Sunday Funday

This morning, we made it to church about five minutes late for Sunday school. This drive me crazy (no, really. CRAZY), but when you live thirty minutes from church and have two toddlers who can't yet dress themselves, punctuality is a perpetual problem. 

As soon as we peeked our heads into Freddie's nursery, the wonderful Mrs. Betty said, "Hey! Is it your Sunday to be in here?" Well, it must've been. Last time we worked, we got an email reminding us, but we didn't get one this week, so it never occurred to me that we were on tap, so we apologized for not knowing and for being late, and headed into the nursery to do our duty.  

Jones isn't typically in Mrs. Betty's room. His room is Mr. John's, but this week, Jones had his typical "tummy troubles," so he was even clingier than usual, and Mrs. Betty suggested we just keep Jones with us, which we did. 

At one point, while they snacked on Goldfish, Jones turned to Freddie and said (of Lilian Brokke), "Dat baby girl is SO cute." It was so adorable. Jones calls ALL babies, "so cute," but still. It was pretty "cute" to hear him say that to his brother. 

I knew all along it'd be hard for us to leave Jones to head to church. I suggested to Jeremy that we take him with us to "big church." Jeremy agreed, and so we took him with us, very unsure of how it'd turn out.

We walked into the sanctuary just as the orchestra was starting to play. As we walked, Jones took in an excited breath and said, "oh, wow!"  Then, we sat down, and Jones did remarkably, amazingly well for a 3.5 year old on his first extended visit to big church, since he was just a couple of months old. I actually loved having him in there, cuckled up next to me, sucking on his thumb.  

Early on, I put my arm around him. He then put his arm behind my back just as mine was behind his. When I'd pat the top of his leg where my hand rested, he'd pat my back with the hand rested on there. He'd randomly look up and give me a kiss. He'd try to sing along, repeating the words he'd hear me sing, and he'd close his eyes as long as he could stand to during prayer time. 

It's hard to make it out,
but that's his sweet little arm
behind my back.

As the pastor got ready to preach, I unpacked my Bible. Jones asked, "What are you doin', Mama?" I said, "Shhhh. He's gonna preach." Jones must've heard "pray," because he responded, "After we pray, will we talk?"

About ten minutes before the sermon ended, Jones started getting restless - but he remained quiet and held it together long enough to survive the service, and I was thrilled. I asked Jeremy after church to rate Jones's behavior on a scale of 1 to 10. Jeremy gave him a 7. I gave him an 8.5 and his only real point deductions on my grade were because of his restlessness an hour into the service.

When we walked out of the sanctuary, Jones said to me, completely unprompted, "Sank you for takin' me to church, Mama. Sank you for takin' me to church, Mama. Dat was FUN!" Later, at lunch, he said, "Dat was fun! We will come back tomarder."

This is JoJo, praying.

After lunch, we came home for naps. Here's Jones singing his lullaby. 

While the boys napped, Mrs. Pressley called. Apparently, Ellery and Evan were at the Pressleys' this afternoon and when asked what they wanted to do, they said they really wanted to play with Jones and Freddie, so their Nana called to see if they could come over. 

I couldn't say, "Yes" fast enough. Around 4;30, we dropped them off at their grandparents' and headed to our small group for the nite. While we were gone, Mrs. Pressley emailed me this picture, saying they'd solved the problem of the boys'  having to take turns on the John Deere tractor. Finally, we came home, and I took this selfie with Freddie. It's just a shame that everybody in the world can't know this kid. He is one of a kind.  They both are, and I am so very, very grateful that they're mine.