Story Time
Some little girls long for romantic tales of princesses in flowing gowns and knights in shining armor. Mine wants tales of ghosts and rainbow striped zombie rats.
Caitlin has requested a “scary ghosteses” story nightly since Halloween. Let’s just say the “scary ghosteses” stories are getting old. Very old.
Our nightly ghost story ritual goes something like this…
Mommy tell me a story.
OK, Once upon a time….
No, NO! Not once upon a time mommy! Tell me a mean ghost story about two ghosteses.
OK, There was a little girl named Caitlin…
No, no not Caitlin…Mary.
OK, now let mommy tell the story. There was a little girl named Mary and she wasn’t afraid of anything, including ghosts.
No, no mommy she was afraid of ghosts!
OK, There was a little girl named Mary who was afraid of ghosts and she went for a walk in the woods…
No, no mommy she was with Caitlin, Amelia, Savannah, Taylor, and Jillian.
Dear Lord I am raising a control freak.
Any way, back to last night. I decided to shake things up a bit and I told Caitlin the epic tale about the time I got stuck in the big, big snow on the way home from work when she was a baby. I mean I can only tell so many variations of the kids walking in the woods, getting lost, and asking for help from two mean ghosts who live in a haunted house on a hill. It’s like a late in the series episode of Friends where the writers have run out of subplots and every character has slept with every other character. A split second after I declared “the end” Caitlin pleaded, “Mommy, mommy tell me a scary story. Tell me a scary story about a ZOMBIE!”
“A zombie?” I asked, trying to hide my irritation over having to tell yet another damn scary story. At least she’s switched from ghosts to zombies. That does open up quite a few new plot lines.
“Yes, yes a zombie. You know what a zombie is mommy? It’s a MEAN RAT. It’s a mean rat with rainbow stripes.”
Someone needs to harness all this creativity for the next Tim Burton movie or perhaps start a line of My Little Rat dolls, kind of like My Little Pony, but minus the pastel color scheme.
So think of me tonight as you snuggle under the covers with your little darlings and read Dr. Seuss or a nice Madeline book. I’ll be muddling through scary storytime hour with ghosts and rainbow striped rats.
Edited to add: Brittney Gilbert, the fantastic moderator at Nashville is Talking who also blogs at Sparkwood & 21, had two of her artist friends create two very special rainbow striped zombie rats for Caitlin. Check them out! Thanks again Brittney and to the two artists, Goopy of Goopymart and Pigasus as well! Rainbow zombie rats rule.
