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Having spent two years in Hawaii and two years in Australia, my children have been informing me that we are well and truly behind in keeping up with American fads. Quite a bit is based on tv programs and movies they have not watched. They have been asking to watch one of the latest shows that I haven’t gotten around to previewing. In my defense, I declared that I let them watch Keenen and Kel. Josiah then informed me, “Mom, that’s from the 90’s!” Oh those 90’s, now so out of date. I decided to further defend myself with the declaration that there must be some kid in Josiah’s class whose parents don’t let him watch all this stuff. He replied, “Ya, I’m him.” Somehow, I’ve become the most conservative parent. So, in an attempt to catch up with the culture, we watched high school musical I & II. Zeke found these shows most interesting. Zeke watched Christmas Cantatas at church throughout the month of December and occasionally joined in uninvited with the singing. On Christmas Eve his encore version of a woman’s solo sent his cousins into fits of giggles. Over the last month and a half, he would periodically find the piano book with “Go Tell it on the Mountain” in it and hold it up, stand straight and bellow the song forth. He even sang it to the preschool principal when he went in for his evaluation. When Gabe told him that Christmas and the time for singing “Go Tell it on the Mountain” was over, he got his Oh My Oh MY Oh Dinosaurs book, opened up to the page where the dinosaurs are singing and burst forth with “Our God is an Awesome God”. At church, when the worship team finishes a song he likes, he will declare “That was a good one!” loud enough for everyone in the church to hear. Last summer, he filled our days singing show tunes he had learned watching the Muppets. Well, high school musical fascinated him. A world where people periodically break out in song and dance seemed wonderful to him. At one point in the show, the sad breakup duet was sung and Zeke was especially moved by this song. He got up off the couch, walked into the kitchen, stood in front of the pantry and looked at the giant box of goldfish crackers. He then began his own sad song which had a mournful tune and lines such as “My goldfish ran away down my shirt.”

*** Update 28 Jan 07 ***

For your listening pleasure, here is Zeke singing a medley of old favorites: