When Harley was first learning to use the potty we had a hard time getting her to sit on a potty in public long enough to go. (She was used to having books to read) So we started making up stories. I would make up most of the story but I would pause at points and let her name characters or places. I started making a story about a little bunny. I let Harley name the bunny. She named her Emily Apancha Dude. We have now made up Three Emily Apancha Dude stories. Harley loves them so much I decided to blog them so that hopefully they will not be forgotten.
Here is one of three stories:
Once upon a time there was a little bunny named Emily Apancha Dude. Emily loved to swim. One morning she woke up and hopped down the stairs, hop, hop, hop, and said, "Mooooooooommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, can we plllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeease go swimming today?". Emily's mommy said not now Emily, I have to clean house this morning. You go play out side and after lunch we can go to the lake. " Emily was very excited and went outside to play. She played on her swing set, in the sandbox, in her baby pool. She really wanted to go swimming at the lake. Her mom called her in for lunch and told her they would go to the lake after lunch. She ate all of her carrots, all of her broccoli, all of her peas and even her celery. Then she hopped, hopped, hopped up the stairs, changed into her swim suit and went back to her mom. They hopped hopped hopped down the drive way, hopped, hopped, hopped, out the gate, and hopped, hopped, hopped, all the way to the lake. When they got there Emily's mommy sat down in a chair and Emily went straight to the lake. She jumped in, and started swimming. She swam all over the lake. Then she saw the diving board. She was SO excited. She hopped, hopped, hopped over to the diving board, climbed, climbed, climbed, up the the ladder and bounced, one....two.....three....SPLASH. Then she swam, swam, swam over to the edge of the lake, hopped, hopped, hopped over to the diving board. Climbed, climbed, climbed up the ladder, and bounced. One.....Two.....Three.....SPLASH. She did this over and over, until her mom said it was time to go. Emily said" Noooo, please mommy can't we stay?" Mommy said, "No, honey, we have to go home I have to get dinner ready. " They hopped home and Emily was sent upstairs to change clothes. Then she slowly hopped, hopped, hopped, down the stairs and out side to play. She played on the swings, in the sand box, and with her bubbles. All she wanted to do though was swim at the lake. So she very quietly hopped, hopped, hopped up the stairs, tip-toed, tip-toed, tip-toed to the closet, and put on her swim suit. Then she tip-toed, tip-toed, tip-toed down the stairs, tip-toed, tip-toed, tip-toed out the door, hopped hopped, hopped, slowly to the gate. Opened the gate very slowly and hopped, hopped, hopped, as quickly as she could to the lake. Then she hopped, hopped, hopped, to the diving board. Climbed, climbed, climbed the ladder, and bounced, One....Two... "EMILY!!!" she heard the policeman say, "You come down right now! Does your mother know where you are? You go home RIGHT now." She hopped home and started playing in the yard. She played in the sandbox, played on the swing set, and even blew bubbles again, but all she could think about was jumping off the diving board. So she tip-toed, tip-toed, tip-toed to the gate, and hopped, hopped, hopped, allllllllll the way to the lake. Then the hopped, hopped, hopped to the diving board, climbed, climbed, climbed the ladder, and bounced One...Two.....Three....SPLASH. She swam to the edge, and did it three more times. Then the last time she jumped in she heard, "EMILY!!!! GET OUT OF THE LAKE!!! " Emily felt something bump her foot. Then it bumped it again. When she looked behind her she saw it. AN ALLIGATOR!!!! She swam, swam, swam as fast as she could. She got out of the lake as fast as she could. Then hopped, hopped, hopped to her Daddy. They hugged and then he took her straight home where she got sent to bed without any dinner.
Well, while I know it is not a Robert Munsch story, our family loves our own little Emily Apancha Dude series.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Random Short Stories From Our Daily Lives
We knew that we had a mouse because we were finding small holes that had been chewed into our bread and other packages. We put out poison and had hoped it would take care of them. I was in our bathroom and thought I heard something, but ignored it. The next thing I know I saw a little mouse head peak around the corner. I screamed before I knew what I was doing. Randle came and as he was coming it ran into a little closet. About the time he got to me it poked it head out of the closet and then ran into a box. I started screaming at Randle to pick up the box. It ran out before he could. It came straight at me so I jumped up on the toilet and it started tipping over. Randle had just fixed it and the glue and wax ring had apparently not completely adhered yet. The mouse got away and I had to go to bed wondering where it was. So then the next day we were getting ready for Wednesday night church and Randle turns on the light to his closet and finds the mouse again. But this time it was dead, laying right in the middle of his closet floor.
