Alex's 15 Minutes

Yesterday was the Primary Program, a day I was looking forward to with a bit of pride.  Alex had been asked to reprise a talk he'd given earlier in the year, and we'd dusted off the visual aides and rehearsed the memorization all week.  Knowing he always does better with an audience, I knew the focus issues we experienced at home would mostly work themselves out, and he'd do a great job.

His big moment came, and he had no problems stepping up to the podium to do his thing.  I had to fight him to get him to stand an inch or two away from the mic knowing that projection would not be an issue.  He started out strong and got the anticipated chuckle from his carefully enunciated "Huntoh Oak Way" as he described where to find his "Earth house."  [His little husky voice is just adorable, and I've gotten used to the way adults respond when he says grown up type stuff.] 

He even made it through the murky 2 stanzas that really have no visual aides, stopping only once to pick at the microphone with his finger, distracted as usual.  The bishopric got a kick out of my words, "Alex, honey... focus," and he returned to the talk with zeal.

We were into the home stretch with, "I planted a seed of faith, you see; it turned into a great big tree."  [Read: "gweat..big..twee" with hugely expressive brown eyes.]

And then...

"Burrrp."

Breath-holding silence from the congregation.

Huge smile on Alex's face as he turns to me and kind of shrugs his shoulders.

Exhalation and laughter from the congregation.

Whispered , unapologetic phrase to me that only I understood, "I just bweaved in and out."

Me attempting to encourage him to excuse himself but barely being able to speak through my attempts at not laughing.

Bishopric and primary president chuckling to themselves, only encouraging the laughter I'm desperately trying to contain.

"Excuse me."

A beaming smile on the face of a little boy who loves nothing more than attention.

A deep breath from both boy and mom.

"Wepentence takes a wot of steps; I'll go wight up..."  And he finished strong, and I couldn't have been more pwoud... I mean proud.  Sure, for the rest of the congregation, the burp kind of trumped the talk, but for this proud mommy, it was the recovery that takes the cake.