Karen's Book

Daddy helped Mommy into the man’s car. Soon they were on their way. And so was I.

  The Day I Was Born: Part Two

  I did not arrive for a few more hours. The doctor checked in on Mommy every fifteen minutes.

  “You are doing fine,” Dr. Bradley told Mommy. “It will not be long now.”

  Daddy and Mommy talked a lot while they waited — mostly about me, of course. Then, in the middle of a sentence, Mommy stopped and said, “Watson, it is time!”

  Mommy and Daddy were very excited.

  At 2:35 in the afternoon, I, Karen Brewer, was finally born. It was my first important job. And I love important jobs.

  But I need to back up a little. My name was not Karen yet. Mommy and Daddy were still calling me Baby. They looked at their list of possible names. I could also have been Arlene, Joanna, Bethany, Katherine, or Erica. I like all those names. I would have had a very hard time deciding on one.

  Mommy and Daddy looked at the list again. Then they looked at me.

  “There is only one name that seems right to me,” said Daddy. “That name is Karen. It means ‘pure.’ And seeing our baby, I feel pure joy.”

  “Me too,” said Mommy. “It is the right name.”

  Then they kissed my cheeks and said, “Hello, Karen Brewer. Welcome to the world!”

  Mommy stayed overnight at the hospital. Daddy went home and called lots of relatives and friends. They all came to the hospital the next morning for my day-after-being-born party. Grandma and Grandpa Packett, Mommy’s parents, were there.

  “We cannot get enough of our new grand-daughter!” they said.

  Grandma Brewer was there too. (Daddy’s father, my Grandpa Brewer, died before I was born.)

  “You are the sweetest thing,” said Grandma Brewer.

  By the time everyone left, the room was filled with balloons and flowers and baskets of fruit. I was the star of the party. I love being the star! But I cannot remember one thing about it. I am sure I had a good time, though. Daddy took lots of pictures and I think I am smiling. (It is hard to tell because I am mostly covered up with a blanket.) Anyway, the pictures are in my baby book now.

  In the afternoon Mommy and Daddy took me home. One of Daddy’s friends had decorated the car with pink streamers. (There is a picture of the car in my baby book too.)

  We were all buckled up. I sat in my own baby seat. Daddy drove extra carefully.

  “I can hardly wait to get Karen settled in her new room,” said Daddy as he turned the corner to our street.

  “Look!” said Mommy. “Karen’s new room is going to have something very special in it.”

  There it was. Sitting on the grass in the sun. The beautiful oak rocking chair.

  Daddy helped Mommy and me out of the car.

  “There is a note on the chair,” said Mommy. She read it out loud:

  This chair was in my family for a long time. My mother and father rocked me in it. I want the chair to have a special home. It belongs with you.

  Your friend and neighbor,

  John Washington

  You know what? We still have that rocking chair. It is in the den and it is my very favorite chair.

  Karen Says, “No!”

  I forgot to tell one thing about the rocking chair. The way it looks now is not exactly the way it looked when we bought it. (Daddy says he will fix it up one of these days to look like new.) Here are some of the things that happened to it:

  Shannon, David Michael’s puppy, thought the bottom rung would be a good chewing stick, and she chewed it right off.

  Once, when I was about two years old, I decided the chair would look pretty with pictures on the seat, so I found a pen and scribbled. (It was all I could do back then.) I pressed really hard and the scribbles are still there.

  Then there was the time I rammed my toy car into the chair. If you look at the bottom, you can see where I hit it.

  And once I sat in the chair with my doll and started rocking her.

  “Ride, dolly, ride!” I said.

  I rocked so hard I tipped the chair over. It banged into the window ledge. You can see those marks on the chair too.

  “It sounds like I was a busy baby!” I said to Mommy and Daddy one day when I was still little.

  “Yes, you were,” replied Mommy. “You played with your toys, chased Boo-Boo, and put on lots of shows for Daddy and me.”

  “You were the center of attention most of the time,” said Daddy.

