Author's Note: I was originally going to do this story in a more general POV, but I've decided to write it from Susie's POV instead, just, to do something different. I hope you enjoy!
When Susie Met Taffy
Summary: The story of when Susie met Taffy, and how she volunteers to help her babysit the minis. Takes place during season 9 of Rugrats, and this idea was given to me by Boris Yeltsin.
Disclaimer: I do not own the original Rugrats characters, they're the property of their original creaters. No OC's will be appearing in this story, even if Taffy is listed as an OC, because where Fan Fiction's characters for Rugrats are concerned, Taffy for some reason, isn't a choice in the list of characters. Oh, but Peter is mentioned briefly, thus, I will state that he is owned by TCKing12. He just, won't be making a physical appearance in this story is all. With that out of the way, let's get started.
Susie POV
Not too many peoples know about the first time I met Taffy, the great niece of Tommy's grandma Lulu, and their regular babysitter when Peter isn't around to watch us, who Tommy's mommy hired after she decided to go back to school. It all happened one bright and sunny summer day, when as usual, my mommy had to go to her job at the hopcickle, and my daddy had a meeting with his boss, the Dummi Bears man, to go over some episode ideas for the next upcoming season of the series, which they wanted to get into production. Most days, I would either go to daycare, or my big sister Alisa would watch me, along with my brothers, Buster and Edwin. However, on this particular day, Buster and Edwin would be starting daycamp, and my sister was going to be a camp counselor at some camp I had never heard of called Camp Everwood. Because this was an overnight camp, this meant she'd be away for a while, making it impossible for her to watch me. So mommy had a talk with Tommy's mommy, and it was decided, that I would be spending the day with Taffy, Angelica, Chuckie, Kimi, Phil, Lil, Tommy and Dil.
I was really excited, because I had never met Taffy before. Angelica had told me some things about her at one of our last playdates, like how she plays the guitar and likes to sing, but with how often she tends to stretch the truth, I was really glad I'd finally get to check out this lady for myself. My mommy dropped me off at Tommy's house across the street right before lunch time, when she had to go to work. Taffy was already there, watching Angelica and the babies.
"Thanks for watching Susie for me. Randy will be by later on this afternoon after his meeting to pick her up, as I have a double shift at the hospital." My mommy told Taffy, who had answered the front door upon my mommy ringing the doorbell.
"It's no problem Mrs. Carmichael. The more the merrier." Taffy said, leading me into the house.
"Bye Susie, be good." Mommy called from the door.
"Bye mommy." I called back, waving goodbye, as she disappeared down the front steps.
Taffy closed the door and turned her attention to me.
"So, you're Susie Carmichael. I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting you." Taffy said, shaking my hand.
"It's nice to finally meet you Taffy." I said.
She smiled at me.
"So, I'm getting lunch ready for the minis. Anything in particular you'd like to eat?" Taffy asked.
"Hmmm." I said, putting a finger up to my lips, as I thought about what I wanted.
"I think I'd like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich please." I said, following Taffy into the kitchen, where she had all of the sandwich makings out on the table.
"That's great because that's what I'm planning to make for the minis as well." Taffy said, getting started on the sandwiches.
"Where are the minis?" I asked.
"They're playing out in the backyard." Taffy replied.
"I think I'll go outside and play with them for a bit." I said, making my way out into the backyard, where Phil and Lil were playing in the mud, Chuckie and Kimi were digging wholes in the sandbox, and Tommy was sitting in the grass with Dil, showing him one of his picture Reptar pop up books. And Angelica was off to the side, driving around in her new Cynthia car.
"Hi Angelica." I greeted, as she drove by.
She looked up at me and rolled her eyes.
"Oh, hello Susie." She snapped, driving off.
At that moment, Tommy looked up from his book and greeted me.
"Hi Susie, what are you doing here?" Tommy asked.
"I came to play today, and, I thought I might help Taffy take care of you guys, since she has a lot to do. Right now, she's making us lunch." I said.
"Wow that's great, cuz me and Lillian are getting hungry." Phil said.
"You just ated a whole bucket of mud Phillip." Lil commented.
"Did not Lillian." Phil said, wearing a mud musstash.
"Did too." Lil argued.
"Did not." Phil argued.
"Did too." Lil argued, throwing a glob of mud at Phil's head.
