Go out into the world...

This fall has found us to be busier than ever. Between work, school, daycare, piano lessons, choir practice, doctor appointments, relatives visiting from L.A., and, Oh Yeah, SOCCER, we are barely meeting each other coming and going. Shad got home about 10pm last night from an away game. He left before Nate even woke up this morning. It makes for some long days and weeks, but we are surviving.

The past two weeks we have added another weekly destination to our repetoire: Kids' Church. This is on Sunday nights from 5:30 to 7pm and includes a class for Nate and (new this year) an adult study class, too. Perfect, we thought, because we don't have any other time to fit that in and this will give us an opportunity to meet more people at church. Maia has always loved Kids' Church, and having it Sundays instead of Wednesdays this year we're hoping will mean that we manage to get her there more frequently. As with all learning and school-y type things, she soaks it all up.

Well, last Sunday when I went to the Sanctuary after my study class got over, they were wrapping up her Kids' Church group with some prayer. She appeared to be heavily into it and it looked like she was even crying as they ended the prayer. I asked her about this afterwards, but she wouldn't talk about it. Ok, fine. That is her business, I guess. She did very quickly tell me about the 3 invitations that were passed out to each participant for them to give to friends as an easy way to invite others to Kids' Church. Great! That sounded like an easy way to go about inviting people to church. Not too "in your face" or preachy or anything. We're not exactly evangelicals, we're Methodists. Methodists are pretty open and liberal and easy going. That's not to say we can't be serious about our faith, but we're not pushy.

Right. So, Maia took this church invitation thing very seriously and immediately filled in the names of three people that she wanted to give her invitations to. Having done that, however, she didn't want to stop. She insisted on making several more homemade invitations with all of the pertinent information on them. She spent her "reading" time before bed Sunday night making more of these invites and planning who to give them to. Well, evidently, she's been making more than I thought she was and she's added an RSVP and our phone number to them. Oh, AND, she's neglected to mention that it's for Kids' Church. I found a straggler on the floor on my lunch hour today (which I'm sure is going to cause her no end of distress when she realizes that someone got left out). It said

TO: CATELIN

DATE: 9-30-07

TIME: 5:30 to 7PM

PLACE: FIRST UNITED METHEDIST CHURCH (close on the spelling, eh?)

And then the RSVP stuff.

On the front of the folded over piece of paper it said: SPIDERMAN IS HERE!

This is because the theme of Kids' Church this year is "Don't get caught in the web of sin", and the invites that they passed out were indeed Spiderman. Well, you can see where a kid or a parent might be confused upon receiving this folded, little, penciled-up piece of paper from Maia. And, so, when I received a voice-mail from a parent this afternoon, I wasn't 100% shocked:

"Hi, um, this is Alex's mom. Your daughter gave Alex a homemade invitation to a birthday party today. I'm not sure if you're passing out invitations or what the deal is exactly, so please give me a call."

The tone in Alex's mom's voice was sort of jovial and sort of confused, like she was laughing at either us or Maia or both. Laughing with us? I'm not sure, because I don't know Alex's mom. She does happen to teach at our daughter's school, however, and she also happens to be my parent's down-the-street neighbor. All of that aside, I have never met the lady, and I have no idea what her response might be if I call her back and say "Actually, Maia's invitation is for Kids' Church."

It is at this moment, then, that I am sort of wishing that Maia went to a parochial school. That would alleviate some of the awkwardness here, wouldn't it? On the other hand, this is exactly what Jesus asked us to do as Christians! Our 6 (almost 7) year old, has gone out to the "Gentiles" and is inviting lambs into the fold. How on earth can I tell her that she isn't allowed to do this???? And yet, I can't really allow it to continue, can I? How much longer will it be before we get the call from the teacher (or, even worse, an administrator) telling us that Maia isn't allowed to hand out invitations to church on the playground? What are we supposed to tell her then?? I haven't had enough training for this. I want to go back to telling her to stop chewing on her hair or watching her learn how to walk. That seems SOOO much simpler.

And I'm thinking, I've gotta hand it to this kid, I would never have given out invitations to church on the playground. And while I have invited a few people (namely, SHAD) over the years to church, I likely haven't fulfilled my allottment as a Christian. It is really a hard thing to do, and here my first grader is chomping at the bit to invite kids to church.

Well here's the clincher: While talking to Shad this evening on the phone about this particular quandry, he filled me in on a little secret of Maia's. It turns out that they receive "points" at Kids' Church for every guest that they bring. Those kids with the most points later in the year will receive a backpack. Ahhhhh... so there's the true motivation behind Maia's scramble to invite as many kids as possible to church. As if she needed another bookbag or backpack!!!

Now, God grant me the serenity to talk to all of the parents who are going to be calling our house in confusion over the next few days. ;)

Get out the Baby Book!!

