comfort brother

Babs was invited to a birthday party. A lot of it was at the local bounce house, which is loud because of the air machines for all the air slides, an odd mixture of bright colors and dim lighting with lots of shadows, and basically overwhelming to my children. (Last year, Kiddo finally broke down inconsolably for the last 20 min of someone's party. Silly me to think my children would be happy in a high stimulation environment.) Babs wouldn't go down slides unless I was with her (and I mostly had a baby strapped to my front), and as the time progressed her behavior showed more and more of the subtle distress signals that I rarely notice until too late.

Finally she looked at me and insisted that she hold the Boy. At three months old, in a public place with few places to sit on, I wasn't sure how to handle it. But she persisted, so I had her sit on the floor, then had him sit with her. See how happy he is? But it calmed her down, and then we left soon after.

Some children have stuffed animals, mine has a little brother.

goldfish in bed

Kiddo left during scripture/prayer time to get a kleenex. She took a long time coming back. I could hear her in the hallway, so I finally called out "What are you doing?"

She shuffled into view and explained that she had stuck some goldfish crackers in her footed pajamas to save for later, and now couldn't get them out.

primary program

Kiddo has now been involved in four primary programs, even though by her age it should only be three.

The first time, at age 2 in our  unbelievable branch in NJ, she had multiple speaking parts, which she had all memorized. She also filled in for a few absent children.

The second time we lived with my parents, in a primary that was about the same size as our previous branch. There was no place for the Sunbeams, so Kiddo had no speaking part. But, the Sunbeams did have a song they sang just by themselves (all 15 or so of them). If Kiddo had not been singing, no one would have heard them.

The third time, now she was 4 and in our current congregation, she gave a three minute talk on a family history story. She did an amazing job. (Although by then she could read, we're pretty sure she had it memorized too.)

Last Sunday, she had a small part, just a quick line: I am a child of God, and He has a plan for me.

BUT, she carried the entire primary through her enthusiastic and soulful singing. She knew all the words, and sang louder than the rest of the primary combined. I have been told that she also scrunched her eyes shut and looked joyous the whole time. Many adults came up to me later to tell me how wonderful it was to see her singing with such abandon.

It's just who she is, I kept thinking. She loves the Gospel, she loves to sing, she loves to participate, she loves church. She is joyful. I'm grateful that others were able to share that too.

sucker

The boy likes to suck, although for sure he's not so good at it yet.

He treats a pacifier like my other two kids have: with a serious look of distaste, acting as if he may choke to death, and not looking for it again. (Two of my kids have also acted that way sometimes when I tried to feed them early on; it makes nursing frustrating to say the least.)

He mostly sucks on his lower lip, or his fist, now that he can finally get it to his mouth. He has tried to suck on his palm, like Babs used to, but is still struggling with the method. It's really easy to poke your eyes while sucking on your palm.

And today, I noticed, as he was sucking his fist, that he is working on finding his thumb. (Of course one time, he made the choking face again, so who knows.)