Dear Ellie,
You are just about 2 ½ years old now Ellie and gone are your temper
tantrums (knock on wood). You have
truly become focused on being kind as you observe people’s feelings more. As you say in your own words without
any prompting, “I’m a nice girl!” and yes Ellie, you truly have a wonderful
heart. You say I love you out of
the blue and you give kisses spontaneously- it seems like when you genuinely
feel, you act. You say you’re
sorry if you made a mistake and you say please and thank you when you receive a
gift. I am so proud of the little
person you are becoming. But don’t
think for a second that you lost one of my favorite qualities in you- your
willfulness is alive and well! You
are still staunchly independent but a lot more accepting of help if you realize
after “I can do it” that you might need a hand.
Of course you share everything with your Mimi and Poppy over Skype
including your shared sense of humor!
My favorite part in watching you interact with them is the pure
happiness that shines from the screen.
I am so grateful that technology allows us to remain so close despite
the distance!
And now here is our yearlong bedtime story/stories (with
many chapters to write!) for you.
So as for our weekly guidelines: I write a piece one week in
regular font, then your Mimi has to will write a piece in italics the next
week. The only things your Mimi
and I agreed on were the characters- Ellie and a magic teapot and the setting
(a forest with trolls). Anything
else is fair game and will make our adventure a new tale. We also need to figure out an
illustration to go with our part.
Our goal Ellie is to have a beloved bedtime story for you and future
generations.
And so we will continue our third piece of fiction.
Ellie and the Magic
Teapot: Into the Secret Forest Part 4
…The five spins around
and around must have made them very dizzy because Ellie and Lion had no idea
how far they had actually walked.
Trying to comprehend their surroundings, they turned to each other and
began chatting at the same time.
“What/Where… do/do… you/you… make/think… of/we… this/are????”
“Sorry El, you go first,”
Lion nervously apologized.
“Don’t be sorry Lion,
I’m as perplexed as you. I don’t
remember reading anything about this place in the storybook. Unbeknownst to us readers, do you think
Trudy captured another child and turned them into a new Troll?” Ellie questioned without expecting an
answer.
“I don’t know. But I do know that the forest trees in
front of us have some weird things dangling from their branches. The problem is Ellie that I am too
short and can’t quite make out what they are. Can you?”
While looking upwards,
Ellie tried squinting hoping to bring the dangling things into focus, but no
such luck, “Hold on Lion. I think
I have something in my left side-pocket that will help.” Rummaging around she answered only to
herself, “Nope, it’s not there.
Hmmm… maybe it is in my right side-pocket.” Since that pocket was much shallower it only took a moment
for her little fingers to find the miniature shiny brass circular tube and pull
it out. “Got it!” she whispered
loudly. With a quick slap to her
palm the brass object clicked and expanded a foot. With another quick slap to her palm the brass object clicked
again and expanded another foot.
One more slap expanded it one more foot making the cylinder object three
feet long. Bringing it up to her
eye, she rotated the front piece until she could see the dangling objects
clearly. “Thanks to my trusty
telescope I see… Ahhhhhhhhh. Interesting.
Very interesting,” she repeated.
“What Ellie? What are those dangling things hanging
from the tree branches?” Lion asked anxiously, “And can I look through that
cool thing?”
“Sure. Here,” she said as she handed over the
telescope to Lion. “Well, as weird
as this sounds, it looks like they are Ribbons. Blue 1st place Ribbons. And the writing on them says they are for winning all kinds
of races,” added Ellie.
Handing the
contraption back to Ellie, Lion craned his head and neck upward, “Hey El, put
me up on your shoulders and I will grab one from a branch and pull it down.”
“Ok,” she answered as
she scooped him up and balanced him on her shoulders while he reached for one
of the ribbons.
“Uh-oh. I’m stuck Ellie. There is something gooey on the end of
this ribbon that has a permanent hold on my hand. What am I going to do?
Help me El!” Lion panicked.
“I bet it is a trick
Lion. There must be a Troll
lurking near by. Calm down. I
won’t leave you. Let’s just wait a
minute and see what happens.
And sure enough only a
few moments passed when a snorting Troll poked his green head out from behind
the nearest tree trunk.
“HA!” the troll
grunted, “I knew it! I knew my
trap to capture children would work!
I can’t wait for Trudy to see this!”
“Excuse me Mr. Troll…
may I ask you your name and what is this trap you’ve concocted all about?” Ellie calmly asked.
“Huh. Since you’ve
asked I suppose I can answer.
Trudy, the one in charge, calls me Hotdog Troll because she says I
always show off in races. But I
have the right to show off you know… because no one has ever beaten me. So when she gave me this section of the
forest to patrol I begged her to let me take my blue ribbons with me. She hesitated at first but then I
convinced her that I knew a way to use them to capture happy children. And you two proved it works! Most of my ribbons I hung on the trees
right in this area because these trees have oodles of thick sticky sap. That’s what I brushed on the tippy edge
of my ribbons so when someone tries to grab one they would get stuck to it! Woo Hoo! It works, it works!
Now I am going to blindfold you both and take you to Trudy… and she will
reward me!” Hotdog Troll grunted and snorted while jumping up and down and
clapping his stubby clawed hands together.
