Run! It's the giant!

We were driving somewhere a few weeks ago and Eve asked me to tell her a story. So I told her Jack And The Giant Beanstalk. Here's my modified version, which I have been telling OVER AND OVER for weeks now.

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Jack. One day, his mother gave him $5 and told him to go to the market and buy some cheese, some bread, and some juice. Jack said, "OK!" and off he went. But on the way to the market, he ran into a magician. The magician said, "Hey, Jack! How much money do you have?" And Jack said, "Five dollars." The magician said, "I happen to have some magic beans that you can buy for five dollars!" Jack asked, "What do they do?" And the magician said,"You will have to buy them to find out." Now Jack was so curious about the beans that he forgot about the bread and cheese and juice that he was supposed to buy at the market, and he bought the beans instead. When he got home, he showed them to his mother, and she said, "Jack, I asked you to buy us bread and cheese and juice! I'm very upset- you should go outside by yourself for a while." So Jack went outside. He was still very curious about the beans, even though he was sorry about forgetting the food. He dug a little hole, and put the beans in the hole, and covered the beans with dirt. He watered them, and waited for something to happen. But nothing happened. That night at bedtime, his mother said, "Do you understand why I was upset earlier?" And Jack said, "Yes, I'm sorry that I spent our food money on those beans. Do you forgive me?" And his mother said, "Of course I do. I love you very much, and I don't want you to be hungry. Good night, Jack." And Jack went to sleep. The next morning, he went out to where the beans had been planted, and what do you think he saw? A GIANT BEANSTALK! It went way way up to the sky, and you couldn't even see the top because it was in the clouds. Well, Jack was so curious that he started climbing right away, and he climbed and climbed all day until he reached the top. He jumped off onto a cloud and started exploring. He found a HUGE castle and thought, "I wonder who lives there?" No one was home, so he went inside and looked around. He saw a goose and said, "Hello, goose." The goose said, "Hello!" Jack said, "You can talk!" And the goose said, "Yes. I'm a magic goose. I lay golden eggs. The mean, nasty giant that lives here kidnapped me. If you rescue me and take me back down to the land, I will be yours and lay golden eggs for you." And Jack said, "OK, let's go!" But just then, the giant came home! And he said, "FEE FIE, FOE FUM, I SMELL THE BLOOD OF AN ENGLISHMAN!" And Jack was really scared! The goose said, "I know a secret way out!" And so they started sneaking out, but then the door slammed behind them and the giant heard it and started chasing them! And they ran and ran and the giant chased them saying "FEE FIE, FOE FUM!" And they got to the beanstalk and they slid down it super-fast and Jack chopped it down with his little knife so that the giant couldn't follow them. Then he took the goose home and showed it to his mother. She was very happy because now they would be able to buy all the bread and cheese and juice they could possibly want. And they lived happily ever after.

Like I said, this was at least two weeks ago. We have been playing Jack And The Giant Beanstalk continuously since then. Eve especially loves the part where she (as Jack) and the goose (one parent) run from the giant (the other parent). We have a loop in our house- you can run from the living room, through the hall to the kitchen, into the dining room and back out into the living room. Sometimes she'll do twenty laps, screaming and giggling, without tiring. Sometimes Jack and the goose hide (usually in a bed, under the covers) and wait for the giant to find them- with more screaming and giggling. We don't generally act out the whole story- maybe a little beanstalk climbing, and the sneaking out part is hilarious because she hunches her shoulders and makes little mouse-paws with her hands- but mostly we run.