Obedience

Today started out super loud! It was a full house with at least 24 kids! When I walked in, the nursery was jam packed with parents and crying toddlers! Some were crying because they were watching mom or dad leave the room, others were crying because of the few that were screaming hysterically, and of coarse there were the 'fly-by drop off kids'! You know who you are!! Those of you that has their spouse open the nursery room door while you firmly, but lovingly toss your little one into the room. Your child then pushes his/her nose and lips to the crack of the door as they plead and cry for you. Their cries echo down the hallway as you run as fast and far away as you can! Well, to all of you, the cries were only loud at the beginning! Their tears dried rather quickly today and before we knew it, they had found toys and friends to preoccupy them! For the few that really have a hard time like little Jacob and Payson (fly-by drop off --aka-- FBDO), I think it's has helped a lot that Tina now is fully staffed with a good group of us that are trying to be consistent for the kids. Each week is getting better and crying time is less, I think.
Bro. George taught the lesson today. I didn't get to listen in, as I was on Snack duty, but he told me it was on Obedience / Obey your parents. The coloring pages and handouts looked like lots of fun and the kids seemed to love coloring them!
I didn't really start noticing funnies until snack time. Probably b/c before that time I pretty much had three kids in my lap the whole time. Jacob..who is getting braver every week and didn't scream too long today, one other little girl who's name I can't remember (old age), and then of coarse, Rissa would squish her little bum in my lap every once in a while! She's doing pretty good with 'sharing' me with other kids! ...I'll say no more about that b/c I don't want to jinks myself ! Here are a few funnies that I witnessed:
***Sam---Usually Sam, along with most of the other older boys, tends to have bottomless pits and want to eat and eat and eat! Today I noticed Sam had finished his first helping (appetizer) and so I started heading over to him and asked him if he wanted more marshmellows and little cookies. Much to my surprise he replies, "No, I don't need no more marshmellows today. 'Cuz ya know why? My mama made me eat a very huge waffle thing (that was this big) for dinner already!" ...Well OK...he then got up, threw his plate and cup in the trash and went and laid down on the floor while he rubbed his tummy!

***Eliza & Avril--During snack time one of them (not sure who & doesn't matter) spilled their cup of water on the table. I look over and see them looking at the table a little and then wiping their dresses so I walk to their side of the table and realize that I need to get some paper towels. I grab some and get back to them to hear them talking about their beautiful dresses. The conversation went a little something like this:
E: "....because my dress is a beautiful dress that should be dry."
A:"Well, my dress doesn't want to be wet either. I have a beautiful dress."
I then tell them both how pretty they looked today and that yes, both of them have beautiful dresses on, then one of them responds, "'cuz we are just both beautiful little girls!" I'm honestly not sure which one made that last comment because I refilling some other plates up by now, but it was so cute to listen to them!

***Drake and Payson--Payson had asked me twice before this to tie his shoe for him. At one point Payson's shoe lace had come untied again and I heard him saying, "Help! Someone tie my shoe." I looked across the room and before I could even take a step, Drake went running to his rescue!! By the time I got to Payson, Drake was on the floor with him wrapping the shoelaces altogether in a unorganized "knot"! He was grinning from ear to ear with pride, until Payson says, "I don't think that's right. Let her do it." After tieing his shoe, Payson proceeds to tell me all about his Batman Socks! He says, "they're under there! they are!"..referring to them being under his shoes...that we just tied :) Once word got out on the street that Payson had BATMAN SOCKS on kids came running from all over to see them!! Actually it was just a couple of kids. Will got really excited about them and declared that "we gotta see the other one! We gotta see the other one!". So with that being said, I decided it best to just go ahead and get it out of their systems. I took both shoes off and then Payson was able to walk all around the room to let everyone see his Batman socks! Most of the boys in the room were pretty excited about it so if they're bugging any of you about socks, this would probably be why! Jacey said that she got them at the dollar store for bowling one day. I'm sure other characters are available as well!

Rissa loved playing with the kitchen set! She's getting so big so fast! It's been fun to watch her play in nursery. She wasn't too nervous in there today..there were no WWF moves put on her, no headlocks and all of the kids were pretty nice to each other. She and Kara played together several times, it was cute. She's always asleep in the car by the time we get out of the church parking lot!!

~~What We Learned Today~~

I've been serving in Nursery for a month now. I also still teach in RS once a month. I wasn't too surprised to get called to be in there b/c I'm in the hallway with Rissa most of the day at church anyway. And honestly, I guess it's my turn b/c I've made it through two kids already and never been called to Nursery, so it's all good-it's my turn to do the time:)
I think the first two weeks I was a 'little bit' overwhelmed with all 100 kids under the age of three!! No, ok, little bit of an exaggeration on the 100, there are anywhere from like, 18-25 kids...so anyway, at first it was a little overwhelming!
I've decided that I want to post a little about Nursery each Sunday Night b/c honestly, I am falling in love with those kids! So many little expressions of love, so many little 'funnies' that they do and say, and of coarse, all the things that they tell us about their families (nothing too nitty-gritty yet, folks)!!
Last Sunday I was the 'snack' lady. Caden, Carson and Sam were so excited and eager to bless our snack, so needless to say, we had three short, sincere prayers! Rissa is coming early to Nursery b/c of me being in there. She and Parker are the youngest and they are both doing pretty well. It was fun last week to see them sitting there with all the big kids eating their snacks, sitting in big kid chairs!!...they usually go home with water all over them (big kid cups) but that's ok.
Today I taught the lesson. We learned about Temples. We talked about our families and how Temples make it possible for us to be with them for Eternity. We sang 'I love to See the Temple" and "Families Can Be Together Forever". I made paper finger puppets for each of them, although some didn't make it home, and learned a little song to go along with it. (Starting with the thumb) This is Father, this is mother, this is brother tall, this is sister, this is baby, oh--I love them all(and they hug them)! This was fun for the kids, I think.
Other things we learned today:
**Payson Loves to sing!! He was very intent on learning the finger puppet 'song' and worked really hard to learn the movements to I Love to See the Temple song! His tantrum when dad left him at beginning of Nursery only lasted, like maybe one full minute! It's getting shorter each week!
**Kara loves bubbles!! Well, everyone loves when Bro Evans blows bubbles at the end, but Kara was extra excited today and it was so fun to watch her! I love to hear her 'talk'...and she was 'talking' up a storm as she ran around to pop the bubbles!
**Jacob is getting braver every week! Today he still cried some, but did a lot better! Each week is getting a little bit easier for him.
**Sam was glad to have his 'friend' with him! His cousin was here this weekend for Tommy's baptism and she came to Nursery with him. They were both wanting to help a lot during our lesson and were sure to sit as close as they could to each other all the time!
**Drake was fun during our lesson, too. He wanted to make sure that his dog (I wasn't sure the dog's name) would be with their family for eternity as well. He preferred his Dad finger puppet over his Mom finger puppet...don't worry Natalie, he'll get over it when he stops and thinks about who cooks his dinner:)

With so many kids I, obviously, can't talk about every child each Sunday, so I will pinpoint things that I notice, etc each week, and before too long, hopefully I've have included each child. I was so touched by the Spirit today during our lesson. These sweet children have such a pure, sweet spirit about them and I am truly grateful for the opportunity to be a part of their 'Nursery' life! I felt Spiritual growth and am thankful for that. I look forward to working with them and am getting more and more excited about this calling each week.

One last thing, please, remember, that this serves as an additional journal for me, so if I talk about Rissa each week, that's why (I'm not choosing favorites!!) Here's my email majoyn@juno.com Thanks tiff