How the monkey got her name...

A very tiny Tanya came to our family at age 6 and quickly earned her nickname because:

• She liked to climb on our backs and cling to us like a baby monkey.

• She loved bananas and ate them by the bunch; her record was 8 at one sitting. 

• She has always made the best monkey face of anyone I know!

Oh, we've tried out other nicknames for this girl, especially now that she's a sassy teenager...







and she's so grown up that she's carrying our youngest around...






but she'll always be my monkey.



That's why I baked her this cake for her 14th birthday. I smiled to myself the whole time I worked on it, anticipating the smile it would bring to her face. I even added a banana phone and a 14 candle crown for our monkey princess!

Here's the smile...and it got even bigger when she found out the cake had banana cream filling inside.

Happy birthday, sweet girl (AKA Daddy's Brown Eyed Girl, Miss Sassypants, Lemur Pie). As I'm sure Will Shakespeare meant to write, "A monkey by any other name would still love bananas..."