The Boy and The Watcher

Are you familiar with The Watcher from the Lord of the Rings?
This is The Watcher in the Water:

My 5 year old son is quite fascinated by this creature.  The Watcher has become the leading character in many of his favorite stories.  Months ago he started asking me for stories about himself and his buddy, The Watcher.  So, I adapted many fairy tales to fit his requests.  We had CinderWatcher, The Watcher and the Three Billy Goats, Sleeping Watcher, and so on.

I love coming up with these stories because I always make The Watcher capture some poor character, hold them by the legs and hang them upside down over his mouth (like The Watcher does to Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring.)  My son gets a kick out those moments in the story. 

Yesterday my son asked me to tell him a new Watcher story.  We were in the car in between piano lessons and cello lessons.  The story began and The Boy and The Watcher headed out to find the three lost magical stones.  The green stone was to be found in the Dark Forest.  The blue stone was found in the deep, mysterious Loch Ness and the brown stone was to be found in the sand dunes of New Mexico.

My son enjoyed the story, but I don't think he liked it as much as I enjoyed telling it.  I especially liked when The Watcher visits Loch Ness and is reunited with this old buddy The Loch Ness Monster.

My children love stuffed animals and Hubby and myself have tried over the years to find one or two special stuffed animals that fit the personality of each child.  This particular son has an octopus, but it isn't an octopus, it's The Watcher!