Count Your Blessings . . . One by One by One by One . . .

Annie said her bedtime prayers again tonight. Seriously, there is no better part of my day (or none more amusing) then listening to this kid pray.
Tonight, she was very thankful. Trust me, she probably said she was thankful for like 900 things. It started out with the travelogue section of her prayers:
"Thankful we went to Costco. Thankful we went to WalMart. Thankful we went to the playground. Thankful we went with Jessi, oh and to Chick Fil A! And played on the playground there too!!"
Then she started talking about sleep:
"Thankful Ellie gets so much sleep. (She doesn't.) Thankful I got to stay up so so so so late. (It was 9:30.) Thankful we get to sleep so we can feel better."
Then later some of mine and Greg's favorite statements:
"Thankful that my little sister Ellie is getting bigger. Thankful that she is growing up to be just like me." (She sounded so proud.)
"Thankful for Daddy. And that he gets to be a whole family with Mommy, me and Ellie."

Eventually, all good things must come to an end . . . especially after a long day that is ending a full hour and a half later than normal (she had taken a nap today though, so we were scheduled to be up later), Greg did end up prompting her with a subtle, "We say these things . . ." and she promptly closed her prayer, opened her eyes and looked up at us and just beamed. I love this kid.

In other news, the girls and I had so much fun hanging out with my friend Jessi tonight. I was thinking about it, and realized we became friends around the age of 15, as sophomores . . . meaning we've been friends for half of our entire lives now that we're both turning 30 within a month of each other. How cool is it that I have people in my life I can say that about. And especially Jessi. One thing that both Jessi and I were just thrilled about tonight is that Ellie was in her most lovable, charming mood. She played and danced and clapped and laughed and grinned, all in the hopes of impressing Jessi. The remarkable part was that Ellie also 'hung out' with Jessi a good chunk of the time. She let Jessi hold her, carry her, get her out of the carseat, and she never even seemed even the littlest bit miffed about it. (Usually Ellie flashes her biggest attitude to anyone who dare keeps her from Mom for more than 15 seconds.) Ellie would want to come back to me after a bit, but it was really amazing how much she was enjoying her time just playing with Jessi, and just how much time it was. I love progess.