we watched even more TV.  I saw all kinds of stuff about rain and thunder and lightening and hail.  It was scary.  The TV made me sad, too.  The Dallas Stars lost their hockey game so they won’t get a cup.  They are all going to be very thirsty!  I don’t think I like watching TV.  

I am going to bed now because if the people on TV are telling the truth, I may be waked up in the middle of the night by bad storms.
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A Month of Me – Day 10

This whole hat thing is getting to be serious business!  I told Mr. Guy that I want to wear hats like he does.  He told me that there are different kinds of hats for different occasions.  The other night he was telling me about sun hats.  Really I think they should be called no-sun hats.  He said that he wears different hats in the winter because he doesn’t have any fur to keep his head warm.  I don’t have that problem.  

Tonight I tried on one of his summer hats.  Mr. Guy wears this one to keep the sun from baking his head and turning it red.  I just wanted to try it on.  I like this one a little bit because it fits over my horns.  But, it is the wrong color blue for my fur, don’t you think?  The Lady said something like it crashes with my fur colors.  I don’t think that it looks so bad that people will think that I look like a crash, but I don’t think that I want a hat like this one.  Well, at least not in this color.  The Lady told me that it is going to be hard to find a hat that doesn’t crash and that fits over my horns.  She said that I might have to make some compromises.  Compromises?

Hmmm…The Lady tried to explain compromises to me.  I think it means something like I am probably not going to find the perfect hat I so I should learn to be happy with something close.  Maybe I can do that.  I just don’t want cramped horns or a hat that crashes.

Oh!!!  I just learned about another kind of hat.  Rain hats!  There is lots of rain and thunder and lightening at my house right now.  Mr. Guy went outside to check on stuff.  He told me to stay inside so I didn’t get wet.  If I had a  rain hat, it would keep my fur all nice and dry.  The Lady said that lots of times rain hats are yellow.  Do you think that a yellow hat would crash with my fur???

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A Month of Me – Day 9

Mr. Guy and The Lady have been very busy today.  Mr. Guy said that he spent all day giving a star test.  I didn’t know that he was teaching theater!  I wonder what kind of star he was looking for.  Was it boy star or a girl star?  Could a blue and orange furry monster pass the star test?  I want to be a star like Nicky that I met from Avenue Q!  Mr. Guy said that it was not that kind of test.  Well, that makes me sad.

So then he must testing people on all the stars in the sky.  That would be a hard test!  All those little yellow dots look just the same to me yet they all have funny names.  And why do people need to be tested on all those names anyway?  I have enough trouble remembering the names of all my friends and they all look different and most of them have easy names.   The hard part is remembering which name goes with which face.  Mr. Guy said that he was not giving a test on stars in the sky.

Well then, it must be a test about hockey.  I know that the Dallas Stars play hockey.  I think its kind of strange that Mr. Guy would give a test about The Stars.  He doesn’t know anything about hockey!  I don’t think that he could pass a test about The Dallas Stars.  I know that they are playing a bunch of important games against the ST. Louis Blues so that they can win a cup.  I don’t know what the big deal is about winning a cup.  There will be a lot of germs if all of the Dallas Stars have to drink out of the same cup.  My friend, Mr. Jim, went to see the Stars play hockey on Saturday.  Maybe I can get a Dallas Stars t-shirt and look like I might be able to pass Mr. Guy’s test about the Stars.

What?  Not these Stars either?

I give up!  What kind of stars is his test about?

Mr. Guy said that the test is “The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness.”  For several days that hold everyone at school hostage in a room and make them take this STAAR test.  It sounds like something that a furry blue and orange monster would not like at all!  And, the people giving this test must be kind of like if Mr. Guy was giving the hockey test…how can they be giving a star test when they don’t even know how to spell the word “star”?  Star is not S-T-A-A-R!  it only has one “a” if it is spelled correctly!  Oh well.  I don’t have to worry about this test.  Thank goodness!

Mr. Guy said that his brain was tired so he and I read the news, played a few games, and shopped online.  

I am still looking for the perfect hat.  We looked, but we did not find one.

I wanted to look for some new shirts, but Mr. guy was looking at soap.  His brain really must be tired!    He was so tired that he let me push the buttons on his computer.

The Lady said that she is giving tests this week too, but hers do not have incorrectly spelled names and she does not get locked up in a room every day.  I think if I ever have to take a test, I want to take the kind that The Lady gives instead of The kind that Mr. Guy gives.

Even though they were both tired, they found time to play with me, hold me, and help me write my blog post.  That makes me a happy little monster!



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A Month of Me – Day 8

Today is not about me.  It is a special day to say thank you to The Lady and all of you out there who are mothers or mother figures to blue and orange furry monsters, any kind of other monsters, four-legged children, and two-legged children.  We all hope you know how much we love you even if we don’t always show it.

Happy Mother’s Day!
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A Month of Me – Day 7

Today was much better than yesterday!  Mr. Guy and The Lady did not have to go anywhere until this evening.  We spent all morning sitting on the patio drinking coffee and watching the birds and the squirrels.  Some of those squirrels have as much fur as I do!  None of us needed fur today because it was eighty-five degrees at our house.  I was hot!  I told Mr. Guy that maybe he should take me to the fur cutting shop so that I won’t get so hot when summer really gets here.  He said that he didn’t that that was a good idea because my fur protects me from the sun.  If I got my fur cut off I would have to put sun cream all over me like The Lady does or I will become a red monster instead of a blue and orange monster.  I wouldn’t like that.  I would like to have a hat to protect me from the sun like Mr. Guy has, but my horns make it hard for me to find a hat that fits.  I guess I will just keep my fur.  

Since we were spending the day outside, I put on my “Dirt Shirt” that Ms. Michele gave me when we visited her in Delaware.  It is one of my favorite shirts!  Every time I wear it, I remember our visits.

This afternoon we checked on all of the plants and flowers in our yard.  I didn’t know that we had so many.  It felt like we were at the park.  Lots of our flowers are blue and orange! 

 It makes me happy to look around and see my favorite colors everywhere!  Blue and orange make The Lady happy too.

We also planted a new bluish purple flower.  One of The Lady’s students gave it to her.


Mr. Guy said that it needed to go in our butter flies garden.  I was confused.  I didn’t know that butter could fly!  The Lady had lots of butter out last night while she was making all that bread.  It didn’t fly.  It stayed right on the counter where she put it until it was time to go in the big whirly machine.  Maybe that’s when it flies.  The whirly machine makes it go round and round.  The Lady explained that we were not talking about flying butter, but insects that are called butterflies.  She said that they have pretty colors on their wings and that some of them are even blue and orange.  I hope that these butterfly things like our flowers and will come stay in our garden.  I would like to see one of them.

Mr. Guy picked me up to show me a pretty white flower.  I can’t remember its name…something about magazines and oil, I think.


It is on a big bush.  Mr. Guy also showed me all the baby flowers that have not been born yet.  He said that in a few days they will be born and the bush will have lots more of these pretty white flowers all over it.

After we were done investigating the garden, Mr. Guy and I had to rest!  Playing in the dirt is hard work!