Princess Mi-Ah and the Ten Snakes

Mi-Ah is learning to count.  She is so impatient (ok, I admit she gets this form me) she doesn’t want to study the figures and remember them.  Not surprisingly to me, the teacher told me she loves games involving fantasy but not the educational ones.  So I tried to be creative and weave at least a lot of counting into this story. 

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess.  Her name was Princess Mi-Ah.  Princess Mi-Ah lived in a castle on top of a hill.  The hill was covered with flowers.  Princess Mi-Ah loved flowers…

Speaking was too much effort in the hot weather, so Princess Mi-Ah and Prince Boerie walked in a dull silence.  When they spotted a well the broke into a run. 

Prince Boerie quickly lowered the bucket into the water as Princess Mi-Ah stood waiting with the large metal dipper.  As soon as the filled bucket was in reach, she leaned forward for some water.  Some water was sloshed over the edge of the bucket.

“Hey, watch it!” said Prince Boerie as he watched her greedily slurped the water.

“Okay, it’s your turn,” said Princess Mi-Ah as she held out the dipper.

Princess Mi-Ah and the House of Monkeys

I was distraught after hearing that Mi-Ah was the only ‘friendless’ one at her pre-school for her taunting and teasing. She wants so much to be friends, but she gets the attention by basically annoying the hell out of the other children. I hope it goes better for her soon. It breaks my heart to see her rejected. She’s only 3.5! So this story was inspired by this event. Which I heard from her teacher today. I haven’t told this story to her yet, but I hope she gets the message.

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess.  Her name was Princess Mi-Ah.  Princess Mi-Ah lived in a castle on top of a hill.  The hill was covered with flowers.  Princess Mi-Ah loved flowers…

The clouds outside were raining tears.  So she decided to match the mood of the sky and wear a dark blue and grey dress.  But on rainy days, she didn’t sit around and mope.  She went to the House of Monkeys.

Now, it really wasn’t a house filled with wild monkeys running about.  But when you entered, it did feel very much like a jungle.  It was always kept very warm so that you would immediately want to remove your cloak.  The main entrance was a tall room with real palm trees and tall wild grass and plants that tickled your knees.  And there were places to swing, and jump and slide just like for real monkeys.  And of course, most important for Princess Mi-Ah, beautiful tropical flowers with bright colors and special smells were scattered around the whole house.

Today was a perfect day for a visit to the House of Monkeys, and she expected to see many children from the village there.  So she threw on her cloak and pulled the hood over her head, and ran as fast as she could to the village.  Despite her efforts, she still ended up soaked from head-to-toe when she arrived.  But as soon as she opened the door and threw off her wet cloak, she forgot all about her dripping clothes.  She flung off her shoes and began to play.

Children’s Story: Princess Mi-Ah doesn’t want to sleep alone (another version)

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess.  Her name was Princess Mi-Ah.  Princess Mi-Ah lived in a castle on top of a hill.  The hill was covered with flowers.  Princess Mi-Ah loved flowers….

“I know you’re afraid, Princess Mi-Ah, but it’s something that all big princesses do.  You want to be a big princess, right?”  asked mother.

“Yes, I do.  But why do I have to sleep alone?  I’m afraid.”  Princess Mi-Ah was sitting on her princess bed in her pajamas.  Outside the stars were out and the moon was a huge creamy ball in the black sky.

Princess Mi-Ah crawled under the blanket and snuggled into her soft princess pillow.  “Please can you tell me a story?  One about the dragon that eats the princess?  I like that one a lot!” 

“Okay, but then afterwards, I would like you to try to sleep alone,” said mother.

“No!  Don’t go!”  Tears started to form in her eyes.  She sat up in bed and held mother tight.

Children’s story: Princess Mi-Ah and the fairy

Mi-Ah was watching Strawberry Shortcake.  One of her current favorites is an episode about fairies.  She wanted a Princess Mi-Ah story that involved this Sherry Berry character.  I said I would create one about a fairy, but not Sherry Berry!

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess.  Her name was Princess Mi-Ah.  Princess Mi-Ah lived in a castle on top of a hill.  The hill was covered with flowers.  Princess Mi-Ah loved flowers…

“Let me go!” a tiny voice cried out.

“Did you say something, Boerie?”  She looked at her brother.

“No, I didn’t say anything.”  Prince Boerie was chasing a blue butterfly.  They were  were collecting as many as they could for Gardener again.  It seemed he never had enough for the butterfly section of the garden. 

She carried her butterfly towards the basket.  “Hey, did you hear me?  Let me go, you rotten human!”  It was the tiny voice again.

She looked down at the net.  To her surprise, whatever it was trapped inside was shaking a tiny fist at her.  “Finally you notice me!  So you’re not deaf after all!  Let me out of here!  Or else I’ll send the giant grasshoppers after you instead!”

Children’s Story: Princess Mi-Ah doesn’t want to sleep alone

(or Princess Mi-Ah and the Vasril Dragon)

Are there more of you parents out there that share this situation? Mi-Ah is terrified of sleeping alone. I asked her why, and she said she was afraid of thunderstorms. While it does rain here often, thunderstorms are infrequent. I remember being afraid of them when I was a kid, but only as they were happening, not afraid of the possibility of them happening.

We’ve tried every method we could get our hands on to get her to sleep on her own. But we’re softies so we’ve resorted to staying with her until she falls asleep every night. Less pain for her, thus less pain for us. I can just hear all of you parents out there tsking away, thinking how weak we are. Well we are. Especially ME. I can’t deal with either of our children crying for too long.

So since I’ve been writing the Princess Mi-Ah stories, the sleeping problem came up as an interesting theme. The result is this story.

I wanted a magical creature that would help her feel safe during sleep. At the toyshop, I looked at the stuffed animals and spotted this stuffed dragon. It obviously fit in with the princess/castle theme so I worked it into the story. She was delighted with the dragon when I showed it to her in the middle of the story, but well, it wasn’t as much of a hit as I hoped. Too bad!

This is, by far, the longest  Princess Mi-Ah story I’ve written. But also the only one where I thoroughly worked out the plot in advance.  What do you think of it?

 

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess. Her name was Princess Mi-Ah. Princess Mi-Ah lived in a castle on top of a hill. The hill was covered with flowers. Princess Mi-Ah loves flowers….

Princess Mi-Ah was in tears. “But I don’t want to sleep alone! I’m afraid! One of you has to stay with me! What if there’s a thunderstorm?”

“There’s nothing to be afraid of! There is no thunderstorm! The sky’s perfectly clear!” The King was becoming exasperated. “Your room and this castle are very safe, even if there is a storm. Nothing can happen. I promise.”

“Noooooo! I don’t want to sleep alone! I CAN’T sleep alone!” wailed Princess Mi-Ah, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“SIGH… Okay. I’ll stay with you again tonight. But tomorrow, I would like you to visit Aldar the Old. Maybe he can help you with your sleeping situation.” The King lay down to sleep on a mattress near Princess Mi-Ah’s bed.

 

The next morning, Princess Mi-Ah set off for the Red Tower where Aldar the Old locked himself away with his many, many books. It was called the Red Tower because it had reddish-toned stones that were used to fix the tower, but this was a long, long time ago. Before she was even born.

Aldar the Old was famous throughout the kingdom as a wise, wise man. He had spent his whole lifetime studying all of his ancient books. He had thousands of books in his study and knew what was inside of them all. Many came to visit him for far away lands, whether it had to do with the politics or treating serious illnesses. Princess Mi-Ah’s problem should be a easy to solve compared to those more difficult situations. At least one would hope so.