The Wisdom of Stripes

We took a road trip this weekend.  Just Benny, Olivia, me and about 50 kids' DVDs.  The trip did go well, and their were a few funny parts along the way, but we did not have a very auspicious start.

I usually spend the day before we leave washing, packing and cleaning, in the evening I pack snacks for the trip.  Since I had to be at work until 9pm, I did this about 4 in the afternoon and left the bag of snacks on the table.

When I came home from work, it was like a hurricane of empty plastic baggies had hit the living room.  They had eaten it all, every carrot stick, animal cracker, popcorn kernel and dried cranberry.  When questioned about it, the boys didn't deny their feeding frenzy, but Joe patiently explained they didn't know those were snacks for tomorrow.  Plus they were hungry.  Trying very hard not be angry, I agreed this was true.  I had not told them not specifically not to get in that particular bag of food.

With just Ben and Olivia in the backseat, Ben took over Joseph's usual job as DVD master.  Joseph relishes his job of switching out the DVDs when one is over and having veto authority over any movie.  Benjamin was so full of his new found power, all he did was switch out movies during the drive.  They did very little watching.  I would hear the first 10 minutes of Nemo, then Ratatoulli, VeggieTales, back to Nemo.  So when we finally stopped in Vernal, disks littered the backseat of the car.

The weekend was spent with my grandmother (who we've always called Gamby), who is 78 years old.  Benjamin is not used to being around people so advanced in years, so of course this made for some comments and questions, hilarious in their genuineness.

"Mom, that grandma can't move very fast because she is so old."

"Gamby, are you slower than a turtle?"

And my favorite, "Benny, who is older, me or Gamby?"  This is followed by a close scrutiny of our faces.
"Gamby, because she has stripes on her face."
"What about Raine?"
He stands up and peers at my mother through the window.  "She's still young, she doesn't have stripes."
Later as he sat next to my mom at dinner I caught him staring at her face."
"Raine you do have stripes, but not as much as Gamby.  You must be just a little old."