Are you ready to meditate with Cori?
Lay down and get super comfortable in your bed.
Make sure that everything is just right in your room,
The light is just right,
You're wearing your cozy,
Comfy pajamas.
You've got your stuffy with you,
Or your teddy,
Or your blanket,
Whatever you need,
So that you can snuggle down and get super comfortable.
And hopefully,
Eventually,
You'll fall fast asleep as you listen to the story.
Heidi,
Cherry and Vea were absolutely over the moon,
They were so excited.
They were meeting one of their best friends,
Natalie,
At the ice skating rink.
Natalie was a very good figure skater.
She practiced a lot,
She was really good at it,
And she enjoyed it ever so much,
And she told Heidi,
Cherry and Vea that she would give them a lesson.
Oh,
I'm J,
Said Cherry,
Oh I'm J,
I'm so excited,
I love Natalie so much,
I mean she's so nice,
She's just so nice,
And you know,
Do you remember when we first met Natalie,
Right,
She was quite shy,
Weren't you Heidi,
Do you remember that?
Heidi said,
Yeah,
She was,
But she didn't stay shy for very long,
Did she?
No,
She didn't,
Said Cherry.
Vea said,
Yes,
She's very,
Very sweet,
And she can be quiet,
But she can also be so funny.
She reminds me a little bit of me,
Sometimes I can be quiet and shy,
And then sometimes,
If I'm comfortable,
I can be really funny.
Cherry said,
She's definitely,
Definitely like me when she's funny,
But she's not like me when she's quiet,
No,
Definitely not,
Because I don't think I can be quiet,
You know,
I do try,
I really do try,
But I can't help myself,
I'm just so nosy,
And noisy,
And,
You know,
Just busy,
And like,
You know,
I just,
You know,
Yeah,
You know,
You know what I mean,
Right,
Don't you,
You know?
Vea blushed a little bit,
Looking at Cherry as if to say,
Yes,
We know.
Heidi said,
I'm really,
Really excited about the lesson,
I wonder what she teaches us to do?
Cherry said,
Well,
I hope she helps me learn how to be on skates,
For a start,
Because I don't know whether I can do it or not.
Heidi said,
Well,
I'm sure that's definitely what she's going to help us do first.
We're supposed to be meeting Izzy there as well,
You know,
Izzy said that ice skating is not very easy,
At all,
No,
No way,
Jose,
It's not,
And,
You know,
Izzy,
Izzy,
You know,
Izzy,
Izzy's funny,
That puppy,
She's very funny,
And,
You know,
She can be a little bit boisterous,
A little bit of a bully sometimes,
And she said that ice skating is not that easy.
So,
Yeah,
And apparently,
Apparently,
Natalie said that we could also meet some of her friends,
Because some of her friends are going to be there,
Like Nora and Layla and Grace and Lauren,
They won't be there too,
Because sometimes they,
They can,
Like,
Hang out with Natalie.
Yeah,
So,
I mean,
I'm just really excited about the whole thing.
When the cats finally arrived at the ice skating ring,
Natalie was already on the ice.
She was wearing a blue velvet dress and it had diamonds all over it.
Veya said,
Oh my,
She looks so pretty in that dress,
I wish I had that dress.
Natalie waved when she spotted the cats.
Come on down,
She shouted.
Everything's ready for you,
The skates are by the side of the ring,
Right there.
She was pointing over to a part of the ring where the skates were waiting for the cats.
The cats sat down on the ground and put their skates on.
Izzy was already on the ice.
Izzy is Natalie's puppy.
Izzy was flopping around all over,
Her legs splaying out and then doing banana splits.
She was doing all right,
But she was falling down a lot.
Cherry said,
OMG,
I hope I can do it better than Izzy.
Look at her,
She looks hilarious.
Cherry started laughing.
Heidi said,
Well,
We'll see,
We'll see how we do.
Once the cats had got their skates on,
They got onto the ice.
Natalie wanted them to use these walker things at first.
They're like things that you can push around the ice and it helps you to walk and balance.
So that's what the cats did for a little bit.
They walked with the balancing sticks or the balancing beams or whatever.
Balancing frames is probably the word.
They walked with those for a while until they got used to being on the ice.
And then Natalie assessed them and decided that they'd probably be OK at this point to try and do a little bit of ice skating on their own.
Well,
Cherry kept falling down.
She kept banging on her bum over and over and over again.
At one point,
Cherry started to get a little bit upset.
