Sundays with Tizzy- The Inbetween Moments

Tizzy Tizzy Tizzy Tizzy Tizzy-

I love you. I love church. I love Sacrament meeting. I especially love Fast & Testimony meeting. I am proud of you for making it until the last 10 minutes today.

I should probably start keeping track of the comments I get about you every Sunday. Usually from our dear friends sitting behind us who say things like......

"She's just a busy one, isn't she?"
and
"I love how she folds her little arms for the prayer. So cute."
and
"We really don't mind Tessa at all. She's quite entertaining."
and
"She did good today. Almost made it through the whole thing."
and , my personal favorite...
"Your little girl really gives you a run for your money every week doesn't she?"

hahahahahahaha!
I LOVE YOU TIZZY!

Let me share a little more with you about our Sunday routine.
You get up about 6:30AM with Kamron and Bethany. Daddy & I are up wayyyyy earlier. You immediately demand that you watch a movie. Usually on Sundays we don't allow anything before church except for 'church' movies. Today you won. We watched Clifford.

Next we get everyone ready and Kamron and Bethany take turns getting your diaper bag packed (we really need to start doing this Saturday night).... I finally made them a list this morning and taped it inside the cupboard because they kept forgetting things. What's a diaper bag without diapers? Silly kids.

We drive to church and you 'help' me set up the Primary room. This usually means I have a little bit of cleaning up before I go to Sacrament meeting. But it is cute to see you push the big chairs around thinking you're helping.

About 15 minutes before church starts Daddy comes to find us (he's been in meetings since 7:30) and when you see him you run to him and jump in his arms happily yelling "Daddy! Daddy!" I couldn't choreograph this any better. Of course, there are always other people in the church who see this and it just makes your daddy beam with pride and joy.

Then we head to Sacrament meeting. We cannot seem to get on the same page here. I want to listen.....You want to.....

Trace your hand and my hand.

You want to play with the hymnbooks and your board books and kick the pew in front of us and 'sing' when the song is over.
And you haven't quite figured out how to whisper yet.
You also like to climb all over inbetween all of us and sometimes even underneath the bench.

This is exasperating.... and you wear out and I wear out and when you finally get tired enough you get your blanky and binky and monkey and climb on daddy's lap and 'fake cry' until he takes you out. It usually takes about 10 seconds.... and all the while the people around us are silently giggling because they know that cry is fake (it doesn't even SOUND real) and there's nothing we can do about it.... *Sigh*

But that's not ALL that happens in Sacrament meeting. There are the inbetween things that I want to remember too........

Like when you fold your arms very seriously to pray during every prayer.
And when you read your 'Jesus' books and point out the missionaries, and Heavenly Father & Jesus, and the temple and the scriptures.
And when you try to 'share' the hymnbook with me because you are definitely not going to be outsung.
LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

But then there's my favorite... my absolute FAVORITE.

The thing that reminds me every week that you're not just a human baby learning neat things like what missionaries look like and that we should read our scriptures... but that

YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD.

My favorite part of the entire meeting every week is when you listen quietly and intently to me while I explain to you about the priesthood and the "boys" and what is happening during the sacrament. It amazes me that you never get tired of me explaining what's going on.

It begins the moment after they bless the bread to the moment that they sit back down with their families. I whisper what's going on to you step by step while you watch and listen.....

"Oh look. Now the big boys are giving the little boys the trays with the bread."
"Oh look at that. He's giving the bread to the bishop."
"See that. They are covering up the bread & Yep.... there's the water! Now let's get ready for the water prayer."

and so on and so forth until I say...
"Now the boys are done and they get to sit down with their mommies."

I LOVE THIS TIME! I love that you are so aware and happy during such an important event. I love how proud of yourself you are when you finish the bottom of my water cup and you put the cup back in the tray just like the 'big kids'.

It almost makes me feel that you were trained in Heaven. That our big brother, Jesus Christ, sat you down before you came to earth and said 'I know, Tessa. I'll miss you too. But you get to go down to a family who is living the gospel. And that means that every Sunday when you take the sacrament you can remember me! And I'll be thinking about you then too!'

Maybe... just maybe that happened. Wouldn't that be awesome! I bet it did! I have no other explanation for why you sit so reverently during the sacrament and not so much during the rest of the meeting...

Because those boys do sit down. And you do lose interest quite quickly after that.... and Daddy usually takes you out during the last 20 minutes or so. *sigh* I love him for that.

Then I meet you in the foyer and say "Bye bye! Have fun in nursery! mmmmwuh!" And you're excitedly off to nursery where you love your wonderful teachers and friends and never have a problem and I don't have to worry about you for even 1 half of a second during the 2 hours I am running non-stop in Primary with the 'big kids'. For this I am thankful.

After nursery your brother or sister pick you up and bring you to the Primary room where I have accidentally instituted a 'if you're good you'll get a marshmallow' tradition. I keep the extra marshmallows in the Primary closet and we all clean up while you are busy with your "mallow".

By this time you are exhausted and we have a PB&J sandwich waiting in the car because we know that as soon as you eat it you'll fall asleep in the car on the 15 minute drive home and we'll be able to put you straight into bed.

Which we do... and the rest of the day runs like normal - or as normal as life gets with a 2 year old.

I just wanted to let you know that I am grateful for those small, quiet, inbetween moments you give me during what could possibly be the most tiring 3 hours of my week. I love you for that. Someday I hope you have a 2 year old Tizzy just like you.
Love, Mommy