When he prays...

We spent the day with Kristiina and the kids on Sunday (Nic wasn't home), and had a full, fun day of rainy-day activities.

First, Kristiina made lemon monkey bread for us to enjoy with coffee, and Kingston helped make the dough.

After bread and coffee, Kingston and I dodged raindrops to go outside and find a few Queen Ann's Lace blooms.  We found a patch growing across the street from the next door neighbor's house.  Once back inside, he and I added bold drops of color to the water jars...  now we wait.

Meanwhile, mommy thought it would be fun to get out the homemade gak (slimy, stringy, rubbery stuff) that the Easter Bunny put in his basket last Spring. We wanted to see if it would ooze through the colander holes, but it turns out they were too small.

Oooh, but then mommy had another idea.

Yes!  It will drip through the trivet holes!

It's almost touching!!!

That is so cool.

After making dough, cutting flowers for a colorful experiment and loads of fun with gooey gak, it was nap time and time for mommy to get ready for work.

Meanwhile, Aria played in her garden, bounced in her jumper, was held by grampa, was cuddled by gramma, was snuggled by mommy, and was just as happy as could be... without my managing to take one good, non-blurry photo of her.

The rest of the day contained that restful nap, a bath, toy trucks, a yummy lasagna dinner (with a big bowl of broccoli and another of corn for Kingston - whoa, his appetite!), and then grampa went home... he had work early in the morning. 

Kingston went upstairs with me and played quietly in his room while I put Aria to bed.  He did very well keeping himself occupied, having selected the books we'd read at bedtime, and discovering a coloring book he wanted to take downstairs when I was done with Aria.  He received high praise for his quiet, cooperative behavior and smiled big; happy with himself.

A budding artist hard at work (Thank you Aunt Mar and Uncle Bob for the awesome coloring book and markers!).

Proper color selection is crucial.

Eventually, bedtime came.  In the bathroom to brush his teeth, we looked and looked, but couldn't find his toddler-friendly toothpaste anywhere, so we decided to use a little bit of mommy's toothpaste. He was doing fine with the first couple of passes, until some actually got on his tongue. He froze with this dead-pan look like, "What the heck?!" I told him he could spit it out. As soon as he did, he scurried off the stool, scooted behind me out the door, as if he needed to flee, turned around and emphatically exclaimed, "That's dirty!"  I had to laugh!

 He came back and finished the job with no toothpaste, but at the end decided to try mommy's one more time.  As he shrugged and said, "it's growing on me," he decided it wasn't SOOO bad.  {grin}



Up in bed, as I started to read the book he selected, he decided it was first time for prayers ~



~ and when he prays, I listen to that precious little boy proclaim his thankfulness; this day for...

   1.  his family,
   2.  his truck,
   3.  his house,
   4.  the stars...  

...AMEN!

After prayers, we read a few more stories from the bible, then lights out.  He snuggles close and finds my hand; with his head resting on my shoulder we sing songs of God's grace and love...  He drifts off...

This gramma's grateful heart is full... and I offer up my own thankful prayers.