Mass Appeal

I think we might have found our family Mass time!  Our family has been bouncing around to different Masses, trying to find the one that works best for our schedule.  But between the twins' naps and meals, and CC's naps, and everyone's bedtime, it's harder than it seems.  

Our church also does not have a cry room, which means that if any of the three babies start fussing, MJ has to bring them out into the vestibule, leaving me with the other two ... and I'm sure you can imagine that it doesn't always work out.  So this is why it's so important for us to find a time to go to church when all three kids have a good chance of staying quiet.

5 pm Mass (Saturday or Sunday) doesn't work, because it's 6:15 by the time we get done, and no one has eaten dinner or had baths yet -- so all three are hungry (read: cranky) and end up getting to bed late.

7:30 am Mass, the one that MJ and I used to attend regularly, is just too hard to get to with three babies.  We've done it a few times, but I have to get up at around 5:45 am to get myself ready before tending to the kids, and it just seems like a bridge too far most weeks.

9 am Mass was ideal when Sweet Pea and Little Man could just take their morning naps in their carseats right there in the pews.  But the last few months they've become more alert and easily distracted, so they won't sleep in their carseats.  So 9 am Mass has been a disaster lately, because it's right when they need to nap.

12:30 Mass is another horrible time for our schedule, because all three kids nap at 1.  Trying to get them to sit through Mass when they are all tired is a recipe for disaster.

So today we tried 10:45 am Mass.  Holy cow -- this might be the one!  There's a lot of moving pieces, but today was the best the kids have behaved at Mass in recent memory.  We had to get Sweet Pea and Little Man up from their morning nap a little early, but they handled it pretty well.  We had to bring bottles for them (they eat at 11 am), and feed them during the readings and the homily.  And finally, we brought along this little cutie:

(I mean the bag, not CC -- although she's cute too!).  Grandma and Grandpa gave that bag to CC last year, and she's finally big enough to wear it.  I've decided it's going to be her church bag, and we filled it with a few religious children's books and a sippy cup of water.

For the first time in ages, no screaming babies had to be escorted out of the church.  (Well, except for when CC fell down mid-service, split her lip open on the pew, and was bleeding all down the front of her shirt.)

Life is never boring!