The Sheep in the Jeep

Sooby is into rhyming.  She loves for me to give her a word and ask her to come up with another word that rhymes with it.  It comes as no surprise, then, that last night, the bedtime story of choice was Dr. Seuss's beloved The Cat in the Hat.  When it comes to rhyme that wraps itself around an imaginative story line and tickles the ear of the typical preschooler, no one does it like Dr. Seuss.

However, in that precious interval of time that stretches itself between the reading and the tucking in, we took time to contemplate various other animals that Dr. Seuss might have chosen to write about instead of the mischievous cat in the red-and-white-striped stovepipe hat.  A goat in a coat?  Nah.  A pig in a wig?  We didn't think so.  A duck in a truck?  No, none of those seemed to be likely candidates.  But a sheep in a jeep?  In that one we saw potential.  It might go something like this:

        The Sheep in the Jeep

Since Mom wouldn't be home
'Til quarter past two,
Sally and I couldn't
Think what to do.

Then from the front door
We heard, "Beep, beep, beep!"
Until, crashing right through,
Came a sheep in a jeep!

How he splintered the wood
When he tore through the door!
How the tracks of his tires
Left black lines on the floor!

The motor would groan;
The transmission would whir,
And he left the room littered
With tufts of his fur.

He zoomed through the room.
He drove right up the couch,
Hit the floor upside down;
Then, that sheep bleated, "Ouch!"

He careened down the hallway,
And bounced off the walls;
Turned the sink in the bath
To Niagara Falls!

He drove up the curtain
And smudged up the glass.
Then he belched and the scent
Of his breath smelled like grass.

I hollered, "Whoa, you!"
And Sally said, "Hey!"
And our fish drew a deep breath,
Then fainted away.

Our fish was afraid
That our mom would take fright
When she looked at the mess
The sheep made in one night.

But this sheep was a smart one.
He carried in back
Of his jeep a big box.
In the box was a sack.

In the sack was a paintbrush
And putty and paste.
He put things back together
In admirable haste.

He laundered the curtains.
He ironed the lace.
He put all the stuff
He messed up back in place.

So all appeared normal
As Mom neared the door:
No sign of the jeep
And no fleece on the floor,

Not a thing out of place,
Not an object he broke,
And just at the right time
Our fishy awoke.

When Mom asked what kind
Of a time we had had,
I winked right at Sally
And said, "Not too b-a-a-a-d."

            Epilogue

Tho' The Cat in the Hat
Surely no one can equal--
The Sheep in the Jeep
Makes a good enough sequel!









  

Lost and Found

It is bad enough that Sooby has gone home from her two-day visit and the house is unnaturally quiet and boring.  However, that sad fact is nothing compared to the devastating discovery I happen upon shortly after her departure: Baby Jesus has gone missing.

Yes, the little stable I set up for the kids to play with down by the Christmas tree is minus its star player.  The three kings stand there holding out their gifts in vain.  After all, even a sage known for his wisdom is lost at the prospect of a full jar of frankincense and no one to give it to.  Mary holds up her hands in wonder at the empty space between her and Joseph where the object of their mutual admiration so recently lay.  Only the cow and the donkey seem relatively unaffected as they occupy their spots on either side of the little creche.

I look everywhere I can think of to find the missing baby.  I carefully study the spaces between the branches of the Christmas tree lest he be lodged somewhere next to a candy cane.  I shine a flashlight underneath the living room couch and chair to discover only three Lite-Brite pegs and a handful of Hi-Ho crumbs.  I empty the plastic tub of stuffed Dalmatian puppies to find only two objects out of place among them: a Miss Piggy doll and the Golden Book story of The Nutcracker.  I am distressed to say the least.

