7.08.2009

The art of Storytelling....

I had the sweetest evening with my little boy.
We had another hard/long day yesterday. We spent an hour at a well visit for Baby sis (everything is good, & just one shot), then we headed to spend 5 hours at church working on props for VBS. Both kids really enjoyed themselves, but DS would not nap. He got really wound up and by the time we were home, he was just off the wall, talking gibberish, and not listening.
I knew that this was in part from the long day, in part still recovering from two long weekends, and in part from our routine being flipped upside-down.
I got baby sis in bed, and then headed to work on him. He was NOT having it!!! I left him to get his PJ's and instead of getting 'Pajama shirt and pants', he brought me 4 regular shirts. Then, when I walked in his room, I found the entire contents of BOTH drawers and the cabinet on the floor. UGH!
So, I took him to the livingroom and we wrote out some social stories about our day. I would write most of the sentance, "Today was fun. First, mommy fixed _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _" and then leave the rest as a fill in the blank for him. He thoroughly enjoyed going back over our day this way, but he wasn't winding down.
Then, he sat on my lap and layed his head on my chest (like he NEVER does). I said, "Why don't you let Mommy just tell you stories tonight instead of reading". I proceeded to tell him what I could remember of stories like The Three Little Bears, and Rumplestilskin (because i thought he would like the silly name, and then I remembered what a horrible story it is, so I left out big parts). He was laying so still and he was SO intently listening, I just kept telling him one after another. Finally, I started asking him questions. He actually processed parts of these stories with NO book & rattled answers back off to me with precision.
Then, I said, "Would you like to tell Mommy a story? Maybe a story about a fish"
And he said, "Once upon a time, there was a fish. Fish was swimming in water. The End."
And I responded, "How about a story about a Farmer and his animals"
And he said, "Noah and Ark. Animals in the boat. The End."
And I said, "What about Jonah and the Whale? Can you tell Mommy that story?"
And he said, "Whale swimming in the water. The End."
I think I would have sat there until midnight going back and forth if Dad hadn't walked in.
It was so sweet. He sat still. He layed his head on my chest. It was just a regular little conversation. I'm telling you, I needed that this week. He is so awesome.
Thank you God for victories like this. I KNOW that you allow us to walk through the fire sometimes so we can see what is on the other side and KNOW that YOU have provided it for us.

1 comment:

Laura said...

what a sweet exchange. The little things can be so endearing.

I can't get Brad to stop focusing on the page numbers. That's pretty much his thing.