Tuesday night we went to a Rook tournament at Ekklessia Coffee House in Chelsea. We started out playing Rook, and ended up with Cranium. It was a lot of fun. Natalie and Harley made a new friend and played Hullabaloo for most of the night. As they were closing up shop we told the girls to pass out good bye hugs to Michael and Lisa. Natalie went right over and started hugging. Harley, being Harley, didn't want to give hugs so she leaned up against Michael. He picked her up and gave her the famous "upside down hug" that she gives both of my brothers. They pick her up hold her upside down and squeeze her. Well, tonight she left him with a little surprise. She pooted right in his face. Everyone in the coffee shop fell apart laughing. I have to say if anyone in our family deserved this it is Michael. He has pooted on most of us repeatedly.
Tonight we were having fried fish, hush puppies and squash casserole. I had gone to the store this afternoon and gotten everything except the crackers and ice. So I asked Randle to get the girls started on dinner and I would run to the gas station and get crackers and ice. Apparently Randle was fixing the girls plates and stuff and Harley says, "Daddy, Mommy bought your favorite ice cream." Randle very excitedly goes to the freezer looking for it. He asked the girls where I put it. (He LOVES ice cream. ) Harley then said, "I tricked you!" What 4 year old comes up with that on her own. I can't believe how mean she is sometimes. I have to admit, I laughed really hard, but then had to explain why and how mean that was. In the end she apologized, but WOW, what a personality we have on our hands.
Tuesday night we went to a Rook tournament at Ekklessia Coffee House in Chelsea. We started out playing Rook, and ended up with Cranium. It was a lot of fun. Natalie and Harley made a new friend and played Hullabaloo for most of the night. As they were closing up shop we told the girls to pass out good bye hugs to Michael and Lisa. Natalie went right over and started hugging. Harley, being Harley, didn't want to give hugs so she leaned up against Michael. He picked her up and gave her the famous "upside down hug" that she gives both of my brothers. They pick her up hold her upside down and squeeze her. Well, tonight she left him with a little surprise. She pooted right in his face. Everyone in the coffee shop fell apart laughing. I have to say if anyone in our family deserved this it is Michael. He has pooted on most of us repeatedly.
Tonight we were having fried fish, hush puppies and squash casserole. I had gone to the store this afternoon and gotten everything except the crackers and ice. So I asked Randle to get the girls started on dinner and I would run to the gas station and get crackers and ice. Apparently Randle was fixing the girls plates and stuff and Harley says, "Daddy, Mommy bought your favorite ice cream." Randle very excitedly goes to the freezer looking for it. He asked the girls where I put it. (He LOVES ice cream. ) Harley then said, "I tricked you!" What 4 year old comes up with that on her own. I can't believe how mean she is sometimes. I have to admit, I laughed really hard, but then had to explain why and how mean that was. In the end she apologized, but WOW, what a personality we have on our hands.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
4th of July trip to the beach
We went to Randle's dad's house in Foley for the 4th of July. The girls and I spent all day Friday getting the car and house clean and then packing the car. Around 2 I took the girls to the little grocery store in town to get some cokes to take with us and Kool Aid to put a second layer of dye on Natalie's hair. This round took much better. Randle got off around 2 and we left our house around 3.
We got off the interstate and onto Hwy 59 in south AL. It is a very busy road, b/c of Gulf Shores so there are lots of advertisements. One of the advertisements was for a hospital that had just started offering digital mammography. I had not heard of that and made the mistake of saying so out loud to Randle. Harley heard the word and apparently thought it sounded like a fun word and starts chanting in a sing-song voice "Mammography, Mammography, ha ha ha ha ha". She did this for about 5 minutes. I thought she would stop, but I was wrong. So I had to explain that while it is not a "bad" word, it is not a work people want to hear in public. I also had to explain what it was, and why people have it done and whether I had had one or not. What a way to start off a vacation. We finally got them to stop asking questions and move on.
