AT CHURCH: LILLY CROSS? JAYDEN LAID TO REST! JACOB FOODS

JAYDEN, 3rd grade

NOISY CRAYONS

He was being noisy, was Jayden, in the pew next to me.  He was digging through the little plastic container of crayons, carelessly, trying to find a black one.  

"Please be quiet during the sermon," I cautioned him as his sister joined us.  He had a reasonable reply.

"We can't.  We have too much energy."

SING ALONG

Sitting beside me in the church pew, I encouraged Jayden to sing along.  Running my finger across the hymnal page of music notes and words, I showed him how to follow along so he could confidently sing.  

Turning away, to check on the other grandkid, I opened my own hymnal.  When I looked back at Jayden, he was picture perfect.  He'd decided to lay in the seat!  His feet were nearest me, crossed at the ankles.  His hands were loosely clasped on his chest.  The book I'd given him?

It was still open ... laid across his eyes.  The little imp was acting like he was sleeping!

LILLY, 2nd grade

The Cross?

Miss Lilly side-stepped my feet to sidle into my pew.  She carried a backpack, and what I thought was an arrow made of Legos.  No, I was informed it was a Minecraft object.  I asked her what it was.

"Is it an arrow?"  No.

"Is it a cross?"  Which seemed reasonable since we were in church.

"No," she asserted, "it's an AXE!"

JACOB, 4 y.o.

More Bacon

After church that Sunday afternoon, I'd fried up a pound of bacon.

Miss Lilly and Master Jacob were hungry.

Keeping some tucked away to my right by the stove, I put a bountiful amount on a plate and set it in the middle of the kitchen table where she was drawing sharks, and he was trying to color.  I hadn't yet made sandwiches nor told them they could dive in.  But, GrammyPam doesn't really care one way or another.

When I looked back around from my spitting frying skillet of bacon, Jacob's head was facing the ceiling with mouth wide open into which he was dropping a piece of bacon.

"You're a sneaky little bacon eater!"

His little boy voice laughed,  "Yah, that's me!"

Tootsie Pop

Jacob was content to sit beside me in the back pew licking a tootsie pop.  He was so enjoying it he was rocking with each suck.  He told me about it.

"I'm drinking off the juice."  Slur-r-r-rp!