| August, 2033<<< | All Entries | >>>October, 2033 |
We all rode home on the train today. It took a whole train because we have so many sheepies. It took a whole day because it wasn't an express train. It's kind of boring because there's hardly anything to see outside the windows, but we talked about all the things we did and all the people we want to see when we get home and took naps. Humboldt and Dmitri and I played cards with the sheepies. They have special big cards so they can hold them with their mouths. We played some Go Fishing and Hot Potato with the little lambies, and then some Spades and Hearts with the bigger lambies, and then some Poker with the teenager sheepies. Tansy doesn't want them to gamble for money, so she gave us some bags of sour pips candy to use. Everybody likes sour pips so we really played. I did pretty good. I got a STRAIGHT FLUSH and I kept my tail really quiet so people didn't know and I got a big pot! I put a bunch of it away for later and kept playing but eventually I ran out when Griffith did the same thing with a full house. I thought about playing some more but instead I went to hear Big Sam read stories to the lambies and share my sour pips with them. Then I took a nap.
The Sheep Place people got home before dinner, but we didn't get home until later so we were really HUNGRY. Dragon-mom said we should try to eat healthy after pigging out on vacation, but the food at Northern Shores was pretty healthy even at parties, so we got PIZZA, with extra bacon and shrimps and dry tomatoes.
I'm in my closet writing and eating pizza and when it's all gone I'm going to sleep in here, because after the train I want to be by myself again.
Today was a quiet day for resting from vacation. We had to put away all the stuff we took to the Northern Shores, and the presents we got, but that's mostly doing the packing checklists BACKWARDS.
In the afternoon we went to the park to play. It was nice and sunny still pretty warm even though it's SEPTEMBER. Bina was there, but they weren't playing, they were laying on their cloak on the grass and didn't have any clothes on. When I asked what they were doing, they said they were charging their body up with sunshine for winter. Max yelled, "MAX TOO!" and took off all her clothes and flopped down next to Bina. I already didn't have any clothes on so I flopped down on the other side of Bina to get sunshine on my tummy, and Max and I sang the Sunshine Song. Bina said we're silly, but they sang too.
It was a nice day. But on Monday, I have to go back to school and classes.
Usually it takes a few days to start having dream adventures again after going to the Dreamlands all the way, so I wasn't WORRIED that I couldn't check on my zoo, but I was really glad when I went there last night. I checked on all the animals and sang the Zoo Song to them because they're all really good and then I was TIRED from walking so much so I went to the petting zoo to sit down. Secret and her mom Sara-auncle were there, and they had matching pink dresses so they were really cute. Sara-auncle had a piggie on a leash and Secret was petting her. "Look, Samuel! We're taking Gorgonzola for a walk! And she knows how to do tricks! Zola, down!" Zola laid right down on the ground like she practiced it. I said, "Wow! Did you teach her that?" She said, "Mommy and Zsuzsy helped. Zola's a really smart piggie!" All our piggies are smart, but I didn't know they know tricks except "beans". Zola knows "sit" and "up" and "dance" but maybe she was just copying Secret for dancing. They were really cute.
We told Zsuzsy about our vacation at the Northern Shores, and she wants to go next year. She wanted to go this year but her mom and dad didn't want her to go so far away without any humans. Next year she'll be 18 so maybe then she'll be grownup enough. She really likes animals so she would really like the Northern Shores.
A little kid wanted his doggie to meet the nice animals at the petting zoo, but we don't allow that because sometimes dogs get too excited and play too rough, or try to hunt the bunnies. Kayden cried a lot because he was younger than Secret and said his doggie Scooter is really nice, but we said lots of our animals are scared of dogs, so dogs have to wait outside even if they're nice. I felt bad because I don't want kids to cry, but I don't want the bunnies to get scared or hurt. Kayden's mom was really sorry, but we said it was OK because Kayden loves Scooter so much. Finally Mondal, a sheepie from Tansy's Sheep Place, came to work, and she said she would take care of Scooter while Kayden and his mom said nihao to all the petting animals, and it was all OK and everybody was happy.
We go to the Northern Shores in August because that's when there's a school vacation so we can all go and the pocket foxies can come with us, but now vacation is over and we're back in school. We didn't get very many lessons done today, though, because everybody wanted to hear about our vacation and the pengies and spidies and moosies and everybody, and they wanted to talk about their own vacations. We did a lot of presentations, and then Momo-teacher said our homework was to write one page about our vacations and bring it to school tomorrow. I already wrote way more than one page, but I don't think I can trim it down. I'll have to write a whole new page just like everybody else.
Pion-teacher said Habichi's fiddling was more LIVELY today. We said it was because we did live fiddling at a party with sailor weasels and she said that would do it. My fiddling isn't as much livelier because I didn't fiddle very much on the ship because I got STUNG. We played some of the weasel songs for Pion-teacher and she really liked them. We're going to practice those sometimes, but we still have to do SCALES.
This is what I wrote for homework, but it was such a good vacation I had to write 2 pages. I hope it's OK.
Every August my family goes on vacation to the Northern Shores. That's a place in the Dreamlands. All my parents and siblings and a bunch of our cousins and auncles and grams and friends go. Last year we went on the train, but this year we went on a ship that was carrying big generators to the Northern shores. It was the clipper ship DAPPER CAPYBARA and Nelson Weasel was the captain. Lots of us know about sailing, so we could help the crew weasels instead of getting in their way. Only 1 scary thing happened on the trip was that a skyshark tried to eat my friend Cara, but she got rid of it by shooting a signal flare into its mouth. Another day we met some whales that didn't like the noise of our sonar, so 1 whale showed us the safe way to go until we were far away. That night we had a party with glowing jellyfish to light it. Hebichi and I did some fiddling and everybody danced.
When we got to the Northern Shores, a bunch more of our family was there because everybody from Tansy-gram's Sheep Place came on the train. We were all glad to see the pengies and moosies and spidies and sealies and turtlies because we didn't see them for a whole year. Emperor Maximilian XXVII and his consort James are getting old but they are still doing well. Penguin Max isn't a real emperor because he doesn't oppress anybody. Every time they decide who should be in charge of the Northern Shores, they pick Penguin Max again because he does a really good job. My best friends there are Boogie the moose, who likes stealing people's noses and tails and stuff but always gives them back, and the Jaunty Jonquil Spider, who likes exploring and strolling and playing sports and games. Jonquil is a kind of flower that's a really pretty yellow. Everybody there is doing well.
