Thank You Papa

For those of you that don't know already, Keira has the same routine every night when she goes to bed. We have a small snack, play for "five minutes" and then go upstairs and put on PJ's and brush our teeth. After that we have her crawl into her "big girl" bed and that is when the fun starts.
First of all she is still at that age that when it is time to crawl into bed she does. She may try to negotiate a book reading or two but she will lie down and snuggle in with her blanket and pillow-- lest I forget the 11 animals that now sleep with her to "protect her." We say prayers and then sing her two songs, Jesus loves me and Rock a Bye. She then asks us if we are going to be downstairs where the TV is and that usually has been good enough for her.

But lately, she has upped the ante. She has taken to thanking us for the things she did that day. Things like yesterday, "thank you for going to church with me Papa." Or " thank you for having Ice cream with me at the mall, Papa" I hope Amy isn't jealous of it always being Papa at the end, but I know she too is thankful for going for ice cream at the mall with her family.

All that to say that it makes me smile a lot these days to hear my daugther say "thank you." It is spontaneous, it is for the good things that happen in her life, it is because I think she lives in a home that appreciates each other when we say thank you an please.

One last thing, Keira and I were walking down the stairs on Saturday morning and we got about 2 stairs down when she stopped and said " Please papa, pick me up." To which I turned and lifted her into my arms. We got about 2 more steps down when she looked at me and said " Papa, that was not my whinny voice, but my nice voice." I started to laugh. And she replied, " I made papa laugh." Yes, yes she did. And I am still smiling.