Christening chaos

Harry is turning out to be a bit of a singer. Clearly he doesn’t take after me; my singing career ended at the age six when I was dropped from the school choir after a particularly horrific rendition of ‘When I’m 64’.

Anyway, Harry sings at the slightest excuse, with Bob the Builder a particular favourite at the moment.

The words often get a bit jumbled, but the tune is always there. Harry’s even taken to banging away on Melissa’s piano and singing at the same time. As I say, he’s already a far more accomplished musician than I will ever be.

But my favourite musical moment so far came at a Christening last week.
Keeping Harry quiet had proved pretty difficult during the first part of the service, and we did get one or two disapproving glances from members of the congregation while we tried to keep the noise down by feeding him sandwiches and chocolate.

But we lost the battle well and truly when the priest got to the point in the ceremony where he lights a candle to symbolise turning towards the light. Harry stood up on the pew and started singing – at the top of his voice, of course – ‘Happy birthday to you’.

To be fair, one or two people giggled; several others frowned. Melissa and I were trying desperately to be serious, but it was impossible to keep a straight face.

When he’d finished singing, Harry gave himself a round of applause for good measure while we tried to get him to sit down quietly.

We’ve got another Christening next week – hopefully it will be an altogether quieter experience.