Finally, A Sunbeam

Y is a Sunbeam!!!  For those unfamiliar with the term, at our church once a child turns 18 months they begin to attend nursery for the 2 hours following Sacrament meeting.  They continue to attend nursery until the January following their 3rd birthday.  The class that they attend after nursery is called The Sunbeam's it's pretty different from attending nursery where they typically just play with toys, eat snacks, have a very short lesson and color. 

I was fairly concerned with how well Y would do having to sit through a lesson and such but she apparently handled it really well, her teacher said she did great.  When I picked Y up from class I asked her how she liked her new class and her response was, "I hate Sunbeams, I wanna go back to nursery!"  The reaction didn't surprise me at all because her new favorite comment is, "I hate ______, I want _______."  You can pretty much insert anything you can imagine coming from a 3 year old's mouth into those blank spaces, because I'm pretty sure that I've heard it by now.

The Story of Our Lives...

"I too believe that God will always make a way where there is no way. I believe that if we will walk in obedience to the commandments of God, if we will follow the counsel of the priesthood, he will open a way even where there appears to be no way."

--Gordon B. Hinckley, "If Ye Be Willing and Obedient", Ensign, Jul 1995, 2

Love this quote!  Loved this man!  I have witnessed this so many times in our lives.  Sometimes I have my "why my" days, weeks, or even months when I feel as if nothing I want or feel I need is working out right.  And it can be so frustrating especially when things seem to come so easy for others around you.  Or those times when you KNOW you're on the correct path and going in the direction Heavenly Father wants you to go but it still seems like you're hitting one road block after another, after another and just when you're ready to give up because you have tried every possible way around or over that road block to no avail...the pathway just opens up and you are able to continue on your journey.

Heavenly Father loves all of his children and He will always provide a way for us, even when we don't think it's possible.  It may not be when we feel we need it or in our time frame but "He's always on time."

Nursery Chronicles

Those of you who are LDS know that in our church children don't attend nursery until they turn 18 months old (those of you who aren't LDS you know it now). Needless to say I was more than ready for Y to turn 18 months so that I could turn her over to the Nursery Leaders. Y, on the other hand, was not that ready! We have taken her for the previous two Sundays and she really wants no part of it. I kind of feel as if it is our fault though, mostly because she was such a good, easy going, low maintenance baby that we literally took her everywhere with us. And in the event that we went some place where we couldn't take her (i.e. the temple or Piston's games or anniversary dinners) there was always a grandparent that was more than willing to come and watch her for us. So with the exception of once when she was 6 weeks old she has never been left with someone she isn't familiar with.

The first Sunday we took her in was March 7th, and I truly wanted to hold back for a little while simply because there were already 2 or 3 kids in there crying and I knew that would set her off for sure. Long story short, I took her in anyway and she started crying as well. Not only was she crying but she also had a firm grip on my hand making the quick getaway nearly impossible. After a few minutes of listening to her cry I pried my finger from her grasp and bolted for the door. I listened to her cry for several more minutes and then she stopped. I figured that she had just figured out that I wasn't coming back and found a toy she liked and started playing with it. It wasn't until I went back to pick her up at the end of church that I found out just how wrong I had been! Turns out she screamed unless there was someone holding her at all times and even then she would still cry. I walked in to see her with the puffiest, reddest eyes ever and when I took her from the Nursery Leader she clinched on tight to me and would not let go - she would not even let B touch her!

Fast forward a week and I was really dreading having to take her into nursery. As you know this week marked the start of Daylight Savings Time and so we "sprung forward" moving time ahead one full hour. We put Y to bed at her usual time (9pm) on Saturday night and because of the time change she slept until almost 10am Sunday morning. This year at church we are on the 1pm time schedule (which I really HATE) so typically I put her down for a nap around 11am to allow for a 1½ hour nap before leaving for church. However, since it was 10am before she woke up there was no way she was going down for a nap an hour later. So she had no nap before church and as hard as I tried she would not go to church during the Sacrament portion of church either. When Sacrament was over we walked out of the chapel and as soon as she saw the hallway which takes you to the nursery, she started crying (I assure you that is no exaggeration). I picked her up, walked her in and she cried harder. I put her down on the floor and she cried even harder. I eventually rushed out the door and as I shut it behind her I heard her screaming "mommy" while still crying. I think this went on for maybe 10 minutes before she stopped and I began to relax. About 30 minutes later I went to check on her through the peephole and see that she is laying in one of the nursery leader's arms asleep. I hated the idea of him having to sit there and hold her because it really limited his ability to interact with the other kids. So I went in to get her and as soon as I picked her up she started screaming. I was eventually able to calm her down and we went into the foyer and snuggled for a bit. About 20 minutes before church was to end I decided that we would go back in but this time rather than leave her, I would stay with her hoping that she would grow comfortable enough to maybe find a toy and play with it or interact with some of the other children. When we arrived in front of the nursery door she immediately held me tighter and in a soft, sad whimper she said, "no mommy, no mommy, no!" I could have cried, my heart broke, I have never seen her so scared and sad as she was at that moment. I went in and sat on the floor with her and she would not budge from my lap, she would not play with any toy, and she wouldn't even think of playing with the other kids.

