The songs in his head - Part 1

I sometimes wonder what John Paul would be like without music.  We spend a good portion of the day singing together, or me singing while he dances, or him singing along to one of his many music toys.

I mean, I doubt there's a kid out there who *doesn't* like music.  John Paul just seems to like it more than most.  We used to have this awesome music table that cycled through various songs when you pulled the banjo.  John Paul, at around 8 months old,  used to pull it until it got to "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" and would bounce up and down on his knees, fists pumping for the "toot toot" every time.  That was when the "dancing" started.

He also became obsessed with recorders at an early age.  During a fuss-fest, I pulled out my recorders from college, hoping maybe that would distract him.  He was in love!  Not only are recorders delicious to chew on, he figured out how to blow properly around 9 months. 

This was particularly amusing when he started walking - he would often walk around with a recorder in his mouth, taking a step, blowing, taking a step, blowing.  And even now, if I don't manage to hide it in time, he loves finding a recorder and playing "Hot Cross Buns."  He can only get the rhythm, there's obviously no fingering yet, but it's pretty funny.

And if you think the recorder is fun, you've never seen this kid at the piano!  We went to a wedding when he was almost a year old and he spent the entire cocktail hour trying to play the piano.  We used to play "High note, low note" when he was littler (around 10 months?) - I would tell him which one to play and he would RUN to the piano and find the highest note or the lowest note and play it.  Then he would play random notes on the piano and look at me expectantly, waiting for me to name them as high, low, or middle.

Since we moved, he's had easy access to the digital piano I bought in college.  The first day we were in our new place, he figured out the setting for pre-recorded songs.  He spent the ENTIRE day dancing to the loop, amidst boxes and piles of things that were being moved in.   Right now his favorite is a loop of 6 nursery rhymes - he gets up on the piano bench and says, "nit-o nit-o nit-o namb!" which means (of course) "Mary Had A Little Lamb."  It's amazing watching him bounce to the music (he mastered steady beat months ago) and "sing" (mostly the last word of each phrase). 

Next up:  His recent musical accomplishments, particularly the singing (or "singing")