Jelly Bean

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Sophie. Sophie had bright red hair, pink cheeks, and green eyes. She was a very good little girl, but her hair just never would stay where it should be. When Mommy put Sophie's hair on the pillow for a nap, that hair sprung right up off the pillow! ALL BY ITSELF! When Daddy carefully tucked Sophie's hair into a hat, the very minute Sophie ran out side her hair pushed the hat right off of her head ! And another time, when they were visiting Aunt Catherine, who had a very, VERY fancy house, Mommy and Daddy talked to Sophie ALL THE WAY THERE about sitting still and not singing TOO loud and being POLITE and being a little LADY and on and on. And Sophie tried. She DID! She sat still on a dark green velvety chair, rubbing her hand back and forth across the soft seat for a really long time. She sang Aunt Catherine only 2 or 3 of her best songs - the one about the kitten in the snow, the one about taking a bath, and a bit of the one about falling off her bike, but that one started to get too loud, and Sophie, as the song got exciting, fell off of her chair and.......well, Daddy came over, picked her up, and said parbably that was enough singing for right now. She said "please," and "thank you" as often as there was reason, and, in general, behaved like a little lady. BUT HER HAIR!!!! When Sophie was back in the dark green velvety chair, while Sophie was dreamily stroking it's softness, (I think she was thinking up a song about a drak green velvety cat) her HAIR pulled Sophie right down onto Aunt Catherine's carpet! Now, this was no ordinary carpet as, I'm quite sure Sophie's hair could tell. It was a creamy white. It was thick as a matress, soft, and BIG! (Well, the room itself was very large, so, of course, the carpet was, too.) Sophie's hair just HAD to get right down there IN the carpet to get a good feel of it. And of course, as everyone knows, the BEST way to get to know a carpet is to fling your legs into the air, and stand on your head. And that is exacely what Sophie's hair did. Sophie was quite good at standing on her head, and proud of being able to do it at all! The problem was, she had on a dress. It was a nice dress, Sophie liked it. It had a red top with kind of shiny poka dots all over and a GREAT spin-around skirt, striped in the colors of the poka dots. With her hair in that pillow of a carpet and her legs up in the air, the striped skirt fell down all around her. Sophie felt like she was in a brightly colored tent! But when she heard Aunt Catherine laugh, she came crashing down. Sprawled on the carpet like a rag doll, Sophie realized why Aunt Catherine was laughing. Last night when Mommy was too tired to come up stairs to help Sophie get ready for bed, when she had told Sophie she was getting to be a big girl now and could get ready for bed perfectly well by herself, Sophie had made a decision. Instead of taking off her swim suit - which she had been in all day long because after swim lessons, when she couldn't find her underware (did it drop out of the swim bag? Did they forget to pack it? Was it on the floor of the car?) she put her clothes on over top of her suit. They had met Grandma and Grandpa at the tea room for lunch, and by the time they got home, both Mommy and Sophie had forgotten all about the lost underware. Sophie decided to STAY in her swim suit. Why bother to take it off? She would PROBABLY go swimming again the very next day (she didn't know about the trip to Aunt Catherine,) so why waste all that time to take it off and then put it on again. She pulled her nightie right down over it, brushed her teeth, sang a song about tooth paste, and was busy picking out books when Daddy came up. He picked up her play clothes, tossed them into the laundry hamper, and didn't seem to notice the absence of underware. So ! In the morning, when Mommy, again asked her to dress herself for the trip to Aunt Catherine, again she made the decision to stay in her swim suit. So while her hair had been enjoying the carpet, and Sophie had been enjoying the striped tent, Aunt Catherine, Mommy and Daddy had noticed the bottom on her Little Mermaid swim suit!

So much for Sophie's bright red hair !

One day Sophie's Mommy and Daddy took Sophie out to her FAVORITE ice cream store. It was one of those places with a loooooooooong window full of chopped up candy. You got to choose which ice cream you wanted, which kind of candy you wanted smushed into it, and which kind of cone to put it in! Naturally it took Sophie a looooooooooong time to do all of that choosing ! Quite a number of teen agers had come into the shop, waiting their turn, by the time Stevie (he lived next door to Sophie and worked at the Frozen Slab ice cream store,) handed Sophie her cone. "You picked a good one, kiddo," he said, winking at Sophie. "Thank you, Stevie," her Dad said.

"Let's eat out by the big tree," Mommy said, looking around at the now croweded store, "GREAT!" said Sophie, turning to go. "Careful there, girl!" Daddy said, reaching for Sophie's cone, "your cone is tipping a bit." Settled at the table under the tree, they had their usual talk about whose was the best. (Mommy had a DOUBLE DIP!!!) And, as usual, all agreed it was Sophie's ! "Sophie," Mommy said, "we wanted to talk to you about something." "OK," said Sophie, watching some kids playing frisbee with a dog on the green. "Well," said Mommy, Daddy and I wanted to tell you that you are going to be a big sister!" "Why?" asked Sophie, paying attention now. "Because I'm going to have a baby," Mommy said, patting her tummy. Sophie's green eyes opened wide, her pink cheeks seemed to be even pinker (but that COULD have been because they forgot the sun block yesterday afternoon at the lake,) and her bright red hair seemed to tingle. Shophie herself was FULL of questions: "When? Is it a boy? Is it a girl? How does it get out? Are you sure it's not a puppy? Can I hold it? What will it's name be? Where will it sleep? Is it cold from all that ice cream in there? Can I have a baby, too?" "It should be born around Christmas time, in about 5 more months." "We don't know if it's a boy or a girl, but it definately is NOT a puppy!" "It will come out by Mommy pushing REALLY hard, and the baby pushing, too. It's hard work for both Mommy and the baby." "Of COURSE you can hold it. Whenever you want!" "We can't know it's name until we know if it's a little boy, or a little girl. We have 5 months to think about it. Be sure to tell us that you think about a name, too, Sophie." Sophie nodded. " It will sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed, like you did before you had your Big Girl Bed." "Can I still sleep there, too, sometimes?" Sophie interrupted. "OF COURSE!" Mommy and Daddy said together. "And no, the baby doesn't feel the cold from the ice cream, even though Mommy DID have a double dip!" "And, to your last question, yes, Sophie, love, you can have a baby too, but not just yet." Sophie thought and thought, looking down into her cone of melting ice cream. "I am going to call the baby Jelly Bean," she said. "Can I go play frisbee with those kids?" "Sure," laughed Mommy and Daddy, but she was already gone.