Hooray for Nursery

At our church, there is a class especially for young children called Nursery. Parents can drop their children off at Nursery, allowing the parents to attend their Sunday School classes while someone else watches all the little children. Children have to be 18-months before they are admitted (mainly for safety reasons, but I think also for the sanity of the Nursery teachers). Ava is a big fan of Nursery. These pictures were taken a few Sundays ago before leaving to go to church.

Nursery is a great deal for all involved. It's great for mom and dad because let's face it, how much attention can you really pay during Sunday School if you're trying to entertain an 18-month old? And it's great for the kids because a room full of toys and snacks sure beats having to sit on mom or dad's lap for an hour and a half. Ava's favorite part of Nursery is the kitchen set.

So as you might imagine, most parents are chomping at the bit for their kids to turn 18-months old so that they can drop them off at Nursery. As it turns out, however, Ava got early admission. This is because around the time Ava turned one, Krista was called on to be one of the Nursery teachers. It was pretty funny at the time because Ava was still crawling, while all the other kids were of course walking. Ava would chase after the other kids like a little puppy as they ran around the room. In a way it was sort of sad to watch because she could never quite keep up. However, she never seemed to mind one bit. To her it was all a game.

A few weeks ago Krista was relieved of her Nursery teacher duties (they try to cycle through teachers on a regular basis since watching 15 toddlers tends to burn people out pretty quickly). With Krista no longer being Ava's Nursery teacher, we were curious to see if she'd willingly go, or if she'd scream bloody murder as many of the other younger children do when dropped off.

So came the first Sunday with Krista no longer as the Nursery teacher. We waited with bated breath as we dropped her off, expecting her to cry, throw a tantrum, or at least cling pleadingly to our legs. Much to our surprise, however, Ava ran straight for the kitchen set and never looked back. It's now been several weeks and each Sunday it's the same thing. The kid just loves Nursery and couldn't possibly care less about mom and dad disappearing for 90 minutes. We're still not sure if we should be happy or sad.