This is not how Sendak got his start

It started innocently enough. Sam was trying to get to sleep in a new room, new bed, new country and he wanted me to tell him a story. I made up some goofy story about a couple of strange characters named Ted and Scooter. This was fine for a few days, a week even. Pretty soon the plots had to become more elaborate and it became harder and harder to remember all the stuff I had made up about them. Don’t worry…Sam had me covered. Every slip I made about their history he jumped all over. “Dad…Scooter can’t read! Don’t you remember?” Fast forward 5 months and I now have a whole cast of characters and I’m on the verge of either killing them all off in a major bedtime story disaster or writing my own children’s story line. How do I get out of this? I start to get nervous about an hour before bedtime. What if I don’t have a good enough story? Is Scooter’s best friend Tiny or Bug? What else could they possibly do? I’ve sent them on cruises, airplanes, to a pancake eating contest (Ted won by the way), argh! I’m telling you it doesn’t look good for Ted or Scooter. This kid has to learn to read…and soon!