Nursery stories

I recently read a great book entitled Parenting in the Pew. Even though I don’t agree with everything in it (I have yet to find any parenting book where I do!), overall it has been really helpful. Our church really encourages parents to keep their children in the worship service for as long as they feel comfortable so that the children can learn to worship right alongside the parents. This book helped me see the opportunities to not just have my children with me and try to keep them quiet, but to guide them in worship. This means things like whispering to my toddler the main point in a song we’re singing and pointing out repeated phrases that he can listen for and sing along to. Yesterday we had another good talk before church about how we can make Jesus happy by participating in worship. I noticed that even during the responsive reading – normally not the most fun part for a just-turned-three year old – he was trying to read along. For him that meant that he was listening to what the congregation was saying and echoing it. Not every Sunday goes this well, but this morning was a good reminder that these little ones are learning to really worship and that the effort is worth it.

I do, however, still take my children to nursery during the sermon. The baby has had a hard time for the last month or so with separation anxiety & sleeplessness during church. She normally takes a nap about the same time as the service when we’re home, but is too stimulated in public to nap. The result has been a rather unhappy baby. For many weeks I have tried putting her in nursery, only to end up holding her and walking in the hallway where I could halfway hear the sermon. Especially on those Sundays when hubby wasn’t there, I wondered what was the point in my even coming to church if I was in the hallway with one child while the toddler was in his nursery, and no one was in the service. I have really been praying for the last week and a half about the baby’s adjustment to nursery, so this morning when I dropped her off to a very full nursery, but she was happy, I didn’t hang around too long. I sat in the service where I was pretty sure I would hear her if she started crying, and reveled in the quiet and the chance to hear God’s Word preached. When I went to get her, both nursery workers said what a fun time she had had. I had been praying not only for her adjustment, but that God’s peace would be felt in the infant nursery. Our nursery coordinator recently stepped down and about the same time a whole slew of babies have been born. The result has been, well, not entirely peaceful all the time. Sunday I found out that not only had my baby played joyfully all through service, but so had at least three other babies who normally don’t make it happily through. Praise God! He doesn’t always answer prayer in such obvious ways, but it sure is exciting when he does.

I was also amused as they commented on her speed. "She’s quick! I wasn’t expecting that at all. Boy, she gets her eye on something and she’s there before you know it." Of course she does have a big brother to keep up with, but still I was rather amused since she’s still doing the "commando crawl" with her belly on the ground to hear, "I think she is by far the fastest baby in here if not the quickest I have ever seen!" It kind of makes me wonder what she was crawling for. I know the nursery is quite child-proof, so I’m pretty sure it was either a toy or (more likely) food or both.

When I went to pick up the toddler I heard some other amusing nursery stories. Bug got a pretty bad gash on his head this past week. (That’s the story for another post. For now let’s just say that one little monkey was "resting" but jumping on the bed. He fell off and bumped his head. Head wounds bleed profusely and quickly create a scene that looks straight out of a horror film. You know that section of skin right above your eye where your eyebrow is? Well the bone is pretty close to the surface, and it doesn’t take much, say a gently curved headboard, to quickly split the skin all the way to the bone. I must also say that even if you get the bleeding under control, stitches might still be necessary. Like I said though, that’s a story for another post.) Well in nursery this morning, one of the adults was commenting on his Band-Aid and asking him how he got hurt. (She knew the story, but wanted to see what he would say.) Finally he admitted to jumping on the bed. My friend who was working in there said, "So it sounds like it’s pretty dangerous to jump on the bed. I bet you won’t jump on the bed any more, huh?" She said that my son was rather non-committal. For now I think he’s playing it safe since the stitches put a quick end to his swimming lessons, and he really wants to get back to the pool to finish them. It looks like I better continue to try to protect him, but also brace myself for more emergency room visits! Another toddler boy quickly joined in the discussion by saying, "It’s not dangerous to jump on a bed. It’s okay as long as it’s not the top bunk." Hmmm – thanks kid for encouraging my son. Ah-hem. Later my friend was playing with the kids with the pretend food. She took a cookie & two pieces of bread and made a sandwich out of them which she told the boys she was going to eat. The other little boy (not my son) quickly said, "No. You can’t eat a cookie for a sandwich. It has sugar. That’s desert." My friend played along and said, "Oh, but it would be yummy. Can’t I eat it?" The little boy said, "No. You need to put something healthy in there." He then proceeded to give her healthy play food & take away the cookie and put it "out of her reach." Too funny! What will they come up with next?