This outfit didn't stay on all day, unfortunately, since the whole Rowe family took a trip to church this morning. Ethan had the day off from his choir gig in Wellesley, and since I haven't been able to drive myself to church since June, he generously agreed to drive us all over to Somerville so I could finally attend a service.
Julia went down with the Sunday School kids, as usual, while Madeleine came up into the choir loft with Ethan and I. Something must have happened to her over the summer because the Madeleine I knew in the choir loft last spring spent the entire service crawling underneath pews, jumping on chairs, trying to open the door to the stairwell, coloring in the music books, and running up and down the steps in the loft. Today she sat quietly through the entire service, flipping through Halloween books and eating animal crackers. Who is this kid!?!?? She was so quiet that several choir members kept looking around for her to see if she was actually up in the loft with us.
That's not to say she was unstimulated by the church environment, however. When we went down for Communion, she got to see her old buddy Jesus up on the church ceiling, and when we got back up to the choir loft, she started wondering where he had gone.
MADELEINE: Where the genie go?
ME: The genie?
MADELEINE: Where the genie go?
ME: Do you mean Jesus?
MADELEINE: Yeah, where the Jesus go?
She even faked a need to use the potty in a ploy to go downstairs and see the Jesus. At the end of the service, her desires were fulfilled, as we stood down in the church waiting to greet Father and receive our anditheron. We waited in the back of the church during announcements, and Madeleine happily and loudly pointed out her friend to Ethan and I over and over again. "There it is! There's the JESUS! See it Dad? I see the JESUS!" Followed by a bunch of twirling which was punctuated by a leaden-footed jump every now and then. "There He is! There's the JESUS!"
As we drove home in heavy traffic, Madeleine began to conk out, and I gave Julia the very important job of keeping her sister awake. Julia carried out this role by singing "Frère Jacques" on repeat for the entire rest of the drive. The more she sang, the more "Fronch" she tried to make her pronunciation, until she was so satisfied with herself she asked me, "Mama, when I sing Frère Jacques in French, don't I sound like I really SPEAK FRENCH?" Madeleine tried to jump in a few times with "Are you fweepin'?" but Julia would quickly drown her out, singing "Frère Jacques" loudly over her sister. Thankfully, it did the trick and kept Madeleine awake until we were home and she could nap properly in her crib.
When I asked Julia if I could take a video of her singing and sounding so French, Julia replied, "Of course you can! I would be HONORED."
So, here you go, yet another video of "Frère Jacques":
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