August 24 – “The Otter”

What a way to wake up in the morning.  Cailyn spent the night with us last night, and she fell asleep on the couch.  We were watching some riveting drama on HGTV about buying a house in Nicaragua, and flipping back and forth to the Astros rout of the Blue Jays.  I can’t understand why she wasn’t just glued to the TV set, but then, she is just four years old.  Perhaps such entertainment was just a bit too sophisticated for her.  She was draped across Chris’ lap and onto the couch, so Chris managed to scoop her up and carry her back to her bed.  Around 1 a.m. I woke to find an extra body sitting calmly on the edge of the bed next to me.  I’m not sure how long she had been there, and she never made a sound.  She just sat there.  I eased her over into the bed between us and she went right back to sleep. 

Around 6:15 Chris had long since switched beds to better keep an eye on Mom.  My internal clock roused me only minutes before I heard a tiny voice saying, “Hey, DadDad.  How about we read a story about Jesus?  We didn’t do that last night.  We need to read about Jesus, don’t we, DadDad?”  She was right, of course.  We usually do our family worship time in the bed just before we go to sleep, so we had indeed missed it.  I shook out the cobwebs in my head, turned on the light and reached for our children’s Bible story book.  We read a few Jesus stories and then got out of bed to start the day. 

We tried to be as quiet as we could so we wouldn’t wake up Chris or Mom.  Cailyn had a honeybun and I had a leftover cinnamon roll for breakfast.  We shared a bowl of fruit as well, as we checked out the newspaper.  And then she wanted to know, “DadDad, are you gonna write about me in your blog today?”   That little girl has my morning routine down pat.  So what else could I do but write about her today?  I guess now we’ll practice the new dance craze she told me about yesterday.  It’s called “The Otter.”  I don’t have the moves down yet, but the tune goes something like this: “White little duck sitting on the water.  White little duck doin’ the otter.”  Catchy little tune.  Listen for it on a radio station near you.

Psalms 106:48 says, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.  Let all the people say, ‘Amen!’  Praise the Lord.”

Father, thank you for such a great start to this day.  Amen.