Once upon a time there was a little girl called Orlagh Rose who was the loveliest little baby in the whole world. Every night when she went to sleep with her little going to sleep bear she had the most beautiful dreams you could ever imagine; of princesses dressed in golds and purples with shining green stars and shimmers in their eyes, just like the golden green of Orlagh Rose’s own eyes. Orlagh Rose dreamt of castles with red and silver flags for doors and golden strings for windows; of music that sounded like all the butterflies in the world had got together to flap their wings, so delicate and pretty.

Orlagh Rose dreamed of all the things she loved during the day, like her Mummy reading ‘Up Down Po’, the right way to her! Of her Daddy singing song after song and lifting her up so that she could see out of her two beautiful eyes, high, high up. She dreamt of her little cow and Sophie as they travelled about in her pram looking at all the bright colours and hearing all the vibrant noises of the shops.

Orlagh Rose loved to go to bed every night so that she could have all the special dreams that made her room feel a little bit like magic every morning when she woke up!

One morning after opening her eyes when she heard Mummy’s ‘Good Morning’ song, Orlagh Rose was amazed as she thought about the dream that she had just had! She thought that it was the most special dream that ever was had by any little baby in the whole world. The dream went like this…

Orlagh Rose was playing with her little black and white cow on a big soft purple spongy mat that had hundreds of tiny little stars of all the colours of the rainbow scattered across it. She knew that it was a really special play mat because every time, the little cow, with his two twinkling black eyes stamped his two little feet some showers of gold glittered right out of the mat and fell all over them, like soft, magic rain.

Orlagh Rose was lying down and kicking her little legs in the air and feeling all the soft cushiony velvet of the mat in her fingers, when she noticed a very special light in the corner of the mat.
It glowed just like the light in her room above her cot but she wasn’t really sure what colour it was, it looked maybe like a green, except it was a little golden as well and it had started to flash brightly a little bit. Orlagh Rose kept looking at the light that glowed softly at her and wondered what it could be!

She had heard Mummy on the phone to baby Joshua’s Mummy about stars and how sometimes when she looked up into the sky at night and seen a certain star, she wondered if it was looking down at her and checking to see if Orlagh Rose was alright.

Orlagh Rose looked at the pretty twinkling of the little light and thought that maybe it looked like a little star, but how could a star have fallen into her play mat? Orlagh Rose clasped her little hands together and reached over to see the little light to find out if it was warm and if she could pick it up.

She was very surprised to find that although her hands were over the little twinkling glow, she couldn’t feel or touch it at all! In fact, it seemed almost as if she could put her fingers right through the light as little glimmers appeared on her fingers when she tried to grasp it! She looked around to find the little cow to see if he could reach out and touch the little light but Orlagh Rose could not see him. After rolling around a little she found him asleep under a big pink flower with square petals lying on the play mat.

‘Little cow’, she said,

‘Little cow, I think we need to investigate what this little light is on our mat.’

The little cow yawned. He would have much rather stayed asleep, all cosy and tucked up under the big flower petals but he loved Orlagh Rose very much and thought that she was the best wee baby in the whole world, so he shook his ears and the little bit of him, where he should have had a tail and came with Orlagh Rose to look at what was puzzling her.

‘Look, little cow, do you see on the edge of this play mat, a little glowing light, sort of yellow and green and gold? It is just twinkling at me, as if it has a secret to tell or it has something precious to hide away? It is a bit of a mystery because when I try to touch it and lift it, I can’t feel anything! It’s almost as if it isn’t there!’

The little cow danced over to the little light and sure enough he was able, like Orlagh Rose to see a glowing warm light, almost like a big hug creeping over the mat. He took a deep breath and then he ran for it to see what it was like to touch, but much to his surprise when he got to the light, he went straight through it came right out the other side!

‘Strange!’ said Orlagh Rose.

It’s very strange that we can see there is a light and it is glittering, inviting us over and yet it doesn’t really seem to be there!’

Orlagh Rose thought about what Mummy had said about special stars that help you to keep you safe and strong and to make sure that you are happy and healthy.

Just then, Granda came into the room to see Orlagh Rose. He whistled and clapped for her; which her and the little cow loved; even though they complained about it, they secretly really liked it!

‘Wow’ said Granda.

‘It is very bright and sunny in this room. It is almost too bright to be able to drink tea in here Orlagh Rose. I think I might have to close the blinds.’

Orlagh Rose couldn’t believe it as she continued to look at the light when all of a sudden the light just disappeared! When she looked back at Granda the blinds had been closed and with them they had taken away her little glowing charm. Granda smiled at Orlagh Rose.

‘Now, isn’t that better, no more sun shining in your eyes!’

‘Aaahhhhh’, thought Orlagh Rose,
‘…no more sun?’

So that was what the little glow was on my very special play mat.
She looked for the little cow to explain what had happened but guess what?

The little cow was standing close to the edge of the play mat, looking at the little sparkling glow that was still there!

Orlagh Rose and the little cow both knew that the light could not then have been the sun after all and they smiled at each other a little, thinking about the magic of having a special star that twinkled just for them.