Notes: Thanks to Mari and Sammy for the squeal-inducing feedback. You're the best, ladies!
Readers and REAL McRollers - Thank you for your amazing support! It is always appreciated.
Hope you enjoy!
Backwards or Forwards (A McRoll in the REAL World Story)
"Angie and me picked together, Mommy!" DJ said as Catherine came into his bedroom. "This is the bedtime book we want to read tonight."
"Da backward one!" Angie added, pointing to the book DJ was holding up for their mother to see.
Catherine smiled knowingly. "Ohh, and I bet you want to play the backward game, too, huh?"
Both DJ and Angie nodded hopefully. "Can we?" DJ asked.
"Can we?" Angie echoed.
"Of course."
DJ and Angie exchanged excited smiles.
"Can Daddy play, too?" DJ asked.
"He wouldn't miss it. He's finishing up a phone call so how about we read the book and I bet by the time we're done he'll join us."
"Okay!" DJ ran over to his bed with the book and jumped on it while Angie turned around and walked backwards, whipping her head to one side and the other to watch her steps.
Catherine chuckled. "Getting into the backwards spirit, huh, baby girl?"
Angie grinned up at her toothily and bumped into the side of the bed. She promptly turned and crawled up beside her brother and the two got settled underneath the covers. "Ready, Mommy!"
Catherine smiled at the two kids and maneuvered into the space they'd left between them.
"Comfy?" she asked.
Angie nodded and DJ said, "Yep," handing her the book.
"Okay," she said, and read the title, "Tell Me the Day Backwards."
Angie reached over and pointed to the cover illustration. "Dat's Timmy Bear and dat's his mommy."
"That's right," Catherine said, and opened the front cover.
DJ laid his head against her arm and idly played with the ends of her hair in what had long been a comforting motion for him.
Catherine began reading the story about Timmy and his mother who recalled the activities of their day backwards, starting with Timmy brushing his teeth in the stream, to their family picnic, Timmy's run in with a big scary fish underwater, to finding the most delicious honey in the world, to waking up from their long winter hibernation.
As she was finishing the story, Steve appeared in the doorway and smiled softly at the scene. Once Catherine had closed the book, the kids realized their father was there and their faces lit up.
"Daddy! We read the tell-me-the-day-backwards book and now we're going to play the game!" DJ said.
Angie nodded vigorously. "Mommy said you play wif us, too!"
"Of course I will," Steve said, walking around to the other side of the bed and sitting down. He pulled Angie into his lap and got comfortable next to Catherine. "That's one of my favorite games because it involves recalling details in an unusual order, so sometimes you remember things you wouldn't otherwise."
Catherine smiled at him. "Training the next generation, Commander?" she teased.
"Hey, you're the one who discovered the book and made sure we had our own copy, Lieutenant."
She acknowledged the point with a nod and turned her attention back to the kids, wrapping an arm around DJ. "Okay, who remembers what we did before we read the story?"
DJ pursed his lips, knowing the answer but wanting his sister to go first. "You remember, Angie," he said, bringing a fist near his mouth and miming a toothbrush.
Her eyes widened in realization. "We brusheded our teef!"
Catherine nodded. "Right, just like Timmy Bear, and what did we do before that?" She looked at DJ.
"Pajamas!" he said immediately.
"Yes! And before that?"
Angie and DJ looked at each other, thinking.
"We put da toys away," Angie said, pointing in the general direction of downstairs. She shook her head seriously. "So da playroom not be messy and Daddy not step on a block again."
DJ covered his mouth to smother his giggle, and Steve and Catherine fought their own laughter.
Steve leaned down to buss the top of her head. "And Daddy appreciates that. What'd we do before that?"
Angie and DJ thought for a moment again before DJ raised a hand excitedly. "I remember! We chased the spider Angie found around the playroom to catch it and let it outside before Pumpkin could eat it."
"Gotta admit that was a first for me," Steve murmured to Catherine who smiled back.
"That's right, and Daddy saved it, didn't he?"
DJ nodded, then tapped his chin. "What did we do before that?"
"We maked the block tower!" Angie said. She raised both arms into the air and Steve had to dodge her hands to avoid an inadvertent smack to the face. "Sooooo high."
Catherine smiled. "And before that?"
"We had dinner!" DJ said. "Chicken from the grill and macaroni salad."
"And cookies!" Angie added.
