STORY TIME
They'd gotten a late start. It was nearly 2100 hours and finally bedtime in the O'Neill household.
Two very persistent and persuasive preschoolers had persuaded their mother, against her better judgment, to let them wait up for their father. Fortunately, Jack's plane had been on time.
After expending lots of excess energy welcoming their daddy home, they were now in the home stretch of the bedtime ritual – story time. They'd had their baths, nighttime snacks, changed into their pajamas and yes, said their prayers – Sam's idea.
It was Jake's turn to choose the story and Jack's turn to read. Jake picked his favorite, The Very Hungry Lady Bug. Grace had come to like this one too, for which Jack was exceedingly grateful. Arguments over story time could be painful, at least for daddy!
The only problem with this story was that it seemed to go on and on. Tonight, Jack was tired and decided to use the tried and true trick of all parents at story time – skipping pages.
It had worked before. The twins were none the wiser and always loved Daddy's stories. But tonight was different.
"Lily the lady bug ate three ants, two flies, …" Jack recited, creatively skipping some of the more repetitive boring menu items.
"No, Daddy. You missed the grass, honey, bed bugs…" Grace protested.
"And the part about the flowers. Here it is Daddy," Jake volunteered, turning the page back and pointing to a particular sentence.
"Let Jake read it Daddy. You're tired," Grace suggested.
Before he knew it, Jake had squirmed onto his lap positioned directly in front of the book. He started to read aloud. Slowly, yes, but he started to read. And he didn't skip the part about the flowers.
"Oy…" Jack sighed. Looking up to the door, he saw his wife's smiling face. Sam was trying hard not to giggle.
"It's okay, honey. They did the same thing to me when you were gone." Coming over to the bed, Sam picked up Grace, sat down next to her husband and placed her little girl on her lap. Together they listened to the rest of the story -- the whole story -- as read by Jake.
Story time would never be the same.
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