Our daughter Kirra will be seven months on the 11th. I’m a middle school pastor so whether it’s a curse or a blessing she finds herself in the family ministries building at our church every Wednesday night being passed from teenager to teenager–volunteer to volunteer.

She gets poked, cooed at, talked to, bounced, giggled at, and kissed. Her toes get touched at an astounding rate of two to three times a minute. Her diaper gets neglected during the wave of middle school madness. Consequently she gains close to three pounds of liquid weight during the evening.

Our worship time starts close to 7:00 (I say “close to 7:00” because what middle school pastor doesn’t have the last minute student crisis where two girls have four of their combined fingers stuck in finger traps?). Anyway, it starts late and ends hours after Kirra’s bedtime. All this is to say that one would think she would be insanely ticked for all that we put her through but last Wednesday proved us very wrong. We stayed extra late and she was cracking all of the college students who come after our service up with her funny laughing and nose breathing trick. She was the star of the show.

When we finally got to the parking lot when her car seat radar goes off and she starts crying, she decided to start babble talking about her evening with friends. Yelps of joy and jubliation where on her tongue. She went home, at some bedtime cereal, and went to bed without a peep.

Last night, the same thing occurred. We kept her up late to watch The Office at our friends apartment. I knew I was taking a risk keeping her up late two nights in a row. However, as we walked home at 10:30 pm she starting having fun again in my husband’s arms. Smiling, talking, and joyfully squirming around we decided that Kirra likes to party.

She went to bed perfectly and has slept this whole time (it’s now 8:30 am…she usually wakes at 6:15 am). Kirra thinks our crazy nighttime routine is a party. I’m so glad. I don’t want to mess her up. (It may already be too late for that…)