So...quiet books. If you are unfamiliar with this concept, these are activity books we moms spend an insane amount of time making in a desperate effort to keep our offspring decently quiet at church. I am proud to say that in spite of my creative handicap, I have recently made two. And I've purchased two other super cute ones at the thrift store, so I'm equally proud of those. I was so excited to bring these to church and put them to good use; after all, now that I had these done, my life would be complete, right? My children would be reverent, their hair would stay neatly combed, and they would always eat all their vegetables. Yes!
So we brought them to church to put them to the test, and much to my delight, they appear to be working. Judsen and Felicity are each entertained by one of the thrift store books (Noah's Ark #1 and Noah's Ark #2) and for once, I am sitting peacefully in the meeting, enjoying the reverence and my obvious overwhelming success as a mother.
All of a sudden, a wild rumpus ensues to my right. I look over; Josh has Noah's Ark #1 in his lap and is happily arranging and rearranging the magnetic animals in their little magnetic boat. The look on his face is Christmas-morning delighted, "This is awesome! They have a mom and a dad bear and even a little matching label for each set of animals!" Felicity is greatly distressed because Daddy has seized control of Noah and his family and is not about to relinquish it, so she starts making a big stink and trying to steal all the animals out of his hands. "No, Daddy! I had these first!!" She's thrashing and hollering and carrying on in the middle of church all over the at-this-point-ironically-named Quiet Book.
Choking back mostly a laugh and a few distressed tears, I look to my left to see the same situation playing out with Judsen and his Uncle Jared. Jared has Noah's Ark #2 in hand and is eagerly supplying felt Noah with his felt food bucket and pairs of felt elephants and gorillas. Judsen has forlornly given up on Uncle Jared letting him look at the pictures and whispers to me, "Mom, he won't let me play."
I guess it's important to point out here that both Josh and Jared are in their 30s; if I would have known these quiet books would have been such a hit with children of all ages, I would have brought more. Or at least fruit snacks for everyone.
