Today I want to share a speech I wrote and gave for our Toastmasters group. It was a hit but I want to give you the same warning... :)
CUTENESS ALERT!!!
Here is my speech, (It went really well by the way. Enjoy!
"Sugar and Spice..with a dash of Salt…"
Sugar and spice
and everything nice
that's what little girls are made of
I
Sugar and spice
and everything nice
that's what little girls are made of
I
Sunshine and rainbows
and ribbons for hair bows
that's what little girls are made of
Tea parties, laces
and baby doll faces
that's what little girls are made of
We are taught this poem early in life and it shapes our early views of little girls
That is at least, until the first punch…
Are little girls really as sweet and innocent as this picture would have you believe? With the laces and bows, the sweet eyes.. wait.. Doesn't that look like mischief in her eyes?
While many of us would say the poem is fairly accurate, I would submit we should add a dash of Salt to the mix. The Salt that can make a sweet girl, such as this one, kick her brother, or stand firm against her mother..
Let me share with you some exploits of this little girl and you decide… Sugar and spice and everything nice… or Sugar and Salt.. “mommy, its not my fault”
Meet Elliana Renee, she is 2 years and 11 months and next month is her birthday and I believe she will be 2 going on 16…
Elliana is my granddaughter She has a brother named Diego. This little girl has captured my heart. Not only by that sweet face you see up there, but by her intellect, her love, her imagination and her character. But in this picture we can see she may also be mischievious, or is she just shy?
Ellianas intellect
At the tender age of 1 ½ she knew my name. I am her Tata. More than a name, she would see my picture and ask where is Tata. When they would sit down for dinner, she would look at my empty seat and ask “Tata ?”.. When I would come over, she would stumble to door in her best toddler run and greet me with the largest smile you can imagine. But when it is time to leave it is time to leave. She will run and get my shoes, hand them to me and say Goodbye Tata…
Elliana is loving. Whenever I come to the door now, she greats me with a hardy “HELLLLOOOO” gives me a hug and kiss and proceeds to ask me to come play with her. One visit as we were playing, she stopped and looked at me and came over and hugged me, I thought, How sweet, but then she put icing on it when she proclaimed in a soft, sweet voice..” I missed you” I was butter in her hands… Is she that loving, or is she playing Tata like a fiddle? Sugar and Spice…..
She has great imagination in her playfulness. While driving home with her one day, she was quietly sitting in the back seat playing with Wilbur wildcat doll, and from out of the blue she let out a ROAR…A lionly roar….. I had been glancing in my mirror and I pretended to be startled at the roar. She let out a hardly laugh and then roared again. Followed by the question “are you scared” As I said yes, she would roar and ask “how bout now” for at least the next 5 minutes. She's a riot.
Elliana has character. she remembers things, oh let me tell you she remembers things you’d wish she’d forget.
I took her to the zoo last year when she was barely over 2. We spent a couple hours there and finished with a lunch at Chik Filet. The zoo was great, she loved the elephants, feared the tiger, chased the birds and ransacked the gift store. But you know what she remembered the most? That Tata pinched her. An accidental pinch, but a pinch no less.
As I buckled her into one of those newfangled car seats, I couldn’t get her all the way in. In my normal, taz like fashion, I pushed the buckles together and I caught her little back in the clip. Waaah was the next sound I heard. I frantically reached for the buckle and undid it feeling like mean old grandpa for hurting my little sweetie. As I calmed her down and checked her out, it wasn’t as bad as I had thought but for her it was traumatic. We got back home and as her parents asked her how her day was and what she did, her first words were… yep you guessed it..” Tata pinched me” I did say this girl remembers.
The next time I had occasion to buckle her in her seat, about 4 months later, she looked and me and whispered.. ‘don’t pinch me’…
Just last week she mentioned a trip to the zoo with her grammie, and I thought great, that dreaded trip with Tata was replaced.. well I was wrong. Her mother said, nope, Elliana had reminded her after that trip” Remember Tata pinched me” She and I will be Scarred for life..
Each visit with Elliana is new and exciting. I am sure She will be a performer when she grows up. She loves to tell stories, sing, dance and do her thing. I am often serenaded with a soft melodic tune of “this little light of mine” . Or we dance around the room, or more like spin til we “all fall down”
With All that sweetness , it seems that just maybe she is all Sugar and Spice. She loves her brother, demonstrated by her kisses to his forehead or sweet hugs…
But what happens when we add a dash of salt. Elliana Rene, (notice the full name, its been used before ) has that innate urge to torture Diego, evidenced by the tossing of balls at him while she plays catch with her daddy. Or the sly little kicks on his rear as he crawled along the floor. Oh, And the sly smirks at me as I told her she shouldn’t kick her brother. Just last night she called him a little monster as he came toward her toys
So you see, This picture of this beautiful angel may tell you she is Sugar and Spice and everything nice, However, I believe that we must include a dash of salt and change our rhyme.
Sugar and spice
and everything nice
that's what little girls are made of
Add some Salt as some of the spice
And little miss cutie is not quite as nice
That's. What little girls are made of
SNUCK IN A SLIDE OF ALL THE GRANDKIDS :) SHAMELESS PLUG LOL
