Finding Nemo

Is your kids bathing time a pain for you ? Do they like to have a bath ? Do they fight to get into the tub ? Do they bring their toys with them ? Does the bathroom looks like a war just happened after the bath ? Do they want to stay for hours in the bath playing with the water toys ? Tell me your story, here is mine...

The Little Girl lost her Nemo plush toy. She was looking everywhere for it, she was really missing little Nemo. Last time she had a great adventure with Nemo. The little fish went everywhere, it went in the car with the Little Girl, it went to kindergarten, it went to the aquarium visit. It was very good to have Nemo during the aquarium visit. Little Nemo told the Little Girl the name of all the fishes.

She surprised Papi when she told him the name of the shark was Bruce. Papi did not know that the shark was called Bruce. The Little Girl always liked to explain things to Papi. Papi never knows anything about the important stuff, Papi only knows boring stuff.
Now the Little Girl was very sad, she did not find Nemo, and she wanted to go and see the turtles with Papi.
She asked all the other toys where Nemo was, but no toy seemed to know where Nemo was.
She found the little blue and yellow fish. The little blue and yellow fish was called Dory, and it was for sometime now that the little blue and yellow fish did not swim.
- Hello Dory, where is Nemo ? Asked the Little Girl.
- Get me a battery and I will help you find Nemo. Answered Dory.
- I do not have batteries, I will have to ask Papi, wait here Dory.
The Little Girl ran out of the room looking for Papi.
- PAPI! PAPI! Where are you ? Shouted the Little Girl.
She ran around the house looking for Papi until she finally found him. She explained Papi that she was looking for Nemo and that Dory would help find Nemo but she wanted a battery and a bowl of water.
Papi smiled at the Little Girl and went to look for a battery for Dory. Came back and then talked for a long time with Dory. After a while Dory was happy and wanting to swim. Papi handed over Dory to the Little Girl.
The Little Girl went to the sea with the Dory and swam for a long time. Mami went with the Little Girl to help her swim, get the ears cleaned and get the hair shiny. While Mami helped the Little Girl, the Little Girl was swimming with Dory.
After they came from the sea, Dory had explained to the Little Girl where Nemo was.
The Little Girl went straight into the room and found Nemo where Dory said he would be.
Nemo was next to the book from the aquarium, he was happily reading the book and remembering the visit he made to the aquarium with the Little Girl.
The Little Girl than explained all the adventure of little Nemo to Papi.

First Day

The Little Girl went to bed afraid.
Papi said it was the last day of the year.
After she sleeps we would have a new year, a whole new year to fill with many happy days.
What is it like for a year to end ?
The Little Girl was afraid. She did not like this thing of no more days in the year. The last day of the year was really scared.
It was difficult to sleep today. Many noises outside, many explosions. The sky was beautiful, with all the fireworks, lots of colors and lights, and everybody seemed to be very happy. Were all the grown-ups crazy? Was the Little Girl the only one afraid of the year ending?
The Little Girl tried to be awake for as long as she could, the noises were helping her stay wake. But she was tired, she could not continue awake much more. Little by little the Little Girl fell asleep.

- Good Morning Little Girl.
It was Papi's voice. The Little Girl woke up with a jump, and immediately hugged Papi.
- Papi the year did not finish.
The Little Girl was happy, everything seemed to be the same, there was no reason to be afraid.
- This is a New Year Little Girl, welcome to the New Year, I have something special for you today.
Papi gave the Little Girl a big wall calendar.
- My Little Girl, this is a calendar, it is for the New Year. See this little box ?
- Yes Papi, what is the little box ?
- This box is your birthday. When we are in that box you will become 5 years old, This little box here in the beginning is Today. Today is the first day on the New Year.
- Wow.
The Little Girl was amazed with what she was learning.
- With this big pen, everyday we wake up we mark a little box, when we marked all the little boxes until this special birthday box it means it is your birthday party.
- Wow, and on that day we are going to Mickey's house? I want to see Peter Pan, Mickey, Buzz, Woody.
- Yes Little Girl, we will go and see Mickey when it's your birthday party.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year,

A great 2014 for you, may your dreams come true, that you fly to the cloud you haven't flown yet!

The Little Girl and Papi will come in 2014 full of new adventures.
Until then, you have a great entrance in this fantastic year that is coming our way! Go out and see the fireworks with your family, take a lot of pictures and make great memories.

Qwirkle

Father Christmas visited the Little Girl. He left some presents for the Little Girl under the tree. On the Christmas morning the Little Girl was excited to open all the presents. But the Little Girl had a small problem, she could not read and did not know for whom each different present was. So she started the guessing game.
- Papi, is this for me ?
- Yes Little Girl, that is for you.
- Papi, is this for me ?
- No Little Girl, that is for Mami.
- MAMI! MAMI! Nicholas left a present for you... come Mami.
And so the line of presents went all the way until the last.
- Papi, is this for me ?
- How interesting Little Girl, that is for the family, it is for the Little Girl, for Mami and for Papi.
- Wow, that is cool!
So the Little Girl unwrapped the special family gift.

