A funny thing happened in the church nursery this morning. First, you must know that Jonah has a love/hate relationship with the nursery, as do most of the toddlers there. We call it the weekly meeting of the Moms’ Club because none of us can leave our kids without major meltdowns. So we hang out, talk, and let the kids play.
Hey, there’s more than one way to have church. But I digress.
So, here is Jonah clinging to my shirt, eyes pleading:
“I know this room is adorably decorated and filled with fun toys and cute kids to play with who are all close to my age, but Mama, PLEASE don’t leave me in this most horrible of all horrible places!!!”
But of course, he saw that I wasn’t going anywhere, and soon released his death-grip, taking ever-lengthening journeys away from me. He made it all the way over to the TV, where Veggie Tales was playing.
Then he played a bit next to Mr. T:
And then Jonah picked up the baby doll on top of the toy bin.
I thought, “Oh how sweet! He doesn’t have a doll at home. He wants to cuddle the baby doll!”
He studied that smiling, bald-headed, hard plastic face a moment, then turned to me and….
“WAAAHHHHH!” He totally burst into terrified tears! He flung the doll into my arms, and I was like, “Jonah, look, it’s just a baby doll. This is how you cuddle the baby,” and held it to my chest.
Which only made him freak out even more, that his beloved mother was cuddling that…THING. That most awful, human-looking but not-human-feeling THING.
I wondered if maybe it wasn’t the doll but another random toddler fit, so I turned the doll around so Jonah could see its face, wiggled it, and said “Hi, Jonah!”
At which time my boy fell into a heap, bawling, while I and the other mothers in the room did a terrible job of restraining our laughter.
I mean, honestly, it wasn’t Chucky! Just a precious-faced little baby doll that totally terrorized the heck out of my son.
I shouldn’t laugh, but…bwahahaha! Poor kid. I guess it is a really good thing he doesn’t have any sisters!