Story time

I've been a mom for six and a half years now, but because Archer has been slow to pick up an interest in narrative, plot, and character, I have not been called upon to make up stories during that time. Thanks to an overzealous babysitter last weekend, though, my free ride is over. Apparently Susannah told Cady Gray a story before bedtime, and tonight, she demanded "a no-pages story that you say."

So here's my first-ever story for Cady Gray, composed on the spur of the moment ten minutes ago.

Once upon a time there was a frog named CG. [At this point Cady Gray forgot her "solemn promise" to be quiet during the story and blurted out, "Just like that's my name!"]

The frog had two best friends, a dog and a bear. What the frog loved to do best was read books all about different kinds of animals. He wished he could meet all the animals that he read about in his books.

One day the frog happened to hop into a place called a zoo. There he found all the animals in his books! He saw lions and tigers and snakes; he saw big animals and small animals, fast animals and slow animals. It was the most wonderful place he'd ever seen.

When he got home, he told his friends the dog and the bear all about the animals he'd met at the zoo. They told him, "You should write your own book about frogs!" And that is exactly what he did.