Once Upon a Time

As a parent I've found I gravitate to parenting methods that provide the most reward with the least amount of effort. This usually means I spend a lot of time dreaming up creative forms of bribery in order elicit "appropriate" behavior from my brood. (Don't judge me...you know you all do it too!)

One form of bribery that I proudly admit to comes in the form of a bedtime story. It started about 4 years ago with Lindy. To ensure a peaceful, whine-free, bedtime I would entice her with a "Lindy Story" (a made-up story with Lindy as the main character). We have since graduated to "Lindy, Ellie, and Curtis Stories" which chronicle the crazy and wild adventures of our carefree children. And it works like a charm! They absolutely LOVE them. Ian has now joined me in the story-telling (and truth be told they prefer his narratives over mine) and the girls practically grovel each night for one of us to continue the fun.

While driving today I laughed as I heard Ellie attempting to share her own story. She came up with the following gem (retold as well as my suffering mommy-memory allows):

"Once upon a time there were three kids. Lindy, Ellie, and Curtis (read "Turdis"). One day they were walking and talking. They walked down a long, long, long, long river that had no alligators and no frogs, just fish. The fish had pointy things on their backs. (They're not sharks...I asked.) The fish were very hungry and wanted some food. The lovebirds came over to the river and brought them food. Lindy and Ellie and Curtis watched the fishes eat their food. They watched the lovebirds fly in the sky around and around and around. Then Lindy and Ellie and Curtis walked around some more and saw some prairie dog holes. The prairie dogs poked their heads up. Next to the prairie dog hole were a bunch of carrots and leaves. Every time the prairie dog poked his head out of the hole he ate some more carrots. Lindy and Ellie and Curtis watched the prairie dog eat the carrots then he popped out of his hole and ran away. The End."

Although her big sister wasn't as patient with the plot line (she kept yelling "Then they went home! The End!" from the back seat) it was such a treat to listen to my little four year old scratch the surface of her story-telling abilities.

She really is such a ham. I just love this girl!