Tag: elephants

Ellie the Elephant

April 28th, 2026

It was hard to get Asher up and out of bed this morning. My grandson laid there on the mattress limp as boiled pasta. After some ineffective coaxing, I sat him on my knee and asked if he could walk to the kitchen where Oma was making breakfast.

Barely opening his eyes, he commanded, “Carry me”, and then he added, “Bring Ellie with you and talk for him.”

It should be mentioned at this point that Ellie is a hand puppet. Ellie is an elephant, grey in color with big floppy ears, a large curling trunk, and an enormous mouth. Ellie is a boy elephant. I’m not sure why Ellie is male, but this is important to Asher. I once suggested to Asher that we call Ellie “Eli”, but he would have none of it. Ellie is the puppet’s name, and he is a boy elephant, and that’s that.

While holding Asher in my arms, I struggled to get Ellie on to my right hand. I told Asher, “Ellie says, ‘It’s time for breakfast!'”

Asher leaned on my shoulder and said, “Talk in Ellie’s voice.”

I am supposed to use a different voice for Ellie, deeper and bit more nasal in tone.

We got to the kitchen and Karin was busy slicing fruit into bowls of Hafer Gruetze (German oat porridge). As I held Asher, he farted. I spoke in Ellie’s voice,

“You farted on my face!”

Asher laughed and replied, “I couldn’t hold it in.”

Ellie gagged and said, “I can’t breathe!”

Asher shouted, “Yes, you can!”

Ellie and I got Asher into his chair. He looked at his bowl of Hafer Gruetze and said, “I don’t like it with oranges in it!”

Oma tried to explain to Asher that we were out of strawberries, and she had to use oranges in the breakfast. Asher gazed at the Hafer Gruetze in disgust.

“I don’t like it!”

Ellie moved closer to Asher and hovered over his bowl sniffing at it.

Ellie said, “Mmmmmm…it smells good. All orangy and fruity.”

Asher looked at Ellie. “It won’t taste good.”

Ellie sampled the Hafer Gruetze, and said, “It tasted great, Asher! Try a spoon of it!”

Asher tried a bite and grimaced. “I don’t like it.”

Ellie said, “Eat a little more. Otherwise, you won’t be strong enough to climb the monkey bars at the playground.”

Asher flexed his arm muscles. “I’m strong!”

Ellie told him, “Hmmmm…a little flabby. Eat a little more of the Hafer Gruetze.”

Asher ate about half of the bowl.

Ellie said, “The bowl was all empty when I ate it.”

Asher replied, “No, it wasn’t! You didn’t eat any of it!”

“What do you mean?”

Asher told Ellie, “You can’t really eat. You’re just a puppet!”

Ellie suddenly turned and stared at me, “Am I just a puppet?”

I nodded to Ellie. “Yeah.”

“Really?”

“I’m afraid so.”

Ellie shook his head and sadly laid on the table.

“I’m just a puppet”, he moaned.

Asher told him, “It’s okay, Ellie. We can still play.”

Ellie yelled, “Yay!”

I said, “Asher, finish your breakfast now.”

Finish the Story!

February 19th, 2026

“Finish the story!” is the first thing that Asher says to his grandma (Oma) in the morning when he sees her.

Asher is five years old, and he loves stories. More specifically, he likes the stories that Oma tells him. Actually, the various stories are just small parts of one huge, never-ending epic. The stories are tales that Karin makes up as she goes along. However, they are never just her ideas. Asher often interrupts her and changes or embellishes the narrative. They are both endlessly inventive, so the story careens from one plot twist to another with enough characters to fill a Russian novel. I have been told to record the story for posterity, but I don’t see that being possible, since I am not there with Asher and Oma all the time. I catch snippets of the tale while I am in earshot, but then I lose the thread when I am absent. So, the best I can do is give you bits and pieces.

All the characters are animals, some real and some fantastical. Like Adam in the Book of Genesis, Asher gets to name all the animals. One of the animals is a zebra named Black Stripe. The main characters are three young elephants, Grey, Blue, and Teal. They are named that way because those are their respective colors. The three elephants are with their parents on holiday. They are at a campsite, and they start their adventures there.

Seeing as Asher demands his story at the beginning of the day, Karin starts by describing what the elephants are having for breakfast. Since Oma is a German who likes her traditional “Hafergrütze” (cooked or soaked oat groats), that is what the elephants eat. Oma adds strawberries, apples, and bananas into the bowl, so the elephants get to enjoy those things in their meal. They also get golden yoghurt in the mix. There actually is such a thing as golden yoghurt. It’s made by Clover Meadows, and it contains maple syrup and vanilla. It comes in a bottle with a gold-colored lid, hence the name.

The elephants frolic at the campsite. They have interesting visitors. Unicorns show up, of course. One of them is named Sparkle. That seems to be a common name for unicorns. The unicorns take the elephants to Unicorn Land, and there they do magical things. At one point, Unicorn Land is invaded by dinosaurs. Asher wanted to know if the unicorns and elephants are going to be okay. Karin told him that the T. Rex is a nice dinosaur except when he gets hungry, so the elephants keep him well fed. They all eat rainbow-colored pancakes shaped like themselves.

Then a dragon rudely enters Unicorn Land. He causes havoc for a while. The unicorn fire department tries to put out his flaming breath but then decides to let the dragon be like a small blowtorch to light campfires so that everybody can roast marshmallows.

And it goes on and on and on…

The saga reminds of the book The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. That story is in many ways similar to the tale of Asher and Oma. Ende is one of the most imaginative authors who ever lived. His book often veers off on a tangent and briefly hints at other fascinating subsidiary plots. However, Ende always reels himself back in and simply dismisses the nonessential details by saying,

“But that’s another story and shall be told another time.”

I am still waiting for “another time”.

Oma’s tale has many side stories, and I expect those will also be told “another time”.