Emmett At Church Today

- We arrive at church and take our coats off. As soon as Emmett's coat is removed, he takes off running down the hall. Mom chases after him at least twice before she can finally take her own coat off.
- Emmett walks excitedly over to a bench and chooses which row to sit at. As the music plays, he stands up, holds onto the back rest, and sways.
- Emmett grows tired of the music and starts to wave at people behind him. Anytime he makes eye contact with a new friend, he exclaims, "HI!" and wags his hand up and down enthusiastically.
- If Emmett finds someone he likes a lot, he will start to play peekaboo across several rows of people. This includes saying, "Where's Emmett?" Then popping up and shouting, "There he is!" I'm sure this does not help those who are trying to quietly feel the spirit before the meeting starts...
- Daddy arrives a few minutes before the meeting began. He had been out on a home teaching errand. Emmett pops up and shouts, "Hi Dadadada!!"
- Daddy realizes he needs to hang his coat up and walks back out. Emmett stands in the aisle asking, "Where's the Dada? Where is he?" And of course when Daddy walks back in Emmett shouts, "There's the Dadadada!" and runs to greet him.
- The meeting starts. Emmett notices everyone raising their hand to sustain someone for a calling. He raises his hand a little late, just in time to proudly oppose the calling. At least he uses his right hand.
- He steals a hymn book from the family sitting behind us, opens it to a random page, and begins to sing, "Lalalala" along with us during the opening hymn.
- Emmett starts to feel hungry. He signs for food and says, "Foo" repeatedly. We offer him goldfish and raisins. He takes a huge fistful and shoves everything in his mouth all at once. "Mmmm!"
- Mom starts offering one or two raisins/crackers at a time. He bends over and licks them out of her hand. This grosses Mom out.
- We offer Emmett books. This works to appease the monster for a while. We make it five blissful minutes looking at pictures before the books are thrown onto the floor. Now he is grumpy.
- He stands up on the bench. Instead of smiling at all the wonderful people behind us, he begins to scowl. Big, grumpy frowns appear on his face as he delivers the most withering looks a 19 month old can give. We hear stifled giggles behind us.
- After growing tired of casting dirty glances, Emmett crawls onto the floor, stretches out, and just looks generally tired and pathetic.
- He then stands up, gives Dad a "Catch me if you can" look, and runs out into the aisle.
- Daddy snatches him up before the runaway makes it three feet. Emmetts gigges and growls delightfully while Dad carries him out of the room and into the hallway for the remainder of Sacrament Meeting. When Emmett realizes he's not coming back, he waves and blows kisses to the congregation and loudly says, "Bye bye!" and "Muah!" Dad's face might be a little red.
- When the meeting ends, Mom goes into the hallway to find Dad and Emmett. Emmett sees someone else who has brown hair like Mom. He exclaims, "Mamamamama!" runs to her, and throws his arms around her legs. Then he looks up into her face and the horror and embarrassment of hugging a stranger sinks in! He quickly finds his real Mama and buries his head in her shoulder. If he stays there long enough, he will become invisible.
- Emmett goes to nursery. It's a brief meltdown as Mama leaves, but the nursery leaders are prepared with bubbles and soon everything else is forgotten.
- About halfway through nursery, Emmett gives up on playing and lays down on the floor. He doesn't sleep but just stares into space. Doesn't anyone realize nap time was two hours ago?
- Mom comes back and it's a happy reunion! He runs to the door, "Mamamamama!" and throws himself at the baby gate.
- We happily put our coats back on (with much less chasing this time) and Emmett shouts, "Bye bye!" to everyone around us and blows more kisses as we all walk to the car together.