The Primary and the Ultimate

Yesterday was an important day. It was Sophie's first Primary Program and Peter's last. I've been looking forward to watching this for over a year, so of course I was on the stand with the kids and didn't get a proper view of anything. But I was able to observe a bit.

Cooper and Phoebe both did a fine job when it came time to speak into the mic. Unfortunately, I couldn't see either of them the rest of the time, so I don't know if they sang or smiled or anything. I'm guessing that they did, neither of them usually need reminders about that sort of thing. And bonus, they both had their hair combed. We always brush/comb Phoebe's hair, but that's usually it. Yesterday she had a clip in it and looked very nice. Cooper almost never has his hair combed, something I am generally not aware of until after we're at church. I made sure it happened this time so his hair wasn't sticking up hedgehog-fashion while he stood in front of the congregation.

Miss Sophie and I sat together along with one of her Sunbeam classmates, right behind the Sacrament Table. During our two rehearsals this was an issue since Sophie immediately knew she was in close proximity to a microphone, a tempting scenario for our girl. Thankfully, the tablecloth that covered the table during Sacrament Meeting hung down enough to cover the mic panel, so it was not a problem during the actual program.

Sophie was the first in our group to deliver her line. She was so excited, she climbed onto the double decker step stool, made sure the mic was right at mouth level, and gave her line without any prompting at all. And she was loud. "I CHOOSE THE RIGHT WHEN I PLAY WITH MY SISTER PHOEBE!" Technically, her line talked about sharing toys when she played, but I figured the truncated variation was fine. She was also the loudest kid during the songs, at least when she knew the words and wasn't doing interpretive dancing. I could tell because I could see the faces of the members of the congregation, lots of grins in our direction. I reminded her to sing but not yell. We're still working on that. One mom scooped her up afterward into a big hug and announced that she loved her so much she could just take her home, so I guess loud was good.

Peter had the first line of the program. He delivered both his parts (every Senior Primary kid had two parts while the Junior Primary kids had one part each) clearly and well. He is absolutely the tallest kid in Primary. During rehearsal he tried to move the step that had been placed in front of the mic for the other kids, but was told to just stand on it or stand around it. That was awkward, but he made the best of it.

After church he told me how many days he has until he turns twelve. I asked if he was happy to be done doing Primary Programs. He grinned and nodded. That's when I pointed out that once he turns twelve he'll get to give talks in Sacrament Meeting instead. His smiled faded, his shoulders drooped, and he said, "Out of the frying pan and into the fire."