I know that every parent deals with this struggle on some level but I am really torn between leaving her and just letting her get used to the idea or staying with her until she grows more comfortable with it. Both ideas cause me stress when I think about it because I don't want to give her a complex that we'll abandon her but at the same time if I continually stay with her I wonder if she will ever truly grow accustomed to the idea or will she always expect me to stay with her.

I have noticed in the past few months that she has grown much more attached to me than ever before so this week I'm going to try sending B in with her. That might not be the best idea either but I gotta try all my options.

Did you ever have a kid like this and if so, what did you do to help them?

We're Getting Closer...

Today while waiting to leave church, I was standing in the foyer talking with a friend and Y was playing around on the floor. Well she was wearing her Christmas dress and judging from the odd movements she had been making all day (crawling sideways instead of forward) I had pretty much figured out that the dress is hard for her to crawl in. Because of this it was no surprise to me when she started "walking" around with her hands and feet on the floor and butt stuck up in the air - she's been doing this for a while now, usually for short periods of time each time she does it. Well I always get a kick out her doing that so I was watching her and out of nowhere she slowly removes her hands from the floor and stands up. She only lasted a matter of seconds before she fell to her butt, but as you can probably imagine, I was clapping my hands and just beaming with excitement. She has never made an effort to stand before so it's a pretty big deal! After she toppled down she it didn't take her long to give it another go and again, she lasted for a few seconds before she fell on her bottom again. She tried it for several times before moving on to something else and each time I think I grew more and more proud. I was just sad that B wasn't there to see it, she did do it again at home though so he got to see it that time. We're getting close to having a walking baby on our hands!!!! Hopefully by Christmas...that would be the best present she could give me! I honestly can't wait to see her walking, and even running, around!!!

It's All In How You Say It!

On the way to church today B and I were having a conversation and I really have no idea how it started but I think I said something to the effect of, "we'd better have all girls because we can't agree on any boy names." Then I believe he said that I like weird names (which may be partially true). Anyhow I went on to say his famous quote that he always told me before we found out we were having a girl which is, "that's not a name, it's a word!" Now I believe this started because I liked the name Gage for a boy but spelled Gaje and then he said, "that's not a name it's a word!" Well I believe I told him that neither Gage nor Gaje were words, that he was thinking of gauge with a "U" and even though they sound the same are totally different. Anyways...so he goes on to say how people name their kids weird names like Apple so I jokingly said "we can have a little boy name Naranja" (which means orange in Spanish) he just rolled his eyes and said his other famous quote, "that's a HORRIBLE name." I laughed and ran with it so I went through all the colors that I know in Spanish until I reached Amarillo (yellow). When I got to this one I kind of paused for a second because I really liked it. And then I repeated it with this sexy Spanish accent and then it sounded really, really good so I told him that it would sound awesome to anyone that didn't speak Spanish (and it really would)! At that point B shouts out, "but what about those people that do speak Spanish" to which I had no reply. Going on from there I went to Verde (green) and though I didn't really like that one I then said Verdad (which means truth) and I paused again because I really like it! Actually would like to name my kid Verdad or Truth. I dunno what it is but I love the way Truth sounds as a name. Just my luck I'd name a kid Truth and he'd be a pathological liar. Anyway, we're not having any babies any time soon so I still have time to work on him...although I suspect that all the time in the world won't get him to agree to any of the names (or words) listed above. But then again...it's the mother that they give the birth certificate to ;-)

We're quite the couple, really, our conversations would probably keep people laughing constantly. We both tend to take things to the extreme...the in-betweens are boring!

Y's Blessing

On Sunday we had Y blessed and were really happy to have so much of our family to and share the day with us. Here are some pictures from that day.

Gladys (Great Grandma)

Paul & Queta (Grandparents)

Aunt Janice & Uncle Rick

I Never Thought I'd Say This

So for those of you who are reading this and are not quite familiar with our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and how we do certain things, I'll give you a little more information. For all others please just bear with me.

So members of our church are given callings which are ways that we provide service within the church, all of these callings are voluntary and we receive no pay for them. Well not long after we moved into our current ward, probably about 6 months after, we were called to serve in the nursery. Well in our ward there were so many kids at this time that they divided the nurseries into Junior Nursery and Senior Nursery, we were put in charge of Junior Nursery which starts at 18 months. Now I was very fortunate in that I was in there along with B who has always been much better and much more patient with children than I. I remember when they asked us to accept the calling I was none to happy with it and was extremely apprehensive about it but I knew I would be doing it with B so I accepted. On any given week we had between 10 and 14 children which we watched for 2 long hours. After a while the kids and the calling grew on me and by the time we were released and called to other callings I found myself a little sad.

So you're probably asking, what is this post all about? Well I have found that as I am preparing to welcome our own little child into the world, I am extremely grateful for the time I spent in that calling. I learned a lot of patience and I even found that as I visit my home in North Carolina that I am much slower to anger with my nieces and nephews (and trust me, that's no small feat). Now don't get me wrong, there are still some children that work my nerves like nothing else. But my patience and love for kids has increased at least tenfold if not more. So even though I never thought I'd say this, I must admit that I am grateful for the time I spent in nursery working with those kids.