I realized as I was washing and folding Bear’s preppy little Easter outfit that I should have bought two Easter outfits at minimum. The chances of a diaper blowout are pretty high, and I don’t have a backup. So here at least is a picture of the outfit, and if I have time before church on Sunday, which I won’t, I’ll take a picture of him in it, since I might be changing him out of it again immediately. Maybe I’ll put him in a onesie, and then saran-wrap the onesie, and then put the Easter outfit over that. (I'm joking. There must be a reason they don't sell plastic onesies, right? Overheating issues or something?)
I got it secondhand at Once Upon a Child—the best savings there are on dressy clothes.
Zuzu’s dress was a gift from my Aunt Ofelia, so of course it is perfect and classy. I’m picturing braiding Zuzu’s hair and putting flowers in it. Wouldn’t that be darling? Aww … that won’t happen. I’m sure I’ll yank her curls up into a ponytail with two minutes to go before the service begins like usual.
Our trip to the Good Friday service was sort of a drill. Anders was planning to go, but he got called to work, and when Zuzu & Bear & I left our house we were already 15 minutes late. We found out when we arrived that there was no childcare provided, so we went to the empty nursery and just hung out until the service ended. I wouldn’t have bothered to go because of how late we were, except I thought it would be confusing for Zuzu to not go to church after I had told her like 19 times that we were going to church, as I rushed her around the house getting ready. It was probably still confusing for her to play in the quiet nursery for a few minutes and then go home again. As we pulled into the church parking lot, I prayed, “God, please let this somehow not be embarrassing.” And I guess He answered my prayer. It was a tenebrae service which means it was dark and solemn, and there was no way I was going to walk into the sanctuary 20+ minutes late with a chatty toddler and a very awake infant, find a seat and strip off our coats and shush the kids and finally get settled in about the time the service ended. As it was, we came in unnoticed, as far as I know, and walking out no one knew the difference. The audio from the service comes into the nursery, so I still got to hear a lot of it.
I feel like even excursions like this pay off somehow. It’s practice. It warmed us up for the Easter service, maybe.
We talk to Zuzu about God a lot, but I haven’t talked about Jesus dying on the cross much. In honor of Good Friday I thought it was time to start explaining it to her. It’s such a familiar story to me that it was strange to try to find the right words for a two-year-old. She listened sweetly and then brightly exclaimed that her lion didn’t want to drink any tea, and that was the end of it.
But I’m pretty sure even conversations like this pay off, too. It’s amazing what she hears and remembers when you don’t think she’s paying attention.
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