Toddler Prayer 102

One of Erik's little friends is spending a couple days in the hospital with RSV. Joe called to tell me this just as I was preparing Erik's lunch. So I decided instead of saying our usual "Hands Prayer" where we sing a song, we would do the kind of prayer where you make it up yourself. I asked Erik to fold his hands and to say "Dear God" (pause for Erik to repeat) "thank you" "for food." "Please make Claire feel better". He seemed to find this all very odd and I can't say he really participated by repeating, but he did listen. We did it again at dinner and it went a little better. It got me thinking all kinds of thoughts about what makes prayer prayer, does what Erik did "count", I wonder what does "count". But after a while my brain started to hurt so I just decided that it didn't matter what I understood about prayer, that God would take care of it.

Joe and I each had the experience today of asking Erik "Why?" and having him say "Because". This was a first for us.

Erik is really humming along learning pronouns. Yesterday he kept practicing saying "We are flying on a plane", emphasizing the "we". Today he tried saying "I am lying on the floor" instead of saying "Erik's lying on the floor".

Erik had a great time in Arizona this weekend, visiting his great-grandparents. On the car ride from the airport to their house he was practicing saying "Hi Great-Gramma. Hi Great-Grampa." He warmed up very quickly to them once we got there. I'm sure getting there at lunch time and being fed by them didn't hurt!