Once upon a time
posted in OmegaDotter, Parenting, School |When the dotter was two, three, four years old, I would tell her stories at bedtime. That’s when bedtime was Mommy-only, a long, drawn-out affair that left me (brutal honesty here) seething, because I wanted my time and she wanted me and she was desperately afraid of being alone.
There were just a few stories, the same ones again and again, just like a favorite book or movie or song. I got very tired of the same stories, but if I varied them–oh, heavens, that never would do! Somehow or other, though, our bedtime ritual evolved and changed, slowly but surely, and it’s been quite a while since I’ve told those stories.
For some reason the other night when I was lying in bed trying to get to sleep, I flashed on the beginning of one of our stories. Perhaps it was because our girl is going into first grade (tomorrow!), and is so excited and nervous about it, which led me to reminiscing, which led me to…
Once upon a time, in a magical kingdom in the forests by the mountains, there was a princess. She had long, straight, silky brown hair with red highlights that sparkled in the sun, a cute little nose, and a cute little mouth. She was very pretty.
But all princesses are pretty, so that’s not what was special about her. What was special about her was that she was smart and kind and gentle and cared about other people. Her name was Princess OmegaDotter Middlename Chinesename Lastname, and she lived in a castle with her father, King OmegaDad, and her mother, Queen OmegaMom.
Now the king and queen were usually busy making sure the kingdom ran right; they’d make sure the trains ran on time, that the garbage was picked up, and that there were flowers in the park gardens. So when there was a problem, the people in the town would come to Princess OmegaDotter and ask her for help…
Her favorite of the Princess OmegaDotter stories was the one with the rude pink (or purple or blue–she got to choose the color each night) dragon that was eating the cows and sheep in the meadow behind the town. The lonely giant trampling the town, and the big whale terrorizing the town fishermen sort of got lost along the way; the dragon won out.
I realized as I flashed on that story that I could visualize the meadow…and the town…and the dragon picking up the cows, chewing, and spitting out the bones with a “Ptui!” sound…and the road to the cliff where Princess OmegaDotter would coordinate an effort by townsfolk to push the dragon over.
(Sometimes the dragon was conquered by tangling it up with Silly String, then loaded onto a cart and hauled off to the cliff; other times, the dragon was led on a chase through the forest, ending up at the cliff.)
These stories had a series of points that I wanted to ingrain in her: Be Nice. Be Polite. Use Your Brains. Help Other People. Don’t Be Scared.
Another story was the Monkey Man and the Baby Elephant. This was actually her favorite, and she still asks for it now and then, at very odd moments, such as when we’re driving to the gymnasium and I can only get a paragraph or two out before I park the car and we get out. The main point about this one was: Don’t Be Afraid, Mommy Will Always Find You. You see, Baby Elephant was out eating breakfast with her mother, and there was this beautiful butterfly, and Baby Elephant chased the butterfly here and there, until suddenly Baby Elephant realized that mommy had disappeared. She wandered lost and alone until she found Monkey Man and other friends, who helped her find her mother again.
He lived in a teeny tiny house at the very tippy top of the tallest tree in the rainbow forest, and that house was just the right size for a Monkey Man. It had a little kitchen, with a little sink and a little stove and a little refrigerator, and all the refrigerator had in it was lumpy-dumpy. It had a little bed which was just the right size for a Monkey Man. It had a little table, and little chairs, and a little window, and a little door which Monkey Man would lock every night.
Lumpy-dumpy was something that the dotter and her best friend would chant to each other, and I was required to include it, as well as the door that was locked at night.
I could probably continue both of these stories from memory right now, all the way through, all the verbal flourishes and special set points included. And the “Once upon a time in Guilin, China, there was a woman who had a beautiful baby girl…” story, as well.
It’s been a long time. The dotter sleeps in her own bedroom now, and these days asks us to turn off the light. Today, when OmegaDad hauled her off to the grocery store, she insisted that they buy a card for her new teacher, and when they got home, she corralled me and got my help in writing a “Hi!” to Mrs. Nices. Tomorrow, I deliver her to school, along with the school supplies and the special card, and she starts first grade.
