Last week was our vacation bible school. On the first night, my father-in-law went to pick up his elderly mother, and waiting with her was a neighbor girl she had invited to VBS. They ended up bringing her every night. Apparently she stays with her father and grandmother during the summer, and she has been hanging out at Grandmother's (!) quite a lot. And since last week, trying to get invited to eat supper with my in-laws. Interesting. I guess she's lonely, but if she's going to hang out with old people, why not her own old people?
Anyway, she came to worship this morning and then tonight too. On the way in, she picked Jax up and carried him in, then sat with us (not Grandmother) and held Jax on her lap. Jax seemed more or less ok with it, so we were like, "Whatever." It was weird, how she hijacked my kid, but all 10-year-old girls seem to love little kids. And then he went to sleep on her lap, so his daddy took him back and held him.
Then she didn't have anything to do. We finished singing, and she grabbed my Bible before I could, and said, "Is this yours?" I said yes, it is, and she whispered, "Ok." And kept it! I kind of stared agape for a brief second, then regained my composure and picked up Jaxom's Bible. Ok, she doesn't have one. She is old enough to read. If she wants to follow along with the lesson, that's a good thing, right? She didn't know the books of the bible, but since we were holding identical ones she was able to follow me and find the references by the page numbers. I'm thinking, ok, she has MY Bible, but this is kind of cute, that I have a copycat.
Shane was preaching, and one of his phrases that he says all the time is, "If you write in your Bible, underline {this or that}." It sounds goofy, and usually he's not pointing out anything I think is of major significance. Anyway, he says this, and Goldilocks reaches for a pen. I put my hand up in a "stop" gesture and shake my head, and she didn't actually write anything, but then a few minutes later I caught her trying to doodle in my Bible! I shot her a really dirty look and rummaged in my bag for a notepad, but by this time I know I had a rather aghast look on my face. She kept on doing... things. With your own child you have the nonverbal communication thing going on. This was weird.
After services were over, Jax still was asleep. Normally we'd toss him down on a bench and let him snooze for a while, but Goldilocks immediately wanted to hold him. Andy said no. She actually grabbed his arm and tried to yank him out of Andy's lap! Finally he had to grab her wrist and tell her in no uncertain terms that she was NOT to wake him up, and she needed to find something else to do. She disappeared, I suppose upstairs with some of the other kids, but it was sooo strange. I expected to come home and find that someone had been sleeping in my bed.
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wakeful dreamer