Tell me the stories...

Well, I spent the day at Disneyland with my three youngest children today, and it went pretty well. They were 'mostly' good, with the exception of growling at eachother if they were bumped, hurried, asked a question, looked at wrong...you get the idea. As we were leaving the parking lot at the end of the day, Savannah tried to give Brayden his DS (a gaming device, for the grandparents) and he snarled, "I don't want it, you hold it!" She snarled something back and I stood on my tongue to keep from snarling back myself. I decided we could all use a 'teaching moment', so I looked into the rearview mirror and said (more sweetly than usual), "guys, do you think when Jesus was a little boy he growled and snarled at his brothers and sisters or do you think he talked nicely to them?" Brayden admitted that he was probably nice; so having their full attention I 'taught' for a few minutes and then Savannah piped up from the backseat, "no one even knows what you're talking about...Mooother!" Oh, okay! As usual, my mistake.
We have a deal...they say their prayers at night, they get a back rub. Actually, Kelly made the deal, but I'm the one usually here to enforce it (le sigh!)...any hoo...tonight Savannah went first and said a pretty decent prayer. Brayden followed with the usual rush prayer for a back rub. After he hopped into bed I thought I'd have another 'teaching moment' because the first one went so well and all. I said, "I heard a lot of asking for things in the prayers, but not a lot of thanking. What could we tell Heavenly Father we're thankful for?" "Food!" was Brayden's immediate answer, and he usually does say he's thankful for the food in his bedtime prayers, but he forgot tonight in anticipation of the rub. "Besides food..." Blank faces. I talked about how it's a blessing that we can see and walk and Savannah reminded us of the man we saw with his feet broken off (he had no legs) at the movie 'feater. "Right," I said, "and what about today? Where did you get to go? Not every kid gets to go to Disneyland because it costs a lot of money. Your Daddy had a good job and was able to buy you passes to Disneyland, that's a blessing." Savannah propped herself up on one elbow and says, very seriously, "you mean the Daddy that doesn't have any hair?" Yep, that'd be the one. Thanks for the Disneyland passes, hairless Daddy.