It was Christmas break, and Lily wanted to write important things on a calendar of her own. The most important thing she wanted to write was the day that she was going back to school. Lily loved going to school, and was eagerly looking forward to going back and wearing her new twirly swirly bubble dress and leggings that Grandpa had bought her for Christmas (with the help of a kind saleslady at Carson’s.)

So on New Year’s Day, when Grandpa brought her a brand new calendar with pictures of puppies and kittens in it, Lily was thrilled!

The next day, Lily brought her new calendar to Mommy, and asked her, “Mommy, what day is today?”

Mommy said, “Well, this calendar is unusual, and it starts with the month of December. December is already over, so we need to turn the page because it’s January.”

Lily couldn’t believe it! A calendar that started on December? “No, Mommy, I want the calendar to start right now!”

“I could tear out the December page for you,” suggested Mommy. But that would be all wrong! Then one of the cute puppy and kitten pictures would be missing, and you would be able to see where the page was torn out!

“I’m just going to write in the calendar MY WAY!” said Lily. And so, using a pen and asking Mommy to help her with the letters, she carefully wrote “GOIM” in the square with the number 4. Oops! She had meant to write a N, not an M! Lily went into the kitchen, and tore a small corner off of a paper towel. She turned on the faucet in the kitchen sink, and got the paper towel just a little bit wet, so that it wouldn’t drip on the floor. Then, she went back to her calendar, and carefully wiped the M. Just then, Mommy saw what Lily was doing.

“Oh, Lily, you can’t erase pen marks that way!” she exclaimed. But since the paper was shiny and the ink was still wet, the small corner of paper towel DID erase the “M”! It tore the paper a little bit, too, but that was okay. “Let’s just let this dry before you write on it again,” said Mommy. “We don’t want it to tear any more!”

The calendar dried quickly, and when it was ready to write on again, Lily’s mommy told Lily the correct letters to write. Lily wrote, “GOING BACK SCHOOL” carefully on the square that had a “4” on it. Then, she carefully put the calendar on the refrigerator with magnets, since that’s where a calendar with important dates belonged. Lily proudly looked at the calendar.

It was going to be a great year!

Lily and her twirly, swirly bubble dress