My Boy (or Pride, part II)

Cole is always cute, but today he was especially cute, so I thought I'd share the stories of the day. Let me start my saying that I realize probably all of these cute things have been done by every regular church-going child. (This is not to imply that if your child hasn't done these things, he/she needs to spend more time in church. I simply mean that I realize my child is not a prodigy but a normal child, and I don't expect you parents out there to be amused by Cole's actions. However, I hope you will be.)

First of all, I wanted to go to early service today, which causes a major time crunch, so I yanked Cole out of bed as soon as I had myself ready and got him dressed. (He was awake when I got to him, so don't think I awakened him from a deep sleep by "yanking" him.) As I was dressing him, I was singing a Christmas song that my sisters and I heard Mitch Miller sing frequently as children. "Who's got a beard that's long and white? Santa's got a beard that's long and white. Who comes around on a special night? Santa comes around on a special night. Beard that's white, special night...Must be Santa, must be Santa, must be Santa, Santa Claus." There are many verses to this song. I was singing as many as I could remember. After singing for a while, Cole looked at me, put his finger over his lips, and said, "Shhh." It was hilarious, but I obeyed.

Cole has taken an interest in the singing at church. He has started to sing along. It hasn't gotten especially loud yet, but it's still cute. I love to hear him sing, and he often moves his hands with the song leader as well. It almost brought me to tears today. I think the level of pride I felt today in hearing him sing is second only to the moment he was born. It was a great feeling.

After the singing subsided, one of our elders got up to give communion thoughts. Cole then turned around to the people behind us (we were in probably the third or fourth pew), put his little finger over his mouth again, and shushed the people behind us. The elder then lead a prayer, and when it was over he closed with an "Amen." In case he hadn't closed the prayer well enough, Cole echoed, " 'men."

When a video was incorporated into the sermon, Cole craned his neck to watch. He crawled into the lap of the lady next to us who was helping me barricade him in and watched intently with the sweetest little angel face.

Then tonight, as we waited for church to begin, we went into the auditorium where our children were practicing for a play. They were singing a song that required arm movements. Cole watched for a while, and then imitated, as exactly as a one-year-old could, each movement they made. Again, I was so proud.

That's my boy. I know there will be a time when his embarrassing actions outnumber the actions that make me proud, but for now, let me revel in this moment.