Our Own Bedtime Stories....

We took the kids to see Bedtime Stories on Christmas night.
We met our friends The Dinsmore's and had a great time!

That night after we got home, my kids started talking about their favorite bedtime stories. Jakob and Hannah both named off there favorites and then Alex named his.
Well he didn't really name it, he described it.
When he started talking about this one particular story, I was in shock.
I couldn't believe that he remembered it.

When Alex was born and for the first few years of his life, Brian was in school full time, working full and in the Army reserves.
So lets just say Alex and I had lots of mommy - baby time.
There were days where I wouldn't get dressed until late in the afternoon, if at all. And days upon days where I wouldn't leave my house.

We only had 1 car back then.

And we had NO money, so where was I going to go??

Oh the good old days :):)

Anyway, I used to walk Alex in his little car (you know the one where the child can scoot themselves or the parents hold the big long handle and push) all around our neighbor hood. He LOVED that car. And he loved to swing, I would swing that child for hours out on our back deck.....OK now I might need to get out the tissue box.

FOCUS WOMAN!!

I would always make up stories for Alex, especially on the days when we would go on long walks. I would see things outside and away the story would go.

There was one story line that I would always started off with, it was about a little old lady (Alex always said it was about Brian's me maw) and a little brown dog that lived together and always made stew.....

And I would add to it.

Some days the lady made the stew outside in a kettle, sometimes she would make enough to share with her friends.
She was always doing something.
And I would ask Alex, do you want to put this in the stew or that in the stew.
He loved that story......

So Alex starts telling bits and pieces of this story.
HIS story.
He remembered the little old lady part and the stew part ( he actually called it soup).
I just sat there and listened and before I knew it me and my 3 children were making it OUR story.

We added a snake to the story because of course all little old ladies have a brown dog and a snake now a days!!

By the end of it, the story was pretty far fetched but it was their imaginations hard at work.
And we don't poo poo hard work in this house:)

That night when the kids were going to bed, I told Alex I was surprised that he remembered that story. It had been so long since we told it. He said he remembered when I would tell Jakob parts of the story too, when he was a baby. ( I didn't even remember that!)

I hear my kids talk about things that have happened and I can remember it either from something that one of us has said or a picture.

Most of every one's "memories" from childhood are from one of those 2 things.

My memories as a child are few and far between. My mother got divorced from my "sperm donor" when I was very young. (Like 2 or so) And then met and married my daddy when I was about 4 or so, I don't remember exactly.

I just know that my early years were not talked about much growing up. I'm sure that wasn't a very pleasant time in her life and then she had a new, wonderful person and didn't want to bring up bad things.

Maybe that's why I don't remember much, I don't know it's just a thought.

What I do know is if my kids were ever going to try and do something special for me in my "older years", you know to show me how much they appreciate all of the wonderfulness (is that even a real word?) I have brought to their lives :)

One of the best things they could do for me would be, to read me one of our bedtime stories.....