An excursion with a two year old

My son often drives by a big church that we took him to on his car ride home with his Dad.  Last week, I took the day off and enjoyed an excursion with him.  We first went to visit the elderly at a home I used to volunteer at run by the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa's order).  I am trying to get him their more frequently as the residents and especially the Sisters enjoy seeing him and so he gets more familiar with them.

This time, he actually remembered some of the Sisters.  They totally dote on him and spoil him.  These Sisters are mostly from India and they only get to see their families once every 10 years or so, so having a young one come by is a total joy for them.  They also love getting hugs from him and apparently high 5's as well.  We said Hi to many of the sisters and we went around saying hi to the residents and then once of the sisters recommended we go outside and the residents would enjoy seeing my son play ball.  What they enjoyed was seeing my son throw the ball as far as he could outside of the gated area and his mommy chasing after it.  Then one of the Sisters suggested that we go chase the geese out of the field.  My son enjoyed this only if I carried him as we scattered the geese.  As I was getting worn down, we went back closer to the house and I was hoping that I could take advantage of how much the Sister's love my son and take a little rest stop.  Fortunately, he remembered them and let him hold him, only with a few tears.  I left and came back as fast as I could to see two Sisters laughing with glee and playing basketball with my son.  It was quite a sight.  I could have taken my time, he was having a ball.

We then went on to meet up with some friends at an outdoor fountain the kids could play in outside of a big church.  My son, even though he was freezing, refused to get out of the water, he was shrieking with glee.  We finally coaxed him out, got everybody in a dry set of clothes and went into the big church.  I took him to Mass and he peacefully fell asleep after the first reading.  He was so peaceful and sweet with an angelic face. I felt bad having to leave after Mass was done, but we were supposed to meet back up with our friends for lunch.  I tried to keep him asleep, but he woke up and sweetly said, "That was a fun Mass"..  I laughed and thought, yes, so fun that you slept through most of it". It was wonderful though to be praying and celebrating Mass with a little angelic boy instead of the tantruming two year old I sometimes have.  I will take the Lord's graces where I can get them...