Later, Mom

Sometimes, Rain surprises me. Ok, she surprises me a lot, but I mean in a good way, too. During the past week, I've unpacked a lot of Rain's toys. She hasn't seen them in months, so I was curious to see if she'd recognize them. Most of them she did, but that wasn't the fun part.

Toys that she couldn't figure out how to use before, she picked up and tah-dah! She put 'em together and took 'em apart like, "This is so ... infantile." She's right: she's a toddler now and needs something more than stacking rings. She even sat on top of her elephant rocking toy and started riding it like a BMX bike. Previously, she never sat on it for longer than a minute, and I had to have both hands on her.

Yesterday was the most surprising.

See, Rain was born on a Sunday. And the very next Sunday, we took her to church to show her off (c'mon, I'd been working on her for 9 months, better believe I showed her off). Since then, we've taken her every week. For the first few months, she just slept or cried during church. Then she took a liking to the preacher, and for a few more months, she did her best to sit up and get his attention. Once she learned to crawl, the game was up. I practically had to manhandle Rain to keep her from crawling under the pews. Three weeks ago, she learned how to hop over them.

Then a funny thing happened. Two weeks ago, my nephew and niece started to go to Bible class together. Rain stayed with me every week, and I didn't even realize she noticed that her cousins were off doing something different than she was.

Yesterday, we went to church, and before things got rolling, I was searching the floors for a shoe Rain had lost (by "lost," I mean purposefully removed and hid). I got distracted, and after a minute, I ran into Tim. I said, "Rain's not with you?" So, we did the parenting hustle, but couldn't find her in the auditorium where she normally plays.

We found her ... in the preschool classroom. The teacher said Rain walked in and sat next to her cousins. The teacher was a bit puzzled, but gave Rain a coloring sheet anyway. Rain colored quietly, and that's what she was doing when I found her. I said hello to her from the door, though I didn't go in. Rain stayed in her seat. Don't ya know, that kiddo stayed in class the entire time? The teacher said she never cried or tried to leave or anything. The kids in class said Rain loved the singing part and danced herself silly.

When class ended, I met Rain at the door. She acknowledged me with a hug to my legs, but that was it. She ran down the hall to play with her cousins.

And, don't laugh, but, well, I was standing there, and I sort of felt a little tug at the marble heart. She's a growin', and doesn't need me to be there for every single thing. It's totally cool.

...

I'm fine, no really, just have dust in my eyes, must be allergies ...