Nursery

Brian turned 18-months-old on January 27! Not only are we half way to his 2nd birthday but being 18-months-old also makes old enough to begin Nursery at church, so we took him on January 31st. Because he doesn't get to interact with strangers and children much, I was concerned about leaving him alone. Jeff and I led him to Nursery where we found Sis. Carol, who used to serve in Primary when I was a Sunbeam teacher. She didn't recognize me, but she was my favorite "teacher" during Sharing-Time at Primary. I was surprised to find Nursery a small room, more so because toddlers need space to roll or push some of their toys.


Sis. Carol told Jeff and I that there are only a handful of children who attend Nursery, and it's rare for all the children to attend together. She mentioned the children who were there, and I was surprised that she hadn't mentioned Sis. Smith's daughter who is Baby's age. I would learn later that she moved back to her home state.


A father brought his son Jonah to Nursery, and he was the only other child there aside from Baby. Unfortunately, he cried most of that first hour. I felt terrible for him as he needed comfort and I even considered going to find one of his parents but I was afraid to leave Baby alone so I didn't volunteer to do that. For his part, Baby occupied himself playing with the assortment of toys they had there.


I learned from Sis. Carol that it was also 5th Sunday on this day. The adults would meet in the chapel again for the last hour of church and substitute "teachers" would arrive to replace Sis. Carol and our other Nursery teacher.


Jeff then appeared to find out how we were doing. He and Sis. Carol encouraged me to go with Jeff to 5th Sunday meeting and to leave Baby with his teen "substitute" teachers. Jonah's father had also come in to see how he was doing and when he learned that his son had had a rough time he took him with him.


At Nursery, too, Sis. Edgren stopped for a quick visit just before I left with Jeff. We told our substitute teachers not to hesitate to come to get us if Baby had a rough time. It was the first time he'd be left alone with complete strangers, without his parents and not in the care of a relative. Also, Jonah was no longer in the room with him.


We sat near near the door closest to Nursery. During the meeting Jeff went to check on Baby twice. He said he heard no crying. I also went a third time and was surprised to find that there was no crying. 5th Sunday meeting ended and we went to find our wee one. His teachers said that he was fine. They told us that he was "funny" because he had stumbled and fallen and he just lay there instead of getting back up.


We thanked our teen teachers and headed back to the chapel where we were able to see Heidi who had been visiting from Oregon.