This is a lesson most of us, who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (and other churches who pass the bread and water) find ourselves teaching our children.
My Allori is a spitting image of me. I knew as a younger person that I would never use the term "spitting image" but alas, I was wrong. She is. She looks like me, but more beautiful....The difference is how she acts-- as a child I was quiet, shy and very unsure of myself. I think this was a product of my upbringing, partly. Because Allori does have some shy in her, and her father is shy and her mother was quite shy until high school. Allori can be shy but will tell you whether she is being shy or not. Now I would say I am more spunky and feisty. My shy does creep up on me occasionally but doesn't haunt me continuously. So I think for the most part Allori behaves more like I do as an adult (in accordance with her age appropriate behaviors.)
Example of Allori's shyness. One time we were going through the Taco Bell drive through and she wanted sauce for her taco, so Wayne told her to ask the lady for sauce at the window. She seemed excited (She was probably not quite 2 at this time) but as we pulled up she looked the lady square in the face and said a bit quietly, "I'm too shy." Of course, neither Wayne or I could keep from chuckling and asked for her sauce for her. And as an update, she still prefers any and all types of sauce available for any and all types of food.
We let her tell people she was shy a few times but I didn't want her to get in the habit of that or encourage it so we started to work on it, but it happens to be ingrained in her a bit. If you saw her at home, you wouldn't believe a word of this. She is the princess of the castle (only cause there is room for only one Queen and we all know who that is..hehehehe). When she is decently sure of her surroundings, she is a natural leader, shyness dissipates.
Side story. We went to Tuscon last summer to meet a bunch of Wayne's family for a vacation and one of Allori's cousin's who also lives here in Albuquerque was there. We don't spend much time with them because Wayne's brother is not family oriented and it seems to be a thorn in his side to plan anything together (or even to spend time with his own immediate family for that matter), but the kids love playing together. Anyway the girls, Lydia and Allori are very close in age. Both born in 2004, Lydia in January and Allori in November. Well, Lydia (who is not one bit shy) followed Allori everywhere, did everything that Allori was doing, changed her order at the restaurant (orders mac and cheese every time at a restaurant, but because Allori was getting something different, Lydia got something different)...This was none too pleasing to her mom, Kathy. No one wants to see their child being the follower child, but it was kind of cute to see her break away from doing "the norm" and Allori is a good girl, thats the kind of person, if one is going to follow, that you would want your child to follow really. But you do want them to make their own choices as well. I think she really was just trying to make a connection with Allori and let us know she wanted to be with her, They are 3 for Heavens sake. I think she was saying, let me be with my cousin, I love her. I realize my dad is a poop, but my cousin is cool, don't punish me for his issues. (in a kid way of course) Anyway, bottom line, I do think Allori is a bit of a leader.
Her shyness does come out and we don't push it when it does. For instance, her primary teacher is very good and if the primary presidency asks them to do something that the 3 year olds are not comfortable doing, the teacher lets the presidency know not to push them. She does get shy when its her turn to say a prayer in primary, things like that, and I just keep encouraging her, telling her I know she can do it and we take her up and so far she usually doesn't do it and we don't make a big deal of it...She does have a little one minute talk coming up next Sunday so for Family Home Evening last night, we practiced it, had all the kids practiced it, she did fabulous! We will practice all week and hope for the best!
Anyway, the point of this blog is we work on teaching our kids about things, and some things are just naturally ingrained into them. Nature vs Nurture. Although I like that they are changing this from vs to something else. Every child is a combination, it is not Nature vs. Nurture, it IS a combination, but thats a whole other post. Of course I have gone on so many tangents here, what would be the difference....anyway....
So a few weeks ago we are sitting in Sacrament meeting and The bread is passed and each child takes a piece and Wayne and I do the same and then the water is blessed and passed and Allori, who was having a rather feisty moment says, "No thanks I would rather have a snack."
Oh boy.....lesson not quite learned yet.
But we did appreciate the humor (as silently as possible.)
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