Big Help from Little Teddy Bears

Teddy: We've been beary busy lately! Spaulding: We're swapping Internet Providers, and so, are working on a new web den! Teddy: Since Mommy has to help us... Spaulding: They really need to make keyboards that have big enough keys for Teddy Bear paws to use! Teddy: ...we have to help Mommy do chores! ::::::::::::::::::::Mommy speaks to them quietly:::::::::::::::::::::: Spaulding: Mommy says that she wants everyone to know that we don't have to do any chores at all, since our main job is to take care of Mommy and Daddy. Teddy: Mommy and Daddy feel badly that they have such trouble keeping up with chores because of their disabilities, and so, feel terrible if they catch us doing any chores! Spaulding: Something about "being little kids" and "enjoying playing and having fun," but she doesn't seem to understand that we only do things that are fun to us! Teddy: And, even for little Teddy Bears, playing house with a real house IS beary, beary fun! Spaulding: Since Mommy and Daddy don't like us doing chores, we either do chores when they aren't looking... Teddy: ...or ask if we can help when they are doing the work! Spaulding: They usually let us help if we ask, because they give us the fun parts of what they are doing! Teddy: If Daddy is making meatballs... Spaulding: ...or Mommy is making meatloaf... Teddy: ...they get all the ingredients in a bowl... Spaulding: ...and let us squish it all together! Teddy: We put our magical chef's gloves on so the juices won't get our beans wet! Spaulding: It's fun to squish ground meat with our paws! Teddy: Kinda like making mudpies, but we're actually making something that can be eaten later! Spaulding: Mommy has recently let me really help prepare the potatoes to be boiled to make mashed potatoes! Teddy: Mommy keeps saying she has two speeds: slow and reverse! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: At first, to avoid getting my beans wet, Mommy just let me contribute by singing while she peeled the potatoes! Teddy: He'd sing The William Tell Overture! Spaulding: No! I'd sing The Lone Ranger's Theme! Teddy (with an understanding smile): Yeah, it's the same thing! Spaulding (with the light bulb turning on over his head): Oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Teddy: It helped Mommy go beary fast! Spaulding: BUT, last week, she let me take the next step... Teddy: ...using magical chef's gloves, of course... Spaulidng: She let me peel the potatoes all by myself! Teddy: And then she let him cut up the potatoes all by himself! I'm just so impressed! Spaulding: Welllllllllllllllll she didn't want me to cut myself, so she gave me a butter knife to cut them, instead of the sharp knife that she uses! Teddy: Yeah, but that means she knew you were strong enough to use a butter knife, and she was right too! ::::::::::Spaulding looks back at Mommy. A big proud grin lights up his face after Mommy nods her head.:::::::::::::::: Spaulding (flexing his muscles): Cool! I also had to rinse the potatoes and then add water to the pot! Teddy: Wasn't it heavy to carry the pot full of potatoes and water to the stove? Spaulding: I weigh less then a pound and that had to weigh 14 BILLION pounds! It was beary hard, but Mommy helped me! Teddy: Out of all that we did this last week, what were you the proudest doing? Spaulding: I think making those mashed potatoes, since making bread crumbs was so hard, I gave up midway through it! Teddy: Bread crumbs? How do you make bread crumbs? I thought bread crumbs were what was left on our plate after eating several hotdogs! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Last weekend, when you were taking care of Daddy, Mommy got a moment of being domestic... Teddy: "Domestic!" Good word! Not usually associated with Mommy though! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Don't worry, it didn't last too long! Even she said that it would be the last time she made homemade bread crumbs! Teddy: Why? Spaulding: I told you--it's beary hard! Teddy: How do you make them? Spaulding: Mommy had been saving the end pieces of loaves of bread! Teddy: End pieces of loaves of bread are much bigger then crumbs!? Spaulding: That's just how you start! She let them dry out on a table and then saved them in a plastic bag. When she had a bunch of them, she pulled out the blender! Teddy: That reminds me! What is green and red and goes round and round and round? Spaulding: What? Teddy: A frog in a blender! Get it get it get it?! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: She had done this before, so knew it would be difficult to grind them down from big pieces so she got out big bowl and the potato masher and asked me to smash them down to smaller sizes, but I didn't get beary far! Teddy: Did she do it? Spaulding: It was beary, beary hard, and she couldn't do any better then I did! Teddy: So, then, what did you do? Spaulding: We had to break up each piece by paw or hand, and then when we had enough to fill the blender three quarters of the way up, we would make the blender pulse a whole bunch! Teddy: What's "pulse"? Spaulding: Looks kinda like the blender is hiccupping! You turn it on for a moment, then tun it off! Then you keep doing that over and over again until all the pieces of bread are gone and replaced by ground crumbs! Teddy: Sounds messy! Spaulding: Down right crumby! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Teddy: So how was that hard? Spaulding: Mommy did about five batches like that, and, after 20 minutes on the fist batch, I gave up when I smelled hotdogs upstairs! Teddy: Oh yeah! That's when Daddy and I were watching that PBS special about HOTDOGS! Enough hotdogs seen on that show that I'm sure Mawson, who lives waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy on the other side of the world, could smell hotdogs! Spaulding: While we slipped into the TV and got a few dozen hotdogs each, Mommy finished up making the crumbs! Teddy (blushing): I was thinking so much about hotdogs, I even forgot you were telling about bread crumb making! