You Won't Know It's Yummy Unless You Taste It

Reema turned six this year. And from the day she celebrated her sixth birthday, she started feeling that she had become a big girl.

You could see her big girl attitude in many of her actions lately. She organized her school bag all by herself. She made her bed everyday immediately after she woke up in the morning. She brushed her teeth on time every morning and every evening without any reminders from her mom and dad. She finished her homework without being nagged anymore. She made sure that she found enough time daily to play some games. In short she had started doing many activities on her own initiative and that too quite independently.

Her mom and dad were very appreciative of the good change in her. They would say, "Reema, we are so proud of you, you have become so organized!" Reema liked the praise showered on her by her parents.

Her parents were now looking forward to her taking liking to some food items that were really good for her health but for some reason she had developed a dislike for them. These food items included eggs and certain egg preparations though she wouldn't mind eating the cakes that had egg in them. Rather she loved cakes.

Her mom thought of re-introducing eggs in her meals. One day she prepared caramelized egg pudding. She placed the pudding on an attractive serving dish and brought it on the dining table. She had prepared some other nice dishes too. That day her mom had invited some guests for dinner. The guests included their family friends- two couples and their two daughters Ana and Neena. Ana and Neena were of Reema's age.

When all of them settled around the dining table for their dinner, Reema's mom requested, "Kindly go ahead with the dinner."

Reema was not a fussy eater in the normal course but lately she had become a bit choosy. And certainly she had reservations about the egg and egg preparations. So she ate the soup and the main course but when it was egg pudding's turn she declared, "Today I do not wish to take the dessert because my tummy is already quite full and it can't additionally take the pudding even if I want to." She didn't whine or sounded ill-mannered in refusing to eat the egg pudding. She was quite polite and nice outwardly but inside she was quite upset and angry.

She thought, "Why mom has to make egg pudding and make me eat it? Perhaps my mom thought that in front of the guests and my friend Ana and Neena I would not make a scene and eat the pudding quietly. But she is wrong. I am still refusing to eat it and my friends still don't know that I do not eat eggs. Am I not smart?"

Everyone else on the table ate the egg pudding with gusto. The guests praised it profusely saying, "The egg pudding is brilliantly delicious." The girls Ana and Neena chirped, "Hey Reema, it is super yummy. Please eat it. Please. If you don't eat it you are going to miss it badly. We are going in for the second helping and will eat your share too."

After hearing what Ana and Neena and their parents had to say about the egg pudding, Reema started repenting for refusing to eat the pudding. She was feeling sad about the yummy pudding. But she had a big ego because now she was a big girl.  Once having refused how could she volunteer to ask for it? It was a prestige issue for her.

Her mom was looking at Reema's face and her body language. She knew what was happening in her daughter's mind. After all a mother always knows what goes on in her child's mind without child speaking about it. She knew that Reema wanted to eat the egg pudding but her ego was coming in her way. And therefore she was sulking.

Her mom had told Reema many times that sulking never solved any problem. But Reema didn't know how to get out of her sulking mood. She was looking at mom to help her out.

Mom realizing that her daughter was seeking her help to come out of her sulking mood said, "Reema, see your friend Ana and Neena want you to give them your company in eating the pudding which they think is very yummy. You won't know it's yummy unless you taste it. And if you find that it's yummy you may like to eat at least a small portion of it just to give them the company."

"You are right mommy. I won't know it's yummy unless I taste it. Can you please serve a bit of it on my plate just to taste it," Reema said.

Then Reema tasted the small portion of the egg pudding and she exclaimed, "Wow, it's really super super yummy. I think my stomach will make some room for it even if it is full."

Then she served two scoops full of pudding on her plate and gave company to Ana and Neena.

Reema's mom and dad felt glad to see happiness on their daughter's face.

Novels and Stories

Novel "Good People" http://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/
Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories http://funny-shortstories.blogspot.com/
Stories Children Will Love http://stories-children.blogspot.com/

The novel "Good People", "Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories" and "Stories Children Will Love" are available in the form of eBook and printed book from Amazon online. Hurry up, get your copies.

Tooth Fairy Recycles The Tooth

Reema turned six.

On her birthday she told her mom and dad, "I'm a big girl now, a first-grader in my school. And one more thing. Tonight onward I want to sleep in my own bedroom the whole night. Not like what I do now, sneaking into your bedroom when I wake up in the night."

"Oh dear! That's a brave thing to do," mom and dad exclaimed simultaneously.

"But suppose one of the nights I feel like sneaking into your room to snuggle with you guys, can I?"

"Sure darling, absolutely sure. Just walk in soon after you wake up in the night," mom and dad assured her.

After a week's time when she came home from the school, she ran into her mom's arms and started sobbing.

"Hey Reema, what's wrong? What happened? Why are you so upset?"

Reema found difficulty in replying. Somehow she stuttered, "Mom, something is seriously wrong with two of my teeth. I'm scared."

"Did you tell about it to your dad?" Dad had picked her up from the school in his car.

"No I didn't. I wanted to tell you first."

Mom said, "It's OK. Now open your mouth."

Reema opened her mouth. Her mom inspected her daughter's teeth.

"Which ones?" she asked.