I don't think I like it.
OMG,
I think I'm done.
I'm like over this so much.
All I keep doing is falling down and banging on my tush and it hurts and it's cold and I'm like so over it.
I mean,
I thought it'd be easy and everything,
But you know,
It's not that easy,
Is it?
It's really difficult and it's so annoying.
And I don't like it when things are difficult and when things are annoying because then I just don't want to do them and I'm like over it.
Natalie said.
Oh,
I get how you feel.
I feel like that sometimes.
Cherry said.
You do?
Look how good you are.
How can you feel like that,
Natalie?
I've been watching you.
You're so good.
You can spin,
You can turn,
You can jump,
You can do all sorts of stuff.
How can you feel like I feel right now?
I just don't believe you.
Natalie said.
Oh,
I do,
Especially if I have to learn something new and it's hard and it's challenging.
It's really difficult sometimes.
Sometimes I want to just get really upset and get angry about it.
Like I am,
Said Cherry.
Natalie said.
Yeah,
Sometimes.
Heidi skated over.
Heidi was doing quite well on the skates.
You don't have to be perfect,
Cherry,
Said Heidi.
You just have to practice,
That's all.
Sometimes when you're learning something new,
It takes practice.
You just have to be patient with yourself.
You have to say to yourself,
Everybody has to learn something new.
There's always someone in the world that's learning something new.
No one ever knows everything straight away.
No one ever knows everything,
Ever.
Can you imagine that?
Said Heidi.
Cherry said.
What do you mean?
OMG,
What are you talking about?
Heidi said.
Exactly what I said.
No one ever knows everything,
All the time.
Everybody has to learn.
Natalie said.
Actually,
That's really good advice.
Sometimes I need to hear that.
Sometimes I'm really hard on myself about doing everything perfect.
OMG,
Natalie,
Me and you,
We're so alike.
We're like twins.
I bet you any money you like poop jokes and tooting jokes,
Don't you?
Natalie started laughing and said.
Actually,
Yeah,
I do.
I have a toot joke.
Cherry actually started laughing.
And when she laughed,
Thinking about the joke,
She accidentally tooted.
And that was not the joke.
But Natalie thought that that was the joke.
So Natalie started laughing hysterically because she thought it was so funny that Cherry didn't tell a joke,
That she actually just tooted.
And she thought that that was hilarious.
And Cherry was laughing so hard that she tooted,
That she tooted even more because you can't hold your toots in when you're laughing.
They just want to come out,
Don't they?
All on their own.
So Cherry's on the ice with her bum really cold,
Tooting away,
Laughing so much that she's crying.
Heidi was laughing because Cherry was so funny.
Natalie was laughing because she thought that was a really funny joke.
Cherry was trying to get out that she hadn't even told the joke yet about the poop.
And she couldn't because she was laughing so much.
And Vea was over it.
Vea changed the subject.
So where did you get that dress from?
Because I love it so much.
All of the diamonds and the sparklies.
Natalie said that it was her uniform and that's what they wear for skate practice.
It's so pretty,
Said Vea.
Do you think possibly that I could get one of those?
Natalie said,
Maybe I'd have to,
I'd have to talk to my skating coach,
But maybe,
Maybe they could get you one of these.
I'm not sure.
When Natalie did that,
She did like a spin on the spot and turned around and showed Vea the whole outfit.
Vea said,
Oh wow,
You did that so well,
Natalie.
Thanks,
Said Natalie.
It just takes practice,
Right Cherry?
Practice.
Cherry said,
OMG,
I get it,
I get it.
I'm coming,
I'm coming.
Cherry got up off the ground and started practicing again.
Of course,
She kept falling down and banging her tush.
But this time she was taking it much more light hearted.
She wasn't taking herself so seriously and she wasn't trying to be a perfectionist and be so perfect.
She listened to Heidi.
She listened to the fact that sometimes you just have to learn some stuff and that's okay.
It doesn't mean that you're a bad person.
It doesn't mean that you're failing.
It doesn't mean that you're less than anybody else.
It just means this is something new to you and you need to practice.
That's it.
That's all.
Izzy,
Natalie's puppy,
Came over at that point and Izzy said,
My bum hurts.
Cherry said,
OMG Izzy,
Tell me about it.
Maybe me and you can go do something different.
Maybe me and you can do,
I don't know,
Some kind of,
I don't know.
Maybe,
Maybe we can draw pictures in the ice with the skates.