"Oh boy." I said, letting out a sigh, as I walked towards the garden hose.
"What are you doing Susie?" Kimi asked.
I turned around and found her behind me.
"I've gotta get you guys cleaned up before we go eat lunch. I don't think Taffy would want you guys tracking mud and sand into the house. Now, who's firstest?" I asked, turning on the hose.
"Me first me first!" Phil cried, running beneath the hose, laughing and getting all wet.
After Phil was all cleaned up, I sent him inside the kitchen to wait for us, while I helped get Lil cleaned up, then Kimi and Chuckie all cleaned up of sand. Once everybody was cleaned up and inside the kitchen, I helped Tommy carry Dil inside, and handed him to Taffy, who put him in his highchair at the table. Then, Angelica, who was being stubborn to come inside, was dealt with by Taffy.
"Angelica, it's time for lunch." Taffy said from the back door.
"No! I want cookies for lunch, and I wanna eat outside, in my Cynthia car." Angelica snapped from the backyard.
"Angelica, cookies are not lunch food. And we're eating inside today. So come inside and wash up please." Taffy said.
Angelica, being stubborn as usual, didn't move a muscle. I figured I could help Taffy out by setting the table.
"Taffy, may I help you set the table for lunch?" I asked.
"Sure Susie, I would love the help." Taffy said.
With that, I got to work. I saw that Taffy had plates, silverware, napkins, sippy cups, and a pitcher of lemonade all out on the table. Before I could get started though, the babies approached me.
"What are you doing Susie?" Tommy asked.
"I'm helping Taffy set the table for lunch." I said.
"Can we help you set the table?" Tommy asked.
"Sure! But you might want to get up on the chairs so you can reach the table better." I said.
"Good idea Susie." Tommy said, climbing on to a chair, and laying out all of the spoons in a row.
"No no no Tommy, you have to set the table like this." I said, taking one of the plates from the stack, a napkin, a fork, a spoon, and a glass, and setting one of the places.
First, I put the plate down in the center in front of the chair. Then, I put a napkin down to the left of the plate, with the fork on top, the handle, facing the chair. I put the spoon to the right of the plate, and seeing this would be my place, and while there were five sippy cups at the table, and three glasses, one for me, one for Angelica, and one for Taffy, I placed one of the glasses above the spoon.
"See how I set the table? Now, can you babies do the same in front of the other chairs?" I asked.
"I'll do it." Kimi said, reaching up to the table and grabbing the rest of the plates.
"Great Kimi. One plate goes in front of each chair." I said.
Unfortunately, I think Kimi got it slightly mixed up, because she placed a plate in front of each chair, but she placed them on the floor beneath the table, rather than on the table like I had done with my place setting.
"No Kimi, they have to go on top of the table, like this." I explained, picking up one of her plates off of the floor, and placing it on top of the table in front of that chair.
"Oh, ooops." Kimi said, looking slightly embarrassed.
"It's okay Kimi. Why don't you guys go play, and let me finish setting the table." I said.
"I think we know what to do now, come on you guys." Tommy said, picking another plate up off of the floor and climbing up on one of the chairs.
Chuckie, Kimi, Phil and Lil all did the same, and I walked them through what to do.
"Okay babies, put the plates you're holding down on top of the table." I said.
They did as I instructed, so I then handed each baby a napkin. Phil and Lil proceeded to put theirs into their diapers, while Chuckie lay his napkin down to the left of his plate, like what he saw me do earlier, and Kimi decided to open up her napkin and play peak-a-boo. And Tommy tried to do what Chuckie did, only for Dil, who was near him in his highchair, to reach out and snatch the napkin out of Tommy's hand, ripping it in half.
"Guys, guys, now I've gotta go get more napkins." I said, heading over to the kitchen counter where a package of napkins sat.
I got out new napkins and finished setting that part of the table. Then, because the forks were sharp, I lay one down on top of each napkin, but I let the babies help me with the spoons and sippy cups.
"Okay babies, place a spoon to the right of each plate, and a sippy cup above each spoon." I instructed.
They did as I instructed, and the table was just perfect, with the pitcher of lemonade sitting in the center, that is, until Taffy and Angelica came into the room.
"Hey! How come you babies are helping Susie." Angelica snapped.
"What are you talking about Angelica?" Lil asked.
