Antics from a Porcupine

Xandra's most recent tower. I have no explanation for the toilet paper,

except to say that it was intentional and it was all her idea.

Xandra has been full of antics lately. Here are a few recent highlights:

Questionitis:
When I was young I was often accused of having questionitis because I plagued the adults around me with questions. As long as they would answer my questions, I would keep asking them. Evidently I have passed this gene along to Xandra, as one of her favorite pastimes right now is to ask, "What would happen if..." Here are just a few of this week's questions: "What would happen if our car stopped in the middle of the street? What would happen if there was no Awana tonight? What would happen if the cars drove on the sidewalk?" And the list goes on and on and on and on.

Sunday School Surprise:
A few weeks ago in Preschool Sunday School I was leading music (as I do about twice a month)and a little girl raised her hand and announced that she had to go potty. This caused a rash of little girls all suddenly needing to use the bathroom (evidently singing time just isn't that fun!). Xandra was among those little girls. Being her mother, I knew that it wasn't possible that she had to go to the bathroom, so I told her she could go, but she'd have to wait until round one of the potty parade came back from the bathroom. This did not go over well with Xandra. The drama that ensued from her dissatisfaction with my proposal resulted in me turning music time over to another teacher and leaving the room with my screaming, crying, fit-throwing child. This situation did not work out well for my little porcupine, however, when we returned to class I thought we were at a place of understanding that there would be no more fits.

Upon finishing music time, I prepared to leave the class. The announcement that I was leaving the room did not go over well. Xandra began to melt down again. This time she followed me into the hallway and clutched my leg. When I removed her from my leg she immediately lay on the floor. These situations are always so much better when it's someone else's child, don't you agree? At this point, I picked her up, shared a few whispered words of "encouragement" with her and passed her off to one of the assistant teachers. I informed both of them that she would be fine and I'd be back at the end of service. As I rounded the corner to return to nursery duty (I was double booked this Sunday) I heard great howling and screaming from behind. I kept walking wishing to pretend that wasn't my child (this was a mistake) and passed a gentleman in the hallway who showed mild disturbance at the howling child. I sheepishly told him it was my daughter and that I thought she would be fine.

Ten minutes later, the children's pastor entered the nursery with Xandra in tow. He informed me that she had been quite upset and they couldn't seem to calm her down. He was gentle in his retelling of her fit-throwing behavior, but I knew exactly what had been going on, for I have seen it many times myself. Nothing like a little humble pie early on a Sunday morning. Whose kid gets kicked out of preschool Sunday School, anyway?

At this point, daddy stepped in and escorted Xandra to the hallway where things once again did not work out so well for Xandra. After her little talk with daddy she spent sometime (which she did NOT enjoy) sitting on a chair, facing a wall all by herself. When she was sufficiently bored we allowed her to return to Sunday School with the conditions that she apologize to her teachers and if there were further problems, her life would be very unpleasant.

After service, I was retelling a portion of the story to a friend who had attended the service. She replied, "Oh, so that was Xandra we heard screaming during the service." Just what I wanted to hear.

Flowers for Xandra:
Last Wednesday at Awana the kids all made tissue paper flowers. When I picked Xandra up I overheard one of the teachers explaining to a parent that they had made the flowers for their moms for Mother's Day. Upon hearing this I asked Xandra what the flower was for and she replied, "It's for me (meaning herself)." I never did get the flower for Mother's Day.

Bwogging:
Recently Joe was sitting at the computer looking at some pictures. When Xandra saw them she responded, "We should put some of them on our bwog."