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Tell Me a Story, Mama

After I put my baby down to sleep for the night, all tucked into her crib with her baby doll under one arm, I head into my older girl’s room to spend a few minutes with her before she goes to sleep. And every night as soon as I settle next to her in her bed, the first thing she says is, “Tell me a story.”

Now, to be really super honest, as AWESOME and lovely as this request is, most nights I really have to dig deep to appreciate the awesomeness, because at this point in my day I am so, so ready for the day to be done. I’ve been with my girls all day long, fielding all those mama requests: Can I have a juice box? Can you play hide and seek with me? Mama, Vivi smushed banana into the carpet. You know, the usual. And in between I’ve spent every minute I’m not chasing a 1 and 4 year old chasing down the plot points of my own stories. Squeezing one final story out of my totally exhausted creativity well at the end of my day sounds next to impossible. And yet it always reminds me of why I write in the first place.

Bella’s favorite stories for me to tell involve (coincidentally) two little girls named Bella and Vivi who are called to ride with the Dream Fairy in her snow-white horse drawn carriage to distribute dreams to all the children in the world. Either that or she likes stories about a little ghost named Casper who has a baby sister ghost and is (coincidentally) good friends with a little girl named Bella who has a baby sister Vivi.

She likes stories with her as a character, basically. And isn’t that the magic that books and stories offer us all? Characters that we can see ourselves in, allowing us to vicariously live in a world made of magic. A world where a friendly ghost might knock on your front door wanting to play, or a dream fairy may tap on your windowpane at night and invite you for a carriage ride.

This entry was posted Friday, January 14th, 2011 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Tell Me a Story, Mama”

1. Laura Says:
   January 16th, 2011 at 8:16 pm

   ABSOLUTELY Anna!

   I love completely loosing myself in a book & thinking ‘What If’ it’s all part of the draw, the enchantment, it what makes reading so enjoyable; And my little one, well it’s all Thomas the Tank Engine here or Hairy McClary from Donaldson’s Dairy not forgetting Slinki Malinki as he thinks he is just like our naughty kitties. Take care xox

   
   

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