"Yeah Angelica, you didn't wanna help us with setting the table." Tommy added.
"Well I wanna help out now so look out." Angelica shouted, running into the table.
"Angelica no!" I shouted, but it was too late.
She ran into the table, knocking over the pitcher of lemonade, spilling it everywhere.
"Oh, and that was the last lemon Didi had in the fridge for me to make home made lemonade with." Taffy said, bursting into tears.
"Don't worry Taffy, I'm sure we can find something else to drink." I said, opening up the fridge to find a carton of apple juice.
"How about apple juice?" I asked.
All of the babies cheered excitedly.
"Okay, but Angelica, you're gonna get a rag and help me clean up this mess." Taffy scolded, an angry expression on her face and her hands on her hips.
Angelica shook her head no.
"Angelica, you helped make this mess, so you're gonna help clean it up." Taffy protested.
"Fine!" Angelica grumbled, picking up a dish rag from the shelf and wiping up the table, while Taffy got a mop and started mopping the floor.
I moved a chair over to the kitchen sink, and Kimi, who wanted to help me, moved another chair over, and helped me wash out the pitcher that once had lemonade in it. Then, once the mess was cleaned up, I held the pitcher still while Taffy poured apple juice into it, and then, she went around and poured some juice into everybody's glasses and sippy cups. Afterwards, we all took our seats at the table, and she served us our sandwiches and fruit salads, which she had made up in bowls in the fridge at this point. Then, she heated up a bottle of milk for Dil, and since I was the first one finished with my lunch, but Taffy hadn't had a chance to eat any of her's, I volunteered to help feed Dil.
"I can help you feed Dilly, he can be kind of tricky sometimes." Tommy said.
"Don't worry Tommy, I got it." I said, picking up a spoon and placing it into the jar of strained baby food spinach.
"Okay Dil, here comes the choo-choo train." I said, lifting the spoon towards his mouth.
Dil giggled, took the spoon from my hand, and threw it in my face. I didn't appreciate being covered in spinach, but Dil thought it was funny.
"Goodness, Dil just, isn't eating today. Wait a second, I got just the thing for him." Taffy said, rummaging around in the fridge, while I got a napkin and wiped off my face.
I then looked up to see her holding a pouch with a bunch of stuff in it.
"What's that?" I asked.
"I forgot Didi had these pouches on hand. They're specially designed baby food pouches where Dil can suck the food out and feed himself. They have bits of sweet potato, apple, and other stuff in them. Here Dil, try this." Taffy said, opening the baby food pouch and handing it to Dil.
Because the pouch was clear, I could see through it and watch the food disappear as Dil sucked it out. He liked that, even though it was cold from being in the fridge, he didn't seem to mind. Meanwhile, all of the other babies had finished their sandwiches, but Angelica, only took two tiny bites out of her's.
"Angelica, aren't you going to finish your sandwich?" Taffy asked.
"No!" Angelica snapped, throwing her plate on to the floor.
"Fine, I guess you don't get dessert then, and you can go sit in the living room until we're done." Taffy said, getting on the floor and cleaning up her mess.
"But that's not fair!" Angelica screamed, stomping off into the living room.
"What's for dessert Taffy?" I asked.
As soon as she had the mess cleaned up, she reached into the freezer, and pulled out a box of firecracker popcickles.
"Oooh, firecracker popcickles! My favoritest!" I cried.
"Yep, one for everybody." Taffy said, handing each of us a popcickle, except for Dil, who she took out of his highchair, and started feeding him his bottle of hot milk.
The firecracker popcickles are really cool. They're red, white, and blue. The red tip tastes like raszberry, the white in the middle tastes like lemon, and the blue part tastes like blueberry. Then, once you finished the popcickle, there was a joke on the stick, which Taffy read our jokes to us. I was the first one to finish my popcickle, so she read my joke to me first.
"Why did the horse move in next door?" Taffy asked.
"I don't know, why?" I asked.
"To be a good nay bor." Taffy said.
I cracked up laughing. The next person to finish their popcickle was Lil.
"Okay, Lil's joke says, why did the chicken cross the playground?" Taffy asked.
"Hmmm, I'm not sure." I said.
"To get to the other slide." Taffy said.
Again, I cracked up, just as Phil finished his poppcickle, and almost stashed his stick away in his diaper, when I took it away from him.
