Good News Bad News

Little J snuggled under his covers last night, without a lot of drama much to my relief. It always feels like a miracle when the bedtime routine is accomplished in less than 20 minutes. But, in spite of my own exhaustion, I had to return to his room when he called me back with, "Grandma, don't you want to hear the good news bad news?"

It's not our usual routine to discuss good news bad news. We usually just do the what's-the-best-thing-that-happened-today routine. Curiosity brought me back to his bedside.


"OK, what is it?" I asked.


"Well do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?"

I thought for a minute before responding, "maybe you better give me the bad first to get it out of the way."

He squirmed a bit under the blanket. I'm thinking this must be really bad. "I dropped my new Pikachu toothbrush in the toilet." I'm thinking, well there goes another $6.99 toothbrush plus who knows what for the plumber. Before I could think any further, he follows up with the good news. "Grandma, here's the good news... I didn't flush the toilet."