My little songbird

Even though I was in church choir in middle school and high school, I'm not really a singer. I mean, I can belt out a mean Journey song when I'm tooling around town in my car by myself, but, actually sing? Yeah, not so much.

My sister can really sing, and I did enroll each of my girls in Kindermusik classes for years when they were young. I want them to have some musical aptitude, even if it doesn't really come from me. If you remember last year, we had a little incident in which I had to cram a learning session of  "Jesus Loves Me" for Molly so she could sing in a church video. She did great singing that song, but when I approached her with the idea to join the children's choir this year, it was an absolute, definite "no."

Melanie, the director of the children's choir, and I slowly started working on sneaking the idea into her little brain. Parent manipulation at its best, right? We even brought my sister and good friend Leigh into the plan. Every once in a while, we would bring up the idea of singing in the choir around her. And, slowly (very slowly) she started to maybe, sorta, kinda come around to the idea.

I have no idea why she was so terrified. But, oh, was she. Molly is not a timid girl. She ran right into Kindergarten with nary a tear, the same for first grade and every dance class, art camp or gymnastics class I signed her up for. I could not for the life of me figure out her hesitance for this.

Finally, we found the right incentive. Jake! (Leigh's son, thus her involvement) We asked Molly if she wanted to join choir so she could sing with Jake. Now, we love Jake, but he and Molly don't go to the same school and everyone's schedules are crazy, so we honestly don't see a ton of each other. I really think that Molly was excited to be able to see Jake more.

She finally agreed. We went for the first time a little over a month ago. We waited for Jake outside, and they went in together. After that, it was all good.

Wait, how is kindergarten over already?

Almost three weeks ago, on May 22nd technically, Molly officially completed her last day of kindergarten. While part of me was scared stiff about how to occupy this energetic and constantly "what are we doing next" questioning child for an entire summer, the other part of me was sad that my baby was finishing kindergarten. So, really, no part of me was doing great that day.

Tell me that doesn't freak you out. She went from a baby to a little girl!

Molly's school had a special "Farewell Kindergarten" program on the last day for parents and family to attend. And, for weeks before the day of the program, I could overhear small snipets of songs as Molly practiced in her room or in the car. She warned me, "You're going to cry at the last song, Mommmy. Mrs. Clutts says you will."

Great. Yup. That's just what I needed.

So, because Molly had warned me about music and singing performances, I knew I needed to be able to record it. The problem with that was ... our videocamera. See, we had bought it right before Molly was born. And, while I still think she is my baby, she is graduating from kindergarten. Our videocamera was six years old. Now, as you all know, six years is practically an antique in the electronics world. I'm surprised we don't need an archaeologist specializing in hieroglyphics to read the menu on it.

That meant, I really needed to get a new camera to record the performance. I mean, who wouldn't want to keep rewatching and keep crying, right? Because I like to plan way in advance, I headed to Target the night before to pick up the camera. I had actually been in Target earlier that same afternoon checking out what they had, then went home and gave the reviews a cursory glance.

In actuality, I picked the camera because it looked pretty cool, was a decent price, and the guy said it was a good one. I took it home to show Cory. He opened it to get ready for the next day, and we realized that while the camera seemed cool, we couldn't try it out because it didn't come with a memory card. NO memory card! Aha, now I see the reason behind the reasonable price.

Fine. I would get one the next day. So, the morning of the performance comes, and Charlotte and I have music class. As is always the case whenever we have to get somewhere early in the morning, we were running late. I left the house without the camera. When I got to Target to get the memory card, I realized I didn't have the camera with me. I would have to guess at which kind I needed. I know you see where this is going. Yeah, I guessed wrong.

And, again, I didn't try it out until about an hour before the program was to start. At that point, I realized that the regular SD memory card would not fit in the Micro SD card slot. Well, crap. I called Cory, and made him stop at Target on the way home for a new, correct, card. If you're keeping track, that would be five trips to Target (including the one to return the wrong SD card). Geez, this program better be amazing.

Come ... as a child

Some things you just know. You don't know when you learned them or how you learned them. They've just been in your head since childhood. It can be years before you need to pull these things out, but when you do, voila they are there.

But, when you become a parent, no one tells you that you are now responsible for instilling and teaching those things into your child. They don't come out knowing this stuff you've always known. They don't know that if you let go of a cup, it will drop to the floor. They don't know that if you touch a hot iron, it will burn your fingers. They don't come out of the womb knowing the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

And, it's not until you need them to know something that you've always known, that you realize you are the one who is supposed to teach them that.

So it happened a little over a week ago to me. I got a call from someone at my church. Our church has been making really cool videos since we got a new pastor. They were making a new one for the Advent season, and needed a little girl to sing "Jesus Loves Me."

"Would Molly be able to do this?" they asked. "Sure," I replied. "She'd love to."

First mistake: Assuming Molly would be thrilled. When I picked her up from school that afternoon, I told her about going up to church to sing on the video. "No, I don't want to do that!" she said rather emphatically. "I'm a horrible singer."