I got to dive down to see where the generators are going underwater, and it was really fun, so I dived a lot with Hebichi, but I played a lot on land too. Boogie and JJS and I showed Hebichi all the cool places in the Penguin Palace, like the throne room and the secret penguin cave beach and the warm maze where the spiders stay in the winter. There was another party and the mastydons from the valley that appeared last year came, and the duckies from Picklefish point. We went all over to see what new stuff got built. We visited the duckies. We helped the sheepies and moosies play Hoofball. My big brothers' Exploration Club and my auncles who are real explorers went across some mountains to see what was there. I talked to a big whale mermaid. It was a really great vacation.
The DAPPER CAPYBARA had to sail away to do some other shipping, so we all went home on the train together.
I want to see what Hebichi and Faun write. I think they'll write different stuff even though we went on the same vacation.
I was right that Faun and Hebichi wrote different papers about our vacation. Hebichi wrote 4 pages so they could explain about Boogie stealing their tail and the whales and how mooses are bigger than you think and penguins smell like fish and the spidies only drink from cans and Penguin Max and James love each other a whole bunch and sealies are just like ocean doggies and all kinds of things that I didn't think to write because I was using my journal to see what to write and I already know that stuff. They didn't get in trouble for writing too much because it wasn't that kind of homework. Faun wrote about all the nice people he met and all the games he played and then it was a whole page so he stopped. We had the best vacation, but lots of other people in class had good vacations too. Morning climbed up a mountain with her mom and they camped on top and yelled as loud as they wanted. That sounds like it was really fun!
We learned about some engineering stuff too, since people wanted to know about the generators at Northern Shores. In our town, we have lots of little generators, because we used to be worried about WARS, but the Northern Shores doesn't have any wars and they have a lot fewer people. There's a lot to think about when you're deciding how to get electricity!
Sahara and Simoun really want to go to Mars. On the Space Train, they complained a lot that it would take so long to get to Mars, but the Space Train goes in ORBITS, so it takes years just like planets do. Isaac Mewton explained and explained to them, and I think they understand, they just don't like it. When we woke up, they told Number-dad that we really need to move to Mars because then he can be the most famous Martian manga creator and the most famous Martian wizard, but he said he'd miss everybody on Earth and Flower-gram and VV-gram don't want to move to Mars because they don't need any monster hunters there yet. Simoun and Sahara really pouted, but they had to go to fighting class here on Earth.
My big sisters were still grouchy in the afternoon, so I sat in the treehouse with them and we played cards and talked about what they're going to do on Mars when the Space Train gets there. If there's enough water, they want to take some of the Northern Shores people to live there, especially the pengies, because Mars Penguins would be really cool. I don't know if the pengies would think so, but we can ask them. Then Zora and Ai peeked in the treehouse and Sahara yelled, "I'LL GET THE WATER BALLOONS!" but they said, "No! No! We'll be good!" and came to sit with us in the nice treehouse breeze. Ai had a game called Gliese, about building stuff in a new solar system after going there on a STARSHIP, so we changed the cards to that and played until Zora and Ai had to go get dressed for going on a date. We pretended like that was really gross, but they didn't do anything yucky when they were in our treehouse.
Ai wants to go to the Northern Shores next year to meet the giant spidies and mastydons and everybody. I think that would be OK. She's nice even though she's a teenager so she probably wants to meet the mermaids.
Sahara and Simoun put pictures of Mars under their pillows to help them dream about the Space Train getting to Mars faster. I don't think it will work.
The twins' pictures of Mars made the whole family dream about being on the Space Train but we weren't any closer to Mars. Sahara wanted to complain to the captain, but even she isn't brave enough for that. Then she tried to complain to Isaac Mewton, but he's too cute and she ended up washing his ears and talking to him about rainbows instead.
The captain of the Space Train is from a planet where the people are great big water creatures like PLESIOSAURS, with bodies as big as elephants and long necks and long tails and lots of flippers, and they're dark green with zaggy light purple stripes. On that planet, they get married by squishing their bodies together into 1 creature with 2 heads! If they say married long enough, even the heads grow together. The captain has 2 heads that are almost grown together and 1 that's still apart, and they have 1 little head that sticks out from under a flipper and can't talk yet, because they have babies by squishing their bodies apart into 1 big creature and 1 little creature.
There are lots of different aliens on the Space Train, so I think the Dreamlands of our planets that it goes to have lots of aliens, just like the Dreamlands of Earth has dragons and mermaids and vampires and all kinds of creatures.
All our parents went to do ERRANDS, so in the afternoon when we were all playing in the yard Rei was watching us. Then Poli and Cara zoomed right in on Poli's bike and asked Rei what they were doing. Rei said they were keeping an eye on us kittens so I said, "Yeah, you have to watch out for that Samuel. He's a real TROUBLEMAKER!" and Rei laughed so hard they fell off the porch swing. People think I'm not a troublemaker, but Rei was still on the floor!
Poli is a teenager who's a boy and a girl at the same time like Hebichi. I think they're in Nico's level at school. They do grownup kissing with a lot of people, even Pixie, so I don't think Rei is happy that Poli and Cara are friends, but that's because teenagers think about grownup kissing too much. I don't want to be a teenager, I want to go straight from being a kid to being a grownup, even though everybody says it doesn't work that way.
When Rei fell down, their shirt got floppy, so I stuck my nose in there and slurped their tummy until they squacked and tickled me with their tail hand and then we both fell off the porch onto the grass and everyone laughed, but then they came to help and there was a big TICKLE FIGHT! Rei and Cara ESCAPED by going to a class but Poli helped tickle Dmitri and Humboldt until Number-dad came back and we ALL tickled him.
Purpleberry Ice Cream was really glad to have Nessie and Big Sam and everybody back to help them play adult soccer. They played 2 games today, 1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon, and won both of them. Hurray! Dmitri and Humboldt played softball and we really cheered for them, but they didn't win, so Raptor Dance Party is the best Teenagers A softball team. Softball season is over.