"Wait a second Phil, don't you want Taffy to read you your joke?" I asked.
"Nah, I want my stick to use to dig up dirt." Phil said.
"Well okay then." I said, handing Phil's popcickle stick back to him.
The next one to finish their popcickle was Kimi, so she handed her stick to Taffy, who read the joke.
"Why did the rabbit go to the barbor shop?" Taffy asked.
"I don't know, why?" I asked.
"To get a hare cut." Taffy said.
None of us quite got that joke, but Taffy surely thought it was funny. Then, Tommy and Chuckie finished their popcickles at the same time, and since Chuckie was sitting closer to Taffy, his joke got read first.
"Okay Chuckie, your joke is, why did the Christmas light need to go to the bathroom?" Taffy asked.
We all shook our heads, cuz we had no idea.
"Because it needed to take a twinkle." Taffy said.
We all had a good laugh over that one, while Taffy got Tommy's popcickle stick, and read off the last and final joke.
"And Tommy's joke is, what is Santa Clause's favorite dessert?" Taffy asked.
"I don't know, what is it?" I asked.
"Ho Hoes." Taffy said.
I laughed so hard, I nearly wet my pants. I knew right then, I needed to go to the bathroom, so I excused myself, and did my business. By the time I came back, everybody was heading upstairs to Tommy and Dil's room for a nap. Also at this point, Taffy had her guitar case with her, which meant that Angelica wasn't lying to me. Taffy did in fact, really sing and play the guitar. We got up to Tommy and Dil's room, where Dil, who was nearly asleep, after finishing his bottle of milk downstairs, was placed down into his crib, and Tommy, Chuckie, Kimi, Phil and Lil all crawled into his bed, with Tommy, Kimi, and Chuckie at one end, and Phil and Lil at the other end. Then, Taffy sat down in the rocking chair, and pointed over to the bookshelf, where Angelica and I got to each pick out one book for Taffy to read to the babies.
"Okay, you each get to pick out one book." Taffy said.
"Me first me first!" Angelica screamed, waking up Dil and making him cry.
"Angelica, you can go downstairs right now, Susie and I will be down after we get the babies to take their nap." Taffy scolded angrily.
Angelica pouted and left the room, while I went over to Dil's crib and reached in through the bars, where I held his hand.
"It's okay Dil." I said.
"Yucky! Yucky!" Dil cried in between his sobs.
"I know Dil, Angelica wasn't very nice. But she's all gone now." I said, which helped Dil to calm down.
I then went back to the shelf, where I picked out the Dummi Bears scavender hunt book. Taffy read the book to us, and just as we were finishing, a horrible odor filled the room. Usually, it would be Dil who needed a change, but that wasn't the case this time. Rather, it was Tommy, Kimi, Phil and Lil. Also, Chuckie felt like he needed to go potty, so he got up out of bed and ran to use the bathroom, while I decided to help Taffy change the babies. She got started on Phil and Lil, while I decided I'd help with Kimi and Tommy.
"Here Susie." Taffy said, handing me two clean diapers, some wipes, and some baby powder.
"Okay Kimi and Tommy, lie down on the floor, and I'll help you get changed." I said.
Of course, while I had to take off Kimi's diaper, and apply the powder, she wanted to try putting on her own diaper. She didn't do a half bad job, except she had trouble taping up the sides, which I helped her do, once I got her hand unstuck from one of the sides. I then looked over to see Tommy running around the room, giggling and wearing nothing but his blue shirt, as he had taken off his dirty diaper and thrown it away in the diaper pale.
"Tommy, come back here please." I said.
"Need any help Susie?" He asked, lying down on the floor and kicking his legs.
"Yes Tommy, you can help me, by staying still." I said.
He did as I asked, and I got his fresh diaper put on to him. Once this was all done, the babies climbed back into bed, Taffy and I washed our hands, and then, it was time to sing them to sleep. By this time, Angelica had gotten bored, and came back upstairs.
"I want to watch my new Cynthia movie, Cynthia's Birthday, Live from Cynthia Land, but I can't get the VCR loaded up." Angelica griped.
"Uh, Angelica, I believe that's my movie. You were just borrowing it." I corrected her.
"Whatever Carmichael." Angelica grumbled, looking down at the floor.
