Say Your Prayers

Today was another church day for Daddy, but Madison stayed home along with Mommy this morning. For one, Madison was up very late last night - with no explanation. No sugar, and not a bit of encouragement: she just wasn't going to sleep in her bed. In our bedroom, we'd turn the monitor on and hear her giggling, laughing, singing, rolling around and generally having a party with her stuffed animals in her room. But no snoring. Periodically, one of us would visit her - and it was at about 11:00 that Daddy actually climbed into the bed with her to snuggle a bit in order to keep her still long enough to fall asleep. This sort of thing hasn't happened before, so it was somewhat puzzling - funny at first, as she was really having a good time and all!

On top of that, Mommy had a bit of insomnia resulting in about three or four hours of sleep. The sum of this was Daddy heading off to church by himself.

I'm happy to report that tonight she fell asleep rather quickly - and early. But not before saying her prayers. This is a good habit, and one that she is fast to remind us of if we forget. She'll tell us "prayers," and reach her hands out to grab ours so we create a small circle. Then, with a little help, she lists everyone in the family: "Ye-Ye, God bless Nana, God bless Daddy, God bless Mommy, God bless Madison, God bless David, God bless Jonathan, God bless Hannah, God bless Aunt Shain, God bless Uncle David..." at which point Daddy takes over. But before bed, Madison is quite insistent about prayer, which is obviously thrilling to us as parents.

When we say the blessing at the table, Madison holds hands just the same. And she knows the end of grace, because Daddy makes it clear we're at the homestretch: then she calls out: "Amen!"

We wished an old friend goodbye today as he went off to college. In fact, he's the star of the video posted on yesterday's blog. His name is Daniel, and he's always been very good to Madison, who loves him dearly. Of course, he's not that far away: Valdosta. But it is far enough that we won't see him through the week as we did. Madison enjoyed his company and laughed a lot with him. And she'll be praying for him too. :)