There are a few moments in the life of every parent that stand out as Big, Huge, Great Moments. When your children are born, of course, is right there at the top. First steps are sometimes a huge deal, although by the time that Nate took his at 14 1/2 months, I'm honestly not sure I remember it. First tooth. First word. First birthday. All good things. Stuff you bring the camera out for and call the grandparents about.

In the wake of our first broken bone from last week and first day of First Grade from last month, Nate has added a new first to our list today: that's right.... Ladies and Gentlemen, He Pooped On The Potty. HALLELUJAH AND AMEN!! I got the call as I was checking out a Season One DVD set of Charmed to a patron this evening. Of course, I was sad to not be there for the joyous occassion but also just releaved that it has happened. He has been so uber-resistant and stubborn about this, not wanting to talk about it or try it at all. He'll stand up and go #1 like a Big Boy 10 times a day, but he was totally holding out on #2 for some reason. He has proven the rumor that "boys are harder to train" to be quite true.

Naturally, I am wise enough to realize that we are not out of the woods yet and I know that he will likely not jump on the potty wagon full-time just overnight (although if he wants to, that is Excellent). Still, this hurdle was a big one and having crossed it is a major accomplishment for Jr. I guess he cheered and showed everyone at Shad's Grandma's house (the site he chose to perform this feat) his Superman undies that he kept all clean and dry all day. Shad took pictures with his phone. ;)

Alas, I have missed one of the major milestones in my "baby's" life. After 3 years of wiping his skinny butt! And just yesterday I bought a whole new pack of pull-ups, (which I realize we still may utilize.) Some days he wants to wear underwear and other days he doesn't, but I'm hoping that this new found ability might spur him into full-time underwearage. I could buy him some fall clothes with the savings... or ME some fall clothes! Oh, now I'm just thinkin' crazy-talk!

And finally, I recall that a month after Maia was potty trained, I decided that I needed a baby. This time around, I can honestly say that I don't need a baby (which is good since my spouse is no longer capable of providing me with one). There are three babies coming in the Huddleston extended family later this year, and I will hold all of them a little bit while their mommies eat Thanksgiving dinner standing at the kitchen counter. :)

A Sling for All Seasons

Quick question of the day: Where is your clavicle??

Give up? Your collarbone, that's where. It's the fancy-pants medical name for your collarbone. It is also the bone that little Nater broke in a tumble down my co-worker's basement stairs during a cook-out on Sunday evening.

That's right. It's Nate first broken bone, and our first broken bone as parents, actually. We've done the x-ray thing before, when Maia smashed her toe with a can of Spaghettios in '04. That wasn't fun, but it also wasn't broken. This time, we knew pretty quickly that something was not right (given that he was screaming "IT HURTS IT HURTS" over and over) and we headed off for a fun filled evening at the E.R. Thankfully, Papa and Grammy H. (God bless their souls!) took Maia off of our hands. But by the time we got to the E.R., we weren't sure if there was a broken bone or not. Nate lifted his little arms above his head and out to the side for the nurse in triage with no problems. We looked sideways at each other, smirking at Nate's obvious delight at being the center of attention. Had he just taken a spill, gotten spooked and bruised himself?

No. X-rays showed a broken clavicle. And when he put any weight on his arm it hurt him. He wouldn't let us pick him up under the arms, either. :( Poor Buddy! Other than the occassional "OW THAT HURTS" when he would try to do something with his arm, he was the Best Little Trooper that evening. His main concern was the he would pee his pants when he decided that he didn't like the women's room toilet. Thankfully, Shad took him to the men's and we averted that crisis. (I was just impressed that he cared about peeing his pants while in the ER with an injury.) He let several nurses and the doctor look at him and stood just right for his chest x-rays without an ounce of protest. It was almost bizarre.

So, finally he was "fitted" with a sling (I use the term "fitted" loosely, because I think this sling would fit me), and we were sent on our way. We got home three hours after the initial injury. All in all, not a horrible experience. Nate fell asleep on the way home and, other than waking once in the middle of the night, he slept 12 hours, which he never does (because we have bred a species of non-sleeping children).

The next morning, Nate was not at all keen on wearing the fancy navy blue sling on his left arm. (See picture above!) However, he wore it, and when I let him take it off for a breather later, it hurt his shoulder and he asked to have it put back on. That was good news for Mommy, as I appear to be the one in charge of making sure he gets this sling on and keeps it on. Now, three days later, he is still wearing it and not complaining about it. He has been to Papa and Grammy H's for two days instead of daycare (causing a tremendous jealousy in his sister who threw not one, but two giant tantrums about it), but tomorrow he will be thrown to the wolves at Building Blocks. I worry about how he will play outside and if he will get hurt or not. Alas, life is rough and so he must go back to daycare, sling and all.

Anywho, that is our big news for this week. It wasn't really a restfull Labor Day weekend (and don't get me started on how I still have to work 5 days this week!) but all in all we are alright.