"The front two teeth, the lower ones. they have become kind of loose. I am frightened with the thought that they would fall off."

"Reema. Don't be worried. The teeth that you have now are your temporary teeth. They are called baby teeth or some call them milk teeth. All of the them will fall one by one."

"Will I remain teeth-less then?"

"No, in place of the baby tooth you lose, you will get a new tooth and that will be your permanent tooth. So all your temporary teeth will get replaced by the new ones gradually. So don't feel worried and scared."

"OK mom."

"And one more interesting thing will happen. When you lose your  baby tooth, you can place it under your bed pillow. In the night the tooth fairy will visit you while you are asleep and replace your tooth with a small payment. Then you can use that money. You may like to save it in your piggy bank and later use it to purchase something of your choice."

Reema was surprised and thrilled to hear about the tooth fairy. Wide-eyed she asked, "Mom, will tooth fairy visit me too when my tooth falls off and I keep it under my pillow."

"Sure dear. Now go and play and also tell your daddy about it."

"I am going to tell daddy about the tooth fairy just now and then go and play."

Then Reema ran away to her daddy who was having his evening tea in the dining room.

Then a day came when in school Reema lost two of her teeth at the same time. She reported it to her class teacher. The class teacher sent her to the school's administration office. The lady there kept a stock of small plastic cases. The children who lost their baby tooth could get one of these tiny plastic cases from the office lady and keep their fallen tooth in the case.

Reema ran to the office. She showed her two fallen teeth to the office lady and requested, "Mam, see my teeth. I want to keep them in the plastic case. Can you give me one?"

The lady gave the case to Reema and said, "Reema, keep your teeth carefully in this. Then in the night place the case under your pillow. A tooth fairy will replace the teeth with some money."

"My mom also told me the same thing. Thanks."

Her daddy picked her up from the school that day in his car. Reema flashed her two teeth to her daddy in great excitement.

Daddy showed lots of surprise. "Hey, you did it, you brave girl," he said and hugged her. "Now keep it safe for the tooth fairy."

"Yes, I am going to keep it very safe."

On reaching home she showed her teeth to her mom. Her mom too hugged her and said, "Brave girl. Hope it didn't pain?"

"Not at all mom. It was so easy. I was feeling scared unnecessarily. And my class teacher and the office mam were so nice to me. The children in my class were very happy to see the gap in my mouth because some of them also had lost their teeth recently. The gaps feel and look so funny!"

When the night came, Reema placed the plastic case below her bed pillow. When she woke up in the night she checked up under the pillow. She mumbled to herself, "The tooth fairy has yet to come because the case is still there under the pillow and I do not see any money."

After checking the teeth under the pillow, Reema did not go to her mom and dad's bedroom as she used to do some nights. She didn't want to miss the money that tooth fairy would put under her pillow in exchange of her teeth."

In the morning she was astonished to see the money under her pillow and the plastic case was gone. She ran to her mom and dad and shouted, "Mom and Dad, look here. The tooth fairy gave me the money and took away my teeth."

Reema deposited that money in her piggy bank. Then Reema got ready to go to the school with her daddy along with her little baby brother Rohit who was just seven months old. Every morning her dad would drop Reema in her school and Rohit in his day care center.

As they were traveling together and as usual Reema was playing with her baby brother Rohit in the car, she suddenly noticed something shining in Rohit's mouth.

She said, "Daddy, I see something shining in Rohit's mouth. Is he eating something that he should not. Please check it immediately."

Her dad knew that Rohit was teething. So he was sure that the object that Reema saw in Rohit's mouth were his new teeth. Last few days Rohit was chewing everything that he could lay his hands on. Therefore his mom and dad had opened his mouth to check if he was teething. And their suspicion came true. Indeed he was teething. His two cute little teeth were peeping out of his gums. They were the lower set of teeth right in the front.

So Reema's dad replied, "Reema, Rohit is getting his baby teeth now. What you see are his new teeth."

"What a wonderful fairy the tooth fairy is! She took away my teeth and gave it to my sweet little brother. Thank you tooth fairy," Reema spoke loudly and also let her dad know how grateful she was to the tooth fairy.

And then she was very eager to share this phenomenon with her mom then and there. She coaxed her dad into ringing her mom using the car's hands free speak phone. Mom got the ring on her cell phone.

Before mom could even say a word, Reema shared her new found discovery with her mom, "Mom, mom. A super incredible thing took place. I lost my two baby teeth yesterday and the tooth fairy has been so nice- she recycled those two teeth and gave them to my sweet sweet brother. And do you know the new teeth in Rohit's mouth are exactly at the same place where I had lost them from my mouth. The lower teeth right in the front."

Before mom could say anything Reema had already reached her school and was getting down from her car.

Reema's mom smiled. After a few seconds she smiled once more thinking about her daughter's imagination. But she did think seriously about this fantasy, "Do the tooth fairies really recycle the teeth? That's why they take away children's baby teeth to give them to the little babies. And the cycle continues."

Novels and Stories

Novel "Good People" http://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/
Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories http://funny-shortstories.blogspot.com/
Stories Children Will Love http://stories-children.blogspot.com/

The novel "Good People", "Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories" and "Stories Children Will Love" are available in the form of eBook and printed book from Amazon online. Hurry up, get your copies.