I'm A Big Girl Now

I know this is quite late but I just couldn't find the time to post this during the holidays. I promise that this is almost my last holiday post.

Three weeks ago, Sweet Pea was showing me all of the things that she can do. We were getting ready to go to Advent service at the church. I told the kids to get their coats and shoes on.

I asked SP if she needed any help.

"No, Daddy. I can tie my shoes all by myself.", she proudly answered.

So I let her tie her own shoes. Even though she was wearing a corduroy skirt with tights, she wanted to put on her blue tennis shoes to show me her skills. She finished tying her shoes and beamed, "I'm growing up into a big girl, aren't I Daddy?"

"Yes you are Honey."

"I can even pour my own milk out of the pitcher at school.", she informed me.

"That's great Sweet Pea. Now zip up your coat so we can go." , I urged.

She zipped up and bent down to pick up her gloves. We then heard a loud, "Owwwwwwwww!"

Lady Di asked, "What happened, did you bump your head?"

Tearfully, SP wailed, "I zipped my hair in my coat zipper."

So much for being a big girl. I guess two steps forward and one step back is OK.

The kids were pretty well behaved at church. Lady Di has her English class on Wednesday nights, so I was flying solo with the kids. Number One Son got a new Bible from the church a month ago and wanted to bring it to church to look stuff up during service. The one bad thing was that he wanted to show everyone his Bible and read a few passages from it. It's a good thing he wasn't wearing his white, short sleeved shirt with black tie. Church members would have thought he was recruiting for Jehovah's Witness. It was kind of cute at the beginning, but after the first verse or so, even people in church started changing the subject. Too bad for them that N1S doesn't always realize the subject has changed.

The good thing is that both kids seem to enjoy going to church. N1S likes to read and participate. Sweet Pea likes to write and draw. They both like to socialize. At the end of service, N1S drew a picture for the people sitting behind us. As we were being ushered out of the church, he started up a conversation about his drawing with our neighbors. And since we sit in the front row I thought, "Oh great! Now we are holding up all of these Lutherans from getting to their after-church coffee and cookie. If we make them wait too long, we might get Christmas taken away from us." Luckily, one of the ushers whom we know, tapped N1S on the shoulder to remind him that it was our turn to leave. That brought a few chuckles and smiles from the rest of the congregation. They pretty much know who our kids are from previous church stunts. That's what is nice about our church. It is a very relaxed atmosphere which makes us very comfortable going to church.

After church, the kids and I drove around town looking at Christmas lights before heading for home. We had to drive around a few extra blocks so the Muppet's, Twelve Days of Christmas could finish on the radio. The kids really enjoyed Miss Piggy sing "Five Golden Rings, Ba Dum Bum Bum".