"And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street"

To the average person, this picture would seem odd. There is nothing artistic about it and all it contains is a seemingly random collection of rocks. However, there is much more to it than what meets the eye. What if I told you that the flat, round rocks on the bottom were actually fossilized dinosaur poop? Or what if I told you that the odd shaped rock on the far left was, in reality, a fossilized dinosaur teething toy, belonging to a larger dinosaur species? And the green and white one in the middle? It was the favorite toy of a small, baby dinosaur a very long time ago and now it has become a fossil. You might say that I'm crazy or delusional at best but that would be if you heard it strictly from me. However, I have it on good authority, in fact from a particular 3 year old little scientist, that it is 100% undeniably true.

Want to hear some more? Because, as many of you can attest, I could go on for days with stories that my little monkey has told me. For instance, there was the time that he came home from preschool at the age of 2 years, 2 months and informed me that he and Tristan (his best friend in TX) were going to steal the school's pumpkin patch, load it on the Boy Scout bus, drive the bus to a helicopter, load the pumpkin patch onto the chopper and then fly off with it. Tell me, where would a child of that age come up with that and be able to clearly verbalize it?

There was also the time that Jesse, Drew and I were headed to Billings. All of the sudden, Drew started screaming from the back that we had to turn around and go home; we had forgotten Carter. After arguing for a few minutes that Carter would be fine at home for a while (and getting absolutely nowhere), Jesse had the brilliant idea to tell Drew to call him. Suddenly Drew was all smiles, "Oh good Carter! You caught up with us...its a good thing you're a dinosaur and you can run fast and you climbed in the window. I missed you!"

I was thinking about these things tonight as I was reading Drew a bedtime story. Before he was born and while he was still a baby, I had all of these preconceived notions about what our favorite stories would be. I was going to read him "I'll Love You Forever" and "Guess How Much I Love You" and "I Love You Through and Through" (which, incidentally I did read to him for a long time and have been quoting it for about 3 years now). Since he's been old enough to have an opinion though, he has always loved Dr. Seuss. The wild and outlandish tales about unidentifiable creatures and far fetched adventures just appeal to his zealous little imagination and best of all is "And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street".

This tale about Marko, a little boy with a wild imagination attempting to concoct "a tale that no one can beat" makes me smile. Every time I read it, I glance down at my sleepy eyed but enraptured little man and wonder what his next tale will be. The stories I thought I would be reading are sweet and certainly have their place but when it comes to the perfect bedtime story for Drew we have one that simply can't be beat..."And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street".