Swallowing Instructions

Patsy and Larry asked me to write some tips for swallowing and articulating our tongues, if we have one. I agreed only if they would also let me tell you about spitting and itching.

Place your hand, the one you write with, up our back and into our head. Put your thumb into our lower jaw and your fingers in the upper part of our mouth.

Please make sure your hand is warm. We don't like cold hands up our back! Also make sure that your hand is completely in our head. Cradle us with your other arm and make sure we are sitting up straight. Remember, we are real animals! Always keep your fingers inside our cloth mouth, out of sight, and your wrist and hand bent in the 7 position. The audience should be looking at us

eye-to-eye. Our eyes are so cute!

If your wrist and hand are not in the 7 position, our eyes will be looking at the ceiling and all the audience will see is our big open mouth. Frankly ceilings are not very interesting and it's much harder for us to swallow when we are looking up. If we are looking directly at our audience, eye-to-eye, swallowing will be easier.

Start with plastic letters, numbers or Legos®. You know, the letters and numbers parents of small children have on their refrigerator door! Place the letter or number half way in our mouth. Close your fingers and thumb together and rub and drag it in. Gulp! The letter, number or Lego® will fall into the palm of your hand inside our mouth.

Now try a "cookie" or a "bug." we came with a cloth cookie or bug so we wouldn't starve. It's a bit more difficult because it's larger and soft, but you will quickly get the hang of it.

If a child places a cookie, letter, or number on the side of our mouth, use your free hand to reposition it to the center of our mouth. Then start eating.

Practice in front of a mirror. We like to see ourselves in a mirror. And don't forget, when you bought me or one of my friends, Patsy gave you instructions to feed us ten - yes ten - times a day. We can eat up to five or six cookies or ten to twelve plastic letters or numbers before our "stomach" gets full.

Place plastic letters or numbers in a bucket. Ask the young child to pick up a letter or number and tell us what it is. My friends and I have been to school, so we are number, color, and letter literate. If the child correctly identifies the letter or number, we will swallow it. If they don't we will gag and spit it out. Boy, are we smart!

Grab a cookie with your fingertips and the tip of your thumb only. Clamp down hard on the end of the cookie like you are gritting your teeth. Always keep your hand, fingers and thumb hidden behind the cloth in our mouth. Then raise our head (by rotating your hand up) and flick the cookie like you would a spit wad.

With a little practice we can spit a cookie across the room. Don't force us to swallow the cookie and then spit it out. Grip the cookie with our teeth as though we were gritting our teeth. Then flick the cookie. If you put the cookie too far in our mouth, we will gag rather than spit.

If you want us to eat our cookie rather than spitting it out, have the child pinch our nose with one hand and feed us the cookie with the other. Or have the child cover our eyes while feeding us.

We love to itch and chase a flea across our stomach. Move our head quickly down to our feet. Then with jerking movements, move our head across our stomach and from one underarm to the other. Have us bite the flea as it runs across our stomach.

Some of us come with an articulable tongue. Again, place the hand you write with up our back and into our head. Place your two middle fingers in our tongue. Your thumb goes into our jaw and your index and little finger in our head. Now articulate our tongue with your two middle fingers. Some people may prefer to use just one finger in the tongue. Open and close our mouth by moving your thumb and index and little fingers.

When you no longer need our tongue, simply flip it back inside our mouth. You can swallow with our tongue in the anatomically correct position, but it takes practice.

Attach the portable tongue over the middle two fingers of the hand you will use to operate me. Bring the elastic around the back of your thumb so that it is slightly stretched and will stay on your fingers. Now operate the portable tongue in the same manner as an attached tongue.

Playful Puppets respects your privacy. We do not sell, trade, give away or reveal your e-mail address or personal information.

Name:

Subject:

Please provide any comments or questions in the comment box above:

If you wish, you can provide additional information below:(Optional)

Organization/Company :

Address :

Address :

Address :

City: State:

ZIP Code :

Telephone with Area Code :

Fax :

E-mail Address :

If you have not set your browser to handle e-mail from a web page, just click playfulpuppets@verizon.net and provide the necessary information.