The day wears on, however, and I more or less forget that Baby Jesus has gone AWOL.  I do some shopping and wrap a present or two.   Later, walking by my bathroom, I notice a fragment of color on the floor just behind the door.  Thinking that a washcloth has dropped from the rack above, I stoop down to retrieve it--only to find Baby Jesus himself, complete with swaddling clothes and manger, nestled there instead.  I smile as I pick him up and return him to his rightful place between Mary and Joseph.  Cancel the Amber Alert.  The baby has been found safe.  The nativity set is whole again.

I later learned that Baby Jesus' relocation to the upstairs bathroom had been aided and abetted by Sooby.  Apparently, she had carried him upstairs with her and placed him on the floor, only to become distracted and forget she had done that.

I find a lesson in this for myself and perhaps for you as well:  Should any of us misplace Baby Jesus amid the distractions of the season, He will wait patiently to be re-discovered.  Just don't be surprised if you encounter Him in some unusual place where you might never have thought to look.

Have Yourself an Interactive Little Christmas

Over the years I have tried to streamline the Christmas decorating process with a variety of themes and approaches.  During several of those time-challenged teaching-school-while-raising-kids years, I decorated the tree with only plastic apples and candy canes.  Last year, spurred on by the luxury of retirement, I went for nostalgia, getting out many of the old family ornaments we hadn't seen for a while along with the stocking used to present Baby Teebo to me on Christmas morning 1985.  (This settled the issue once and for all: storks do not bring babies; nurses do.)

After the kids were older, I mustered the courage to display tradition-rich, elegant (read: breakable) items like a glass nativity and a musical ceramic St. Nicholas.  But with Sooby, Pooh, and Bootsie scheduled to arrive on Christmas Day, I will need to play down the elegance and probably the nostalgia.  One look at my house this year and you can easily figure out that my theme is "interactive."

"Interactive" means that the kids--a baby, a toddler, and a preschooler--will be able to experience my decorations up close and personal.  They can touch and rearrange however they wish.  This year, my decorations look a lot like toys.  Here are some of the things they can look forward to:

• a homemade felt board on which they can place felt cutouts of Santa, his reindeer, his sleigh, his bag, and a number of toys.
• a "stable" (garage sale--25 cents) that is just the right size for positioning plastic figures of Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, the three wise men, a donkey and a cow.  This particular stable has two levels, so if Baby Jesus gets cold, he can be moved upstairs (heat rises?).  Or, if the donkey and cow need to come in and warm up, they can claim a spot by intimidating the three wise men.
• two Beanie Kid dolls (Chip and Boomer) dressed as Santa Claus and an elf.  These elaborate costumes (garage sale--$1 each) include hats, a beard for Santa, full suit, shoes or boots, and a bag of toys that attaches to Santa's wrist with a rubber band.  Chip and Boomer can practice a little role reversal here while the kids hone their fine motor skills by dressing and undressing them numerous times.  And what fun it might be to mix up the costumes?  Santa wearing elf shoes!  An elf with a beard!  The combinations are endless.
• a set of red and green painted wooden blocks with letters much like the ones we all played with as kids ourselves.  Except, this set consists of seven blocks, with which you can spell "Noel" or "Joy."  I am seeing the potential for a spelling explosion here, as we mix up these blocks to make words like loon, loo (maybe not), and lye.  One, on, and no.  I imagine I will use that last word a lot.

Besides these, there are musical ornaments (Sooby has done much dancing to "Up on the Housetop" in past years.); shelves of Christmas storybooks; and the usual holiday movies starring the likes of Charlie Brown, Garfield, and the Muppets.  However, I am really looking forward to those less usual hands-on activities made possible by my new decorating scheme. 

Christmas calls for a more or less immersion in the symbols, stories, and traditions of this most wonderful time of the year.  This year, I am expecting the kids to revel in it up to their elbows, and, if these ideas run their course--well--there are always all those possibilities afforded by a good batch of homemade sugar cookie dough, a bowl of icing, and a shaker of sprinkles.  Capitalizing as it does on all five senses, that is about as interactive as you can get.