The Three Little Pigs:
These are a few of the things that happened as Annabelle was reading the tale of The Three Little Pigs to me today. (I believe you could keep this child occupied just reading books all day long to her. She loves her books and never seems bored. She has managed to find books I don’t even remember I had, and both of us have enjoyed them.
Annabelle: “Grandmomma, let me read this book to you about The three Little Pigs. I will read it to you and then you can read it to me when I ask you to.”
Grandmomma: “Sounds good to me.”
Set up of scene: Annabelle, with book in hand, was sitting on the floor in front of Grandmomma, who is sitting on the sofa. She opens the book and turns it towards Grandmomma, library, story-telling time style. “The three little pigs. Once upon a time there were three little pigs. Wait, wait, wait Grandmomma.” She waves her sweet little hands in front of herself to show me she wants me to stop listening for a moment.
Then she heads for the door. “I need to get some more babies to listen to the story.”
Back she comes with Curious George, a stuffed and pretty good-sized monkey I had bought from Macy’s when the second oldest grandson was little. Annabelle and I had shared a few books earlier this morning with Curious George including one she had checked out from the library. We thought George might like to hear some of the stories that had been written about him. When she returned from the back, she lifted big George up to put him into my lap. With that precious little giggly laugh she has, she says,“He’s a big guy, isn’t he Grandmomma?”
Back to her position on the floor, and me holding Curious George safely in my arms so he can also listen to the Three Little Pigs.
Annabelle: “The Three Little Pigs. Once upon a time there were three little pigs…wait, wait, Grandmomma, we need some more babies to listen to the book.” Back to her room to find some more willing participants in our story time. She returns with one of her Mommy’s old Pound Puppies from years ago, as well as a teddy bear I had given her earlier this year. (The one that wasn’t her favorite, but she could tolerate it at Grandmomma house.) She carefully arranges them in my arms next to Curious George and back on the floor, once again the story continues.
Annabelle: “The Three Little Pigs. Once upon a time there were three little pigs.” She looks around to make sure the children were behaving and listening to the story.
There is still something wrong with the babies and it is bothering her. “Grandmomma, wait, wait.” And she gets up from the floor, walks over to the critters in my arms and says, “Puppy Dog’s e-ah is in Coo-ris Jaw-ji’s face. He can’t see me.” She rearranges Puppy Dog’s ear so Curious George (who really wasn’t complaining) could see her as she continues her story.
Have I ever mentioned this child comes from a family of at least two women perfectionists, well at least her Mommy is a full fledged one and Grandmomma was one before marriage dashed her dreams of perfectionism. Add two kids to that and dreams really were smashed. Wonder where she possibly got this tendency?
Finally, she has everybody arranged just perfectly and the story must go on. Down on the floor, position resumed, book turned towards her audience,
she continues:
Annabelle: “The Three Little pigs. Once upon a time there were three little pigs.” pause…pause…)”Grandmomma, you’ll have to read it to me now, because I don’t ‘member the rest of this book.”
That’s perfectly understandable because I have at least three or four different versions of The Three Little Pigs and this one was one she hasn’t heard quite as often. But she did read it as far as she ‘membered.
This is one of those instances where I couldn’t stop the event for pictures or I would have missed the pleasure of seeing what played out in a little three year old girl’s head. I loved every minute of seeing where she would take me next . Since there were no pictures of all of us when it happened I’m including pictures of the inanimate participants, made, of course, after it was all over, which means she and I are not included.
Everybody enjoyed Annabelle’s, as well as my final reading of that particular “The Three Little Pigs.” I probably enjoyed her version most. It’s a wee bit difficult trying to read a book upside down with monkey fur in your face.
The picture of her at the beginning was made with her in a pretty little nighty we had found that had belonged to her Mommy when she was much younger. Annabelle had gotten her bath and she wanted to wear that nighty because "It's so pitty!" so I allowed her to wear it for a while.