  I am sure I like that a lot. I still like being the center of attention. I guess that is why I was not too happy when I found out a new baby was on the way. This is how I figured it out.

  “Mommy is getting fat!” I said when I was two and a half.

  Mommy said she was not getting fat. She said a baby was growing inside her. “Just the way you grew inside me.”

  “There is no new baby,” I announced. “I am the baby.”

  “The new baby will be your brother or sister,” replied Mommy.

  “No. No brother. No sister. I am the baby.”

  “Your baby brother or sister will grow up to be your friend,” said Mommy. “You can play together.”

  “No.”

  “You can tell each other secrets.”

  “No.”

  “We think of the new baby as a gift to you,” said Daddy.

  “Gift?” I said.

  “That is right,” said Mommy.

  “You will get to be a big sister,” added Daddy.

  I liked that idea.

  “So do you think you might like the new baby?” asked Mommy.

  “No!” I replied.

  Poor Mommy and Daddy. They tried very hard.

  Karen Brewer, Big Sister

  It did not matter whether I wanted a baby brother or sister. I was getting one anyway.

  Here is what happened the day Andrew came home from the hospital. Mommy and Daddy told me some of those things. I remembered the rest all by myself.

  Grandma and Grandpa Packett did not go to the hospital when Andrew was born. They were busy taking care of me. We had fun. I helped Grandma bake a welcome-home cake. I got to pour sugar and flour in a bowl. I got to mix them up with a big wooden spoon.

  “Mmm. Mommy and Daddy will love the cake,” I said.

  After it was baked, Grandma wrote a message on top with blue icing.

  “What does it say?” I asked.

  I thought it would say, “Welcome Home, Mommy and Daddy.” It did not. It said, “Welcome Home, Andrew!”

  “No!” I cried. I reached out to wipe the letters off with my finger. Grandma picked up the cake before I could get to it.

  “You must wait to eat the icing on the cake,” she said. “But you may lick it out of the bowl.”

  By the time I finished, my face was covered with blue icing and I had forgotten about the message on the cake.

  “Who wants a horsey ride?” asked Grandpa Packett.

  “Me!” I said.

  I climbed on Grandpa Packett’s back.

  “Giddyap!” I called. We galloped around the house. I was still on his back when I heard the key in the door. Daddy hurried in and swooped me up in a big hug. Then I looked at Mommy. She was carrying my baby brother.

  He was wrapped in a yellow blanket. It looked like my baby blanket. That was the first problem. The second problem was his face. It was a red, wrinkly prune face.

  “This is Andrew, your new baby brother,” said Mommy.

  I squirmed out of Daddy’s arms and ran away crying. That made the baby cry. Mommy carried him inside and sat down in the rocking chair.

  “My chair!” I said. I cried harder.

  Mommy handed Andrew to Daddy. Then she took me on her lap and rocked me till I stopped crying.

  “It is all right. You do not have to be happy about having a brother now,” said Mommy. “You are a good girl and Daddy and I love you very much. We always will.”

  We rocked together in the chair for a long time.

  Things got better after that. People came over
with presents for Andrew. Sometimes they brought presents for me too!

  Then one day Andrew started crying and would not stop. Mommy had fed him. Daddy had changed him. It was not his nap time. Grandma Packett was there.

  “Call the doctor,” she said.

  “I do not think he is sick,” said Mommy.

  “He was all right a minute ago,” said Daddy.

  While they were talking, I tiptoed to Andrew’s crib. I looked down at him. He was crying so hard that his face was purple. He looked like a purple, wrinkly prune. He opened his eyes and stared at me. I made a wrinkly prune face at him.

  Andrew stopped crying. I made an even funnier face. Andrew smiled. Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma Packett ran to us.

  “What happened?” asked Mommy. “Andrew looks fine now.”

  “I think his big sister helped him,” said Daddy.

  “Thank you, Karen,” said Mommy. She hugged me.

