1. Ellie has started saying prayers on her own, and she's surprisingly good at it. When we used to help her say her prayers, we tended to do somewhat repetitious prayers on purpose, so that she would understand what kinds of things she's supposed to say in a prayer and how she's supposed to say them. Now she's doing it by herself. She's not so good at asking for blessings (though what more could that girl possibly want?), but she's really good at thanking Heavenly Father for things. She thanks him for Baby Annie, for Mama, for Daddy, for the banana she ate earlier today, for the park, for toys, for the party she attended two weeks ago, for Little Einsteins, and (my favorite) for jumping - complete with a little hop while she says it. Her childlike innocence is amazing.

2. But we need to be careful if we want to keep her innocence intact. The other day I was with her near the front door, where we generally keep our shoes on the linoleum entry area. She noticed that one of Shelly's tennis shoes had been carelessly knocked off the linoleum and onto the carpet. She picked it up and said, "Daddy, Mama's shoe is not in the shoe place! What the heck?" Note to parents: she's listening to you.

3. Finally, today she demonstrated the kindness of her heart. Shelly was talking to me about some bad news, and she was getting pretty emotional about it. Ellie was playing in the room and looked over to see her Mama crying. She came over with a very concerned look on her face, and as the two of us continued talking, somewhat ignoring Ellie, she said over and over, "It's OK, Mama. It's OK, Mama. It's OK, Mama. Mama, do you want me to kiss your owie? Daddy, Mama is very sad. It's OK, Mama." She gave Shelly several hugs and kisses, and hung around till the emotions calmed down a little even when her toys were still beckoning. I call her a sweetie all the time, but today her actions when her Mama was sad were particularly sweet.