Before this morning it had been about 3 weeks since I last got to help teach Nursery, because one week I'd been sick, and the week before that was Stake Conference. And I'll admit, I was staring at babies on campus all week thinking, "Man, I've gotta go play with those nursery kids and get my cuteness fix."
They did not disappoint.
Last week the other couple we teach with, Robby and Hilary, found out that one of our girls loves bubbles. So when she normally takes a little while to calm down after leaving her mom or dad, this time we got the bubbles out and as Kam put it, "Daddy who?" She was all over those bubbles. I had never seen her so excited before.
She was the only one of our kids who showed up for the first hour, so she was just living in a toddler paradise. Tons of toys you don't have at home and 4 adults who have nothing better to do than entertain you. When she got tired of the bubbles she looked through the toy box and eventually decided Hilary's shoes were the most interesting item in the room. Hilary let her wear them, and it was really impressive how well she could walk around in shoes the size of her entire leg. After about an hour of playtime to herself, one of our little boys joined us and we got snacks ready.
Let me just put a plug in for how good these kids are. They are so well-behaved. We can give each of them a snack and show them a table and they'll walk right over and climb up into their chairs and color and eat and they are completely content. They let us clean their hands and faces and don't whine; (My little siblings hated that. Sorry little siblings, but it's true.) in fact they like washing their hands. So parents, if you're reading this, we love your kids, and we're impressed. (Little siblings, I love you too, even though you didn't like having your faces washed. Heck, I probably didn't like it either.)
One of the funniest parts of the day was when Robby decided to give both of our little kids high fives. They both understood the concept, but this little boy just liked to get so geared up before it. By the time he actually gave you a high five, he was making this crazy intense, "I'm the coolest man in the room, BAM!" face, and we could not stop laughing. What made it even better, was that even our little girl thought it was hilarious. She would laugh so hard every time Robby gave this little boy a high five. At first we thought, "Oh, she loves it. She must want a high five, too." So we'd give her a high five, but she was just impatient for Robby to give the little boy a high five again. If they didn't get back to it quickly enough for her she'd grab the little boy's hand and then grab Robby's hand and try to make her intentions clear. Then this little boy would give another high five (He had no problem with that. He was feeling pretty fly.) completely oblivious to the little girl sitting next to him who was covering her face and drowning in giggles.
After that Kam taught this little boy how to ride the Sit-and-spin. (You guys remember those?) That was another adventure. I can't really describe how hilarious that was without you seeing this little boy's face. He is one of the most expressive little kids I've ever seen. At one point, he got a little tipsy and fell back off that Sit-and-spin. It happened really slowly, so he didn't hurt himself, and he didn't even look that upset, except that when I went over to help him up he had this accusing, "Um, what just happened?" look on his face that made me laugh so hard I almost forgot to help him up.
There's one more crazy image from today that I just can't get over. This little girl can't seem to get enough of Kam. Towards the end of the day he told me, "If you put your arms out, she'll give you a hug." So I tried it, and she did. She'd give a hug to anyone who put their arms out for her. But afterwards she'd look back at Kam and see if he was ready for her to run back and give him a hug again. Once while Kam was on Sit-and-spin safety watch, she ran up and tried to get on his back. It was just so funny to see her two tiny arms barely making it over Kam's shoulders. He could like, eat her. Not that he would. That sounded weird. I just mean, she is so tiny in comparison to him. I sometimes feel like I'm small enough to fit inside Kam, and she only comes up to my knees. But she is so not deterred by that. Kam's just like her giant teddy bear. She figured him out, alright.
So, yeah. We pretty much have the best three hours of church each week. We try to teach a short lesson each week, but I learn a lot more from those kids than I'm sure they learn from me. Our lesson this week was "Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ Love You." It's a simple truth, but it almost seems like a paradox for me to try to teach those kids about love. They just love everybody. It kind of reminds you how simple love like that really is.
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