Who Moved My Cheese?

Next on VH1 Behind The Music: Growing Up Monkey...the JTall Story

Cheese is a constant in this house. Not just cheese, mind you, but cheesesticks. They're the perfect snack, really: easily grippable by little fingers...and even at its stringiest, not likely to make too big a mess. Plus, you know, calcium! and protein! The reigning favorite is the twistums (the yellow and white kind)...but it used to be plain-jane (read: boring) white mozzarella sticks.

The Monkey loved cheesesticks from the time he was able to wrap his nubby little fingers around one and gnaw bits of it off....and even before he was talking in earnest, he could say the word "cheese!" -- generally in the slightly panicked tone of an addict looking for a fix: "Cheese?! Cheese?!"

So one day, we were all upstairs doing...whatever we were doing. One of us was on the computer...the other was milling around...the Monkey was entertaining himself by dismantling the linen closet upstairs and playing in the secret spot under the bottom shelf. It was a rare moment in those days when we could actually get something done without one or the other of us having to entertain the child. Ahhh...bliss!

Then suddenly, I hear the Monkey making really excited sounds. I was going to go investigate, but before I could even get up he came thud-thud-thudding into the spare bedroom nearly squealing "Cheese!?!! Cheese!!!? Cheese!!!!!"


...and he handed me a tampon.