Isabel's Pizza

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Isabel.

She thought she loved pizza.

So she and her Mummy went to the store (they called it TJ's) to pick up some pizza dough, some pizza sauce and some shredded mozzarella cheese.

They were going to make homemade pizza.

At the same time, her Mummy bought flour tortillas, some ketchup and some Kraft cheddar cheese. And strawberries. And green apples.

As soon as they got home Isabel raced into the kitchen and lickety split put on her chef's apron.

"Mummy, Mummy, QUICK," yelled Isabel. "Put on your apron!"

So her Mummy put on her apron too. And the two of them started to sing, "Ya ta da ta, ya ta da ta, ya da da ta ta TA....HEY! Ya ta da ta, ya ta da ta, ya da da ta ta TA....HEY!"

And then Isabel sang "Biscabo, bisgaba, bisgabababa...HEY! Biscaba, miscaba, giscamiscabata...HEY!"

Well, by this time, the flour was rolled out into a big, big circle of pizza crust. But now, it had to be flipped and tossed.

And the two of them started to sing, "Ya ta da ta, ya ta da ta, ya da da ta ta TA....HEY! Ya ta da ta, ya ta da ta, ya da da ta ta TA....HEY!"

And then Isabel sang "Biscabo, bisgaba, bisgabababa...HEY! Biscaba, miscaba, giscamiscabata...HEY!"

They flipped, plipped, and nipped the pizza crust and put it onto a pan. Then Isabel spooned pizza sauce all over the crust. Then her Mummy AND Isabel plopped tons of shredded mozzarella cheese on top of the sauce.

With that, they were ready to put it in the oven. While the pizza was baking, Isabel set the table ALL by herself, singing, "Ya ta da ta, ya ta da ta, ya da da ta ta TA....HEY! Ya ta da ta, ya ta da ta, ya da da ta ta TA....HEY!"

And then her Mummy sang "Biscabo, bisgaba, bisgabababa...HEY! Biscaba, miscaba, giscamiscabata...HEY!"

Finally, finally, the pizza was ready. Isabel's Mummy took the pizza out of the oven, cut it into big slices and put them on the table. They waited a few minutes for the pizza to cool down, but while they were waiting, Isabel was SO excited that she kept jumping up and down.

The pizza was cool. Isabel sat down and took a big, big bite.

"BLEEEAAAAHHH!" groaned Isabel as she spat the pizza back out onto her plate.

Her Mummy looked at her in amazement and a little bit of horror!

"Isabel? You told me you LOVE pizza."

Isabel began to cry. "I guess I only THOUGHT I loved pizza. I HATE it!!!!"

Her Mummy gave her a hug and began to laugh. "Come on," she said. "Let's go make a tortilla grilled cheese sandwich. We'll put a little ketchup on it and call it Isabel's pizza. What do you think about that?"

"Great," stated Isabel. And they headed back to the kitchen.

And Isabel and her Mummy started to sing, "Ya ta da ta, ya ta da ta, ya da da ta ta TA....HEY! Ya ta da ta, ya ta da ta, ya da da ta ta TA....HEY!"

And then Isabel sang "Biscabo, bisgaba, bisgabababa...HEY! Biscaba, miscaba, giscamiscabata...HEY!"

Monster Bubbles

Tonight, for some reason, Isabel was afraid to be alone in the dark. She was worried about Monsters. She knows that there are no such things as Monsters...but I guess, at 5 1/2, lying in the dark, Mummy's arm wrapped around her tiny little chest, seems like mighty protection from any lurking Monster types that may be lying around in wait. So we had to get rid of them...quick!

Once upon a time, a long time ago, a little girl named Isabel, lived in a pretty little house in California. It was called a bungalow because the house was all on one floor. There was no upstairs and there was no downstairs. No attic. No basement. Just floor and then the ground under the house.

So, for a little girl, like Isabel, the only place that any Monster could be, was in the closet or under the bed. There were no other hiding places at all.


In fact, once upon a time, when Isabel was really, really teeny (about 3 years old or so...) Mummy yelled out under all the beds in the house. She yelled, "There are NO Monsters allowed in my house. And I'm the Mummy. And this is my house. So IF there are any Monsters, this is your LAST chance to leave...OR ELSE!!"

With that, Isabel's Mummy THREW open the front door to the house and yelled out REALLY loudly, "LAST CHANCE, STINKY MONSTERS...I'M COUNTING TO THREE. BY THE TIME I SAY THREE, YOU'D BETTER ALL BE OUT THE DOOR!!"

Now Isabel KNEW this was serious business, because when her Mummy counted to THREE, you listened pretty darn fast...or ELSE! (or ELSE could mean no TV, no VIDEO and the worst...NO chocolate chip cookie.)

"ONE!" yelled Isabel's Mummy.

"TWO!" she yelled even louder. She gave Isabel a BIG smile. And together, Isabel and Mummy yelled, "THREEEEEEE!!!!" And then Mummy shut the door with a bang and a crash.

She smacked her hands together.

"There!" she said. "All gone."

