Storytelling as Bribery

Elliott has been waking really early.  REALLY early.  I'm not even sure of the exact time because he gets up and is quiet as he plays in the water in the bathroom and dismantles his play room.  Repeated encouragement instruction of staying in bed until Mommy or Daddy come to get him have fallen on deaf ears.  He's distractable.  He forgets, you know, in the intervening 10 hours. 

Genius has struck on our interminable drive home in the afternoons (45ish minutes at the witching hour) through story telling.  I scrambled for entertainment yesterday in the form of  "The Three Little Pigs" and "The Three Bears."  Hit!  We even briefly made a Once-Upon-a-Time about three kids, Elliott, Brooklyn and Kellen, but I was tired and frazzled so the story was the most boring of all time, with no problem or climax. 

Today I was on my game.  When Elliott asked for a story about those three little kids in a Once-Upon-a-Time fashion, I was ready.  By ready I mean, I prepared for 10 seconds before I launched into the story.  And that story was all about how Kellen wakes up in the night (wah! wah! wah!), Elliott turns on his light after bed  & gets up early and then is grumpy later and Brooklyn is happy and gets to do special things because she goes to bed and sleeps until Mommy comes to get her.  Also emphasized was how he didn't get to walk to see Christmas lights because he was too grumpy, but the next day he remembered and slept and got to go see Christmas lights.

 Emotional blackmail?  Maybe.  Whatever, I hope it works.  Rinse and repeat that story on the way home tomorrow, because, you know, he's distractable.