Imagine that!

One of my friends (Donna from last night's telephone story) brought Maggie a finger puppet theater with five puppets today. She was going through stuff to donate to a church rummage sale and came across some of her son's old toys. In fact, this was the inspiration behind the phone call last night ... to see if we wanted a rolling storage bin she was going to donate. She threw the puppets in as a bonus. :-)

Donna and Patrick dropped the stuff off at our house this morning, and Maggie has played with the puppets all day! I wasn't sure how well she'd know to do the finger puppets, especially their theater, but she took right to it! It has been so cute watching her imagination blossom as she makes up stories and acts out the different animal characters. Usually, the stage ends up being tossed aside in favor of old-fashioned pretend play amongst the puppets. One of her "shows" this afternoon became so involved that I got out a pen and paper and started transcribing her play/story. The characters are as follows: Bunny (B), Mousie (M), Squirrel (S), Owl (O), and Rattie (R).

Bunny: I want to go play, Mommy.
Mousie: You can't; you're sick.
(me: Why is Bunny sick? / Maggie: Because he ate toothpaste.)
M: How many times have I asked you not to eat toothpaste?
B: 20
M: No, 15.
B: First, let's slide down the slide.
M: Gimme a hand with that, baby. Gimme your hands.
B: I'm scared.
M: You sit in my lap and not be scared.
Both: Yay! Whee! (sliding down a table leg)
B: I'll try again -- I'm brave. I'm brave. I'm brave. ... Aaaaaah! (falls)
M: What's wrong?
B: I fell down ... I got up.
M: I'll catch you, come on over.
B: Help! My ear is stuck! (she mashed his ear to where the glass table joins with the leg, so he was hanging by the ears)
M: I'm going to try that too.

Maggie narrates: Look, Mama, the bunny is caught!

M: I can rescue you! (Mousie rescues Bunny, then Squirrel gets similarly caught)
B: I'll help you ... Super Bunny to the rescue. Oh no, try again, try again.
Squirrel: Help, help, I'm sliding! Bunny, Bunny, watch out!
B: It's my turn. Squirrel, watch out. Oh my goodness.
(animals take turns "sliding" down the table leg)

Maggie narrates: It's winter coming to our house. I want to hide them in a place. (hides all of the animals) They're going down the tree. "My turn," says Rattie. "My turn," says Rabbit. "My turn," says Mousie. "My turn," said Owl. "This is fun."

(airplane noise overhead ... I couldn't hear for about a minute)

Maggie puts each puppet in a different spot on the porch and says, "Let's put up our puppet show," then arranges the theater the way she wants it. I think "put up" means "put on" the show.)

B: Hop in!
S: Super Squirrel flying in! I'll save you! (crashes against the side of the stage) Hey, that wasn't fair. Try again. Be nice here.
B: We will not let you.
Maggie narrates: They dropped down the squirrel because he couldn't get in.
B: Super Bunny, he wants to be locked up. Heeeeeeelp. Help.
R: I'll save ya! Super Rabbit to the rescue. Aaaaaah!
Owl: I'll save ya! Super Owl to the rescue!
R: It's far in there.
O: I can fly! (flaps wings several times) Hoo, hoo, hoo.
M: I don't like this game.
Narrator: He flies out.

All exit with the same declaration that they don't like the game either. In a dramatic conclusion, Maggie the narrator stacks all of the finger puppets and pretends to eat them, calling them a sandwich. " 'Aaaaah,' says Bunny. 'Aaaah," said the Owl."

The end.