Saturday, June 12, 2010

Story Time

Daniel's imagination is running wild. And right now, he loves nothing more than being told stories at bedtime.

Sadly, I am a horrendous story teller. Writing fiction never did come easily. I do my best and have mustered up three or four stories to tell him that I'd be positively mortified to share with anyone else.

Fortunately for all involved, Daddy is a bonified expert. Their repertoire is quickly building, but Daniel's all time favorite is "The Elephant & The Ant". He has it memorized and acts it out through the day, enlisting us as different characters.

Daddy and Mommy have had to collaborate on their story endeavors because Daniel will make specific requests (Can I hear the one about the green rhino?) and the requests are sometimes for the OTHER parent's story. And trust me... Daniel expresses himself when you have messed up a story. Very clearly.

Occasionally, we're so tired that as we're telling the stories, we drift in and out of sleep. And believe me... those stories get really interesting really quickly. Suddenly you hear bizarre things coming out of your own mouth and wonder what's going on. Daniel is usually quick to correct us, unless he's already asleep. And then he's fine if the zebra and rhino are eating pasta on the moon. Really... it's ok.

Sometimes I can persuade Daniel to tell ME stories at night, and he will produce a jumbled combination of a few different story lines. And each time, I wish I had something handy to record him.

But typically when I ask him, he'll just lay down lazily and say, "I no think so, Mommy. But I'm just a little too tired. You tell me one, please?" And good-story-teller or not, there's not a person alive who could resist him at that moment.

"Once upon a time... there was a tiny little ant..."

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