Help! My kid won't behave in Mass!

Not my kids...well, usually not my kids. But I know this is a frequent discussion between Catholics on the web and here in St. Blog's. My kids are doing pretty well these days, and I'm quite happy about it.

Truth be told, I've been relying on a children's bulletin during Liturgy of the Word and prayer cards during Liturgy of the Eucharist for Zooey and Edyn. Zooey's kindergarten teacher has said "No Mass aides any more!" for all her students. They go to Mass daily without a bulletin, so I guess it's time to take the crutches away from Zooey. I'll let him do his bulletin on the way to Mass, though, since they are interesting and help give pictures to the readings for better understanding at his age. I get them from Sacred Heart Parish in Qunincy, Massachusettes (may God bless that parish!).

Anyway, since Zooey is still far from being a proficient reader, I was looking for a kid's missalette for him and stumbled upon this article. I think the author has a lot of good things to say. I'm not in 100% agreement about the sippy cup thing yet. Still bringing one for Edyn, but we no longer offer it to her and there have been times she's forgotten to ask. Plus she doesn't like plain room temp water (she likes it cold, like I do, with a dash of juice for zip), so that's a bit of a discouragement. I hope it won't be long before she stops asking for it entirely. Laurel gets a few soft toys and a soft Catholic Baby's Bible that don't make any noise when dropped, and a binky if necessary (really trying to get her off that binky before she turns 9 months old in October). I feed her before we go to Mass so she hasn't had to eat during liturgy for many months now. Maybe we'll never give her a sippy cup. Won't that be a nice change!

Meanwhile if anybody can recommend a missalette for a pre-reader, let me know.

--Sparki

P.S. Haven't heard from Sommer yet, but still praying for her.