Children vs Church Part 2

We have success! Little Dude was an ANGEL at church today. He was sweet and quiet, he prayed, he looked at his book, he stood and sat when he was supposed to AND when a nearby kid tried to get him to play, Little Dude ignored him. Oh I was so proud.

So, it seems that after last week, we have had a break through. I'm sure we still have some outbreaks in our future, but gosh, it was so nice to see that our Kevin Leman style discipline had finally gotten through to him.

After Mass, Little Dude got even more positive reinforcement by getting to play and eat a doughnut with all the other families after church, and oh my goodness, he was so proud of himself for earning a doughnut.

And we are super proud of him, too.

Children vs Church

Oh yes, it is a battle of epic proportions going on every Sunday. Little Dude is an angel most of the day, EXCEPT for the one hour we want to spend in Church.

And what is really killing me about his horrible, embarrassing, temper tantrum from hell, church attitude?

It gets him what he wants, because he wants to leave church. And he KNOWS Bill and I will take him out of church before we kill him. So, the whole way to a corner for time out, he is smiling. Regardless of how long he has to stand there, or how much I lecture him, or make him sit in time out, or even smack his hand or swat his bottom.

He doesn't care. In fact, I think he welcomes it, because it means HE GOT OUT OF CHURCH.

So this weekend? We changed up the discipline tactic. On top of having to leave and stand in the corner, we stayed after Mass. Mass was done, and Little Dude thought that, after having missed more than half of it on and off in a corner with me outside, he would now get to go home.

But us parents tricked him; we STAYED. For the ENTIRE time he had missed for being bad. He had to sit quietly in the pew, with his hands on his knees or folded for prayer.

I think we might have had a break through. I'll let you know next Sunday, but I THINK he might have realized he needs to not hit, bite, scratch, scream, throw stuff, or roll on the floor kicking while we are at church.

I THINK.....

Little Dude's Baptism

Little Dude was Baptized on Saturday and it was one of the most beautiful days ever!He was a little angel the whole time and made us very proud. No little demon toddler came out! Actually, ever since Saturday he has been a saint and even very happy about putting his hands together to pray before meals (usually he digs in while we pray). So, that has been a very fun development. I am greatly loving to watch my husband and son pray together, and really don't know what to pray for, except a great big "Thank you" to God for all the blessings I am getting to enjoy. (I am sure after JR gets here I will be praying for sleep....)



We had the majority of our family and friends there for the ceremony and after party and there really is no way to describe what a joy it was to celebrate the occasion with everyone that was able to come! Most of our neighbors came over with their children and Little Dude LOVED playing with all of them. In fact, when the last few kids headed home late in the night, Little Dude tried to follow them out and even said "bye bye" to me! Geeze. At any rate, he had a BLAST and that was the greatest thing to watch.



I have put a bunch of pictures in here for everyone; I hope you enjoy-now I am off to work on some Dakno and then hopefully get a short nap in before Little Dude gets up from his!

I took the Devil to Church....

So my family and I usually go to church every Sunday. Granted, we should always make it, but occasionally laziness gets in the way and we skip. However; this past Sunday was the first time I ever said, "We should have stayed home". Usually, it is the other way around, and I say, "Awe, we should have gone", but trust me, if you had been sitting near us, you would have agreed that we should have gone home, and perhaps even offered your car keys to us.

See, the day started out perfect. We ate breakfast, had gotten dressed, and it was only 8:30am! Amazing! So, instead of going to mass at 11:15, like usual, we decided to go ahead and go to the earlier mass at 9:15am. Bill and I were super excited, as this mass has the choir and it would mean we could try to have lunch at the park before Little Dude's nap time! Yay!

That would have worked out well, had the earlier mass REALLY started at 9:15am....it ACTUALLY started at 9:30am. And trust me, as the parent of a toddler, Catholic Mass has nothing to offer entertainment wise for him, so every minute we sat there quietly was a minute more at the end he might be screaming. Thus, that is what happened.

We got to church, and upon seeing so few people there with what we thought was only a min. or two before mass started, we, foolish hearts, decided to sit in the main congregation area. Mistake number 1. Mistake number 2? Not going back to the side area after we realized mass was a 9:30am and a flood of people started coming in. This whole 15 minutes though, Little Dude had been sitting quietly next to us, looking all around and quite entertained...sooooo we thought it would all work out and we had a little Angel with us. And usually we are correct, the last 3 Sundays he had been an Angel in church! This Sunday, no. As soon as mass started... AS SOON AS MASS STARTED the Angel I had born turned into a screaming, growling, snarling, convulsing, (yes, he was throwing himself around in my arms) Devil Child.

He hit us, he kicked me, he screamed, he flailed about, he pulled my hair, He SNARLED, he GROWLED, and he grabbed Bill's glasses. Some of the noises he was making I swear I had only heard in the Exorcist movie. Let me just tell you it was the most embarrassing and humbling experience of my life, as there was nothing I could do but watch MY CHILD, yes MY CHILD, behave so horribly AT CHURCH, of all places.

After dealing with this behavior for a bit, with no calming or disipline tactics working, Bill finally took him out of church and made him sit in the car. (Bill stayed with him, of course). Mistake number 3? I stayed.

So I finished out the early mass with the Angelic choir and all the old people around me giving me parenting advice which I had to swallow and admit I might need, as crazy as half the advice was (like I'm going to whip my 18 month old? Yes, one really old guy said that!!!). One old lady told me, "Gosh, you sure do have a feisty one there.(she was being nice with her adjectives, trust me) I hope you're getting a girl this time around!" To which I had to hold back frustrated tears as I said, "No, I'm having another boy". I'm telling you, this lady looked horrified that there would soon be TWO of my sons partaking in church. At this point I was so frustrated and upset I really couldn't wait for mass to be over so I could also escape to the car and go home.

So, that, ladies and gentleman, is the retelling of how I took the Devil to Church with me last Sunday.