Marie has developed the pattern of sitting still in church for approximately 3 minutes and then running for the aisle to go climb up and down the entry steps. On the way down the aisle she enjoys greeting every person she sees with a sweet "hi."
Although adorable, it has become annoying to try to juggle her and and attempt to pay attention to the message. We bring it all - food, books, her baby, juice - nothing is as tempting as those steps.
Our church has a "cry room" but no nursery. Oh how I wish they had a nursery.
The cry room is just filled with kids jumping, talking, crying,
and making every other kid in it as wound up
as possible...and some parents too.
It is not my idea of a religious experience.
So on Sunday, Andy & I decided to keep Marie in church by sitting up close to all the action.
It was working - she was engaged as Andy described everything that was going on during the service. She watched the piano, the choir, read books, had a few snacks, played with her puppy & horse - wow, it was working!
As her chatter would occur and people around us would smile and give us the glance of "oh how cute."
Well, everyone except one lady in our pew.
Every time Marie made a peep she would turn and give us a look. Andy & I both noticed, but shrugged it off. Well we made it through the homily and onto communion. During the preparation of the mass, Marie made a daring walk towards our pew-mate. As soon as she got close, she said "hi" and the lady gave her a big "SHHHH." (finger up by mouth included) I quickly stood up and escorted Marie to the aisle and Andy walked out with her.
I am sure I was bright red. First we laughed, then we got a little mad, and now we are still determined to make this new front row seat ours. Everyone else around us laughed at the "shhh" and gave us an approving nod for our effort.
Don't get me wrong - we were enforcing our own "shh" moments. If at anytime Marie would have been really disrupting the service, we would have taken her out.
But I do not think that a little child-chatter is disruptive.
Maybe our pew-mate should be reminded of a very important verse in Luke:
"Let the little children come to me,
and do not hinder them,
for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."
kicking and hitting balloons at a costume party with my cousins
kicking and hitting balloons at a costume party with my cousins
carving jack 0' lanterns and touching the gooey seeds with my hands...yuck!
coloring on the messy newspaper
carving jack 0' lanterns and touching the gooey seeds with my hands...yuck!
coloring on the messy newspaper
