Just When You Think...

...you have your kids all figured out, or you expect the worst, they go and amaze you. Tonight, Matthew sat in his first church service. Normally, there is a nursery for three-year-olds on Sunday nights, but during the summertime we are limited on workers, so the three's get the boot. Well, Mr. Matthew turned three this week, so we dutifully followed the rules we set (we're both on the nursery committee) and took him into the service.

Well, I must say that it took me by surprise. I had been formulating my gameplan for this very moment all summer, but I still forgot until we got to church and I was setting up the nursery check-in sheets. As soon as Rob brought the boys in, I gave him a panicked look and said, "Rob! Matthew has to be in the service tonight!" Of course, we came completely unprepared, but as least I had my plan. I hurridly found some paper and a pen for Matthew and went over strategy with Rob. Matthew would be required to participate in the first part of the service and would be allowed to draw once the sermon started. Potty breaks are fine, correction a must when he misbehaved. (Well, tonight it was just a warning since he didn't know what to expect.) We were set.

Since I check-in children on Sunday nights, I was late getting into the service. Matthew and Rob were enjoying a little skit to promote Vacation Bible School when I arrived, so that part was easy. He did okay during the songs, but kept wanting to sit down. I know some parents let their kids sit, but I believe that children need to be trained from the beginning to participate in church and never allowed to sit idly, even when they are young, so he stood up. He didn't like it and Rob had to take him out once to explain, but he did well after that. They even sang "Jesus Loves Me" tonight, so that was neat and he sang along. I think he was a little scared, because he snuggled up to me alot and wanted my arm around him. We had two potty breaks before the service started (His comment on the women's room was "Wow! They have a LOT of potties in here!) and two correction runs (again, only warnings) but after that he settled down. He did realy well drawing on paper until he ran out of paper (and then he wanted to visit his Sunday School teacher), but even then he was pretty quiet. For a squirrely little kid, he sat pretty still.

During the final prayer, I had to leave to help pass back nursery kids, and Matthew came with me. As soon as he saw the nursery he yelled, "NOOOO!!! I'm three, I'm three!!" With his lisp, it came out "I'm free, I'm free!!" as if to indicate he didn't have to go back into the nursery. I ushered him in and got him settled, explaining he needed to stay there for Mommy. I think next week we'll keep him with Rob.

So it was a pleasant experience, overall. A few people even commented that he did well for his first time. I'm thankful our auditorium has a special section just for parents with small children, because we were surrounded by people with kids, so that makes it easier. He seemed pretty okay with it. In fact, if he does well enough, we'll keep him there instead of returning him in the fall when the nursery reopens for the threes. Not as scary as we thought, and we both caught more of the sermon than usual.

Next blog, I'll talk about Ben, the other child that is rarely mentioned, just so everyone knows that the cute little guy still exists :)