Felix the Con Man

If you've read the previous post you will know that Felix and I alternate telling each other stories at bedtime. Tru loves when I tell him stories; he prefers it to being read to.  He will mention it on mornings in anticipation of the story that night- he just loves it. Which is great, I don't consider myself a very good story-teller but it pleases me that he is so pleased by it. An occasion where I really got to experience his delight was several weeks ago when I surprised him by resurrecting the character Mechanico, a character we came up with months prior. Just as it was looking grim for the protagonist, in sprang Mechanico. Felix, lying in his bed in the dim light, raised both arms triumphantly. But, as I am not a very good story-teller, I do struggle to come up with stories that won't seem like I'm being lazy.
Anyway, the point here is that Felix loves when I tell the stories, though he is not real keen on telling them himself. It is not unusual for him to tell me that it is my turn though he knows that it is not. Felix saw a problem; "I don't want to tell a story, but I have to tell a story in order for dad to tell his story the next night. How can I get around this?", he may have thought.
But then he had the answer! "Dad, how about we not tell stories every night?" He asked me last Tuesday morning, a day that would be his day to tell a story. I was really surprised because of how much he liked my stories. Upon seeing my surprise he elaborates, "How about you tell stories some nights, not every night, just some nights?"
"You will still tell stories, right?"
"Yes, but you will tell stories some nights"
"Are you sure?", I ask.
"Yeah", he says confidently.
Come bedtime he springs his trap, "Dad, I want you to tell a story tonight because it's some night".

Story Time

A couple of weeks ago we took a trip to the Pacific Science Center, which is right next to the Space Needle. The picture above is Felix taking a picture of the Space Needle. He was a little cranky that day but the picture was from a happier moment.
Anyway, every night, as we've done for years, Renae and I read to Felix. He goes through phases of things that interest him- space, dinosaurs, fiction stories, etc. currently he is interested in a nature encyclopedia. Over several nights he will ask me to read the same page due to finding a particular piece of information very interesting. About a week ago it was bogs and marshes because of the venus flytraps catching bugs. This week it's been termite towers and the fact that some termite soldiers will explode to block an entrance of the tower. He has also been fascinated with a passage in a dinosaur book that describes a twelve year old English girl finding a complete Icthysaurus fossil 200 years ago.
What is new, however, is that Felix and I alternate each night telling a story we've made up. Felix is also particular about the process; a story can not begin without the story teller asking the other what they would like in the story. With Felix, his requirements for my story have lately been a combination of these things: the moon, the Earth, a family, a little boy, light sabers, rock monsters, lava monsters, and his favorite- a spider-like robot named Mechanico. He also has a name for the little boy: Powerlane. I have no idea where he got that from. With those limitations every other night, it can become difficult keeping the stories fresh. But I imagine when he wants to hear something different, he'll ask for something different. A couple years ago I read that kids will watch shows, listen to songs, read books, over and over because they are saturating; they are still getting information from it.
What also seems to be relatively new is that Felix adores me. Yes, he has always loved me and wanted to play with me, but I could not compare to mom. Now, however, he opts to stay with me when mom goes somewhere, he asks for me in the mornings, on my days off we share bowls of cereal (he loves this), and from the moment I get home from work (excluding a break for dinner) we play until bedtime. There are times where it gets a little tiring, devoting my waking, non-work, hours to his attention, but it's so worth it.