Harry’s 12 Days of Christmas
December 2010
By Teekabell
Chapter 4
Harry woke up Sunday morning in his favorite footed sleeper, hugging Teddy. They both went down to find Mommy. On his way to the kitchen where he heard Mommy working, he found a new present under the tree and it had Harry’s name on it. That meant he had five gifts. The new one was leaning up against the mystery baby gift. He took it off the baby gift and laid it down next to it. He shook the new gift, and it rattled like his Legos do. Harry was excited, for he was now certain he was getting some Legos for Christmas. Harry’s focus went back to the baby gift. He checked it over to make sure it wasn’t damaged by the new gift leaning up against it. It appeared to be undamaged.
Harry continued his way to the Kitchen to find Mommy. He climbed up into one of the Kitchen chairs and sat hugging Teddy and watching Mommy working on breakfast.
“Morning Harry, the Oatmeal is almost done.”
Harry hugged Teddy tight and looked around the Kitchen. Spotting the Countdown calendar Harry jumped up and went over to it.
“Look Mommy, it’s a special day. Six days till Christmas and I am six years old.”
“Wow Harry, it must be a special day then.”
“Can I have the chocolate kiss now Mommy. Pwease.”
“Since it is such a special day, I guess you can.”
Harry quickly devoured the chocolate kiss and sat back down at the Kitchen table. In no time at all he found a bowl of oatmeal placed in front of him with brown sugar sprinkled on top, with a swirl of maple syrup. Harry smiled as he picked up his spoon and took his first bite. Then Mommy brought over an Elmo cup with milk in it.
After breakfast Harry sat down to watch Sesame Street, but was pulled away shortly after sitting down to go get his diaper changed.
“Awww Mommy, I want to watch Sesame Street.”
“Then let’s quickly get you out of your wet night-time diaper and dressed for the day so you can come back and watch.”
Harry was quickly dressed into dark pants, a white button down shirt with clip on tie, and a dark blue blazer. It was Sunday, and this was one of three outfits that Harry wore to Church. Harry liked this one a lot more than the green one, for he usually wore the green one when he had to wear Pull-Ups to church. Harry didn’t like wearing Pull-Ups to church. He was a big 6 year old, and big 6 year olds aren’t supposed to wear Pull-Ups to church.
Harry watched Sesame Street and then Sid the Science Kid before they had to leave for church. He was sent to go potty before getting into his Booster Seat in the car. Harry was in the Kindergarten / First Grade Sunday School Class.
“Quiet class,” The Sunday School Teacher clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. “Our Big Kid helper this week is Jenifer.”
“I know Jenifer,” Harry proudly announced. “She in my cwass at school.”
The other kids started to laugh.
“Silly little Harry,” Jenifer giggled. “I am a big 5th grader, not a little 1st grader, but we do ride the same bus Harry.”
Harry knew this, he didn’t know why he said she was in his class. Jenifer wasn’t a first grader, but he also knew they had gone to school together. Maybe it was just in a dream. Harry was distracted from his thoughts as the teacher got out some Little People toys, it was a Nativity Set. Today’s lesson was on the first Christmas.
Shortly before class was over, Jenifer came up to Harry and took his hand leading him to the door, “Come with me Harry, looks like you need to go potty. We don’t want to have any accidents now, do we?”
Jenifer took Harry to the bathroom and then back to class. Jenifer liked working with little kids, even if they were silly at times. She had known Harry for years, they lived two houses apart, rode the same bus to school, and their moms were friends.
After Church, they went home and Mommy immediately took Harry upstairs to get changed out of his Sunday clothes. She had him strip down to his underwear while she found some Christmas fashion for him to change into. When she headed back to Harry, she stopped and took a deep breath.
“Harry,” Mom said taking another deep breath. “Looks like you had a little accident. Take your underwear off and I’ll get you some new ones. You need to work harder at keeping your underwear dry and clean sweety.”
Harry looked down and saw a small wet spot on his underwear. “I sorry Mommy. It was an accident. It won’t happen again.”
“It is okay Harry, let’s just get you into some dry underwear, unless you think we need to have you wear Pull-Ups for the rest of the day.”
“No Mommy, I am a big boy. Underwear today, Pwease.”
Mommy took Harry’s wet underwear and handed him a baby wipe telling him to wipe clean. She then helped him get dressed.
Harry spent the afternoon playing with his Thomas The Tank train set in the living room so he could keep an eye on the presents. At one point he managed to put the baby present in the middle of the train tracks, so Thomas could go around protecting it. Mommy unfortunately made him put the present back under the tree. Shortly before Dinner, he got to watch another Christmas video. This time he picked Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.
