Jesus Wants Me For A Zombie, er, I mean, SUNBEAM

In my church, you are promoted to the next class at the first of each year. So, although Jackson turned three in April, he stayed in nursery until now.
This past Sunday was his first time to go to primary, as a SUNBEAM (3-4 yr olds). Jackson has not been doing great with changes and new situations/people lately, so we invited his teacher, Sis. Peters, to dinner the week before his first day. He took a while to warm up, but once she started playing with the Legos, he was hooked (as was a jealous Brennan).
Sis. Peters asked Jackson to bring a special toy to share with the class on Sunday, hoping this would help him be comfortable with her.
Sunday came, and the boys got dressed up so adorably...they hadn't gotten to wear their Christmas outfits yet! Once at church, Brennan took Jackson's hand and led him down the hall to Primary. At first Jackson was fine, walking and chatting away. The closer we got to the Primary room, the slower he walked and the less he talked (it's a long hall). Finally he stopped.
I told Brennan to go on ahead, gripped Jackson's hand, and prepared for the tears and stubborn fight to begin. We slowly walked to Primary, and discovered the other two Sunbeams (both girls) were not there yet, making Jackson the only one. I sat in the small chair right by his teacher, and started singing the opening song (It was like coming home after all...I've been in primary since before Brennan was a Sunbeam!). During the song, I managed to get Jackson to show Sis. Peters his Mickey Mouse and tiny stuffed bear (must bring BOTH bedtime animals, not just one). After a minute, he was talking and smiling. I asked if he wanted to sit down and he said yes, so I gently transferred him from my lap to the small chair. I went to sit down, but when I saw that Jackson seemed to be doing okay, I made a beeline for the exit.
He did really well, especially if you compare his behavior at church to that of daycare during bootcamp.
Sis. Peters did a wonderful lesson, having the kids glue hair and eyes on a child to represent them, talking about being a child of God, and just having fun. Jackson came home saying, "I get to search for animals soon!"
I am so grateful to Heather for serving the Lord to the best of her ability and helping these precious scared toddlers turn into confident preschoolers. I think it is always important to remember as a teacher and as a parent that we represent Heavenly Father and Jesus...our actions and words are teaching our children what they should do and say, and having good examples to surround our children is a great blessing.
I hope that the transition from Nursery baby to Primary big boy is an easy one for Jackson...he is so stubborn in so many ways...maybe this will start to crack through that...maybe, just maybe, one day, instead of singing "Jesus wants me for a ZOMBIE to shine for him each day", he will sing the real words, with love and pride..."Jesus wants me for a SUNBEAM to shine for him each day."...