Singing Praises

On Sunday night, Catherine and Will's choir sang at church. They sang 7 or 8 songs that they had been practicing since January. I have loved hearing them sing and practice for the past few months. They both really love choir. Catherine always loves to perform. And I think this has been great encouragement for Will with his speech and doing an activity with his big sister.

Catherine is always ready to sing. The sweet girl sings with all of her heart. You can hear her over everyone else (which is about 30 kids).

Will loves to sing too, although he gets a little nervous if he knows you're directly watching him. Every now and then he would sneak us a little smile of acknowledgment to us.

They sang their first round of songs and then sat down while the big kid choir sang a few songs. When they went back up to sing the rest of their songs, they weren't quite as organized as they had been the first time. Everyone had gotten out of order, which created a whole new set of distractions. Will especially had an interesting time. His friend Jonah (on the left, Will's right) got really excited with his hand and arm movements and kept smacking Will in the head. Will just kept looking at him with this really confused look, like he couldn't figure out what was going on. Then his friend Red (on the right, Will's left) decided he was tired of singing and started scratching his belly button and pulling his shirt over his head. Will didn't know who to watch, all while he kept trying his best to sing. Jay, Marcy, and I got so tickled by the whole scenario. So did Jonah's parents who were sitting right by us. By the end of this set of songs, we were laughing so much that we were crying. I just kept hoping that Will didn't think we were laughing at him. It was definitely one of those funniest-home-video moments. Too bad we forgot to take our video camera!

Catherine and Will love, love, love their choir teacher, Mrs. Whitley. She is also Will's speech therapist, so they have gotten to see her multiple times every week for the past year. Will has done so well with his speech that we're currently taking a break for a few months and will finish up a few more sounds in the fall. We are so proud of Will and how hard he has worked on his speech. And we are very thankful for Mrs. Whitley and her involvement in our children's lives.