The Mystery of the Overturned Tickle Box

[Miki Yamuri]

Baby Jennie, Baby Miki and the Mystery of the Overturned Tickle box

By: Jennie Flint and Miki Yamuri

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One afternoon as Baby Miki sat in the playpen waiting for her best friend Jennie to be brought back after a much needed diaper change, Mommy Tj carried a gigging baby Jennie back into the playroom. She was nearly laughing her little head off.

Mommy Lisa commented, “Seems Jennie had her ticklebox turned over.”

Mommy Tj laughed, “She loves me to give her a large raspberry right after I’m done.”

Lisa giggled, “I do Piggies on Miki, makes her ticklebox turn over too.”
Both mommies laughed.

Miki wanted to hug Jennie, but her friend was too overcome with laughter. “Huh?” asked Miki. “How does baby fix a tickle box that gotted turneded over?” She thought. “When the toy box turn over, alla toys spill out … so maybe baby can finds the tickle box and turn it back right?”

Jennie managed to recover and was catching her breath. “Wha -- huh -- huh -- wha Miki sayins?” she asked.

“Your tickle box got turneded over, Mommy say.”

“Ooh,” said Jennie. “Whatsa tickle box?”

“Was hopin you knewed,” Miki said. “Maybe a box fulla tickles?”

“Makes sense,” Jennie said, nodding until her pigtails bounced around.

“Anyways we gotsa find it an turn it back over,” said Miki. “Maybe look for the tickles an’ put ‘em back innit.”

“Mommy says, ‘Always clean up your toys when you’re done, young lady,’” said Jennie. “So we pobly oughtta do it.”

Baby Miki began lifting up each plushy doll, every toy, and letter block in the large playpen. She even wiggled under the huge blue Teddy Bear to see if it was under there. All Miki managed to do was cause the huge doll to fall over on top of her. All Jennie could see, was Miki’s ruffled, poofy hinney showing from beneath it.

Jennie crawled over slowly as she said with worry in her baby words, “Is … Mikis OK?”

Miki giggled, “Yups, am OK. No findeda Ticklebox or enny tickles unner here.”

Miki wiggled out from under the large Teddy Bear, plopped on her thickly diapered hinney, and sucked her thumb thoughtfully as she looked around.

Jennie thought. “Well what do tickles looks like?” she asked.

“Things … that go inna box?” Miki replied uncertainly.

Jennie said, “So … we look around for a box wif thingies innit. Maybe they tickles!”

Miki gasped. “That … sooper smart! You gots so many goo ideas!”

“Aww, thankoo Mikis,” said a blushing Jennie. “That issa box over there tho …” she said, pointing at a box of old doll clothes, but the two babies soon established that these were not tickles.

Miki’s eyes get large as she takes her thumb from her mouth, “Baby kno wherea box is.” she nods her head until her ponytails fly. “Is onna toppa mommy’s dresser. It gots lotsa powders in it. Mommy say it tickles her pink ta open it or sompin.”

Both babies climbed from the playpen and plopped on their thickly diapered bottoms. Then, used the playpen rails to stand, before they toddled out of the playroom, down the hall, navigated the staircase, then arrived in Lisa’s bedroom.

Both babies sat and contemplated how they were going to manage the huge climb up, so they could investigate the box mommy Lisa said tickled her so.

Miki could see her mommy’s chair beside the dresser. Several of the drawers were slightly pulled open. Just enough to allow two adventurous babies to climb to the top of the dresser.

Jennie climbed dutifully onto the chair, then helped Miki up too. Together they climbed up the dresser drawers until they were looking at the magical treasure box. They looked at each other. They looked at the box again. They carefully reached out to open it.
Inside was a whitish powder that smelled funny, like Mommy’s perfume. Jennie sniffed it. Miki did too. Then they both suddenly sneezed. “Choo!” Some of the powder got scattered across the dresser top, but fortunately it was farther back.

“That a box of sneezes,” Jennie said, “notta box of tickles.” Miki nodded, and they put the lid back on the box, climbing carefully down. Maybe Miki’s mommy Lisa wouldn’t notice. They quietly crawled out of the room.

Back in the playroom, Jennie said, “Maybe we doin it wrong.”

“What you mean?” Miki asked.

Jennie said, “Whatif onna us try to make the other one giggle lots … n look for a box.”

“Ooo maybe it only show up if someone gigglins,” Miki said. “OK who go firstest?”

