Singing

Andrew's choir sang "Il est ne le divine enfant" at the Christmas Eve service. The entire month or so that they were rehearsing it, Andrew regularly complained. He didn't like "that French song" and refused to practice it. He didn't participate well at rehearsals and screamed at me if I would sing it at home and try to get him to sing along. Typical Andrew, however, he managed to sing right along at service at not miss a word.

This evening, Andrew decided to pick up a book to use as his "songbook" and walk around the house singing. Loudly. "Il est ne" is all we heard for a solid 10 minutes.

Silly boy!!

Joyful Noise

The preschool choir at church, Joyful Noise, made their fall debut today... with Andrew loud & proud in the front row!

This time, the video camera was charged properly and ready to go. AND... after having the thing for 4 years, I finally took the time to figure out how to get a video clip from the camera onto the computer. It took me all afternoon, was a total pain to do, and has me thinking we should invest in a newer, more user-friendly model. But... here is the choir (as long as I do this part right) for all to enjoy:

And, since I didn't want to risk messing up the choir video before I knew what I was doing, I grabbed an old disk to try first. I discovered this little clip of Andrew... singing & conducting at 19 months old. He's always been my little "Music Man!"

Joyful Noise

The preschool choir at church, Joyful Noise, had their debut performance today and did a FANTASTIC JOB!!! They had their first rehearsal the last Sunday of January and at that time, I'm pretty sure no one expected that in just a few months they would be standing in front of the church, singing for all to hear, and doing it so well.

Eric always accompanied Andrew to rehearsals, since I was finishing my work up, but I always took a few minutes to go peek in on them. Always fun to see... and so typical of that age group (mostly 3 & 4). The girls would be singing away with Mark, the choir director, and the boys would be jumping up & down the risers, running around, wiggling all over and generally paying no attention. We often joked that "choir" was a very loose term with them.

But, they got up there yesterday and sang wonderfully! Andrew was one that never paid attention in rehearsal. Sundays are long and often overwhelming for him. He's up by 6:45, is in childcare for first service, then Sunday school and then childcare for second service. By the time he gets to choir rehearsal at 12:15, he's tired, hungy, over-stimulated, cranky and all of that with his SPD leaves him just not able to focus on singing-- even though he loves music as much as he does.

Thanks to OT and the "brushing" we've been doing, that is changing. At rehearsal last week, he had his best week ever. He still didn't stand and sing with the group... but he sat still and participated a bit from his chair by Eric. For once, he wasn't jumping all over the place.

The performance today was the first time he's ever stood and sang with the group. We knew he was taking everything in at rehearsal, because he walks around singing his choir songs all the time at home. We were SOOO proud of him for finally being able to particpate with the group and doing so well with it. Clearly, the OT is having positive effects already!

Sadly, our video camera wasn't working. Like good parents, we put it on the charger the night before and packed it in the bag this morning. But, for some reason, it didn't charge, so when I got it out to record the performance, it was completely dead. I took some video with my cell phone. Not the greatest, but better than nothing! And I have a few still pictures I need to pull off the camera. Enjoy!

Jesus, I Love You with Jesus Loves Me:


Holy Spirit, Come to Us:
(with soprano soloist)
After they start signing in this one, you'll notice Andrew stops singing and is intensely staring at his fingers. The sign for spirt is to touch thumb, middle & ring fingers together of right hand on the palm of left hand and then raise them up. When they learned the sign last week, Mr. Mark was happy to have any variation of that-- all fingers touching left palm, etc.-- realizing that coordinating the thumb & fingers to do that at 3 years old can be tricky! Andrew was watching Mr. Mark do the sign and when he stares at his fingers, he is studying them and trying to get the coordination down to do the sign as Mr. Mark was doing it.