My children never cease to surprise me and make me feel proud, even when they do things which I know them well enough to know they'll be fine at.
Husband's dinner last night was lovely: Smoked Venison Wellington served with Potato and Celeriac Rosti, various vegetables and gravy and then a chocolate brownie cheesecake thing out of the Hummingbird Cafe cookery book for dessert.
There was a gap between the two courses while I went to my choir's concert. It was strange not singing: I kept wanting to sing along and in particular seeing the girl I normally do duets with doing a duet with one of the altos made me wish I had been standing up there in front instead!
However Daughter came with me, dressed up for the occasion in her party dress. She was just beginning to get a bit too restless for my liking when there was an 'audience participation' carol: Away in a Manger, which she was very excited about. The choirmaster asked all the children in the audience - all two of them - to go up to the front, and off Daughter went without a moment's hesitation, looking terribly small but confident in her purple dress. "Like mother, like daughter" he said, and stood her on a pew and turned her round to face the audience. Whilst the choir ladies sang the first verse very softly, my Daughter had centre stage. Without any control tears flowed down my cheeks: she looked so small but sang beautifully and in tune, her face hidden behind the programme from which she was reading the words, and got a round of applause at the end.
I shouldn't have been surprised: after all I taught her Ding Dong Merrily on High when she was only 2 years' old (I had run out of ideas for nursery rhymes), and I know she loves music of all sorts, and singing, and is a confident, extrovert little individual. But somehow this was her choosing to go out into the world and perform, albeit in a small way, and it was one of her ways of showing her independence and her character: she did it in an unselfconscious way, purely because she wanted to, as one would expect from a 5-year-old.
Two more verses followed, with everyone singing, and then a small voice said to the choirmaster "can I go back now?": and Special Friend M., who had also come to the concert, then took Daughter home.
I got so many complimentary comments immediately after the concert and again today, and felt so proud of her. But she now wants a cuddle as 'shadows keep her awake' so I need to turn off my study light and go downstairs - or to bed to read as it's almost 9p.m. which is about the optimum time for me nowadays!
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