Birthday Story for a Six-Year-Old

ANDREW AND HIS DINOSAUR

by

Grandma Baadsgaard

Happy birthday Andrew. I love you so.

Andrew had a plastic dinosaur named Spike. He liked to play with Spike when he took his bath each night.

            One day while he was splashing in the tub his mother said, “If you leave your dinosaur in the bathwater, you never know what will happen.”

            Andrew looked at the small plastic dinosaur in his hand. He was curious. He crawled out the bathtub and threw his dinosaur back in the water. When he woke up the next day and went into the bathroom, he saw that his small plastic dinosaur was now big enough to fill the bathtub.

            “Now where are we going to put that?” his mother said when he looked into the bathroom.

            “I wanted to see what would happen,” Andrew answered.

            That day at school, Andrew told his friend Kyle about the giant dinosaur in his bathtub.

            “Hey, does that mean you don’t have to take a bath anymore?” his friend asked.

            “I hope so,” Andrew said.

            “Hey I have a swimming pool at my house. Why don’t we put your dinosaur in there and see what happens,” Andrew’s friend said.

            That evening Andrew, his mother, father and all his sisters hoisted the plastic dinosaur from the bathtub and walked it over to Kyle’s house.

            They gave a big heave-ho and threw in in the pool. Ker plunk.

            “I’ll come back after school and see what happens,” Andrew said to his friend.

            When Andrew went to Kyle’s house after school, the back yard had become a jungle filled with prehistoric animals. His dinosaur had grown too big for the swimming pool and was walking around in the jungle looking for Andrew.

            “I’m right here,” Andrew said walking toward Spike. “I like you better alive.”

            Spike roared but Andrew wasn’t scared because he knew they were friends. He walked right up to Spike and patted him on the nose.

            “I always knew you were such an awesome creature,” Andrew said. “Now you can walk and eat and roar and everything. Just remember not to eat people. They don’t like that.”

            Spike nodded and nuzzled his head next to Andrew.

            Pretty soon everyone knew about Andrew and his dinosaur Spike. The T.V. people came to the jungle and interviewed Andrew.

            “We hear you are the only one in the whole world who can tame dinosaurs,” the reporter said. “How do you do that young man?”

            “He’s my friend,” Andrew said. “Friends never hurt each other.

            Every day after school, Andrew went to Kyle’s house and played with Spike. Soon the whole world knew about the amazing boy Andrew and his best friend Spike.

            One day when Andrew went to Kyle’s house to play with Spike, the jungle had disappeared and Spike had shrunk back down to a small plastic dinosaur that could fit in the palm of his hand. Andrew was sad . . . but he had an idea. He walked home and placed Spike on top of his chest of drawers. He has always wanted to travel to the moon. He glanced around his room and spied a space station he built from inter-connecting plastic building blocks. Now Andrew knew what he wanted to play with in the bathtub that night.

            “Don’t forget to take your space station out of the tub when you’re done,” his father said while Andrew was taking a bath. “You never know what might happen.”

            Andrew smiled as he stepped from the tub leaving his space station behind.