I Wish My Kids Misbehaved Like This More Often

Last night we had the pleasure of attending the Confirmation Mass at our church.  I haven't been to a Confirmation Mass since the last one I coordinated about 3 years ago.  I haven't really had a reason.  This year, however, one of Henry's "big friends" was being Confirmed.

Michael and his mother are in the teaching rotation for Henry's class this year.  His mom told me that Michael specifically asked for Henry's class this year because he had so much fun with him the year before.  Henry *loves* Michael!  He loves giving him high fives because Michael pretends that they hurt. He loves sitting with him at Mass because Michael is an usher and he lets Henry help him take up the collection.  He loves going to class with him and Michael always walks him back to our pew and tell me what a great job Henry did in class that day.

When I told Henry that Michael was being Confirmed, Henry was a little quizzical.  Being only 5 he doesn't really get Sacraments. He knew Frances' First Communion was important last year, though, so I explained that this was important for Michael in a similar way.  Then I asked Henry if he wanted to go to Michael's Confirmation.  Repeatedly.  Stressing the fact that it was extra church. And late in the evening. And he couldn't take toys.  And each time he replied with an emphatic "YES!" Because he really loves Michael.

So we made plans to go.  Thankfully, Ken was off last night and we were able to give all three kids a choice of whether to go or not.  They all said they wanted to go, so we ate a quick dinner and headed out to church.  The church was already crowded when we got there and even though the kids' auto-pilots kicked in and they tried to go to our regular seats, we had to sit in a different place.

Frances sat with Ken and the boys sat closer to me.  She was fine through the whole Mass because she is old enough to understand and want to participate.  I was pleasantly surprised when the boys were also fairly good and mostly quiet through the first 45 minutes of Mass.  Then they started getting wiggly.  They both wanted to stand on my lap and see Michael when his name was called.  (Incidentally, there were also a few of my former second graders being Confirmed, so that was a bit of a fun shock!)  Then Benjamin started singing "Allelula" by himself in competition with the Bishop's homily.  A little later the boys started playing "puppy" only in this case Benjamin was a puppy who really loved his owner (played by Henry) and kept hugging him.  Then Henry would giggle a little giggle and say, "He just loves me so much!" and Benjamin would give him a kiss and hug him some more.

The people around us glanced over at them a few times, but none of them looked annoyed. Instead the smiled brightly and probably thought to themselves what a wonderful mother I was to have children singing Alleluia and hugging each other all through Mass. {Okay, maybe that's not what they were thinking, but I can dream, right?}  Ken and I just kept smiling and rolling our eyes at each other over their heads.

After Mass we went over to the social hall and had some desserts and then ate almost all the olives from the food trays.  Henry got to give Michael a big hug and go say hi to his parents.  We headed home after a little bit and got the kids to bed.  On the way home I asked them what they had thought. The boys both said they liked it and Frances said she almost cried because it was so special.

The Holy Spirit was out in full force last night!!