  I looked at Andrew again. He did not look like a purple prune anymore. He looked pink and kind of cute. I, Karen Brewer, his big sister, had made him stop crying. I felt like a Gigundoly Important Person. I decided that being a big sister might not be so bad after all.

  Little Friends Day School

  Being the big sister has always meant doing a lot of things first. I got born first. I got rocked in the rocking chair first. I got to use the crib first. And I got to go to school first.

  On my first morning of school, I was sitting at the breakfast table with Mommy, Daddy, and Andrew, who was in his high chair.

  “I am going to Little Friends Day School,” I said to Andrew. “You are too young to go to school.”

  “Ga, ga,” replied Andrew. He was too young to talk.

  “I am glad you are looking forward to school, Karen,” said Mommy. “I think you will have fun.”

  “You will color and look at books,” said Daddy. “You will dance and sing and make new friends.”

  I could hardly wait! I ate my cereal as fast as I could. I liked Krispy Krunchies. I still do. Only when I was little I did not like them crunchy. So Mommy poured the milk onto the cereal before I sat down at the table. That way it was nice and soggy when I was ready to eat it.

  “Come, Karen,” said Mommy. “We do not want to be late on your first day of school.”

  I put on my new Ms. Frizzle backpack. There was not much in it. A snack and maybe a pencil. But I loved it. It made me feel grown-up.

  Mommy was going to drive me to school. We climbed in the car and buckled up. I waved good-bye to Andrew. If he could have, I bet he would have said, “I want to go to school too!”

  But I am the big sister. So I got to go.

  I thought school would be great. I liked our bright, sunny room. I saw lots of games and books.

  My teacher, Ms. Herman, was very nice. She talked to us. She gave me my own cubby with my name on it. I hung my Ms. Frizzle bag on the hook. Then Mommy hugged me.

  “Have a good time. I will pick you up at eleven-thirty,” she said.

  That is when I stopped liking school. Mommy tried to leave. I grabbed her leg and would not let her go.

  “Karen, what is wrong?” asked Mommy.

  “I want you to stay with me,” I replied.

  “Mothers do not go to school,” said Mommy. “I have to go home and take care of Andrew.”

  “Why does Andrew get to stay home? I want to stay home too,” I said. “I am scared to stay here alone.”

  “You are not alone. Ms. Herman is here. And there are lots of other children. They can be your friends.”

  Just then a little girl ran across the room to me. She slipped her hand in mine.

  “Hi, my name is Hannie. Do you want to play?” she asked.

  I had seen Hannie before. She had just moved into my neighborhood. She seemed nice. And she was not scared.

  I turned to Mommy.

  “You will not forget to pick me up, will you?” I asked. (Hey, I was only a little kid. I would not be such a scaredy-cat today.)

  “Of course I will pick you up,” said Mommy. “I will be here at eleven-thirty.”

  “Come on,” said Hannie. “I want to build a block castle.”

  “We can build towers and bridges,” I said.

  And that is what we did. We built towers and bridges. We sat together at story time and snack time. I had a new school and a new friend too.

  Karen’s Tea Party

  Hannie and I became best friends. We played together all the time. We were so glad we lived across the street from each other.

  That is why I was extra sad when Mommy and Daddy got divorced and I had to move away. On moving day, Hannie came to say good-bye.

  “I will never see you again!” she cried.

  “You will see each other every day at school,” said Daddy.

  “I will call you.” I sniffled.

  “I will drive you here to visit,” said Mommy. “And I am sure Hannie’s mommy and daddy will drive her to our new house. It is not so far away.”

  Mommy and Andrew and I climbed into our car. I thought we were going to drive to the other end of the earth. But you know what? The ride took only a few minutes.

  I really did miss having my best friend close by, though. One day I wanted to have a tea party. If Hannie and I still lived across the street from each other, Mommy could have walked me to her house. But Mommy was busy and could not stop to drive me. And Hannie’s father had taken their car to the repair shop.

  “I guess we could have our tea party on the phone,” I said.

