If you want a good show on a Sunday, let me give you the address of my church and I'll let you know the next time my husband is out of town and it's my turn to play the piano in sacrament meeting. No, no - don't think that I'm telling you I'm a maestro(a?) on my instrument. Huh-uh, not even close, not even kinda. No it's two little extras that I bring with me that make me so darned entertaining.
Today's performance was of particular note. My one year old and his three year old emotional wonder of a sister were ready to shine. They sat quietly underneath the piano for the prelude. But then burst forth midway through the first verse of the opening hymn. My daughter twisted and twirled to my beautiful music. For some reason this triggered my one year old's natural football instincts and he tackled her mid-spin. They went down in a fit of giggles while I shushed them sternly at every long note.
I gave them strict instructions after the opening hymn that they were to sit quietly on their bottoms for the sacrament hymn. My three year old said she would with very serious blue eyes. I didn't believe her. Not more than one minute after our agreement and a few notes into the song I saw both of them trying to scale the organ bench. I tried to play the sacrament hymn slowly and reverently, but seeing them climbing out of the corner of my eye and being afraid that when they got up they might fall down, the hymn didn't carry quite the solemn tone it should have. OK, it was downright peppy.
I thought I had things beat for the rest hymn though. As the first talk wound down I told my daughter I was going to go up to play the next song. She jumped out of my lap while I got a baggie full of applejacks from my church bag to distract my one year old. Before I knew it my three year old was half-way up to the podium whispering loudly back to me, "C'mon Mom." I grabbed my one year old who was following her and threw he and the applejacks into the lap of the luckless man who had sat in front of me at church today before the sister who was speaking even got to her amen. After my little girl escorted me to the piano I started the hymn to which she sang and danced until about halfway through when she said something to me and was then gone. When I stood up at the end of the hymn I saw the poor man who had chosen the wrong seat today, holding not only my hefty and hearty one year old in his lap, but also my smiling three year old, both of whom were competeing over the applejacks.
But that was all opening band sort of stuff. The real show was saved for the last. The final talk ended abruptly on me so I didn't have a chance to make my normal pre-hymn playing, child accounting preparations. My little girl was a child away from me by that time and I needed to get up to play the closing hymn immediately. She looked happy. She was content. So I foolishly left her there. After I took a few steps she made a protesting sound. I felt committed to my path and just looked back and mouthed to her that she would be o.k. I got a verse in and the wailing started loud and shrill, I had to play on. The wailing turned into uncontrolled, soul-splitting screams, I had to play on. I saw a couple of people standing, thinking about doing something, I had to play on. About a verse and many missed notes later a kind, merciful and extrememly courageous man got up and grabbed her out of the chapel as I played on. It was awesome.
Come one and come all.
4 comments:
Oh, how I feel for you. Never a dull moment when the Hubs are away, where are all the women who are always clammoring to hold your babies when you need them?!
I can just picture little sister dancing to the music - what a funny girl! If your ward wants you to be the pianist, they should assign someone to sit with your kids. It makes for very entertaining stories, though. :)
Yeah, I've tried having a teenager sit with them but the little miss is so darned willful. I'm sure she'll be my storymaker for years to come.
Me - husbands are so very handy, I can bare my testimony on that one!!
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