Damian emerged from his bath tonight clutching a small rubber frog named Emerald. When he got up on the bed beside me, he found an identical green rubber frog named… Emerald. The following conversation ensued (bear in mind, Damian held a frog in each fist and voiced both of them):
“Who are you?”
“I’m Emerald, who are you?”
“I’m Emerald!”
“No you’re not!”
“Yes I am!”
“No you’re not, I’m Emerald!”
“Well, I’m Emerald and you’re Emerald too because we’re both green and all frogs are green except some other frogs who are different colors.”
It degenerated quickly into a fight, the frogs making sorties across Damian’s thighs, rolling around like our cats do when they wrestle. But the frogs, unlike the cats, were also talking. Their battle was also interrupted periodically for pajama-donning activities. When I offered a white sock to Damian, one of the frogs grabbed it.
“I can smush you on the head with this flying sock,” exclaimed the apparel-bearing Emerald.
“Well I can fly with the sock and geep you because I’m smart,” retorted the other Emerald, grabbing the sock away.
Dan declared tonight’s lying-down story was going to be entitled Geep from the Deep. Damian decided I should write it because I’m a writer, that it should be a chapter book and that when I was done writing it, Daddy could read it to him as a bedtime story that very night.
He then began contemplating the life of a writer. “You have to be smart to be a writer because you have to remember things. Like the title of the book and what happened. You have to be smart like me.”
Indeed, kid. Indeed.
I’m tempted to write a chapter book for kids titled Geep from the Deep, complete with fighting frogs and flying socks. But I find I prefer the original, told in a child’s voice.
Interestingly enough, I found myself thinking along similar lines today. The children spent several long bus rides plotting out a new educational theme park based on the Human Body. There's a toddler room in the little toe, a gift shop in the big one, rotating look-outs in each eye, a trampoline-tongue, and bungee-muscles, and a paddle boat ride in the stomach...
As I was listening to them I was thinking what a fantastic children's picture book that would make, if only I was better at working with color. I can just see this giant statue of a human body, like the Colossus of Rhodes, towering over the tall buildings of the city.
I think Geep from the Deep would be a great book. :-)