When Eva was just a tiny baby, I began telling her stories. At first, it was simply me narrating whatever I was doing in my daily routines (so I could talk with her without running out of material). That morphed into Mike and I telling her stories about things that had happened in her life. Significant events like once when the camera fell behind the couch cushion, or that time when the smoke detector started beeping. She would ask to hear stories like those regularly—and she usually wanted to hear them about 15 times in a row. (Probably because they generally began "Once upon a time, there was a fabulous girl named Eva...")
As Eva's grown older and her imagination has evolved, the stories we tell have grown to include favorite characters like Ducky and Blankie. I began encouraging her to help me tell a story by giving the major chunks of a sentence and letting her fill in the details, kind of like toddler Mad Libs: "...there was a fabulous girl named____. And she lived in a ____."
Eva and I usually tell these stories while we're running errands or eating lunch, and lately she's been trying out her own story telling skills. Just the other day, she told me this gem: Evie went to Ducky's house, and he was in his one-two. And we saw his kitties and they purred and purred and purred. And he said quack.
Now, I understand this about as well as you do (A one-two?? What?), but it's a start. And that makes me so, so happy. And proud.
Yesterday, I recorded a bit of our lunchtime conversation because I don't ever want to forget what it's like to have my two-year-old tell me a story, just for the fun of it. You can watch below, if you'd like. I tried to repeat most of what she was saying, because I have a feeling it's unintelligible unless you're her mother. Enjoy!
A Duck Story, By Eva from Shannon on Vimeo.
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