At bed time, Harry was dressed in his footed pajamas, night-time diaper, and hugging his Teddy, when he asked the question again. “Mommy, who is the baby gift for? What’s inside it?”
“It is a gift for a special little kid. It is full of Christmas Magic being the first gift of Christmas.” Mommy kissed Harry and Teddy and left them to go to sleep.
Once Harry was asleep, Mommy got a card off the mantel and sat on the couch looking at the first gift of Christmas. It was very obviously a gift for a baby. She didn’t know where it came from and was very confused by it. She looked at the card in her hands which came with the gift, it was addressed to her. Opening it up, she again read what it said. ‘This gift is for a very special little kid. It is the first gift of Christmas full of Christmas magic, and needs to be treated with care. The one this gift is for will know it is for them. They will let you know that and want to open it. When that happens, it is time to open the first gift of Christmas and your Christmas wish will be answered.’ The card wasn’t signed; it just had a stamp at the bottom of a Christmas fairy.
Harry was six. It obviously wasn’t for him, but who then? No one with a baby was invited for Christmas or expected to visit within the next week. Who could it be for? She thought about what Christmas wish might be answered, but this puzzled her also. Her biggest Christmas wish is that Harry would love Christmas as much as she does, and the puzzling thing is that he does. Although when she thinks about it, she has an odd memory of Harry not believing in Christmas, but this makes no sense to her so she ignores it. Like most six year olds, Christmas for Harry is full of magic and awe. She put the card back on the mantel and went to help her husband who was cleaning up the dinner dishes.
The next day Harry enjoyed his French Toast sitting in his booster seat at the Kitchen table. Before being allowed to get down from the table, Mommy took his syrup covered bib off and cleaned him up with a damp washcloth. He got a chocolate Santa out of Day 5 on the Countdown calendar and then went to watch the Little Einsteins on TV.
“Okay,” Mommy announced as she entered the room. “Time for all little 5 year olds to get dressed for the day.”
“Jammie day?”
“Jammie day . . Jammie day . . . Jammie day,” Mommy said as she creeped up to Harry with wiggling fingers extended. “You want to have a Jammie day?”
Harry started giggling even before Mommy reached him. She scooped him up and pretended to eat his tummy. She carried him up to his room and dropped him down on his bed. He bounced in a fit of giggles. Mommy quickly grabbed supplies to change Harry.
“Sorry Harry,” Mommy stated. “No Jammie day today, maybe tomorrow. We have to go out shopping this morning.”
“Shopping? Toy Shopping?”
“No silly,” Mommy said taking his pajamas off. “Food shopping, we have to get everything for Christmas Dinner. Now let’s get you out of this soaked diaper. Hmmm - - Maybe we should put you into a Pull-up this morning. We have to go to a few different stores and we will not always be able to easily get to a potty.”
Harry knew Mommy was always doing things, ‘just in case’. He often wore Pull-Ups on outings ‘just in case’ he couldn’t get to the potty in time. He liked the Pull-Ups because they had his favorite Disney character on them. None of his underwear had that character on them.
Harry was dressed in his Pull-ups, a pair of pants, and a sweatshirt with Santa on it. Patting him on his bottom, she sent him down to play with his toys while she got ready. Harry turned on Sesame Street and got out his Little People House and School Bus. Harry would pick the Little People up from the house and deliver them in the School Bus to the Baby gift, occasionally stopping to watch the show or sing along to a song. Oscar the Grouch always caused him to laugh.
The morning was full of Harry being put in and taken out of his car seat. In most of the stores he had to go around holding onto Mommy, but at the Grocery Store, the last stop, he got to sit in the seat of the shopping cart. Mommy complained that he was getting too big for the seat as she lifted him up into it, but he didn’t think so. He could see stuff from up here, which he couldn’t see when walking next to Mommy.
Half way through the Grocery store they passed the bathrooms. Mommy looked at her watch and down at Harry who was smiling up at her. They had been out three hours and Harry hadn’t asked to go potty. She knew Harry could not go that long; therefore, his Pull-Ups were most certainly wet. She continued shopping, knowing the next stop was home.
When they finally did get home, Harry was changed out of his wet Pull-up into some underwear. He was made a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich for lunch, and given some chocolate milk in a Disney cup. After lunch, he went back to playing with his Little People in the Living Room.
Harry had an enjoyable afternoon playing with his toys, guarding the baby gift, and watching Christmas videos. That night Daddy read Harry a Christmas bedtime story and kissed him goodnight.
