Monkey See, Monkey B flat

The ward choir recently sang another piece we had been preparing: "Joy in the Morning" by Natalie Sleeth. It's one of our favorite pieces and the choir sang wonderfully (although the end of the piece leaves you wondering if you should applaud which is not quite what we're going for in sacrament meeting music). Since Emily and Caleb have to hang around with us during rehearsals, we'll often hear them singing snatches of choir songs. Sunday evening, Emily implored to use my tripod (which doesn't work very well as a tripod ever since they damaged several parts while using it in their games). Here's what she produced:

And, of course, when Emily leads, Caleb follows.

The dynamic between those two is funny. Lately, if Emily goes down for a nap and Caleb stays up, Caleb has a great time and plays inventively whereas if Emily is awake, he watches her and tries to keep up. This is not really a problem. Thankfully, Emily is almost always a good example and even goes out of her way to coach Caleb. Although Caleb's not in primary yet, he followed Emily up to the podium to sing for the congregation on Father's day. He kept his eyes on her and sang along the whole time with all of the appropriate cute actions, "Pat his cheek and give him what? A great big kiss." Sometimes though, Emily uses Caleb as a pawn to test the waters or avoid getting into trouble herself (brings back memories of my brother pushing me down the stairs in a box to see if it makes a good musical magic roller-coaster ride--cartoons do influence children).  Other times, Caleb may not be amenable to her instructions and then we get a bossy Emily vs. recalcitrant Caleb showdown. That's not pretty. Also, unfortunately, when Caleb goes down for a nap and Emily stays up, she has no idea what to do with herself.