Sunday Struggles

found here. I HIGHLY recommend this hilarious comic to anyone with a toddler.

Can I just share what church was like yesterday? Just imagine the above comic but in what is supposed to be a reverent, spiritual setting. It was hilariously horrible.
First off, we currently have the worst possible church time. 1:00 - 4:00. I know some of you LDS moms know what I'm talking about. And you moms who aren't LDS can probably guess. But for those of you who aren't moms, let me fill you in. 1PM church almost always conflicts with nap-time. With a tiny baby, it's not such a big deal because they'll sleep anywhere. But for little toddlers, it can be hell. Well, as close to hell as you can get in a dedicated church building.
So yesterday, Annie went down for a nap at 11:30. She's in a weird transition phase right now between 3 short naps or 2 longer naps or 1 über long nap. So I was hoping 11:30 would give her a good hour and a half of sleep to get her through church.
12:50 came. Tucker and I were ready. And Annie was still zonked.
I debated for a second if I should just stay home and miss sacrament meeting, but I tip-toed in her room where she promptly sat up and reached for me. Decision made. I quickly got her dressed in her fancy, pink satin dress with the ribbons and tulle, combed her silky hair and snapped a pink headband around it, and pulled a pink diaper cover on before we rushed out the door and down the street to our church building.
I should have taken a picture...
Sacrament meeting was not too bad. She likes to stand on the chairs and play with the people behind us and sometimes bother the people in front of us, but she did pretty well for the most part. She pulled off her headband pretty quick, but we looked at pictures of Jesus and ate quiet snacks and whispered "This little piggy..." She lasted almost 45 minutes until the last speaker stood up, and I took her out into the hallway where we played for the last 20 minutes.
For the second hour, Tucker and I teach the 8-9 yr olds. One of the reasons we love it is because Annie can just come with us, and we don't have to worry about keeping her still and quiet like we would in the adult meetings. Except yesterday, she got a little excited about the toddler-sized chair in the room, and she fell. Twice. Both times screaming and sad and mad that the little chair would betray her so I had to take her out to wander the halls some more while Tucker taught the lesson. 
When we came back, she was content to quietly play with her toys on the floor. Until she discovered the tulle on her dress. She started grabbing fist-fulls of it and yanking as hard as she could until it started to rip. 2 big tears, right in the outer layer. Um. No, child. I immediately unzipped her dress and pulled it off of her before she could do any more damage, leaving her in her pink diaper-cover for the last hour where we gather the children, ages 8-12, in the primary room for "sharing time" and "singing time."
There was a moment right then that I looked at Tucker and said, "I think I might just take her home right now....but then part of me would feel guilty and like I should just try to power through the last hour." Tucker told me to do whatever I felt like. 
Annie usually does really well in the last hour of church so I decided to stay. She loves all the kids, and she loves the songs. The other adult teachers love her and help accommodate her (until she's 18 months and can go to Nursery with the other toddlers).
Except she wasn't having any of it yesterday. She spent the first 20 minutes out in the hall with Tucker. Eventually, he brought her back in, and she sat on a small. toddler-sized chair next to me, playing with the water bottle. A minute later, I looked down, and a little puddle was spreading across her chair.
Um. WHAT.
I wished and hoped that it was just the water bottle leaking. But no. It was pee. Somehow escaping her diaper, soaking her diaper cover, and puddling in the chair. 
I quickly scooped her up, scrubbed the chair with a wipe before anyone besides Tucker could notice, and dried it off with her blanket. And off to the mother's lounge we went, where Annie ran around naked on the counter before plopping herself down in the sink and taking a miniature bath.
With 15 minutes left of church, I got a new diaper on her, and wandered back into the hall. Of course, she wanted to walk by herself, and tried climbing on a low shelf and fell, which reduced her to wailing tears again. We listened at the chapel door to the choir practicing and eventually wandered back to the Primary room for the last few songs of Singing Time. Luckily, I was able to steal her a cup of Fruit Loops from the Primary cupboard, and she sat quietly on my lap until the end.
I made Tucker snap a quick picture before we walked out the door.

Until next Sunday....