stories told

I remember being told that kids get really interesting after they begin talking. I did not believe it, though. I enjoyed every stage of Kaspar’s growth. But now, when I’m faced with a six month old and a two/almost three year old, I’m beginning to see what they were talking about. It’s much more fascinating to follow the daily events of an almost three year old then those of a six month old baby. After all, how much can I talk about her drooling, teething, sucking on her toes and so on? Kaspar on the other hand is full of surprises and NEVER ending chatter.

The other day I opened my email to find a handful of fire truck pictures for Kaspar from his grandparents. He climbed into my lap and we did not stop looking at them until the laptop finally ran out of juice and even then I had to deal with heartfelt tears. Kaspar has the wildest imagination. One or two pictures of his liking are often enough to spark questions that in return will begin an entire story in his little head. And the questions he asks are not of the easy sort. I often find myself speechless, looking for a good answer and while I wait trying to figure out a good reply, he just continues with the same question... repeating it over and over again, as thought to help me understand it better or something. It’s a strange quirk. But I think that most kids his age like to repeat questions. I know that some of my friends have complained about the “why? Why? Why?” period in their toddlers’ lives. Kaspar has not taken to the simple “why?” question. His ‘why?’s are much more complicated. Take for instance the fire truck pictures. He asks sort of like this: “If this really is a parade, and I think you’re wrong mommy, then there should have been a Santa Claus or some elves somewhere or at the very least balloons. They don’t make parades without balloons or elves. I know! I’ve been to parades. Remember? Remember? Remember?” And even though I try to tell him that I know he’s been to the Santa Claus parade his “Remember?” keeps coming until I do remember, yes, St. Patrick’s day parade or as he likes to call it the parade with the green elves and clowns. But before I finish a sentence he’s already flying : “So, if it’s not a parade then why would all the fire trucks be on grandpa’s street? Maybe there was a fire in the next building? Or maybe there was one in their building? Maybe even a small fire in their apartment.....?” And you can just tell that the drama is beginning to build, regardless of my answers to his questions, he’s already begun his story. His eyes are shining; he speaks a little faster, a little hurried. He leans in to the computer a little and continues: “Maybe, MAYBE... grandma left some matches on the counter (he has just learned about match safety, because here a lot of people have gas stoves that have to be lit with a match!) and some little boy came into the kitchen and took the matches and all of a sudden one match lit up and then one more and OH BOY, I think that boy is going to get into trouble! Isn’t he? Isn’t he? Isn’t he? Isn’t he? Isn’t he?” Eventually his story took us back to the firemen having to drive up grandma’s street and save the burning kitchen and grandma being very thankful... and the firemen having to wash their dirty trucks... etc. etc.

It’s interesting, though, that he is very aware of it being a fictional story. If I was to ask a day later what the story was about the trucks and grandma’s place, he’d more than likely just look at me perplexed and confused. He seems to create these stories in the moment and leave them just as fast behind. And all of them start with a very, very exaggerated “MAYBE...” I love listening to him tell the stories and sometime even help him along by carefully interjecting a little detail or two that take him in a new direction. It’s amazing with how much detail a three year old child is able to tell a story! They’re sometimes way better then the published stories in children’s books. If he continues like this then by the time Stella is ready for bedtime stories I won’t have to tell them myself. I’ll have a way better storyteller in the house... Ha!