Now I lay me down to sleep...

I love our night time routine. Bathtime brings with it major splashing and big smiles to our little girl's face, zipping her into her footed pajamas is about as adventurous as dressing an octopus, and then comes Abby's favorite part: bedtime stories.

This girl loves books. In a playroom full of toys, she'll go to the bookshelf nine times out of ten and pull out all her favorite books to flip through and "read" to herself. (At least one time out of ten the giant ball pit wins out.) So every night, we snuggle her into a lap (we take turns, and nightly fight over who's turn it is), cuddle up with our favorite one-year-old and her favorite fuzzy pink blanket, and read her favorite books. It's a routine she knows well, and one to which she will not tolerate any alterations. We always wind up with her toddler Bible, the one with the thick cardboard pages that she loves to turn, and each page ends with a short prayer that relates to the story, and an "Amen." After bedtime stories are read, whoever didn't have lap duty that night gets to pray for our little girl.

We say our prayers, lay her in her crib, and tell her "night night" and "we love you." Such has been the routine for weeks now, and about a month ago, Abby started responding with a very clear "night night" of her own, which we thought was the cutest thing ever. Until this week.

Abby, ever mindful of what's going on around her, has figured out that "night night" and praying go hand in hand. So now at meal times, when we bow our heads to pray, Abby chimes in with a chorus of "night night!"

Now that is the cutest thing ever.