Raising a Toddler

I started writing this a few weeks ago...whoops!
Church changed times from 9 to 11. Both Mike and I thought this would be great because Beckham can get in his morning nap at 10 and then we will just wake him up early and take the happy, well-rested boy to church. I packed him a small lunch to eat while he was there to keep him occupied and brought some books and things like normal. We showed up to church and Beckham stands on the pew and waves to everyone behind him like always and then the meeting began. We could tell he just wanted to leave the pew and run-what 1 year old wants to sit on a pew for over an hour?? So we tried to hurry and distract him-we brought out some toy dinosaurs which he proceeded to throw to the bench behind us, we brought out some books that he was clearly not interested in, so out came the food. That always works right? Well it did for a minute until he decided that he hated it and spit it all over the floor and threw himself on the ground screaming...during the quietest time of the meeting-sacrament. I picked him up and took him out with a bright red face while he waved and say bye to everyone with a big smile.
This won't be the last time this happens and although this was his first church tantrum, it wasn't his first meltdown.
We walked the halls and he got out his energy. After sacrament meeting, there are always those people that feel the need to come up to you and joke with you about how "rowdy" your kid is. Was he? I didn't notice....The interesting part is, it is never other young mothers that make comments like this. It is always older grandparents who claim they would never let their kids do that or the young who don't have any kids and have no idea what's coming to them.
I have watched other parents for years. Some parents believe in the ipad, some beleive in bringing a suitcase of toys, crayons, coloring books, puzzles and trucks and others beleive in bringing nothing-just teach their kid to sit quietly. Every kid is different and every Sunday I try something a little different to see what will keep this particular child sitting for just a little bit. Our goal right now is to just make it through sacrament-Yup, just 20 minutes...that is all we ask.
The truth of the matter is-he is a one year old. He doesn't do puzzles, he can't color, he doesn't care for games on an ipad yet, he likes books but that only lasts so long when there are other people around but what he does love is to throw a ball, run and explore all of which are slightly frowned upon in this environment. Although this conundrum boggles my mind right now I often think of what my mom says, "Small kids, small problems, big kids, big problems." The idea of keeping my kid quiet during church may boggle me now, soon there will be bigger fish to fry and another baby to deal with.
As I was sitting there frustrated and little embarrassed in the hallway, the sweet old lady sitting behind us came up to me and started to chat with me. I made a joke about Beckham's behavior and she said, "Ya know, you are going to be glad he has so much spunk. It just shows he is not one of those dud kids that just sits there." This may or may not be true, but I definitely like her thinking and  should help get us through these next few months while we train our emerging toddler.