I can't believe...

He peed in the cat's water dish!! What was he thinking!!?? I woke myself up a million times last night with flashbacks of this event. I think the whole evening was just typical Vick family craziness! Every other Monday night our family joins other members of our church for fellowship and Bible study. Well, as it so happens, our group (Pastorate) has only 1 other child, other than the Vick children.

Our first gathering was last month, and J and T were the only children that time. Needless to say Johnathan & Tenleigh brought a special element to the group. Thankfully the home in which we gathered belongs to very hands-on grandparents.... So J and T had their own special room full of toys, coloring materials, and snacks.

But because this special room is simply a sun room off of the main room, our group of about 20 (mostly grandparents) was really a part of J & T (& Ella's -- Tenleigh's imaginary friend) play session. While everyone was so gracious and welcoming and happy to have our young children a part of their group, for Ryan and I it was a little bit stressful. :) We found ourselves deep nose-breathing through Johnathan's loud train whistles and constantly turning around to see the source of loud crashing sounds.

Tenleigh threw a mini-tantrum because we wouldn't let her have a Hershey's kiss treat, even though she "pooped on the potty, Mom!" as she announced to the crowd.

Sweet Audrey was celebrating her 90th birthday that same evening; how could I not sit down and visit with her when she pulled me down next to her after our closing prayer? But you see... that meant Ryan was left to clean up the sun room explosion with the kids by himself. (And that did not make for a very talkative, cheerful husband in the car ride on the way home!)

So we left that first evening very much questioning if this was the right group for our family... if we were the right "newbie" family for this group. Fast-forward a few weeks to Sunday morning. I was selling AP jewelry in our lobby, and so many of our pastorate family members came to visit and express how excited (!!??) they were for our family to join their group. They were so kind and gracious about our busy children, and so genuinely happy to welcome us. One of the leaders shared that tomorrow evening she would be doing something with the kids. So very kind and thoughtful of her!

Tenleigh and Ryan stayed home this time as T had been running a fever off & on since Sat night and we didn't want to push her. Sure enough, as promised, Jan took Johnathan and Grace (another newbie friend) for the evening. Great, awesome, fairly quiet, Mom was loving me some adult conversation and quiet prayer time... Until my son's 5 year old curiousity got the best of him and he decided to pee in the cat dish. But to his credit, the cat's water dish is a potty-training chair, in the bathroom. And I suppose he thought it might be fun to test-drive a potty chair again, since it has been about 3 years since he last used one! But it doesn't work very well standing up... And so one can imagine the clean-up left for Mom.

I was too embarrassed to mention anything to the hosts... I don't think they know about my blog... Next gathering is in another couple's home. They have no grandchildren. I better start planning our 60 minutes of activity now!