Family dinner

Last night was a big one in the Patterson house. We took the trays off of Ceci and Katie's highchairs and pulled them up to the big table with the rest of the family. They have been in their highchairs at meal time and starting last night they are eating off of plates just like the big girls that they are.

Now we can all hold hands for grace where before we all reached out our hands to pretend to hold hands with Ceci and Katie. Sophia says grace most nights something like this:

Thank you for the food we eat

Thank you for the flowers sweet

Thank you for the birds that sing

Thank you God for everything!

Amen

One night last week she was particularly excited to say grace. We all bowed our heads and she began very solemnly:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America..."

Rick and I each opened an eye and smiled at each other and tried not to laugh hysterically. After she finished a perfect rendition ending with "Father, Son and Holy Ghost". We explained that this was not actually a grace. Now we have a new tradition at dinnertime. We say grace and then all (including twins) put our hands over our hearts and say the pledge of allegiance. Does this mean that I have to hang a flag in our kitchen? We've been saying it to an orchid plant. If any of our neighbors are watching this I'm sure they think we've lost it.

Here are the girls recovering on the couch after our first meal all together:

It was so sweet I had to capture the moment. Sophia with her arms around Katie and Ceci reclined like Archie Bunker after Thanksgiving dinner. Ceci hugging "Cookie" and Katie her "Elmo". Ella's hair is wet because as I was plating dinner she staggered out of the bathroom with her pants and underwear around her ankles dragging urine across the kitchen floor. She had made it into the bathroom, but for some reason could not hold it the extra second it took to sit on the toilet so Rick had to give her a quick bath while dinner got cold.