The Tale of the Binky Dragons

     It had been a long day with the girls.  I felt as if I could blow up with anger and give an epic speech that they would understand about 2% of.  It was bed time, and with much effort, the girls were clean and in PJ's.  Of course the excuses start coming... at the moment they were emotionally whining about how they didn't know where there binkies (pacifers) had disappeared to.  I felt my frustration and speech build up.... took a deep breath and redirected it to my imagination...
    I gasp loudly, "I think I know what has happened to your binkies!" The girls are alarmed by my sudden change from broody and grumpy mom, to sparkly eyed and mischief mom; they respond with blank faces.  I continue, "The binky dragons took them!"  Confused, they now can't decide if they should cry over this news, or become excited.  "We must defeat the dragons and rescue your binkies! come on!"  I race to the kitchen, as the girls hesitantly follow; unsure of this scary adventure. My husband rolls his eyes and sits back to watch my shenanigans.  I grab three spatulas out of my kitchen drawer, "Here, these are our swords. We need these to slay the dragons." This finally got them excited.  Their blank expressions now burst into gleeful smiles, and giggles.  We race to the bathroom (I knew Esther had left her binky at the sink).  "Careful" I warned them, "binky dragons are invisible." They nod in complete understanding.  while they were not looking at me, I turned on the shower. "It's a water breathing dragon!" I yell, quickly wielding my spatula, and stabbing it at the water.  The girls giggle and shout as we stab at invisible dragons. "We got it! look, here is Esther's binky! Another dragon must have Bethany's." The girls nod in serious agreement.  We travel carefully around the house, and make our way downstairs.  Bethany bravely steps ahead of me, looking to rescue her binky from the dragon.  She finds her binky and bends over to pick it up. "Watch out Bethie!" Esther and I charge forward to protect Bethany from the Invisible dragon, who had lured Bethany so close.  "I got it!" Esther yells, "It's flying away!" We pretend to watch it fly upstairs.  "Lets get it!" Esther says as she charges up the stairs.
    We didn't catch up to the dragon, and we are convinced it will come back someday; but that night, we had saved the binkies, and my girls had been so brave and courageous.  They went to bed with a smile, and both asked if we could always play dragons for bed.  It sorta blew me away that I could have yelled at the girls for whining and sent them to bed feeling grumpy and annoyed. Instead, I let my imagination take over, and created a amazing memory we all will cherish.

I heard a rumor that Binky dragon babies are not born Invisible... I'm thinking we might catch a couple on our next adventure... TO BE CONTINUED