There was a "Sadie Incident" at Mass yesterday. I had spent about eighty minutes in the narthex, wearing 30 lbs Mae in a Moby wrap and instructing Sadie in a whisper to stand and kneel and stop wiggling. She'd been fairly successful and we'd only had to go outside once to have a talk which included the words "I know that little girl is dancing around, but that does not mean that you can dance around..." which could have been followed ten minutes later by "I know that little girl is eating a crinkly bag of fruit snacks, but that does not mean that you can eat a crinkly bag of fruit snacks..." It's amazing how quickly behavior deteriorates when a preschool age child has someone to copy, especially when the other child has a bit more free rein (I should note that the chapel where we go to Mass does have a cry room with a speaker in it). Anyways, we survived up until it was time to go up for communion when I began to move forward, hoping to go up with Paul, who was sitting at the end of the back row. Usually a few of the families will do this, with the wives and children who've been in the back coming up so they can receive with their husbands (especially if there are a couple of young children who can't be left alone in the pew, who need to be wrangled). Not everyone does it, but some do.
I was slightly amused when the six retirees in his row (who I don't think attend our parish) quickly rushed out behind Paul to cut us off (in a rather funny "hurry-or-they-might-get-in-front-of-us" sort of way... although maybe they really just didn't notice us and they were just super enthusiastic to get in line, or maybe they didn't realize that we were with Paul...), leaving me with Sadie and a Mae who was just starting to fuss. I bounced Mae up and down and clutched Sadie's hand and hoped that insanity wasn't about to ensue.
It was too much to hope for. The girls held it together until we were kneeling at the last kneeler and the priest was about two people down from us. Paul had turned as he walked back to sit down and had seen Sadie and realized that trouble was brewing (she must have just had that sort of a look, and despite my best efforts I know that I probably did). I tried to send her over to Daddy, something that she's perfectly capable of doing. She stood up, as if to walk to him and then ran around behind me while saying "Get me Mommy! Get me!" in a normal voice, which felt very loud in the silent chapel.Somehow I managed to grab her, tuck her under my arm while kneeling where she thankfully stayed quietly, received the Eucharist, and dragged them both to the back of chapel while realizing that you really do have to have a sense of humor to be a mom, or you'll just go crazy. I think next week Paul will come back so we can all go up together hopefully without mishap.
Then again, I never know what they're going to come up with... it's always a different plot to liven things up when they think it's just a little too quiet.
Hehehe...I don't mean to laugh but I think every parent has experienced this. Our son Jonah was particularly good at it when he was younger! He made it almost up to the altar one year during Christmas time and the wise men were making their way to the Nativity scene (statues of course) before my husband intercepted him! And then, there was the time while our church was being remodeled, I was singing, Steven was juggling all 3 kids and Jonah got up to the makeshift altar and climbed underneath it while Father was giving his homily!! People on the first few rows could see him and were kind of giggling, and Fr. managed to work it into his homily (Which happened to be about the Eucharist and always wanting to be hungry for it! lol) but we were mortified!!! Expecting small children to stay perfectly quiet and well behaved for one hour is unrealistic and very hard for them to do! You keep working at it! One day all your diligence will pay off!!!
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