Cara and Rei and Nico played lacrosse after dinner and they won but it was really CLOSE. They didn't eat dinner because you don't eat right before a game so when they won they took Cow Rustlers out to pizza and foosball and everybody thought Cara was great because she got a gold star in her fighting class for getting rid of the sky shark. I heard Rei and Nico talking about it when they came home because I was sleeping on the porch swing. It's OK for cats to sleep wherever they want.
I think Cara really is great.
Simoun and Sahara and I went to Hebichi's house to play. Toka wanted to play cards, so we played some easy games for little kids. It wasn't as much fun as games for big kids, but we all like making Toka happy because they're really cute. After we sat around the cards for a while, I had to do a big stretch, and Toka yelled, "Sammle! Your tummy is TOO LONG!" and tickled me to make me squack. I had to wrestle them, and it was hard because they're a strong and wiggly ultra-modern kid and everybody else laughed and didn't help me, but I pinned them down and washed their ears until THEY squacked. Then it was naptime for little kids, so Toka put out their big round blanket that looks like a tortilla and folded it over them and said "Baby quesadilla!". It was so cute Simoun fell over. Then Toka's poppy gave them a pillow that was white with yellow stripes and they said "Cheese!" and SAHARA fell over.
Then we played cards with Hebichi's dads and Faun came over so there were 6 of us and we played Gliese. We tried the new cards that are still being worked on but they're all really good and we didn't have anything to tell the lady who makes them to fix.
Clover came to get us for dinner even though we can go home by ourselves because I'm almost 9. That woke Toka up and they climbed up on Clover's back and gave her head a big hug and tried to show her funny kitty pictures and it was hard to escape. The funniest picture was a white kitty curled up in in a bucket and it said "cats are a liquid" which in Toka-say is "kitty like juice". We might be looking at funny pictures still, except Dragon-mom phoned Clover and asked where she went instead of getting us and we had to run home so nobody got in TROUBLE.
I don't know if I like writing, "We might still be doing something" in a journal. It makes things sound like a story, which is funny to say but weird in a journal.
Toka's picture of a cat in a bucket was so funny that I dreamed I was a liquid cat in a great big bottle. It was clear so I could see where I was but I just rested there in a grey and white puddle with a swirl of rainbow like fancy ice cream. It was really calm. But then Toka came and wanted to play so they poured some cat out of the bottle. It was just a few liters, like a housecat! The little me played with Toka's string and the big me rested in the bottle and it was really fun. Hebichi came there too, and Toka poured out a bigger cat and now there were 3 of me! Hebichi had a string with a FEATHER so that was really fun to chase. But then a big yellow digger robot like in Toka's book came and said it was time to work on the secret base, so Toka picked up the little me and used a funnel to pour me back into the bottle. That was really weird to get all long and skinny and flow into the bottle! I didn't know if I liked it so the bigger me wiggled when Toka tried to pour me in, and the bottle fell over and BROKE! I splashed all over everywhere! Then there were a bunch of little mes like housekittens and some medium mes and 1 big me that was almost as big as Max and that woke me up so I all ran around sniffing things and looking for things to play with. Toka said, "Oh no the kitties are getting away!" and the digging robot tried to scoop all of me with its bulldozer blade, but that was too ROUGH for the littlest of me and it really hurt. I cried and the robot stopped and was really sorry because it was a person and didn't want to hurt anybody, but it still hurt, so Hebichi got a big bucket and put all the mes into it without a funnel, and then it was OK.
I thought it was an imaginary dream, not a dream adventure, because when I woke up I hurt from too many siblings squishing me against the corner of a toybox, but then Hebichi told me about their and Toka's dream at school and it was the SAME. Dreams are mysterious!
It was REALLY WEIRD being lots of kittens, and it hurt when the robot pushed me, but it was a fun dream. Maybe I'll be a liquid again someday.
When I told Zora about my dream, she said maybe being liquid will be my special technique, like Number-dad's leaping and Clover's invisibility. I don't know if I want that. What if I get poured out into little cats and they get lost? That would be really bad. I'm not liquid in the Awake World, though, so probably that's not it.
I thought VV-gram smelled a little weird these past few days but I didn't realize what it was because I never smelled it in the Awake World, so Dmitri figured it out first. We were all eating dinner at the Gram House, and Dmitri put down his spoon and looked at VV-gram and his eyes were REALLY SHARP. He said, "Gram, are you going to have KITTENS?" VV-gram is really cool, so she said, "Just the 1, I think." and she ate another spoon of chili-bean stew. Then all us kittens yelled and waved our arms like froggie puppets and said things like "You're growing a kitten inside your own BODY?" and "Are you getting MARRIED with someone?" and "Daddy-mommy new SIBLING?" and "Is it going to be a boy kitten or a girl kitten?" and "When is the kitten going to be here?" and "Did you have an affair with someone's PENIS?" and "Is Flower-gram going to be the kitten's mommy?". The grownups laughed and laughed because they already knew and they DIDN'T TELL US! That was mean!
After we all got calmed down by grownups sitting on us and washing our ears, they told us what was going on. They weren't being mean to not tell us. They were being nice because starting a kitten doesn't always work and they didn't want us to be upset if it didn't, so they were waiting until VV-gram was sure it was working. I think that's a good idea and I hope starting the new kitten works, becaus even though it's just a tiny few cells, I would feel bad if it doesn't.
Now we know everything that the grownups know, but we aren't going to tell anybody until VV-gram says it's OK. VV-gram is having a kitten with 3 Orange Socks, who is the most respected cat. Number-dad says he has the biggest hat, but it means the same thing. He has kittens with lots of girl cats all over, but only ones who are really smart and cool, because he thinks it's important to have genetic diversity. That's where you have kittens with someone who has really different genes, so the genes get all mixed up and go everywhere and make new kinds of creatures. I didn't know VV-gram and 3 Orange Socks were friends like that, but they are. They aren't getting married, but the kitten will know Socks is their dad and see them a lot. VV-gram is growing the kitten inside her UTERUS because she wants to, and it's not dangerous for cats and she lives in a town with REALLY GOOD doctors. The kitten is going to grow up in Starfall but with lots of visits to the Dreamlands, even more than us, so they can be a CAT OF 2 WORLDS. I hope it's OK for that kitten and they don't have to do twice as much homework and chores. It takes 11 months to grow a songcat baby, so VV-gram thinks the kitten will be born in August or maybe September next year.
