At the beginning of the year, 3-year-old Miles joined the Sunbeams class in primary, thus making him an official nursery dropout. Nursery is the "class" (more like childcare) that children in our church attend when they are 18 months old until the January after they turn 3. Nursery can be a hard transition for kids as it is often the first time they are being left by mom and dad with virtual strangers. Each of our kids had an adjustment period after starting nursery where they would resist letting us go and even cry for a bit, but after a month or two they understood the routine and that we would be back at the end of church to get them. Miles' adjustment period lasted the entire year and a half he was in nursery. We were never able to successfully leave him in nursery without him ending up in hysterics. In his defense, nursery entered his life at kind of a difficult time. Miles turned 18 months old a little more than a month after Ellie was born. We had just moved in with my parents for the summer, Scott had disappeared to Omaha for his internship, Ellie was born and I suddenly became MIA as I was caring for her, so life was a little bit topsy turvy for this little one and half year old and I think it's pretty understandable that he was experiencing some separation anxiety. After several months of trying to get Miles to stay in nursery he started having a lot of fear about going. As soon as the closing song would start in sacrament meeting he would start shaking and repeating over and over "no nursery, no nursery". It wasn't worth the trauma it was causing so we started just bringing him home after sacrament meeting to hang out with Ellie and mom. We were hopeful after moving to Omaha that we could get him to start going, but then life really got crazy and Scott just ended up going with him each week. Because of his late December birthday Miles graduated from Nursery just a couple weeks after turning three making him a very young Sunbeam. Surprisingly, he hasn't really had a problem going to his new class. It helps that his best buddy, Benjamin Cook, is by his side. Honestly I think he just more comfortable because Brynn and Mason are in sharing time with him, too. Adios Nursery!!