Suddenly she grinned mischievously and pounced on Jennie, tickling her ribs. Jennie, of course, screeched loudly with the intense and wonderful tickling and began to giggle loudly.

Of course, Jennie turned the tables and began to tickle Miki, who in turn screeched just as loudly at the intense pleasure of the tickling. In fact, they tickled each other so much, they had wet their diapers laughing.

When they had both caught their breath, Jennie asked, “Did you see any boxes or tickles?”

Miki shook her head no. “No … was laffin too much …”

“Onna us gotsa giggle,” said Jennie, “and tha other gotsa look. This not workin.”

Miki sat and sucked her thumb thoughtfully. All of a sudden she remembered her mommy’s craft box had this huge covered box with a fuzzy cover.

Miki took her thumb from her mouth and said to Jennie, “Gots it!! Baby thinks I knows wherea boxa tickles is.” as she began to climb over the playroom gate one more time.

Jennie was more than interested as she climbed over behind Miki and toddled after her. Miki led Jennie into Lisa’s craft room. It had a large sewing machine, many shelves full of objects and crafting supplies. A huge kiln sat off to the side, next to a potter’s wheel.
Miki toddled over to a large closet and managed to get the door to slide back. Within were many kinds of boxes. One, in particular, had a very fuzzy crocheted cover. When Miki took the lid off the box, feathers flew everywhere in a large cloud.
 
“Oooh, feathers are tickly!” said Jennie, trying to catch one. They were small and downy, so they moved with the slightest breeze and were difficult to pin down, but eventually Jennie got one and tried to tickle Miki with it. However, by this time Miki had also caught one, so the two girls were eventually giggling together again, momentarily forgetting their mission. By the time they caught their breath, their diapers had gotten even wetter with all the giggling.

Then they looked around. There were feathers everywhere. “Umm,” said Jennie, “is we gonna get in twouble?”

Miki grinned as she said, “That mus b what mommy meanin bout spillin alla tickles!”

Jennie looked around. Her eyes grew large with understanding, “Oooohhh! Sos alla tickles is like a feavers an we turnded over tha boxa tickles??”

Miki nodded her head until her ponytails flew, “An, an, an, prolly us babies oughtta puts tha tickles back inna box afore …”

About that time, a shadow fell across our two intrepid explorers. Jennie and Miki turn with trepidation on their faces to see not Just Mommy Lisa standing there with her hands on her hips and a large scowl, but mommy TJ as well.”And just what are the two of you up to? I suppose it was the two of you who got into my body powder too.”

Jennie and Miki had already begun to pick up as many feathers as they could in hopes they wouldn’t get popped.

Mommy TJ said with exasperation, as she too began scooping up large amounts of the flyaway feathers, “What made you make this kind of mess? Both of you know this room is off limits.”

Miki whimpered, “Tryina find tha boxa tickles sos we can putsa tickles back in it affer it gotted turneded overs.”

“Turned over … the tickle box?” said Mommy TJ, looking at Mommy Lisa. “It’s just what you said earlier.”

Incredulous, Mommy Lisa replied, “I don’t believe it.” She paused in her efforts to clean up. “You girls are trying to drive Mommy round the bend, aren’t you?”

“But but Mommy you knows baby too young ta drive,” Miki said earnestly.

Jennie added, “We only allowed inna car seat in back, so how we drive from there?”

“Whatif the car seat could be putted inna front?” Miki asked.

Jennie replied, “Oooo, maby then that might work,” nodding positively.

“Baby girls will not be driving any cars!” interrupted Mommy Lisa. “Also we really have to be careful what we say around little pitchers that have big ears.”

“Huh?” said both Miki and Jennie at the same time.

The two girls looked at each other for an instant before Miki said, “but wha bouts alla them tickles?? We gotsa puts em aww inna box sos it can gets turneded overs again.”

Mommy TJ replied, “OK. tell you girls what, you pick up each feath … I mean, tickle and put them back in the box, we’ll go and make some chocolate chip cookies. How’s that sound?”

Jennie and Miki screeched for joy …. Basically for two reasons. The most important one, they were going to get some freshly baked cookies shortly. The other, they managed to not get popped for the huge mess of tickles they had made.

While they stuffed many large handfuls of feathers into the box, Miki said, “What ifs … a tickles looks like somepin else too? No jus likesa feavers.”

Jennie stopped putting the large handful of feathers in the box as she replied, “Is they no looks like feavers … what they looks like?”

Miki shrugged, “Dunno, but it gotta be sompin tickly likesa feavers.”

