The Tenebrae

Earlier today, while at dinner with AJ's parents, his mom shared a few very funny stories about Ethan from his visit with them over Easter Break. They are very typical of Ethan and display his LOUDNESS and his budding musical ability. What can I say? He is his father's child.

This post was written by AJ's Mom (Ethan's Grammy)...This is why it is very wordy and contains the occasional run-on sentence :-)

Ethan came for an little mini vacation to our house during Easter vacation. Ted and I picked him up in Monaca on Thursday and he stayed with us until Saturday. Friday was Good Friday and Ted and I were to sing the Tenebrae service at St. Rita's church that evening. We have always loved doing the Tenebrae service- it is such a beautiful, solemn evening. We debated whether we should try to take Ethan or not. Ted had to attend for sure because he was playing the flute along with the choir on a couple numbers but we decided if Ethan seemed too tired I would stay home with him.

Friday afternoon Ethan took over a 3 hour nap, then enjoyed dinner with us at the Italian Oven and even spent some time enjoying the playground equipment at Yough Park and looking at some yard Easter decorations here on the Southside.

The Tenebrae was slated to start at 7:30. At 7:00 Ethan was still wide awake and pleasant so we decided to try taking him. We decided we would go over to the church in 2 cars in case he got too tired to stay until the end. Ted went early so he could get everything set up to play. The choir sings the Tenebrae from the upstairs choir loft so we knew he wouldn't be a disruption to the people listening downstairs. I was going to wait until the last minute to leave for church with him.

At 7:20 we went out to get in the car and as soon as I put him in his car seat he said "poop". I couldn't believe it- I wondered if he was just saying it or if he really went but decided I couldn't take the chance, so back into the house we went to change what turn out to indeed be a poopie diaper. Then off to church we went- we were a little late- they had already started the first number when we got there, but that was fine.

He was such a good boy throughout the evening. He was enthralled with the organ and people singing and basically just let either Ted or I hold him as we sang. The Tenebrae service involves songs and readings about the last hours of Jesus's life. Everything is quiet and subdued. After each reading, there is a song and then some lights are turned out until finally the entire church is in darkness. We were nearly at the end of the service and almost all the lights were out. When the song ended, they would turn out some lights and then it would be very quiet for a few minutes before the next reading.

Well, Ethan had been observing all of this and watching the lights go out and then suddenly in the middle of one of the very, very quiet pauses he said as loudly as he could "Bye, bye lights". Everyone in the choir started to chuckle and what could we say - he told it like it was.

The last couple songs of the Tenebrae service that we do are slow, beautiful Latin hymns. Ethan was starting to get a little drowsy - I was holding him really close and Ted was standing right next to me holding the music. We were singing and swaying back and forth with him and all of a sudden he started humming along with us- nearly mimicking the melody exactly and getting louder and louder. We were amazed and some of the choir members around us could not sing because we all started to softly laugh at him, but he was unfazed by us and just kept right on singing.

After the service was over many of the choir members came over to him to tell him what a good boy he had been. We were so happy we took him with us. He is ready now to join St. Rita's choir as an offical member.