Apologies From The Last Pew

{I wrote this several weeks ago and never published, but I want to remember how it has been.}
As a side note, I've now been called as the Primary pianist, so our church days are different now. Quite possibly worse some days... if that's even possible.

On a beautiful Sunday morning we walked into church a full 5 minutes early and found the last pew available. Perfect. We sat down and quickly got our supplies ready for the meeting.

Cheerios. Check.

Books. Check.

Milk. Check.

Binkies. Check.

We must have been feeling particularly optimistic because we invited a gal and her baby to sit with us. Three adults and three babies. We're good to go.  

Oh how wrong we were.

Our boys were standing up on the pew, crawling down to the floor, trying to crawl under the pew in front of us as well as under ours. The snacks and milk worked for a few minutes but these busy littles of ours moved on quickly. Books lasted all of 30 seconds and binkies were spit across the bench. Then the screaming began. That high pitched giddy squeal that tells us they are happy and there's nothing we can do to stop it. They feed off one another and the squealing and attempts to escape rapidly progressed to higher octaves and more attempts and amid the chaos, cheerios went flying.
Like a lot of cheerios. The "why on Earth did I even pack this many cheerios in the first place" amount.

I looked at Jesse, we shook our heads, and luckily a giggle escaped instead of tears.

And then I looked over at the other baby and she was calmly sitting on her mom's lap, not making a peep. {She is about 5 or 6 months younger, but still!} 

My dad always says it's better to have kids with personalities than bumps on a log, but it would sure come in handy on Sundays. 

I really don't like to take our kids out of Sacrament Meeting because I don't want them to learn that they can pitch a fit and then get to go play in the hallway. But finally it got to be too loud and crazy in the back left corner and I sneaked out to the hallway with "my" baby. Jesse soon followed. We hit our limit. In fact, the head shake in sacrament meeting meant we would not be staying for the next two hours of church, but instead be heading home early for nap time. For everyone.

I am very sorry we're loud and messy. I'm sorry you probably can't hear every word of the speakers when we sit by you. I'm sorry you may be crunching cheerios on your way out. I'm sorry my child keeps trying to pull your hair. And I'm sorry you are probably rolling your eyes thinking we are in way over our heads. Some days we may be, but we're doing the best we can trying to instill good morals and teach our children about Jesus.

Maybe some day we'll be able to make it all the way through church.
Probably in 5 months when the boys go to nursery.