Going to church with a little toddler

Yesterday was not like any other Sunday. And even though nothing went as plannned, it turned out great. Why? Because Sze Juin was behaving beyond my expectation when I took her to church with me yesterday. I was so proud of her, that I have to blog it here.

To begin with, my initial plan was to go to the 7am Mass because it's easier for me to sneak out when the kids were still in slumberland. But then since I was too tired, I changed my mind and decided to go to the 10am Mass instead. By then, both kids were fully awake. When Sze Yi heard that I would be going to church, she wanted to follow me. I told her ok, but she had to behave. So I changed her into a long sleeve blouse and long pants. As for Sze Juin, hubby decided to bring her to Amah's house, so I packed her porridge and dressed her in a short sleeve blouse with matching short pants.

Halfway on the way, Sze Yi changed her mind. She wanted to go to Amah's house instead. So I tried to place Sze Juin into the car seat (she came out just now because she wanted milk), but she didn't want to go back in. So in the end, I took her with me, despite her not dressed accordingly (as she's only in short pants).

When she reached the church, she was in awe of the atmosphere. That kept her occupied for quite awhile. She was still absorbing everything when they started the Liturgy of the Word. Would you believe me if I tell you that she was behaving so well that I got to concentrate and finished all the readings? Of course in the middle, she wanted to hold the liturgy book and flipped them at the same time, so I let her. But later, she allowed me to catch up with the readings again. Even during the homily, she was sitting quietly on my lap, and I didn't need to walk around at all throughout the whole Mass. At the beginning, she pointed to the door and wanted me to take her out, but I told her later. After that, she never bothered me again. Maybe luck was also at my side because we were sitted beside a nice lady with an 11-year old boy, so that kept her occupied too. When she got sleepy, she would rub her hands on my knuckles, but she never asked for milk. Maybe she knew that I couldn't breastfeed her there.

All these were very unlike the previous experience when I took her to church with me sometime back - just the two of us. She wanted to go out most of the time, if not walking around the place. When she asked me for milk, she would tug at my blouse and pulled it up. So I went out to breastfeed her (I managed to find a suitable place), but she didn't want to drink there! She wanted to drink in the church. Well, that past experience made me vowed that I wouldn't bring her to church with me again next time, but thank God it was so different this time.

Indeed, I had never once thought that it's possible to sit still in the church all the time when we brought a child with us. I've seen some couples with behaving children though, and I always marvelled at how they managed to train them. Not my Sze Yi though. So far, when I brought her along, I could never sit still all the time, she would have lots of excuse to go out, like wee wee, etc. If not going out, I wouldn't be able to focus too, since she had lots of questions to ask. I still remembered when she sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars so loudly when they were singing the hymns. I told her it's a different song, but she didn't want to quiet down because she didn't know how to sing that hymns :) Luckily with Sze Juin this time, I could concentrate throughout the whole Mass, without needing to walk around at all! Isn't that amazing? I even had time to finish reading the bulletins during the announcement session. Of couse, at times, she would insist to sit on the top of the pew in front of us, and didn't want me to hold her. I warned her that it's dangerous, she would fall down. And she willingly let me hold her. Wasn't she so understanding? She enjoyed sitting on the pew, swaying her body to the tempo of the hymns, as if enjoying the music. At times, she tried to touch the nice lady's hand beside me, but then she quickly pulled her hand away before the lady looked.

All in all, I honestly think that this was another milestone worth recording. Praise the Lord!