God Bless

We say prayers every night with Sam and Anna.  Our prayers have morphed into something that looks a little different than what we start out with, but its that much more endearing too.  At first, we said the same prayer I remember saying every night as a child, as we held Sam and Anna in our arms:  Now I lay me down to rest. I pray the Lord my soul to bless.

Then one day Anna decided on her own that we needed to kneel in front of their cribs and now that's what we always do with hands folded.  The "Amen!"  Sam and Anna always say in conclusion is so adorable that sometimes I can't stand the cuteness overload.

A little bit ago we added in at the end "God bless Mama and Daddy, Sam and Anna (although we alternate which toddler name goes first every other day), Bella (our dog) and ________."  Each night we supply one additional thing that stood out in our day.  It's something that is important to us, or something we are thankful for.  Almost always the adults have been the ones to add the new word.

Tonight our blessings went like this: "God bless Mama and Daddy, Sam and Anna, Bella and ..." then without skipping a beat, Sam enthusiastically added, "ice cream!"

Yeah, we took an impromptu walk after dinner to the nearest ice cream shop instead of our usual route.  It was warm out, my job is stressful and I was craving ice cream, and I think that's reason enough.  Bedtime may have started almost 30 minutes late, but after shortening the routine a little, Sam and Anna's bedtime was only a little delayed.

Yeah Buddy, God bless ice cream, too.  Especially the kind with chocolate in it.