I like to do artwork.
Natalie said,
Oh,
I like to do artwork.
Pictures and any kind of crafts are always fun.
Cherry said,
Do they have any crafts here at the ice skating rink?
Is there a section where there's a table and some crafts?
That'd be nice.
Natalie said,
No,
I don't think so.
This is an ice skating rink.
Well,
You never know,
Said Cherry.
You never know,
Do you?
You never know,
Izzy.
Izzy looked at Cherry and Cherry looked at Izzy.
And they both shrugged their shoulders as if to say,
There could be a craft table at the ice skating rink.
Just then,
Natalie started laughing and did this funny eyebrow thing at them.
Cherry said,
What are you doing with your eyebrows?
She started laughing,
Watching her.
Oh,
I don't know,
Natalie said.
I just do that sometimes.
I think it's funny.
Makes people giggle.
It makes me giggle.
You look so funny.
I want to be able to do that.
Cherry started to try and wiggle her eyebrows around as if she was doing the same thing as Natalie.
Natalie's eyebrow wiggle that made people giggle.
Cherry wanted to make people giggle.
It's like being a comedian,
She said.
You are funny sometimes,
You know,
Natalie.
Sometimes you don't even try and you're just so funny.
Natalie got a little bit shy,
Smiled down at the ground,
And bit on her hand.
Apparently,
Natalie does that sometimes when she's happy and she's proud of herself.
She was happy that Cherry thought she was funny.
She was happy that the cats thought that she was really good at ice skating.
She was happy that her friends were there with her.
There were lots of things to be happy about.
So yeah,
Natalie was happy.
Maybe though,
Natalie said,
It is a good idea to draw pictures.
You could scrape your skate on the ground and maybe draw a flower or something like that.
There's a part of the ring over there that's not been skated on so it will be completely blank and you'll be able to go and see if you can draw shapes or whatever you want with your skates on the ice.
That's like art,
Right?
Cherry said,
Oh gee,
Yeah,
Definitely.
Come on Izzy,
Let's do it.
Izzy,
The puppy and Cherry went over to the part of the ice that had not been skated on and tried to draw things with their skates.
It was quite difficult because the skates are quite spiky and they kept getting stuck in the ice,
But they figured it out after a while.
They practised.
It took just the right amount of pressure you couldn't put too much pressure on or the skates would get stuck in the ice.
So you had to kind of glide it over the ice quite softly and then you could scrape a line and eventually you could make a picture.
Cherry drew a house.
It was quite easy to draw straight lines.
It was difficult to do curves.
But Izzy managed to draw a circle but it took her a long time.
She had to go very slow and very steady,
But she did it.
She got the circle.
Perfect.
And Cherry was very proud of her house.
Heidi and Vea and Natalie kept on practising their skating.
Heidi eventually got to the point where she could go backwards a little bit and she was very proud of herself.
Vea held Natalie's hands at one point and did a spin.
That was awesome.
After a while though,
It was time for the cats to say goodbye to Natalie.
Natalie's friends had only just turned up.
So Natalie was going to stay with Nora and Layla and Grace and Lauren and she was going to do some more skating.
The cats gave Izzy,
The puppy,
Big hugs.
And then they gave Natalie the biggest hug.
They told Natalie that they would see her for her birthday really soon.
Natalie was going to have a birthday party and she'd invited the cats.
She'd also invited Tucker and Leo.
Natalie said that she was going to have like a sleepover birthday party.
So everybody bring your stuffies.
Natalie had a particular stuffie that she loved that was a magenta unicorn and it was called Rosette.
Rosette will be expecting you to bring all of your stuffies,
She said to everyone.
Everyone said that they would bring their stuffies.
The cats said goodbye and they went home.
When the cats got home,
They had a big box in their bedroom with lots of different stuffies and teddies and dolls and things like that.
They went through the box.
They found some squishmallows and some stuffies and they decided which ones they were going to take to Natalie's birthday party in a couple of weeks.
Cherry said,
OMG,
I think I might sleep with my stuffie tonight actually.
It feels nice and cosy and comfy.
Just really nice to hold and snuggle and touch and hug and all of that nice stuff.
So yeah,
I think I might do that.
Cherry brought her stuffie over to the bed.
They all slumped down on their big,
Soft,
Comfortable cat bed.
They got really,
Really comfy and cosy.
And eventually,
The cats fell fast asleep.
The end.
