Bed Time With The Bear

One of the fun parts of being a parent is hearing the many cute and funny things your kids say. I am the one that takes the Bear to bed. We read a book, then he says his prayers, then I make his friends talk (Pooh Bear and Elmo are my specialties), then he goes to sleep.

The Bear does very well with his prayers. He is actually thinking about what he says, and it isn't the same thing every night. One of my favorite things that he has started doing recently is that he says, "Good night Heavenly Father, I love you."

It is very cute and very sweet, and it brings a big old smile to my Daddy face.

The Seer of Sesame Street

A few days ago, the Bear gave a talk in Primary on Faith. He is still learning to read, so I was whispering in his ear and he would then repeat it out loud.

We were going along fine, with the Bear mimicking my every voice inflection, when we came to the line: "The prophet Alma taught..." I whispered that in his ear.

The Bear proceeded. "The prophet ELMO taught".

It took me a bit before I could continue.

Trunk-or-Treat

This evening we attended the annual "Trunk-or-Treat". What's that you ask? In our church, to help promote safe Halloween candy gathering, a night is set aside where all the families gather in the parking lot of the church with decorated car trunks. The cars are parked side by side to make "trunk-or-treating" move quickly. Our car was themed after Hitchcock's "The Birds"... It had bird crap all over it. They also have a few games and dinner.

DramaMama made the "Ghost Chili" from the recipe on Domestic Goddess's blog. It is most excellent.

As tonight was also Drummer Boy's first official date (Homecoming), DramaMama was the one in charge of decorating him in his tux, and getting the "before" shots. She missed most of the Trunk-or-Treat, but did arrive in time to chat with several friends.

I was in charge of the Bear and his friend from school. The Bear was Batman, and his friend was Spider Man. They met up with another friend of the Bear's who was Superman. DramaMama got a picture of the three of them. It may show up here (or on her blog) later.

The first order of business was the dinner which consisted of about 20 selections of chili, and 3 or 4 selections of cornbread. I of course had the ghost chili. I was helping the boys get their food, and carrying their treat buckets. I wasn't paying attention to the level of my own bowl, and accidentally "ghosted" Spiderman's mask and gloves which were in his purple pumpkin candy bucket.

The Bear had a bucket that was Elmo's head. So Batman is gathering candy in an Elmo bucket. Interesting. "Elmo loves the caped crusader!"

With all of the political stuff going on, I was called into work today. I have a great t-shirt for such occasions. It reads: "Let me drop everything and work on your problem." I am so tired, both physically and mentally. This shirt expresses my feelings perfectly. I decided that it would serve well as my costume for this evening as well. I went as an over-worked computer guy.

One of the activities there was a dunk tank. The Bear really enjoyed that. He even hit the target and dunked the guy.

So, even though this has been a horrendous week on pretty much all fronts, I had an enjoyable time this evening.

A Child's Prayer

Last night, the Bear was very sad when it was time for bed, because he couldn't find his little stuffed Elmo. We all searched high and low with no success. I finally had to tell the Bear that we would find him in the morning.

I tried to read him a story, but he continued to cry and tell me that he missed Elmo and that he can't sleep good without him.

After about ten minutes of unsuccessful reading and an inconsolable Bear, I asked him if he would like to say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father to help him find his Elmo. He said yes.

What followed was both very cute and sad at the same time. A distraught little boy in his jammies knelt beside his bed. Sobbing, he told Heavenly Father that he needed to find his Elmo so that he could sleep good. Then he asked Heavenly Father to help him find it.

When he had finished his prayer, we went looking again, and found Elmo within a couple minutes. The Bear was thrilled, and all of his sadness flew away in an instant. He went right to bed, and to sleep.

It was very heartwarming. The Bear is a special little kid.