Godzilla

It was a night filled with hearty laughs as Ellie was in rare form. We were all sitting at the dinner table. We have been encouraging a grace before meals and have been giving the girls a chance to take the lead. Ellie, as in everything, was first to dive in. She has given it a couple of times after Emma has declined. This night Emma decided that she was willing to give it a shake, but when we all got hold of each others hands, she quickly clammed up. I wasn't going to just let her give up, so we began encouraging Emma.

"Who do you love, Emma?" I started.
She looked at me, then to Abbie and sheepishly replied, "I don't know."

Suddenly our circle around our table was broken by Ellie, who had grown impatient with her sister. In an instance she reached out to her plate, snatched a piece of corn dog and threw it in her mouth with a joyful head bob to help her chew. She joined us with a smirk shot to both her mother and I.

Emma nervously giggled, appreciative for the interruption. We returned our focus to our oldest, "Just tell us what you are thankful for. Who do you love?" Abbie continued.

Ellie jump-started the grace for her sister by beginning, "Mommy..."
"Yeah," Emma agreed and then tightened her lip firmly.
"Casey (our dog that Ellie loves)" Ellie supported her fledgling older sister.
"um hm." Emma agreed.
Finally, Emma was able to name all of our immediate relatives, and we all gave praise to one another and for our food as we wiped the sweat that had accumulated on our hands during the entire ordeal onto our clothes before digging into our meal.

Soon, Abbie began to coach Ellie about what she had done that day at Grammy Sally's.
"Ellie played in the backyard today, didn't you Ellie?" she said.
Ellie nodded with almost a whole corndog squishing insider her full mouth.
"And you talked about where the trees came from..." Abbie persisted.
Another nod of agreement came from Ellie's quiet side of the table.
"From God, right?" Abbie persuaded while Ellie continued to confirm with her approving nod.
"And where is God?" Abbie finally got to the part that she was most impressed with from the earlier conversation from Sally that day.
"In the potty!" Ellie finally screamed with her arms wide apart in grandiose fashion.

Our table erupted in laughter as the tiny figured grinned covered her cherub face.