Wednesday, May 15, 2013

A daddy version of bed time story

Aelig could be very harsh to her father, she refuses to do certain things with him, for example, having him during the bed time story.

To change this habit and enable daddy to share more bonding time with her, I asked hubby to pick one of her favorite stories, written in Mandarin with pictures.

It started well. She slowly calmed down and stopped protesting the present of her daddy in the room. She was actually curious how daddy was going to tell the story in French.

It was not an easy task but he did it. The book was printed from right to left so I had to correct him when he turned the pages.

Here is daddy's version of the story:
The little cat is hungry but he couldn't find his cheese. He realized two mice stole it so he scold them badly. With an empty stomach, he played with butterflies. Once he saw his mother, he asked if she could give him some food as he was still hungry. His mother gave him some eggs. After eating, he played with a turtle and a bat. (Aelig protested when he said "chauve souris" (bat), direct translation = "bald mouse", she said the bat is not a mouse). While he was sleeping two mice came to visit him. They had good time playing together. The second day after waking up, he realized all his eggs were stolen. (Finally he realized it was not eggs but Chinese bun so he switched to "bao" (Chinese bun in Hokkien)). The "bao" reappeared  and he managed to catch the mice. He can finally enjoyed the moon and stars.

The real story:
The little cat likes to chase butterflies in the garden. He has never seen a mouse in his life. One day, he asked his mother how does a mouse look like. His mother told him : " The mouse has shape mouth, round ears and long tail...". She got cut off as he said he knows what a mouse look like now. One night his mother has to go out so she asked him to guard the Chinese buns. While guarding, he confused a turtle and a bat as mouse. He was so tired until he felt sleeping. He got awaken by a weird sound and finally met the real mice. However, the mice convinced him that they were good mice, and were invited by his mother to help him. He believed them and played with them. He even treated them to a dinner. The mice encouraged him to take a nap which he gladly obliged. The second morning, he discovered that all the buns were gone! His mother arrived just in time to console him and told him that all the mice are bad. The little cat was determined to catch the mice. He prepared some buns and hid behind his bed. The two mice came and he caught them without struggle. After this episode, he finally knew what a mouse look like and has since become the bravest guardian.

Ok daddy's version was quite different from the real story but they had a good laugh, that was the most important.

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