Bouffant Blonde

Mama has been busy baby proofing the house. Little Guy helps in every way he can. He follows Mama around and asks question after question. Mama isn't putting out anything breakable this year. At least not anything low enough for little fingers to reach. "But Mama I won't break the reindeer. I promise," Little Guy says. "I know, Little Guy," she assures him. "But Matthew is little and he crawls everywhere. I wouldn't want him to get hurt. It's best to only use things that can't break." "Oh, I see. " Little Guy thought a minute. "He wouldn't eat my treats, will he?" Mama laughed. "We'll make sure to keep your treats well away from him. I know you really don't like to share." Little Guy was relieved. He really doesn't like to share. Mama moved a plant up to a higher shelf. "Why don't you leave it down low, Mama," Little Guy asked. "It isn't breakable." "No, but ...

Mama is happy. The Christmas tree is finally up, ornaments and all. Now Mama is baking cookies and he wants to help. Mama is baking Snickerdoodles. She made some earlier and Gran ate them. Little Guy hardly had any. So this time he plans to be right there when the cookies come out of the oven. He sniffs the cinnamon that fills the house as the cookies bake. Little Guy loves cookies. Any kind of cookie. He's really not particular. Except he is a little partial to whatever cookie Sunshine has. He figures hers always taste better than his. Mama is singing Christmas carols as she forms little balls out of the cookie dough. Little Guy listens. His ears stand up straight as he tries to remember all the words. He's not much of a singer. But he's willing to try his best. "Woo-woo," he sings loudly. Mama smiles. "Fa, la, la, la, la," she sings. "Woo-woo," Little Guy adds. Singing is so much fun. Sunshine lifts her head up, glances his way, then lays her...

Mama was not a happy camper. Little Guy knew this right away. He sat in the dining room and looked toward the Christmas Tree in the living room. Mama's glasses were perched on her nose and her hands were searching among the tree's branches. "It shouldn't be this hard to find a plug," Mama said. "You'd think they'd make it easy. It's supposed to be easy. Just plug in a few strands and the lights twinkle on." Mama searched a little more. Her head slipped under the branches. She sat back in frustration. "The top of the tree looks wonderful," Little Guy said in an effort to cheer her up. "You're right," she said. "But the bottom half has no working lights. I've got two things that need to plug in somewhere. There has to be somewhere to plug them in. But where? They didn't just disappear between last year and this year!" Mama's hands searched the tree trunk once again. She pulled her hands out and look...

Little Guy has been really busy. He thought he'd get a break after he'd helped gather all the pecans. Nope. He'd barely settled in for a nap when Grandaddy announced it was time to plant rye. "What?" Little Guy couldn't believe his ears. Grandaddy got into his truck and headed for town. Little Guy laid in the sun and pretended he hadn't heard a word about work. Grandaddy soon came home and let down the truck's tailgate. Little Guy's eyes widened when he saw all those bags of rye seed. "We have to plant all that seed," Little Guy asked Grandaddy. "Yes, we do," he answered. "The cows will enjoy it this winter. They get tired of just eating hay." "But we don't have to do it all today," Little Guy said hopefully. "Actually, we need to," Grandaddy said. "It's supposed to rain this weekend. The seed needs rain to grow and we don't know when the next rain will be." Little Guy sighed....

Mama and Grandaddy were sorting pecans and Little Guy wanted to help. It looked easy enough. He watched then go through each bucket, get all the trash out, pick out the bad pecans and save all the good pecans. He could do that. Mama sat on a short stool and began picking out leaves and other such things. It was just Little Guy's height so he hurried over to help. Some of that stuff looked really bad. Little Guy didn't want to touch it. He decided maybe he'd wait and help sort the bad pecans from the good pecans. Mama showed him a bad pecan. It was kind of narrow at the end and she easily pushed it in. Little Guy smelled. Yuck! He sure wouldn't want to eat that. Into the trash pile it went. Grandaddy was perched on a high stool. Little Guy couldn't reach that high. Sunshine could but she was taking a nap. Grandaddy weighed the pecans with his hands. Little Guy was impressed. The puppy doctor always made Little Guy get on a scale and stand really, really still. Then ...

Little Guy really wanted to watch the football game Saturday. Mama loves football. So do Gran and Grandaddy. He didn't want to stay outside with Sunshine. He wanted to watch the game. Mama finally said okay. Little Guy hurried inside and sat down in front of the television. This was going to be so much fun! "Roll Tide," Mama said. "Roll Tide," Little Guy echoed. Little Guy watched the player run really fast toward the ball and he kicked it as hard as he could. The ball floated through the air until a player from the other team grabbed it and started running. Little Guy watched in excitement. He loved to run with the ball. It was fun. Suddenly, Mama started yelling. "Get him! Get him!" Little Guy frowned. He didn't like it when Mama yelled. He gulped and told himself it was all right. She wasn't yelling at him. Little Guy tried hard not to get yelled at. In fact, he hardly ever got yelled at anymore. Only when he was chasing the calves or when M...

Once upon a time Sunshine was just a baby. Mama used to carry her everywhere. Sunshine isn't a baby anymore. She's so big Mama can't even lift her. One day when Sunshine was a baby, she and Miss Lady Bug went with Grandaddy and Mama out to the barn. Sunshine wanted to be a big girl, so she walked all by herself. Grandaddy wanted to put out fresh hay for the cows. Mama's job was to guard the gate as Grandaddy used the tractor to move rolls of hay from the fenced enclosure to the pasture. Miss Lady Bug was the suspervisor. There were no cows around when the operation started. Then the cows heard the tractor. They rushed from the Big Pasture to the pasture by the barn. They wanted the fresh hay. The cows scared Sunshine. They were so big and she was really, really small. She was afraid they would step on her. Mama called Sunshine but she was too afraid to come to her. Mama couldn't leave her post in front of the gate because the cows would go in and create havoc among ...