Reintroducing.... Kenny the Gnome

While the physical act of the children falling asleep in the new house has been trying, the storytime step in the process of getting ready for bed has been working well.  We're three chapters into The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and Maja is still interested, although chapter three is extremely long-winded. 

Sunday night Millie wanted a story read, and as she is obviously not ready for the real Oz books, I took her in her room, tucked her in, and started the third version of the story of David the Gnome.   We had just gotten a robust cast of characters when Maja was her age now, so a full introduction of the characters was at hand.  With no prep time and a sketchy memory of the actual show, we've kept it simple.

1. David found a fox who had it's paw injured in a steel trap.  He coerced a bear to help him open the trap enough to get the paw out, and the fox and David grew to be good friends as the animal convalesced outside David's tree house.
2. David fashioned a light cart to the fox for when they travelled to visit gnomes in far-off lands and needed to bring extra supplies.  One day, one of the cart's wheels broke, and by a stroke of luck, gnome fix-it-guy, Kenny the Gnome happened to be around and got things back together. 

Time to review the older posts to figure out what happens next...

'Ere We Go Again!

It's been awhile... I knew well ahead of children that life does that to you, no matter what the circumstances.

Over the past month the storytelling duties got passed onto my wife and ultimately dropped, although the blogging was the obvious first choice of sacrifice. The Three Little Pigs are still there, and David the Gnome has had adventures in Oz, helping a princess find a prince, babysitting gnome and Martian babies, and sailing a boat. And my wife loves to make David bake cupcakes for some reason.

Tonight the sleep schedule was re-established, and David came back, along with his friend Kenny, as they sailed their boat in the sea. A big storm came up and the big waves knocked the gnomes and their boat out of the sea. They woke up on a desert island, and after starting the process of fixing the boat, were met by strange gnomes.

David: Hello there

Strange Gnomes: Hello, we would like to eat you.

Okay, okay, I admit that the tonight I introduced my soon-to-be three year old daughter to cannibalism.

The cannibal gnomes chased David around until Kenny could construct a clever pull the rope, trip the cannibals, and dash away to safety gag. They fixed their boat and got home, where David and his wife were very happy to see each other again.

Maja immediately picked up that the cannibal gnomes were bad guys, but I was more impressed by the flurry of questions she asked afterwards:

"Do David and his wife have TV?"

"What movies do they own?"

"What stories do they tell each other?"

It seems like David the Gnome and his wife are becoming real, albeit short, people.

Now I just need to find a name for his wife