Peace be with you!

Today at church my 9 1/2 month old got shushed. Yes, shushed. By what seemed to be a grumpy, old lady. We got to church 20 minutes early this morning to stake our spot. Nobody was around us and we figured it was very clear we were sitting in our spot with our 2 kids and not moving to the cry room. That place is awful - if you want to get nothing out of church but a bunch of kids that are running around, eating goldfish and sipping from sippy cups than sit there. Yes, a cry room does have it's purpose but it is definitely not for teaching little kids how to behave in church! Okay, back to my story. So, it was during the homily of some guest deacon pitching his charity organization....Evan was making his typical baby babble noises. There were some loud "BAAAAPPPS" in there, but mostly some "booga boogas" and "mamamas" when the woman in front of us turns around and says "Would you mind if I took your baby out. I AM trying to hear." - or something just as ugly as that....like she was trying to say "since you won't remove your loud child maybe if I offer to do it she'll get the hint". I replied..."excuse me, no you're not taking my baby out". She turned around in a huff. I mean, how rude....here we are there at the church 20 minutes early, my kid WAS making some noises but he wasn't screaming his head off or even fussing and she CHOSE to sit in front of a family that obviously had little kids. Maybe she should go to the 8:00am mass where it IS rather quiet - but don't shun me to another room or separate my family from sitting together at church because you don't like little kids. Well, I didn't take him out right away even though Bryan offered to remove him....but once he did start to fuss and cry he was taken to the foyer by Bryan. I sang the hymns as loud as I felt was necessary right into her ear from behind. I told Brennan to hush "because some people don't like to hear little kids make any noise at church" - maybe in a loud passive agressive whisper. During the sign of peace she turned around and shook Brennan's hand (he didn't know any better that he should have ignored her) and then she turned to me to shake my hand to which she says "thank you for removing him."...AAAAAHHHH! I think I made a grunt noise at her and some ugly face that I'm known to do. Unbelieveable....and that, ladies and gentleman, is why young families no longer go to church. And why religious values and beliefs are falling by the wayside....because old, crotchity people make it uncomfortable to take young kids to church. And Lord knows nobody would want to upset anyone - or be embarrassed so those families just don't go - OR they sit in that awful cry room and church isn't made important - so why bother going. Brennan was extremely well behaved for a 3 1/2 year old...we didn't bring coloring books, crayons, books, toys, etc to entertain him...he just sat there. And yes, he did require a few reminders to be quiet or sit still but he is learning how to do that. And that homily WAS boring if I do say so myself. Brennan wouldn't have had those skills today if we never gave him the opportunity to learn them. So there, old lady, take that! Maybe I'll be bold enough to type an editorial to put in the church bulletin...they probably wouldn't print it...I'd keep it clean but I know I'm not the 1st mother who has felt that way at our church.

I will leave you on a happier note: pictures. Bryan did a little art project with the kids last week. Brennan did one and so did Evan - I think their personalities are grossly evident in these 2 pictures!

Okay, so maybe some of it is developmental...but seriously, I have a point.