Sundays

I'm sure, for every mother out there, Sunday is one of the most exciting days of the week and also the most dreaded time of the week. A classic song sings "Easy like Sunday Morning." All I can say is that author was obviously not a parent, or at least not a Mormon. To put it frankly, Sunday mornings are anything but easy. I've got to say, trying to get an overtired, extremely mobile, easily distractible, ten month old boy through three hours of church is worse then pulling teeth. But by the same token, with all that craziness comes tons of fun stories. Welcome to a Sunday in the Matthews Home: 

Jumper march 14, 2011

Sunday Ben was my "team teacher." (I absolutely loved it! I wish that was his full time calling.) Anyways, he totally has a way with those wiggly four year olds. They were out of control this Sunday, and I thought I was going to die, trying to keep fourteen wiggly children seated during the ridiculous long, drawn out, over their heads, Sharing time lesson. But when we got to class, Ben was just what these kids needed. . . . Energy! And tons of it! We arrived in class and Ben instructed all the kids to stand perfectly still. As still as they possibly could. Then stand on one foot. Then the other. Then start hopping. Before long, the kids were on the floor doing push-ups and then back up on there feet doing jumping jacks. And Rivers, Rivers thought that was crazy cool. During all this standing on one foot stuff, Rivs had made his way to the door, climbed up to where there's this envelope drop flap and then noticed all the kids jumping. So he started in. Bouncing his little body up and down, up and down, laughing and laughing as he participated with all the "big kids," in the jumping game. As you can probably tell, both Rivers and Ben alike, totally enjoyed themselves, being one in a class full of 4 year olds.

Bully march 22, 2011

There's a baby in the ward, an adorable baby boy with a head full of dark curly hair. His name is Thor. Yea, Thor, you know the " hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, destruction, fertility, healing, and the protection of mankind." (wikipedia), yea, that Thor.  And honest, he is adorable.  Anyways, Thor is exactly one week younger than Rivers. Probably weighs 11 lbs more than Rivers (and they will most likely always have that percentage of weight difference). Anyways, Rivers doesn't give a care about Thor's intimidating name or his  heavy weight, for that matter. All Rivers sees is a still (yea, Thor doesn't move much. He is a chill baby, who prefers sleeping in his mama's arms during 3/4 of church and the other 1/4 is mixed with mostly staring and a slight bit of scooting - I know all you mama's out there are dreaming about a 10 month old kid like this one. He is so relaxed it's shocking.) Anyways, all Rivers sees is a still, curious, boy with a head full of hair, just like his favorite cuddly teddy bear. So, being the speed demon (emphasizing the word demon here or maybe speed. I don't know both adjectives are vital to this story) that Rivers is, he takes off in full speed across the foyer, doesn't even take the time to introduce himself, and grabs Thor's thick curly dark hair (and I'm sure part of his face) in his fist, before we have time to catch the wild baby. And Thor begins crying. Poor, poor baby Thor. Every time Rivers came near, after that incident, Thor began sniffling. His mom was not impressed (to say the least) and we were on constant guard to protect all the other babies from our rambunctiously happy, ridiculously wild, constantly curious, Bully Baby.

Tricks & Words march 14, 2011
Rivers is learning a lot, and fast. Everyday he has a new trick. Last week he started to say "Mom." It's usually when he is whining, and he goes "mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom." I know he doesn't know it's me. But every time he does it, I just melt: I run to him, and say "Yes, that's me, Rivers! I'm mom." Sometimes he smiles, other times he just focuses on what he's whining about so I can fix it. Either way, I love to hear him say my "name" (yeah I'm mom! I love being mom). 

Another glorious trick Rivers has picked up in the last two days, is clicking. He clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth and the bottom of this mouth, which resonates a beautiful click. Sunday was maybe his second day of clicking (and even now he can't stop), but Sunday, being his second clicking day, he's was pretty proud of himself. And he wanted to share his new trick with our huge ward. So right after the priests concluded the sacrament prayer, Rivers began clicking. We had all sorts of people turning around to see who in the world was making that funny noise (because truthfully, it sounds just like an adult clicking). Upon discovering it was that cute baby dressed in his white shirt, tie, and vest, standing on his Papa's lap, clicking, they couldn't help but burst into big smiles and some chuckles. Only making Rivers discover new friends, whom he played peek-a-boo with for the remainder of the meeting. 
Now that he is a veteran clicker Rivs clicks on his past time. This morning, when he woke up, instead of yelling for us to arrive. He made one little yelp to let us know "Hey guys, I'm awake" then we hear him begin clicking. Click, click, click, click. 
He enjoys this clicking so much that he can't resist. While nursing, he often times, stops eating, looks up at me with a big grin and then begins to click. When I reply with a click, he watches ever so closely, then copies my click. With a big big grin. I'm starting to wonder if he would have done better being African. You know those languages where they have different clicks for communication? Well, maybe he'll be called to speak that language on his mission. I'm pretty sure he'd pick it up rather quickly. 

waving bye bye