Sundays with the Dubs

For those of you who don't have the pleasure of attending church with us every week, let me summarize Miss Dub's behavior in two words: loud and crazy. Yesterday, for example, she hung herself from the pew and swung her body, shouting, "Swiiiing, Mommy, swiiiing!" Sounds cute on paper, but it was actually pretty annoying, mostly to the people sitting in the pew in front of us.

And that's just a sampling of her bad behavior, which included roaring during the sacrament and playing peek-a-boo with the general audience. Eventually, Mr. Dub gave up and took her out. She just doesn't get the concept of whispering and nothing about her personality is demure. That's also why I love her. She will dance on command. She can speak in full, albeit hard to understand, sentences. She has a vivid imagination already. She gets many adult concepts. She says, "Cool man," "Cool dude," and "Cool beans" without prompting. But she is very loud, very stubborn and very energetic. (This is probably the part where my parents chuckle and say, "Pay back!")

It's funny how certain qualities are appreciated at different times in life. I have no doubt her enthusiasm and stubborness will make her a very successful career woman. I also think her outgoing personality will make her quite popular in school. But as a toddler, it's a lot to control. I find myself looking at more subdued, proper children and wishing Miss Dub could be a little more like that, but then I remind myself, "That kid is on the road to nerdom." And nerdom brings its own set of challenges, like bad fashion sense.

I really have no one but myself to blame. I'm loud and crazy myself. And I'm just not a discipliner. I don't tolerate really inappropriate behavior, like biting or kicking, but I can turn a blind eye to most other things - including pouring water all over the ground and pretending it's a pool. I don't have the energy to fight every battle, plus I just love to see her imagination and independence at work.

But on Sundays, it really comes back to bite me.