April 14, 2005
Gratuitous Domestic Posting (TM) - How To Start A Panic
(Image courtesy of, well, Madeline)
Y'know, I've been reading the Madeline stories to the Llama-ettes for time out of mind. But for some reason, it was only the other night that they suddenly realized what having an operation to remove an inflamed appendix actually entails. They were horrified by the idea.
So there I was, reading about eleven little girls who enviously wished they could have appendectomies like Madeline to an audience of three little girls who were practically frantic that nobody should come anywhere near them with a scalpel. Alas, Miss Clavel's closing admonition that one should be thankful for one's good health got completely trampled in the rout. Pity, because that is one of my favorite lines.
Talk about one step forward and two steps back. It took me a lot longer to calm them down and assure them that nobody was going to touch them than it did to read the story to begin with.
YIPS from Steve: How do they handle Madeline and the Bad Hat, what with Pepito's chicken guilotine, the bull fighting, and the attack by the dogs? For some odd reason, that story is the littlest mobile one's favorite---she likes repeating "Daddy bad hat....brother bad hat...LaLa bad hat..."
In that vein, the one I can never figure is the Noah story---why that is always pushed as a big kid's story is beyond me. It's the animals, of course, but eventually you get the realization that The Big Guy gets really ticked off and kills (almost) everybody. Frightening stuff for the five year olds, no?
Still, Madeline is a staple during The Big Monkey Story Hour, as the eldest has dubbed my nightly role.
YIPS BACK from Robbo: Ah, that's me godchild. "Daddy bad hat" indeed. Heh. My favorite take on the Noah story? "Noah...How long can you tread water?"
Posted by Robert at April 14, 2005 11:22 AMI'm with the Llama-ettes on seeing through the whole "moral of the story" thing. A number of old movies use tonsilectomies similarly, in order to hoodwink us into docilely lying down on the stretcher.
Recently we say the original Cheaper by the Dozen movie, which I dearly love; I cringed, then hooted when the father, gleefully intent on filming the procedure being performed on his children, had to have it done himself. Karma, dude.
Posted by: tee bee at April 14, 2005 12:55 PMYes, they seem to be pretty indifferent to what Pepito does to his menagerie, but anything that may boomerang back on their own selves puts them in full Red Alert mode. Sort of a "Not In My Abdominal Cavity" thing.
Posted by: Robert the LB at April 14, 2005 01:28 PMto borrow, roflmao. I think we've got a new bumper sticker campaign: Not In My Abdominal Cavity. Much more fun than "Keep your laws off my body."
Posted by: tee bee at April 14, 2005 03:13 PMOhhh well, you simply haven't lived until you've accompanied a four-year old by shouting along with "I LUV CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG!!!'
Just sayin;-)
Posted by: sadie at April 14, 2005 04:44 PMRead them the novelization of Alien next, see where that gets you.
"Then something icky with big teeth burst out of Kane's chest, showering Ripley & the others with goo, gore, & half-chewed body parts. 'Oooo,' said Ripley..."
Posted by: jeff at April 14, 2005 10:10 PM
