Listen to stories

In our house, we call them "Once Upon a Time Stories." The little man loves them. I love that he loves them. Recently, he's started giving us things to include "girl sports, mommy and superheroes." Got it.

Tonight, while rocking, Atticus looked up and inquired, "I tell a Once Upon a Time Story all by myself?"

"Of course," I said.

Along the way, I offered plenty of "And then what happeneds?" and "Then whats?" and "Oh no! What happened nexts."

I was rewarded with a glimpse of Deep Magic.Of something wondrous, creative and powerful being sung into existence through a toddler's chapped red lips.

Once upon a time, 
Mommy was running in the woods. 
But she got in trouble.
Trouble for running at the zoo. 
The gorillas got her in trouble.
Big grandpa gorilla roared at her for running at the zoo.
Mommy was scared. 
She ran to the car and drove home. 
The end. 

And then there was this:

Once upon a time,
Dino Dan was walking with his mommy and daddy.
Then a Tyrannosaurus chased them. 
Grandpa Red Claw roared at them.
They were scared.
The Rescue Bots came. 
Optimus Prime and Bumblebee chased Red Claw away.
They roared their terrible roars
And rolled their terrible eyes
And showed their terrible claws.
Rescue Bots are bigger than Red Claw.
Chase was in trouble for running away.
The Rescue Bots got sick.
Cody go to the doctor to get medicine for them.
They got better.
The end.

And that, my friends, is how you weave Transformers Rescue Bots, Where the Wild Things Are, Land Before Time and Canadian children's educational television programming together.

Watch out International Storytelling Festival, here we come.