a mish mash of pride

When you see you child making good choices without any assistance it is golden. I mean all children will make the right choice when you give them the evil mom eyes or when you totally prep them. You hope and pray that when you aren't around or when you aren't within the correct distance to persuade their choice that they do the right thing.

Today at church Lily went up for the children's sermon. So far, so good. Before they sat down the Reverend handed one little girl (new to church) a cute stuffed dragon to hold while she read a book about a dragon. Oh my eyes quickly went to Lily. I was waiting for her to start getting upset that she didn't get to hold the "stuffie". She composed herself. Yeah. I could see she wasn't happy but she got over it so quickly. What a girl.

Then they all sat down. Of course Lily is in a dress and that can not always end up good with an audience. She took the dress and pulled it down over her knees and then put her knees together and tilted them sideways. PERFECT. It was if I had coached her prior to going up there but I hadn't. I saw a sweet elderly lady pointing to Lily. Ah. It was a moment of pride.

The story went on a bit and was a bit beyond the age and attention span of most of the kids but Lily sat there. Slowly things began to unwind. After like ten minutes she decided to rub her face against the stair railing. Then she was putting her hands through her dress pocket and spinning it around. The attention slowly went back to the railing. She worked for about five minutes at getting the perfect grip. Wrapping each finger one at a time.

I am pretty sure that Dora or Barbie do not have stripper poles but that is what my daughter decided to try up front in church. She didn't do anything obscene, just inappropriate. When it came time to "give peace" some of the people gave me smirked smiles (not mean, just like "you gotta laugh about it")

If she wasn't so into death, angels and communion I would probably take a few weeks off from church.  In hope that people forget or more importantly have time to design a way so the next time she goes up front at church she isn't sitting next to the railing. Like tell her the middle of the stairs is the best seat so everyone can see her beautiful dress.

Yesterday I was witness of a 30 minute communion exercise at home. After several times giving communion to her stuffies she asked me to video it so she could show her Grampy (he's a man of the "cloth") because she wants to help him the next time she goes to church with him.

Just so you know she does have actual toys to play with. I am very proud of Lily and her railing dance was innocent but still something I will laugh about for a long time to come.