Last month, I talked about a problem I had singing with the babies at bedtime. Namely, in my attempt to teach Esteban tenor, I taught it to Chanya as well.

I know there are lady tenors, but I don’t want to groom her for that at 19 months. Lady tenors kind of fall into it after they lose their high notes. I tried to switch to soprano to give Chanya a new note to copy. She didn’t bite, preferring to hum along on a lower note.

So I started singing alto during the Lord’s prayer. At first, Chanya seemed oblivious. It took Esteban a while to get bold on his note. He used to cry when I wouldn’t sing with him. I had to send in for reinforcements, and Xay, who can’t help but sing when there’s music, obliged. Yanni is not so cooperative. She can think of thousands of things she’d rather be doing than singing that song at that time.

That meant I was the dude. Even though I wrote the song, I wasn’t quite so sure of the alto part; it really depended on the other voices. Long story short, after weeks of treating our song time like a choir rehearsal, Chanya chimed in on alto tonight. She can’t sing all the words; she doesn’t speak fluently, and the song’s in Spanish besides, but she knew the notes.

Esteban belted his tenor note clearly and in tune all by himself, while Chanya and I took the middle ground, and Joy and Imani smilingly sang soprano. Chanya even hung in there when the song takes a turn for the harmonically challenging. I kept expecting her to start sucking her fingers and quit singing. But she kept singing.

It was such a treat. I can hardly wait for tomorrow!