DanPar's bedtime story!

In case anyone needs to know, or if I want to remind myself later, this is Daniel's bedtime story.

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[Four canvas pictures of superheroes on his wall. Put hand-phone up to ear.]

"One day, Spidey called his friends and said, 'Guys! Guys guys guys! Let's go to the hot air balloon library!' "

[Put other hand up to ear.]

" 'That sounds great!' said Cap." (Or some other variant of an enthusiastic OK.) "So he got on his helicopter, and went..."

[Shuffle around room with one hand on a flight stick and the other circling around like a propeller.]

"Thup-thup-thup-thup-thup-thup-thup-thup-thup-thup-thup-thup."

[Handphone again.]

" 'I'll be right there!' said Iron Man. So he got on his bicycle and went..."

[March around the room with two hands in front on handlebars.]

"Hwsh-hwsh-hwsh-hwsh-hwsh-hwsh-hwsh-hwsh-hwsh-hwsh."

[Another handphone.]

" 'Great! I'll see you guys soon!' said Spidey. So he got in his car and went..."

[Turn on ignition, shift from Park to Drive, and steer around room.]

"Vroom-vroom-vroom-vroom-vroom-vroom-vroom-vroom-vroom."

[Last handphone, I promise.]

" 'Looking forward to it!" said Hulk. So he got on his skateboard and went..."

[Hop on skateboard, go off ramps, be extreme.]

"Hwsh-hwsh-hwsh-hwsh-hwsh-hwsh-hwsh-hwsh-hwsh-hwsh."

"So they all got to the library, and Cap went to the play kitchen. 'I'm gonna make you guys food!' he said, and he got some eggs, and lettuce, and macaroni, and put them in a pot and stirrrrrred it up, and gave it to Iron Man.
'Egg and lettuce and macaroni soup? My favorite! Om nom nom nom!' (The food can be any combination of anything. Whatever food comes to mind.)
Then Cap got some bread, and put some bacon on it, then put some chicken on it, and then put some mayonnaise on it, and then put one more piece of bread on top, and gave it to Spidey.

'Bacon and chicken and mayonnaise sandwich? My favorite! Om nom nom nom!'

Then Cap took the muffin tin, and put carrots and grapes and mustard in them, and baked them in the oven, and then took them out and gave them to Hulk.

'Carrot and grape and mustard muffins? My favorite! Om nom nom nom!'

And then Iron Man went and got a book, and the rest of them sat down for story time."

[Here, you pantomime opening the pages of a book that's basically as big as a poster, and pointing to pictures. The last pretend book I "read" him was about Oswald the Bear, who likes to hug rabbits, and then they throw a surprise party for him. DanPar loves this part with the big imaginary book.]

"And then Hulk and Spidey got the wind-up cars, and..."

[Daniel pretends to wind-up cars, and then you speed your hands at each other's until-]

"CRASH!!!"

[Hands up in the air, then gather up the cars and do it twice more.]

"Then they all decided to go play Legos!"

[For this part, I just have Cap and Iron Man and Spidey and Hulk build their respective vehicles out of Legos, describing where the wheels go, and doing the little sounds for it.]

And then right here is the audible. Sometimes DanPar wants them to do something else, like read another book, or build a table, or make something else with Legos.

After that, the superheroes all clean up their messes, putting the kitchen stuff away, putting the books back, putting the cars back, and putting the Legos back. Then they all say something like "What a fun time!" or "I hope we can do this again!" or "I'm so happy we're friends!" or "You guys are the best", and then they each go back to wherever they came from.

"And then Cap said, 'Nigh-night, Hulk. Nigh-night, Iron Man. Nigh-night, Spidey.' "

"And then Iron Man said, 'Nigh-night, Hulk. Nigh-night, Cap. Nigh-night, Spidey.' "

"And then Spidey said, 'Nigh-night, Hulk. Nigh-night, Cap. Nigh-night, Iron Man.' "

"And then Hulk said, 'Nigh-night, Cap. Nigh-night, Iron Man. Nigh-night, Spidey.' "

"And they alllllll got in bed." [With all the insinuation of "now it's your turn, mister" towards DanPar.]

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And that's that! Now you know how I do it! It takes about ten minutes, which is crazy, considering all the actual books in his room take three minutes at most. I always try to convince him it'd be a great night to read a book, but he insists on the superhero story.

DanPar loves it. He interrupts all the time, asking questions, which I make up answers to. For example, Spidey's car is light red, kind of like pink, but more red than pink. And he sits down for storytime, he reminds the heroes not to actually eat the food Cap makes, because it's pretend food, and he even has his own car that he'll gesture to in the corner. It's dark red. And tonight, when Hulk was skateboarding back home, DanPar pantomimed opening the trunk of his car, pulling out the skateboard, and closing the trunk, before hopping on and going off the ramps with Hulk.

The boy's imagination is limitless. I just hope I can continue to cultivate his creativity, feeding that joyful fire of his. He is wonderful.

The hot air balloon library! (You can see the hot air balloon in the background there.)

He made a race car! He needed my help for the roof. I think it looks nice!