Four Stages of Wildness While at Church

Sadie is reaching an age now where holding her while we're at Church can no longer be described as "easy."  She has four modes during Mass.  

1) Quiet and Well Behaved.  (my personal favorite.)

2) A Little Bit Wild (squeals at key moments and an occasional giggle.)

3) Wrestling with a Bear Cub (there's usually a great deal of back arching and reaching for the ground at this point.)

4) Wrestling with an Octopus (she suddenly seems to have eight arms, all intent on escape.  I'm not entirely sure that she realizes that she wouldn't hit the ground running.)

Today she started out Quiet and Well Behaved.  She was sitting on Daddy's lap (she seems to pretend that she's Quiet and Well Behaved whenever Daddy is there, at least to begin with).  However after reaching for me and being handed over, she became A Little Bit Wild.  A Little Bit Wild started out with her hanging around my neck and ended with her reaching for the hymnal on the back of the pew.  We were half way through the Mass before she really started trying to wrestle her way to the ground.  She would also occasionally throw her arms out to Daddy to indicate that she would be just as happy sitting with Daddy as she would if I set her down on the ground (Mommy refuses to play Pop goes the Weasel during church, but she's got Daddy wrapped around her little finger and he'll do pretty much anything to get her to smile, including Pop Goes the Weasel during Mass).  

I finally caved in and let her stand on the kneeler (she had already spent more time with Daddy and was still feeling wild).  At this point standing on the kneeler still defuses the Wrestling (either with a Bear or Octopus) situations.  She's so fascinated with holding on to the back of the pew and gently touching the hymnals that she holds perfectly still.  

Well, not perfectly still.  She does stand on her tip tip tippy toes, while trying to do a pull-up so she can still see what's going on.  

She would also periodically wave at Father Lito at the front of the church (she doesn't remember how to wave all of the time, but she's getting better and better at it every day).  And of course, she got her tiny smudge of baby ashes on her forehead to start off Lent.  

Now I'm off to convince her that it really is bedtime.  I'm afraid that after a half hour "nap" (which was supposed to be bedtime) she seems to think that it's morning.  

Squeals, Squawks and Smiles

Sadie was in fine form this morning.  She has a great sense of timing, particularly when we're at church.  I can tell that she's about to squeal (it's not a scream but a joyful little squawk) when she flings her arms straight out to the side and takes a deep breath.  I try to pop Binkie into her mouth when I hear her take the breath, but she's now learned to squeal loudly while sucking on Binkie.  Her squawks usually come whenever there's a pause or silence but they can also follow something that she finds hilarious (who knew that there is so much for a six month old to find funny during mass).  She can also blow raspberries with Binkie in (I'm not sure how that's even possible).  Besides frequent Binkie use I also try jiggling and swaying but she can't really take all this hushing seriously when I'm trying not to laugh.  For the most part though, she sits pretty quietly.  I think that today she averaged one squeal every five minutes (maybe a little bit more towards the end).  

However the high point of Sadie's day came a little bit later when we met Nani and Grumpa and went to Burger King.  Sadie was sitting in her high chair (whenever we go to Burger King I'm especially thankful for her floppy seat cover because the high chairs are sticky) and another Grandma and Grandpa came and sat at the booth next to us with their grandson.  He was a cute little boy with blonde curls who was about a year old and his high chair was only about three feet away from Sadie.  He saw her right away and smiled and kept glancing over.  Nani and I tried to get her to look over ("Sadie look, there's a big boy") because she's usually so funny when she sees other babies.  After looking over at her about four times with no reaction the little boy said "hi."  Sadie glanced over and then turned to face the other way.  She was fascinated by Donny the fifteen year old boy that worked at Burger King who was sweeping the floor.  He was busy sweeping and clearing tables, but Sadie thought he was the greatest and smiled and even raised her hand to wave (she's starting to wave now!).  Yes, the high point of Sadie's day was watching the floor be swept at Burger King.  

Maybe I should try putting her in her high chair and sweeping the kitchen the next time she gets fussy.  

Our Growing Girl: Church, Restaurant and Sippy Cups

Sadie is asleep for the night (or at least for the hour).  She woke up seven times last night, which comes out to once every hour, for me at least, although it wasn't quite spaced that way.  You would think that a baby that was up that much at night would take long naps during the day, but she only went down for an hour for her morning nap and then refused to take her afternoon nap altogether.  

During the first months of Sadie's life we sat in a little room that's off the back of the church so that we could close the door if she had a complete meltdown and needed to nurse or be changed (our church is really small and doesn't have an official kid's/baby's room like some of the bigger churches).  When we went during the week we would sit out with everybody else, but on the weekends when it was crowded the little room was perfect.  In the last few weeks we have graduated from the little room and have started sitting out with everyone else.  And Sadie loves it.

She can see things a lot better sitting on my lap out in the pews than she could through the doorway of the little room and actually sits pretty still most of the time.  Today there was a tiny baby (I mean really tiny!  Sadie was never that small!) two rows behind us and Sadie noticed her right away and spent a fair amount of time peering over Paul's shoulder at her.  

After church we went to breakfast at Marino's.  Sadie's curiosity about everything around her continues to blossom.  She sat in the high chair with her Floppy and surveyed the room.  After she spent a bit of time trying to lick the table I decided to distract her with one of her favorite toys, Bug.  Sadie's first experiment of he day involved holding Bug straight out to the side, looking at Paul to make sure that he was watching and then intentionally dropping (and at times throwing) Bug onto the floor.  

After picking Bug up for the fifteenth time, breakfast was served and I pulled out the red sippy cup that I had been saving to distract Sadie from our food (which she thinks that she's ready for).  Sadie slurped down half of the water in her sippy cup in a matter of minutes and then started experimenting with the limitations of a "spill proof" sippy cup.  She very intentionally held the sippy cup straight out to the side, looked at the "sippy" part and then started shaking it over and over again.  I watched her do this three times before I was absolutely sure that she really was trying to spill the water onto the floor, just to see what would happen.  It's going to be a real adventure when she starts feeding herself.  I have a feeling things are going to get very messy around here.