The stories these days

Finn has a thing for birthdays. They are his favorite occasion, besides someone coming home from a trip with a prize for him and getting a new digger. He is very anxious when people have birthdays and he cannot be there to help blow out the candles and watch presents being unwrapped. So, last week when we were writing some birthday cards for some upcoming birthdays, he was gung-ho to draw in the cards, until he heard that they were birthday cards. And he was not going to see them for their birthdays.

Oh, no! he cried, not for their birthday! They are not going to get these cards because before the mailman brings their cards, they are going to fall in a lake and a monster is going to eat them all up and they will never have a birthday again!

We talked about why he felt so bad about someone else's birthday and how sad it would be if they really fell in the lake and got eaten by monsters, so he conculded the story with this:

When they fall in the lake, before the monsters come, a nice whale sees them and pokes them up to the top with his nose and they get to climb out and have a really, really fun birthday and get lots of presents and blow out the cake three times. The End.

Although this is an example of an unhappy story, lots of Finn's stories involve happy things and provide an excellent window to his current state of mind. Unlike his difficult stage at 18 months, he can articulate much more these days and is able to give us little clues to his mental well-being. The imagination on this one is incredible and I have to start writing down more of these stories.

Did you know... we have a teeny-tiny deer that lives in our lettuce patch? He is very shy and hates it when I water the lettuce and this little deer built a little house under the lettuce leaves. One of the leaves is his blanket and his best friend is a tiny frog that no one can see but the deer. They ride the diggers at night when no one is watching and the diggers are supposed to be sleeping. (not) the end.