It was a game with a lot of colors!
- What is this game Papi ? I want to play!
- This game is called Qwirkle.
- Qwirkle? I want to play, I want to play.
So Papi started reading the rules as the Little Girl Started unpacking all the little pieces.
The Little Girl was excited. Papi was finding the rules to complicated, he looked at the box and checked the age: from 6 years old. Hum, Papi had a problem, the Little Girl was only 4 years old.
But Papi had an idea, and told the Little Girl to go hide every little piece somewhere in the house. So the Family started the game, hiding the little black squares with the symbols on them.
When all the pieces were hidden, the family met around the small table at the Little Girl's room.
Papi then explained step number 2.
Papi was going to put some small song playing. When the song finishes, each player sits in the chair closer to him or her. Luckily, the Little Girl had 4 small chairs in her room. She had a chair of each color. She had a red, blue, yellow and green chair.
So Papi put the music playing. Then suddenly the music stopped and everybody sat on a chair.
The Little Girl was on a blue chair, Papi found a yellow chair, and Mami sat on the green chair.
Now Papi explained step 3. Each player need to find a piece that was hidden of the same color as the chair. Everybody ran to find a piece of that color.
Each time the family got back together near the table, the music would start again and stop.
In the end of the day, who had the more pieces won the game.
The family lost some pieces of the game that would be found for many years to come in the house. But everybody had a lot of fun playing the new version of the game.

Balloons

Ever been in the supermarket and your kids seem to want everything they see ? Do they want expensive stuff ? Do they simply want because you always give them something in the past ? Do they have a favorite thing they always want to bring from the supermarket ? Like cookies, chocolates or balloons ? How do you act with them ? How do you know them to get them the stuff they want or not too ? How do you tell them to not bring those useless extras? Tell me your story, here is mine...

The Little Girl loved balloons. She loved balloons in all colors and shapes. As Papi pushed the shopping cart at the supermarket, the Little Girl placed little packs of balloons in the shopping cart.
Papi got the milk, the Little Girl got a small pack of white balloons and hid them behind the milk.
Papi got strawberries, the Little Girl got a small pack of red balloons and hid them behind the strawberries.
Papi got bananas, the Little Girl got a small pack of yellow balloons and hid them behind the bananas.
Papi got the lettuce, the Little Girl got a small pack of green balloons and hid them behind the lettuce.
The Little Girl also wanted blue balloons, but Papi was not putting anything blue in the shopping cart.
"Papi!" called the Little Girl pointing out, "You want the blue shovel", "No Little Girl, Papi does not need that."
"Papi!" called the Little Girl pointing out, "You want the blue jug", "No Little Girl, Papi does not need that."
"Papi!" called the Little Girl pointing out, "You want the blue basket", "No Little Girl, Papi does not need that."
The Little Girl was getting more and more excited, Papi was not buying anything blue, and she really wanted the blue balloons.
"Papi, Papi, I want the blue shampoo, I want to be pretty for Papi!", and Papi took the shampoo out of the shelf and to the shopping cart. The Little girl got a small pack of blue balloons and hid behind the shampoo.

The Little Girl and Papi went to pay for the groceries, and Papi was surprised with all the balloons. Papi looked at the Little Girl, and the Little Girl smiled back at Papi tilting her head with her hands and one foot behind her. Papi could not help but give a big laugh.
The lady at the cash register liked the Little Girl and asked her "Are you having a party today Little Girl ? So many beautiful balloons, here take this gift, it is a balloon pump."
Papi and the Little Girl went to the car, the Little Girl started pumping her balloons in the car. She was happy, now the car would fly home much faster. The Little Girl did not understand why Papi was complaining about the mirror. She did not want to look pretty now, she just wanted to fly home.

Resolution 2014

Today we have a different entry, today I am not writing you a story.

Today I am writing you something very personal, today I am writing one of my resolutions for 2014.
And from the results of my blog from 2013, I fully believe that I can achieve my goal. I received a little help from a friend and her blog "Marketing research without the jargon" by Ana Canhoto.

I have today a written physical draft of a book of what my final book can look like.

I just received in the mail via FedEx the first printed versions of the book. It came to life using the services of Blurb Books. It is far from being the book I want, but it is physical evidence that I can do it. And seeing it in hardcover format, allows to better understand what it can look like, and what it needs to be closer to what i want the book to become. A huge thanks to Angela Gaehtgens, my executive coach, that teaches me visualizing the success is part of achieving it. Today with this physical evidence, the exercise just became much more easier.

