Rachel's first day in Primary

It's started already, that inevitable sacrament meeting bickering. Rachel wanted to sit on my lap, which is fine, except that she has no choice but to share my lap with her baby sister. Miriam spent the entire meeting kicking Rachel.

If Rachel was cuddled on my left side, Miriam was there, too, kicking away. If Rachel moved to my right side, Miriam was not far behind. Kick, kick, kick, kick, kick! I may as well get used to it because I have a feeling I'll be dealing with it for quite a few years to come.

After sacrament meeting Rachel and I headed upstairs for her first day of Primary.

One by one, all of her little nursery buddies have moved away. Robby & Lydia, Jacquie, Finn, Loei, and Sam. Now she's the only child left that is nursery-aged, but she's pretty mature for her age, so following the footsteps of her mother (that's me), she started attending Primary a year early.

I went to Sunbeams early because we moved from a huge nursery room with few children to a small nursery room with a lot of children (I can't remember where we moved from to where, but I think we ended up in Burnaby?) and I didn't like the new nursery so refused to go. I'm stubborn like that. But, like Rachel, I talked fairly well and knew how to sit still during church so they stuck me in Sunbeams and I loved it. I did Sunbeams two years in a row with the same teacher, and I still have memories of her classroom. I forget her name, though. (My mom remembers a lot more about this than I do, I'm sure).

Oh, the perks you enjoy when your mother is in the Primary Presidency!

My almost-two-year-old Sunbeam was a little shell shocked to be sitting in with the big kids. She spent the duration of opening exercises stone-faced and unemotional. She didn't sing. She didn't cry. She didn't smile. She didn't even really look at anything.

Phyllis declared her the "dice holder" (we were playing a game where the kids rolled a giant die to see which word strip we'd pull off for the song we were learning) and she'd hold it in between each turn and gladly give it up each time she was asked. But she still didn't smile. I'm not sure she even blinked.

When it was time to go to class, Rachel got a little clingy. She wanted Mommy. I walked her to her classroom and she asked where Sam was.

"He's gone. He won't be in church anymore, but Sarah's going to be your friend, okay?"

"Okay," she said and sat in the chair beside Sarah.

Sarah is almost 5, but she's really sweet with Rachel. All the House girls are.

I didn't hear a peep from Rachel all during class (which is only a half hour long). I went in at the end to tell her class it was time for closing exercises. Anne was trying to get Sarah to say the closing prayer, but Sarah wouldn't. So Rachel did.

Anne said that Rachel was well-behaved and listened intently the whole time and answered questions and everything. She asked if Rachel was always this calm. It was all I could do to keep from laughing, because she's not calm at all. She just loves learning about Jesus and knows when to be reverent. We really lucked out, I guess.

She was back to her happy self for closing exercises. She "sang" along with the songs, which meant that she sang her own tune and own words while everyone else sang the real song. She even tried to repeat the scripture. I was sitting too far away to hear her, but she was moving her mouth along with everyone else. It was kind of hard for me to watch her acting so grown up, but it was nice at the same time. Nice to see what a big girl she is, hard to know she was once my little baby.

After church Andrew (finally) got set apart for his calling in the Elder's Quorum and then he had a meeting after that. Rachel and I went in the backyard to play for a little while. Rachel almost fell down the stairs in the backyard, scaring us both half to death (they're stone!), but she caught herself in some yogic frog pose after falling headfirst two steps. I was impressed; there wasn't a scratch on her.

Now Andrew's home and Rachel's running around the house screaming, "Tickle me! Get me!" Andrew's obeying her every command and they aren't being reverent at all. See? She's not quiet and reverent all the time. My ears are ringing with all the screaming she's doing; I'm sure the neighbours really appreciate it. At least she knows how to sit nicely through church...of course, we cheat and are only there for two hours so that makes it a little easier.

Oh, the perks you enjoy when you're in an expat branch during the summertime!