We had a bad experience with our children at church last night. Church itself wasn't bad, just our experience with our children. I guess it was bound to happen.
We strategically chose to sit in the back near the doors out of the sanctuary in order to allow an easy escape for Lindsay when Aria would start acting up. However, It wasn't Aria that started acting up; it was Eli. I got up and picked him up to take him out and put an end to his acting up. I had to squeeze by Lindsay who was sitting on the outside of the pew. I successfully squeezed by but unbeknown to me, my foot got wrapped in our diaper bag. Then I took another step in which the diaper bag became stuck at the end of the pew. I toppled face forward. This would have only been funny and embarassing to me except for the fact that I was carrying Eli. His fall was stopped by the corner of the door frame. He started wailing. I felt so bad and my knee also hurt. Thankfully, Eli didn't seem to get a concussion. He was his regular old self after the service.
Then it was time to participate in the Lord's Supper. Eli was still a little shaken up from the fall. Participating in the the Lord's Supper every week is a new experience for our boys because we had been going to a church that didn't take it except for once a month, and for some stretches before the new pastor it wasn't even that frequent. Lindsay was holding Eli at this time and Eli loudly pleaded as she took the bread and the cup: "I WANT A COOKIE AND JUICE!" The he cried because he couldn't have them.
Our fun experiences were not over yet. Due to the accident, we gave up on trying to make Eli behave, so Lindsay took Aria and him to the nursery where she could watch them without worrying about them making too much noise. I was left in the pew with Isaac. We have been trying to stop Isaac from going to the bathroom during church, but that only works when I make sure that he goes in between Sunday school and church. I forgot to do that last night. So when he asked me to go the bathroom, I allowed him. Since we were sitting near the bathroom, I decided to allow him to go alone. I went back to listening to the sermon. About a minute and a half later the sermon was interrupted by the voice of Isaac yelling through the bathroom door, "Daddy! Daddy!" I jumped up to go see what was going on. I made sure not to trip on the diaper bag (actually, I think it was in the nursery). As I neared the bathroom door, Isaac opened it and yelled: "DADDY! THERE IS SOMETHING ALL OVER THE FLOOR!" That something was water. I ran into the bathroom. The urinal was spilling all over the floor. I figured that Isaac might've stuffed something in the urinal since he was in the bathroom without my supervision, so I reached my arm into the urinal to see if I could unplug it. Nothing was there except for water to make my shirt sleeve all wet. The urinal continued to pour water all over the floor. It decided to stop all on its own. My lack of plumbing experience conclusion was that for some freaky reason the water pressure insanely pumped too much water into the urinal. It just had to happen on the time I let my boy go to the bathroom alone.
The church was very loving, kind, and encouraging throughout this whole ordeal.
Watch out for the potholes, diaper bags, and insane urinals.
