Sunday, January 4, 2009

Only During Service - Help, am I losing my babies?

A new thing happened today. My kids were well-behaved! They sat fairly still, they stood, they sat, they didn't poke each other too much - well, my second boy came over to complain that my oldest boy was "breathing near him".... um, he's sitting near you, where do you expect him to breathe?! "Oops, sorry, I'm just going to step out to take a few breaths?"

My oldest - uh, oh... he's growing. His voice is changing. He stood so tall and sang so loud and well today. I was shocked. I complimented him, telling him his teacher would be proud of him. (His teacher also leads worship in chapel and is always after his kids to sing loud like they mean it!) He ducked and smiled. Later he told me that he has to sing loud now because if he sings quieter, his voice cracks, but if he sings loud, it doesn't.

Oh my. He was so tiny just yesterday. We had to put the socks on the outside of his newborn sleepers because he was too tiny, and only with socks on would the legs even stay anywhere near where they were supposed to be. He was barely six pounds when born - so tiny that he hardly hurt when he was born. I remember thinking, "What do people make such a fuss about birthing for?" (don't ever ask yourself that - you just might learn with the next birth!)

4 comments:

Rebecca Conduff Aguirre said...

Oh, well, none of my kids were that little!!!! My goodness, no, Jojo was even a 9+ pounder. Outgrew his newborn diapers in teh hospital! sigh. They still seemed so little, though...

Micah is 8 and we're kind of beginning to realize that he'll be a teenager all too soon! A whole new ballgame, I imagine. It's hard to believe...my Mom always told me that they would grow up sooner than I thought and now I can see she was right...

Karis said...

I got the biggest laugh out of your commentary about your son's comment about his brother breathing near him. I would have been thinking along the exact same lines as you -- that is my literal thinking sense of humor, and then I would've gotten the giggles in church all the while knowing I was supposed to be the example of how to act in church.

Your comment about how quickly your children are growing up eased my annoyance with my three year old for choosing her own way even while she knows the consequences (five times already just this morning but who's counting). It reminded me instead to think of all the ways she has blessed my life and how sad I will be when she's not such a part of my life like a 3 year old is.

Karis said...

Oh and yay for your kids sitting well in church yesterday. As our 10:00 service which started at 10:20 hit the 12:20 mark yesterday and was still going strong (one year anniversary for the church so that's why it went past the normal 2 hour mark), I decided to be thankful for my wiggly 14 month old who of course hadn't napped on me that whole time. After all, we were packed into a small room and it's 90 degrees here and people don't wear deodorant -- I needed someone to bury my head into and smell something good. Fortunately, not too many had held her before the service started to wear their smells had transferred to her. I hope you know that I'm not completely shallow even if my nose is a wimp -- I really am glad we're here but I'm still so American. I wonder if they think I'm smell. I don't know anyone well enough yet here that I could ask and think they would give me an honest answer.

Alan & Beth McManus said...

Congratulations on the kids sitting well! I only had to smack Dayton about 10 times during church yesterday (yes, that is an improvement). There was no Sunday School for the kids at the church we were visiting and while the sermon was the best I've heard in a LOOOOONG time, the kids struggled, especially Dayton, whose Spanish is rather lacking. Even his Dot-to-Dot books couldn't keep him through the whole thing.

I loved the breathing near me thing! That's so my kids and so my response. My kids are learning not to complain to me anymore cause I'll probably say something sarcastic. Dayton came in this morning to inform me that he'd dropped his school books everywhere and there was a mess. I said, "O dear, the world is ending right now." He rolled his eyes and went to clean up. =)

I continue to pray for you and follow your blog religiously. Just haven't been up to writing. Pretty low month.