I asked Flower-gram if the kitten is going to be our auncle because they're Number-dad's sibling, or if we're going to be their auncles because we're older. She said she doesn't know because it doesn't happen very often that auncles are younger than their niblings, but it's going to happen more now that there are songcats and ultra-modern people who live that long. Maybe we need a new word for that, like aubling.
Dmitri is really proud that he figured it out, but he's responsible and won't tell anybody. I'm worried Max or Meeper will tell somebody, because it's really EXCITING but they say they won't.
I don't think VV-gram's kitten will be the one who has my rainbow tail, because she's growing it from scratch and not getting it where I turned my tail in, but maybe I'm wrong. Songcats are MYSTERIOUS, because we're from the mysterious Dreamlands, and maybe VV-gram is the most mysterious of all!
In my zoo I ran around sniffing all the animals to see if any of them are going to have babies and some of them are! Most of them are going to have their babies before VV-gram, because songkittens take a long time to grow. I hope they'll all be OK. The vets at the zoo are really good so I'm only a little bit worried.
I really wanted to tell Hebichi and Faun about the new kitten, but I didn't. It was really hard!
Simoun says she's never going to grow a kitten in her own body because she read about it and it's really gross. She showed me what she read and she was RIGHT. Getting new kittens from the Dreamlands is lots nicer.
Dragon-mom made some nice bread with rosemary and cheese and Sahara helped me carry it over to the Gram House for VV-gram. Sahara said, "Do we have be really careful of your tummy now, Gram?" VV-gram said, "Correct, you're not allowed to tickle me any more. But I shall tickle you because pregnancy causes wiggly fingers." We didn't BELIEVE her! But it's true she has to be a little bit careful with her tummy. She can't put any grownup juice at all in it, not even champagne that she really likes. She can't take her tummy monster hunting either. Regular hunting is OK, but monsters have poison and curses that aren't good for bodies. VV-gram has to stay home and eat all kinds of different food for the kitten to get used to and be really safe and healthy. That sounds really hard so I gave her lots of kisses and sang the New Kitten Song.
I asked Number-dad if it would be weird to have another little sibling when he's a grownup and he said it would, but it would be really nice too. That's because HE'S really nice.
I snuck into Dragon-mom's studio really quiet, so I didn't bother her while she was COMPOSING. It was really hard not to purr and sing the Really Cool Mom Song, but I did it. I read about how you have to take care of somebody who's growing a baby with lots of healthy food and paw rubs and comfy beds, and Dragon-mom composed spooky music for a show about scary stuff happening, and it was really nice. Then the lights started getting darker to let her know it was time to stop composing and she picked me up in her arms like a baby and carried me out to where everybody was getting ready for shrimp pasta dinner. VV-gram wasn't with us because she was eating dinner with the Elegant Siamese Society but I know they were feeding her good food because Lilja-auncle is there. Lilja won't let her have any grownup juice, either.
I dreamed I went with the Exploration Club on a boat ride into a forest except there weren't any trees, it was all MUSHROOMS. They were bright colors like purple and yellow, and I think that was to mean they were POISONOUS. Rei's mushroom hat is purple too, but I don't think it's poisonous even though it wants to seem really tough. The deers were eating the huge mushrooms, but Maa-uu thought that made the deers poisonous so we didn't bother them. We didn't find anything that was really cool, but when it got dark, there were spores flying all over like fireflies and it was really pretty. Dmitri showed me some good ways to figure out how far things are for making maps and I drew a map of the mushroom forest valley. It wasn't as good as Dmitri's map, but he said I did a good job being careful with it, and Explorobot showed a bunch of green lights so I was really proud.
Dmitri ran in and threw himself in Flower-gram's lap and snorfled her tummy. He said, "Are YOU going to have any kittens?" She laughed and laughed and said, "I don't think so, and if I were, I would use a uterine replicator. But I think being an auncle to Violetta's kitten will be enough for me, especially since I will have to do more work while she is busy being a mom." Dmitri wiggled over onto his back so Flower-gram could rub his tummy and he purred and sang the Love Gram Song. It was really cute but now I'm worried that Number-dad and Fairy-mom might find another kitten who needs a hospital and bring them home. Will it be TOO MANY kittens? Taking care of little kittens is really hard work for parents!
I think Dragon-mom is having some big feelings about new kittens because of how Max came to be part of our family without anybody asking her, but I don't know how to talk about it. All I can do is be nice to her.
My zoo is building a cable car! I didn't know about it until I saw people working on making a really tall pole by the maned foxes, but I think it's a really good idea. It's going to go from the platform over the big fancy dinos, all around the zoo to look at the animals even when they aren't by the front of their places, and back to the dinos. I got worried that the animals might not like being looked at all the time, but they all have places they can go under so nobody can see them if they're feeling shy.
Today was really HOT but maybe it's the last hot day of the summer, so we did sports at the BEACH. Lots of other people did too so it was crowded, but that's okay. Everybody was having fun and Meeper made a whole bunch of new friends and all the rest of us played with new kids too. Purpleberry Ice Cream Kids played flag football against the kids of Raptor Dance Party, but we don't know who won because we were having too much fun to keep score! We played some beach volleyball against the Teenagers I and we almost won because they were busy flirting but they were TOO STRONG. Then we swam a bunch and ate some barbecue and ate some more barbecue and ate some ice cream. I sat with Spin and Jean and Blonde Dmitry, who are all kids from Raptor Dance Party, and my Dmitri and Hebichi, and a grownup I didn't know read a story to us. It was a really good story, with dragons and brave artists and a tree that went all the way up to the sky. Then it was bedtime for Max and Meeper so we all went home even though we wanted to play more. Having little siblings is FRUSTRATING.
Flag football is like America football, but instead of crashing into people to make them drop the ball you steal the flag from their belt. I think it's a game that is going out of fashion and soon nobody will play it any more, because ultra-modern people don't mind crashing into each other. That's a little bit sad.
Lilja said people wondered why VV-gram didn't drink any champagne at the Elegant Siamese Dinner, but she said she was trying to be HEALTHIER and everybody nodded. That was really sneaky because she didn't even have to fib. I hope she decides the new kitten is really going to happen, though, so we can tell people.
