Magical Stories

Tonight Christina begged to sleep in our bed with us. I tried my best to explain that we don't go to sleep right away. I left out the part that we stay up as late as possible so we can have as much fun as possible without kids. Instead, I told her to sleep with Elena.

Well, Christina went to ask Elena if she could sleep in the bed with her. Elena "all of the sudden" had a stomach ache and couldn't sleep with anyone for fear that she may throw up on them. How considerate of her... So, I jumped in bed with Christina. Soon Micah wanted a part in all of the love.

At this point, Elena was feeling a little left out. The girls share a room, and Micah kept counting the three of us in Christina's bed--kind of rubbing in that Elena was alone. So, she called her daddy. Mark came in, looked at both beds, and then jumped in with Elena. That's when the fun began.

"Daddy, tell us a story!" Elena begged. Mark has this ritual on the nights that the girls go to bed on time--he makes up bedtime stories. He had been working late all week and the girls had missed his stories. They always rave about how wonderful they are. I was honored to be a part of the story time magic.

We turned off the light and only the glow from the hallway remained. Then, Mark starts this crazy story about a girl named Tabitha and her sister. He had a hard time coming up with the sister's name when all of the sudden the name Sabitha came out of his imagination. I really wanted to laugh, but the kids were totally engrossed in the story.

A whole story about Tabitha and Sabitha begins. They had some magic rainbow socks, and no one ever could see how magically special they were because the girls didn't have shoes and the socks were caked in mud. That's about where Mark lost me because it was way over the top corny. Before I spaced out, I looked at the girls-- and they were totally invested in the story.

Kids are so innocent. We expose them to adult themed shows and movies so early in our culture. I think that they just want to believe that the world is a magical place. I watched them as they listened to Mark. Elena forgot about her stomach ache. Christina forgot why she wanted to sleep with us. I could see from their faces that they wanted a magical pair of socks of their own. That story-corny as it was-was better than any movie we could have shown them.

Somewhere near the end Elena sat up, "We need Isaiah! He's the only one not in here."

At that point Mark jumped up to check on him. He had fallen asleep in our room. She was disappointed that he couldn't join the rest of the family. (It's not like a 9 month old wants to hear a story about socks.) I tucked the kids in bed.

"Don't worry," I told her. "I'm sure Daddy has plenty more stories for another day."

I'm sure they are dreaming about their magical rainbow socks right now.