First Really Embarrassing Parenting Moment (and one for Grandma too :)

Pride cometh before the fall. Who hasn't heard that? No one. I probably should have seen this coming.

I'll admit, William often makes me pretty proud. In fact, it seems he often makes us look like better parents than we really are with some of the things he'll do when he has an audience. I often tell Jordon that.

Sunday morning, however, was a different story. But first, some background:

Normally, our church starts at 1pm- William's naptime and he is most often asleep during sacrament and then we take him to nursery. Love it. Even when he is not asleep, though, he usually does a pretty good job. He'll fold his arms during the prayers, read, draw, etc. Nothing we can really complain about. We are currently in Moses Lake (with the exception of Jordon) so we are not really in familiar surroundings. Church in Moses Lake is at 9, so we are in pre-naptime/lunch moods.

We got to church just as the opening song was being sung- which meant we were a little late and the only place left to sit was the very front pew. It was time to feed James, so I saw where my family was going to sit and then went to the mother's lounge.

I suppose I should have taken it as an omen when, sitting peacefully in the mother's lounge listening to the meeting, I can hear through the speakers "MAWH-mEEE!"- it sounded an awful lot like my child. Sure enough, William was at the funeral door calling for me- it took my family a minute to get him because each thought that the other would go grab him. Finally my Dad did. Not too long after that, Mom brought him to the mother's lounge. We finished up with William and headed back in- just in time to put on a show for the whole ward and stake presidency. yeah.

I remember when I was in YW's, I would think it was so cute when little kids went toddling up and down the isle. . . . definitely not so cute when it's your kid and you feel like a fool because you say, "William, come back here" and he gives the I-know-what-you-want-me-to-do-and-I'm-NOT-GOING-TO-DO-IT look (which I have been getting a lot more of lately) and then takes off down the isle, or up to the stand. Didn't really enjoy chasing him down a few times during the meeting.

I finally decided that bribing him was worth a try. I decided to try his sippy cup with water. Nope. That went flying across the chapel (picture a slow-mo twirl with water coming out sprinkler style as it flies through the air) and landed with a resounding THUD. We had a little battle and he eventually went and picked it up. Chase him down a few more times. Bribe with fruit snacks (good idea). Then we decide to color.

Bad idea.

He colors nicely at first (he's sneaky like that) and then suddenly takes off towards the stand and with his RED crayon takes it down the white drywall in between the wood paneling of the stand. I think my jaw dropped at this point. We don't even have this struggle at home with his crayons and coloring things, and THIS is when he decides he wants to try coloring the wall!!??

I go and grab him again, take away the crayon and tell him he is ALL DONE with coloring because that was a bad choice and he knows better.

This results in screaming. So, in the middle of the closing prayer (thank goodness it was the CLOSING prayer, though), I get up and walk out with my screaming child. He eventually calms down and we take a wipe and he cleans up his crayon mark (which thankfully comes right off!).

Take him to nursery- I end up having to stay with him. Needless to say, didn't get much out of church last Sunday.

In the meantime, my Mom is with James in Sunday school and he lets such a loud one rip that EVERYONE turns their head. My Mom points emphatically to James a few times, but everyone turns back to the front with a SURE-blame-it-on-the-kid look on their face.

Today, we went to church armed with many more fruit snacks and a middle bench with which to trap William- it went MUCH better.