Well, the kid won the battle of the sippy cups...but I'll win the war.

Good afternoon!

I wasn't going to write a new blog for a while, but today in church something happened that just sort of forced my hand.  And, like most blog posts born of something unexpected...this doesn't make me look all that great.

I don't know when it was that Hubby and I started taking travel mugs of coffee into church.  I mean, we made the diaper bag of snacks to single Life Savers roll jump pretty well when the kids got older.  But at some point a few years ago the two of us started bringing our coffee to church.  We weren't the only ones, and we weren't the first, but we are the most consistent coffee drinkers.  Since our pews don't come with cup holders...and seriously, can someone just get on that please...we typically put our travel mugs on the floor under the pew in front of us.  That way we can see the mugs, reach for the mugs, but the people in front of us won't kick the mugs over.

And it's been a practice that's served us really well without a hitch or without comment.  

Until today.

Today we sat a few pews further back than we normally do.  Regular church goers get the whole, "This is my pew" thing.  It's not that we OWN the pew, really, it's just that that's where we always sit and frankly if a visitor, or, worse, a SECOND SERVICE person sits in our spot, well, that throws the whole thing into commotion.  It's why special services, like on Christmas and Thanksgiving and Easter tend to throw regular church people into a bit of confusion.  SOMEONE is sitting in the WRONG spot.  

Well today we sat a bit further back, which put us behind a family that had a couple young ones.  Diaper bag snacks and sippy cup young ones.  Bring all sorts of books and quiet toys because face it, church is dull for little ones and they simply won't be quiet and the worst thing in the world is for a kid to belt out "ARE WE DONE YET?" young ones.

The elder of the juniors seemed to have some sort of innate distrust for me.  He kept staring at me, like I was really, really, really creepy and he was going to pierce my brain with the strength of his mental waves.  

Okay, maybe church isn't always supers thrilling for grown ups, either.

Anyway, Elder Junior got tired of trying to stare me down, and got a hit off his sippy cup before sitting on the floor and playing with trucks, using the pews as a sort of table.


I love watching kids play on the floor during church.  I mean, think about it.  All the adults are super busy sitting, standing, singing, chanting, praying, whatever, but you, as a little kid, you haven't a clue what that's all about.  All you know is that if you are very quiet, they'll give you a sippy cup and a bag of Cheerios and you can sit on the floor and be in a world all your own. 

And the best part of playing on the floor in church is that magical spot UNDER THE PEW.  It's like endless tunnels and the only thing between you and complete escape are miles of legs.  

Well Elder Junior decided to move his trucks to the floor, where 1)  there was more space and 2) he entered that magical under the pew world.  We were pretty deep into the sermon when Hubby nudged me.  Apparently, Elder Junior was playing really, really, really close to my travel mug.

Now, I could have said that I moved the mug because it contained hot coffee and I didn't want the kid to burn himself.  And that would be true, except, not completely.  I wasted no time moving my travel mug out of reach because, well, THAT'S MY SIPPY CUP!

Elder Junior understood that we were now in a territorial battle, but that he'd won.  Victorious, he stood up, and got another hit off his sippy cup.  I took a sip of coffee and we eyed one another.  For a moment, we were equals.

And then he got to return to playing on the floor while I had to return to listening to the sermon.

Well played, Elder Junior.  Well played.

But someday, child, you will be too old to play on the floor.  Your parents and grandparents will not allow you to bring a sippy cup to church.  You will languish under this rule as you watch me drink coffee to my heart's content. 

And then I will be victorious.

Meanwhile...I wonder who I'll be displacing for the next fifteen years now that I have a new place to sit.  Too bad.  They should have been in church and then I would have sat in my usual spot and none of this would have happened.