Probably tougher on Mom and Dad...

Today we put Jazmine in the toddler room at church. (They have three different age group rooms for the kids not old enough for Sunday School.) That was a first for all of us! She has ALWAYS been with me. She has never experienced anything like that or a daycare type of thing before. (We kept Isaac with us because we knew that he would freak out in the nursery. Plus he doesn't feel good with all these teeth coming in, so we didn't want to irritate him more.)

We got to church early because the last time the room had already hit it's limit so she had to stay with us, and we want her to have the interaction. Well, being as it was the early service PLUS daylight savings, hardly anyone was there. She was the only child for about 30 minutes. The three workers there were great with her. One lady was reading Jazmine books which is her favorite thing to do when she isnt' causing chaos!

Lenny and I took turns peeking into the room without her seeing us like every 5 minutes because we were worried about our babygirl. And I must confess we took her out of the room early. But it's because we felt bad. There was like 7 or 8 other kids by about 9:30 and they were all broke up into small groups playing, but she was just sitting in her chair looking at her books or standing watching the other kids. She never interacted with them, but she also never cried. And she was very interested in what they were doing.

We figure if we are consistent with taking her every week, then she will start to get used to it. It was so wierd to watch my little bundle of personality and energy just sitting there being so still and so quiet. But the minute we took her out she started talking up her usual storm.

Putting her in the toddler room at church serves two purposes. For one, she will start to hear a message about Jesus at a young age in terms that are easier to understand for her than the sermon we listen to. Secondly, since the children are with me all day, they don't get very much outside social interaction, especially with chilren their age. I dont' want them to be the children that really struggle when it is time for a Pre-K or Kindergaten program. Jazmine already knows her alphabet, can recognize what letters are what, can count to almost 30, knows her colors and shapes and all of those sorts of things because I work with her on them. But social interaction with other children isn't something I can just teach her from home.