Walter has been soaking up new information lately. Colors, shapes, words, activities, books...everything fascinates him. In an effort to keep him entertained and engaged, we've started discussing music. Different instruments that he might hear, conducting, rhythms, genres. Dancing gets incorporated a lot into things.
I know, I'm making this sound like we're having enlightened theory conversations. We aren't. He's not even two yet. They're more things like, "That's a piano! Like the one at church and Grammy's house." "Can you drum with Mommy? Listen, do you hear the drum in the song? Can you help Mom drum with the drummer?"
I have to tell you, though, I am loving every second of this. As a wife and mother, I find that without even realizing it, I will let my own hobbies and interests fall to the wayside as I focus on the needs of my boys. When I married JL, I brought into our marriage a music collection carefully pulled together from the age of 11. Tens of thousands of songs, all of which I listened to and connected to at some point in my life. Top 40, Classical, R&B, Jazz, Opera, Experimental, Indie, Rock. Somewhere in the last two years, those songs have slowly disappeared. Files transferred to hard drives for storage, not use. CD cases placed on the top of shelves.
The past few nights, while JL has worked until midnight or later, I have sat up slowly retracing my steps through artists that I love and songs that mean something to me, trying to find ones that I think Walter might like right now. For the usual toddler reasons. As cheesy as I feel typing this, it's like coming home.
I'm gonna show Walter this video tomorrow. I think he's gonna dance all over the place. And in case you don't know who that wonderful guitarist is sitting next to Jerry Lee Lewis, it's Jeff Healey. Blind from the age of 1, and a musician that is dearly missed by many people, myself included. Look him up. And if you don't know who Jerry Lee is...you should be ashamed.
If I was there I would be dancing with him! Love it!
ReplyDelete