Randle let us go straight to the beach, so the girls could put their feet on the beach the first night. They absolutely loved it. They kept walking further and further into the water until the bottom of Harley's carpi's got wet. Then of course they had to kick the sand everywhere and cover themselves with sand. We found a spot to rinse and then got back to the car to find that Harley had gotten entirely too wet to ride home. So she had to ride home in just her panties. She was mortified and was very worried about the "old people" in the neighborhood would see her without pants. After a lot of calming down we got them into bed so that we could finally go to bed ourselves.
We expected to get woken up around 8 or so by the girls and then head to the beach. Instead we got woken up at 6:50 am by Natalie saying she is hungry. The only thing I could say was, "Are you kidding me, we couldn't even make it to 7am." So we got up ate, slathered sunscreen (almost 1/3 of a bottle) , packed lunch, packed the car and headed to the beach. The girls started off by trying to build sand castles, and then drug us out of our chairs to the water. Right off the bat Harley not only gets knocked down by a wave but completely taken under and covered in the wet sand that is swirled in the water by the force of the wave. You could hardly see her hair there was so much sand.
Natalie took to the water immediately started riding the waves. Harley however stuck to the edge finding shells. Then somehow Harley got convinced to go out into the water. She found that she loved being in the "deep end" as she calls it. Which is where the water was about to Randle's shoulders.
The waves were great so we took a break at lunch time to walk across the street to the shop and bought the girls boogie boards. Natalie was great at staying on, but Harley kept falling off and getting beaten by the waves. So she sat on her knees on the board and Randle held onto her while they bobbed in the waves. Natalie stayed at about waist deep, so that I could push her and get her started on the waves.
We left in the late afternoon so that we could get ready and eat dinner so that we could meet Crisi, Mark, Bailey and Jessica for fireworks. The fireworks were supposed to start at 9. However the concert started at 9:10 and the fireworks finally started around 10. We got there at about 8:30, so the girls were about to fall apart on us. I broke out glow stick at the very beginning, and one broke and so we let them write on themselves. Harley squeezed hers and it shot in her eye. OH THE DRAMA!!!! We had a lot of screaming and all she wanted to go home. We finally got her a wet paper towel and then ice cream and things turned around. We then met Crisi and them and stood around with them for about another hour before watching the fireworks. It was a great show and lasted for quite a while. Harley was asleep before we even got on the bypass. She was so out of it we were afraid she had gotten choked and stopped the car to check on her. She yells "WHAT?!?" and slapped his hand away. Once we got home we all went to bed, and the girls actually made it to about 8:30 the next morning.
We got up and started looking at a local Baptist and Assembly of God church in the area to attend. We agreed on the AG church and started out. We got there and found all the ladies in dresses or skirts and all the men in ties. They took the girls to the back of the fellowship hall where children were running around and playing in a blanket tent. Randle pulled me aside and said "go to the car I will bring the girls" So I left and got into the car and waited. Randle came out holding Harley and Natalie walking quickly beside him. We then left and went to the baptist church. When we got there we found out that there was no children's service because it was a special service for the 4th. Harley went to a classroom and Natalie went with us. It was very nostalgic service for Randle. When we picked Harley up and got to the car we asked how her class was. She told us, "I didn't learn anything. They just wanted us to play, so I helped." I love that at 4 she expects to learn and not be put in a nursery setting.
We went home ate lunch and headed to the beach. We took a break around dinner time and went to "The Hangout" which is a great place on the edge of the beach. The girls had fun in the loud atmosphere and then playing in the tunnel they have under a hill of sand. The building is not air conditioned b/c it is opened to the beach. So they have a HUGE fan. In the middle of the fan is a company name. Natalie read the name out loud. It is "Big A** Fans". I could not believe she read it. We were very careful to keep her away from t-shirts in shops that were inappropriate but never imagined the fan as a danger spot. We then went back to the beach and played until dark and then went home. The girls had another day of great fun and hated to leave.
Monday was quite a sad day. We didn't get to go to the beach b/c we had to leave but intended to take the girls swimming in the pool. However it started raining and we just packed the car. We were packing the car Harley was following Randle back and forth. She was trying to convince us to take her to the beach or pool. She finally while crying says, "It's no fair there are people on the beach right now!" We finished packing and took them to Lambert's, home of throwed rolls. They loved it. Then we went to the shops with the huge Octopus and Shark for doors. Looked at everything and finally headed home. It was a great weekend and the girls loved having time with me and Randle. I can't wait to take them back.