And Isabel and Mummy climbed right into bed and had a great sleep. But now, Isabel was 5 1/2 and for some reason, tonight she was really, really afraid that a Monster would be in her room in the dark. So her Mummy told her the secret trick to REALLY, REALLY getting rid of Monsters even faster than counting to THREE.

"Isabel," Mummy said, "Why do you think Monsters are SO big? Why do you think they act SO scary?"

"I don't know, Mummy!" exclaimed Isabel, her eyes a little bit wide.

"Because, silly," laughed Mummy. "They're TICKLISH!!!!"

"No way!" exclaimed Isabel.

"YES, WAY!" said Mummy. "When a Monster is being big and scary, anyone, even a little kid can get rid of them like this!"

And she snapped her fingers. Isabel snapped her fingers too.

"When a Monster is trying to be scary, just tickle them in their armpit! They'll giggle...teehee! Then they turn into a bubble and pop! No more Monster."

Isabel looked at her Mummy in amazement. "They turn into a BUBBLE?"

"Mmm-hmm," said Mummy. "And then they POP!"

And two seconds later, Isabel was asleep. With a humongous smile on her face as she dreamed of tickling and popping Monsters.

The end.

Copyright Wendy Spiegel, Los Angeles, California 2005. All rights reserved.

Inch Worm

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful princess, Ruby Red. Ruby Red loved the color...red! She has red dresses, red ribbons, red shoes, red tights and even red underwear. One day, a handsome prince came to visit her and asked her for her hand in marriage.

Ruby Red said, "Thanks handsome prince, but I'm not quite ready yet. But I'm flattered that you asked! I must say no!"

With that the Prince grabbed Ruby Red and fled with her. You see, the Prince was really the Nasty Wizard of Badness. The Nasty Wizard was pretty nasty. He had orange hair, like straw, a squiggly mouth, dirty teeth with drool coming down his chin, blechy eyes, and HORRIBLE breath. He took Ruby Red and flew off on the back of his big dragon (flappeta-flappeta-flappeta) until they came to a tall tower. The Nasty Wizard locked Ruby Red in the tower.

After several days, Ruby Red was so sad that she started to cry as she was leaning out her tiny window. Plop! A tear fell down 100 feet and landed on the head of an Inch Worm!

"Hey!" cried out Inch Worm, "Cut that out up there!"

And another tear promptly came crashing down upon his head. Well, that was quite enough for Inch Worm and he started to clim up the tower to give Ruby Red a piece of his mind! Now Inch Worm was only able to move an inch at a time...so it took him ALL day to get to Ruby Red. But when he got there, he yelled out at her, "HEY! You! Princess! Yeah...you! I'm talking to you!!"

But Ruby Red was crying so hard that she couldn't hear his teeny voice. It took him another hour, but he inched his way right next to her and yelled, "HEY! Princess!!!"

That time Ruby Red noticed Inch Worm and she was just about to flick him out the window, when he cried, "STOP! You'll be sorry if you toss me...you hear?"

She looked at the Inch Worm in amazement. She stopped crying. "You speak?" she asked.

"Of course I speak, Lady! And I'm telling you to stop crying for good because you are washing me out of house and home!" yelled Inch Worm. "And what are you crying for anyway?"

Ruby Red told him the story of how she got locked in the tower and how she couldn't get out of the room. Inch Worm asked, "Why don't you just use the key?"

Ruby Red said there was no key.

"Well, there's no key in her, but there has to be one out there," he said, motioning to the door. "If I get you outta here, will you do one thing for me?"

"Of course I would!" exclaimed Ruby Red.

"Okay. Then this is what it is. I get you out, and you give me a big old kiss right on the head. Deal?"

Ruby Red thought for only a minute, cuz even though the thought of kissing a slimy worm was totally gross, she would rather do that than stay locked in the tower.

"DEAL!" she replied.

She carried Inch Worm to the bottom of the door where he crawled under and about an hour later crawled back into Ruby Red's room...with the key on his back!

"Oh, thank you, Inch Worm, THANK YOU!"

She quickly unlocked the door, ran out the room and down the stairs. She was so excited to escape that she promptly forgot her promise to Inch Worm. It took Inch Worm three days and forty five minutes to inch his way down from the tower back to his little home. But he was mighty steamed at Ruby Red, I can tell you.

Well, all of a sudden, four and one half days later, Ruby Red remembered her promise! She jumped up, very ashamed of herself for forgetting. Wearing a disguise so that the Wizard wouldn't recognize her, she made her way back to the tower where she called out Inch Worm's name.

"Inch Worm...Inch Worm...where are you?"

And Inch Worm poked out his head and said, "Oh. It's you. So nice of you to remember your promise." He started to yell at her, but before he could get out another word, Ruby Red picked him up and gave him a big kiss on the head.

All of a sudden, Inch Worm started to change shape and lo and behold...presto chango...Inch Worm turned into...a BOY! Who was just the same age as Ruby Red!

"Wow," said Ruby Red. "That was super cool."

And the Boy, whose real name was Prince Joshua, became Ruby Red's best friend and from that moment on, they played together (very nicely too, I might add) every single day.

The end.

Copyright Wendy Spiegel, Los Angeles, California 2005. All rights reserved.