Once upon a time, long ago, long long ago… no… long long long ago, lived two dinosaurs. They had a wonderful life to themselves, since they came after the plants but before the humans. They had a land full of plants with no humans to bug them. They had clouds and rainbows and rivers and waterfalls. And they had plants. Lots of plants.
Which was a good thing, because Bobby the Brontosaurus loved eating plants. He ate like this: “omm nom nom” and he even ate while he talked like this. (Add omm nom nom’s into your talking. If your kid laughs, your doing it right. Then again, if he laughs he won’t go to sleep, so you might not be doing it right afterall.)
Bobby the Brontosaurus didn’t have any friends because all he did all day was eat plants. He liked it that way. He said “I have all the plants I need and I love eating them.” (Mix in lots of omm nom nom’s in there.) But Ptommy the Pteradactyl didn’t agree. He thought it would be nice to have a friend. Ptommy could fly far above the valley and look at the rainbows and clouds and waterfalls and plants. He wanted to talk about them with Bobby, but all Bobby was interested in was his plants. Bobby never even looked up at Ptommy, he just kept eating and eating. But if Bobby never looked up, how would Ptommy ever get Bobby to see the wonderful things?
One day, Ptommy discovered a place where the plants grew right up to the edge of a cliff, which dropped away, and below were waterfalls and rainbows and clouds. He told Bobby he’d help him find more plants to eat. Bobby liked that plan, and so Ptommy said “eat over to the left a bit”. Then Ptommy said, “eat up ahead a bit”. Every time Ptommy gave Bobby a direction to eat, Bobby found good stuff, and Bobby started to realize having a friend wasn’t so bad afterall. But Ptommy was laughing to himself all the time, because he was leading Bobby where he wanted him to go! And finally, Ptommy said, “eat that nice bush there in front of you”. Bobby did, gladly, (omm nom nom) and then he was shocked, because now he could see out over the cliff. For the first time ever, Bobby the Brontosaurus saw clouds and rainbows and waterfalls and mountains.
He stopped eating (he’d never done that before!). He looked left and right. He looked again. He was amazed.
“Ptommy,” said Bobby, “that’s really pretty.” (no omm nom nom’s here!) “But do you think you could tell me where to find more plants?”
Prommy rolled his eyes. “Sure thing, buddy. Just eat a little bit more to your right…” said Ptommy, smiling.
This story is based loosely on On Top, by Marilyn MacGregor.
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