Today is Talk Like A Pirate Day, but I found out that the way people think old-time pirates talked is really how people talked in a corner of BRITAIN. Everything was terrible there, so a lot of people ran away to sea and became pirates, and then people put that way of talking in books and shows because it sounded good. Real pirates talk all different ways and most of them sound pretty regular. Number-dad doesn't, but that's because of his BRAIN, not because he's a pirate. Nelson-captain sounds like a regular sailor, and Zig-Zag sounds like a regular ellyphant.
I thought about writing this journal in pirate-say ANYWAY but that seems like too much work. I said "Arrrr" a lot at school and classes, though.
The story last night was SO GOOD I had a dream about it! Dmitri and me went to a huge tree, bigger than the biggest buildings in Dragon-mayor's city and maybe all the way up to the SKY. Hebichi was there, and two dinos about the same size. 1 had soft rainbow feathers and the other had bright gold feathers and they were eating purple ice cream from the cooler that Hebichi had. It was Spin and Blond Dmitry from Raptor Dance Party, having a dream adventure with us. That was really nice because I like them. We all danced even though we weren't all raptors, but then Spin and Blond Dmitry turned back into kids so we could climb the tree all the way up to the sky, just like the girl in the story.
Spin is a boy who's soft and nice and seems like he's good for playing games with and hugging, but I think if you mess with his friends, you'll be SORRY, like Cara. Blond Dmitry doesn't call himself blond, but I call him that so he doesn't get mixed up with my Dmitri. He looks really strong and laughs at everything, but he always helps people. They're both 9 and they're 1 level higher than me in school.
Climbing the tree was hard work, but the bark was rough and soft enough we could stick spikes in it to tie ropes to, and the kids without claws had special climbing shoes and climbing gloves. There was a part where it looked like something huge crashed into the tree and scraped all the bark off, and that was really hard because we had to all get somebody up high enough to hammer a spike into the wood and then pull all of us up, and then we had to do that again and again. We got really tired, but we made it. We were really brave and strong and cool! From the top of the tree we could see a masquillion kilometers everywhere. We showed the new kids Dragon-mayor's city and the docks where we fought elves and the flooded city where monsters stay and the foresty hills where 3 Orange Socks lives and everything.
We heard a bird singing really beautiful so we went out on a branch that was as big as a road to find it. There was a nest as big as my parents' bed and a big orange bird with bright different-colored feathers like fire sitting in it singing a sad song. Spin felt bad for the firebird and asked why they were sad, but they sang a different sad song. We tried to guess why they were sad, and when Blond Dmitry asked if they were lonely, they nodded. We said we would be their friends, but we didn't know how often we could visit. Then I had a good idea and asked the bird if they wanted to live somewhere with other animals and birdies and people who would say how beautiful they are. They fluttered their wings to make a really warm wind and sang a happier song so I said they should come live at my zoo. Spin and Blond Dmitry were really surprised that I have a zoo. It was funny. Hebichi and my Dmitri told them it's a really nice zoo and all the animals get treated well, so they thought it was a good idea too.
The firebird didn't want to leave their nest behind, but it wasn't too heavy so we took it down the tree and they flew down singing an excited song. The nest only got a little crunched. When we got to the bottom, we found a telephone and I called the zoo and they sent some truck cats with a big truck to take us to the train.
We woke up before we got the firebirdie to the zoo, but I think it worked OK.
After school, Spin called me to tell me about the dream he and Blond Dmitry had with me and my brother and Hebichi, and I said, "That was a real dream adventure!" He was so surprised I heard him fall over and I laughed and laughed. Maybe I'll do more dream adventures with my new friends.
The firebirdie is safe at my zoo like I thought, but they aren't happy. The nest we carried all the way down from the sky got a lttle bit crunched, so Arden-doctor, who's in charge of all the birdies at the zoo, gave them some new sticks to fix it. She read that firebirds like wood that smells fancy, so she gave them some sticks from a CINNAMON tree, but they didn't fix the old nest. They started building a new one, and then jumped on Arden-doctor and tried to get more sticks out of her pockets and burned her coat a little bit. Now we have to find lots of fancy sticks for them! Everybody will keep their noses open for trees that smell nice.
I called Spin to tell him about the firebirdie and he was really happy. He likes being friends with animals and taking care of them too. I think we're going to be friends, so I invited him to my birthday party. I hope he can come even though it's only until Friday.
VV-gram went to the special doctor for having kittens, and they said her body is doing really good! She still isn't telling people about the kitten so we can't either, but she said maybe soon. Then she said "oof" because 7 kittens and 3 cousins all hugged her at the same time.
VV-gram's secret almost got out. She came to tbe zoo to see the firebirdie but then she came to the petting zoo to visit the bunnies, and some of the sheepies from Tansy's Sheep Place were there to smell her. A really rude sheepie named Elliott sniffed her bum and almost said something, but I grabbed his mouth REALLY QUICK. VV-gram said not to tell anyone, and Elliott said he wouldn't be able to tell people because his mouth would be busy eating all the peanut butter spinches his good friend Violetta gave him. He was asking for a BRIBE. It didn't work because VV-gram looked at him really disappointed and said she wasn't keeping the secret for herself. She was keeping it for everybody else so they wouldn't be sad if it didn't work out. That made Elliott feel bad, so he didn't ask for a bribe. He said he would keep the secret for everybody, but he hoped it would work out. We petted him and gave him a bunny treat with jam and spinch.
It was warm so lots of us were sleeping outside. I woke up in the middle of the night because VV-gram and Lilja-auncle were squishing me and it was too warm. I escaped to the porch swing and went to sleep by Nico and Humboldt and Dmitri. I had another dream, but it was imaginary, not a dream adventure. There was a baby kitten with white fur and orange points and they wanted to play wrestling so I pretended to squish them and they climbed up on me and sang like they won. It was really cute even when they tried to eat my ear. Then I woke up and Dmitri was eating my ear so I had to tickle him a lot. I wonder if VV-gram's kitten will have orange points and want to eat my ears. That would be really cute.