  “It will be a little hard to pass the cookies,” said Hannie. “Anyway, I have to hang up now. Mommy is waiting for a call.”

  “Okay, see you at school,” I said.

  Boo. I wanted to have a tea party. I decided I would just have to have one by myself. I took my tea set and a tablecloth outside. I ran inside and got juice and cookies. I spread everything out on the front lawn. I was ready for my first guest.

  “Dingdong!” I said.

  “Coming!” I replied.

  I opened my make-believe front door for my make-believe guest.

  “Hello,” I said. “I am so glad you could come for tea. Hannie is sorry she could not make it. Of course, that means we will have extra cookies.”

  I guess that was not very polite. But my guest did not seem to notice. At least she did not say anything.

  I showed my make-believe guest to her seat.

  “So, what is new?” I asked in my make-believe-guest voice. I ran to the other side of the tablecloth to answer myself.

  “School was fun today,” I said. “We read a book called Alice’s Tea Party. It was excellent. Are you ready for some tea and cookies?”

  I ran back to my make-believe-guest seat to answer.

  “Thank you, I would love some,” I replied to myself.

  I ran back to the other side to pour the tea and pass the cookies. I was getting tired of running back and forth. I stopped for a minute to eat a cookie.

  That is when I noticed a girl on the lawn next door. She was standing all by herself, giggling. I wondered what was so funny. Then I realized it was me. I must have looked pretty silly running back and forth. I started laughing too.

  Then I thought of something. Having a real, live guest would be a lot more fun than talking to myself.

  “Hi!” I called. “Would you like to come to my tea party? I have plenty of cookies.”

  “Thank you!” the girl called back. And she headed my way.

  The Name Game

  “I never saw anyone have a tea party like that before!” said the girl.

  “I usually have tea parties with my friend Hannie. But Mommy could not drive me to her house,” I replied.

  “Where does she live?” asked the girl.

  I told her about my old street. Then I told her about moving and how Mommy and Daddy got divorced. I told her about school and Andrew.

  She told me about the school she went to and about her mommy and daddy. She said she did not have any brot
hers or sisters or pets.

  “I want to get a cat someday,” she said. Then she added, “Hey, I do not even know your name.”

  “And I do not know yours,” I said. “This is fun! We can guess each other’s names.”

  “Okay,” said the girl. “You look like Susan.”

  “Wrong!” I said. “My turn. You look like Elizabeth.”

  “Nope,” said the girl. “I bet your name is Carol.”

  When I heard “Ca” I thought she was going to guess my name.

  “Close, but wrong again!” I said. “Give me a hint, and then I will give you one.”

  The girl stopped to think. Then she said, “The second part of my name is something you do with your eyes.”

  “Blink!” I shouted. “Your name is Roblink!”

  “No way!” said the girl, giggling. “Now you have to give me a hint.”

  “My name starts like the name you guessed last time,” I said.

  “Um, Susan? Is your name Suellen?” said the girl.

  “No. Susan was your first guess. Okay, now it is my turn,” I said. “You see with your eyes. Your name is Tracy!”

  “No, it is not,” said the girl. “I remembered the name I guessed. It was Carol. Your name is Katherine!”

  Just then, my mother opened the door and stepped out. Before I could stop her, she called, “Karen, are you ready for some lunch?”

  “I got your name! It is Karen and I am a genius!” said the girl.

  “Very funny,” I replied. “Now you have to tell me your name.”

  “I do not. I want you to guess it.”

  “You did not guess my name. If you want to be my friend, you have to tell me yours,” I said.

  The girl was quiet for a minute. Then she said, “My name is Nancy.”

  “That is a nice name,” I said.

  “I like yours, too.”

  Then I called, “Mommy, can Nancy come for lunch?”

  “Of course,” replied Mommy.

  Nancy ran home to make sure that was okay. It was. She ate lunch at my house. I ate dinner at hers.

  I felt like the luckiest kid in the world. Now I had two great friends, and one of them lived right next door.