Sunday, May 18, 2008

tell me a story...

L. demands stories. Made up ones, by me, on the spot, on a topic of her choice. Usually it has to do with something in her immediate surroundings. Like if we're in the car and she sees a truck go by, "Mommy, tell me a story about a truck." It's not complicated and involves pretty straightforward 3 3/4 yr-old story material. "Once upon a time there was a little truck and he had a mommy and daddy and his favorite color was blue and he liked to go to the park and blow bubbles and also to write on walls with colored markers but that was very BAD but usually he was very GOOD and shared his books with his sister..." and so on.

Lately, she's made it a bit trickier for me (since I'm usually listening with one ear and talking with half my brain on not burning dinner and also on the results of the latest democratic primary) "Mommy, tell me a story about the elephant, the elephant's dog and the friendly alligator..." Ok, yeah, I can do this. Then, "tell me a story about a woodchip." Uh, what?

When I'm really not up for the challenge of spontaneous creative masterpieces, I can always recycle her favorite, soon to be ranked alongside the old classic children's bedtime tales...
"Once upon a time there was a girl who loved to hear stories so she asked her mommy to tell her a story and the story went like this... Once upon a time there was a girl who loved to hear stories..."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Once upon a time there was a little girl who lived happily with her daddy, her sister, her brother and her mommy, who was a creative genius even with the burningdinner issue on her mind. Of course, one day the little girls' mommy made up a story about the "Kind and Loving Woodchip who Shared all Her Toys with Everyone and Never Shouted, 'It's Mine!'" - The End.

Meredith said...

once upon a time there was a beattle and he was just a little bit squished, but it's ok, he won't be dead tomorrow. the end. ah, children's fairytales!

Anonymous said...

L. will make a good book editor, or perhaps movie producer. I want to pitch a few ideas to her next time.