One of Jay’s most impressive parenting talents is his ability to tell the boys incredible stories incorporating all of their friends, favorite animals, super heroes and just about anything else he can think of to pull them in. It has been a wonderful way to help the kids continue to feel connected to our friends and life in Brooklyn while they are sleeping in the middle of the Outback. Their Montessori Day School classroom features prominently as the Seagull Superheroes head out to various adventures in the stories.

The stories are almost entirely off the cuff and seemingly can expand to fit whatever amount of time is required to complete the activity. Although Jay claims the stories are of higher caliber when he spends some time working on the storyline in advance of telling them. I generally think of this skill as an incredible tool Jay has in his parenting arsenal, but it is one he gets great joy from too. Sometimes at bedtime, I have been left shaking my head as Jay is telling a “goodnight” story and I discover all of them laughing and hollering as he reaches an entertaining climax of the story.

At the beginning of each story, there are lots of shouts and enthusiasm as each boy lobbies for the content they are most interested in hearing about. When Jay is in the midst of the story, he can get the boys through just about any activity. Today he used that talent to distract the boys once they realized our rainforest walk was a bit longer than they bargained for. The stories seemed to center on Greek myths today. Jay bounded back and forth using the Greek and Roman names as Lake has a love for all things Ancient Roman. Any pause in the story would quickly lead to whines of “are we there yet?!” But as soon as the story resumed, they plodded down the path as happy as can be!