sing, sing a song

Well. Now that we have adequately and thoroughly covered The Big Race (phew!!) I am happy to have other happy news to report.

The news is that tonight
was
the first time,
ever,
in all 6 1/2 yrs of little Samuel's life,
that he has (to my knowledge)
sung a song.
A real song.
With words.

I know this sounds like such a small thing. But, like the time we celebrated the first time he made an approximated "K" sound, you just don't realize how important these little steps are until they are missing, and waited for, and longed for, and even mourned when it seems almost impossible to get there.

I've hated feeling almost guilty hearing Elisabeth sing songs, knowing that Samuel never did that, and doesn't still. It's a crazy sad and bittersweet thing having a younger sibling pass the older one in some milestones (or whatever it is). For the record, we are still muddling through with Samuel's issues, for the most part. It is still really really hard on most days.

And up until now, he has mostly participated in "singing" (at least at home and church) either by screaming his own made up tune, or being completely silent. Or sometimes he would try to tell us the words to something he learned, but not sing along to them. He has sometimes made up some little songs that have words, more or less. But never has he sung a "real" song. A song that anyone else knows. Not even the ABC's. And we have wondered if he ever would.

And I'm not sure where singing songs fits in exactly in the normal developmental milestone charts. Is it a skill that develops along some "normal" spectrum? Is it some sign of some disorder or another when it is completely lacking? I don't know for sure. But I am pretty certain that most normally developing children do at some point imitate and enjoy singing, even if wildly out of tune. And I know it has been, for us, a confusing and concerning void in Samuel's development so far.

So. Tonight he started singing some cute little Halloween songs that he said they had learned at school. Admittedly, he did this at a time when we were getting ready to say prayers as a family, and we actually wanted him to sit and be quiet and still (which is always a struggle). But for this occasion, we stopped telling him to be quiet and let him sing his songs. Zac and I looked at each other and smiled.

Never has it seemed so sweet to have a quiet family time disrupted by Samuel being loud and rambunctious. He was singing a song. :)