ABCs and Bedtime Prayers

They grow so fast. I was looking at old videos from just this winter, some of them just from Easter. Josiah was talking, but it was still like a baby. One word here, two words there. It was not long ago, maybe 6 months.

Now he's speaking in full sentences and expressing complex ideas. It's like talking to a real person now (not like he wasn't real before). I can have a real conversation with him. He learns new words and phrases all the time (yesturday it was "fantastic" today it's " this is tricky")

Two things blew me away. Last Monday while getting ready for bed I was reading him Dr.Suess's ABC book. When I finished Josiah promptly recited the entire alphabet by himself without any help or prompting. I'd had him repeat the letters for me at times, but we never worked all that hard on it. I was flabbergasted! I insisted that he repeat it for his dad and he did it again with no problems (this wasn't a fluke event, he REALLY knew his ABC's!)

The second thing didn't amaze me so much as it brought tears to my eyes. We say our prayers almost every night. They normally go something like this:
"Dear Jesus,
Thank you for this day and all the things you've done for us (I go into detail here about the day).
Help us all to go to sleep fast and have good dreams. Bless mommy and daddy, Josie and Sophie, ALL the grandmas and grandpas, ALL the aunts and uncles.
In Jesus name, Amen"

Last night as we turned out the lights I told Josiah that we had to pray. He said, "I wanna do it!" I asked him what he wanted to do. He said, "I wanna do Dear Jesus!" So I let him pray himself. It went something like this:
"Dear Jesus,
Thank you for this day. Bless Mommy and Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa, Casey and Michelle, Kent and Monica. Bless Mommy and Daddy and Sophie and the kitties. (he then paused here for a long time, I told him if he was done to say Amen) AMEN!"

I almost cried I was both happy and incredibly touched!