Dilemma with Church

We had a mild setback with solid foods the other day. I heated up on green bean cube and one applesauce cube. For those of you who wonder what I mean by "cube"…when I make Constance's food I steam whatever it is I am making, puree it till the food is the right consistency, and then put it in ice cube trays. One ice cube puree is the equivalent to one serving. Anyway, back to my original thought. We had been doing so well for two or three days about her eating solids twice a day. Yesterday however I was able to get her to eat maybe on teaspoon of applesauce and no green beans.

When it comes to our baby and the nursery at church we keep Constance in the church service with us...for several reasons. One of the reasons is that we are not comfortable leaving her in the nursery. One person we more than likely do not know, watching several children of all ages. Those pre-toddlers can be viscous and have no sense of the words, "be careful, there is a baby right there." The second reason is that we are going to implement a book called, "Parenting in the Pew," by Robbie Castleman. The woman who wrote this book did not start this practice till her children where four years old. Here is the insert on the back since I could not find their website:

Sunday morning isn't a success if we have only managed to keep the kids quiet. And there's more to church for kids than trying out their new coloring books. Children are at church for the same reason Mom and Dad: for the privilege of worshipping God.

Burning with an infectious passion for worship, Robbie has learned how to teach children to praise God. She shows us how important it is to take our children's worship seriously. And then, with nitty-gritty advice and a touch of humor, she shows us how we can help our children (from toddler to teenager) participate in the most worthwhile and exciting act anybody can do.

"Worship is a challenge," Robbie admits. "With children it is a bigger challenge." But Jesus promised that the stones will cry out if we-and our children-forget to praise God.

While this is all well and good and we look forward to the time when Constance can comprehend what we are asking her to do; but that does not help us now. Our vocal baby, who is happiest right after she eats (which happens to be right before we go to church), likes to talk in church. In our SMALL congregation her happy babbles are heard in every corner of the four walls. So that she is not a distraction we take Constance out…which means that one of us misses the sermon. As bad as this sounds, I do not necessarily mind missing the sermon. I am tired of myself and my church being "dead." However missing it all together does not help the journey.

Solid Food is making a Come Back

Up until this past Tuesday, Constance has been on a solid food fast for about four days. We had given her some store bought baby food carrots (the only processed food other than her cereal that we have given her) and they next day she started spitting up most of what she ate. So I did not give her solid food all that day to give her tummy time to get better. Then her Nanny (my mom) came for a visit and I just did not give her any solid food during that time. I do not think Constance even missed it since it was such a struggle before! However on Tuesday I decided to try again. I heated up a homemade applesauce cube and fed it to her. She ate the whole thing! On Wednesday I heated up one applesauce and one peach cube. The peach to her seemed to be sour, however she took several bites anyway. She also ate several bites of her applesauce. On Wednesday evening I re-heated her leftovers and was able to get her to eat several bites of both. I am so excited and hope this trend continues. Today I will try a veggie, probably sweet potato and see how she does with that.

She is not crawling yet but does get on her knees before falling over. We also put her in her walker this week. She hardly moved in it at first or if she did she would go backwards. The other day I put her in it while I was cleaning the kitchen and when I started sweeping she got very excited and immediately walked towards me! She kept tripping over her feat though because it was going too fast. Once she reached me I let her touch the handle of the broom and then I went to the other side of the kitchen and called to her. She figured out how to turn in her walked and came to me again and was thrilled that I let her touch the broom handle. Silly baby.

Shots

Yesterday was shot day. Constance was given two shots this time but Keith and I were amazed at how well she did. We did give her baby Tylenol before going. When it was time to give her the shots two nurses were there to so they could inject both shots at the same time. Constance cried for maybe three seconds and then was fine. We had a rough night with her last night and we think that was due to the shots plus teething. She has her third tooth in and we are just waiting for the fourth to come through.