September 11th, 1977-in which Petey experiences his first, but certainly not last, case of stage fright.

Petey really has a phenomenal memory.  Last night he asked me to read him the book "about how the little boy had to go to the bathroom".  He remembered that it was a Dr. Seuss book and had Cat In The Hat on the spine.  I thought it might be one of his and looked, but it wasn't.  Finally chased down in my diary-it was (Did I Ever Tell You) How Lucky You Are  and we read it months ago.  Then we were talking about church this morning and Petey said the next time Pastor talked to the children, he was going to sit where Erik sat today.  He said "It'll be just like playing checkers, mom-I'll take Erik's place and Erik will move somewhere else".  To my knowledge, he's never seen anyone play checkers.  I asked him how he knew how the game was played and he said "In my book about Gus The Friendly Ghost, he plays checkers with mouse" (but it doesn't show them moving the pieces or talk about the gameso if that's where he got it, he extrapolated on almost no data).
I called Margaret this morning and told her Linda Warren was picking us up.  Only Julie came to church.  Mike's away on a camping trip.  Pat Devore led the opening exercises, then they took a picture of each class and its teacher.  then the children all ppracticed singing "Jesus Loves The Little Children" and "Zacheus") and marching into church in a procession.  We only had a few minutes left at the end of the service for Sunday School to meet.  We were to march into church during the first hymn and everyone got rather restless.  Then we all marched in and sat down.  I sat in the pew just behind Petey's class, and he came back to me in tears.  Said he "just wanted Mommy" and wouldn't go up and sing.  I think all those people in church scared him.  He did go up for Pastor's "children's sermon" but he sat in a corner and afterward said "Mommy, Pastor didn't talk to me!"  He talked to Jana, his Sunday School Teacher after church and she reassured him that not singing was ok.  Dad took us to Safeways after church ($19.00) and then for a ride to see the cows.  Pete and I were exhausted (2 hours of church is a lot for a little one) and took long naps.  Then Vicky came over about 5:00pm and was here for hours.  She finally had to leave to get ready for church.  She said she had a stomachache this morning and I begged her not to come see Petey when she felt sick.  Then I called her mother and begged her too.  Paul Cheek felt bad in Sunday School, too, and sat right next to Peter.  I asked his mother to call me if it turns out to be flu or something.  The whole world is one big germ waiting to fall on Petey!  Daniel raked tonight and Pete "hauled hay" in his wagon.  Then Daniel played hide and seek with Pete.  He's so good to Pete!  Had ried clams tonight.  Pete and I took baths and he "read" me Batman (he knows it by heart) and I read him The Dead Tree.  Lorraine's pick us up at 9:00am tomorrow (Connie is having surgery at 10:30am and she's babysitting)