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: That's the advantage of living here! Mommy and Daddy prefer that we just have fun, instead of helping them, so Mommy didn't even get a little angry that I didn't finish helping her! Teddy: I do remember Mommy telling Daddy that it was cheaper and easier to just buy bread crumbs from now on, since it took so long to make them, but we have enough to last us a while! Spaulding: What was the chore you did in the last week that made you the proudest? Teddy: I'm beary good at taking care of Daddy, but I don't consider that a chore as much as a passion! ::::::::::::::::::Both nod in somber agreement:::::::::::::::::::::::: Teddy: With Daddy not feeling well and me taking care of him night and day, I can't do chores so often, so, I think I liked balancing the checkbook with you the most! Spaulding: Mommy really, really hates doing that, so I'm glad she smiled so big when she caught us doing that! Teddy: I don't quite understand how she's been able to do it without a scale before! :::::::::::::::::::::both shrug their shoulders in confusion:::::::::::::::::::::::: Spaulding: Her Mommy must have been a Teddy Bear lover too, since she gave Mommy that perfect Teddy Bear size scale! :::::::::Mommy quietly explains that it was from a trip her Mom took to Pennsylvania Dutch country, and was for Mommy's dolls when she was little::::::::::::::: Teddy: Dolls?! Weird! Spaulding: I'm glad we have our money calculating baseball caps and big enough mugs for coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee to keep us alert enough to balance the checkbook and the coins! Teddy: I can't remember exactly how much the checkbook weighed! Spaulding: Me either! It was something like four quarters, a nickel, two dimes and some pennies! Teddy (whispering is best loud whisper): I WAS AFRAID TO USE OUR MONEY TO BALANCE THE CHECKBOOK, BUT MOMMY DID LET US KEEP OUR MONEY! ::::::::::::::::::::::::::Both nod with big smiles in solemn agreement:::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Spaulding: Balancing the checkbook was easy! I don't know why Mommy hates it! Teddy: Mommy doesn't drink coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee! Maybe that's why! Spaudling (again feeling the light bulb go on over his head): Oooooohhhhh, that's got to be it!!! Teddy: I'm sure glad we could fold laundry together though! I never knew how hard that is! Spaulding: I like that Flipfold thingy! Teddy: Mommy and Daddy needs lots and lots and lots of material for their clothes.... :::::::::::::::::::Teddy stops in mid sentence, suddenly realizing that Mommy might think that means that he thinks she is fat! Fearing that she will be upset, he quickly finishes the sentence before looking at her reaction:::::::::::::::::::::: Teddy: I-I-I'm meaning that they are much taller then Teddy Bears not that they are fat or anything, just that people are so much bigger, but not in a fat way, then Teddy Bears that their clothes need a whole bunch, well, a bit more, material to make then tiny, itty bitty, adorable, Teddy Bears! ::::::::::::::::Spaulding has a large smile as he watches Teddy trying to get out of trouble and trying not to hurt Mommy's feelings. He's been watching Teddy back peddle and watching Mommy's reaction the whole time, knowing that Mommy did understand, and finally, nods his head to let Teddy know it is all right to look at Mommy. Teddy finally notices that his seat, Mommy's right leg, has been bouncing up and down since he started his sentence, and looks up to see Mommy suppressing a huge belly laugh, big enough to shake her whole body, including the two Teddy Bears and laptop that are on her lap! During her laughing fit, she does remind them that their parents ARE, not only bigger then most people, but are also bigger then they should be, or, although she never wants their Teddy Bears to be so cruel as to use such language, FAT -- over-weight, being the preferred term. Teddy sags in relief, then smiles widely as he hugs his Mommy:::::::::::::::::::::::: Spaulding (aware that Teddy had lost his point, continues for his brother): The Flipfold thingy is even more helpful for us then for Mommy, because we can get all tangled up in the cloth, and the Flipfold let's us do most of the folding, just by flipping its parts! Way cool! Teddy (already having forgot his mistake): And that's beary good since actually climbing up to get the piece of laundry and dragging it to where it needs to go, is tough since most of the laundry is bigger then we are! Spaulding: I'm glad you helped, or I couldn't have done it myself, but you really should have been catching up on your sleep while Daddy was napping! Teddy: I want our web den as much as you do, so wanted to help! Spaulding: But falling asleep getting the next piece of laundry proved you needed a nap! Teddy (smiling sheepishly): Ooooooooooooohh, that's why I don't remember doing the rest of the laundry! I did like waking up in Valentine's arms though! Both: Kehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Well, along with working on the web den and doing chores, we also have to prepare for Valentine's Birthday! Teddy: I can't get believe how the whole world seems to know about her birthday! Everything on TV lately is teaching us how to make cards for her, and cook dinners for her and what to buy or make for her presents! Spaulding: And all the stores are having sales for her birthday---wellllll, car dealers and furniture stores are anyway! Teddy: Valentine's first birthday! We've been in love for almost a whole year now! I can't wait! Spaulding: Truth is, Valentine shares her day with another peoples' tradition--one day a year when every one HAS to show their love ones how much they are loved! It may be Valentine's birthday, but if I don't do something special for Lady, I'm in trouble! Teddy: Well then, we better go get ready for Saturday then! Spaulding: Soooooooo, until next time...