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 Witch

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 the hill.  The hill was covered with flowers.  Princess Mi-Ah loved flowers…

There were so many strange and interesting things in the Drexa’s shop.  But it made sense, since Drexa was a witch.  Well, mother kept telling Princess Mi-Ah not to call her a witch, but everyone thought of her as one anyway.  After all, Drexa had wild-looking grey, frazzly hair and a giant hook nose with a wart at the end.  And she wore these strange baggy cloaks over her clothes. 

Princess Mi-Ah was examining a set of shiny wishing bells.  “Do you know how those work, Princess Mi-Ah?” asked Drexa.  Princess Mi-Ah shook her head ‘no’.  “Well, for each bell you make a wish.  And then each day you must ring the bell two times – one in the morning when you wake up and one in the evening before you sleep.  Then after thirty days your wish will come true.”

“Oh….  But I have so many wishes to make!  I would need so many bells!”  said Princess Mi-Ah.  Drexa ‘s laugh sounded scary with her scratchy witch-like voice.

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.

Children’s Story: Princess Mi-Ah and the Giant Spider

The scary stories continue.  These are the only types she seems to like now.  In the beginning, I thought I should keep the stories mild in nature, but she finds those so boring now.  And frankly, I find those ‘nice’ stories boring myself.  I guess these kids are smarter than we give them credit for sometimes.  They know when you are holding back the good stuff.

DEAR READER, what do you think?  Would love to hear your feedback regarding suitability of this story or the ‘Dark Forest’ one for your child.  I enjoyed Harry Potter, and found those pretty ‘scary’ too, albeit those are not meant for small children.  I don’t find mine any less scary.  Your thoughts?

I was struggling awhile with the plot for this particular story.  I knew I wanted to write about a big spider, but wasn’t sure what would happen once Princess Mi-Ah and the spider met.  Okay, obviously she gets scared, but then what?  What lesson could I teach here?  So yes, the spider is scary and evil.  But despite this, Princess Mi-Ah learns about empathy, believe it or not.

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….

They were playing on the floor, on a soft thick rug.  Princess Mi-Ah was assembling a puzzle of a large dragon spewing flames and smoke.  Prince Boerie was playing with a wooden toy horse that was pulling along a small wooden cart. 

As Princess Mi-Ah was laying down some puzzle pieces that brought her close to the wall, she accidentally knocked her elbow against it.  POP!  A hidden panel in the wall suddenly swung open!  They looked at it, and then at each other, in complete shock.

They stood up to take a closer look, and found themselves peering down a dark stairway.  A glowing green flame encased within a glass lantern hung on the wall.  What kind enchanted fire was this?  To burn green instead of the usual red and orange and yellow flames?

“Oooh!  It looks very scary!  What do you think…  Do we go in or not?” asked Prince Boerie.

“Well….  Secret doors are always meant to hide something special.  But what?” wondered Princess Mi-Ah out loud.  “I say we go!”  She grabbed the lantern and her brother’s hand, and they stepped inside together.

Children’s Story: Princess Mi-Ah and the Dark Forest

One night, I was struggling to come up with a new ’scary’ bedtime story after re-telling the Sleeping Jail story for the umpteenth time.  I was going mad.  So this was the result.  I threw in some ‘teaching’ things where I could – about how it’s good to tell the truth and keep promises, importance of toothbrushing and wearing shoes and socks outside, that it’s importance to listen to your parents when they tell you something is dangerous…  After I finished telling her the story, I asked her what she thought.  I knew she was into it because she remained stockstill while I told it, hanging on every word.  She said she liked it, but that Sleeping Jail was still better!  Hah!  

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

The weather was beautiful and sunny.  A perfect day for a visit to the flower meadow.  So after breakfast, Princess Mi-Ah and her brother, Prince Boerie, asked to get their teeth brushed right away.  When their teeth were nice and clean (this is here so that Mi-Ah sees how even princesses need to brush their teeth) they made a break for the outdoors.  On the way, they made a quick pitstop in the kitchen to grab a snack for later.  As they were running through the Garden, they spotted Gardener with some large shears working away at the hedge.  They waved at him, and he waved cheerfully back.

Through the garden, along a short path, and they were in the flower meadow.  Princess Mi-Ah had brought along a basket to collect flowers.  She had in mind a special purple vase with butterflies on it that she had set aside in the castle for the flowers she was going to pick.  Meanwhile, Prince Boerie was having a grand time chasing around butterflies.  So far no luck!  They were too fast for him.

After a while, Princess Mi-Ah had collected a whole bunch of lovely flowers in all sort of colors.  (I ask Mi-Ah what colors and let her call out all the colors she can think of.  Otherwise you can read the colors as follows….)  Red ones, pink ones, blue ones, yellow ones, white ones, purple ones…  And then she noticed that she had made her way to the very edge of the flower meadow.  Near the forest.  In fact, the one and only Dark Forest.  She also noticed a small path leading into the forest.

Children’s Story: Princess Mi-Ah and the Sleeping Jail

So you’re wondering what kind of parent tells a story about a kid going to jail?  I created it with the intention of getting her to listen to us when it was time to go to sleep, since this can be a real trial with Mi-Ah sometimes.  The idea was to kind of scare her into believing that when kids aren’t cooperating at sleep time then they can be sent to a scary ‘sleeping jail’.  But instead of scary she finds the story exciting.  A story she wants to hear over & over again.  Well, while the story didn’t scare her, at least she listens sometimes because she knows if she cooperates she can get to hear it again.

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.

It was bed-time (sometimes I adjust it for nap-time) and things weren’t going too well.  They had finished reading their bedtimes stories, and it was time to sleep.

“You know it’s time to sleep, Princess Mi-Ah!  So let’s go to sleep now, please,” pleaded the Queen for the umpteenth time.

Children’s Story: Princess Mi-Ah and the Magic Clown

This story has no particular lesson to get across.  It’s just pure fantasy.  Mi-Ah has been asking for this one over & over again because she loves the imagery.

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

The talk of the village was a new performer at the market square.  A magic clown.  He could do all sorts of wonderful magic tricks, and everyone was going to see him.  Today the King and Queen promised to take her to see the show.  She could barely wait!

In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007)

We’re really into scifi and fantasy, so this sounded like a real winner.  Some great actors in it too like Ray Liotta (loved him in Goodfellas) who I think is usually pretty great.  But when I saw Jason Statham as the protagonist in this film (from films Crank, Snatch) then it quickly went downhill from there.  What also drives me crazy is when they mix various accents in a film.  This is set in a sort of English medieval fantasy era, but they mixed American, low-class Brit and horribly faked Brit accents (from the American actors of course) in it.  Drove me nuts.  A big thumbs down!  We couldn’t even finish it!