Church and Toddlers...is it worth it?

The infamous question many (if not all) parents ask themselves, every Sunday as they roam the halls with their noisy creations: "is it worth it?"



We had one of those days, today. Evalie is our little bundle of joy, and exuberance and craziness and energy and curiosity and well, I'm sure you get my point. Her volume is set to one level: LOUD. Ironically when she promises, "Mommy, I will be reverent" this plead is on full blast. Any amount of shh hing falls on cute little deaf ears. Then there is my son, Evan Thomas... it's like they are each other's batteries. They feed and grow off each other's energy.



Sacrament meeting, it's always fun. ha ha. My son lost patience early on, and thankfully my sister was able to take him out. Shawn was busy passing the Sacrament and this turned out to be a huge distraction for Evalie. Try as I might, I couldn't pursued (or even threaten) her to sit reverently, or even sit at all. When Shawn was close by our pew she would say, "Hi Daddy!" and because she didn't receive any acknowledgement, she said again unbelievably louder, "Daddy!!!" I lost the battle, it was time to retreat to the Fourier.




Let the races begin!




Tom thought it was super fun to have his sissy join him in the hall. Great, two against one. I wish I could have taken a video of them playing together at church today. It really was hilarious. They know Mommy is trying to quiet them down, which of course makes their game more fun. And, how can I discipline my babies when they are being nice to each other, smiling and giggling?



Evalie is now a Sunbeam...Yay! Unfortunately, she doesn't understand that in Primary we don't have snack, water and run around the room breaks. She loves singing time, and did a great job sitting in her chair and participating. You can hear her singing over the other children's voices. She sings out of tune and the wrong words, but who cares?! I think it's adorable. However, as soon as the singing and games stopped, Evalie lost all patience. First it was, I'm hungry, then I'm thirsty, and finally "Mommy, I have to pee!" At this point, we abandoned the idea of making it to her Sunbeam class.



So, I know that I'm not the only parent dealing with this, thank goodness. I'm getting thru it by reciting in my head the well-used phrase, "This too shall pass." Eventually, my kids will make it thru church and I will someday be able to attend Sunday school class. Then I will probably miss chasing my babies in the hall and wrestling with them in Primary. Whenever I think about this one of my new favorite songs, by Trace Adkins pops into my head:




"You're gonna miss this, you're gonna want this back, you're gonna wish these days didn't go by so fast, these are some good times, you may not know it now, but you're gonna miss this."




So True.