“Or whatif … they things nobunny can see?” Jennie wondered.

Miki gasped. “Like … the Wet Diaper Fairy that visit babys?”

Jennie nodded. “‘Cause … we sure giggled lotses today!”

Miki replied, “An … got visited lotses too,” looking down in the direction of her diaper.

“Maybe we finded moren one tickle box,” said Jennie, “just didn’t knows it.”

In the kitchen, Lisa and TJ discussed the tickle box incident. Both women laughed over the whole thing as they mixed up the cookie batter.

Lisa said in a thoughtful tone, “You know? We could sort of make something cute and call it a box of tickles. Put some gummy worms or something in it.”

TJ laughed, “Oh, like the idea we had to dress up the potty to look cute? The girls to this day still talk about the potty monster and refuse to go anywhere near it.”

Both women laugh as they placed the thick cookie dough onto the baking pan and slid it into the oven. Very shortly, the wonderful aroma of baking chocolate chip cookies filled the house. 

Lisa came into the craft room and found the babies had been very diligent in cleaning up the mess of feathers. Only a few remained in places the toddlers would have real trouble getting.

Lisa checked their diapers and found them to be quite wet. One at a time, she took each into the changing room, and when returning had them giggling loudly.

Mommy Lisa told both girls after she put them in the playpen and raised the rails, “Now, both of you had your tickle boxes turned over. Mommy has something for you. Play nice and I’ll bring it, and cookies.”

“Ooo we gotsa play nice,” said Jennie, turning toward Miki. She paused. “What that mean?”

Miki shrugged. “Donno,” she said. “Guess it mean we no do noffin that get us yelled at?”

“But … how we do that?” asked Jennie. “We dunno what get us yelled at.”

“Guess we just gotsa hope we gets lucky,” said Miki. “Lookit, baby save some tickles.”

Miki opened her closed hand and a number of multicolored feathers floated down.

“Oooo,” said Jennie, “they pretty. Wonner if they still gots any tickle left innem.” She picked one up and tried to tickle Miki’s neck with it.

Miki shrieked with glee as Jennie tickled her with the fluffy feather. When both mommies walked in, one with a large platter of fresh, hot cookies, the other had two boxes, one in each hand.

Mommy Lisa said, “What in the world are you two into now?”

Mommy Tj said, “I brought you girls something. It’s a real live box of tickles.”

Jennie stopped tickling Miki and both girls started sucking their thumbs as mommy Tj placed a medium sized box in front of each baby. Jennie and Miki both looked the boxes over for a minute. They were covered in some sort of faux fur that made it look more like a critter than a box.

Miki pulled the lid off. Without warning, something sprang out of the box amid a large shower of small fuzzy things made out of puffballs that smelled so wonderfully of baby powder. Also within the box, were many golden kisses, gummy bears, gummy worms, and several bags of M&Ms. Both girls began to giggle.

Lisa said, “See? It’s a box of tickles.”

Jennie and Miki both squeaked happily and giggled more as they played with the tickle boxes and opened the other one with exactly as much glee as they had the first.

“I think the tickle boxes are a success,” said Lisa. “I think they’ve almost forgotten there are C-O-O-K-I-E-S.”

Miki and Jennie were too little to know what that spelled, but they did finally remember, helped by the delicious aroma of fresh-baked cookies in the air. Their mommies tied bibs on them and gave them cookies to eat, and later, after washing the chocolate spots off their faces and hands, agreed with the baby girls that it had been a wonderful day.

As Miki and Jennie lay back in their cribs for a much needed nap, Miki rolled over and said softly, “So, we scovereded what tha boxa tickles is.”

Jennie nodded and replied, “Yup yup. An awwsos a tickles can b mostus ennyfing that makesa baby laugh.”

Both girls giggled for a bit as they still had the taste of the chocolate chip cookies in their mouths.

Guess that meansa cookie can bea tickles too … huh??”

Jennie’s eyes get large for a bit as she nods, “An an an … a tickles can be likesa fuzzy critter that squeaks n rollsa round.”

Miki replied, “Ooo, that neatos thingy too. Guess itta big tickles.”

Both infants drifted off for their nap. Each totally satisfied they had discovered the truth behind the Tickle Box.

The Tickle Fairy flashes into existence and smiled at the sleeping infants. She knew very well if that little whisper into the mother’s ears hadn’t happened, those two would have uncovered the truth. She  knew they had done so on several occasions.
A small blue / white flash … only contented sleeping babies remained.

~~ Sweet Dreams ~~