On the frequent occasions when Ava comes into our bed at night, she often asks Leah to tell her a story. This is at, like, 2:30 or 3 in the morning. Sometimes Leah explains that it’s not morning, and it’s too early for stories; other times she just mumbles a little bit and rolls over to go back to sleep. Ava will eventually fall asleep.
This morning, Ava’s daycare wasn’t opening until 9:30 due to the ice storm we had yesterday. Ava and I were joking around in bed after Leah got up to to start getting ready for work. One of Ava’s recent creations is that we are a family of puppies. My name is Rover, Leah’s is Eyeball, and Ava’s is Pickle Slice. She and I were doing a little role playing before I got out of bed, and at one point I acted afraid of something, probably Leah’s admonition to stop horsing around. Ava walked over to the bed and patted my back, saying, “It’s OK Rover. Do you want me to tell you a story?” I said I did. So Ava climbed into bed next to me and proceeded to tell me the story of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, from memory. It was fantastic to hear the little embellishments she added now and then. It was clear that she gets the whole notion of Rudolph’s redemption, even if the details shift a bit from time to time.
The episode was a good reminder of the comforting nature of these stories we tell Ava. I don’t know whether it’s the sound of our voices or the security she feels from the repetition of the narratives and characters, but clearly there’s something soothing about this pastime.