major milestone

there are things in my head that keep popping up that i've forgotten about. about 2 1/2 weeks ago benny turned 18 months. this means that during church he gets to go to nursery for the last two hours! it's funny because spencer and i love being with benny and seeing how much he's learning, but the opportunity to listen to an uninterrupted lesson in sunday school and the third hour is nice (although i must admit that sometimes it was nice to have the excuse to go into the hallway). benny is great and he's done really well in classes with us - we're of the opinion that taking a small kid like him into the hallway to run around and play every time he makes a fuss is actually only teaching him that it's okay to act up - but three hours is hard on a little body and nursery is a great outlet.

before we reached 18 months i had been thinking that there shouldn't be any problems with benny playing with other kids. he's never had a problem when we've left him with a babysitter (although i think that they've all been family up until now) and he loves being with kids his own size. i thought at first that spencer or i would stay for a while to make sure that he did okay - that was very short-lived... we went into the nursery room and put him down and benny didn't look back. he went straight to the toys and had a great time. we looked in on him a few times (gotta love that peep hole) and he was just playing with his friend austin the whole time (my friend heidi's son). i do think it helped that there was someone he knew there. when it came time to leave, spencer said he just didn't want to go - he used the limp rag approach.

we are so glad that our first nursery experience was a good one. we know it might not always be this way, but knowing that it's possible is great news!