Monkey Excitement

Steve took Lily to the dollar store in Vernal and purchased a monkey toy that grows in the water. The toy grows gradually and takes about 2 days to reach it's full size. Then it's supposed to gradually shrink back down after you take it out of the water. So we gave it a shot. Lily and Amara loved looking at the toy in the water. It grew and grew over 2 days time, but it started looking more like a mutant than a monkey. The ears grew very large, as did the arms and hands. The face didn't really ever grow, so it became squished up and swollen looking (Lily said, "hey, how come his eyes disappeared?"). The water became murky after a day, so I changed out the water and the next day the monkey-mutant began to look really sick as the paint cracked into a million cracks and flaked off in random spots. The legs didn't ever grow, they just soaked up water and began to disintegrate. I pulled the monkey from the water and sat him on the window sill hoping he'd dry out and return to look somewhat normal. A few hours later, when no one was looking, I threw it in the trash. Steve came home later that evening and asked, "Where's the monkey?" I didn't know he was watching it grow too. Lily told him that he's sick and sitting in the sun on the window sill. I said, "Yah. The monkey is sick." and pointed to the trash. He was disappointed. I wish I had saved it a few more hours.