Eli’s bedtime stories: Normal, “Crazy,” and “Mario!”

When I (Jon) read Eli stores at bedtime, we generally end up going with one of three possibilities:

Option 1 – Eli picks out about 3 stories, and I read them to him.  Interestingly, this is Eli’s least favorite option!

Option 2 – Eli picks out about 3 stories, and I read them to him “crazy",” as Eli puts it.  This consists of me completely disregarding the text and making up my own story to go with the pictures in the book – the funnier, the better! 

One example is that some of his Little Critter books, in addition to the primary story about the boy (the “Critter”), the art shows a little mouse on every page somewhere.  So I made up a new story about the mouse (and the funny things that the mouse sees the Critter doing), and tell that to Eli. 

Another example is in one of Eli’s books about Clifford (the giant dog), there’s a page that flashes back to when Clifford was a normal-size puppy; instead, I made up a story for that page where instead of Clifford being small, Clifford’s owner Emily-Elizabeth becomes gigantic, even larger than Clifford!

For whatever reason, Eli really likes it when I do this.  “Read it crazy, Daddy!” is what I typically hear when I pick up a book at bedtime to read to him!  (I do typically insist on reading a book normally if it’s one that I’ve never read before – it’s easier to make up a funny story that is at least somewhat coherent with the art on the pages if I know what’s coming in advance!)

Option 3 – I’ll just make up a story and tell that to Eli.  Eli is very into Mario right now, and his favorite made-up stories are ones that I make up involving Mario and Eli going on an adventure together. 

I’ve been telling Eli these stories ever since he was 3, and he’ll be turning 5 in about a month in a half as I write this, so he’s heard a lot of different ones.  In the stories, Eli and Mario have done lots of different things, like going exploring together, saving Princess Peach from Bowser, doing Mario Kart races, or playing team sports like baseball or soccer – that last one is a good one to bring other people from Eli’s life like cousins Lexi, Tori, and Noah into the story to help fill out the team!

The stories are mostly just fun, but I try to work the occasional life lesson in there too, like the importance of being honest, or how to go about interacting politely with other people (i.e. basis like saying hello and “How are you?” when meeting someone), or being wise with money (how to spend those Mushroom Kingdom coins that Eli and Mario find on their adventures!). 

Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64 was (and remains!) one of my favorite Nintendo games; instead of being a traditional “run and jump” action Mario game, it’s a role-playing game with a fairly involved quest and story.  In my Mario stories for Eli, I draw many of the locations that Eli and Mario visit from that game – both central locations like Mario’s house, Princess Peach’s castle, and Toad Town; and also settings for adventures such as Dry Dry Desert and Yoshi Island. 

The fun thing is, now that Eli is a little older, I recently downloaded the Paper Mario game onto our Wii, and Eli and I have been able to play through it together!  Even though the game is text-heavy (being an RPG), it has been Eli’s favorite game on the Wii to play since we got it.  Missy or I will read the text to Eli, and Eli spends most of the time holding the controller and controlling Mario.  The game has been educational for Eli as well as fun; in addition to the reading, the combat system is math-based, and Eli has learned that if a particular enemy has (say) 5 hit points, it can be defeated by one attack that does 3 points of damage followed by another attack that does 2 points.

I’m certainly enjoying reading and telling stories to Eli while I can, since sooner or later the day is coming when Eli won’t want to hear stories at bedtime anymore!