truly the best sunday ever

Garrett the killer "Shampoo" whale and Caleb the dinosaur at last night's ward harvest activity.

Today the Primary children presented their Sacrament Meeting program. Garrett, the old hat, and Caleb, the Sunbeam rookie, both participated. It was as adorable as was to be expected, and both of my children, but especially Caleb, contributed to a few laughs from the congregation.

Caleb gave the very first speaking part, but because he mostly ate the microphone and then giggled because he thought he was being funny, I don't think anyone, myself included, understood what he said. (His line was supposed to be, "I am a child of God. I know He loves me because He gave me a nice family." The underlined portion he wrote himself.)

Garrett, for the first time ever, did not eat the microphone while delivering his part. He had been asked to give a simple recounting of Joseph Smith's first vision, and not only did he write his part himself, but he memorized it as well. (It went a little something like this: "When Joseph Smith was a boy, he went to the Secret [sic] Grove. He sat down and said a prayer and then Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ came to him and answered his prayer.")

I wept through the whole thing, as I am usually wont to do. Despite their occasional silliness (Caleb also liked to squeeze his eyes shut whenever he caught me watching him sing), they both did a great job filling me with overwhelming amounts of tender pride.

Matthew the railroad conductor, also at last night's ward harvest activity.

The Primary presentation alone would have been enough to make this the best Sunday ever, but then last week Matthew had to go and turn 18 months, so today was also his first day of nursery. I wasn't sure how he'd handle it -- he currently has a personality that could swing wildly either way -- but he, too, did me proud when I brought him into the nursery room. Moments after our arrival, he reached of his own accord to another woman in the room, who was as surprised as I was that he was so willing and eager to leave my arms. We both thought, "Well, okay then!" as she led him to some toys and I backed slowly out of the room. I peeked in a few times during the next two hours (yes, he stayed the entire time!) to see how he was doing, and was pleased to find each time that he was doing just great. Who knows how future weeks will pan out, but we're off to a beautiful start.