Elmo is definitely a boy

So we're in church this morning and Ethan is coloring on his aquadoodle pages that are about Elmo.  He is seeming to take a lot of care coloring the mid-section of this particular picture of Elmo.  Then, in the middle of church, and not in his whispering church voice Ethan says, "Mommy look!  Ethan colored Elmo's penis!"  And yes, he was very proud of himself.

Speaking of church, this morning was quite an adventure.  Most of you probably don't know, but Clay runs the PowerPoint at church for the songs, and then gets the sermon slides started for our preacher.  Because of this, he sits on the front row, and Ethan and Rachel and I sit behind him.  This is good because my parents will sit with us because my dad leads singing and has to sit at the front anyway.  Well, this morning my mom was sick and Rachel needed to be fed at 10:00 (when church starts), so Clay had to do the slides for the songs and keep Ethan with him.  Usually this isn't a problem, but Ethan hasn't exactly been himself for the past 4 weeks either.  So, as one of the prayers is being started, Clay said that Ethan started talking really loud and when he tried to get him to be quiet, he just erupted.  Luckily, there's a door right beside where we sit that leads to the baptistry.  So, Clay whisks Ethan out the door to get him to calm down while keeping in mind that he has to be back out there for the next song.  He does make it back in the nick of time, but just into the first verse Ethan escapes down the aisle.  Obviously Clay can't leave to catch him and this is about the time Rachel and I walk in the back of the auditorium.  I am embarrassed and a little panicked to see my son walking down the aisle, and then thankfully a good friend grabs him and takes him back up to Clay's seat just as I get there.  I managed to keep Ethan entertained and Rachel quiet through the rest of the song service thinking that once the sermon was started Clay would come back and sit with us as he always does.  Well, this was the ONE morning that our preacher forgot his clicker so Clay had to click through all of his slides for him.  Thank goodness my dad was there to help keep Ethan occupied.  So, the moral of this story is... Mom, you need to get well and FAST!  :)

And I won't go into all of the details, but tonight at church our preacher did a lesson on Jesus telling all of the weak and heavy burdened to come to Him.  This was exactly what I needed after our week last week.  There were lots of prayers said for specific reasons, and my dad led a prayer specifically for Clay and me that God would bless our family and our children and that he would help us to be the parents that God would have us to be so that Ethan and Rachel can say they want to be just like us.  I cried through the whole thing, and then immediately felt this peace that this week would be much better.  So, bring on the new week because I now have a new sense of peace, patience and purpose.  What in the world do people do without prayer.