Church with the girls

The girls and I went to church yesterday, thanks to our chauffeur Ethan, and I was really glad for the chance to go to a place that gives me so much internal comfort after such a physically and emotionally exhausting month. I was amazed by how well the girls sat through the service, without Madeleine attempting even once to run out of the pew and take off through the church. In fact, she seemed perfectly content to flip through the liturgy books, play with the Little People I had brought along, and point out the stained-glass window icons. "Ooooh! Look! I see it!" She would repeatedly exclaim. "Oh, it's so pretty, the ike!" "Yes, that's the icon," I would respond. "Oh yeah, ike!" she'd confirm. She also enjoyed pointing up at Jesus on the ceiling, usually with loud exclamations about what she saw. Since she is usually up in the choir loft with me during the service, I think actually being down in the pews and getting to see all the decorative color was enough to keep her rooted to her seat.

I can't complain too much about the fact that the girls went a little off the wall down in the church hall after the service, since they had sat so well for me during the liturgy. Giddy with pleasure at getting to eat a giant chocolate chip cookie during the coffee hour, Julia decided it was of utmost importance to exclaim to the priest's wife, who had kindly sat down to ask me how I'm feeling, "How about I wear a DIAPER ON MY HEAD for a hat??" A very appropriate comment delivered at a very opportune time, I tell you.

When I was putting Madeleine to nap later in the day, we had a short conversation about our church outing:

ME: Madeleine, did you have fun going to church today?
MADELEINE: (brightly) Uh-huh!
ME: Do you remember what we saw at church?
MADELEINE: Julia!
ME: Yeah, Julia was there too. What else did we see?
MADELEINE: A Uncle MIKE!

Big surprise...