All the while Hotdog
Troll was talking, Ellie was trying to access their situation and it didn’t
take her long to think up a solution where she was pretty sure the troll would
have to free them. “Mr. Hotdog
Troll… before you blindfold and take us to Trudy, you first have to release
Lion’s fingers from the sappy ribbon so that he can get down from my shoulders
and stand on the ground. Have you
thought about how he can do that?” questioned Ellie.
“Ummmm… oh. Actually no I didn’t think about
that. OK. Give me a minute.” Hotdog grumbled as
he repeatedly tapped his warty fingers on his warty chin. “Ha! I’ve got it. I’ll go get my pogo stick! Then I will jump and jump and jump until I get high enough
to pull him down!” he added quite pleased with his solution.
But Ellie was
smarter. “Hotdog, how about we
make a deal… one I don’t think you can refuse.”
He was intrigued,
“What kind of deal?’
“Do you possibly have
two pogo sticks?” she asked sweetly.
“Yes I do. And if you could just giggle because
that would really please Trudy then I will go get them!” Hotdog grunted with a smidgeon of excitement.
A perplexed Ellie did
as he requested and directed Lion to chuckle also. Lion did not think the situation they were in warranted one
but he did his best to chuckle too.
“Ha, ha, ha, ha!”
On the end of Lion’s
chuckle Hotdog hobbled off disappearing into a lush thicket only to return
seconds later with two pogo sticks.
Holding on to one, he handed the other to Ellie, “Now what is the deal?”
First Ellie had to
step away from Lion leaving him dangling from the branch. “Wellllllllll… what if we make this a
race? If you jumped faster and
higher releasing Lion first then you can blindfold and take us directly to
Trudy. But if I jump faster and
higher releasing Lion before you do, then you have to let us go so that we can
find Trudy on our own. Deal?” She baited Hotdog Troll.
Hotdog knew he
couldn’t pass up a race that would be easy for him to win so he snorted out,
“DEAL! On the count of five start
jumping. One… Two… FIVE!” Hotdog
yelled out giving himself a head start.
A startled Ellie wasn’t
about to let him beat her so she jumped hard onto her pogo stick making the
first bounce go quite high into the air.
Up and down the two jumped each taking turns jumping higher than the
other. Lion was getting quite
dizzy as he rotated his head back and forth watching to see who would reach him
first. Remembering that trolls
can’t see very well, Lion stretched his right piggy toe with all his might down
for Ellie to grab first. Good
thing too because on Ellie’s and Hotdog’s next bounce they were almost
even. Hotdog was slightly higher,
so Ellie quickly grabbed Lion’s toe and tugged him free of the ribbon where he
fell onto Ellie who fell off the pogo stick and both rolled on the ground. Startled they stood up, brushed
themselves off and looked around for Hotdog Troll who was nowhere to be seen.
“Hotdog? Hoooooot-dooooooooog?” they both
yelled.
“Uhhhh. I’m up here!” snorted a somewhat
annoyed Hotdog Troll. “I must have
jumped a tad bit too high because my ear got stuck on the sap of my blue 1st
place ribbon. Trudy is not going
to be happy with me!” he continued mumbling knowing that he was in a somewhat
foolish predicament.
The sight of Hotdog
dangling from the ribbon by his ear gave Ellie and Lion a fit of the
giggles. It also gave Hotdog some
hope. “Ha! Trudy is going to love that sound from
you two!”
Again, Ellie and Lion
looked at each other quizzically not understanding the meaning behind Hotdogs
words. Shrugging their confusion
off Ellie reminded him, “Yes Hotdog, but a deal is a deal. I won the pogo stick race so Lion and I
are free to travel on. Agreed?”
“Fine. Be that way. But if you do find Trudy, don’t tell her you saw me!”
grunted Hotdog in a pleading voice.
“OK,” Lion bravely
roared out now that he knew he was safe.
Taking Ellie’s hand, together they pivoted in a full circle. While doing so, they noticed two
distinct paths leading further into the forest. “Which one do you think we should take Ellie?” asked Lion.
“Let’s ask Sebastian.
“Ssssssssssss. Ssssssssssss,” sounded Ellie.
Sebastian who was
curled up inside a log nearby slithered out and coiled at their feet. “Sssssss How can I help you?” He
hissed.
“We have no idea which
path to take,” Ellie responded, “Can you give us some guidance?”
“Aaaaaaaaaah. Yessssssssss. The one to the far left is the mossssssst dangerous. Definitely ssssssssstay away from that
one as it is almost impossible to find the way back. There are lotssssssssssss
of sssssssscary thingssssssssssss hidden on that path. I think you should take the one on the
right. It too hassssssssss
trapsssssssss but Tad may be able to help you if you should need it. Good luck!” he hissed as he slithered
away.
Again, hooking their
arms and tightly entwining their fingers together Ellie and Lion walked cautiously
on the dirt path to the right.
Trying to calm their heart rates down they took deep slow breathes with
each step inhaling on one and exhaling on two. It wasn’t long before they found themselves being drawn
forward towards a delightfully sweet smell…
We love you Ellie Bean!
Love,
Mom & Mimi
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