Girls in the choir loft

Today was the last week of choir at my church before the summer vacation, and despite the fact that Sunday school had already ended last week, I wanted to go and sing even if it meant having both kids up in the choir loft with me. Luckily, Ethan has had a few weeks off from his church choir gig, so I was able to bring him along with me for the extra hand. As we were packing up the diaper bag, I suggested to Julia that she choose a few toys to bring and play with up in the loft, since she wouldn't get to play with all the toys down in the classrooms today. She ran off and collected some items while I dried my hair, and when I asked her if she wanted to bring a few of her Little People as well, she resisted, claiming she'd already picked her toys. I encouraged her a few more times to bring the Little People because she might get antsy up in the loft, but she stubbornly insisted they needed to stay at home in their house. When I tried to have Ethan pack a few Little People to be on the safe side, Julia was on the verge of a melt-down about it, so we told her fine, but that it would be her problem if she got bored up in the loft and we weren't going to entertain her.

I must admit, I shouldn't have really worried about it, because both girls were really on wonderful behavior through the service, and they found plenty of ways to entertain themselves outside of playing with toys. In fact, Madeleine wanted nothing to do with the toys I'd brought her. She instead spent the first half of church getting excited about her reflection in the metal joint on the banister separating the top and middle rows of the loft. Not only did she flap her arms around joyously and smile at herself, but she decided to very loudly and repeatedly make her guttural "AAAHHH!" sound as she gazed at herself. When she tired of that, I tried putting her in the Baby Bumbo that's kept up in the loft, with some toys to play with, but she just shoved the toys away, pulled her legs up out of the Bumbo and lunged out of it, then proceeded to pull up to standing on the diaper bag, the Bumbo itself, Julia's chair, and whatever else she could get her hands on. Again, I really can't complain, because she didn't cry, fuss, whine, or do anything that would distract the congregation, but I did get a kick out of the fact that she decided to show the choir her daredevil personality and her ceaseless acrobatics.

Julia, on the other had, sat quietly for most of the service, and I honestly couldn't have asked for better behavior from her. At one point she did go into the diaper bag to take out the two toys she'd packed. Having shunned the Little People idea in favor of the toys she had already chosen, I expected to see some of her favorite, most exciting toys; however, I suppose one can really never know the inner workings of a child's brain. Here are the toys she packed for herself to play with at church:



A set of pretend keys that she got for her first birthday, and the mallet to some musical instrument. Seriously?? She refused to bring her Little People. Instead she wanted to play with pretend keys and a mallet (without the accompanying instrument)?!? I am still at a loss as to what compelled her to choose those two particular items out of all of the toys we have in the house. However, I will say that she sat there holding those two toys, pressing buttons on the play keys (even though the batteries died a long time ago so the buttons do nothing) and whacking the mallet against the side of the keys quietly. So, I guess I can't really judge her choice, because she seemed perfectly happy with them. But - really??

When we got in the car after the service was over, Julia started patting the right side of her head and saying, "Mama, is it this side?" I was asking her what she meant by that; did she mean which side was her braid on? (No.) Did she mean which side was that, left or right? (No.) Did she mean which side was her ear infection on? (No.) "Is it this side, Mama?" I asked her to elaborate, and she wasn't really able to, beyond asking, "But is it just medium?" Is WHAT medium? Her braid? (No.) Her ear infection? (No.) Her head? (No.) "But is it this side?" (patting her head repeatedly.) I finally gave up on understanding what she was talking about, though I have to admit I'm still really curious as to what on earth she was trying to ask me. Like her reasoning for bringing a toddler set of keys and a mallet to play with at church, I suppose I won't ever really know.