Blessings

Mace has been volunteering to pray before dinner for the last week. For a while now we've been trying to get the boys to participate in the dinner prayer but Casey, who is 7, resists mightily and will tell you it's everyone else's turn but his until he is threatened with losing dessert, and then he'll cave in and mumble an extremely resentful prayer. I'm pretty sure his resentful blessings are the reason I'm hungry again an hour after I eat dinner -- an improperly blessed meal never satisfies. Up until a week ago, we couldn't even get Mace to pray at all. He is 3, after all, and it's easier to just say the prayer yourself than to wait for a 3 year to pray when he doesn't want to pray.

But lately he's been volunteering to pray every night, even when we decide it is actually someone's elses turn. Last night, he volunteered once again and this is how it went:

Mace: "Deaw Jesus, t'ank you fwoh Daddy [Daddy always gets top billing in Mace's prayers.] T'ank you fwoh Gwan'ma. T'ank you fwo Ya-Ya and Pop-Pop. [looking up] Ya-Ya and Pop not here."

Grandma: "That's okay, you can still say thank you for them."

Mace: "Ok. T'ank you fwoh Casey. T'ank you fwoh . . . [burp] . . . I burped."

Grandma: "That's okay, just say 'Excuse me.'"

Mace: "Ok. Excwuse me, God. [Casey started giggling uncontrollably about here.] T'ank you fwo Mommy."

[long pause here. Mace has trouble wrapping his prayers up.]

Me: [whispering] "Thank you for this food."

Mace: "T'ank you fwo food."

[another long pause]

Me: [whispering] "Amen."

Mace: "The end."

Me: "No, 'Amen'."

Mace: "Amen."