Nico and I went shopping for ice cream and yummy stuff for the party, and VV-gram and Zeb-auncle came to help us with money. I asked VV-gram if regular ice cream was OK for her and she said it is, because it's full of calcium, which is important for making BONES. Zeb thinks having bones is lots of fun and everybody should get a chance to try it, so we got lots of all different kinds of ice cream. It's going to be a really yummy party!
When we got home and tried to put the ice cream away in the special freezer we got for party food, Flerb looked out from under the freezer and said, "I don't think I want to try having bones. I like my shell." Zeb thought everybody should have the chance to try bones, but they didn't have to take that chance if it didn't seem interesting. Flerb said, "That's good. People should have lots of chances to do things." Zeb-auncle jumped down to look under the freezer, but Flerb was already gone because he's a NINJA.
Flerb is a spiny underhider. He's about as big as a baseball or half a softball and has a hard green shell all over except for a little bit in front where his eyes look out, and that's where his mouth and tongue are. He has long golden spines all over that can cut through almost anything, but even though he's hard and spiny he can escape through tiny holes because he's a NINJA. His little sister Ibib and his little brother Vloont are switchblade underhiders, so they can pull in their spines, and they're different shapes, but they're about the same size and they have really long tongues instead of hands and they're ninjas too. They all study under Ninja Monkey Akimori, and they do mysterious things. They hunt vampires, but not very often because there aren't very many vampires left. They're all really shy about meeting people, but brave about fighting monsters. I really like them, so I'm glad when they appear mysteriously.
I gave Zeb some candy bites to put under the freezer, and when we looked later, they were GONE.
All of us kittens went to the cave where 3 Orange Socks lives. It's a really nice cave with lots of rooms but not too deep, and it's in a hill that's covered with forest and big trees, and there's a river at the bottom of the hill. 3 Orange Socks lives there with his friends, and lots of cats are always visiting to learn songs and settle fights and ask for help, so it's really busy. We sat on the edges of the clearing in front of the cave and watched a balloon cat and an airplane cat explain to 3 Orange Socks how it wasn't HER fault there was a crash, it was the other cat. Socks listened really carefully and then told them they had to share the cost of putting up BEACONS. They both cussed because it was EXPENSIVE but flying will get safer and they don't have to say it's the other one's fault so they can still be friends. Then some desert cats asked if there was any spare food to help them in the winter because they thought hunting was going to be bad, so Socks arranged with some truck cats who had lots of food to drive to them every week in the winter to help them. That would help all those cats be friends too. 3 Orange Socks is really smart about that.
3 Orange Socks got all the cats to come sit in front of him, even us. He sang a song that the checkerboard cats brought across the ocean with them, about a kitten who had to go on an adventure to save everybody but it was terrible until she remembered to always be POLITE to spirits and nature. Then it was only terrible when she FORGOT. It isn't a magic song like VV-gram teaches us, but it's an important song for cats to know because it helps them behave right. We all practiced singing it together and 3 Orange Socks helped us when we forgot. I and my siblings didn't forget very much, because we go to school in Starfall with kids who remember EVERYTHING. I helped a tortiseshell cat who had trouble remembering what order the problems were in, and it made her really happy when she could sing the whole song right. I felt like I was being a good cat.
But then we saw Violetta was there, and she was looking at us with sharp eyes, even when she rubbed faces with Socks. She said, "I hope these impertinent kittens aren't troubling you," and that made us all frown because that word means doing something you aren't important enough to do, and we're cats from Starfall so everybody is important! Socks laughed and said we were very good kittens and learned an important cat song. Sahara stuck her tongue out at VV-gram, and I wanted to, but I didn't because VV-gram looked like she wanted to crush Sahara. Before she could, Clover appeared and said, "Hi hi!" and everybody was surprised. But not me. I'm really good at noticing when Clover is invisible, so I wasn't surprised. Socks noticed, and when everybody was busy talking, he asked me really quiet if I could teach him how to notice invisible people. I was really proud that I know something even really smart cats want to learn, but I said I shouldn't give away my auncle's secret weakness, and he said that was a really good answer and he'll figure it out himself. My tail was all the way up.
I looked and I didn't explain that Nico and I have our birthdays on the same day so we always have a party together. The first part is more for me and kids my age, and the later part is more for kids Nico's age, who are TEENAGERS now, but it's 1 party with lots of people and lots of fun. That's why we go shopping together. Today we went with Fairy-mom and Nessie-auncle to get more treats and some toys. We got some of the boxes like Ai gave us that turn water into water balloons because they're really cool. I read about surface tension, but I don't understand how they work. I don't know who does. Maybe Big Sam, but I think he knows more about robots. It's MYSTERIOUS.
Spin is coming to my party and so are his friends Blond Dmitry and Jean. I'm really glad. It's going to be a really fun party.
I dreamed everybody at the zoo sang a birthday song for me. Then I woke up and all my siblings and the underhiders and Clover were singing a birthday song for me! It was in the middle of the night so after 1 song we all went back to sleep, but it was really nice. Now I'm 9.
Number-dad and Dragon-mom and Nessie-auncle and Flower-gram and VV-gram had to do important magic to keep our city safe during the night, so they were really sleepy all day, but they helped us go to school and classes. I had to go even though it's my birthday, but Pion-teacher taught us some birthday songs and autumn songs on the fiddle. Everybody said "happy birthday" and gave me hugs and kisses all day, and I said "happy birthday" and gave hugs and kisses to lots of people. In Starfall, some people have their birthdays on the first day they were alive, like Max does, but lots have their birthdays on solstices and equinoxes, and today is the AUTUMNAL EQUINOX so there are lots of birthdays today.
There's no more softball practice and I haven't picked what to learn next, so I got home early but the party was already starting without me! They were keeping a lookout, so as soon as I got home Nico yelled, "SAMUEL! YOU'RE 9!" and ran to hug me. I yelled, "NICO! YOU'RE 15!" and ran to hug him, and we crashed together with a great big hug and all our friends and families squished in around us in a HUGE PILE OF LOVE.
