Benner

A couple of short stories:

1. Nap time.
I have no idea why, but most days Ben takes a nap for about 1 hour and 45 min to 2 hours. And when he takes a nap for that length, he always wakes up crying and cranky. Almost every single day, for nearly 2 years now, ever since he has only been taking the one afternoon nap, it has been like this. But, occasionally, he will nap for about 2 and a half hours. When he takes the longer nap, he wakes up fresh, happy, and ready for the rest of the day.
It is strange, because a 2-hour nap is really not that bad. And I can't ever find any pattern or explanation as to why he doesn't wake up happy after the shorter nap, or as to why he so infrequently takes the longer, happy nap.
But anyway, yesterday was one of those blessed days when he took the longer nap. And just to illustrate how perfectly happy he is after the longer naps, here is what I heard yesterday...instead of the usual crying and whining, all of the sudden out of the silence, at around the 2.5 hour mark, I heard, "I'm all done!"
I spoke into the dark room, "Did you say you were all done?" He replied, "Yep, I'm all done sleeping now. I'm ready to get up!"
So I happily got him up, and we proceeded to have a wonderful afternoon, waiting for Daddy to get home. If only it was like this every day!

2. Prayer
Sometimes when we pray, Ben will add in the most random prayers. I can never figure out what made him think of what it is that he is praying for. He almost threw me for a loop again today.
The story: A dear friend of mine was expecting triplets this month, and she had to have an early c-section that was scheduled for this morning. Well, the kids and I were out on a walk during the time that the surgery was scheduled. So at the time of the surgery, I stopped our walk and told Ben that we should take a moment to say a prayer for our friend and her babies. He gravely folded his hands and closed his eyes and listened well at first as I asked God to watch over Katie and the babies.
But several times as I was praying, he tried to interrupt me. So, at first, I thought he was just done praying and was trying to change the subject. But finally he got my full attention and said, "And thank you God for the almonds and M&M's that Katie could eat to make the babies grow!"
I was clueless at first...but then soon remembered that last time Katie had been over for a visit, she had been snacking from a bag of trail mix with a bunch of different nuts and dried fruits and some chocolate pieces. She was trying to take in more calories to "help the babies grow", and Ben had spent the entire morning eying the trail mix. Apparently it made quite an impression!