By writing my short stories and ideas in this blog, I am little by little compiling enough material to provide the content needed for the book.

The tip of writing, just writing, and especially doing it in a blog, I got in a book that I searched to coach me into writing it. This book "Write a Book in a Weekend" by Donna Kozik provided a lot on insight into getting your work on to the ground. But speaking of references, a real life changer was the book "Your Writing Coach" by Jurgen Wolff that puts everything you need to write a book into perspective with huge amount of information to make your book solid with content.

All my content are stories, short stories. And I found a great place to test this stories and get feedback on them. I strongly recommend you visit a Toastmasters Organization club. You will be surprised, there are clubs everywhere, probably extremely close to you and you have never noticed. Find one near you and ask for participating in a session. It was for me a fantastic place for telling my stories and get feedback on how I can make them better and how I can deliver them with more impact. A huge thank for my friend Filipa Valente that took me into one of this sessions for the first time at Young Entrepreneurs Toastmaster Club. A huge thanks to a lot of toastmasters that gave me a lot of feedback and enriched my life. I would like to say here the name of all of them, but where so many that it is difficult for me to not forget some.

In the beginning I was pictures of the events for the stories, thanks to the feedback of my dear friend Alex Frank, I use now my own drawings for enriching the message. After all it is easier to convey imagination in a drawing that it is in a picture. I will revisit my few blog posts done so far with pictures and little by little replace them with drawings.

So if I was able to produce a pretty decent book so far, I imagine that collecting a richer material will allow the content to become much more interesting and mold-able by the editor. So during 2014 I will definitively put a lot more investment into writing my short stories and keep them flowing. I believe by doing so I will have enough material for bringing the book to life in 2015. Nevertheless I will do a new print run by end of 2014 and hope to make it very close to a definitive book.

I just need one more thing for the success, I would like you as a reader to provide me feedback on what i have written so far. After all, despite the book being the result of my creativity, I do like to know that what I create links somehow to the readers. The book is for their joy as much as it is for mine.

You all have a fantastic 2014, and put in your resolutions to provide me feedback.
Happy New Year.

Alex.

Cow in Boots

How do you teach the colors to your kids ? And to count ? Do they enjoy showing they know the colors ? And counting ? You teach them to count ? And the animals of the farm ? Have you taken them to see a farm `Do they know what a cow, pig or goat looks like ? Do they enjoy seeing the farm animals ? Do they like to feed them ? Are they afraid of the animals ? Tell me your story, here is mine...

The Little Girl went to the farm. The Little Girl wanted to see the cow.
The Little Girl had a present for the cow, the Little Girl had a big orange carrot to give to the cow.
Did the cow like carrots ?
Where was the big cow ?
The Little Girl went to the farm. The Little Girl wanted to see the cow.
- Hello brown dog, did you see the cow ?
- Woof woof, said the brow dog.
The Little Girl went to the farm. The Little Girl wanted to see the cow.
- Hello pink pig, did you see the cow ?
- Oink oink, said the pink pig.
The Little Girl went to the farm. The Little Girl wanted to see the cow.
- Hello white sheep, did you see the cow ?
- Meeeh meeeh, said the white sheep.
The Little Girl went to the farm. The Little Girl wanted to see the cow.
Is the cow at the lake ?
No at the lake only ducks.
The Little Girl went to the farm. The Little Girl wanted to see the cow.
Is the cow at the pen ?
No at the pen only chickens.
The Little Girl went went to the farm . The Little Girl wanted to see the cow.
Is the cow at the stable ?
Yes, the cow is at the stable.

The Little Girl went went to the farm . The Little Girl wanted to see the cow.

The Little Girl found the cow.

The cow was wearing boots.

The Little Girl went went to the farm . The Little Girl wanted to see the cow.

The boots had different colors.

One boot was Yellow, the cow was wearing a yellow boot.

One boot was Red, the cow was wearing a red boot.

One boot was Green, the cow was wearing a green boot.

One boot was Blue, the cow was wearing a blue boot.

The Little Girl went went to the farm . The Little Girl wanted to see the cow.

And the Little Girl learned the colors.

Yellow, Red, Green and Blue.

The Little Girl went went to the farm . The Little Girl wanted to see the cow.

How many boots was the cow wearing ?

The cow was wearing 4 boots, one boot for each leg.

1 - One, 2 - Two, 3 - Three, 4 - Four.

The Little Girl went went to the farm . The Little Girl wanted to see the cow.

And the Little Girl learned the numbers.

1 - One, 2 - Two, 3 - Three, 4 - Four.

The Little Girl went went to the farm . The Little Girl wanted to see the cow.

The Little Girl found the cow.
The Little girl gave a orange carrot to the cow.
The Little Girl went went to the farm . The Little Girl wanted to see the cow.

She saw the cow and now was sleeping the way home.