Thursday, January 17, 2013

Creative Month of January: Blog 3- Letters from Mom & Mimi



Dear Ellie,

Well my dear, life is mundane this week (which after the busy holidays is a welcome change).  You continue to love preschool (even greeting your teacher with a hug each morning) and the library.  
But still, it is the depth of your imagination that never ceases to amaze me.  Just a few days ago, you pretended the whole house was Disney World and each room held a different ride.  Dumbo was in the living room, the new Ariel ride was in the entryway, Winnie the Pooh was upstairs in the guest room…).  You have such an incredible memory (even recalling the tunnel in the People Mover ride, which you closed your eyes tightly because you were scared) as you experienced these attractions all over again.  You also pretended to be Snow White and would call your Dad, Mimi, and Poppy, and I over to you as it was our turn in line to meet the princess and get our picture taken.  I feel like life with you is a fairy tale Ellie so it’s fitting that we are writing to you another piece of fiction!

And now here is our final story (with many chapters to write!) for you. 

So as for our weekly guidelines: I write a piece one week in regular font, and then your Mimi 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 (an aquarium).  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 fourth piece of fiction. 

Ellie and the Magic Teapot: Off to the Aquarium- Part 3
As they used their fins to propel toward the brain coral, Ellie and Lion realized they could swim almost as well as the other fish in the tank.  Ellie was a little faster than Lion and she looked back to make sure he was following.  He smiled and waved to her as he kicked to catch up.  As Ellie winked and turned her head forward again, she screamed into her mouthpiece (that not only functioned as an airway but also as a means to talk underwater). 

She had almost glided directly into the scariest fish she had ever seen with bulging eyes and a long snout.  Ellie’s screech startled the fish too, which caused him to puff up several times his size and look like a giant bubble with spines jutting out of his skin.  The fish actually looked like a swimming porcupine.

Ellie stuck out her arms to slow her pace but it didn’t stop her from running into the puffer fish.  The tip of her nose touched one of the jagged edges of a quill on the puffer fish’s face.

“Ouch,” Ellie shrieked with tears coming to her eyes.  She instinctively began to rub her nose as the puffer fish said, “I’m really sorry!  Anytime I get scared I blow up really big so that predators can’t eat me.”

Ellie forgot about her sore nose as she became curious about the puffer fish, “How do you expand like that?” she asked inquisitively.

“I have a very elastic stomach so when I suck in lots and lots of water, I get really big really fast,” the puffer fish said proudly doing it all over again.

Ellie laughed because he reminded her of a balloon and she loved balloons!  “My name is Ellie and this is my friend Lion,” she gestured to her furry friend.

As the puffer fish started to shrink back down to normal size, he replied, “I’m Perseus the Puffer Fish.”

“That’s a cool name!” Lion exclaimed.

“Thanks!  It means destroyer, which is kind of funny because I don’t destroy anything (expect maybe your nose by accident Ellie),” he said gesturing to the small red cut on her face sheepishly, “I just know how to scare people but it’s all an illusion.”

“What’s an illusion?” Lion asked curiously.

“’An illusion is a misleading image meaning what you see isn’t really what is there,” Ellie answered smartly.

“I like my name though, ”continued Perseus proudly, “because my favorite letter is P and it works out pleasantly enough because not only am I a Puffer fish but I am also pale purple in color!”

Lion and Ellie giggled, “That is very neat Perseus!”

“It would be more perfect though if I weren’t a fish,” Perseus said, “I wish I were something that began with a P.”

“Like what?” Lion inquired not fully understanding what he meant.

“Like a Pirate!  Wouldn’t that be great?!  My name would be Perseus the Puffer Pirate!” he said as he imagined himself puffing up with an eye patch and sword.

Ellie gasped and she looked at Lion as they each remembered the stolen treasure chest.

Ellie unzipped the small pocket on the left side of her ruffled pink bathing suit and pulled out a waterproof notepad and a red waterproof marker.  She flipped a few pages (past her doodles of princesses and castles) to find a blank place where she began to write some notes.

“What are you doing?” asked Perseus the Puffer Fish who wanted to be Perseus the Puffer Pirate.

“Well you see Perseus, someone took the pirate’s treasure chest,” she motioned across the tank to the crime scene tape that marked the big X where it once stood.

“You don’t think I could actually steal something like that do you?” Perseus said fearfully and just like before when he became scared, he puffed out into a gigantic spiked ball.

“We’re not accusing anyone,” Ellie said, “but we will leave no stone unturned.”

Lion looked at her confused.

“That means we will search in all possible places,” Ellie clarified.

“Even though I would love to be a pirate, I would have no way of moving a treasure.   See; look at my small pectoral fins.  They could never lift something that heavy!”  Perseus tried to explain.

Ellie jotted that down in her notebook with a diagram. 

“Besides,” Perseus encouraged, “I think you’re looking at the wrong fish.”  He gestured over to the seaweed protruding out to their left.

What Ellie and Lion saw sparked their curiosity and made them both very suspicious… it looked like a new suspect was going to be on their list…

Love you Ellie Bean!
Love,
Mom

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