After that we had a big water balloon fight. Nico and I got splashed the most because it's our birthday, but everybody was really soggy and had lots of fun. Some of the teenagers had amazing special techniques, like Ai who punched a water balloon so hard all the water went backwards onto Nico. Humboldt isn't a teenager but he caught a water balloon in his mouth without popping it and ran all the way to Cara to splash her from behind. Clover ran behind people inivisibly and splashed them with whole buckets of water balloons. It was really fun!Spin and Blond Dmitry were there, and so was Jean except it was Jeanne because they're a person who's a boy and girl at different times. She had a really nice dress and is pretty but she's weird because she doesn't like spinch. Spin's big gold-colored doggie was there too. When I first saw her, I was afraid that Sonny might try to hunt the bunnies, but Spin said my big gram with the choco paws introduced Sonny to Flim-Flam and Flip-Flop and Beethoven and now they're all friends. Sonny gave me and Nico a whole bunch of doggie kisses.
After everybody got tired from water balloons, we had FLOATS, which is ice cream in fizzy juice, and that made us strong enough to play some more. My friends had more fun because the teenagers played FLIRTS, but that's okay. We played tag and hiding and pretended like the treehouse was our spaceship and shot water torpedoes at space monsters and it was REALLY FUN. We played and played and then we ate a masquillion pizzas from our favorite pizza restaurant and we all got really fat and fell down and snuggled. I got lots more hugs and kisses so I purred REALLY LOUD and everybody laughed.
I didn't get a masquillion presents but I got ones that made me happy. Spin gave me a rainbow scarf that he knitted himself because he said it goes better with my rainbows than his. It's bright like the stripes on my tail, so maybe he's right, but it's nice anyway and it smells like him. I got another rainbow scarf from everybody at the Sheep Place, which was funny. It's made of wool from the sheepies and everybody helped dye it and then Ruffur-teacher used his Automatic Knitting Machine to make the scarf. My neck is going to be really warm in the winter. I got a new bicycle because my old one got too little and now it can be Meeper's, and some books about all different kinds of stuff, and a plush mastydon and a plush walrusy and a plush sun bear and a plush flower monster, and a beret hat, and cool sunglasses. Now I can be fancy and warm and zoom around, and then go home and be all snuggly and read!
Lots of kids had to go home, but Spin and Hebichi and Faun and Jeanne and Morning stayed for a SLEEPOVER. We all snuggled up on the porch swing and I had Hebichi on this side and Spin on that side and Jeanne curled up by my chest and everybody else flopped on top of me and I was so cozy and happy I didn't mind that the teenagers in Nico's party were playing lots of flirts. But some were nice and came over to sit with us, like Mitta, who is another rainbow person! She's like an otter but she's dark purple on her hands and dark red on her feet and dark rainbows in between, so Spin and I said she should sit with us and she did! She's 14 so she's a teenager but she doesn't know if she wants to do any flirting so she and Rei sat with us and helped eat extra ice cream and we talked about all kinds of nice stuff.
Now everybody's asleep except the teenagers who aren't being loud, so I'm writing this journal and now I'm going to sleep too. It's a really good birthday.
Spin and Jeanne were at the sleepover so I could take them to my zoo and they could say nihao to all the animals! Spin waved and waved to the firebirdie, who sang a nice song to him, and we told Jeanne the story of how we made friends with the firebirdie. She said we were really cool. Then we went to the petting zoo and I showed my new friends to all the sheepies and bunnies and everybody. Spin was really nice to the bunnies and let them smell him before he petted them and he only gave them one fuit spinch each. They all tried climbing on his shoulders and snorfling his rainbow hair and it was really cute!
Then it wasn't a good dream because Hebichi was CRYING. Jeanne and my Dmitri hugged them a lot and I ran over to hug them together and so did Spin and Rei and Zsuzsy and everybody. Even the sheepies came to see if they could help. But when I kissed Hebichi on the nose they pushed me away! Then I got really scared that they don't like me and I started crying too. I didn't even know what I did, but when I asked, Hebichi said, "Even the bunnies like Spin better!" and cried more even when their dream-helper Jackie climbed up and hugged their tummy. They said, "You HAVE to like me!" Rei and my Dmitri told everybody to take a deep breath, and I tried but it was really hard because Hebichi thought I didn't love them. I tried to hug them but they pushed me away again so Dmitri took me away and made me sit down and washed my ears and my face until I stopped crying. I really wanted to hug Hebichi but if they pushed me away again maybe my heart would break into a million pieces. It was a really bad feeling! Dmitri talked to me about how Hebichi was scared that I might love Spin more and not be their best friend any more. I don't want that. I want Spin to be everybody's friend because they're really nice and cool. I want Hebichi to be my best friend forever. Dmitri said he knows that. He said even Hebichi knows that, they're just scared. I feel really bad about making Hebichi scared and unhappy, but I stopped crying then, so I ran back to Hebichi and hugged them a whole bunch and kissed their nose even more and I was REALLY SORRY. They were sorry too even though they didn't have to be and they hugged me until my squacks came out and said they still love me and I said I still love them and then Dmitri and Rei and Jeanne and Spin and everybody all hugged us. I felt a lot better that Hebichi and Spin weren't crying any more and we could be friends.
I'm not good at writing about feelings. Really good writers can write so you feel what the people are feeling, but I just say that I felt good or bad or somebody cried or their tail was up. Maybe I should take a writing class.
Spin said, "Now that everybody is friends, we should tease Jeanne about having a crush on Zsuzsanna" but Zsuzsy was too close and she got embarrassed. Jeanne said, "I don't. It would be nice to look like that when I'm grown up, but then it would be hard to be a boy, so I want to look like REI." Then Rei got embarrassed and said, "I'm not a boy or a girl!" but Jeanne said, "I know, but you could look like either one really easy and you'd still be pretty!" Rei tried to say that was pishtosh, but they were happy and embarrassed. That's what Number-dad calls "big and pink inside". Cara and Mitta came to the petting zoo and asked what they missed, and we said, "Everybody is saying Rei is the prettiest, especially Jeanne!" Cara said, "I KNOW!" and hugged Rei and kissed their ear and they got really embarrassed and cute. Mitta said some of the other the other teenagers went to visit the koi boys, but some of them came to the zoo instead because it's not weird.
The koi boys are like mermaids except instead of being girls who are like dolphins and live in the ocean, they're boys who are like koi fish and live in lakes and rivers. They like doing grownup kissing too, and they have a floating village where people can go to take them presents and do grownup kissing with them. Nico says they do lots of stuff besides grownup kissing but it's underwater so people don't see it, but I think he likes going there to kiss his friend Carm because he's a TEENAGER.
