yeah, he's cool

We spent THE ENTIRE DAY at church. David and I helped in the 'waddler' nursery again, and then he went to work. I went to the service and found Gran and Pop there, which was a nice surprise. After the service, I went to get Dennis from his service, and he insisted on seeing the pastors before we went to lunch, and he waited very patiently until it was his turn to speak to each of them. I was amazed. He just told them each hello and that he was about to go eat pizza with "all the other children" and we did just that. Today we started basic training for the Awana program that will start in 3 weeks. Dennis will get to start at the beginning and go all the way through the program, and I'm so excited about it. Awana is an intense scripture learning program that runs from ages 2 to 18, with the two year olds just getting basic picture stories. Dennis' age group will learn verses and what they mean, play games, do crafts, and earn badges and patches for their 'uniforms' as they do so. Older kids learn verses, meanings, and life applications and even do service projects. I will be teaching 5th and 6th grade girls, which frankly terrifies me because I remember being that age and I could swear that aliens had taken over my brain and personality then (and I guess those aliens would actually be hormones). Nonetheless, I am looking forward both to teaching and helping Dennis learn his way through his handbooks.

I didn't know exactly what to do with Dennis after lunch, so I fixed him a plate and took him into the room with kids in it, and they checked his name on the list and welcomed him. Later I learned that some of the ones his age were in the nursery with the paid workers, and some of the kids were with volunteers from the youth group. I left him with the youth group and when I mentioned this to the children's minister, she told me she'd put Grace (her daughter, a few months older than Dennis) in the nursery. So I went to check on him after 2 hours, and he was sitting calmly at the table with all the other children, coloring a picture. The teenaged guy behind him asked "is he your kid?" and I answered affirmatively, hoping I wasn't about to hear something bad, and he said "he's really cool--we're having a blast with him". So I didn't move him, and he played with the big kids and watched movies with them, and he did great! I'm proud of him and secretly thrilled that he's been pronounced cool by those in the know.

Earlier in the week we watched the Veggie Tales movie "Rack, Shack, and Benny" and Dennis was fascinated by the whole fiery furnace deal. We had to read the actual story to him a few times. So I was delighted to discover his take home pamphlet from Sunday School today was titled "the Fiery Furnace". I asked him what he learned and he said "about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and that they wouldn't bow down to the statue and they made the king mad and he put them in the fiery furnace and God didn't let them get burned and Mommy, what was that king's name again?". It's hard to say Nebuchadnezzar when you're three. I couldn't believe how well he said the three names he did say!

He's almost over his cold! He made it through the day with the help of Dimetapp, but he seems to be so much better. We are so glad!