Catherine chuckled, tickling her tummy. "And a cookie for dessert. Before that?"
"We came home from Grandma and Grandpa and Grandma Ang's and played with Cammie outside," DJ said, smiling at Cammie who was resting on the floor near the bed after wandering in part way through the story.
"DJ doed his homework wif Grandma, and Grandma Ang winned Bingo!" Angie reported.
It was Steve's turn to chuckle. "Grandma Ang won Bingo, and that's pretty much a given for any day that ends in 'y,' " he said.
DJ nodded. "I did my homework with Grandma but she only had to help me a little with my spelling packet. I got my whole math worksheet done myself!"
"Great job, honey," Catherine said, giving him a quick side hug.
"We had snack at Grandma's," Angie said. "Apples and one cookie." She held up a finger and stressed the number just as Elizabeth had done earlier in the afternoon.
Catherine sighed, unable to hold back a smile. "Of course you did."
"And before that Grandpa and Angie picked me up from school!" DJ said.
"We singed 'bumpin' up an' down in my little red wagon, bump, bump, bump," Angie added happily.
Catherine grinned. "One of your favorite storytime songs."
DJ looked at his sister. "What did you do before you picked me up, Angie?"
"I have gy'nastics and we play like animals!"
"Oh, it was a play like animals day?" Steve asked with a smile. Another activity inspired by a book, occasionally Angie's preschool gymnastics class would look at some of the pages that detailed how different animals move and play and how that helps in their survival, then the children would imitate the animals' movements.
"What animals did you play like today?" Catherine asked.
"We did … we did rhino'ses?" Angie looked up for help with the word, her brow furrowed.
"Rhinoceroses?" Steve asked.
Angie nodded. "We did dem playing in the mud for dey baths, and we did parrots. Dey do somersaults! In da air!"
"That sounds so fun!" DJ said. "Maybe we could do that tomorrow."
"Good idea," Catherine said. "How about you tell us one thing at school since it's getting late?"
DJ nodded. He bit his lip as he thought, then grinned. "We had library today and me and Michael accidentally switched our placeholder sticks so we put our books back in the wrong spots, but then we saw it was wrong and we fixed it and Mrs. Kealoha said we were very responsible."
Catherine kissed the top of his head. "Yes, you are."
"What did we do before we dropped DJ off at school this morning, Angie?" Steve asked.
Angie furrowed her brow in thought. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted DJ trying to point surreptitiously to his backpack in the corner. She gasped. "We pack our backpacks!" Shaking her head, she added, "I didn't put da remote in my backpack. Just my aar'vark. An' Mommy's hairbrush."
Now Catherine's brow furrowed. "My brush?"
Angie nodded. "I needed it," she said seriously.
Catherine sighed, glancing at Steve who shook his head, shrugging. "Not sure I wanna know what for. Is it still in your backpack?"
Angie shook her head. "I's at Grandma's."
Steve hid a smile as Catherine chuckled lightly. "Okay, we'll figure that out tomorrow," she said. "What did we do before packing backpacks?"
"We had breakfast," DJ said. "Cheerios and blueberries and bananas."
"Yum!" Angie added.
"And before that Daddy went swimming and before that you came in to wake us up, Mommy."
"You said, 'Good morning, Angie Lizbef McGarrett! You have nice dreams?' " Angie added.
Catherine laughed. "I don't remember saying that, silly girl." She kissed her cheek. "But now it is time to have some nice dreams tonight. Great job telling the day backwards, both of you."
"Yep, great job," Steve echoed, lifting Angie as he stood.
After Catherine got up, DJ scooted into the middle of the bed and smiled up at his family as Catherine tucked the covers in around him again. "That's a fun game. I really like it."
Angie nodded even as she rested her head against Steve's shoulder, drowsiness settling in. "Really like it."
Catherine leaned down to kiss DJ goodnight. "Well, you know one thing that's the same, backwards or forwards?"
DJ shook his head, looking up at her.
Catherine smiled at him and then at Angie. "How much Daddy and I love you."
"Backwards or forwards," Steve agreed, kissing Angie's head, "that will always be true."
Hope you enjoyed!
Books mentioned:
Tell Me the Day Backwards, by Albert Lamb, illustrations by David McPhail (Candlewick Press, 2011)
Play Like an Animal!: Why Critters Splash, Race, Twirl, and Chase, by Maria Gianferrari, illustration by Mia Powell (Millbrook Press, 2020)
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