When we woke up, we were all in a great big snuggly pile and it was a little gross because I cried when I was sleeping and snot came out, but we washed and ran to fighting class or back home or wherever we needed to be.
I gave Hebichi a masquillion hugs today, and we're still best friends. That makes me really happy.
I decided on what sport I'm going to do until there's more softball. I wanted to play volleyball, because it seems like a really good sport for cats to jump and swat things, but Hebichi wanted to play bowling, because their Poppy is good at it and can help teach us. So we made a COMPROMISE and we're doing both. I think it's going to be lots of fun.
I can't do pottery any more because the times are the same, but maybe I'll do it again someday. I'm still doing fiddling because I really like it and it's good for my fingers, and I'm still doing kid cooking class because I cooked lunch for my WHOLE FAMILY today and it was really fun! I made salad with endives and DINOSAUR kales and beets and olives and goat cheese, and I mixed up spicy soy sauce marinade for salmon and then marinated a HUGE PILE of salmon and grilled it all, and we had some bread that I toasted on the grill and some cheese and all kinds of yummy stuff to make salmon SANDWICHES and everybody said it was really yummy. I had to use recipes and get Fairy-mom to help me do all the cutting and mixing, but I think I did a pretty good job. I got lots of salmon kisses!
There weren't any games today so we played frisbee in the big park and Spin and his doggie came to play too. Then we went to the spider park and climbed on the web and played tussles. Sahara and Simoun tried to say they were the best because they got to the top of the web, but finally we pushed them off and they rolled all the way down and got really DIZZY. But then Hebichi BETRAYED me and Spin and we rolled down and they were the winner! We tried eating ice cream in front of them to get our REVENGE but they looked really sad so we shared. Sahara said we were wimps, but we got hugs from Hebichi and she didn't.
Today Hebichi and I started bowling practice and volleyball practice. They were both really fun. I had to get a special ball for bowling because my hands are DIFFERENT than most people, but Hank-teacher made it for me with the ball-making machine that went mmmmmmmmm zzzzzip zzzzzip zzzzzip and it was really cool. It's a rainbow ball so everybody knows it's mine. I'm not very good at bowling so I rolled the ball in the GUTTER a lot. It was embarrassing and funny, but I'm getting better. Volleyball was easier because I played it some before and it's good for cats because there's lots of jumping and hitting the ball with my paws. Ilona-teacher laughed a little bit, but she said I did really good.
Humboldt and Dmitri are trying lacrosse, but they said it's hard to run and hold the stick in your mouth and not lose the ball, so maybe it's not a good sport for cats.
When I got home from school, there was a HUGE PARTY on the porch of the Gram House, but I couldn't go because a MONSTER fell out of the tree we aren't supposed to climb and squished me so all my oofs came out. Secret said, "Nihao Samuel. Your gram is going to have a kitten INSIDE HER OWN BODY." I said, "I think it's really brave of her" but maybe that was a mistake because Secret's eyes got really big. "Is it scary?!" I had to say I didn't think it was dangerous, but it seems like a lot more work than doing it the regular way. Then Meeper and Max jumped on us and said, "Secret good hunter! You caught big yummy animal!" and tried to EAT me. Little sisters are silly.
Now we can tell people about VV-gram's kitten, but I think she already told all the grownups in the whole town and they all came to the Gram House to visit her. I'm glad she has lots of friends, but it made it hard to hug her. I helped Lilja get juice and cookies for all the visitors until Morgan came for magic singing class. We had singing class, but VV-gram said that being pregnant can make people's voices weird because of HORMONES, so maybe she would have to stop teaching before the kitten gets here. Number-dad can take over teaching when that happens. We learned helpful songs today, because she didn't want to sing any songs that might be bad for the kitten.
VV-gram went to my zoo so she could tell all the sheepies about her kitten. Elliot looked really proud and said, "I figured it out first, but I didn't tell anybody because Violetta asked me not to" and VV-gram said he did really good and is a nice sheep. Then a bunch of sheepies stampeded us to the train station and we had to ride to Dragon-mayor's city where everybody from the Sheep Place was waiting in the park to hug VV-gram and be really excited and say how they think she'll make a really good kitten. Since the sheepies grow lambs in their bodies, they know what they're talking about. Checkerboard Dragon and Polka-Dot Dragon came to see what the party was for and they said lots of nice stuff about VV-gram too. It was so much even VV-gram got embarrassed!
Everybody was having fun so more people came to have fun in the park and the dragons were there and Aimée and her meerbots and Super Monkey, and then some people who sell food from carts came, and the party was HUGE. Hebichi and I fiddled and Nessie-auncle played the flute and Simoun played the theremin and everybody danced. Then the sheepies got their zoingaphone and there was LOTS of music and I danced with Hebichi, and then Aimée and the meerbots got their instruments and there was a Honeycat concert and EVERYBODY danced. Even VV-gram danced, because it's OK to dance with a kitten inside. It was scary when the dragons danced because they're so big they could SQUISH you if they step on you, but they were really careful. There was a new dragon, Bobtail Dragon, who is dragon 104. His egg got a little crunched before he hatched, so his tail didn't grow right, but it's long enough for showing how he feels. All the dragons have horns, but Bobtail Dragon has a lot of horns and fins like Hebichi, so he called Hebichi "Little Dragon" and that made them really happy.
It was a really good party.
Everybody was happy when we woke up, because we had so much fun at the party. Our tails were way up at fighting class so the teachers tried to wear us out by making us do lots of techniques, but it didn't work. We were still happy. At school, Hebichi jumped on me and said, "Bobtail Dragon said I'm a LITTLE DRAGON! That's so cool!" Now they're going to have LittleDragon be their nickname on games and everything. It's a little bit silly, but having a real live dragon say you're like a dragon is really cool.
After kid cooking class we went to Spin's to play and told him about the party and how Hebichi is LittleDragon now. He was really excited and wants to learn magic dreaming so he can go to parties and meet dragons too. We're going to have a SLEEPOVER party so we can teach him and Jean and Blond Dmitry. But not tonight because our parents have to be organized.
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