children | bekahcubed

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Just a few months ago, we were regularly numbering a dozen children in our church nursery. Most of them were either rambunctious, clingy, or potty training (or all three!), requiring at least three nursery workers to keep order.

But with a spate of later summer birthdays graduating a bunch of newly minted three-year-olds to children’s church, we have gone back down to two workers a week.

Last week, my fellow-worker wasn’t around, and as only one child had come in so far, I told my sister-in-law (the nursery coordinator) that I’d be fine. I’d page her if I needed help.

I ended up with one more child for a total of two.

Cadence played happily by herself.

Cadence smiling

Jarell fell asleep in my arms and remained there for the bulk of the morning service.

Jarell sleeping

It was delicious!

“Can anyone watch 3 kids tomorrow without having to take off work?”

It didn’t take a mind reader to sense the desperation in J the Mom’s brief Facebook status. And so, despite not having seen or talked to anyone in the J family for probably a year, I replied: “I can if you still need somebody. I don’t have any other plans for the day.” If she didn’t mind how long it had been since we’d chatted, I wouldn’t either.

So I enjoyed a day of play with J the First (age 7), J the Second (age 5), and J the Boy (age 3).

Left: Portrait of me by J the First; Right: Portrait of me by J the Second
Do I really look as tall as J the First made me? ‘Cause if so, that’s crazy!

The kids, having not seen me for quite a while, had probably forgotten entirely about me. If any memories remained of me, my name was not one of them.

This didn’t bother J the Second or J the Boy, both of whom had no problem calling me “Hey You” or getting my attention some other way. J the First, on the other hand, wanted to call me by my name.

So we had the following conversation about once every fifteen minutes over the course of the almost ten hours I spent at their house:

J the First: Excuse me. What’s your name?

Me: Rebekah

J the First: Oh yeah. Rebekah?

And then she’d say whatever she wanted to tell me:

“Oh yeah. Rebekah? I like having you as our babysitter.”

“Oh yeah. Rebekah? the Boy just hit the Second.”

“Oh yeah. Rebekah? do you want to see the glass slipper that was on my birthday cake?”

And so on and so forth–until J the Mom got back home and was writing a check.

J the First: Excuse me. What’s your name?

Me: Rebekah

J the First: Oh yeah, Rebekah?

J the Mom enjoyed that little exchange–all the more so when I explained that I’d already been enjoying it all day.

Check out more Tiny Talk Tuesday posts at Not Before 7.

Sunday Snapshot: Nursery

TTT: Excuse me, What’s Your Name?