I just let out a reluctant sigh, as Taffy and I, with Angelica coming behind me, headed back into the nursery, and Taffy got out her guitar.
"Okay Susie, would you like to make up a lullaby to sing to the minis?" Taffy asked, strumming a few cords on her guitar.
"Would I ever!" I exclaimed.
"Wait a minute, Taffy always makes up songs for me." Angelica griped.
"Sorry Angelica, it doesn't look like you get a turn today." I said.
"Hoomp!" Angelica grumbled, slumping down on to the carpet, while Taffy started playing her guitar, and the words came to me.
I opened my mouth and sang the following.
Go to sleep my baby friends,
Sleep and dream until the end.
Soon it will be time to play,
And we'll have fun the rest of the day.
After I finished singing, I saw the babies let out some huge yawns, closed their eyes, and went to sleep. Taffy must have noticed it too, because she stopped playing her guitar, and put it away in its case.
"Come on girls, let's head downstairs so we don't disturb the minis from their nap." Taffy whispered to us.
Me and Angelica headed out of the room, as Taffy came behind us, shutting off the lights and closing the door behind her. I then went to the top of the stairs, where Angelica pushed me out of her way, and ran down ahead of us.
"That wasn't very nice Angelica." I said, following her down the stairs, taking Taffy's hand.
Angelica got down to the bottom, turned around, and gave me a dirty look, before rushing off to the living room.
"Susie, you did a great job of singing to the minis. You have a lovely voice." Taffy complimented.
"Thank you Taffy." I said with a smile, as we headed into the living room, where Angelica had the pink video tape of the Cynthia's Birthday movie in her hands.
"Okay Susie, what movie would you like to watch?" Taffy asked.
"Do they have the newest direct to video Dummi Bears movie, The Dummi Bears, and the Mystery of the Missing Blue Snowball?" I asked.
Taffy looked around the living room, until she spotted their collection of Dummi Bears videos on a shelf. She pulled a tape out and showed it to me. Judging by the picture on the case, it was the right movie.
"Wow! They got it!" I exclaimed, taking a seat on the couch next to Angelica.
"Uh uh, we're watching my Cynthia movie first." Angelica hissed.
"It's my tape, and no, we're watching the Dummi Bears movie first." I said, grabbing at the tape in her hand, hoping to get my movie back, as I had enough of her borrowing it.
"No!" Angelica argued, still holding on to the back of the tape.
"Let go Angelica." I said, grabbing on to the front of the tape.
Angelica refused to let go, causing us to have a tug-of-war with the tape, until she got a hold of the shiny ribbon stuff inside, that made the tape play, pulling it out of the bottom of the tape, tying it up everywhere.
"Stop Angelica, you're breaking it." I shouted, but she wasn't listening to me.
"No!" Angelica snapped, continuing to wrap the ribbon around her leg.
At that point, Taffy reached in and snatched the tape away from us.
"Yep Angelica, Susie's right, you broke this tape. Looks like you two will have to watch the Dummi Bears movie." Taffy said, throwing the ruined Cynthia tape into the garbage, and loading the Dummi Bears movie into the VCR.
"And that was my favorite movie too." I thought to myself, as tears silently trickled down my cheeks, while I silently watched the Dummi Bears movie with Angelica.
By the time the movie ended, my daddy had arrived to pick me up.
"Come on Susie, you're gonna be late for ballet class." My daddy said from the doorway of the living room into the entry hallway, as Taffy had let him in.
"Okay daddy, I'm coming." I said, hopping off of the couch and racing to catch up with him.
"Thanks for watching Susie today." My daddy said to Taffy, as we walked towards the front door.
"It was my pleasure, and she was a big help with helping me take care of the minis. Thank you Susie." Taffy said, giving me a hug.
"It was my pleasure." I said, giving her a hug and smiling back at her.
Afterwards, I took my daddy's hand, and we left Tommy's house, walking back across the street to my house.
"So Susie, what do you think of Taffy?" Daddy asked.
"She's great! I'd love to go play there again sometime when she's babysitting." I replied.
"I'm sure we can arrange that." Daddy said, unlocking the front door and heading into the house.
"Thanks daddy." I said, heading towards the stairs and up to my room, where I got ready to go to ballet class.
And that's the story, of the day I met Taffy, for the firstest time.
End of Susie POV
The End