Sundays are, let's face it, not always my favorite day of the week. They are supposed to be, and every Saturday night I have learned to pack the girls' bag and my own things and figure out what people are going to wear, etc... But somehow, SOMEHOW even with all the "proper prior preparations" it seems that we either don't get out the door on time, or don't get to even sit in our seats. I am beginning to see the error of our parenting ways as far as Kalea goes when it comes to church. She is the hallway child. The one that never wants to sit for more than 5mins, especially in a building full of friendly faces and endless doors and light switches. I am sure that one of these days I will be
that mother whose child is running through the choir seats while someone is trying to share their tender feelings about the gospel, etc... Today I was the one who got some mighty impressive glares as her child shrieked at the top of her lungs during a most reverent moment. AWESOME. I found the glares pretty funny though, I just smiled back and had the thought, "If only you knew". I was happy my Mom offered to come to church with me so she could help with Kalea, it was really nice to get to sit and actually listen to and hear at least some of what was being said
. I'm sure Brynlee is well on her way to following in Kalea's footsteps, so any amount of sabbath observance that I can actually absorb now while I have the chance is a wonderful thing. Thanks Mom.
I am learning to understand Kalea a lot more these days, her language but also her feelings/emotions. Steve being away so much has been a huge adjustment for all of us, but it has affected her the most. Today I tried to keep our Sunday routine fairly close to what it is when Steve is here. Steve is the Sunday waffle maker, I'm more of a pancake girl, so I made those- they smell the same so as soon as Kalea got a whiff of them she came running. I am so glad they made her so happy. Most of her acting out today seems to have been caused by some of the other changes in her life.
First, her feet just grew a size... in one week?! How did this happen? I can only assume that she's inherited that from her Dad and she is well on her way to having feet as large as his. I just hope she gains the height too or that will be awkward. So she didn't have "prid-deeeeee"Sunday footwear. I can totally feel where she's coming from, I've lived that experience too. Poor Kalea, sometimes as much of a tomboy as she is, she really likes to dress up for Sundays.
Second, in all my preparations I forgot to bring her last remaining soother or "see-eeee"(
we call it a sucky) to church with us. In my defence, she threw me a curveball at around 12:15 today while I was trying to get dressed, curious? She basically painted the basement floor with her feces. Really. No word of a lie. Grabbed one of her IKEA paintbrushes and went to town spreading that love around. This almost caused me to throw in the towel and forget church altogether. So in all the chaos to clean up I neglected to grab the dang soother and what ensued when she realized we were at church without it was, nothing short of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. If that is what hell sounds like, I definitely don't want to go there :D
I feel like I'm making progress when I can recognize the things that set her off, so I can help her and remember not to take it personally when she throws those, super embarassing fits of rage in sacrament meeting. This little Kalea person is teaching me so much, I can't help but love her, but I am sure looking forward to the day when she will just sit on her chair and color me or Steve a pretty picture. Once again, I was very grateful for the Nursery and my Mom today.
