Squeeze's New Shoes

Once upon a time .... a long, long, long, long, long, long, long time ago ... there was a young, little panda named ..... Squeeze.

Now Squeeze was no ordinary panda, she was the brightest little panda in her class.  She was kind and gentle and was always the first up to help others.  She really was wonderful in every way.

One day, Squeeze came home from school after having such an amazing day playing and learning that she was absolutely pooped!  She sat in her little panda chair, kicked off her shoes and sighed.  'I'm sooooo tired' she said, 'what's for tea?'

Mommy Panda was in the kitchen and didn't hear Squeeze's question.  'WHAT'S FOR TEA?' Squeeze shouted at the top of her voice.  That wasn't like Squeeze at all. 

'What's all this noise?' Daddy Panda said as he came down the stairs, 'it's not nice to shout.  If you have a question for someone, you have to go and ask nicely.'

'Sorry, I'm just reeeeeeealy tired.' she said.

'Well that's no excuse for shouting.  Go and ask Mommy Panda nicely and you might get something nice for tea.' said daddy panda.

So off squeeze went, into the kitchen to see her mom.  'What's for tea?' Squeeze asked.

'Bamboo' said Mommy Panda.

'But we always have bamboo.' said Squeeze.

'This time, it's different.  You can have some of this new stuff with yours.  We found it the other day.  It's called ..... Red Sauce!'

'Red Sauce?!' cried Squeeze, 'WOW!' and she took off back into the front room, all excited.

5 minutes later, there they all were, eating their bamboo with Squeeze having the biggest dollop of Red Sauce ever.

After tea, they all went into the kitchen to clean up.  Mommy Panda washed up, Squeeze dried up and Daddy Panda put everything away.  They all worked very well together.

They all went into the front room to relax for the night.  Mommy Panda and Daddy Panda sat on the settee and Squeeze sat in her little chair.

'We've got another surprise for you.' Mommy Panda said.  'Reach around behind your chair ..'

So Squeeze reached around and pulled out a bright blue box.  'What is it?' she asked.

'You'll have to open it up and have a look.' Said Daddy Panda.

Squeeze carefully opened up the box. 'SHOES!' she cried.  Squeeze loved getting new shoes.  It meant that they were going somewhere special, but wait .. these shoes had 'Laces?!'

'Yep,' said Mommy Panda, 'You're going to start high school soon and you still don't know how to tie laces on proper shoes so we thought it was time for you to learn.'

'But .. but .. but, I don't know how to tie laces?!' Squeeze started to cry.

'Don't worry' said Daddy Panda, 'we're going to teach you. Watch.  You go cross, under, under, pull then loop, over, through and pull then cross through and pull.  See, simple'

'Keh?!' said Squeeze.

'Watch again' said Daddy Panda, 'cross, under, under, pull then loop, over, through and pull then cross through and pull.  See, simple!

'Keh?!' said Squeeze again.

'One more time then it's your turn. Cross, under, under, pull then loop, over, through and pull then cross through and pull.'

Squeeze took the other shoe. 'Cross, under, through, under, pull, through ....'

'No, no, no. You're doing it wrong. Try again'

'Cross, over, under ...'

'Nope, try again'

Squeeze was getting so angry with it that she threw the shoe across the room and started to cry. 'I can't do it!' she screamed.

Daddy Panda looked straight and Squeeze 'That is NOT how we act in this house.  We do things nicely and if we can't do something we ask for help and we will help until we can do it, don't we?'

'I'm sorry' cried Squeeze and she went and fetched her shoe from the other side of the room.

'How about we try it this way' said Mommy Panda. 'You know what bunny ears look like, right? Well lets make 2 bunny ears with the laces, cross the laces first then tuck one under the other and pull tight.  If you want to make it extra tight, you can tuck under twice and pull.  That's called a knot.'

So Squeeze crossed the laces and tucked under twice before she pulled really tight. 

'Careful, not too tight. You don't want to chop your foot off!' Mommy Panda chuckled, 'now for the bunny ears. take one lace and make a loop, just like the ear of a bunny.  Hold that with your finger and thumb then do the same with the other lace.  See, 2 bunny ears.'

Squeeze copied the bunny ears. 'What's next?' she asked, getting excited that it was going so well.

'Next, the bunny has to go for a run so we go run, run, run, run around one ear with the other then jump through the hole into the den. make sure to pull tight though because bunnies can jump really far.'

So Squeeze looped the ears around, pulled one through the gap made in the lace and pulled tight. 'Tada!' she cheered as she held up her tied shoe.

'Well done!!' Mommy Panda and Daddy Panda cheered.

Then Squeeze undone the laces and tied it again 'Tada!!' she cheered again .. and again .. and again until she could do it without even looking.

'But that's not the proper way.' whispered Daddy Panda to Mommy Panda.

'It's tied, isn't it?' She replied. 'Let her get good enough doing it this way first then we'll show her the other way another day.'

So Squeeze kept on tying her shoe laces with bunny ears until just before she went to big school when she finally got the way that Daddy Panda was trying to explain.  'You did make it sound very hard.' Squeeze said, 'but i can do it now!'

'Good Girl, Well done' Mommy Panda and Daddy Panda shouted and they all lived happily ever after ...

The End