Matthew does not get to eat real, delicious bread all that often. In general, we try to keep his diet gluten free but we allow breaches in restaurants and on special occasions.  As we sat down to a spectacular looking table this New Year, Matthew’s face lit up as he saw the gorgeous bread situated right in front of his place at the table.  He sat quietly for a few minutes, applying all of the self-control he could muster, waiting until it was time to literally “break” the bread.  He turned to me and asked “can I have bread?” I explained that it was not quite time to cut the bread. He sat for about a minute and asked again “can I have bread, please?” I responded that I liked that he was saying please, but that we couldn’t cut the bread until we had said the blessings. He looked directly at the bread and said “bless you,” as if the bread had sneezed.

I tried not to laugh. Really. I had that mom face where you try to hold in hysterical laughter but it sort of seeps out a little anyway. I love that at age 19, his emerging use of speech can still thrill and amuse me.