Last night at bedtime:
“Tell me a story, Mommy.”
“Why don’t you tell me one?”
“I don’t remember. Tell me one, pleeeeease? About Super Sunny. But make her have pigtails.”
“Okay. Super Sunny is a superhero who is . . . “
“Five years old!”
“And has . . . “
“Curly, curly hair! In pigtails! Like me!”
“Just like you. Once day, Super Sunny was, uh . . . let me see . . . um . . . sorry, kid, I got nothing.”
“She was playing with a toy giraffe.”
“Okay. Got it. Super Sunny was playing with her toy giraffe when her super ears heard someone say . . . “
“Help, Help!”
“So Super Sunny flew away to see—“
“No, no! First she put her toys away.”
“. . . Really?”
“Yes. She’s a superhero, you know.”
“I do know, but did you know real kids can put their toys away, too?”
(much giggling) “Stop tickling, Mommy! Stop it! That’s not in the story!”
“Too bad. All right, so Super Sunny put her toys away like every kid should—“
“Mommy!”
“—and then went flying around to see who needed her help. She followed the help helps! to a circus, and the ringmaster told her that the giraffes accidentally walked into the high wire and knotted their necks together!”*
“And one is a baby.”
“And one was—wait. Baby giraffes aren’t tall enough to get tangled in high wires.”
“The Daddy gave her a piggy back. For the circus parade.”
“Oh . . . okay. So Super Sunny starts tugging at the knots and undoing the tangled wire, but things are so messed up that she ends up tied to the Mommy giraffe! Upside-down!”
“And her cape was over her head!” (much giggling) “Oh, but the littlest one gets scared”
“The baby giraffe was scared and started to cry.”
“Awwww!”
“So Super Sunny sang her a song . . . “
“Twinkle, twinkle! “
“She sang Twinkle, twinkle, little star . . . will you help the baby giraffe, too?”
“No. You can do it.”
“By myself?”
“Yes.”
“Never mind then. The baby giraffe wasn’t scared anymore, and she reached her looong neck to give Super Sunny a nosie kiss.** And when she did that, she pulled all the knots out! And everyone was happy.”
“But Super Sunny didn’t fix it—the baby giraffe did.”
“Except they were still all crooked and hunched over So Super Sunny was the one who straightened out their necks and legs and rubbed their sore muscles until they could move again.*** And then she flew up and stretched the high wire across the circus tent, too, for the acrobats. Everyone was so happy, the ringmaster gave Super Sunny four free tickets to the circus.
“And the next night, Super Sunny and her family sat in the front row. All the giraffes stopped by to give her nosie kisses and the acrobats waved to her as they danced along the wire—“
“And blew kisses!”
“They blew nosie kisses? Yuck.”
“Noo-ooo. Not nosie ones! Like this.” (smack-whoosh)
“Ohhhh. That’s much better. And Sunny ate popcorn and hot dogs and cotton candy until she was sick and then she fell asleep on the way home. It was awesome.“
“Mommy . . . cotton candy is too sweet for me.”
“I know. That’s why you got sick.”
“You’re really silly, Mommy.”
“Yep. Good night.”
“Good night, Mommy.”
“You can pick your toys up tomorrow, just like a superhero.”
“Mo-OMM. Shhh! I’m sleeping.”
__________________
*Which is probably one of the reasons real circuses don’t have giraffes, but Super Sunny already rescued the elephants that escaped from the zoo.
** Think Eskimo, not curiosity.
*** My husband: “Nice save.”
Earful of Cider 