We expected to get woken up around 8 or so by the girls and then head to the beach. Instead we got woken up at 6:50 am by Natalie saying she is hungry. The only thing I could say was, "Are you kidding me, we couldn't even make it to 7am." So we got up ate, slathered sunscreen (almost 1/3 of a bottle) , packed lunch, packed the car and headed to the beach. The girls started off by trying to build sand castles, and then drug us out of our chairs to the water. Right off the bat Harley not only gets knocked down by a wave but completely taken under and covered in the wet sand that is swirled in the water by the force of the wave. You could hardly see her hair there was so much sand.
Natalie took to the water immediately started riding the waves. Harley however stuck to the edge finding shells. Then somehow Harley got convinced to go out into the water. She found that she loved being in the "deep end" as she calls it. Which is where the water was about to Randle's shoulders.
The waves were great so we took a break at lunch time to walk across the street to the shop and bought the girls boogie boards. Natalie was great at staying on, but Harley kept falling off and getting beaten by the waves. So she sat on her knees on the board and Randle held onto her while they bobbed in the waves. Natalie stayed at about waist deep, so that I could push her and get her started on the waves.
We left in the late afternoon so that we could get ready and eat dinner so that we could meet Crisi, Mark, Bailey and Jessica for fireworks. The fireworks were supposed to start at 9. However the concert started at 9:10 and the fireworks finally started around 10. We got there at about 8:30, so the girls were about to fall apart on us. I broke out glow stick at the very beginning, and one broke and so we let them write on themselves. Harley squeezed hers and it shot in her eye. OH THE DRAMA!!!! We had a lot of screaming and all she wanted to go home. We finally got her a wet paper towel and then ice cream and things turned around. We then met Crisi and them and stood around with them for about another hour before watching the fireworks. It was a great show and lasted for quite a while. Harley was asleep before we even got on the bypass. She was so out of it we were afraid she had gotten choked and stopped the car to check on her. She yells "WHAT?!?" and slapped his hand away. Once we got home we all went to bed, and the girls actually made it to about 8:30 the next morning.
We got up and started looking at a local Baptist and Assembly of God church in the area to attend. We agreed on the AG church and started out. We got there and found all the ladies in dresses or skirts and all the men in ties. They took the girls to the back of the fellowship hall where children were running around and playing in a blanket tent. Randle pulled me aside and said "go to the car I will bring the girls" So I left and got into the car and waited. Randle came out holding Harley and Natalie walking quickly beside him. We then left and went to the baptist church. When we got there we found out that there was no children's service because it was a special service for the 4th. Harley went to a classroom and Natalie went with us. It was very nostalgic service for Randle. When we picked Harley up and got to the car we asked how her class was. She told us, "I didn't learn anything. They just wanted us to play, so I helped." I love that at 4 she expects to learn and not be put in a nursery setting.
We went home ate lunch and headed to the beach. We took a break around dinner time and went to "The Hangout" which is a great place on the edge of the beach. The girls had fun in the loud atmosphere and then playing in the tunnel they have under a hill of sand. The building is not air conditioned b/c it is opened to the beach. So they have a HUGE fan. In the middle of the fan is a company name. Natalie read the name out loud. It is "Big A** Fans". I could not believe she read it. We were very careful to keep her away from t-shirts in shops that were inappropriate but never imagined the fan as a danger spot. We then went back to the beach and played until dark and then went home. The girls had another day of great fun and hated to leave.
Monday was quite a sad day. We didn't get to go to the beach b/c we had to leave but intended to take the girls swimming in the pool. However it started raining and we just packed the car. We were packing the car Harley was following Randle back and forth. She was trying to convince us to take her to the beach or pool. She finally while crying says, "It's no fair there are people on the beach right now!" We finished packing and took them to Lambert's, home of throwed rolls. They loved it. Then we went to the shops with the huge Octopus and Shark for doors. Looked at everything and finally headed home. It was a great weekend and the girls loved having time with me and Randle. I can't wait to take them back.
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