Back to Church

This morning was the first time I have taken Samuel to church in quite a few weeks. I think this is only the second time I have taken him to mass since the "Kachow!" incident. In the weeks since then we have either had sick children or were recovering from the time change so Samuel has not gone with me. Instead I have taken baby girl. She is even more difficult to take to church than Samuel these days! I think our family will be doing a split-shift job attending church for the next few months.

I was a bit apprehensive about taking Samuel this morning. When I mentioned taking him yesterday the first thing he said was "I won't hit anyone!" We started off in "the big church." I came armed with a mini-visual schedule along with the rest of my "church survival kit" (see picture above ) It includes a dry-erase board to write short messages (I try to use as few verbal prompts as possible), some saint trading cards, a mini-visual schedule with good behavior prompts, a book of the Lord's Prayer (the only prayer I'm trying to get him to recite - which he doesn't do yet), an inconspicuous sensory toy and a rosary (more conspicuous but visually acceptable in context at church). Oops, I left out an important item in the picture, a small non-crinkly pouch of skittles! We made it in the big church just about as long as the last time we went, into the priest's homily (about a half hour). Samuel just couldn't resist scripting The Upside Down Show. My "whisper voice" written and then oral prompts were losing their effectiveness so I figured it was time to go to the lobby. I had to frequently prompt him to have a quiet mouth the rest of mass. On several occasions he said "Mom I'm having a quiet mouth!" his way of asking for a skittle!

I did not walk up to the front of the church for communion. A priest was able to bring it back to me, and others who cannot walk up. I told Samuel we will not go to the front of the church for communion again until we apologize to the sister that he hit. I talked to the sisters at the end of mass today to try and find out who he had hit so he could apologize directly to her, but the sister that he hit must not have been there, they didn't know what I was talking about. They very graciously told me that it was okay, for which I thanked them, but I told them I still want Samuel to apologize to stress the need of proper behavior and manners.

After mass we then proceeded to "the doughnut store" (a name given by my oldest son when he was two years old). A pretty good week! We are proceeding SLOWLY, SLOWLY at church but it's all staying positive for Samuel so that is good. Not so long ago I never would have imagined that we would be leaving the cry room this winter!