The irony of this picture is that just moments before he was throwing a Royal (capitalized in honor of Her Majesty the Queen) Fit about how he was NOT tired and did not need to go to sleep.  He had been at this protest for quite some time, and had already passed the threshold of where we should have just kept him up.  As this was taken yesterday, we woke him up to go the the banquet I wrote about yesterday, and getting him up was a Royal Pain!  He was pretty grumpy (to put it politely) and recovered to his (as) normal (as he ever gets) self just a few minutes before pulling into the banquet. But I want to be Royally Clear, he was not tired.

Of course we were all kids, and if you were like him or me, which I am sure you were, you remember knowing more than your parents.  (I actually still do)  But what I have come to discover, especially today as I was talking with my dad, is that I just may not be as smart as I think I am, and when I act like I am I often miss valuable lessons.

My dad will tell the story about taking me when I was much younger than Ben to visit my Uncle Al. He put me to bed, but I didn’t want to go to sleep.  I kept coming out of my room.  And as my dad retells it, he wanted to kill me, but I (thanks to the Grace of God) came out I don’t know for the how many numbered of times and said something like, “hey my wonderful dear old dad of mine, I think you and Uncle Al need a pizza.”  For the exact wording as my dad, but I won’t just in case he has repressed variation of PTSD from it.  Apparently however, it worked.

But okay, get ready for a huge revelation…..my dad was right.  Going to bed is pretty cool, and at my age naps are one of the most precious gifts from God I can think of.  When a nap or bedtime comes I rejoice.  And I cannot ever imagining arguing against either, or at least not very hard.  And until Ben became a Royal Poopy-head about taking naps, we even used to have “family nap time” with him.  He now moves around in his sleep with the intent to injure and seeks anyone warmer freezing who he will suck the heat right out of like a parasite on a host.  So he now misses those naps, and if they take place he is generally banned to his room for what he calls “quiet time” which for him is clearly a misnomer.

But here in the picture he looks peaceful and angelic, just like our parents (the grandparents) see him as. But in all honesty, who can trust them anyway?  All they ever wanted to do to us was to make us take naps.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+