Beneath the Wraps

         My mom had given Jenna a pillow pet for Christmas seven years ago.   Jenna loved that pillow pet and treated it as though it were a living breathing creature.   I had recently been reminded of this when I read about her first day back to school after the new year.             Before she left the house, she had made me promise that I'd watch her pillow pet (Fudge) and told me what movies it liked to watch and what kind of game it (he) liked to play.   I had actually placed "Fudge" back in her room with a coloring book and crayons.   I decided it would fall asleep and continue to "nap" until she got home.   I did not play games with it (him).           When I shared this experience on facebook one commenter suggested that I shift things around a bit, mess up the room and tell her that Fudge did it and she would have to...

When Jenna turned three, we bought her a play yard set which I have mentioned here and here .   Before that, she used her imagination, making the broken lounge chair her slide and the Norditrack Glider her swing – unless we were at the park.`  Jenna was always so excited to spend time with friends or to go to birthday parties.   She especially enjoyed the company of a cousin she would see only once or twice a year.   She was especially looking forward to seeing her the year Melody turned eight.   Jenna had hoped to spend more time with Melody after her party, but as I mentioned in this post , there seemed to be some behavior problems on Melody’s end. Evidently, she had purchased a kindle or an I-pad or some kind of electronic device.   She had earned all the money herself and was quite proud of her new purchase.   Perhaps that was one of the downfalls of her attitude that day; the party had taken away precious time she could have...

Her last day of school was Thursday.  But yesterday she wanted to PLAY school - with real tests and real homework.  She wrote a story about aliens eating her homework.  I like the story this story that I found.  She wrote it last year. The Shoe and the Sock By Jenna One short evening sock and shoe met.   Sock asked, “Are you shoe?” Shoe said the same. Sock said, “Why do I always have to smell you?   You smell!” And shoe said, “Well you smell, too.” “I do NOT!!” said sock, “You do.” “No, you do.” “Getting angry won’t help,” said sock They decided to switch places. They said they would switch for a week. For a while they were living the life. Sock had become more popular as no one had ever seen her as a shoe before Shoe started becoming more popular as no one had ever seen a shoe worn under a sock before. Then things started going wrong.   Sock started getting holes and shoe felt   uncomfortable with a sock cover...

As a child, I was pretty much on the gullible side – or perhaps just wanted so much to believe in the unreal that I tried to make it real. I recall an Easter when my Aunt Alice purchased two white bunnies.   She gave the bunnies to the children of her two brothers.   Patrick and I called ours “Pinky” (though Patrick himself most likely didn’t have anything to do with the naming; it sounds like I came up with the name and forced him to go along) and Kevin and Michelle named their rabbit “Greenfeet” or so I believed. I was fascinated by both Dr. Seuss “Horton” stories – in the latter, the egg hatched at the end of the story and out came a bird that had Horton’s head.   How fascinating.   I wondered if it would work on rabbits as well.   It doesn’t. Never mind that Pinky was only three or four weeks, totally uncooperative and wouldn’t sit on the egg unless I was holding her on top of it (or him.   I don’t think I really knew if Pink...

          I don’t know how often Roland has asked the following question to various people: “What is the only mammal that cannot jump?”             The answer is, “an elephant.”           Whether it is accurate or not isn’t relevant – not to this post anyway.   Corey liked the title “Elephants Can’t Jump” and thought he would use it for a future post – although he didn’t know what.   I imagined some profound analogy that had nothing to do with elephant at all, but would leave his readers thinking, “What a great post.” as his posts are usually quite thought provoking.           This is neither great nor profound.   Needed fun to lighten up the mood from many of my most recent posts. I had memorized Eletelephony by Laura Elizabeth Richards .   It’s a fun lit...

          I have given my daughter the nickname  Anne Shirley . Jenna does not have red hair, but she does have an overactive imagination and is very theatrical.           The first homework assignment she brought home for her English class was a list of simple sentences to be rewritten with added reasons.  For example: The girl cried.   Rewritten: The girl cried because . . . .  Her average classmate may have written:  The girl cried because she was sad.  The girl cried because she couldn’t go outside.  The girl cried because her ice cream was gone.           But leave it to my Jenna to go on and on with more words than just one sentence.  The girl cried because she couldn’t complete her surprise project because she had run out of red ink before she could finish the fairy-angel’s wings and so ...

          I recently assisted at the book fair at Jenna’s school.   Jenna really wanted me to buy her a purple eraser shaped like a lap top.   I knew it would be a waste of money, but she demonstrated great behavior for the two hours we were there and so I wanted to reward her. Scholastic offered a “buy one get one free” on all merchandise.   And so I made a purchase for a much needed pencil sharpener and got the eraser for free.   It broke as she was removing it from the package.   “No problem.” She said as she proceeded to fix it.   After a couple of times of disconnecting and repairing, a piece fell off making it “unrepairable”   You would think her best friend had just been run over by a semi the way she carried on. (At least I would hope she would display the same devastation for an actual human being that she did for that stupid eraser – which actually does NOT erase) So this mo...

all written by my daughter Jenna Shilo The sun was shining and Shilo was exploring.   We wanted to go on a picnic.   We had everything we needed but we couldn’t find Shilo. But Shilo was at the pond.   But they didn’t see him.   He was chasing the duck and swimming. He had a great time and had lots of fun.   Shilo came back and we had the picnic.   The end The Magic Chocolate Box Once there was a chocolate box. But it wasn’t any chocolate box.   It was a magic box.   Each time a person took a chocolate one appeared in its place.   And always fresh.   It was a heart shaped box.   Kids fight over it a lot.   [There was] Milk chocolate. There was semi-sweet and major mint and lots of others.   There were always 20 chocolates.   A wise wizard carved the box and gave it away to a kind family [with] two kids and [and the] one to take care of them.   Their father had died when they were three. ...